YOU ARE GOLD
Vintage voiced, the 2-channel Goldfinger 45 combo has individual EQ, gain and loudness controls for each channel (named ‘alpha’ and ‘omega’), a global reverb and presence control and a post FX knob. Loaded with four 6V6 tubes, the amp has a myriad of further settings for full or half power, post or pre effects loop with options for series and parallel, loop gain levels and then multiple speaker outs if you want to run extra cabs. A 1×12 combo with a Celestion V30, the Goldfinger comes housed in a funky black patterned cab with a salt and pepper type basket weave grille. The control panel is a cool gold colour (of course!) and the actual knobs and switches look like something out of a vintage airplane or submarine – big and retro. The whole package looks great, and as is often the way with Bogner gear there’s quite a bit more than meets the eye, meaning you can plug in a get going or really settle in and investigate all the possibilities.
VINTAGE
Jumping into the clean ‘alpha’, channel you’re instantly hit with big fat lush clean tones. Setting the EQ at and working the gain and loudness controls gives you some seriously juicy sounds. Adding a hint of reverb and you really are in vintage blackface territory – great with single coils or humbuckers. You can really run the gamut from rock and blues to country or jazz. The presence control adds some extra snap and sparkle, which can be handy for brightening up rounder humbuckers a touch. At 45 watts there seems to be plenty of clean headroom, making it a great gigging amp that can be straight plug and play or more of a pedal platform. Flicking across to the ‘omega’ dirty channel and you can get that tasty, on the edge of breakup, tone and just pump up the loudness to really make it sing. From there, adding more gain takes you well into saturated distortion tones. Thick and dirty with humbuckers and rocky and slightly compressed when pushed with single coils. The Goldfinger really works well on both channels and, straddles that vintage vibe with some modern-ish Bogner flavour.
WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER
Man, the Goldfinger 45 combo really sounds good. Both channels are super sweet and super usable. A lot of amps suffer from a good clean channel and a slightly ho hum dirty channel (or vice versa) whereas the Gold finger 45 nails both. Big juicy cleans with verb and then broken on the edge gain through to more saturation – just lovely. A killer amp from a killer brand name, I want one.