Week 50 and that means this is the 50th amplifier manufacturer I have written about this year. Who knew there were 50 amplifier manufacturers out there? Initially I didn’t. Then I started this article series and before I knew it my mind was blown. I did wonder if the article series would fade and wane at the end like a cheap and nasty 10 watt solid state amplifier. The further I delved into my research however the more confident I was that this series would end on a high. The Bugera Amps G5 Infinium makes me feel like one cocky bastard. My confidence was justified.
With two amplifiers to go after this week’s article, it’s game on! Bugera Amps has laid down the challenge (they just don’t know they did that).
To be honest I’d put this amplifier head up in my top five already. It has so much going for it that I may require two lists in this article. And we all know I do love a good list. Oh, I’ll just do it. List one … Reasons I love this amplifier so much.
- It’s incredibly affordable (I’ve seen it advertised for under $350 AUD)
- It’s 5 watts, but can be attenuated down to under 1 watt
- It’s innovative
- It’s Bugera
For those of you who have been along for the entire 52 Amplifier Heads article series, you’ll know that my goal is to purchase my first valve amplifier head that is essentially bedroom friendly but with all of the tonal variety a good valve amplifier should offer. The G5 Infinium seems to tick all of the right boxes. I’m glad I kept researching.
As someone who has only ever used solid state amplifiers, I’ll be honest and say the whole biasing of valves does seem rather daunting. It’s for this reason the infinium valve life multiplier technology appeals to me so much. A system that allows you to easily (and on the fly) swap out valves to create your own custom tones without the assistance of some kind of bedroom guitar technician is priceless (which is strange considering the affordability of this amplifier head). If you’ve got 10 minutes and an interest in guitar technology, you should absolutely checkout the video below which explains the infinium valve life multiplier technology system perfectly.
I’m no rocket scientist (or any kind of scientist really), but that tecnology impresses me and fills me with the belief that smart people worked long and hard making that system work (so that I wouldn’t have to). Gotta love that.
Obviously the ability to have longer lasting and easier to maintain valves is only one feature (or a few good reasons rolled up into one handy category of features). For an amplifier to be truly impressive it needs more features than that. Luckily … List two.
- 5 watts
- 1 x ECC83 Preamp valve
- 1 x 12BH7 Poweramp valve
- Attenuator (to switch between 5 watt, 1 watt and 0.1 watt)
- 2 channels
- Footswitch (included) for channel and reverb selection
- FX loop (with selectable decibel level)
- Emulated output and headphones
- USA/UK tone switching
- Treble, middle and bass controls (shared)
- Individual volume and gain controls for each channel
- 8 ohm minimum speaker output
The USA/UK tone switching is something I’ve liked the sound of since I first discovered similar technology at the beginning of this series with the Blackstar amplifiers. It’s great to have multiple channels, but having multiple channels with at least two different recognised amplifier settings is another thing all-together.
Seriously, this is one impressive amplifier head and this article has featured a lot of list to support that opinion. Having said that, all my ranting and raving means nothing if the amplifier head sounds like rubbish. Well it seems to sound pretty good as well. That’s what these videos suggest at least.
I’m no rocket scientist (or any kind of scientist really), but that technology impresses me and fills me with the belief that smart people worked long and hard making that system work (so that I wouldn’t have to). Gotta love that.
Obviously the ability to have longer lasting and easier to maintain valves is only one feature (or a few good reasons rolled up into one handy category of features). For an amplifier to be truly impressive it needs more features than that. Luckily … List two.
- 5 watts
- 1 x ECC83 Preamp valve
- 1 x 12BH7 Poweramp valve
- Attenuator (to switch between 5 watt, 1 watt and 0.1 watt)
- 2 channels
- Footswitch (included) for channel and reverb selection
- FX loop (with selectable decibel level)
- Emulated output and headphones
- USA/UK tone switching
- Treble, middle and bass controls (shared)
- Individual volume and gain controls for each channel
- 8 ohm minimum speaker output
The USA/UK tone switching is something I’ve liked the sound of since I first discovered similar technology at the beginning of this series with the Blackstar amplifiers. It’s great to have multiple channels, but having multiple channels with at least two different recognised amplifier settings is another thing all-together.
Seriously, this is one impressive amplifier head and this article has featured a lot of list to support that opinion. Having said that, all my ranting and raving means nothing if the amplifier head sounds like rubbish. Well it seems to sound pretty good as well. That’s what these videos suggest at least.
Two channels, awesome tone, long-life valve technology, affordability, recognised brand … This will be hard to beat. I feel I want this amplifier a lot.
Disclaimer: I’ve not played through this head. I have not experienced the sound or tone of this head other than through video. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.
Update: I bought this one. It’s awesome. I love it.