Bogner Amplification is an American

guitar amplifier A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce sound through one or more loudspeakers, which a ...

manufacturing company founded by Reinhold Bogner in 1989 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Bogner began by custom-building

boutique amplifier Boutique amplifier is a catch-all descriptor for any type of 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 cases, this is ref ...

s based on classic (blackface) Fenders, and now offers different models of serially produced amplifiers.

History

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

amp builder Reinhold Bogner moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

hoping to gain entrance into the burgeoning market for high-gain guitar amplifiers, where

Mesa Boogie Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969. Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a s ...

was the market leader and companies like Soldano and

Rivera Amplifiers Rivera Amplifiers is an American manufacturer of guitar amplifiers. It was founded by Paul Rivera as a research and development firm in August 1976 in Southern California. Before moving into manufacturing amplifiers under his own name, Paul River ...

were following in Mesa's footsteps. The first amplifiers he made were often based on 1960s

Fender Showman The Fender Showman was a guitar amplifier produced by the Fender company. It was introduced in 1960 and was discontinued in 1993. Blackface and Silverface models such as the Showman, Dual Showman, and Showman Reverb employed the same "piggyback ...

s, even using the original faceplate and chassis. They were handwired "one-off custom amps", which he sold to players such as

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...

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 w ...

, and

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer. Holdsworth was known for his esoteric and idiosyncratic usage of advanced music theory concepts, especially with respe ...

Models

Initially, Bogner made two custom models; earlier (three-channel) models were designated Ecstasy 100A and 100B and later models 101A and 101B—the "A" meaning "American", with

6L6 6L6 is the designator for a beam power tube introduced by Radio Corporation of America in April 1936 and marketed for application as a power amplifier for audio frequencies.J. F. Dreyer Jr."The Beam Power Output Tube" New York: McGraw-Hill, ''Ele ...

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, who were 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 st ...

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. , Bogner makes three lines of amplifiers, all with switchable channels and "truly fearsome amounts of gain." * Überschall (according to Bogner, "Armageddon in a box") * Ecstasy (the "flagship" model) * Shiva (with two channels)

References

External links

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