I Bought Another One. My Journey in Search of the Ultimate Guitar Amp.

It’s been a very long time.
The other day, my son said to me, “Dad, hasn’t your blog stopped recently? Someone I know mentioned it to me.” I panicked and replied, “I-it’s just your imagination, isn’t it?” Somehow, I managed to get around to writing this one.

So, this time, I’d like to talk about another guitar amp I ended up buying.

[Previous Purchase]

It’s an amp—or rather, a 100W head that makes you wonder, “When am I ever going to use this?”
I’ve been looking for a Marshall JCM900 at a reasonable price for quite some time, but they rarely turn up—or rather, there’s no way they’re going to be cheap.
While searching, my eyes inevitably wander to other amps, and before I know it, I’ve somehow ended up buying one.

The amp I bought this time might come as a surprise, but it’s a Line 6 Spider Valve HD100.

The reason I bought it is actually because the month before last, someone asked me if I could repair the 50W version of this amp. I told them, “If the digital circuitry is dead, there’s nothing I can do, you know?” but I decided to take a look inside anyway.
There is digital circuitry built into the preamp section, but the basic amplifier circuit was a completely analog tube amp.

I spent some time looking inside, and I was suddenly overcome by a strange sense of déjà vu.
What I thought was, “The construction of this amp looks a lot like a Bogner.”
I used to work as a customer engineer for Bogner, so I remember the inside of their amps very well.
I casually looked at the rear panel and almost fell over.
It actually said that the circuit designer for the amp was Bogner!!
I couldn’t believe it. It’s not like Mike Soldano (Soldano designs amps for various manufacturers) had done it. The fact that Bogner would actually design an amp for another company was unbelievable.
I immediately listened to it on YouTube, and sure enough, the nuances of the sound were unmistakably Bogner.
I made up my mind, searched everywhere, and successfully got my hands on one in good condition.

When the amp arrived and I connected it to my Mesa/Boogie cabinet and turned it on, it distorted so much that I was like, “Woooooah, what the heck is this!?”
It has far more gain than my Peavey 5150 II, and I can get that long sustain you hear on CDs exactly the way I want. On top of that, it has my beloved delay built in, and up to four amp settings can be stored in memory.
In addition to switching settings instantly with a footswitch, the setting memories can also store the volume pedal, wah pedal, and various effect settings.
But forget all that—the most important thing is that the amp sounds like that Bogner.

I’ve completely fallen in love with it, and my Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, which I had been using for quite some time, has now been put away for the foreseeable future.
Apparently, there are also a small number of 50W heads out there, so I’m desperately searching for one right now.
They only seem to be available in the used market, but the going price is incredibly cheap, and you can generally pick one up for around ¥50,000.
I’m sure it will be reevaluated in the future and become a premium item, so I’m currently waiting eagerly, ready to buy another one before everyone else notices.

There is, however, one weakness: if the digital circuitry dies, it cannot be repaired.
It’s an amp I want to take extremely good care of and pass down even to my grandchildren.

Well then, I hope you’ll look forward to the next update!