Hughes & Ketner

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JD01
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Hughes & Ketner

Post by JD01 »

I tried a 40W one today. Was really good.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by Greg_L »

Good amps. Ugly amps. Good amps.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by JD01 »

Was a bit brief on that 'cos I was sitting in my car tapping into my phone waiting for a client and they turned up.

I've been quiet on the forum this week 'cos I've been out travelling around... but yesterday I had a spare hour before a meeting in London and was passing by Anderton's on the way there - I had my Crimson with me too so I didn't have to try a random shop guitar or a Chapman.
I tried a Victory V30:
https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/VICV30/gu ... valve-head
and a Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 40:
https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/TM40H/gui ... -deluxe-40

Both were good and much better than my Blackstar. The V30 is great, Clean Gain, OD Gain, Shared EQ, Clean Master, OD Master. The clean really can do a spanky clean and edge of breakup with the clean gain all the way up. This is also a seriously loud amp if you need it to be.
The OD channel sounds great, more gain than I'd ever need, but I do find that I would use most of the gain knob - usable to me over half-way. I currently never take the gain on my Blackstar above 9 O'Clock. Its a really rich thick drive sound and its a very trad. all tube amp. I didn't try any pedals with it - would love to try it with a boost to tighten up the bottom end. Had an FX loop too which is also handy. I like this amp though - so simple, small and full of valves.

The H&K was three channel, which I immediately started to find a bit off-putting and I just don't think I need something this complicated. The clean channel is spanky clean and sounds good. The O/D channel - fuck me - this was perfect for me. I seriously think this is the best sound I've heard myself playing. Pretty much the whole sweep of the gain knob was useful for me on this channel. It didn't get all mushy at the bottom end and I didn't feel like I wanted to boost it to tighten things up. I could have jammed away on this all day (but I only had 20 minutes with it). The Lead channel was just what you'd expect, modern hi-gain sound, but while its not exactly what I'm after it chugged away nicely and crucially didn't turn to mush until the knob was getting past 3PM.

There's three channels and two EQs. Never really worked out what one worked with that on this amp - I was flipping between channels and turning the knobs fully in all directions and they never seemed to do anything. So I figured it was best to just leave them all at midday. Also, this amp is switchable between 40W, 20W, 5W, 1W and silent emulated out, which will obviously be useful to me with my recording situation where I couldn't crank a full 40W but I can partially crank a 20W and could really start screwing the balls off a 5W.

I think I want to try a bit more of the H&K range, it'll be early next year before I'm after a new amp and I'd want to spend more time trying them when I'm not in a rush. At the moment I'm leaning towards the H&K - I don't think I need the 3rd channel and I don't think I need 40W mode. I do want to try the V30 with a boost in front of it though.

Oh, I don't give a fuck how the H&K looks. The V30 does look a lot nicer though.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by Greg_L »

There's a lot of variety in the Tubemeister range. Check out the 20w and 18w if 40 is too much.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by JD01 »

Yeah - I need to check out the rest of the H&K range. The smaller ones have a few less options on them too and they're actually quite a lot cheaper. I could do without the 3rd hi gain channel really. The crunch was plenty.

I've just looked up the V30 - that's actually switchable down to 7W too. On full power its actually 44W which is way more than I need.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by Greg_L »

Several years ago when I was considering the small-amp option, the Tubemeister 18 was high on my list. I think highly of them. Those fucking Krauts make good cars and amps.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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Greg_L wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 8:23 am Several years ago when I was considering the small-amp option, the Tubemeister 18 was high on my list. I think highly of them. Those fucking Krauts make good cars and amps.
Their beer is great too.

Are the amps actually made in China? But designed in Germany? As they're really well priced for an amp with so many features. The Victory amps by comparison are about 1 or 200 quid more expensive with way less features - but they're made in England.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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JD01 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:07 am
Their beer is great too.

Are the amps actually made in China? But designed in Germany? As they're really well priced for an amp with so many features. The Victory amps by comparison are about 1 or 200 quid more expensive with way less features - but they're made in England.
"Designed and Engineered in Germany. Made in PRC". Yup, chinese. As long as quality parts are used, quality procedures are followed, and quality control is implemented, then Made in China is not a bad thing. I've personally never seen or read or heard any horror stories about H&K amps, so they could be made wherever and it doesn't matter.

Does "Made in England" mean a Victory amp is a few hundred "quid" better? I would say no. An english flunkee soldering things together is no more skilled than a chinese flunkee soldering things together.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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Greg_L wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:24 am
JD01 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:07 am
Their beer is great too.

Are the amps actually made in China? But designed in Germany? As they're really well priced for an amp with so many features. The Victory amps by comparison are about 1 or 200 quid more expensive with way less features - but they're made in England.
"Designed and Engineered in Germany. Made in PRC". Yup, chinese. As long as quality parts are used, quality procedures are followed, and quality control is implemented, then Made in China is not a bad thing. I've personally never seen or read or heard any horror stories about H&K amps, so they could be made wherever and it doesn't matter.

Does "Made in England" mean a Victory amp is a few hundred "quid" better? I would say no. An english flunkee soldering things together is no more skilled than a chinese flunkee soldering things together.
Don't disagree. I guess I'll just have to try them in more detail and really give it some thought. MiC doesn't bother me at all as long as there is decent QA/QC. I've not heard anything bad about the build quality of Victory amps either though.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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JD01 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:30 am
Don't disagree. I guess I'll just have to try them in more detail and really give it some thought. MiC doesn't bother me at all as long as there is decent QA/QC. I've not heard anything bad about the build quality of Victory amps either though.
There's not enough of a sample size to make any determination on Victory amps. H&K has been around for 30+ years. No one uses Victory amps. The two Andertons video dumbfucks are not convincing to me.

