Unable to afford buying one himself, he used spare parts from his father's tube radio building hobby and began trying to recreate the sounds of his guitar idols, like Angus Young and Gary Moore.

On the advice of Kansas guitarist Rich Williams, Bogner moved to Los Angeles in 1989 with a modded Marshall as a demo and $600 in cash to advance his career as an amp builder.

[1] Bogner was quickly hired to modify amps by Andy Brauer, who ran a business renting out "boutique" gear to a large number of local guitarists.

Bogner worked on amplifiers for Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens and session musician Michael Landau, while producer Dave Jerden introduced Jerry Cantrell to a Bogner-modified amp for Alice in Chains' debut album Facelift.

With the popularity of Cantrell's tone creating interest in his work, Bogner began building preamps, like the Triple Giant and the Fish, the latter of which was purchased by guitarists of Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax.