All user reviews of 3/5 for the Hughes & Kettner Vortex 212

Hughes and Kettner have some of the best sounding amplifiers on the planet. This a German company who designs high quality guitar amps for touring musicians and the average consumer. They guitar amps that range from just a few hundred dollars to several thousand.

Some big names have pickup amps from Hughes and Kettner including Alex Lifeson from the band Rush and Tommy Thayer from the band Kiss. Those two gentlemen have their own signature models but they have used been great artist for this company.

This amp is a solid state amp that has four channels. With a host of effects built right into the amp. You get a two channel solid state amp with one clean channel and one distortion channel. Not too much as far as effects go. You have a reverb and that is about it. Serial effects loop in the back and two Celestion speakers. Pretty basic setup.

UTILIZATION

Channels 2: Clean, Lead
Power 80 Watts
Poweramp Current Feedback
Effects Spring Reverb
Effects Loop serial
Speakers 2x12" Celestion® Rockdriver Junior
Dimensions 655 x 520 x 265
Weight 20,5 kg

SOUNDS

This amp sound pretty decent for what it is and that is a basic practice amp. You really don't need 80 watts of it as it is not necessarily a gigging amp. I would try just playing around with the setting to find what tone best suits your guitar.Whether that be a Gibson Les Paul of a Fender Stratocatser any guitar that has a good tone already will fit nicely with this amp. The cleans are chimy and bell like where as the distortion is thick and beefy. Good for doing the chugging type riffing. Overall this is great amp for anyone who needs a good tone for two channels and that doesn't want to spend a whole lot of money

OVERALL OPINION

These amps have long been discontinued. You can find them pretty cheap on the used market. I have no idea what the going rate for one of these amps are used, but I highly recommend picking one up if you need something simple and easy and love the way Hughes and Kettner design their tones.

If you need something with effects built in I would go for the matrix amps. They have the same style of voicing but with more channels and with effects built right into the heads and combos.