Bogner Ecstasy Mini Solid State Amp Head

A well designed and well built little amp with a good bit of versatility. Like 95% of the reviewers I have never played through a hugely expensive full sized valve-driven Bogner Ecstacy head, so I have no basis for comparison, but what I will say is that this mini amp head gives a very satisfying and gutsy overdriven sound that simulates a valve amp as well as is possible for solid state circuitry. You will not be able to get a really clean sound even with the gain knob down at minimum and the guitar volume backed off, but it's a satisfying slightly crunchy "clean". I don't think it would do modern "metal", but it will do just about every other style of overdriven rock style mast people could need. The "variax" simulator that mimics reduced input voltage works very well, and along with all the other switches and knobs it is very controllable. Through a 1 x 12" speaker cab it sounds big, but through a 4 x 10" or 4 x 12" it would sound massive. The only weird thing is that the gain knob actually mutes the amp when rotated completely anticlockwise to the stop position, so if trying to set it to minimum gain you have to ease it back up until the amp makes sound again. Faulty or by design? I don't know, but this is £200 well spent.

Great sounds from such a small unit. From a pushed clean tone to high gain sound there is plenty of options to fine tune your tone. Delay pedal in the effects loop works well also...and plenty loud enough for jams with band mates.

Really guttural grinding crunch with the distortion turned on, works really well for my preferred distortion tones. I purchased this to explore the Jerry Cantrell distortion sounds and am really pleased with it, set it up to a Marshall SV112 speaker I've relied upon for years for a plethora of interesting exploration in sound.