Bugera Amps

We are getting so many questions about the Bugera amps that we decided to put up a page on them. We don't know how Behringer is getting away with this but these are carbon copies of the Peavey amps in almost every way. The sound quality is pretty good and the build quality is average for today's standards for production amps from what we've seen. The 333 is a XXX clone, the 6260 is a 5150 clone and the 6262 is a 5150 II clone. The power sections on these amps are all XXX style allowing either 6L6 or EL34 type tubes to be used which is a nice option. We have used the JJ 6L6GC's, EL34's, KT77's and the E34L's. Unlike the Peavey XXX amps we have not encountered any problems running the E34L's. The target market for these amps is obviously the Peavey and Mesa seekers who want the best bang for the buck. The Behringer company is the manufacturer and these are a chinese made product thus the lower cost. The bias setup is exactly the same as you will find on the XXX right down to the bias test point. This is one place that Behringer should have deviated from the Peavey design and incorporated test points that actually measure the bias current. Unfortunately Behringer stayed with the Peavey bias circuit that measures the negative voltage and NOT the actual plate current. What this means is that you cannot accurately set the bias using the test points. You need to use a bias probe under one of the tubes so that you can actually measure the bias current. DO NOT be fooled into thinking that you can bias the amp accurately as stated in the Bugera manual and on their website. This is a large batch of Barbra Streisand. We find that these amps just like the Peavey XXX and JSX amps are hot in the EL34 mode and some are pretty cold in the 6L6 mode. So if you're biasing 6L6's and the bias will not get up above 34mA then adjust it down to about 20mA and put the amp in standby. Then set the bias select switch to the EL34 mode. YES YOU READ RIGHT! We said to put the bias switch into the EL34 mode if the bias will not exceed 34mA with 6L6's or if you just want to run a little higher up to about 40mA. Then switch the amp back into the play mode and the bias will jump up from about 20mA to about 35mA and you will have plenty of adjustment to get even the coldest 6L6's biased properly. This is completely safe to do. The most asked question about this procedure is “do I leave the amp in the EL34 mode after biasing?” The answer is of course YES! The bias pot is located right next to the power tubes so if you use a short bias probe you don’t even have to remove the amp from the chassis making a tube change and a bias adjustment a 10 minute job. We have our own Eurotubes bias probes which can be used with any digital multimeter that reads in DC Milliamps for 25.00 or our “all in one” Pro One bias probe. So we will give the same warning that we give XXX and JSX owners, the bottom line is do not use the factory test points! If you want to do the job right use a bias probe. As for tubes, these amps ship with chinese preamp tubes and 6L6's. The JJ 6L6GC's are what we use most all the time where going with EL34's will cause you to drop quite a bit of low end. For players that want more of a Brit tone we typically go with the JJ E34L's which have a deeper low end and are very tight and punchy. You can also use the KT77's which are a little bigger on the low end than the E34L's or the JJ Big Bottle 6CA7’s which are very close to being as big on the low end as the JJ 6L6GC's. If you're going for that big chug the JJ 6L6GC's are the ticket. Unfortunately Behringer also copied the power tube spacing from Peavey and placed the tubes too close together to allow running a quad of KT66's or KT88's. When we get the chance we will do some experimenting to see if a pair of big bottle tubes can safely be run in the outside sockets. Stay tuned!