Hughes & Kettner Grandmeister Deluxe 40

[Harley Hexxe]

@ Dante,

     Now you've got me curious about that cab and the speaker that's in it. I'm going to have to go back and re-read some threads to refresh my memory on what it is. Of course, that IS a tube amp, and 20 watts on a good tube amp is still pretty loud. Just think of the Trainwrecks, they were pretty damned loud and all of them were in the 20-30 watt range.

@ Richard,

   It sure is

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Dante,

    I went and looked this up and found that the speaker they put in those cabs and other similar 1X12 cabs is the same thing - Blue Marvel.

    Even though it's unmarked, that is what Peavey claims is in those.

[Dante]

@Richard

Nothing wrong with that, the speaker in my Classic 1x12 cab is also a Blue Marvel. It's a bigger cab, made of thicker wood, but that speaker sure sounds great

[Zilthy]

Those are great amps, other than the fact I never really got along with the midrange on the high gain with it. :)

It's too bad, really good amp and had everything I wanted in one little package.   And it was funny how my cat would lay on it, being so small.  I don't know how he could stand it though, that thing got really hot I wouldn't want to touch it.

[Dante]

They do get hot, but I bet my cat would love it too

I agree about the midrange, I feel it more in the high-mids. I keep pulling down the highs to get more lows, or low-mids. I don't see a problem with it though, it sounds good with a large cab, or direct out of the Redbox (although, my impression of the Redbox was not good when I watched videos before I got the amp)

TBH: the MP-1 Classic could be accused of the same thing - lack of lows. I pump the lows with the Classic - clean or crunchy. I don't mind heavy midrange, it cuts through a band. There are times when I don't like the sound of the tone itself until it's in the mix...gotta hear it with the band to be sure

[rnolan]

(There are times when I don't like the sound of the tone itself until it's in the mix...gotta hear it with the band to be sure), to me that's how they are designed, The MP-1 and then MP-2 & MP-1 Classic are live, road reliable preamps giving you the best of what you need to play in a band context at stage levels (loud).  Sure they work stand alone (and turned down), but that was never (as I understand it) the intention. And so they developed the MB-1 to fill that gap....  We don't talk about it as much as we should, the MB-1 is the best bass preamp I've ever come across.

[Harley Hexxe]

@ Richard,

     The MB-1 is a great preamp for bass, I totally agree with that, but I disagree on the point of it being the stand alone kind of amp. IT too was meant to be used in a live situation with a lot more than just one tonal option for the bass guitar. Having the full ADA bass rig here, I can say without a doubt, it can hold a band together with whatever preamp tone you've selected.

@ Dante,

    I posted that many moons ago about the MP-1 Classic lacking enough low end punch in comparison to the original MP-1. That was also when I posted my review of the Classic after I had purchased a pair of GT 12AX7R2's for it and noticed it helped bring a bit more low end to the overall tone of it. But, they do sound pretty damned good in a mix.

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, that's not what I meant, more that the guitar preamps are designed to work well in a band context (albeit great on their own), with a bass player creating more of the bottom end in a band mix.  I didn't know that about the Classic (lacking a little in bottom end punch) as I've never had one.  My journey (after a Marshall 50) has been MP-1 then MP-2, perfect (for me).  There were post a while ago with lowering the bass eq centre freq in the MP-1, though the MP-1 always sounded great for me, and the MP-2 I like even more with all it's bells and whistles. 

My 8RU live rack has MP-2 and MB-1 in it so I can (and did for a while when I needed to) use it as an awesome bass rig, or guitar, and even more interesting is using the stereo out on my Alembic (well not really stereo, bridge PU on one ch and neck on the other) and I can plug bridge PU into MP-2 and neck PU into MB-1, that gets some killer variations e.g. MP-2 distortion, wah etc with the awesome lows from the MB-1  >:D .  Never saw the ADA bass cabs here in Oz, but the 2 Messa P112 cabs I bought for the bass rig setup are great. And because they have a tweeter, I use the MP-2 cab sim outs for guitar (when I use them for guitar).  The 8 ch mixer in that rack has ch 1&2 MP-2 main outs, 3&4 MP-2 cab sim outs, ch5 MB-1 full range out, sends 1&2 to Quadverb, and return, so stereo guitar and bass  :whoohoo!: .

[Dante]

@ Dante,

    I posted that many moons ago about the MP-1 Classic lacking enough low end punch in comparison to the original MP-1. That was also when I posted my review of the Classic after I had purchased a pair of GT 12AX7R2's for it and noticed it helped bring a bit more low end to the overall tone of it. But, they do sound pretty damned good in a mix.

I remember something about that.

IF I really need more bottom end, I can make 4 more patches in the MS3 just for the Classic and bump up the master levels - all the EQ stuff is flat right now (see the screenshot below)

[Harley Hexxe]

@ Richard:

    Yeah, that was a long time ago, before Jurrie passed away, when I posted about the lack of low end in the Classic. I also bought a few 12AX7R2 tubes and put them in there and wrote a review on how they seemed to affect the EQ curve. It was kind of helpful, and maybe one of the first reviews of long plate tubes posted here.

    I have the B500B power amp and the Basslines HX Cabs. One is a 1X15, and the other is a 2X10. That rig is NUTS! Oh, I almost forgot, I also added one of my Pitchtraqs in the loop of the preamp for an extra octave lower when I need it. Simple, yet effective.

@ Dante:

    I'm just getting into the software bit for effects. I mean, I can go into my Fender amps via Fender Fuse software, edit and save resets and such, and I've been dabbling into the software for the NUX pedal board I built which is pretty cool for it's size, and it does quite a lot. It's also able to store presets in the Cerberus pedal. For it's size, it's a pretty powerful platform if I wanted to use just one amp and the pedal rig. It kind of a nifty feature to edit in my laptop.

