New pedalboard amp day

paulphoenix

Hughes and Kettner Ampman Classic: 

60w two channel amp with switchable fx loop, pre-boost and post(solo)-boost, red box D.I and noise gate. 

Thomann are blowing these out for £129 (about the same price as a half decent overdrive pedal), so I took a punt, paired it with my HX Stomp in 4CM and I’m really pleased with the results. 

Channel A is worth the admission price alone. Channel B was a bit more finnicky to dial in. Both channels respond well to rolling the guitar volume. 

The pre-boost is an always on or always off type affair, as the volume spike is immense. Everything else works as it should, and I managed to find a cab sim in the red box that sounded pretty close to my 1x12 cab ready for going straight to FOH. 

I’ve used it once at rehearsal where it cut though more satisfactorily than the HX Stomp amps I had dialled in (part of the reason for looking at new amps) and I have a gig this weekend where I shall be using it in full anger. 



 

Barquentine

Nice!!

stylesforfree

Damn, just saw the price, what a steal! Looks like a lot of fun for sure.

Report back after your gig and let us know how it went!

Alonious_Monk

They do sound great, did a few gigs last October and the chap in the other band used this direct with a Super Chorus into it, sounded incredible.

impmann

Apparently this is what Steven Wilson uses in the studio for his guitar tones when 'sketchpadding' - with a view to re-recording them later but most of the time leaves them well alone as they are more than good enough.

AntonHunter

I'm very tempted at that price, but also pretty happy with my Quilter Superblock so definitely don't need to change anything!

duotone

impmann said:

Apparently this is what Steven Wilson uses in the studio for his guitar tones when 'sketchpadding' - with a view to re-recording them later but most of the time leaves them well alone as they are more than good enough.

Wow!

I had to take a look & it looks an absolute bargain. Just listening through some of the sounds on the Thomann website & it covers a hell of a lot of ground.  

I love that it’s got a Noise Gate, Phones & Aux In too. Plus the ‘Sagging’ control is a great addition.

Thomann link if anyone fancies having a look: https://www.thomann.co.uk/hugheskettner_spirit_ampman_classic.htm

skinfreak

So I just posted on "any pedal based amps recommendations" and you've given me the answer. How heavy does it go @paulphoenix ; as I notice Thomann have the Ampman Modern at the same price.

paulphoenix

The classic doesn’t do the brootalz - it has a lot
of gain but loses clarity the more you crank it. 

You’d have to use pedals in front of it for heavy

or look at the amp man modern. 

Channel A is voiced the same on both models, 

I gigged mine last weekend - best live sound I’ve had in ages. I used the red box through the foh and had a cab on stage to move some air behind me. 

skinfreak

paulphoenix said:

The classic doesn’t do the brootalz - it has a lot
of gain but loses clarity the more you crank it. 

You’d have to use pedals in front of it for heavy

or look at the amp man modern. 

I've seen a review where there was a complaint that when the Modern is cranked, Channel A cannot really compete with it. But I'm conflicted. While my immediate need is for an all rounder, having Mesa tones on tap would be fun. But that said, it pub rock covers and it sounds like the Classic can do that in spades. 

paulphoenix

It's the same on the classic.

With channel A volume at 3 o'clock, the same volume level on channel B is around 11 o' clock (the gain and sagging controls also have an effect on channel volume).  

skinfreak

So how usable is that then? or it can be balanced?

paulphoenix

yep - as above. Perfectly usable and can be balanced with a lower volume on channel B. Once balanced, the master volume controls overall output going to your cab. The red box (I think I'm right in saying) is fed from the channel volume rather than master. 

skinfreak

OK. Sold. Just ordered.

TheBigDipper

I took a punt on a Classic - just because...  It arrived yesterday.

First impressions are that it is a steal at this price - even if all you do is use it as a silent home practice device into headphones.  It's obviously a clearance sale on Thomann's part, but that doesn't make the product any worse for it. To my ears, it sounds better with single coil pickups vs humbuckers (I have no P90s). But that's my default opinion with any amp! :-) 

TheBigDipper

So, I like it. The RedBox speaker choices are decent. I've put it in the cupboard for now, but intend to use it next time I'm tracking some electric guitars for my song demos. For £139 (inc shipping) it's the best thing I've bought in ages. And, for me, it's far more usable than any modeller  - including the Tonex I own and like. 

skinfreak

paulphoenix said:

Hughes and Kettner Ampman Classic: 

The pre-boost is an always on or always off type affair, as the volume spike is immense. Everything else works as it should, and I managed to find a cab sim in the red box that sounded pretty close to my 1x12 cab ready for going straight to FOH.  

 Boost is weird. It's almost like an overdrive pedal but you're right: the jump is huge. It is like engaging a dirty channel but it's not useful on the fly. To me, the solo switch acts more like a traditional boost. 


Sounds good though. And I have a solution to make things get a bit nasty: 

A couple of dirty Joyo's. Enjoying the Uzi so far. 

motnikrap

How well does it respond to dirt pedals more generally? 

My current doom band setup is a bunch of different gain pedals (compressor, low gain RAT, high gain TS, BM-style fuzz) which I use on the Gain 1 channel of a Victory VX Kraken set to a breakup sort of sound.

It'd be nice to have a Plan B for gigs, etc, "just in case" - would this work for that sort of use case?

paulphoenix

@motnikrap I've been using Helix versions of the Timmy and OCD into the Ampman Classic with great results. I haven't fed it any analogue drives, but I'm sure it'd eat them up just fine.

This guy runs a Nobels ODR into his Classic: 

For Doom - you may be better off using Channel B on the Ampman Modern? 

motnikrap

Cheers @paulphoenix ;I'll check that video out!

Maybe the Ampman Modern would be a better fit, although I do need "relatively" clean sounds for certain passages. For whatever reason I've not got on so well with the higher gain channel in the Kraken, so I just tend to park it on Gain 1 and use pedals.

paulphoenix

Both the Ampman Classic and Modern have the same voicing on channel A (relatively clean) according to t'internet.