Archive category

David Bogen

Bogen is the best-represented maker in the archive, and almost all of it is public-address equipment. The Challenger amplifiers range from the 18-watt CH18 and the 6V6-powered CH20 to the 100-watt CHB-100 with four 7868 output tubes. Two MX6 and MX6A units are microphone mixers that fed those amplifiers. The ST-10 offers preamp and cathode-follower outputs, and the Presto-Bogen DB-230 and VP-10 come from the years Bogen and Presto Recording were run as one division.

The listings are unusually practical. Several sellers brought their amplifiers up slowly on a variac, reported exactly which tubes were fitted, and described hum, faint output or earlier repairs. Read together, they make a fair picture of what to expect from a Bogen that has sat unused for decades.

Many Challengers now live second lives as guitar amplifiers. The Bogen maker page covers the company from 1932 to the Lear Siegler years.

David Bogen Company: company page and history