Hughes & Kettner Duotone Tommy Thayer

One of the greatest bands in history...Kiss's Tommy Thayer uses this signature head to get those great classic rock tones. This signature amp from Hughes and Kettner is the same tone wise of the regular Duotone but it featurs a black croc tolex covering. Here is the best part...much like Alex Lifeson and his signature amp Tommy doesn't receive his proceeds either. Tommy donates his royalties from the sales of the signature model to the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. The hospital invests the proceeds in an in-house music therapy program. What an amazing guy!

Tommy is one hell of a guitar player. Even though he didn't start out with Kiss he did help found the band Black N Blue. If you have ever listened to his guitar efforts on those albums then you'll know how legit he is. I personally own ever single Black N Blue album. Huge Thayer Fan!!

UTILIZATION

Channels Clean, Overdrive + Boost
Power 100 Watts
Poweramp 4x EL34
Preamp 5x 12AX7
Effects Loop parallel
Footswitch/Stageboard 3-way footswitsch (FS-Duotone) included
Switching Functions Overdrive, Master 2, Boost
Special Features 2nd Lead Master built in - they´ll hear your solo!
Speaker Outputs 1x 4 Ohms, 1x 8 / 2x 16 Ohms, 1x 16 Ohms
Suggested Speaker Cabinet CC 412 A 30 SE
Protective Cover included
Dimensions 750 x 320 x 250 mm
Weight 24 kg/53 lbs

SOUNDS

This amp is the little brother to the Triamp from Hughes and Kettner. This is a two channel amp with an extra boost option. You get a solid clean tone for one channel and even a good crunch in this channel. Next you have a distortion channel which has a option to boost for even more sustain and gain.

This amp is a modern classic rock beast. The voicing of this amp is pure classic rock. Even though it can get to modern styles with the heavy amounts of distortion and boost, it still is very classic rock. The tone is a British flavored tone which is right up Kiss's ally. So this amp fits the tone of that Band very well.

Use a nice Gibson Les Paul like Tommy and you'll be rocking in Detroit. These amps take pedal very well so the effects loop is a nice convenience for delays and other effects

OVERALL OPINION

At new these amps come in right around $2900. Not a bad price for a boutique amp with multiple channels. If you are classic rock guy and want the vintage tone with modern twists then this is a great amp to achieve that sound.