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mooseherman « Pretty solid Tube Amp from a great company »
Published on 09/20/10 at 10:42This is a tube amp with 2 channels that is made by Hughes and Kettner, a German company that makes quality amplifiers. The two channels are clean and drive. The amp is only 20 watts, however, don't let that discourage you, wattage is not comparable to loudness. There is only one 1/4" input. There is a volume knob for the clean channel, and a master volume and gain knob for the drive channel. The EQ is three-band (bass, middle, treble) and works for both channels. There are also additional features, boost and twang. Boost increases the gain slightly and works well for playing leads. The twang feature changes the sound to make it more twangy, it does exactly what it implies.
UTILIZATION
I thought that only having one EQ for both channels was going to be a problem, but I've found lately that I don't really think that's the case. Mostly, my drive channel has a similar tone to the clean, just with a little more dirt on it. Usually an EQ setting that works for the clean channel will also work for the Drive. I find that having the footswitch that can control the channel settings, as well as the boost and twang settings, is a nice touch. It makes playing live much easier if you need to adjust settings or kick the gain up a little bit for a solo. It does take a while to dial in a nice sound compared to some other amps but that's not really a problem.
SOUNDS
I really like the sound of this amp a lot. I don't think that it has the "perfect" sound but I like the variety of tones that you can get. The clean sound is good, I definitely prefer using a single-coiled guitar like a Tele or Strat with it, it sounds better than a Les Paul or SG, though hollow bodies sound good too. The clean tones in those respect are crisp, smooth, and warm. I think that the drive channel has more universal appeal. With a single-coiled guitar, the best tones are the low-gain, high volume overdrive tones. With a humbucking guitar like a Les Paul, the heavier, more distorted tones are phenomenal. This isn't to say that you can't do the opposite, it's just that heavy distortion will make a single-coil guitar very noisy. Humbuckers also tend to weaken a lighter overdrive, at least to me. Either way there's a lot of variety to be had here.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the variety of tones that are possible with this amp. I don't really like the fact that there is so much fiddling with buttons to get those varieties of sound, but as long as you aren't playing 3 or 4 different genres at a time this shouldn't be much of a problem. I think that it is a great bargain even new, so finding a used one is a great deal. The sound quality overall is superb. I've played a lot of tube amps and this holds up with some of my favorites. I'd recommend that many people check this amp out, I'm sure many folks would be satisfied.
UTILIZATION
I thought that only having one EQ for both channels was going to be a problem, but I've found lately that I don't really think that's the case. Mostly, my drive channel has a similar tone to the clean, just with a little more dirt on it. Usually an EQ setting that works for the clean channel will also work for the Drive. I find that having the footswitch that can control the channel settings, as well as the boost and twang settings, is a nice touch. It makes playing live much easier if you need to adjust settings or kick the gain up a little bit for a solo. It does take a while to dial in a nice sound compared to some other amps but that's not really a problem.
SOUNDS
I really like the sound of this amp a lot. I don't think that it has the "perfect" sound but I like the variety of tones that you can get. The clean sound is good, I definitely prefer using a single-coiled guitar like a Tele or Strat with it, it sounds better than a Les Paul or SG, though hollow bodies sound good too. The clean tones in those respect are crisp, smooth, and warm. I think that the drive channel has more universal appeal. With a single-coiled guitar, the best tones are the low-gain, high volume overdrive tones. With a humbucking guitar like a Les Paul, the heavier, more distorted tones are phenomenal. This isn't to say that you can't do the opposite, it's just that heavy distortion will make a single-coil guitar very noisy. Humbuckers also tend to weaken a lighter overdrive, at least to me. Either way there's a lot of variety to be had here.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the variety of tones that are possible with this amp. I don't really like the fact that there is so much fiddling with buttons to get those varieties of sound, but as long as you aren't playing 3 or 4 different genres at a time this shouldn't be much of a problem. I think that it is a great bargain even new, so finding a used one is a great deal. The sound quality overall is superb. I've played a lot of tube amps and this holds up with some of my favorites. I'd recommend that many people check this amp out, I'm sure many folks would be satisfied.