Hughes & Kettner

TubeMeister 18 Head

SKU: # 350117   |   Model: # TM18H   |    Product Reviews21 Reviews  Write a Review

TubeMeister 18 Head

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TubeMeister 18 Head

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For TubeMeister, Mr. Hughes and Herr Kettner packed all their know-how and over a quarter of a century's passion for tube amps into a remarkably compact chassis. Thanks to German engineering, it can go from a roar to a whisper, shaking the boards on stage, tingling spines in the studio, and raising goose-bumps in the still of night - even during silent recording.

Serving up three different sounds at the touch of a footswitch, the soulful TubeMeister 18 is the go-to guitar amp for gigging. Its four-step power soak brings
the sound of the big stage into small clubs and your own four walls. And courtesy of the built-in Red Box and silent recording capability, you can lay down pro-quality
tracks at any time day or night.

Rock on Stage - Play at Home - Record at Night

Specifications:
• Channels: 2
• Power: 18 Watts
• Footswitch/Stageboard: FS-2 optional
• Dimensions: 356 x 156 x 150 mm
• Weight: 5 kg

Q & A


Question: Is it discontinued?
- asked on Mar 16, 2024
Answer: Yes, tis head is discontinued, but the stores listed still have stock, if you move quickly.
- answered by Luc Pelletier, Grand Falls, New Brunswick
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Reviews


