Bogner Alchemist HD guitar amp head review
By Rob Sandall
| Posted in Guitar
The Bogner Alchemist HD guitar amp head sends me down memory lane. I first came across the manufacturer’s name at a screamily-political Thursday gig (that’s the band, not the day I saw it). The ‘lead’ player was using a five-channel Bogner Ecstasy, and it sounded absolutely massive. There’s something about that Cali’ zing of twist on vintage and modern tones that cuts through just about anything, and for some serious high-gain riffing it sounded unbeatable.
Admittedly, that was a much louder beast than the Alchemist, but the unifying concept of a tweakable timeline of tones is still very much the watchword.
So, here we have a class-AB, two-channel tube amp packing 40W (with a power section that’s switchable 20W, for reasons we’ll explain later),. You’re running 6L6s in the power amp, 12AX7 valves in the preamp, and following the initial California-inspired tones you can colour this with numerous EQ and effects controls. At its core, though, this amp head should be delivering bell-like cleans and searing lead, with enough of a low end whoomph to support some toppy tones.
Let’s get a bit more deeply involved, then. Channel one, named Gold, has a separate volume, gain and three-band EQ, along with a crunch switch and two further switches for bright and deep tonal edits respectively. In testing at 40W, there’s a shimmer here, particularly with humbucking guitars. As expected, the top end is sweet and thick, but while it’s easy to emphasise the higher frequencies it would be a mistake to assume that there’s anything too thin here – it’s not like you’ll need to have the deep switch kicked in all the time. In fact, I suspect a lot of guitarists will rely solely on the EQ to nail down the clean tones, and only use those extra switches live to add or remove presence in the band mix.
The crunch is notable, but subtle enough to mean that a little deft application of the volume knob will allow for some great break-up transitions. It’s certainly crunchy, but perhaps I’d use the deep tone here to stop the top-end from sounding weak. This isn’t a criticism of the amp, as generally I prefer more bottom end when getting crunchy, so it’s nice to have that option catered for.
Channel Two on the Alchemist HD is named Mercury and caters for those times when you need to get high-gain on everybody’s ass. With a similar EQ setup, but with mid-shift and a variable brightness control, there’s a gleam here that happily avoids being in any way glassy regardless of how far you push it. Having the mid-shift gives you scope for metal-happy shreds or fat chunky chugs, and with the brightness turned up you can soar on the solos. You’re equally capable of rock ‘n’ roll on this channel as you are modern leads, versatile as the amp is.
Both channels can then be doctored with reverb and tap-tempo delay as necessary, the former particularly being a go-to and adding anything from a slight expansion to boomy echoes.
Meanwhile, switching to 20W on the power section introduces a new world of fun. Yes, Bogner has successfully achieved the all-conquering ‘brown sound’, with hi-gain break up that actually made me laugh out loud from classic accuracy. It will be an eyebrow-raiser for even the pickiest Eruption enthusiast.
Elsewhere, the included footswitch has four buttons – channel switching, boost, delay and reverb – which makes perfect sense for swift live edits (I seem to remember the Ecstasy packing something a touch over-complex, but then it was a five-channel amp). Those subscribing to the Bogner approach will want the matching 2×12 extension cabinet, although there’s a combo form of this amp available too which we’ll look at another time.
Personally, I see this amp as a fantastic live partner, especially for those into the harder sides of rock. There’s a lot of gain-centric happiness on the second channel that will perhaps be wasted on those not intending to get big and loud. Especially considering the brown sonics available, this amp has a pretty obvious demographic, although that’s not to say you can’t prove me wrong.
It’s bright, it’s powerful, and it’s wonderfully versatile at that end of the spectrum. I still have wistful hankerings for the Ecstasy even now, but I’m beginning to suspect I will have just as much fun with the Bogner Alchemist HD.
Tags: Alchemist guitar amp, Bgner guitar amp, Bogner Ecstasy