11 posts
All tube, 4 pre-amp voicings (clean, crunch, lead, ultra), DSP effects built in, midi pedal board, and 128 available programmable presets. Plus TSC, which monitors tube health and drops a pair of the 4 power tubes in the event one goes bad (so you keep on playing live if a tube dies on the spot).
I've spent about 12 hours on it now, and the tonal possibilities are unlimited. I really liked my Peavey 3120, but it was a two trick pony. The Switchblade is a gigging musician's dream, with all of the 'all tube' tones you can get out of it, the on-board effects, and the ability to create and save 128 patches via the included midi pedal.
The one known beef with this amp is the rather brittle highs on the lead and ultra channels. I noticed that right out of the gates when experimenting with it. So did a little research, and, not to anyone's surprise, Eurotubes has a fix for that for these amps. From their website:
Want a very rich and smooth tone with less grit? This is our Gold Pin Option Retube Kit for the Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100 Heads. The preamp section uses two Gold Pin ECC83S's with one balanced for the phase inverter in V2. The default power tubes are a matched quad of the JJ Electronic E34Ls.
So I'm going to grab this re-tube kit this week. I found several reviews from H&K owners on the site that had high praises for the JJ tubes 'taming' their H&K amps.
And just for those of you who aren't familiar with this amp, check this vid...all of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTR_n3LQuiE
Good luck with the new amp amigo.
I always like JJ's.
Good luck, and congrats on the new amp. FWIW tubes won't change the EQ of an amp, the best you can really do is tame the gain (and looking at the tube complement of that amp, not by much), which can help a little bit with the over-the-top gain and thus fizz, but won't actually change the EQ. Speakers are far more effective at taming highs, something with a hemp cone for example. Or don't use those two channels--you've probably got enough gain just on channel two to destroy villages.
charger — Mar 23, 2015...you've probably got enough gain just on channel two to destroy villages.
haha! quote of the day - grats on the amp Johnny!
Heh....good one Charger :)
The problem is...and my wife says maybe I should seek help for this...is that I really like raunchy, really crunchy, Hair Metal gain. And to that, this amp delivers. The Ultra channel seems to have more low end than the Lead channel, so I've caught on to a good rythm chunk tone, using the Ultra at a lower gain setting.
I chatted with somebody at Eurotubes today (wasn't Bob), and he said my 'taming the highs' on H&K amps was rather common for them. He also pointed out the same thing Charger said that changing tubes will not change the overall tone. It will simply change some characteristics of the tone.
And to that, I'm stoked. I don't want to change the tone of this amp. I'm really digging it. I just want more characterization in my pinch harmonics, and a little smoother high end.
I will try the tubes, and see if that gets me there. If not completely, then I can try moving to a different speaker set, as Charger suggested.
Thanks for the input, fellow Bert followers :)
Try turning the presence control way down or all the way off if the amp has one. It is the one that controls the ultra highs. I found that on any amp that I own that has one, it helps with the harsh highs on the overdrives. And does not really effect the cleans all that much.
K....more time spent with this amp. Just a little bit of EQ-ing each night. Think I have that 'hair' eq'd out. Just the right mix of the presence, treble, and middle settings. All three of these are very touchy, and just the smallest tweak makes a noticeable difference. NOTE - this is pertaining to my main (2) mid-to-high gain rythm crunch tones for heavy classic rock to 80's Hair metal. On this amp, the more gain you use, the more sensitive the eq controls are.
And at this point, I now have 2 patches now that are undeniably the best 2 chunky rythm tones I've had. Ever. Crunchy, nice low end, and just enough of that H&K built in middle tone to make it really rich. I hate to sound cliche, but this amp oozes tone when set up properly.
Other killer tones I have been able to dial in with ease:
U2- Streets
U2 - Pride (holy shit...this one is good)
AC/DC Dirty Deeds - This amp does the JTM tone VERY well
I have one channel built for tunes such as Summer of 69, Your Love, She's a Beauty, etc - light distortion on the crunch channel, tad of chorus, tad of delay, and using position 2 on my guitar's switch for some 'quack'. This is actually where this amps really, really shines. And this is what I could not get even close to with my 3120 amp.
It's just stupid versatile, all tube tone. The built in DSP effects, midi board, and ability to store up to 128 presets are gravy.
I've had my sights on these rigs now for about 2 years. Now that I have one....I can easily say it's already exceeding my expectations. And I'm just getting familiar with it.
And another cool thingy for those of you with wives and kids....it sounds great at bedroom volume. Like modern Peavey amps, you don't have to crank it to get good compression.
Hughes and Kettner got this one right. You could pay a lot more for the newer Grandmeister 36, and have a pretty blue glowing amp with a few more features. But the Switchblade is every bit as versatile. And at 100 tube watts....I can drown out a Grandmeister if side by side with my volume around 3. Volume at 5 (with the 4x12's I'm running) makes older ladies walking by my house fall down. Volume at 8....well....vaporizes small fluffy animals and runs off annoying neighbor kids.
THAT makes this amp a very useful tool for me :)
Today I figured out why Nuno Bettencourt plays H&K (found that gem of info on the H&K website). I've always wanted to know how he could play those really fast palm-muted runs that sound so tight and killer. Answer....play through an amp that provides the right mix of gain, compression, and tight high end. I just spent the last hour with a patch I created that does just that. Palm-muting-fast-run-crunchy-bliss.
I've never had a rig that could do that. And so I've never been able to play that way.
This amp is actually helping me play ways I've never been able to play before. That style might not be most of you reading this' style. But that's cool. We all have our own thingies we like. But as versatile as this amp is, I'd bet my wife's left tit it could do your thingy (I'm talking about tone here, boys) as well :)
Glad you are liking it. It reads good to see that someone has a tone heaven success in new amp week.
went and watched some nuno vids... I forgot about that guy, pretty awesome!
cool to read about your tone quest fulfillment - such a wonderful thing when the sound of everything gets to that magic point where it feels right. hard to stop playing when that happens!
Yes Mr Sheep, it is. And my fingers are actually quite tender right now. Funny how new gear that you dig can give you motivation to play. And I haven't re-tubed this thing yet (still has the stock tubes it sold new with). From what I have read from other H&K owners who have used Eurotubes, those beautiful glowing JJ tubes do taper the high end off a bit. But once that high end is re-eq'ed back in, it's a smoother high end.....but still very tight and punchy. And they say the mids are richer.
My commission check hits tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and make the huge investment of $89.00 to order the JJ re-tube kit ;)