Awesome amp

It's like a combo of a Fender clean and a Marshall Grit. You can get just about every sound you want out of this except for heavy metal, which requires a Boogie. But that medium to heavy crunch, rock and roll tone is unbeatable with this amp. At high levels of gain you can still hear separation of the strings. Reverb is a delight, and the boost has a separate volume control, which is very convenient. Downside - HEAVY!!! If you can lug this puppy around and control the volume (loud), you've got one of the best amps money can buy.

6L6 for me, although both sound amazing.

I've got one of the original 6L6 versions of the Shiva and it has seen many great amps (Matchless, Bad Cat, Other Bogners, Orange etc...) come and go. I just can't say enough about how versatile this simple 1x12 combo is. I have a head shell as well and have used it through multiple 2x12's and 4x12's and it never disappoints. Fender cleans one one side and vintage Marshall on the other. Takes pedals well. The reverb is spectacular. I too have owned both and prefer the overdrive side of the 6L6 (personal opinion) just smoother to my ears. Either way you can't go wrong. Mr. Bogner got this amp right!

Greatest sounding amp I've ever heard!

This amp is amazing! I got this with the EL34 power tube option. The distortion is so sweet sounding that it brings a smile to my face when I play through this amazing amp. I own the 6L6 version of the Shiva also and will tell you how they compare. They both sound pretty equal on the clean channel, very very clean and Fender-like. But the dirty channel of the EL34 version trumps the 6L6 hands down(and the 6L6 distortion is amazing!). The 6L6 has a cleaner distortion and the EL34 is a little dirtier, but definitely not fuzzy as some reviews say. But, they aren't night and day different in sound, and I promise you that you would be happy with either version of this sweet amp. I have zero regret owning both of them, a little different sound out of each for some variety. Bogner amps are the best there is. These are well worth the money if you're serious about getting the best sounding amp in the world! And of course only Sweetwater can bring you the best price and customer service when buying a Bogner. They will treat you right. Thanks Bogner and thanks Sweetwater, you've both made my dream of owning a Shiva(or two, ha ha!) a reality.

Awesome tone...HEAVY!

Great amp.

However, only gets 4 stars for me mainly because it weighs 70 pounds! 70 lbs. for a 1x12 combo?? Really? A Swart AST Pro weighs in at 33 lbs!

Other minor gripes: Footswitch has a cable built-in; that's asking for trouble as you need to wrap this around the footswitch and will get a lot of wear. The FS has a Y-chord at the end; the Y tips are NOT labeled, which means that you can plug them incorrectly. Sure, you can label them yourself, but how hard is for the manufacturer to do so?

Anyways, aside from that, the amp sounds great, and if you don't mind the weight, then get it because it is probably one of the best gigging amps out there. It cuts through the mix like butter, quality components all around and built like a tank.