Bugera G20 Infinium Head

UPDATE as of 3 months. I've had problems with this head unfortunately. One bad output valve which I replaced with a matched set and Thomann refunded me for. Then more seriously it's started blowing pre-amp valves so is being returned to Thomann :(

Well what can I say, simply great, great sound and it's VERY loud.

This isn't my first Bugera, I had a V5 for a while as a practice amp which was a great little blues practice amp but has made way for a Blackstar HT5 which has a wider variety of sounds. My main gigging amp however is a V22 Infinium Head. I love it.

So down to the reason I bought this G20 beastie, my Marshall DSL100h which I use for band rehearsal died. Out of 4 Marshalls which I've had all 4 have had issues with three having major issues. As per my previous paragraph I love my V22 head and as such wanted another Bugera but with a slight difference. Enter the G20.

Build quality
Excellent as per my V22. Only thing that lets it down without opening it up is the plastic jack socket (metal nut though) and the on and standby switches stick out too far and can get banged when transporting the amp. They are all metal though.

Sound
Man this thing is LOUD but in a very good way. It does sound good dialled down but comes into its own when you crank it a bit.

Clean channel - great and really transparent which is a very good thing as there is only one knob for eq. The tone stack and morph control only affect the overdrive channel. The way the tone knob works has been really well thought out and honestly I don't really miss the lack of a full tone stack. Bare in mind here that I use pedals on the clean channel when gigging so the clean channel is very important to me. But I do think that my V22 has a more complex harmonic richness to its clean channel BUT it also has JJ tubes in.

EDIT 11.03.19 I bought a Behringer EQ pedal to open up the tonal pallet of the clean channel. Still not as good as my V22 but I now have a tighter bass and the midrange is tamed.

Overdrive channel - now, as I said, I only use the clean channel to gig with on my V22. The overdrive channel on that amp is good but nothing to write home about. The G20 though is in a different league. Likely due to the EL34s whereas the V22 has EL84s. The sound is freakin awesome. Lots and lots of overdrive goodness with beautiful touch sensitivity and has the same clarity as the clean channel but with the full tone stack and morph knob it really rocks ? it?s so good that when I gig it (it won?t replace the V22 though but will give my sound a different flavour) I?m going to likely try out the overdrive channel as it cleans up so well with the volume control.

EDIT 11.03.19 I've now got JJ tubes throughout and it's even better!!! :)

Would I recommend it? For £200, Hell Yeah! And if the reliability is anything like my V22 it?ll last a good while. Only thing which let me down with the V22 were the standard valves, one of the preamp valves caused an annoying buzz. It now has JJs throughout.

EDIT 11.03.19 As I thought the valves which this shipped with have let it down. One of the output tubes died recently. I've put in some JJs I had on the shelf and Thomann reimbursed me for the cost of these by way of a gift voucher, Thomann you rock :)

Rock on Bugera you've done it again! It sounds fantastic, especially at the price point.

Purchased this as a backup for my Marshall TSL122 that's becoming a little unreliable.
Realising I didn't need another 100W amp for the size gigs I'm doing and not having a lot of cash to spend, I thought I'd give this a try.

For the money this sounds amazing. The cleans are clear and bright and the overdrive can handle anything from classic rock to metal (almost!)

Build quality seems very sturdy and all the controls have a premium feel to them with a good resistance on the dials. It's fairly light as well, so good for lugging to practices.

It's plenty loud enough to keep up with my rock band at practices and pub/bar gigs. Not needed the volume much past halfway yet.

I'm sure there's better sounding amps out there, but for the money this is a fantastic bargain.

If you're looking for a versatile amp for home recording or even for a bit of gigging, you could do a lot worse for the price.

I've had this amp for a bit over a year now and I have had no desire to buy a new one (which is a big compliment to this amp), I can get a good range of tones out of the amp without the use of pedals. I play a few different genres of music and have been repeatedly surprised at what this amp is capable of if you're willing to twiddle some knobs.

The OD section of the amp has a three knob tone stack that has a lot of range, when combined with the "morph" function (which seems to me to be a mid range shift sort of thing) you can dial in Marshall-esque tones, to scooped mids modern tones, to low gain bluesy fender-y tones. The max level of gain is probably a bit lower than some metal fans might desire, but I find most amps to be borderline unusable at max gain so this is fine by me.

