Bugera 333XL Infinium 120-watt 3-channel Tube Head Reviews

I've been playing professionally for a long time and well after playing through Marshall's peavey fender all the bigs this is my fo to Amp period, the tone is awesome and I believe that this Amp is special for sure if you are thinking about getting this Amp do it.

I'm amazed how good all channels sound on this amp. Very good, clean channel, in a very nice crunch on the gain channel. go ahead and buy it. You won't be disappointed.

Best amp I have had since my Marshall JCM2000 TSL 100. All the sound you will ever need. Very nice looking head and very well built. Lots of tone possibilities with this great amp. Infinium tube technology is a great benefit too.

Hands down you cant go wrong with this amp, I also own the Peavey xxx2 "JSX" and I gotta tell you the bugera sounds better!! Im a stickler for tone , you should gear this through a couple Mesa cabs!!! This thing is ultra quite the cleans are crystal clear, and copious amounts of gain.

I believe in buying for value not for a name
YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED !!!

This amp sounds amazing! It has crystal clear cleans to insane shred. I love how clear it is even when in the lead ch. I definitely recommend this amp! It has has all the bells and whistles that amps twice as much have. It sounds just as good several Marshal Amps I have had. If you are trying to put a descent half stack together for under $1,500.00 this head is a great place to start!

Wow. Just wow.... just a tube screamer and emg's. I have all the gain and crunch i could possibly need.. cleans are impressive . Noise gate is a nice touch! Not mind blowing but functional nonetheless..this amp was worth every penny !!! The chunky chug goodness abounds ......so awesome!!!

I may not have this model, but I use a Bugera amp as my main rig and its a reliable work horse. Peavey and Mesa Boogie were the only two other brands that kept up with my Bugera's reliability. These may be assembled in China (so is the device you're using to read this), but engineered in Germany ...the guys that also engineer Porsche, BMW, HUGHS AND KETTNER ETC. I've never had one issue except a scratchy master volume pot that a can of contact cleaner spray fixes ( same goes for the selector switch on my Gibson Les Paul Studio) I get all the sounds I want out of it and the Infinium 333xl is my next acquisition!!! One of the best amps for the money, so don't let Chinese made steer you.....Marshall, Orange, Blackstar all do the same. Last but not least, SWEETWATER is the SWEETEST online musical instrument outlet around! Timely deliveries and fantastic customer service! Sweetwater and one other major outlet are the only two I'll deal with.

This all tube head produces some of the warmest and chewiest tones I have ever heard from a tube amp. 120 watts with this build quality at this price is incredible. 3 channels: Tons of sparkling clean headroom, incredibly warm overdrive channel and a lead / distortion channel that pours out pure liquid metal. The footswitch is amazing, responsive and built like a tank. I have this paired with a 300 watt Line6 4X12 cabinet. Guitar playing heaven!!

Received from FEDEX with box in bad condition. The box containing head was obviously dropped as evident from the torn side of the carton at the hand hold and buckled bottom and edges. I also heard shattered glass sounds coming from inside as I was handling it. Fearing the worse I carefully unpackaged it glass sound even more noticeable. Once I got it out of the plastic I found that the desiccant bag had exploded from being dropped and had gotten into the amp, so relieved it wasn't the tubes. As I cleaned everything out I inspected and found no obvious damage and visually in very good condition. Hopefully no operational issues surface.
I powered it on, let it heat up and played thru it all afternoon connected to my Ibanez JEM Woody and Orange Crush 4x12. Not only am happy that it had survived the shipping but also with the tones from all 3 channels from this amp. I really love the drive from the Crunch and Lead channels. With Gain set around 1 o'clock I get a pleasant heavy overdriven tone that has me chugging all day.

