Anybody compared the Bogner Duende to the Mesa TA-30?

[mike@switchback]

These are two amps on my short list. Both 1x12 combos.

I played the TA-30 112 combo yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised/impressed. Especially in the clean-to-crunch area. The higher gain tones didn't thrill but I imagine they would benefit from a little more volume and/or a little clean boost in front. It's the first amp I've played that had such great versions of both fender and vox tones in a switchable setup. So I view any available high gain as just gravy.

I've owned the Duende - an early swamp switch model. I liked it a lot but at the time I was more focused on the gain sounds and they fell short for me. I understand the newer revision may address that. It's also been a while so my memory is fading. There aren't any locally for me to try out and refresh my memory.

So if anybody has any thoughts to offer, I'd appreciate it!

 

[waygorked]

I have owned 3 TA 30s so far. I returned all of them. They all sounded brilliant, particularly on the top boost channel, but all of them had serious issues, all variations on the same problem with the loop and master volume on the red channel. Mesa repair professed to have never heard of the problem, despite a pile of people on the boogie board all complaining of the same issue.

It still makes me sad, as I loved those amps. I will buy another one, in about a year when they have worked the bugs out.

As soon as I turn on my Mini Rectifier, I get over it.

 

[mike@switchback]

Thanks. I saw your posts on the boogie board. It seems there are enough issues that I wouldnt be comfortable buying used...

Did you have heads or combos?

 

[waygorked]

I tried both. It appears to have something to do with an unshielded wire from an output transformer. It sounds like they cheaped out on the wrong component. Mesa is implying that they have a repair, but why buy a new amp that needs to be repaired?

I really suspect that Mesa is fixing this issue, and there will be no problems with the TA series manufactured after maybe summer 2012 will be fine, with resolution of all the loop issues and the buzzing reverb on channel 2 (which is likely the same issue). I would consider buying one for the Vox tone alone, but every other tone is present in my Mini Rectifier, and honestly does a better job of it.

I managed to pull a really nice Vox tone yesterday using an AC30 preamp model from my HD500 into the loop return on the pushed clean channel of the MiniRec. This should tide me over for the time being.

 

[zzmoore]

Mesa seems to be stuck in the "Nether World" between mass production and boutique assembly. I kind of wonder how they survive. Guess they must be doing a lot of stuff right. They have been around a long time now.
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