Hughes & Kettner

Their amps are known for their versatility and ease-of-use, able to achieve a variety of tones ideal for a range of styles, such as blues, rock and metal. Their amps are also notorious for producing amazing clean tones, with plenty of headroom and top-end sparkle.

An impressive range of high-profile players have used their amps over the years, most notably Alex Lifeson (Rush) and Josh Rand (Stone Sour).  

History of Hughes & Kettner

Founded in 1984, this German company has produced an acclaimed range of amplifiers since their inception. Known for building intuitive, programmable amplifiers predominantly, Hughes & Kettner carved themselves a niche in the amp world with their designs, and continue to pioneer the concept of a tube amp with programmable functionality.

Apart from amplifiers, one of the company’s most famous products is the Red Box, the very first guitar cabinet emulator in the world. Still produced to this day and in its fifth generation, the Red Box is now integrated into many of Hughes & Kettner’s amplifiers and serves as a great tool for direct recording into audio interfaces.

Series

A number of amplifiers make up Hughes & Kettner’s range, with the Tubemeister models being particularly popular. Available in head and combo configurations, these feature-packed, valve-powered amps deliver top-notch, versatile tones at attainable prices.

The Tri-Amp is the flagship model from Hughes & Kettner. Culminating thirty years of amp-building experience, this immensely powerful 150W amp head boasts 6 independently controllable channels that can cover almost any tone imaginable. With full MIDI controllability, you can store and recall 128 different sound combinations with just the touch of a button.

Unveiled at the 2017 NAMM show, the company now produce tube-driven pedals. The Tube Factor is a flexible boost/overdrive/distortion machine, that captures their signature amp drive sounds. The Tubeman II is essentially an “amp-in-a-box”, with three channels and a direct record-out function.