The clean section doesn;t run through the same EQ as the gain section, it runs through a single "tone" knob, which at first I was not thrilled about until I realised there wasn't a position on that knob that didn't sound good and having separate tone settings for each channel is desirable.

This thing is built well and looks great to my eye. The newest Bugeras seem to be free from the issues that plagued the brand in the early days, the quality on this amp is excellent.

The only issue I have is that you can only turn the reverb on and off with the foot switch and that the stock tubes are very average.

Awesome Head, has it all does rehearse, practice and gigs, its very versatile.

Built Quality:3/5

Cheap components like transformers.
Looks good, very well done.

Sound: 4/5

The amp covers every style of music you can think of, but it isn't a super high-gain amp. Although it does get very close. If they would have put in a touch more gain this would have been a swiss-army knife of an amp. But that is ok. The overall sound is good.

Features: 4/5
It has two chanels, digital reverb, effects loop, speaker emulated out, so it can be used in a lot of situations.

Overall impression

its a good sounding, versetile amp, but cheap components have disavantages. after one year, it started make a strange noise.
But thanks to thomann it was fixed. im waiting the arrive of the amp.
Probably it will arrive this week. Thanks for fixing it so fast, i hope it plays as good as new.

Costumer service 5/5

I had a 120w 6260 Bugera before with a 4x 12 cab and it was too much for what I needed volume wish and also carrying it was tough.
After seeing the G20 I thought this would be a good option, as I like Bugera and for the spec and price, other amps didnt really look on par.
The 20w output through a 1x12" 300w cabinet is pretty damn good, it has a beautiful clean tone, ideal for jazz and blues and even playing an acoustic through. The EL34 tubes give a very tight gain and it is on power with the bigger 6260, the option of the US & British tone is great, along with the speaker simulation allows a lot of tones, even before you plug in an effect pedal.
If you do need more volume, you can switch impedance, so I can still use the 4x12 for bigger gigs. It has an fx loop so no need to modify my pedalboard and also a headphone input, this is a great option for being able to play at home with your live pedals and not have the neighbours complain!
All around this is a very well made amp, Bugera have taken an eye to detail and given it a very cool finish.
This is an all in one practice, home recording and live amp, a swiss army amp!

Rien ne remplace la dynamique et le rendu caractéristique des lampes. Mais il faut avouer que passer par la case "technicien" à chaque changement de "tubes" est coûteux et fastidieux.

Alors le circuit infinium qui règle le bias automatiquement en permanence, c'est un vrai bonheur.

Quant à la tête en elle-même, rien à dire, très bon son clair, son saturé digne des grands noms, boucle d'effets, prise casque, entrée mp3, etc. Jusqu'à la très bonne réverbe digitale.

Les moins, il y en a peu : il manque un canal crunch et une égalisation plus fournie du canal clair.

Je cherchais un 6260 moins puissant (j'ai revendu le mien, avec ses 120 watts il était bien trop puissant), le G20 n'en est pas très loin. Rapport qualité-prix imbattable.

It is amazing ,i am playing it with a fender strat and 2 x12 cabinet with calestrion speakers and has very nice sound ,you can use it at home and also for rehershals if you have a band ,you can easily play live with the volume it can brings.It takes pedals very well .
You can do everything you want with this amp .
home and studio recordings home for practice ,live performances ,With that sound and price you should buy one only with buget up to 3 times you can find something better and that it is not for sure, i think it is not worth it to spend thousands of $ when you can buy this amp for less than 300,
i am a big fan of bugera .

I was hoping to get a 2 channel amp with great clean and great drive tone but in this case I've got a Clean that is very cold and "immediate" sounding, lacking tube sag and warmth. The Drive channel is better but still too "immediate". Maybe this is something shreeders need but for my playing I need more warmth and note that bloom rather than just jump into my face.

All in all, Bugera G20 is built like a butique amp and the quality is just sublime. I have the V5 and V55 so I know their quality and the V series is just fantastic sounding on the Clean channel, but their drive channels are nothing special and therefore I tried this G20 but its just too cold sounding for me. For playing live this tone will do just fine but for studio recirding not so much unless such colness is desired from a tube amp! I need warmth and blooming notes from my tube amps.