I've had mine for 5 years. It is super reliable and versatile.

It is my go to amp, love the sound. It has been a great buy and I highly recommend it.

Only had this a few days, so I will reserve judgement, however initial impressions are:

- It seems well built, no rattles, dodgy finish, loose knobs or other issues

- Has a very high quality 12 inch Turbosound speaker - impressive on initial listening and will get better as it loosens up

- The sound quality from this amp is fabulous - both in clean and dirty modes

- I have already had comments from a guitar player who has played many high-end amps that this is one of the best sounding he has ever played

- It is versatile, two power modes (Triode = Low and Pentode = High) which have different audio characteristics, mid-boost, which is best left on for lower volume operation, two speaker outs, so will drive two cabinets at the same time, footswitch included, standby mode which is useful to keep it ticking over when not playing

- It blows away my 100 watt Marshall Head, which granted is a Solid State MG, but even so this V22 is in a different league altogether

Couldn't be more impressed at present; time will tell if it will be reliable, but I've no reason to suspect it won't.

I would say this amp has everyone people SAY they're looking for in an amp:

1. It's a tube amp and has that rich tone and shimmer on both the clean and the dirty channel.
2. It has a mid-boost switch that allows it to sound like an amp with scooped mids (fender) or an amp with more mids (marshall-ish)
3. It has a gain range that works for both humbuckers and single coils and can achieve blues/rock and Black Sabbath level tones without pedals.
4. It has and effects loop and foot pedal for channel switching
5. It has a pentode/triode switch that allows you to cut the power in half ~11 watts. I can achieve pretty satisfying tones at a bedroom level and it's fantastic when loud.
6. It's cheap.

With a few drive pedals and a multi-effects pedal I have, I can achieve great metal tones and even more complex David Gilmour type tones. The only thing I don't really like is the built-in reverb. It's pretty weak, so I just use a reverb pedal in the effects loop.

It seems that even though people say they want all of these things in an amp, it's not always about sound for everyone. If you want a name brand, there is no way around that. You are going to pay more money for the brand. Also, lots of people gig with these Bugeras, but there's no doubt that Fenders and Vox and Hiwatt and Marshalls are much more road proven and can probably stand up to a lot more abuse.

Its a good tube amp

One hell of an amp!

On its own in a room, it's a bit on the bright side. I find that I have to really tweak the knobs to tame it a bit. Switching to triode mode (easily done with the switch on the back) darkened the tone a good bit, but I felt that made it a bit muddy. Either way, I wasn't sure initially how I felt about it.

However, it shines terrifically in a band setting. You're going to have to compete sonically with a bassist and a drummer. That brightness really helps you cut through the mix. Leads are crisp and the cleans are fantastic.

I have a Marshall solid-state that just never could seem to cut through. With another guitar player in the band, it was just very tough to hear myself very often. I brought in the Bugera and it fixed that problem instantly.

The gain is a bit fizzy, yes. I believe that can be addressed to some degree with tube swaps or pedals. I would suppose, however, that if you're considering this amp, your budget doesn't include room for all new tubes and/or pedals. No worries. The amp will serve you absolutely fine without spending that extra cash. It's a tube amp...you'll need to replace the tubes eventually anyway. No sense in rushing it.