Hughes & Kettner QC 415

Hughes and Kettenr ave made some real ground on the guitar world but not much impact on the bass world. This amp is one of those ground breaking tones that you have to hear to believe. This is a bass amp for those who need a good little combo to practice at home with. You wouldn't think it but this thing has 400 watts of power. Just by first glance you would not think that you could get 400 watts of power from this thing, but it pacts a wallop. This is he same amp a the QC 310 but just an extra bump in wattage up to 400 from 300. The only difference between this amp and the QC 412 is that this ha s 15 inch speaker. The tone will not change in its voicing but you will have much stronger low and less highs with this speaker. The low end will also be a little tighter as well.

UTILIZATION

Power 400 Watts
Poweramp Dynavalve
Preamp TubeTouch
Effects Loop serial
Footswitch/Stageboard optional FS-2
Switching Functions FX-Loop, Punch
Special Features Ultra Low Weight Okume housing
Headphones Yes
Line Out balanced
Compressor Tube Growl
Equalizer 4-Band parallel
Tubes 1x 12AX7
Speaker Outputs 2x 4-8 Ohms in series to internal speaker, 1/4
Speakers 1x 15
Dimensions 600 x 620 x 400 mm
Weight 24 kg/53 lbs

SOUNDS

This amp is the exact same tonally with the QC412. The voicing is all the same however, the low end thump will be bigger and the also tighter in the ow end. You will suffer in the highs and midrange but not noticeable unless you A/B them together. The tone is a great bass tone. You have a saturation overdrive control knob that allows you to drive your tone even more than simple bass clean tone. The amp also has a great serial effects loop for allowing you to incorporate your favorite effects pedals or rack units into your sound. This is one fine bass amp and very versatile amp as well.

This amp has a nice DuraDome Neodymium speaker inside. The tone is nice and punchy and gets gnarly growl tone that is suitable for crunch tones in your music. It also has a balanced line out for going straight into a house pa system or mixer or even going direct when in a recording session.

OVERALL OPINION

I am not exactly sure what the going rate for these amps are on the used market. You can no longer get them on the new since they have been discontinued a long time ago. They are great amps and solid bass tones. If you can score I would highly recommend it.