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Hughes&Kettner Access - more than „just“ a Preamp

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Systematic Chaos:
Back in the early 90s when H&K was just starting to become a thing in Germany/Europe, they released the Access MIDI Tube Preamp….and even back than you had to take some serious amount of Deutsch Marks in your hand to be able to afford one. IIRC the MSRP was north of 3k Marks back then.
Nowadays these machines are pretty rare and only pop up once in a while….I actually didn’t have them on my radar for real until I saw a review on Michael Nielsen‘s YT channel recently (pretty awesome content Mike is putting out there, lots of real nice rack stuff etc)


After watching said vid and doing some more curious googling that thing instantly became (another) white whale of mine. Now just last week one popped up on German eBay for a whopping 250€ and I just had to have it.Period.







Package got delivered yesterday and I only had an hour or so to tinker with it and give it a short spin…that thing sounds ridiculously good. OMFG!!!
And it’s indeed way more than just a preamp given all the connection possibilities. For shits and giggles I’ll hook up an MP-1 in the Preamp Insert expanding it to a 6 channel behemoth. The Mid and Treble Boost feature can be used with the external preamp as well.
It’s got 3 loops. I’ll put a Mesa 5band eq pedal in Loop A (serial loop) and I’ll run a Roland GP-100 (90s rackmount unit) in Loop B and Loop C (parallel loops). Loop B cuts the signal after the return (for all modulation fx) and Loop C cuts the signal after the send (enables spillover of all time based fx).
The fader-like LEDs on the front gives a perfect overview of the settings per patch (almost like looking at amp knob settings.

One more crossed off the bucket list ;)

Dante:
I've never seen those! I love that parallel FX loop (out mono, in stereo!). That's a control center right there...wait, it makes good noise too?

Sign me up

Harley Hexxe:

--- Quote from: Dante on October 18, 2022, 02:41:03 PM ---I've never seen those! I love that parallel FX loop (out mono, in stereo!). That's a control center right there...wait, it makes good noise too?

Sign me up

--- End quote ---

+1 :thumb-up:

It also bears a strong resemblance to the Mesa Boogie Triaxis

rnolan:
Hey SC, nice score.  It sounds great and so many patching options. So it's in 2 bits, like a stage control panel which connects back to the preamp via the stage board connector, interesting setup.  Love the "DENOISER" button.  Have you checked out what tubes are in it yet? 

Not that you got one, but the amp was interesting also.  When he switched between Fender and Marshall, particularly with the cleaner/less distorted tones, it was pretty convincing, Marshall sounded quite distinctly Hendix(ish).

Systematic Chaos:
This one just sold in the US….800$

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