ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear
Non ADA Gear => Amps => Topic started by: Dante on December 15, 2020, 09:18:03 PM
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Just pulled the trigger.
Midi programmable 50w tube combo. I'm in.
The amp hasn't even shipped yet, I'm all excited about it showing up. I'll keep ya posted. I may have a set of tubes waiting when it gets here.
Trying to decide if I just use the onboard FX in it (delay, chorus, flange) and my midi pedal. (It has phantom power through the 7 pin midi cable!!) OR...if I use my Boss MS3 FX, and use the MS3 as a midi controller. It has more FX inside, and a couple FX loops. Can't wait to tinker.
If I remember correctly, Panda has a Switchblade combo too...
UPDATE: I just realized that this thing is almost an ADA TriTube...it has programmable Tubey Preamp/Poweramp, onboard Chorus, Flange, and Tremolo, Reverb, Delay. The only thing(s) to add; wireless transmitter, Pitch Fork pedal. I only use 2-3 patches for each song, I can easily have 4 patches per song with the stock footswitch....seems like a win/win.
The ONLY drawback: no direct out, gotta use the mic. Both of my amps are that way (well, my other one doesn't sound great direct....so)
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Hey Dante, nice :whoohoo!: hope it sounds good for you :thumb-up:
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From what I've heard online, it's gonna kill. >:D
I'll run through a demo, record a video. (I'm amazed at how many people actually watch the ones I've done about old amps I've demo'd)
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Whelp, I got the amp the other day. It looks just like the pix, in decent shape, but been around the stage a few times.
It's noisy. :facepalm:
I tried new tubes, still noisy. Really noisy. On all voices...really amplified on the Lead and Ultra channels...
So, I reached out to my local amp repair shops in town - nobody will touch it. They only work on Marshall, Fender, Peavey, etc. They will not touch a Line6, H&K, Blackstar, Egnator, etc. So, I had to get online and find somebody that will service an H&K. I found a guy in Southern CA (9 hour drive away) and called him. He said I can ship it to him for repairs and get it shipped back.
The saga continues....to be continued...
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Bump: The saga is over.
I shipped it to the Palm Desert, CA for $80. So, we know my bill is gonna be $160 worth of shipping. Mind you, I'm fixing an amp I've never really 'had'....or used...just making it more expensive at every turn :hair-out:
Whelp, here we are, 4.5 months later and I just picked up my amp from the local FedEx office. (of course, they put it on the counter upside down - the UP arrows pointing down :facepalm: )
I got it home, unpacked everything, hooked it up to my ADA footswitch and created 7 patches about as quick as an MP-1...possibly quicker, because, knobs. Turn all the knobs where you like 'em, push the STORE button, push the number on your pedal. Done. So easy, so quick.
The cleans on this thing are amazing - as good as (or dare I say better than) the MP-2 cleans. It's nice. The gains are everything you want/need. It gets a great Brown sound on the 'classic' voicing with the gain a little less than half. Turn up the gain and it starts to snarl. The Crunch is BEEFY, the Ultra is...well, over the top. You can dial it back and get great downtune metal tones that don't flub out.
I must add; It has all new tubes and a new speaker. The repair guy said the power tubes I just bought were leaking, so he put some Svetlana tubes in it after trying several options he had at his shop. Good choice, that thing sounds great and is very low noise, even on the Ultra. I get some singing feedback that is really nice. The new speaker is a WGS G12c/s
Now, I need to figure out how to assign the effects via Midi CC numbers to use my Quad switch to toggle them on/off in each patch.
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Hey Dante, great news :whoohoo!: :thumb-up: . I went to a tube rolling thingy a few years ago where the Svetlanas sounded better than anything else in Marshalls and Fender amps, the guy compared a bunch of tubes and they sounded the best for that application (both 12AX7s and power tubes).
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Well, here's an interesting development. The effects are permanently assigned to particular CC numbers. You can't change them, you have to set your pedal to activate that CC#.
The main ones I need are as follows:
- The solo boost is #64
- The Modulation effects are #52
- The Delay is #53
As far as I know, I cannot change the CC#s in my ADA MXC footswitch (see the screen shot below, I tried that, but why won't it work?). Let me know if I'm wrong because I'd really rather use my existing midi footswitch.