My only problem with China bashing is the implication that an American or Englishman is somehow better at following instructions and sticking parts together than some cheap Chinaman. That isn't so. It's not like the fat old british ladies that build amps at Marshall or the Chinese sweatshop worker are designing the amps. They just put them together. They're all just semi-trained monkeys hopefully putting the right square peg into the correct square hole. If there is a problem with Chinese built quality, then blame the parent company for not overseeing the quality control better.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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Greg_L wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:38 am
JD01 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:30 am
Don't disagree. I guess I'll just have to try them in more detail and really give it some thought. MiC doesn't bother me at all as long as there is decent QA/QC. I've not heard anything bad about the build quality of Victory amps either though.
There's not enough of a sample size to make any determination on Victory amps. H&K has been around for 30+ years. No one uses Victory amps. The two Andertons video dumbfucks are not convincing to me.

My only problem with China bashing is the implication that an American or Englishman is somehow better at following instructions and sticking parts together than some cheap Chinaman. That isn't so. It's not like the fat old british ladies that build amps at Marshall or the Chinese sweatshop worker are designing the amps. They just put them together. They're all just semi-trained monkeys hopefully putting the right square peg into the correct square hole. If there is a problem with Chinese built quality, then blame the parent company for not overseeing the quality control better.
I agree with the stuff on build quality.

I've seen a bunch of other people on YouTube using Victory amps now and they do generally sound really good. I agree that I wouldn't trust Chapman's opinion on them as he endorses them and Lee Anderton is one of the only UK stockists. Certainly the closest to me and he's still a few hours away.

I think the H&K suits me better anyway, more versatile and on the crunch channel I was immediately so impressed with the tone (into a 1x12 with a V30 in it). The tubemeister 40 is 100 quid cheaper than the Victory too. The smaller TubeMeisters are probably even better priced.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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Was just looking through the H&K range... can't really see what the difference is between the 40W and the 36W other than the power. I also can't really see what the difference is between the 20W and 18W. The 20 and 18 only have the clean and lead channels though - they don't have the crunch channel and that was the one that I really liked
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by Greg_L »

I'm still waiting to see a Victory in person before I form an actual opinion on them. To me they just seem like a small amp company trying to make a little dent but not really doing anything special. Nothing wrong with that, but they're just amps. Made in England seems to be their best feature, and that's not really a feature unless someone really cares about that nonsense.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by Greg_L »

JD01 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 11:21 am Was just looking through the H&K range... can't really see what the difference is between the 40W and the 36W other than the power. I also can't really see what the difference is between the 20W and 18W. The 20 and 18 only have the clean and lead channels though - they don't have the crunch channel and that was the one that I really liked
I think the "Deluxe" versions have an extra channel and some extra emulation features. Or maybe I have it backwards. One of them is a two channel with a "boost" option, one is a real 3-channel. I don't know. They all sound pretty good to me.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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I think I just want the cheapest one that is loud enough for a pub gig, has the clean and crunch channels and has the "power soak" features for reduced power for home recording...

Would prefer one without the nightclub style lighting... but I don't think that's an option.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by Greg_L »

JD01 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:01 pm I think I just want the cheapest one that is loud enough for a pub gig, has the clean and crunch channels and has the "power soak" features for reduced power for home recording...

Would prefer one without the nightclub style lighting... but I don't think that's an option.
Yes they are hideous. They look like an 80s pinball machine.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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Greg_L wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:33 pm
JD01 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:01 pm I think I just want the cheapest one that is loud enough for a pub gig, has the clean and crunch channels and has the "power soak" features for reduced power for home recording...

Would prefer one without the nightclub style lighting... but I don't think that's an option.
Yes they are hideous. They look like an 80s pinball machine.
This is one area where Blackstar do well. Simple easy to read controls, that have nice weight when you turn them and feel robust.
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by Minerman »

I was leaning toward the lowest watt, cheapest H & K amp (of course), but opted for the HT-5 combo when I started my amp journey...All their amps look awful IMO, but I think they all sound good, going by clips I've heard of 'em...I've never heard/tried one, so that's all I've got to go on...

I did get some good news a few days ago, but it's still gonna be a while before I'll be able to move, but I'm already making plans for when I'm finally able to do so...I will be able to go big again with my amps, & a real drum kit shouldn't be a problem either...Actually, a full band wouldn't be out of the question, I'll be back in the boonies where I belong, where I can get as loud as I wanna, as long as it's not after 9 pm...I just have to play the waiting game until it actually happens...That's about all the details I can spill right now, but this is gonna happen...
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

Post by liv_rong »

Ive liked what Ive heard and the price is right but yes, they do look dumb as fuck.

Minerman, sweet dude. Where do you live anyways?
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Re: Hughes & Ketner

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liv_rong wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2017 7:09 pm Minerman, sweet dude. Where do you live anyways?
I live in a little place called Dryden, VA right now, I've lived in this general area for about 20 years...It's kinda in the middle of anywhere I'd want/need to go...When I finally get to move I'll be going back to the even smaller place where I grew up, St. Charles...Greg dubbed it "Deliveranceville" a few years ago...It's waaay back in the boonies, with only one way in & out...Perfect for making lotsa noise, growing a cash crop in the hills, or even dumping a body or two...
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