I have had all solid-state amps before this one (except one amp that was a hybrid, with a tube preamp and solid-state power amp), so I was apprehensive about tube amps, but I really wanted to experiment. I play mainly thrash, power metal, and death metal, so I needed a very high gain amp. I have used this one for home recording, band practice, and gigging and it has really exceeded expectations in each scenario. I do not use any pedals or effects and this amp has all the tone I could want right out of the box. The clean channel is glistening, but not too chimey, and has a pretty neutral tone that is responsive to the EQ knobs. The crunch channel has plenty of gain for anything from southern rock to brutal death metal. The lead channel has even more available gain and has a bit more of a modern high-gain amp sound (the crunch channel sounds a bit more old-school). An extra feature is the "XL" button on each channel that adds some low end without getting too muddy. The built-in reverb is pretty standard and sounds good... would have been absolutely killer if it were real spring reverb, but it is not bad at all. The built-in noise gate on the lead channel doesn't seem to do a whole lot; it does reduce some of the hum/buzz from the distortion, but if you want silence, I would recommend running a noise gate through the effects loop.

All-in-all, my gripes are really minor. I am extremely happy with this amp and it has quickly become my primary for two of my bands.

Ive been playing through my bugera for over a year now and im finally getting around to this review. This amp has been rained on, left in hot cars and slammed around in trunks. Ive never once had an issue with its durability, it just keeps on going.

Sound-wise this amp is suprisingly versitile. A good clean sound is always easy to get, but the crunch and lead channels really shine on this one. There is a noticable difference in the crunch and drive channels, which i have found useful when trying to make my leads punch through at a gig. The FX loop has two volume controlls, one for send and one for return, which allows you to use the FX loop as a volume boost in a pinch. The built in noise gate for the FX loop is also quite the plus.

For the price you're paying you can not beat this amp. This goes toe-to-toe with amps $1000 and higher no problem. Its nice to get a boutique amp tone without needing to pay a boutique amp price.

I just recieved mu Bugera 333xl about a week ago and I am seriously blown away. The tone and gain is a whole lot more than I was expecting. I've been wanting to try out Bugera and finally got the opportunity. This amp is awesome and very loud. The advice i could give anyone is if you're looking for an affordable amp and one that actually sounds good try Bugera I promise you it want be a mistake. On top of it all the service that Sweetwater has given me was the greatest. I recommend everyone to go visit Sweetwater and give them a try you want be sorry. And to Dustin Keesbury my sales engineer he's tha best. He went all out to make this a great sale. This isn't my first piece of equipment that I have bought thru Dustin and I guarantee want be the last. Go look Dustin up he will do you right.

Best tube amp for the best price around

Just got through checking out my new 333XL Infinium. I am blown away by it....I have been playing for 40 years and this is the first perfect amp I have ever bought. Youve got clean, crunch, and lead at at your finger tips or I should say foot tips. I owned a 333XL non infinium and this new one sounds even better than the old version. There is not a hint of fizz in the sound. I played it through my Orange PP112 and it has that chunky kind of sound that I normally was able to obtain only through my Marshall 412 cab. If you are in the market for a high power type head do not hesitate to buy one of these, you will not regret it.

I watched videos all over the net about the BUGERA 333 vs this amp or that amp. This amp has a sound that WILL blow away any mesa boogie, engle, h&k. It has a solid low punchy bottom and chimney clean tones, add in a sonic maximizer and a decimator noise gate, and the metal world will be ENVIOUS.....im a boogie guy. Mk5 to be exact....no more, so long g high priced b.s. BUGERA IS HERE TO STAY.

The research and videos on how this amp was manufactured and how it sounded did not do enough justice to it then it did in person. Once I took it out of the packaging box, I was immediately blown away on how well built this head is. After plugging everything in and played raw straight from my PRS baritone, I was immediately astonished by the sound it gave me. It's honestly the sound I've been dreaming for. I was even more surprised on the clean channel in which delivers a warm yet, perfect sound presence that accompanies my style of playing. Overall, this amp is perfect for those who wish to save a few extra cash. This buy was worth it and the sound was like no other! Well done Bugera!

good amp to play metal or hard rock I have only had it for a month now but no problems I tryed some old power tubes I had and one of them went sparks and it blown a fuse like it should replace the fuse and power tube and every thing is fine.anyway love this amp .