For now, the only options I see to switch the FX on/off are;
- Use a separate multi-effect device
- Use the proprietary footswitch that H&K makes
Since the cheapest multi effect I could find with midi is at least $300, I am opting for the H&K proprietary footswitch for $200.
For what I've spent on this Switchblade, I could've purchased a Grandmeister 36....which comes with the pedal :hair-out:
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Hey Dante,
Try plugging the Quad Switch in the other jack on the MXC, see if that makes any difference.
The first thing to understand is that you don't change CC assignments in the MXC or the Quad switch. What you're doing is instructing the amp to respond to that CC# when you press an assigned button on the Quad switch.
What I would do first, is try to establish that there is a communication between the amp and the MXC/Quad pedals.
(Super Cool little amp BTW)
If there is some way for you to see if the amp sees the Quad switch buttons being pressed, then that's a good beginning. When you know it sees the Quad switch, then you'll have to look at how to assign that CC# to that button on the Quad Switch. I'm 99% certain it would be in the amplifier's MIDI controls to do that.
Let me know what you find out.
Harley 8)
P.S. I did a little investigating, and it looks like plugging the Quad Switch into Switch 1 on the MXC will give you CC#64 on button 1 by default. So...if you can get that to give you your boost, then all we need to do is figure out how to change CC assignments for buttons 3 and 4.
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Changing the CC numbers in the MXC should be possible, I know I have done it before. What you can do is plug the MXC into the MP-2 and go to the midi monitor of the mp-2 so you can check what the mxc is sending out.
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I went through the whole process, and it appears to be sending a signal to the CC# I want, but it doesn't work on the amp :dunno:
NOTE: Once you press 9+7 on the MXC, you use the Bank UP/Down to select the CC number, then press 9+1 to store it, and Bank Up to accept the store. Done. Took me a while to figure that out, it wasn't saving the change without that crucial last step.
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I'm sure you checked it but is the midi channel setting correct? Also are you sure these CC commands are fixed?
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It sounds like the MIDI channels might not be matched up.
Just from personal experience, I've found Omni mode to be completely useless for 90% of MIDI applications. It's better to have channels matched to each other.
Just sayin'
Harley 8)
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Y'know, I haven't tried that. I will try all the other midi channels to see if that works. Not sure what channel the amp is on, but I found a way to switch the midi channel of the proprietary H&K footswitch. I tried all of those, but nah. No workie on the fX. strange.
If my midi pedal doesn't work, I'm going to cannibalize my Peavey pedal board and take the Boss MS-3 off. I can hook it up via 4cm and run it that way. I still have access to all four voicings via Midi with that thing...
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Okay, I have officially tried everything I can think of and it still doesn't work on the damn switchblade.
I tried each midi channel, one at a time. Nothing.
It was pretty easy to program the MXC quickly to test it out and pretty quick to change the midi channels too. Oh well, I'll just try using the Boss for effects...on the pedalboard, and use it for patch switches too. It's a bit tricky to get it to be a midi controller, that's another rabbit hole for a different thread.
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Okay, I think I just saved this thing from a firey death...I was literally ready to roll it off a cliff, video the whole thing, and call it "how to fix a Hughes & Kettner"
My MXC has no problems at all saving patches and selecting them in the amp. Cool. I wrote one for each voicing (four total) and saved them using my MXC. Then, using some new math, I figured out which patches I needed to access with my Boss MS-3. (the H&K is in banks, with four patches each)
Once I could simply use button 1 for the Clean channel, 2 for Crunch, 3 for Lead and 4 for Ultra...I could just save the settings I liked for each one. The MS-3 has something called 'manual mode' which is the same thing that H&K calls 'stompbox mode' and it allows you to turn individual FX on/off. I'm using the MS-3 to do that because I simply cannot find a way to do it with anything else. So, I'm not using any of the effects in the amp, but I got a (programmable) 4 channel amp outta the deal.
It'll work, and I already have a pedalboard set up to do it (I use the same board for my Peavey). I found a guy nearby selling a combo case (rolling case with a handle like a suitcase) and my amp fits nicely inside. Makes a good amp stand for the stage too.
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Hey Dante,
I'm glad you figured out a way to make it work, but it still makes me scratch my head wondering why it won't respond to the MXC. After all, it's still just your basic MIDI controller. That's weird.
