Bogner

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Bogner is an American guitar amplifier manufacturing company, known best for the Shiva, Ecstasy, and Uberschall.

1 Biography
2 Models
3 Serial Numbers
4 Bogner Artists
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Reinhold Bogner had been designing and building amplifiers long before leaving Germany in 1989. Moving to Los Angeles, he quickly gained the trust of many influential players including Steve Stevens, Dann Huff, Allan Holdsworth, Michael Landau and Steve Vai, who sought out his skill at modifying and custom building their amps. When Eddie Van Halen entrusted Reinhold to overhaul and revitalize Eddie's #1 Marshall Plexi, Eddie was impressed. Bogner's products have a strong reputation for their distinctive tone and impressive build quality.

[edit] Models

Ecstasy - (Three channel amp. Originally came in two versions, 100a and 100b. "A" standing for "American", which used 6L6 power tubes, and "B" standing for "British", which used EL34's. The 100 was replaced with the 101a and 101b, which offered more features. A small majority of customers desired the tone of the rare and discontinued 100 models, so Bogner issued an additional model of the Ecstasy called the Classic, which is a stripped down version of the 101 to attempt to return to the open tone of the 100.
Überschall - (German for "Super-Sonic;" a high-gain monster. Two channels.) 120 watt EL 34 powersection. 6 12ax7 preamp tube. Tube buffered effects loop. Three versions of this amp have been made to date: the original version, first revision, revision blue. The original version of the amplifier has a rubber handle, while the second version has a leather one. The revision blue has actual digits for serial numbers while the previous versions have symbols. The revisions dealt with issues pertaining to the gain taper of the high gain channel and descrepencies in the volume levels of the clean and gain channels. The revision blue contains the most significant updates to the amp. Currently the amplifier is only available as a head. The only option available on the head is a metal grill or a cloth grill.
Metropolis - (Class A amplifier, medium-gain blues amp)
Shiva - (Two channels. A Fender like clean to a hot rodded JCM 800 sound.)
Duende - (Two channels. The channels can be used individually, one at a time, or combined together and played simultaneously. 15-watt amp with reverb and tremolo and two 6V6 output tubes).
Caveman - (Two channels, six position Schizo knob which changes the EQ of the amp. Made in limited release in the mid 1990s. Some say "Mojo" on the back. The Mojo was an amp Bogner had intended to make, but never made it to production. They ended up using the chassis they had made for the Mojo for some of the Caveman amps. There are two known prototype Mojo amps.)
Fish - (Rare 4-channel all-tube preamp - the 'Holy Grail' of guitar preamps. Only 200 in existence.)
Triple Giant -(Rare 2-space, 3-channel all-tube preamp. The First true Bogner product, 25 made, all sold through make'n music to a Who's Who of guitar players. The design was licensed to Hafler, hence the Bogner/Hafler Triple Giant that followed.)
various speaker cabinets, ranging from 1x12 to 4x12, and a 4x10

[edit] Serial Numbers

Bogner have an interesting way of numbering their amplifiers. Instead of using alphanumeric codes, they use symbols. They correlate to numbers in the following way -

"/" (forward slash) Number 1

"^" (triangle w/no bottom) Number 2

triangle Number 3

"+" (plus sign) Number 4

"*" (asterisk) Number 5

solid dot/circle Number 6

square Number 7

"V" (capital v) Number 8

lightning bolt Number 9

"-" (bar) stands for 0

"P" stands for Prototype