Suhr Badger 30 - should I?

Beexter

Been contemplating  one of these for a while, as they seem to have the right sort of spec- EL34's, power scaling and effects loop.

Question is, are they any good?  If I'm considering one, what other contenders should I be looking at?

Anyone here got one/ had one? If you got rid, what replaced it and why?

Bellycaster

I've got one(Head), but I've only managed to gig it once, sounded great though, set to "almost" clean and then using pedals for OD/Gain etc. FX Loop is very good and the power scaling is wonderful. You can get really good Classic Rock and then some at very low levels, some amps are just like 0 then Loud even just lightly touching the volumes, but not this one.

Be sure to read the manual though about how to set your Power and Drive controls if you are power scaling it, it can make the amp brighter sounding or vice versa. Simple instructions really. I don't rate it as highly for Cleans as my Maz or Bogner Goldfinger, but it does what it does well. Whack a Les Paul into it on Classic Rock settings and it's marvellous.

kennedydream1980

Sounds Great Music have a Badger 35w in stock at a great price :-)

https://www.soundsgreatmusic.com/products/suhr-badger-35w-head

Zodiac51

There was one posted on here last week with a matching cab

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/93626/fs-suhr-badger-35-suhr-1x12-price-drop#latest

hubobulous

The Badger is an excellent amp and the power scaling is very impressive. It's takes pedals very well and as an aside, the matching 1x12 sounds huge.

i had one and only moved it on as I bought a Hedgehog which suited the band mix better after we got a second guitarist.

fretmeister

I had one. Really liked it.

Replaced it with a Dual Rec when I went back to teh brewtal 

ChrisCox1994

I had one, it was wicked.

Never used the power scaling as the master volume is brilliant.

Eventually I let it go because it wasn't versatile enough, didn't really have enough clean headroom and didn't take mod/delay that well in the front - but i was just too lazy to bring the extra cables for the FX loop, which was great.

I had it with the matching 2x12, but it sounded nearly as good with my 2x10 dr Z cab. 

ennspek

There are new models coming soon I believe. Be more expensive though I'd imagine.

Beexter

@ChrisCox1994  - did you have the 30? I'm interested in your comments about headroom and versatility.
I'm drawn to the Badger for the warm cleans and edge of breakup stuff, with a view to running it just on the edge of breakup and boosting with pedals for extra crunch. The band I'm in currently does a wide range of covers so versatility is important.

I like the clean sound of my Orange Rocker 30 and the dirty channel sounds great too.  I like its simplicity and it cuts through in the band really well but I can't quite get it to be right on the edge of breakup - it's either clean or crunchy ( and it's loud)and I thought the Badger might be a good alternative, especially with the power scaling and fx loop but clean headroom is a must have.

hubobulous

I had the 30 and didn't have an issue with headroom or the cleans. Edge of breakup is where I set mine and it allowed me to get clean with the guitar volume rolled back, edge of breakup, and then crunch/lead with pedals.

firepaulmusic

Out of the two I preferred the 35 as IMO it had more character. The headroom on the 30 wasn't as high as I'd expected but others don't have a problem.

ChrisCox1994

Beexter said:

"versatility is important"

It wasnt versatile enough for the functions / party band set I do as my main job, it sounded great set up just how you said though, at the point of break up then boosted (especially with a fulldrive 2 in comp cut mode - wow, what a great sound!) but it never went clean enough for certain things, didnt take a fuzz well and made all overdrives sound like the amp (which sounds great) but versatile it is not. 

It is a really reeeeeally great classic marshall sound in a great size, for a classic rock gig I'd be hard pressed to think of a better amp thats that portable and useable at any volume.

The headroom was an issue for me, just couldnt punch cleanly, even compared to my then 22w fender deluxe (but thats kind of the point with a marshall) so i was expecting it to do something its not designed to do.

I could never get my cleans loud enough to match the amp overdrive volume, so would have to run it clean with an OD which meant the great drive sound of the amp was redundant, THAT was my main annoyance.

I wish it'd had a bit more headroom and/or a footswitchable 2nd master volume, then I wouldve kept it for sure. 

lespaulcustom68

Peach have 2016 versions of the 30 and 35 on offer. The 2017 version is @£500 more.

John_A

fretmeister said:

I had one. Really liked it.

Replaced it with a Dual Rec when I went back to teh brewtal 

And by no coincidence I replaced a dual rec with a Badger