Harley 8)
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I don't get it either - at least I knew that the amp was on midi channel 1 with the MXC, that solved half the mystery. No idea why the CC numbers wouldn't jive....it's possible the CC numbers are different for the Switchblade than they are for the Grandmeister series (I was referencing the Grandmeister 36 manual). :dunno:
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From what I can read in the switchblade manual is that it doesn't respond to midi CC only program change??
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Ahh, well that explains it :facepalm: . Can you have lots of different HK patches with different fx ? Not as cool but workable...
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I found out (while doing research to get this thing to work) that I have the original (old style) Switchblade. They came out with a new circuit later when they added the TSC versions (a Tube Status Checker I think)...it could be that my amp simply doesn't take the CC #s, but subsequent versions do. The amp tech told me that may be an issue - the later ones are more computer than amp (he says).
So, I'm using the MS-3 just like I do with the Peavey except I have 4 amp channels at my disposal (instead of 2) and I'm using the midi cable to switch patches instead of an instrument cable. I can still hit the Manual button to access stombox mode and add a delay or whatever.
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I have the service manual for these and had a look around, mostly solid state preamp and one ECC83 to "warm up" the sound so no real tube distortion and a full tube power amp. DSP chip for the effects and 3 ATMEGA 8 bit µcontrollers for all the "computing"
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Yes...it's an old thread that I'm reviving - HAIL THE NECROTHREAD....sorry
Anyways, I (finally) got to play a gig with the H&K switchblade combo. I must say, I have no complaints (other than picking the damn thing up...it's heavy and I'm getting older every day).
After the gig, I was ready to sell the amp for a H&K Black Spirit Floor (its a pedal board version of my switchblade amp with a 200w amp built in!) because the combo is so big and heavy....But, now that I think of it, the widebody combo amp really fills the room better than my two 1x12 cabs. Plus, it was perfectly reliable at the gig and I never went near it to adjust anything.
I find 1x12 cabs to be very directional, I call it 'beamy' because it's like a beam of light shooting straight out (only, it's sound, not light). I find this to be true with all the 1x12 cabs I've had; open back, closed back, and ported. Great for recording, kinda okay for live stuff.
The fact that I never went near the amp's controls says a LOT. I can't really remember a time that I left the amp alone all night...but I don't remember much, I admit. Still, the amp sounds good and really fills the room with sound without killing small birds nearby. I really only have to lift the dang thing to put it into the rolling case and put that case into my car...so, I'm not carrying it. And, the rolling case makes a great amp stand
With all that in mind, I guess I should just hang onto the bigass combo and call it good. No sense fixing what ain't broke.
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Hey Dante, looks like a cool combo :thumb-up: , and really, not that much to lug, particularly compared to a rack setup. I've kind of got down to 1 rack and a slant split stack wired stereo, although the most recent gig I took my 8 RU rack, a 2 RU case (Carvin TS100) and my 2 Mesa P112s (12 + tweeter) cabs (and used the cab emulated outs on the MP-2). I'd like a Quad tube combo but none came to Australia (as far as I know). I keep thinking to make one with one of my MP-2's, one day I'll do it.
RG did quite a few posts ages ago re how "beamy" his cabs were. IIRC he found some disperser stuff/foam? he could put in front of the speakers so they would spread out and not be so beamy.
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Richard,
See? That's how much stuff I don't wanna carry...been doing it for too long already.
There is a thing out there called the 'beam blocker' for dispersing sound from a speaker. Pretty much a piece of foam with a hole in the middle - easy enough to make. I have no idea if they work though...never tried it out.
Yes, one bigass combo is not much to drag. Plus, it's on wheels...so I should not complain. Still less stuff than a rack, pedals, two 1x12 speaker cabs. Plus, the combo is reliable, and not as delicate as my old rack gear. It is about as close as I can get to an ADA...in that it's programmable.
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Hey Dante,
I totally get it. The rack gear I've got isn't going anywhere unless someone is offering big money for me to move that around and set it up. Plus, like you said, it's getting delicate and I'd rather not anyway. (I'm not getting younger either).
People here are so squeamish when it comes to words like 'programmable,' or 'racks.' I don't find any problems with it, especially when it works, it sounds good, and it's reliable gig after gig. That's why I did what I did with my Fenders.
