Bugera T5 Infinium 5-watt Class-A Tube Head

My favorite amp head I’ve ever had. From the first time many many years ago I bought this amp put it in the combo form. After owning several black stars a tiny terror on Marshall and other amps I bought this to use with my cab and this is absolutely my favorite app of all the a.m. so I’ve had After owning several black stars a tiny terror on Marshall and other amps I bought this to use with my cab and this is absolutely my favorite app of all the amps I’ve had. It’s simple but it takes pedals amazingly I didn’t use the lake paddles until I tried some with this and it’s not going to be a metal lamp but it’s self but all you have to do is add a little tube screamer or something and this amp can do anything. Very low on wanted noise levels and the power attenuator is great to have. On full 5 watts with high gain the volume could literally blow your ears out could literally blow your ears out. By it self with full gain it all have an amazing bluesy crunch and on half gay and it just sounds fantastic by itself too. Designed and engineered in Germany. For the price and quality this is great. Even for a higher price it would be worth it. Has everything you need. Just use a nice cab/speaker and it will sound amazing.

I bought this as a bedroom amp and paired it with the recommended vintage 30 1x12 cab. The great thing about it is that you can crank the amp and still have a reasonable volume. I haven't messed with pedals because I have other amps with effect loops. Going straight into the amp you get great clean tones up to a really nice dirty but not too distorted tone that a lot of people are looking for. It doesn't have enough gain on it's own for metal in my opinion, but like I said, I haven't put pedals into it. If you're using headphones make sure you have some that are high quality enough. I use a $50 pair of AKG headphones and there's breakup and a generally noticeable reduction in sound quality compared to the Celestion. I bought JJ tubes as replacements when I ordered it but I haven't put them in because the stock ones sound fantastic. 100% recommended. I also have a V22 combo and this has a very different character. I'm impressed enough that I might buy a G series from them too.

I am an admitted tone freak, and not just on gigs. I practice daily even though I have been a professional guitarist for 50 years (have played with Miles Davis, Gregg Allman, Bill Champlin etc). I was looking for a low-power but high-quality amp just for practicing so that I can drive the amp into saturation without having the cops show up.I have a studio and I practice along with backing tracks, youtube videos, and even my own songs which I have recorded. In the YouTube demo of the Bugera I was immediately impressed by the quality of sound. It had what I call "suppleness" by which I mean a kind of cushiness as opposed to a hard unforgiving type of sound more suitable for aggressive rock styles.As soon as I plugged into the Bugera I liked it. It breaks up musically and it has three power settings; 5 watts, 1 watt and 0.1 watt. In addition it has an LED to indicate when the power tube (EL84) needs to be replaced. Brilliant idea! At any price, it's a good amp but for less than $250 including tax, it's a no-brainer!

Overall, I think this a great practice amp but I think they could do better with their selection of components. After nine months of using it once or twice a week it started to snap crackle and pop. Easy enough to diagnose that it was a faulty EL34 power tube. Not wanting to make a warranty claim, but wanting to verify that was the problem I ordered a new tube and problem solved. So, I contacted the Bugera company filling out all of the information they needed, told them the fix, asked if they were having problems with these tubes, and asking if I could at least get compensated for the price of the tube. The response was “Well tubes need to be replaced when they go bad”. I do not know where they source their tubes, and over the years I have replaced many in my other amps, but not after limited use.

I am getting back into playing music, this time for pleasure, after fifty years of not playing. It's sort of one of the things I plan to do when I retire in a few years. Anyway, I bought the T5 to replace a Vox modeling amp; not that there was anything wrong with the Vox but no matter how many times I try, I cannot live with a solid state amp for any length of time. I had thought that it wouldn't matter and that time would have made solid state better, but no, I still long for the sound of tubes. The Bugera has several things going for it: 1) it's beautiful to look at, 2) it offers multiple output settings so I can play without bothering my neighbors, 3) it uses just two tubes (12AX7 and EL84), and 4) it's cheap! I paired it with a Fender 1x12 cab and it sounds great, even at 0.1watt. Does it sound as good as my Orange TremLord 30? No, but it's less than a quarter of the price and will be far cheaper to operate. Call me a happy camper!

I hate to give bad reviews, but this thing really sucked. The noise level (hum) coming from this thing with (even with nothing plugged in) was way too over bearing. My goal was to use this with a Carvin cabinet with a 1x12, 100w 8ohm speaker (which had a Carvin Vintage 16 Head that died, and it was also a 5w mode amp, and no hum).In case you are wondering...- Tried another room, different outlet, different circuit - No Joy- Tried an AC Line filter (though none of my other amps plugged in the same outlet have this issue). - No Joy- Tried a different speaker cabinet - No Joy- Tried just the headphone jack, same noise - No Joy- Tried reseating the tubes - No Joy- Spoke to Bugera Tech, and him just hearing it during our phone conversation, said it must be defective.So after 3 days of trying to sort it out, I give up. It's brand new, and Kudos to Adorama for even covering return shipping.I would order a replacement, but now the ship date is 2-3 months.