20th Anniversary Shiva 90-watt Tube Head - with Reverb Review

ONE OF THE FEW…

Truly a great 2 channel amp. CLEANS: I'm a snob about cleans and this amp really excels at powerful cleans with good harmonics. The punch and sustain of 100 watts but prettier - super satisfying with single coils. DIRT: I have to say, great all the way from edge of break up to almost metal. Low gain with a Strat or tele neck is chewy in all the right ways without being too compressed.… read more Higher gain is very dialable to taste. FEATURES: fx loop is good - the boost on both clean and dirty channels as well as reverb on both channels really make this a grab and go. I love that I could get stranded without pedals and easily get through a whole gig with the footswitch. I can go from clean to boosted clean (without adding gain) to crunch to solo easily. EQ: all the controls are very refined because this amp has been a platform for so long. The bright switches are effective when switching between buckers and single coils. The sweep of the mid control is useable all the way through it's travel, same with bass and treble. Subtle but not too much so. IMPORTANT NOTE: Many boutique 'Marshall' amps in this vein sound very nice but disappear on stage. The shiva doesn't - it can be present and mean if you need it to. This aspect to me was the kicker. I've played 'everything' - I'm really not sure there's a better 2 channel amp out there. If that's what you're in the market for, you'll be more than happy with it.

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SHIVA - My Holy Grail of tone

I've owned and still own a tone of amps. I call it my amp library... I've always wanted to add a Shiva to the collection and finally broke down and bought the 20th Ann Shiva w/Rev & KT88 and man... All I can say is, I play this amp more than any other amp because it's so satisfying and itIt sounds great at ANY volume level and the idle is so quite you can have it in any environment.… read more It delivers great clean tones as well as a chewy deep saturated drive gain tones. I also found it easy to modify to get different tones or charactoer by changing the preamp tubes. If you want a tighter sound - go to the Tungsol 12AX7, Chewy - use the SINO 12AX7B. Then there is of coarse the looks of it... Total class baby! It's like arriving in a Lambo and everybody knows - you are about to destroy them with an excitement of tone. To me that is what it's all about - delivering a performance that inspires and this amp along with a great cab Delivers me to my happy place.

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Great amp but not my fav

I'm a Bogner fan through and through, I run the bogner forum website for crying out loud.....I love Bogner products. I've been through 3 101B, 1 Classic, two Shiva's, Goldfinger 45, Helios 100, early green jewel Uberschall. Bought this 20th with Reverb back in the fall of 2014. Is it an improvement over the standard shiva? Yes because it covers the same basic tones plus takes… read more it to another level of gain. I has more gain on tap, features that help shape the amp with a wonderful clean and reverb. I've tried it with KT88s and EL34s. Both sound great. The E34 has a better overdrive and the KT88 has a better clean. When it comes down to it.....I just didn't vibe with it and I really really wanted to. I had the beautiful helios/plexi head cab with mine and it was just perfect looking to me but the overdrive I couldn't get a long with. I tried and tried. I used greenbacks, I used Creambacks and Vintage 30s all loaded in either Bogner 212 or 412 cabs. Just could not vibe with it. It has a stiff, unforgiving playability about it that's hard to describe. It needs more of a fluidity to its feel and tone which is probably why I get a long with my XTC 101B so much. A lot of players will hit the front end with a good overdrive and this fixes it perfectly. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on the amp at all. It just didn't fit me. I played it all of the time hoping it would just click and fought with it more than anything. I have a Helios 100, 101B and Goldfinger 45 and those do the job for me. The 20th is a huge improvement over the standard and I do recommend it if you like the standard shiva. I had the same issues with the standard also so its not surprise I didn't care for the 20th either. Wish I would had because its a near perfect amp.

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Awesome!!!

You cant get a bad tone out of this amp. It took me a few hours to dial in but i found the chewiest, killer tones i could ask for. Super versatile from what i can tell capable of most any sound youre looking for. Ive owned a lot of amps but i finally found what ive been after. I never write reviews but i am in this case for two reasons. First i couldnt find a lot of reviews of this… read more amp, and second, this amp is simply awesome. A couple specifics. Its a very quiet amp. I was really surprised with how quiet it is and the lack of hiss when cranked. Im not sure yet because i havent had enough time on it but i dont think i'll need a noise gate as its very quiet. I had planned on changing out to el34 tubes because i read it warms the sound. Well no need to do that here. Ive dialed in a tone somewhere between a nice modern sound but with a warm vintage texture, which is what i really wanted. If youre looking for a fabulous tone, versatility and simplicity, this is it. Dont let the fact its a two channel amp fool you. Find a great tone and roll your volume knob to find SO many beautiful sounds. You will not regret buying this one. Metal, Jazz, Blues, Country.....this one will do everything. I just cant say enough.

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