In reading your post, I'm guessing the H&K has some pretty decent tones in it, and like me, you're a tone-junkie >:D Neither one of us would plunk down our hard-earned cash for gear that sounds like lukewarm diarrhea on a paper plate. But if you think about it, all of us here at the Depot are like that. One of the most relevant reasons we like our ADA gear so much is because of it's flexibility. ADA gave us the ability to get a bunch of great amp tones all in one little box, without having to bring a moving van full of amplifiers to a gig. Your H&K and my Fenders do the same thing, but they are in combo amp form. We just have to dial them in according to the limitations of the combo amps.
Also like you, and I didn't realize this until you said it, every time I've taken the Fenders out to a gig, once I've set the volume level, I never touch the amp after that either. So, that IS a pretty big deal. In my case, I can take one, two, or all three amps to a gig, and get great tones with them, especially now since I figured a way to blend the two rigs together, and add dimension to my guitar tones.
As far as weight goes, I can't really complain about how much the Fenders weigh. they are all about the same weight as my Vibrolux Reverb, which is the lightest of my tube amps, and I'm thinking about getting another Cyber-Deluxe just to pull the Vibrolux out of the mix. It's not that I don't like the Vibrolux anymore, but it is a tube amp that will be 50 years old next year. Tubes wear out, sockets get worn, and it will need to be serviced soon with new caps and tubes just like both of my old Twins. Since the CD is still around at cheap prices, why not? It would also be a good backup for the original CD I have. I can upload my programs via MIDI to it, and if the main one goes down, All I have to do is switch the Expansion cabling and go!
Programmable amps give you so many options that you just don't get from a singular toned amplifier.
Just my two cents
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PREACH!!
I think we were so dang spoiled with our racks back in the day, it was easy to get great tones. Then, the market shifted to gigantic floorboards full of stompboxes, the rack stuff disappeared, modeling gear came along and never impressed me. The only modeling gear I have is my V-Wah, and only because I like having 4 wahs and and a Rotovibe in one pedal. I digress....
There are other options out there (multi effects units etc.), but most don't even have a single tube...so the tones are less than stellar, but good enough for a weekend hack musician. I'm glad to have a 'tube amp' of sorts (really, a hybrid) with tubey tones and the programmability.
I'd be happy to cart around a 4u rack rig instead though, if I could really trust it. To this day, I bring a Crate Powerblock amp and my Tech 21 RK5 Flyrig pedal in case my rack rig ever dies at a gig (again).
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Reliability has been more and more on my mind as my gear gets older. That said, it's never missed a beat, and my MP-1 before the MP-2 never missed a beat either :thumb-up: . Fortunately I'm only doing the occasional gig but this new band is starting to get some legs...
Once set up my only minor adjustment is power amp vol once everyone settles down (or they tell I'm too loud >:D ).
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Hey Richard,
For the most part, my preamps aren't what gives me grief with my rack gear, it's usually the poweramps in my case that fail on one side or the other
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My power amps have been pretty solid, my preamps seem to not like getting thrown around much (what's up with that?)
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The only time I had a preamp fail at a gig was about 10 years ago, and it was my MP-1. It turned out the Groove Tubes that were in it just decided that then would be a good time to die. They were the GT Mullards if I recall correctly. Other than that, no real issues with preamps that I didn't cause myself. (I have to quit hot-plugging things in my gear).
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That's on eof the reasons why I use my Marshall heads as poweramp and I use 2 of them, not just for the stereo but this way I also have a backup if one fails. Must say no problems yet. As for the preamps, I make sure they stay cool with some fans.
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That's on eof the reasons why I use my Marshall heads as poweramp and I use 2 of them, not just for the stereo but this way I also have a backup if one fails. Must say no problems yet. As for the preamps, I make sure they stay cool with some fans.
Maybe that's why I haven't had issues with the preamps. I've been using clip-on fans in the back of the racks for years.
This is also why I've wanted to install rack fan panels with a couple of computer type cooling fans in them in the back of the racks. With one fan pulling air into the rack and one drawing air out on the opposite side, it should circulate enough air to help cool the preamps while they are in use.
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That's on eof the reasons why I use my Marshall heads as poweramp and I use 2 of them, not just for the stereo but this way I also have a backup if one fails. Must say no problems yet. As for the preamps, I make sure they stay cool with some fans.
