Solid-state amp head that delivers 300 Watts into 4ohms and 150W into 8 ohms. It has one passive and one active input, plus a footswitch connector. One xlr line output, an effects loop and a headphone out. It has a 4-preset EQ switch, like the combo series: normal/slap/rock/fretless USE Very easy to dial in, with one gain pot for the preamp and 1 volume pot for the amp. 3-band EQ + 1 band to fine-tune the mids. A blinking overload indicator to protect the amp (dynaclip). Very good and PRECISE sound, pretty modern with the 4x10" huges&kettner. I only miss some tube-like warmth, but it's very clean and transparent to play soft. The manual couldn't be clearer because it's very simple. SOUND You can play anything with it, but it was surely conceived to attack the 4x10" + a 15" !!! It seriously lacks some power below 80Hz. I'd say 100 W with the 4 speakers! It's excellent for rock blues jazz funk with my active cort nb4 because it's very clean and doesn't seem to "color" sound like, an swr....I think it deserves a preamp-type effect without amp. The slap sound is also very precise and faithful. In short, it's a quite transparent amp head and you are forced to use the 4 presets mentioned above to really make the best of it. OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for two years with a bass/drums/guitar pop rock combo and it does its job. It's nevertheless a pain to have to lug around the 4 speakers when certain 150w combos do the same job with the same output power. To summarize: Obvious lack of power (it's more like 150w, not 300w); the 4 presets are a bit stunning; simplicity; very clear and precise sound; very versatile for not too heavy styles; price: It's not manufactured anymore, but if you found one secondhand for 300 euros, it's a good deal (the bassbase have taken its place). I bought the 300w head + 10" speakers new for 750 euros (at my local store). I admit that, given the price, I hesitated pretty long between this one and the hartke 3500 + 4 speakers (no aluminum cone), so I don't think I'd buy it again because it was on sale at the store, which doesn't happen much.
Hughes and Kettner have built some of the world's best amplifiers and most of that is from the guitar market and to much talk over the bass stuff. Even though they have a good reputation of having high quality products sometimes they can miss it. Their Quantum stuff for basses are very good. The tone is very well balanced and the design is extremely user friendly. This stuff not so much. Not that this combo is bad but just in comparison to the Quantum this is a bit of a downgrade. This amp is basically the same amp as the Bassforce L but just 200 watts rather than 100 watts. You gte the same basic tone and features but just more power. You can play a bigger room with this amp with the doubling of the wattage. UTILIZATION Power 200Watts Poweramp Dynaclip Preamp solid-state Effects Loop serial Line Out Yes Equalizer 3 Bands Speakers 1x 15" Power Pro, 300 Watt, 4 Ohm Dimensions 496 x 547 x 420 Weight 24 kg /53,5 lbs SOUNDS This amp has the exact same tone as the large but just more power. Either way you get a lot of of this simple amp. There isn't a whole lot of tone features and not a lot of options but just a basic setup and a good workable bass amp. This little combo doesn't put out a whole lot of power for bass but enough to have a good little combo to practice with at home and in a small gigging setup. This combo ha a nice 15 inch speaker that puts out some good tight low end thump. The solid state tone is pretty decent for a solid state, but I wish it had at least one preamp tube in the mix so that you could get a good tube tone in the voicing of the amp. You need to solid state power section to get this amp up gigging volumes and power. The bass needs a lot more power than a guitar amp does. So you must have the solid state unless you have some KT88 power tubes in there and at best you would get around 300 watts of power. With the solid state you can get a whole lot more wattage. OVERALL OPINION The tone is a good for a practice setting and smaller gigs. The 200 watts is a help but maybe need a bit more to push through a bigger room. This is a great practice amp for someone who is on a budget and you can find these for not a whole lot of money. They are good amps for what you get. These amps have been discontinued for a while now so the used market is the only way to get this combo at this point. I have no idea what the going rate for these are but I cannot expect them to be outrageous of anything. I would recommend this amp if you can get a good deal on it and that being around $100 or so.