I bought this amp 4 months ago after extensively studying and trying out other amps. I wanted an amp where I wouldn't NEED an arsenal of pedals but also have a modern tone. Stumbled across Bugera online, researched it, and saw what people thought about it. I've had ZERO problems out of this amp. The cleans/crunch/overdrive all sound amazing. For the price of this amp, compared to others in its range, it definitely blows them out of the water. If you're in the market for your first tube amp but want something that will last. Then get this amp, I guarantee you'll be happy with it.

This amp is voiced perfectly. Im surprised that the clean channel sounds as good as it does. Not as chimey as a Vox but very rich. The gain channels are intense and not fizzy. They bloom with harmonic feedback easily and easy to control.

this would be the second item i have ordered form Sweetwater, thanks Tyler Berggren and the Sweetwater crew. This head is my first tube head and i was surprised this thing was going up against my friends Marshall JCM head and he was blown away by the quality and the force that the Bugera had to offer, We play of a lot of METALLICA so it is perfect going through my custom marshall 4x12 with diamond plate and 4 vintage-30 celestion speakers. super awesome crunch and gain channels, and beautiful clean and it even came with the pedal. so beautiful thanks again.

Yes, Bugera is Behringer. Yes, this and the 333 are Peavey XXX and JSX clones. And yes, they do sound a lot like the PVs. Check out the used market. This is a great tube head especially as a first one, since it will tell you if a tube is bad. Otherwise, this thing is mean and loud. Loads of gain and not a ton of noise. 3 channels of tube tone. The noise gate, XL switches, presence, line out with level, and effects chain with level control. High and low gain inputs. The old FSB104 can be wired with a MIDI cable to work with these newer heads. They also corrected the "burning molex" problems of the past. Nothing has gone wrong with mine with plenty of time and abuse on it. Also, these are very very heavy and wider than some cabs. Tubes can also be swapped freely by design. Very flexible tube head, very good for the money.

Grest amp head with lots of headroom.
I was a little let down when i first plugged in and couldn't find a "tone" that realy was fit for me, it was days of playing till i found something more suitable for my liking. Also, the clean channel is significantly louder than bith distortion channels. I have my crunch channel on 5 to match a clean in 2, this is mostly because transiants are lost in distortion but this was a little excessive in my opinion..
This amp goes LOUD without cracking and the clean channel isounds absolutely beautiful. The lead channel is super usefull to get over the rest of the band (if playing live) for a boost of volume, tone, and presence, to really have that guitar stick out.

Great amp with minor downfalls

It's a good amp. Took a few days to get it dialed in. The clean channel is great, the crunch and lead channels are okay just not great.

Pros
Cathode biased
mix and match tube sets
exceptional true clean tone
playable at bedroom level, no attenuator necessary
paddle style footswitch

Cons
crude tone control
so-so reverb
poor stock tubes
lacks a few modern features (DI out, MIDI control, headphone out)
Music Tribe's poor customer support
would benefit from an additional preamp stage

This amp is a sleeper that you have to check out! Out of curiousity, I checked out an older non-Infinium version at GC and was blown away at how it sounded in person; totally unexpected! IMO, the clean tones are probably the best on the market. True cleans w/o breakup, even with EMG's. Even the footswitch is the best I've seen (no foot piercing and popping buttons). The XL switch is a nice sonic touch but a true dial in resonance would be better. The reverb is lifeless but workable. The noise gate works well for what it does, which is to remove hiss from the amp at high volume levels, but the amp is really quiet, perhaps because it contains fewer tube stages.