Maybe that's why I haven't had issues with the preamps. I've been using clip-on fans in the back of the racks for years.
This is also why I've wanted to install rack fan panels with a couple of computer type cooling fans in them in the back of the racks. With one fan pulling air into the rack and one drawing air out on the opposite side, it should circulate enough air to help cool the preamps while they are in use.
I've been thinking of that for years now, but never pursued the parts to do it
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I'm in the same boat as you Dante, I just never got together the parts to assemble it all and try it out.
It shouldn't be too hard to do really, just a couple of fans mounted to a rack panel that can run off of the AC power from the Furmans, and they would come on when I hit the Furman power switch. That's why I got all of my racks with rear rack rails.
I just haven't been doing a lot with my rack gear lately. Too much going on at the moment and the Fender gear is so much quicker and easier to set up. But that is going to change soon. I'll probably try that out on my MB-1 rig first since I'm going to need that up and running soon, and since I only have one MB-1 preamp, :facepalm: I'll want to take care of it.
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TBH: me either on the rack stuff
The last few outdoor gigs I did with the rack, I put a fan in front of my pedalboard and one behind the rack blowing forward. Worked like a charm
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Yeah, that sounds like it would great for outdoor gigs, but I'm not going to be taking the racks to those things anymore. I'll just be keeping them in a studio environment. So the cooling rack panels would be good for them in that situation. Quieter too.
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I have a Switchblade 50 Mk1 and I love it! I use it with my Boss GT10 in 4cm.
When I don't want to haul my ADA rack to shows, the H&K is a solid option.
I was lucky enough to get mine with a road case and a Rockman midi f.s. so I don't even need the gt10 if I really want to go barebones on setup.
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Panda,
I think about that all the time...leaving the MS-3 out, using only the Switchblade. I haven't even messed with the FX in that thing :facepalm: which seems like a shame, but I do like Boss FX for live stuff and the original footswitch only has 4 buttons anyway...I'm not gaining any buttons with that thing over my MS-3.
Kinda seems natural that a few old ADA addicts would gravitate towards anything programmable....like a switchblade. They do sound great
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Hey Dante,
After programming ADA preamps, especially MP-2's, going to other programmable gear is kind of second nature to us. Finding compact combo amps that can be as versatile as our rack gear is a sort of bonus if you think about it.
The only thing no one can get around is the speakers. You still need several speakers to get that HUGE guitar sound. I've got that going on right now with my Fender rig.
So the question comes to mind about this amp since the manual is kind of vague on the subject; does this have built-in stereo effects, and can you get the stereo spread if you connect external speakers to this amp?
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Honestly, I have no idea if the on board effects are stereo. I do know that an external speaker is just dual mono..so there's that. I have stereo effects in the Boss, so I could run to another combo for that
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Without checking the manual, it may have stereo fxs, like the little Blackstar I tried out ages ago. The stereo fxs worked for the direct to DAW outs, or I spose you could run it into another amp/cab.
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I looked at the manual Richard, and on the back of the amp, it doesn't seem to have any DI outs to a mixing desk, or DAW.
@ Dante, You could probably run the Boss direct for stereo mixes.
Personally speaking, I like playing in stereo. Both the Cyber Twin and Deluxe have stereo DI's to feed to a mixing desk or DAW, but both of them need to be attenuated. The Twin has balanced XLR's on the back of it while the Deluxe has balanced 1/4" (TRS). I have to run the Deluxe outs through a pair of DI boxes to get it right, and it sounds killer no matter if I'm going direct or with the Expansion amp connected to it, but adding the Twin in the center channel just totally rocks my world!
I've got to get some recordings of this rig happening
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Harley,
The effects are mono. When I use the combo with two of my splitstacks, the effects are identical in both cabs. The inboard effects are rudimentary on the modulation and you just turn the pot to find the chorus/flanger/tremolo you like and live with it. The delay has 3 knobs and is more versatile. The reverb is digital and is ok. The Mk 1 version does not have the redbox DI but I think the 2nd gen does.
https://youtu.be/lvRJoaD8oa4
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Andy,
Thanks for the clarity about that, and it makes sense for H&K. They are primarily an amp company, not an effects company. I was just curious about how deep they went with the effects they built into an amp. I do remember reading something about plugging one of the speaker connections to a Redbox in the manual.