Hughes&Kettner Tubmeister 36

Obviously a guitar amp is not something everyone needs - or would ever need - but this is a review site and as it happens I needed a new guitar amp. Today we're looking at the German designed, Chinese made Hughes&Kettner Tubmeister 36.

I gravitated toward this model for the features and on the strength of the 'sound' I heard at a live show this summer. There were two guitar players using essentially the same type of guitar, one had an H&K on his side of the stage and the other a Mesa Boogie on his. I was shocked that I was attracted to the H&K sound song after song. I left that show conflicted and more than a little curious.

So, after much research and soul searching (namely the amp I really wanted, the Mesa Boogie, cost more than twice as much) I put down $1150.00 on the VISA card for the H&K Tubmeister 36 and waited with eager anticipation for the UPS guy. Boy was I disappointed. It didn't sound anything like I had expected. It had literally no sound at all - it was deader than a door nail. The seller immediately shipped a new one and luckily this one actually turned on.

First I do not worry about having enough power - this 36 watt amp is strikingly loud. It's a nice sturdy, right-sized unit and it's not crazy heavy. The point of a small-ish combo amp is to be portable, with the Tubemeister 36 Combo you get the performance of a much, much bigger amp in a nice compact unit.

The Tubemeister 36 sounded great with my Les Paul - loved the clean channel and the crunch channel right off. The clean channel sounds absolutely sweet with the single coil Stratocaster pickups. However, the lead channel had a pronounced fizz to it that I had been warned about in other reviews. I quickly ordered a JJ retube kit to replace the Chinese tubes for about $90. Running cost now $1240.

The new tubes sound absolutely great! The crunch and lead channel sound smoother, warmer and there's just a hint of that fizz with gain turned way up on the lead channel. Often we make a mod, or swap out pickups and maybe hear a small positive change - these JJ tubes made a huge difference. It's a shame this rather spendy amp doesn't ship with the right tubes.

I am also surprised at how versatile the power soak feature is. I didn't think I would even use it, but it's a really great feature considering that I have a range of high output guitars and not so high output guitars.You can dial in 1, 5, 18 or the full 36 watts and get the full tube amp experience at any volume level. It also has a built in industry standard RedBox output for direct-in (no speaker) to the PA or recording console. I tried it and it works, but the sound is not exactly what you get going through a speaker and my ears preferred the speaker. In the studio we have the luxury of using a mic on the speaker.

In order to really use the great features and versatility of this amp a foot-switch is required. I bought the FSM-432 MKIII foot-switch for about $230. Running cost now $1470. The real point of getting this amp was to greatly simplify my set up. The MIDI switch allows me to set up my clean, heavy and lead sounds with a push of a button (in any combination of output power). The idea was to plug the guitar into the wah wah and that's it. Since the amp has a nice built-in reverb feature my set-up was now complete. Sweet.

Until... I had planned to use my Line 6 POD in the amp's built-in FX loop for additional effects. Great in theory. In reality it was a nightmare. The POD wasn't designed for this role so I ended up at Guitar Center buying a Boss Chorus to go with my Boss Super Overdrive and a stompbox rail to hold them along with the Cry Baby Mini wah wah. This set me back another $135. Running cost was now $1605.

So rather than a sweet simple set up of two small units on the floor instead of an array of stomp boxes that I couldn't keep straight playing rhythm and lead guitar the lead singing I have stompbox/foot-swtch rail over 3 feet long. Not what I wanted, but it works and sounds very good.

I was really disappointed that the first unit they shipped was bad after reading a few reviews that questioned the reliability of H&K stuff. Others reviews said they never had a problem... It was probably just a blown fuse after all. I was also disappointed that I had to replace the tubes on day one to get it to reach it's full potential. Tubes get replaced, that's not a show stopper.

After spending over $1600.00 on this rig which is modest by high end standards I really like the sound I'm getting. The Tubmeister 36 is definitely in the Vox class A camp more than it is in the Marshall Plexi or the Mesa Modern Hi-gain camps. The tone of this tube amp sparkles on clean channel and I prefer it to the classic Fender clean sounds, it's clearly a more hi-fi than a Fender. The versatility of this amp makes it a best of all worlds bargain. Yes, Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Vox and Fender are the standard bearers for their specific types of tones in non-boutique amps, but the Tubmeister 36 straddles all of them in one small competent package.

4 of 5 stars


CW