Don't be fooled. The Bugera mfg demo videos are a joke and do more harm than good, along with many bad YouTube demos. The Bugera Turbosound speakers in the extension cabinet sound too papery. To anyone interested in this or any other head, I would strongly recommend trying out different speakers/cabs. You will experience vastly improved tones! The best feature for me is the ability to swap/mix tubes out, on the fly, without rebiasing. This feature alone is worth it's weight in gold. (a bonus for tone tweakers). I don't know of any othe amp on the market that can do this to this extent (I have personally mixed/swapped EL34 and 6L6's). This amp also handles 6V6's, KT66/77/88's (not a quartet of the 88's because of socket spacing limitations).

As for 120 watts considered being too much, it's a false wattage vs loudness debate. In general, 120 watts WILL NOT be subjectively twice as loud as a 60 watts. Apparent loudness is determined by the current to the speakers, music frequency content, etc. among many other factors. A 120 watt amp WILL provide more articulation and bandwidth to your playing than a 60 watt amp. That being said, with very few exceptions, you will not get the big bottle gut punch sound from a lower wattage EL84 fuzzmonster head. This head will play at a reasonable volume because of its separate channel and master volumes; no attenuator necessary.

I would rate this amp 4/5 stars because of Music Tribe's poor support (no faq's, no knowledgebase info, no mfg contact info, no blog) and the crude/uneven taper/Q of the tone controls. This could easily be a stellar amp with a few tweaks like a pre gain, dialable resonance and DI out. Overall this is a solid amp on it's own merit and even better for the price.

What can I say?! This head has it all. Plenty of volume and great tone not to mention a decent amount of distortion. The 333XL Infinium has 3 channels. I use the first for a clean glassy sound, the second channel for my rhythm sound. It's got great gain and a button I can push in to give me all the lows I need for heavy music. The third channel I use as a solo channel or a second, more distorted sound. Each channel has it's own EQ so I never have to put up with a singular tone for all my sounds. The Main volume is a true life saver. No more having to reset each channel's volume if I want to take down or raise my overall volume. The main volume control allows me to raise and lower every channel at once...don't worry, each channel also has it's own volume control. The only drawbacks I can see are, one, the weight. The Bugera 333XL is a heavy sucker, but then again, I'm 52 and I'm not the man I used to be. Lol. The other issue is the gain. The Bugera has plenty of gain, I just wish it had more, but I'm a distortion freak so maybe that's just me. I'm 52 (Don't count on that to stay the same) and I've gone thru my fair share of amps, including; Crates, Marshalls, Fenders, Vox and Orange to name a few. Love them all, mostly, but this amp, the Bugera, is a keeper. You won't be disappointed. Great amp, very versatile and sweet tones!

Pros

Loud. So very loud.
Lots of controls and options.
Affordable.
Lots of features
Great to run pedals through

Cons

Extremely steril sounding distortion and clean
Heavy as heck! And huge.
But the biggest: Horrid quality control


Issue: I had this amp for about two weeks. One day, after it being on standby for a few minutes, I flipped the amp on and started playing. Within seconds I looked over and saw all four of the tubes were ultra, crazy bright. I took one step towards the amp and the tubes blew. I definitely think it was a problem with how much power the tubes were receiving, hence all of them being overly bright.

Thankfully, Sweetwater saved the day: I exchanged the amp for an Orange Jim Root signature and didn't look back. Outstanding customer service as always from Sweetwater!!!

Within 3 months the footpedal went out at the female end. Another 2 months down the road, it started sounding very peculiar. Though maybe one or more of my tubes were going bad. Then it suddenly started blowing fuses. Thankfully the company I bought it from (not Sweetwater) gave me a full refund because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. I won't ever go Bugera again, ever.

I know lay mostly metal and punk. This is Loud, and not in a good way. Cleans are just okay, dirty channel cant get enough saturation for a metal tone, the lead channel is the best for that. However it"s screaming and humming after every staccato attack. Turn it down and all the flavor goes away it"s either too much or not enough. Plastic knobs fall off after a while. I went back to solid state and running a tube preamp effects unit.