[Dante]

TBH: I need to practice editing stuff on the unit itself instead of the computer

I do love the software aspect, but yeah, I am a nooob at using the tiny screen on the pedal

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey, those small screens can be a pain sometimes, and that's where having the ability to do it on your laptop helps.

    Then again, I shouldn't complain because editing on the CT is a lot like the MP-2 screen. Editing in the CD is like editing the MP-1 with just number values for the selected parameters. What I like about it the most, ( and was hoping if ADA would have put out a "MP-3" rackmount preamp), is that instead of membrane buttons to increase or decrease values, you just turn a knob. Just like a guitar amp should be. It's also a lot faster to dial in what you're looking for.

    I don't believe I mentioned it here before, but about a month ago, I went and auditioned a Fender Mustang GTX 50, just to see what it was all about. Talk about a waste of time, that was it. It just didn't sound like a guitar amp. The sales guy who was showing it to me was so proud of this box of turds he was trying to sell me, and I kept telling him it didn't sound like a guitar amp, it sounded like a recording of a guitar amp, that was being played back through my car stereo.

    I think Fender really knocked it out of the park when they had the Cyber amps. Sure, they're modeling amps, but they can certainly fool you into thinking they are the real deal. Too bad they can't make them anymore. But I have mine and I am seriously considering pulling the trigger on another C Deluxe. I'm really digging what this rig can do.

     I'll be posting some demo clips of this rig as soon as I get a few bugs worked out on this desktop. Cubase is still down at the moment.

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, interesting report on the Fender Mustang, the drummer in my band bought one and loves it (not that he plays much guitar, he's a beginner from a guitar perspective), then everyone in his other band bought one as well, so 3 of them, I didn't bother to try it as I have my MP-2 rig when I go to his place, I suspected I'd be underwhelmed, from what you say I'm glad I didn't bother. 

I had a thought (ages ago now) to make a 1 RU midi editing unit with a bunch of infinite spin knobs, basically for the ADA (but also for other CC enabled gadgets), so when you change patches, the knobs would be set to the current values of the patch and you could tweak any of the assigned parameters and have it remember those tweaks for the session/gig, or save them at the end of the gig.  I spose another approach would be to make a replacement face plate for the MP-2 with knobs instead of the membrane buttons.  Like you, I'd prefer knobs.  Then again, once it's set I don't change it much or often.  I haven't tried the MP-2 editor yet, been thinking to give it a go as I embark on running up some new patches specific to different guitars (ala Dante), particularly as I'm playing the JPLP mostly in this current band, it's great to play and sounds awesome, although I miss having a whammy bar.

[Harley Hexxe]

Richard,

    It's not really a report as much as it is my impression. The tones sounded artificial to my ears, sort of like an excessively over-processed rack setup. I fell into that hole myself back in the 90's, and began backing off the processing and changed the routing of my wiring to keep the guitar sounding as natural as possible.
    The Mustang amps are probably good for beginners since they give a beginner something close to what they are looking for; The distortions, effects, and cab emulations of  the real rigs in a mall package, that you can access with the twist of a knob and press of a button. I don't care for the little screen and the pages and sub menus you have to scroll through for editing. Would I ever use one in a live situation? Only if I could edit out a bunch of preset junk they pre-program from the factory, and get something that sounds like a real amp tone.
   I had to do that with the Cyber amps, but it was pretty easy to do. They also came with a whole library of factory presets which I found most to be unusable. With the CT, I had to go shut off a lot of stuff to get to a core tone, then add in whatever effects  I wanted after that. Most of the time though, I'm not using effects through that amp now, that's how I came up with the combination rig using the CD for the stereo effects and spatial separation. With the CD, it was different. I could actually start with a blank program location and build my tone from the ground up, then add any variety or combination of effects I want with it, then I can save it to any preset location I want

    Those motorized pots are kind of expensive and it's going to take some hellacious software to get them to ramp up and down on your program changes. The only rack mounted preamp I know that ever did this was the Soldano X-88. The CT has these knobs, but the CD doesn't, and neither of them need it as far as I'm concerned. It's more about eye candy than function really. When I hit a program change with these amps, the sound changes instantly. The knobs just rotate on the Twin to give you a look at where you set that particular tone across the panel, and that's only for the amp tone. You have to go into the LCD menu to see where you set your effects.

    The CD is different. This amp only has a numerical display screen that will give you the values you have set at each programmed preset. They are not motorized, and the way it works is like this: I'll turn every pot except for the Master Volume and the Trim (Input) down to zero (fully CCW). Then to see what value I have any parameter set at, I will rotate a knob on any of the amp or effects I want to change, and it will display the value I have it stored at, but it will not change the value until the knob rotation arrives at that value. Then I can increase or decrease that value as I need it, and save it if I like it. So, it's similar to the MP-1 in that respect. I just love the fact that I can go as deep in the editing for amp tones and effects as I want to in the Deluxe. With the Twin, I can only choose single effects or preset combinations of effects with limited editing in those combinations. That's why I decided to make the Twin my center guitar tone and use the Deluxe for effects, both mono and stereo. That setup just works.

[Dante]

The pots on the Grandmeister are not motorized, but the STORE button lights up when you have the knob set to the saved position (Except the master volume - that's never saved)

So...I'll typically start turning the knobs to figure out where they're saved and then look at them to see what I've done :) My ears are my guide to adjust from there.

@Harley - I typically start from scratch too - flat line everything on the EQ, turn the gain down and raise it to taste....it's pretty easy to just get a raw amp tone (like a good chocolate cake) and put a little icing on top with effects - YUM