Bugera V5 Infinium Review – Vintage Looks, Ferocious Tones!

Let’s face it, the time for Twin Reverbs and Marshall full stacks is long gone. Nowadays, only a select few can bring such monsters on stage. The rest of us have to settle for a maximum of 20 valve-driven watts, a slice of pizza, and a pint of beer.

That’s partially why the small-amp market just exploded in the last few years. Options have become endless! Well, that’s always good news for us, the players. Companies are ferocious about conquering the niche, and are putting out incredible little amps.

Read on and learn why I think the Bugera V5 is one of the most underrated bang-for-the-buck bedroom-amp deals out there today.

Let’s go!

British Invasion Tones Nailed to Perfection

The first thing I have to say is that this is an EL84-driven amp. You might remember those tubes from amps like the VOX AC line or the Marshall 1974x.

They have that warm midrange that, when pushed, turns into a loud bite that just screams rock and roll.

I tried it with humbuckers, and the overdrive was thick enough to play “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream.

The grain is not quite Marshall material, and it’s definitely not as punchy as a VOX AC. But, hey, those cost much more! Plus, when provoked, this amp delivers growling tones that are defined and tight.

The one thing it lacks is high-end. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s not muddy; it’s just the complete absence of brightness.

Speaking of which, cranking the tone is the name of the game here. To be absolutely honest, the gain knob never made it below 2 o’clock.

Moving to P-90s, I was inspired to play some early AC-DC riffs. The sound was Marshall-esque (with the shortcomings we talked about) and very convincing. It was just an old-school, English rocking tone that can cut through the mix.

Again, not as gorgeously grainy as a Marshall, but tight and fun.

Finally, with my Telecaster, things got much livelier.

I tried some souped-up blues moves. Something like Gary Clark Jr’s “Numb,” for example. The results, even with the tone cranked, were always warm and fat.

I did miss some of the high-end you find in other amps with 6v6 tubes or a wider frequency spectrum.

Although it comes with an 8” speaker, it translates the lows quite well. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the answer is yes. It does get hissy when cranked. Don’t worry, though, the tone of the pushed tubes makes it all worthwhile.

The Attenuator is a Big Plus

Getting those naturally overdriven sounds requires the use of both gain stages: the pre and the power amp. Translated out of jargon: “You need to crank this little beast to get the real juice.”

The back panel offers an attenuator that goes from 5 watts to 0.1 watts. This means “Really crank it, don’t worry about the volume!”  That’s right, you can mimic the everything-in-10 Joe Perry move in “Walk this Way”.

Creamy overdrive at any volume will keep you playing. Yes, that includes neighbor-friendly and family-friendly decibels.

I’m telling you, true valve overdrive is addictive. You’ve been officially warned.

Vintage Looks, Ferocious Tones, Stale Reverb

While testing this amp, I picked up my trusty old JS100. They looked like a very rare pair. The guitar is modern, contoured, slick, and red. The amp is vintage, boxy, cream-colored, and has chicken knobs.

When pushed, though, the valves inside this tiny amp sound huge, matching Satch’s bottom end and power. I had to put a distortion pedal to get that thick distortion and sustain.

I’m telling you, the V5 roars like the King of the Rock and Roll jungle. I did my own version of the “Summer Song,” and that fat, distorted tone to play the leads with was right there.

The only thing lacking here was the reverb. It might be analog, but it’s very stale and tends to get lost in translation while playing loud.

A Good Pedal Platform Too

Not every amp can do “the cranked thing” and be a good pedal platform. Clean tones with too much character or amps with too little headroom aren’t the best match for our obsessive approach to gain stages in our pedalboards.

I don’t know about you, but currently, I have 4.

The Bugera V5 Infinium is a great pedal platform. That’s a good and a bad thing.

The good side is that taking pedals so well makes it an even better practice or bedroom amp.

The bad side is that the clean tones are quite lifeless; warm, but shallow.

You don’t find the rich harmonic overtones and sparkle you’d find in other brands. The guitar doesn’t get as 3-dimensional as it should when playing a tube amp.

I ran my entire pedalboard through the input of the amp, and the Tube Screamer (both TS-9 and TS-808) improved the midrange a lot. The guitar became alive and, using the tone knob of the pedal, I was able to dial some brighter tones out of the amp.

Distortion (heavy and mild) sounded great. Although I missed the midrange of a 12” speaker, I had to remind myself that I was playing a 5-watt amp with the price tag of a boutique pedal.

I enjoyed using my Strymon FLINT in front of this amp. The combination of that pedal and the Carbon Copy got me playing for a while. Oh yeah. I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is yes: I left the Tube Screamers on and pushed the amp to get creamy distortion with lush delay for epic leads.

My hair went big and curly. “Hey, look at me, Mom, I’m Brian May!” I almost felt like a kid again, making faces to the mirror, playing this amp. Such a great bedroom tone machine.

I also tried the opposite, cleaning the amp entirely and adding some phase with my MXR Phase 95, and the result was usable. The washy quality of the time-based effect softened the warm bottom-end, and the sound became bigger and more profound. But the staleness. It chases you like in a Bruce Willis movie.

Finally, my Big Muff sounded absolutely wild. The speaker could barely hold it together. I added the octave pedal while playing the tele and had some instant Jack White thing going on. But it only lasted a minute, I didn’t want to blow the speaker.

The Trick to Make This Little Monster Roar

The stock speaker is only 8”, but this little beast needs some more room to unleash all its power. So, what I did was use the back panel speaker out to plug a 1x12. Then I got greedy about it and hooked up a 2x12 speaker cabinet.

Let me tell you that the midrange not only grew but also became clearer and punchier. All of a sudden, the upper highs the amp was so desperately lacking made a stellar appearance, and those unruly ‘60s British sounds grew to mammoth proportions.

With the same settings, I plugged my pedalboard and let it rip using the fuzz and the delay. I was playing Gilmour-friendly melodic leads in a matter of minutes (and for a matter of hours).

Also, playing soundscapes with lush effects, modulation, and some high octaves was a lot of fun. The staleness and lack of 3-dimensionality didn’t disappear, but it all sounded much more real and, of course, much louder.

Moving On Up! The V22 and the V55

Speaking of expanding the concept with the V5 Infinium, you can also choose a bigger version of the same amp with its bigger siblings, the V22 and V55.

Both these amps feature a righteous 1x12 configuration with the same English-designed Turbosound speaker.

The good news is that they’re two-channel amps, and that channels can be selected via an included footswitch. Likewise, the added EQ bands, master, and presence controls are very welcome.

Also, the FX loop works wonders in keeping your tone intact while you dial a cataract of effects in the background.

But beware, because these amps sound quite different from each other. Yes, while the V22 follows the same path as the V5 with two EL84 tubes in the power-amp section, the V55 utilizes 6L6 tubes.

This is a big difference. The 6L6s tend to have more gain and a denser type of distortion than the grainier, somewhat darker, and more bitey EL84s. Also, the sound of 6L6 tubes is clearer in the midrange with definition and punch, while the EL84s produce a much more pronounced lower-midrange curve that punches just as hard but at a different, lower frequency.

What I’m trying to say is that you should try both before buying. Oh, and when playing the V22, make sure you crank it. The 80-watt Turbosound speaker is a bit hard to drive and takes longer to deliver the goods, AKA,  the natural, organic, and creamy distortion.

Happy (neighbor-friendly) playing!