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Hughes & Kettner Statesman
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All tube head in vintage styling with 2 channels and some modern perks.
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Searched Hughes & Kettner Statesman in Reviews
state afairs 
| Sound |
Now this is a vintage tube amp, isn't it? The basic layout of the amp (and styling) is very vintage. It has a classic 2 channel setup (clean and gain channels) with total seperated control sections. However the drive channel has a boost switch and the clean channel a twang switch to add to the package. Presence and reverb are for both channels, the reverb comes from a classic accutronics spring tank. What makes this amp more modern is the FX loop that can work parallel or serial and can be switched on and off. The whole brown leather styling adds to the vintage touch of the amp.
But now to the most important thing -> sounds.
First I tested the clean sections with a Fender Strat (Am std. maple neck), Jem 7vwh and Les Paul Std. over a 2x12 open back cab with Greenbacks. Holy moly and welcome to the sixties. This amp does not only look vintage, the sound of the clean channel is really sixties in pure blood. Flip the twang in and your strat and you sound like you are in heaven. I hooked up my M13 with 4 Cable Method and you can really drive this baby also and have the "Welcome to the 70's" if you want. The EQ works really well, however be careful and take your time dialing in those sounds. Reverb gets the job done, I prefer the reverb from my M13 though. I could even get a nice "brothers in arms" sound with the LP, very nice indeed.
Now into the drive channel and "HELLO 80's". Wile the amp is not as "creamy" as many others and has a little whuzzz in the drive, it really is what the 80's sounded like. Get those classy old hard rock sounds very easy, fiddle a little with the EQ and you go AC/DC or Deep Purple. Even some more old metal is at hand and I got some cool Dokken like sounds. Again it takes some time to get the EQ to do your thing and you want to kick in the boost for the more metal stuff. The amp does not go really insane and is easily controllable gain wise. I also liked that it was a good compromise between staying dynamic and really pushing out the volume. If you are using celestion speakers in your cab, I would recommend an open back cab. The dynamic differentiation was really a lot less when I hooked it up to a 4x12 closed back cap, compared to the 4x12 open back custom I have. Also note that the master and gain really work together and you need to play around to find your tone, but you are presented with a lot of options for a rather simple 2 channel design.
So to summ it up: This is really a lot of amp in a classy package. If you like vintage sounds and cannot afford the vintage amps, this amp can get really close and adds modern features, such as a selectable FX loop.
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| Reliability |
Looks really well built, I have no idea however how the leather will hold up.
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| Customer Support |
H&K are really nice and answer questions rather quickly.
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| Liked about it |
+ Sounds
+ Vintage Character
+ Modern Features
I would really recommend this amp to anyone into vintage sounds and rock music.
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| Didn't like |
Cannot think of anything bad. This thing delivers as advertised.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
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internal use: spec82 spec397
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