HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Bogner Amplification is an American
guitar amplifier A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic amplifier, electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a Pickup (music technology), pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce so ...
manufacturing company founded by Reinhold Bogner in 1989 in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Bogner began by custom-building
boutique amplifier Boutique amplifier is a catch-all descriptor for any type of guitar amplifier, instrument amplifier that is typically hand built with the intention of being much better than the mass-produced variety offered by large companies. In the majority of ...
s based on classic Fenders and
Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...
, and now offers different models of serially produced amplifiers.


History

Reinhold Bogner began building amps as a teenager in his native Germany. Unable to afford buying one himself, he used spare parts from his father's tube radio building hobby and began trying to recreate the sounds of his guitar idols, like
Angus Young Angus McKinnon Young (born 31 March 1955) is an Australian musician, best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hard rock band AC/DC. He is known for his energetic performances, schoolboy-u ...
and
Gary Moore Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career, he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, Heavy metal music, heavy ...
. As Bogner's reputation grew, local players began bringing Bogner their amplifiers to work on at a time when many guitarists were trying to achieve the heavily-distorted tones of
Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...
's modified Marshall amps. On the advice of
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
guitarist
Rich Williams Richard John Williams (born February 1, 1950) is an American guitarist, primarily known for being one of the only consistent original members of the Rock music, rock band Kansas (band), Kansas alongside drummer Phil Ehart. Both have appeared on ...
, Bogner moved to Los Angeles in 1989 with a modded Marshall as a demo and $600 in cash to advance his career as an amp builder. Bogner was quickly hired to modify amps by Andy Brauer, who ran a business renting out "boutique" gear to a large number of local guitarists. Bogner worked on amplifiers for
Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...
guitarist
Steve Stevens Steve Stevens (born Steven Bruce Schneider; May 5, 1959) is an American guitarist. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to ''Top Gun'' – " Top Gun Anthem" – for ...
and session musician
Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record-producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitchel ...
, while producer Dave Jerden introduced
Jerry Cantrell Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr. (born March 18, 1966) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the founder, lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and main songwriter of the rock band Alice in Chains. The band rose to internatio ...
to a Bogner-modified amp for
Alice in Chains Alice in Chains (often abbreviated as AiC) is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1987. Since 2006, the band's lineup has comprised vocalist/guitarists Jerry Cantrell and William DuVall, bassist Mike Inez, and drummer Sean Kinney. Voca ...
' debut album ''
Facelift A facelift, technically known as a rhytidectomy (from the Ancient Greek () 'wrinkle', and () 'excision', the surgical removal of wrinkles), is a type of cosmetic surgery procedure intended to give a more youthful facial appearance. There are ...
''. With the popularity of Cantrell's tone creating interest in his work, Bogner began building preamps, like the Triple Giant and the Fish, the latter of which was purchased by guitarists of
Megadeth Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal—alo ...
,
Slayer Slayer is an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California, formed in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style made them ...
, and
Anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' biovar ''anthracis''. Infection typically occurs by contact with the skin, inhalation, or intestinal absorption. Symptom onset occurs between one ...
. However, the popularity of preamps soon waned in favor of getting complete tones from an amp, so Bogner began developing standalone amplifiers.


Bogner Amplification

The first amps Bogner made were often based on 1960s
Fender Showman Fender amplifiers are electric instrument amplifiers produced by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The first guitar amplifiers attributed to Leo Fender were manufactured by the K&F Manufacturing Corporation (K&F) in 1945. Later, Fen ...
s, even using the original faceplate and chassis. They were hand-wired "one-off custom amps," which he sold to players such as Van Halen, Steve Stevens, and
Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz and rock music, rock guitarist, violinist and composer. He contributed to numerous bands, including Soft Machine, U.K. (band), U.K., The Tony Williams Lifetime, Pierre Moerl ...
. Bogner spent a year developing his namesake company's first production model, the Ecstasy, which was released in 1992. The amp featured three channels with multiple voicing options to appeal to the widest range of players and genres. Initially, Bogner made two models: earlier models were designated Ecstasy 100A and 100B and later models 101A and 101B—the "A" meaning "American", with 6L6 tubes, and the "B" referencing "British", with
EL34 The EL34 is a thermionic vacuum tube of the power pentode type. The EL34 was introduced in 1955 by Mullard, which was owned by Philips. The EL34 has an octal base (indicated by the '3' in the part number) and is found mainly in the final output s ...
tubes, the latter being "very close to the Fender-meets-hotrodded-Marshall template Bogner was aiming at in the first place." The Caveman amplifier was built not long after the Ecstasy and featured two channels completely hand-wired. The production run was 60 units. The company's heaviest amplifier, the Überschall (German for "supersonic"), was inspired by a local guitarist who repeatedly encouraged Bogner to produce an amp with more bass and gain. Initially Bogner resisted, as such an amp sound did not personally appeal to him as a player, but the resulting Überschall became popular among
nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, with a metal umlaut) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop music, hip hop, funk, industrial music, industrial, and grunge. Nu ...
players favoring drop tunings. , Bogner makes three lines of amplifiers, all with switchable channels and "truly fearsome amounts of gain": the Ecstasy, Überschall, and vintage-inspired Shiva.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bogner Guitar amplifier manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Los Angeles Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States Electronics companies established in 1989