Bogner XTC or SLO 100

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Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by griff »

Not sure how many on here have played either of these amps.. Would love opinions if you have the time.
I have a Jet City 100 coming my way soon that will be going under the knife, and I have narrowed it down to either of these voicings.
Pros Cons of each?
I have listened to a lot of demos on YT, and there's only a few well recorded ones. At this stage I'm leaning towards the SLO.
A one trick pony, but does that trick fkn well.
SLO, high mid focused, a lot of cut, but different vibe to a Marshall.
XTC, Low mid focus, not as much gain, more Versatile.
Correct or nah?
My band only really does Grunge/Indie covers at the moment. But I think either voicing would serve that well.

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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by Optical »

Hmm.. well the XTC is brighter and has more gain. But if you replace the 39k cold clipper with ~5-10k then that evens the SLO up.
If you intend to boost either then that's different again.

Practically, you're about 5 component changes away from a SLO, and more like 40 away from an XTC. So i'd just spend a couple of minutes to tweak the JC to the SLO circuit and see if that works for you.
FWIW i prefer the SLO, but the XTC is still great.

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Re: SLO 100

Post by Single coil »

SLO.
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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by godgrinder »

I have a SLO100 and have spent a few days with Dong Hua's XTC.

Most of XTC's versatility is from the power section - the NFB switches make the most differences. I found the preamp voicings are all rather vanilla if not for the thumping power section.

I'd say mod the preamp to SLO specs since it's close enough already, and see if you can be bothered to add the NFB options from the XTC.
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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by handsoffmatt »

Optical wrote:Hmm.. well the XTC is brighter and has more gain.
My experience has been the exact opposite of this.

Though I've only played one XTC, it was darker and less gainy than any of the SLO's I've played.
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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by Optical »

handsoffmatt wrote:
Optical wrote:Hmm.. well the XTC is brighter and has more gain.
My experience has been the exact opposite of this.

Though I've only played one XTC, it was darker and less gainy than any of the SLO's I've played.
Would be good to have them side by side again, but I clearly recall the Bog being brighter and having more gain with all the controls around noon. Of course both can be dialed either way from there but that's the reference point I found *shrug*

I actually think the Suhr PT/CAE3+ is a sound in between the SLO and XTC. Could be another option to consider

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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by godgrinder »

I definitely remember the XTC being darker and has less gain than SLO as well.
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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by Mattallica »

Have there not been a few variations of the XTC? could be the difference?

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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by Optical »

True, classic and 101b which had revisions? I had a post '04 101b
From memory there was also a factory 'gain mod' which was an added cathode bypass on the cold clipper

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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by handsoffmatt »

Optical wrote:True, classic and 101b which had revisions? I had a post '04 101b
From memory there was also a factory 'gain mod' which was an added cathode bypass on the cold clipper
Ahhhhh, interesting.

I think the one I played was a 20th Anniversary
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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by handsoffmatt »

griff7628 wrote:At this stage I'm leaning towards the SLO.
A one trick pony, but does that trick fkn well.
I'd respectfully disagree with this.

There is much talk and mystique surrounding the SLO Overdrive channel. This all stems back to the time when the SLO was first released, and nobody had EVER heard anything like it. (Nowadays, almost every high gain amp out there is a derivative of the SLO design).

Because of all this hype - people often completely miss out on discussing the Normal channel. In my opinion, this is the best channel on the SLO. I'm not a huge fan of the "Clean" mode, but when in "Crunch" mode on the normal channel, it has the ability to sound like a cranked Deluxe Reverb or a non-master volume Marshall, but with a hint of clarity and girth that is completely unique to the SLO. More importantly, I reckon this channel is key to making the SLO actually (I reckon) a pretty darn versatile amp.
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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by griff »

Yeah NFB will be in there for sure, hard to live without that mod.
You have a good point about trying the SLO mod first given it's small departure from stock. Might do that and see how I like it.
Was talking to the mod designer for these this morning about it.. he prefers S.I.R 36 and Steve Stevens Friedman voicings over both and since I'm a Marshall fan boy I could end up Skipping the Bogner altogether. Will give the SLO a hoon though.
The Suhr CAE is another great option.

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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by griff »

handsoffmatt wrote:
griff7628 wrote:At this stage I'm leaning towards the SLO.
A one trick pony, but does that trick fkn well.
I'd respectfully disagree with this.

There is much talk and mystique surrounding the SLO Overdrive channel. This all stems back to the time when the SLO was first released, and nobody had EVER heard anything like it. (Nowadays, almost every high gain amp out there is a derivative of the SLO design).

Because of all this hype - people often completely miss out on discussing the Normal channel. In my opinion, this is the best channel on the SLO. I'm not a huge fan of the "Clean" mode, but when in "Crunch" mode on the normal channel, it has the ability to sound like a cranked Deluxe Reverb or a non-master volume Marshall, but with a hint of clarity and girth that is completely unique to the SLO. More importantly, I reckon this channel is key to making the SLO actually (I reckon) a pretty darn versatile amp.
Indeed. To be fair, I completely dismissed the Crunch channel. You bring up a good point though, cheers!

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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by Bg »

Optical wrote:True, classic and 101b which had revisions? I had a post '04 101b
From memory there was also a factory 'gain mod' which was an added cathode bypass on the cold clipper
Yeah the 20th anniversary is a completely different amp to the 101b. Miss my 101b, so versatile a metric fucktonne of options in that box.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: Bogner XTC or SLO 100

Post by Optical »

Fair play, i know nothing about the 20th anniversary!
Good point about the SLO crunch channel, agree it's great

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