Bogner’s Mythical Snorkler Mod
Guitar aficionados speak of Reinhold Bogner’s earliest modded British amplifiers with hushed reverence — they’re the stuff of legends. As such, tracking down one of these elusive unicorns has historically been an arduous and costly venture. Until now, that is! The Snorkler 50 is a 50-watt British-style tube amp head with Bogner’s most lionized mod, infusing it with the hard-to-pin-down saturated crunch that not only fueled Alice in Chains and Jane’s Addiction’s alt-metal anthems in the early 1990s, but it’s also considered by many enthusiasts to be the Holy Grail of hard rock tones. The Snorkler 50 boasts two footswitchable modes: a Blue crunch mode and a Red high-gain mode. A 3-band EQ and Depth and Presence knobs provide ample sonic sculpting; meanwhile, Deep and Bright switches enable fine-tuning of your sound. Moreover, a built-in noise gate and a top-quality effects loop render the Snorkler 50 an all-in-one, plug-and-play tone machine. With the Bogner Snorkler 50, modern players can finally get their hands on one of guitardom’s most storied — and difficult-to-track-down — modded tube amps.
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From Germany to LA to alt-rock supremacy
The Snorkler 50’s design can be traced all the way back to the earliest days of Reinhold Bogner’s amp-modding career. It all began in Germany in the late 1980s, when Rich Williams of the band Kansas commissioned Bogner to mod his British tube amps to replicate the higher-gain sounds popularized by Edward Van Halen. Deeply impressed by the sound of his modded amplifier, Williams convinced Bogner to relocate to Los Angeles and set up shop as an amp modder and builder. Once he arrived in the United States, Bogner’s reputation quickly grew, and soon, he was modding amps for a pantheon of celebrated players, including Steve Stevens, Michael Landau, and Edward Van Halen.
Bogner’s most popular mod involved removing a British amplifier’s circuitry up to the phase inverter and replacing it with a blue preamp circuit board of his own design. The most legendary of these modded amplifiers belonged to recording engineer Ronnie S. Champagne, a master volume British combo he dubbed “the Snorkler.” In the early 1990s, during which time Champagne regularly collaborated with producer Dave Jerden, the Snorkler featured heavily on genre-defining albums from Jane’s Addiction and Alice in Chains, among others.
Slow dive into spine-tingling grind
The Bogner Snorkler 50 is a 50-watt British-style tube amplifier with the celebrated mod of the same name. This amp head features dedicated Blue and Red modes. The Blue mode delivers a thunderous mid-gain crunch. The Red mode is an entirely different beast, arming you with a breathtaking high-gain tone that’s guaranteed to inspire the most wicked riffs of your musical life. If you’re chasing Jerry Cantrell’s Facelift-era grind or Dave Navarro’s Ritual de lo Habitual textures, the Snorkler 50 is the right tool for the job — it’s the real deal. Sweetwater’s verdict? When we plugged into the Snorkler 50, we were suitably impressed by Blue mode; that said, when we stomped on the Snorkler 50’s included footswitch, we were absolutely floored by Red mode. It delivers one of those once-in-a-lifetime tones that one must experience firsthand to appreciate truly.
Benefit from a plethora of modern features
Although it’s based on a decades-old design, the Snorkler 50 doesn’t skimp on the features modern guitarists count on. For starters, you get comprehensive sound shaping by way of a 3-band EQ and Depth and Presence knobs that you can then fine-tune with Deep and Bright switches. Dedicated Gain 1 and Gain 2 knobs make dialing in your preferred amount of grind a straightforward affair, while a master Volume knob grants you absolute control of the amp’s overall output. What’s more, the Snorkler 50 includes a built-in noise gate for taming the unwanted hum and hiss associated with high-gain tones. You also get a high-quality effects loop for integrating your pedalboard and time-based processors. Finally, 4-, 8-, and 16-ohm jacks accommodate the gamut of speaker cabinets, while a line output makes connecting to a stereo setup or IR loader a cinch.
Bogner Snorkler 50 Features:
- A 50W British-style tube amp head with Bogner’s lionized Snorkler mod
- Delivers the saturated grind highlighted on Alice in Chains and Jane’s Addiction’s genre-defining '90s-era albums
- 2 footswitchable modes: a Blue crunch mode and a Red high-gain mode
- 3-band EQ and Depth and Presence knobs provide ample sonic sculpting
- Deep and Bright switches enable further fine-tuning
- Dedicated Gain 1 and Gain 2 knobs make dialing in your grind a straightforward affair
- Master Volume knob grants absolute control of the amp’s overall output
- Built-in noise gate tames the unwanted hum and hiss associated with high-gain tones
- High-quality FX loop for integrating your pedalboard and time-based processors
- 4-, 8-, and 16-ohm jacks accommodate the gamut of speaker cabinets
- Line output makes connecting to a stereo setup or IR loader a cinch
- Eye-catching black levant Tolex covering with black piping, a gold faceplate, and a gold cap handle
