|
Hughes & Kettner Triamp MK II Tube Guitar Amplifier Head
Searched Hughes & Kettner Triamp MK II Tube Guitar Amplifier Head in Reviews
Insane flexibility - the swiss army knife of amplifiers! 
| Sound |
This amp is off-the-charts incredible. I played a Switchblade for a while too and that was a great amp, but this amp is for the all-out "tube snob" and appreciator of fine musical gear. I have mine in a rack with a Rocktron PatchMate as well as a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx that I use only as an effects processor in this particular rig. With MIDI capability, it's far and away the perfect amp to use in a complex or simple rig. The tone is just incredible - I can't say enough about how this amp sounds live and in the studio. I know this is the Sound category but I have to say that it is a gorgeous amp to look at as well! One word of advice I would have is that you MUST be able to tinker with sounds. It's not plug-in-and-shred like some other amps. But it gets tones from clean all the way to insane-heavy and again, with MIDI you can't beat it. Take your time and find your tone - because it's in there!
|
| Reliability |
Built like a tank! I have brought it without a backup before but my backup "rig within a rig" is another great H & K amp called the ZenTera. I use that for clean sounds with heavy effects but I have a patch on my PatchMate that will run that amp only in the event that the TriAmp would crap the bed. Overall, I say this is a very reliable amplifier.
|
| Customer Support |
I became a Hughes and Kettner artist a couple of years ago and it has been great working with them. Even before I was an artist with them their service was great. I had a Switchblade before I was with them and I had a slight problem with it and they went out of their way to fix it. They were fantastic then and working with their Artist Relations people has been a joy.
|
| Liked about it |
MIDI!!! I have a couple of rigs I play in various live and studio situations. The TriAmp goes in my "touring" rig and the fact that my Axe-Fx is the absolute nerve center of my rigs allows me to easily put this amp in that chain without any kind of issues. I also love the way it looks - it glows this nice ice blue and on a dark stage, it just looks menacing. I also love the tone! I am a huge tone freak and this amp fits me just fine.
|
| Didn't like |
It's really pricey, approaching true boutique amp prices - but many argue that it is, indeed, a boutique amp so I can live with that. With the tons of tubes that are in this amp, it can be expensive to maintain but in the long run, I think that you always get what you pay for.
|
|
| Overall satisfaction: |
|
5.0 |
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this review
|
The All you Can Eat Amp
| Sound |
The following guitars, were used: JEM 7vwh, JEM 77vbk, Les Paul Std., Ibanez 1527.
I took my time using this one and it payed off. At first you are almost overwhelmed by the features as it is called TriAmp, but actually has 6 totally different voicings.
You can get from crispy clean, slightly crunched, bluesy warmth, to tweed crunch, up to hard rocky into metally gain up to death metal with a hit on the midi board.
It can do everything of the said things in one amp and it does them very well. Funny though that many people say that H&K does not provide their own character. I have to disagree. This amp has its own character and regains it in every sound you dial in, from clean to high gain heaven. There is one downside though, it is so versatile and can do so many things, that you can also easily dial in really crappy sounds and it reacts to even micro movements of each knob. So you have to take your time to dial in your sound, but you can definately find your own tone with it. It goes well with each of the tested guitars and has shown me new levels of versatility especially with the JEMs.
|
| Reliability |
The amp is very well built and looks very sturdy, we only tested it 2 days in the studio though.
|
| Customer Support |
H&K support is great and quick response.
|
| Liked about it |
- Versatile
- Own Character in all tones
- Design
|
| Didn't like |
- Cleaning and fingerprints everywhere
- Hefty price tag
|
|
| Overall satisfaction: |
|
5.0 |
 By Tank
Nov 14, 2009
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this review
|
There's no sound I can't get out of this amp--wort
| Sound |
Unless you're style is drop-C Triple-rectifier all-lows no-highs one-chord black death metal this amp is all you'll ever need. (BTW, it can do the aforementioned as well.) My main guitars are Ibanez RG series with Dimarzio Super 3 pickups in the bridge, True Velvet or Evolution Middle, and either PAF Pro, Air Norton, or Evolution neck pickups. However, I play through this amp with a wide variety of guitars: Les Pauls, Strats, Ibanez JEM, BC Rich, etc. This amp can reproduce any sound, but more importantly it really allows you to find your own voice. You can read about the differences in the channels in the marketing materials. This amp is much more quiet than my Marshalls on the high gain settings which in my mind speaks to the quality of the amp. The Amp 1 "A" channel is unique in that it operates like a single-ended Class A amp which means the EQ section is disabled--you turn up the volume knob and it just gets more distorted. As I said, there's not been a tone that I wanted to get that I couldn't get out of this amp.
|
| Reliability |
When I bought it one of the neon lights for the front panel was broken. Easily fixed. I would definitely bring this without a backup as it can be run in 100W mode or 50W mode, which allows you to swap around power tubes if one goes out. Truthfully, I usually play the amp in 50W mode so I can crank it up a little more and juice the power tubes. Also, having the MSM-1 MIDI module provides a multitude of switching options, especially with the parallel/series effects loop.
|
| Customer Support |
Customer support was awesome when I had my broken neon. Even though I bought the amp used, they sent me not one but TWO brand new neon tubes free of charge. Extremely helpful and really solidified my faith and confidence in the brand, which led me to purchase both a Trilogy and a Switchblade.
|
| Liked about it |
1. EXTREMELY versatile amp and MIDI-controllable.
2. Pure class A clean channel for extremely touch-sensitive dynamics and crystal sound.
3. Can switch down to 50-watt mode for increased grind or up to 100W mode for increased headroom.
|
| Didn't like |
1. Tons of tubes for different preamps--this is an expensive amp to buy and own.
2. Big handle makes it hard to stack.
3. Front plexiglass gets dirty and needs to be cleaned often.
|
|
| Overall satisfaction: |
|
5.0 |
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this review
|
internal use: spec82 spec397 spec571
|
|
