Well, I went ahead and did it anyways - Bogner Shiva clean channel

[pjd3]

“Well, I went ahead and did it anyways”. – loaded a turret board with the components for what is attempting to be, the circuit for the Bogner Shiva clean channel.

In looking for the “perfect clean channel” for a Baritone guitar I am currently building, I listened to lots and lots of youtube and other clips that were able to adequately present electric guitars through the Bogner Shiva clean channel, with and without time based effects.
What continued to impress me was the quality of the Shiva clean channel, in the way it sat in the middle of “American amps” and “British amps”, having some of the good elements of both, but not really being either, or. I found that refreshing and unique, and had to agree with myself that the tone/response it produced would be very well suited for this Baritone guitar I am making now. Just to mention, this Baritone is being built for acoustic fingerstyle only material, (Hedges, Wake, McManus, classical). It has a 16” radius ebony fingerboard and very low inductance/resistance pickups with a complex schematic.

I’m posting this thread in the anticipation that some of you out there who know just how well the source information on this amp has been kept from getting out, could make comments on any key element of this circuit that would allude me (and I’m certain there are more than a couple), for instance, how to look at gain stages with 220K plate resistors, cathode followers into FX sends, cold clippers late in the circuit just before the phase inverter. I’ve only build Fender and Marshall type classic amps so, I have a few new things to get familiar with.

I think I may be a bit crazy for trying this, mostly because of the lack of viable schematics and diagrams that are available on line. It appears that a small handful of people took a crack at ohming out the circuit and did hand drawn schematics as close as they could tell – then others would respond that there were mistakes, etc….. Someone finally posted a good looking schematic that didn’t foster any hell bent responses on its accuracy so, I went with that. Ha. Wish me luck. I’ll need it.
I’m going to give this start-into-tweak process a good shot, and if for some reason, its not coming along as hoped, I’ll try a Hiwatt, as those are in the camp of what I’m looking for, and the info for building those are plentiful. But, this Bogner Shiva clean channel will at least be very educational I’m sure, and who knows, maybe with some tenacity, I’ll land on a good channel for my Baritone guitar. Its definitely impressed me the very most in its clean channel quality.
Thanks for chiming in, if you dare.
Best,
Phil D,

[pompeiisneaks]

“Well, I went ahead and did it anyways”. – loaded a turret board with the components for what is attempting to be, the circuit for the Bogner Shiva clean channel.

In looking for the “perfect clean channel” for a Baritone guitar I am currently building, I listened to lots and lots of youtube and other clips that were able to adequately present electric guitars through the Bogner Shiva clean channel, with and without time based effects.
What continued to impress me was the quality of the Shiva clean channel, in the way it sat in the middle of “American amps” and “British amps”, having some of the good elements of both, but not really being either, or. I found that refreshing and unique, and had to agree with myself that the tone/response it produced would be very well suited for this Baritone guitar I am making now. Just to mention, this Baritone is being built for acoustic fingerstyle only material, (Hedges, Wake, McManus, classical). It has a 16” radius ebony fingerboard and very low inductance/resistance pickups with a complex schematic.

I’m posting this thread in the anticipation that some of you out there who know just how well the source information on this amp has been kept from getting out, could make comments on any key element of this circuit that would allude me (and I’m certain there are more than a couple), for instance, how to look at gain stages with 220K plate resistors, cathode followers into FX sends, cold clippers late in the circuit just before the phase inverter. I’ve only build Fender and Marshall type classic amps so, I have a few new things to get familiar with.

I think I may be a bit crazy for trying this, mostly because of the lack of viable schematics and diagrams that are available on line. It appears that a small handful of people took a crack at ohming out the circuit and did hand drawn schematics as close as they could tell – then others would respond that there were mistakes, etc….. Someone finally posted a good looking schematic that didn’t foster any hell bent responses on its accuracy so, I went with that. Ha. Wish me luck. I’ll need it.
I’m going to give this start-into-tweak process a good shot, and if for some reason, its not coming along as hoped, I’ll try a Hiwatt, as those are in the camp of what I’m looking for, and the info for building those are plentiful. But, this Bogner Shiva clean channel will at least be very educational I’m sure, and who knows, maybe with some tenacity, I’ll land on a good channel for my Baritone guitar. Its definitely impressed me the very most in its clean channel quality.
Thanks for chiming in, if you dare.
Best,
Phil D,

I actually did some service on one of these, I think it was noisy and the caps were about 15 years old so I recapped it and it came out way cleaner/quieter after. Definitely a nice clean amp for sure.

~Phil

[pjd3]

Hi Phil, thanks for coming by.

Yeah, I do like the particular texture of the clean. Its big sweet, bold, complex and clean, but not so hi-fi sterile clean like a blackface fender, but not as slicey and crispy as a plexi lets say. I'm just going to put what I have together and see what I hear. Any input I get will be a gift and/or bonus, and I'll run with it to see if I can establish the kind of tone I"m hearing on the good youtube vids.

The board I build up is a real mish/mash of new, used and old parts. New Mallories, NOS mallories, stupid big 1uF combo polyester/polypropylene, stacked ceramic power caps. This project is being built up on "Tube designed board station", which is nothing more than everything mounted on a nice oak board with terminal strips and separate filter, preamp, bias boards, etc. It's so to give maximum flexibility and speed in experimenting and substituting components. Plus open and dangerous! And noisy I'm sure at high gain levels.

Best,
Phil