3.86.235.207
claudebot
Bare Bones Beautiful 0 of 0 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   New Minas, Nova Scotia
This wee beastie punches far above its weight-class in performance. I'm running it into a 2x12 cab with a Celestion V30 + G12 in it, and it has lots of color and warmth. The Clean channel is as refined as anything I've heard, with clear tones which are warm and glassy but not at all shrill. When playing the Lead channel with the Gain boost engaged, it may not offer enough grunt to suit a metal-head, but it's pretty close. Even when driving the tubes at maximum gain, the note definition is remarkably precise. The one main weakness is that the two channels share the same EQ knobs (bass-mid-treb). This is obviously a compromise, but other than that, this truly is an excellent amp in a small package.
Posted by Rick on Nov 29, 2019
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tubemeister 18 1 of 1 customers found this review helpful
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Closest Store   Abbotsford, British Columbia
awesome the power soak feature is a great addition great sounding little amp
Posted by Alex H on Jul 28, 2019
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Tubemeister 18 1 of 1 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Kingston, Ontario
Awesome little amp. Love the power soak gives you such tonal variety! 1W breaks up the tubes nicely for a real crunchy overdriven sound. Go to 18 watts at lower volumes and get a super hi-fi tight overdrive great for all eras of metal including today's highly detuned sound. Cristal clear cleans and evil dirt especially when using the lead boost!
Posted by Darren on Apr 20, 2019
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Love the guitar again 2 of 3 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Markham, Ontario
Terrific set of features that allow a very broad range of tones on this head. After playing though the same Fender amp for the last decade, I didnt realize how blurry my notes were. This amp has really made me love playing guitar again. You can hear every nuance of your performance and go from crystal clean to fuzzy and everything in between. I took a point off of quality because the tubes it comes with are complete garbage. I highly recommend. Cheers, 40hz.
Posted by 40hz on Dec 3, 2018
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Such great quality 4 of 4 customers found this review helpful
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Closest Store   Nanaimo, British Columbia
Bought this amp head on boxing day and it is so killer!! Plugged into a 4x12 and is ridiculously loud for its size and sound just amazing! Love the power soak options for playing at night and recording. Recommended buy for guitarists of all skill levels and for price and quality
Posted by Taylor Stone on Jan 10, 2017
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LET'S GO TUBIN' 2 of 2 customers found this review helpful
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Closest Store   Kingston, Ontario
Crystal clear clean tones. Love the overdriven buzz saw when the lead boost feature is used. Best looking amp on the market without a doubt, love that blue glow. Love the power soak feature that allows you to really drive those valves at one watt while not pissing off my house and neighbours!!! Possibly the housing could use some more venting as the top is runs quite hot, unless this is part of the design to ensure the tubes are hot enough? Main beef is that it didn't come with the footswitch. Overall great amp at at a fair price.
Posted by Darren on Oct 19, 2016
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Excellent Little Amp 0 of 2 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Kanata, Ontario
Mine had to go back to Yorkville for some servicing, but to tell you the truth that's OK. The staff at the Kanata store made it an easy, non-frustrating experience. For what you pay, you get an awful lot of quality sound. Each power-soak setting has its own characteristics. Every time I look at, or listen to demos of other amps, I am brought back to the fact that I can do so much with the Tubemeister 18. Why go anywhere else?
Posted by Matt Beatty on Apr 17, 2016
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Meister 4 of 4 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Saskatoon South, Saskatchewan
I heard someone playing one of these in the store when I was trying out some other amps, it was exactly the sound I wanted! I got one the the sales reps to set one up for me, and after about two and half hours of playing it in every style of music I knew, I was absolutely sold. I would recommend this amp to anyone in the market for a small (but loud!) affordable, and versatile head. I've been playing everything on it from Steve Vai to AC/DC and I have yet to find something this amp can't do!
Posted by anonymous on Mar 27, 2016
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Miniature Beast! (That looks hot!) 3 of 4 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Mississauga, Ontario
A very solid small head - pristine sparkly cleans, but when you push the gain up you can find some incredible blues tones. The high gain on this amp is what had me sold. While I was getting this set up for a test in the store, I took my hand off the strings and at 1 watt - there was authentic tube feedback from the 4x12 I connected to.) As a hard rock guy - I got pretty excited! After dialing in the EQ and gain settings this amp just screams. I use it live, for practicing and recording. Live engineers love the Redbox output - makes it very easy to get a good sound consistently. A VERY good feature in case you have one of those engineers that things any random mic a few inches from a speaker will do the trick. My only complaint for the features is that there is no independent EQ for the clean and drive channels. Definitely worth checking it out!
Posted by anonymous on Mar 10, 2015
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Fantastic! 1 of 1 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
I use this amp with a Traynor Darkhorse 1x12 cabinet (with Greenback speaker) and it sounds great. Very nice crystal clear sounding clean channel but distorts great without a need for a pedal. I love the powersoak features. One watt is surprisingly loud and I rarely use it past 5watts in my basement unless I need more headroom. There is no reverb but a TC electronic HOF mini reverb pedal works great. I have found the effects loop useful and I love the look of the amp. Tube status indicator is also a nice touch. I highly recommend you try it out.
Posted by Liana on Oct 8, 2014
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One word, SICK! 2 of 3 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Halifax, Nova Scotia
Lunch box size amplifier that sounds as big as a freight train. I've own a lot of amplifiers, mostly vintage stuff, still own a 64 vibroverb and an old usa made pro junior. This amplifier, out of the box, was a joy and I could not put the guitar down for almost three hours. The lead channel reminds me of some of the best marshall amps I've own in the past (jcm800, silver jubilee) but without the ear splitting volume. I've always hated attenuators but the one built into this amp is really good. I even like it better than the london power scaler in the suhr badger 18 I use to own. It took a while to get some of my pedals to sound good with this amp. Delays and modulation pedals had to go in the loop and some of my vintage pedals needed the level turned up a bit. I almost immediately took my xotic sp compressor off the board because the amp has so much natural compression but decided to use it to fatten and warm up the clean channel a bit. I won't be selling my vibroverb but whenever I get a craving for some high gained goodness, I will be plugging into this baby. Should also mention I'm playing this through a dr z 1x12 closed back with an old uk made greenback. The stock tubes sound a little bit on the cheap side, but not terrible. I will invest in a good set of tubes for it. Highly recommend!
Posted by anonymous on Jun 15, 2014
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Blown away! 1 of 1 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Edmonton South, Alberta
I have played for many years and have searched for the perfect amp. Although I know now no amp can do absolutely everything, this one comes very close tone wise. I have owned Mesa, Fender & Peavy tube amps & have played many other brands. Usually I have only 1 or 2 guitars from my stock that sound good through specific amps, but this amp is phenomenal in regards to how all my guitars sound. Tone comes from a lot more than just an amp and the great thing about this amp is how responsive it is. If your playing is dynamic enough that you can create your own tone through your fingers, this amp will just soak it up and spit out exactly what you throw at it. Best amp money spent in 19 years!
Posted by anonymous on Nov 9, 2013
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N/A 0 of 1 customers found this review helpful
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Closest Store   Winnipeg (Pembina), Manitoba
Posted by anonymous on Oct 4, 2013
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Simply amazing! 1 of 1 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Moncton, New Brunswick
I bought a Tubemeister 5 but quickly missed the two chanel controls and effects loop so I upgraded. The fact I can select my output wattage is an added bonus. Thanks to the great service at L&M Moncton the process to upgrade was seamless. Back to the amp...the tones are as good as I have ever worked with and I love the faceplate blue lighting (yes I'm an idiot for lights). I use this amp more often than my Marshall Haze and it will definitely be my road amp as I slip it into it's carry bag and go!
Posted by Russ Maclean on Aug 16, 2013
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wowww 3 of 4 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Montréal, Quebec
je suis vraiment impressioner par cette ampli que ce soit pour le clean ou pour le boort le son est vraiment super je suis tres satisfait de mon achat
Posted by daniel on Jul 22, 2013
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One of the finest little tube amps 1 of 3 customers found this review helpful
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Closest Store   Surrey, British Columbia
Great cleans, great overdriven and very dirty. Sounds big. Great for home studio or as half of a stereo tube amp rig. One of the best in its price class.
Posted by NV on Mar 30, 2013
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decent amp for the money 1 of 3 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Winnipeg (Pembina), Manitoba
Good amp but there are 3 things that I would like to have seen: 1. Wattage selection for each channel 2. Seperate eq for each channel 3. And if the lead boost was a lead boost. On the clean channel it does "boost" the signal, but with the gain channel, the boost adds gain and too much volume. It almost seems to act as a third channel. I'm not a fan of the lead boost, but I am a fan of the amp
Posted by anonymous on Oct 3, 2012
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Great Cleans - Nice Overdrive 0 of 0 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I've tried it
Closest Store   Edmonton South, Alberta
I tried this out the other day at a location in Edmonton through a Mesa 4x12. I was smitten by the clean sound, typical h&k clean, very hi-fi. At 18 Watts it stayed very clean with lots of headroom, even when strumming hard I could keep the gain at around 10-11 o'clock before any evidence of breakup could be heard. Overdrive channel goes from a nice subtle crunch to a roaring gain. Be aware though that the character of this channel is very open and loose feeling, great for rock and blues, not so great for metal rythms, as it didn't respond as I like it to for that kind of playing. But the quality of the sound was impeccable, it was just really pleasing to hear it. For the money its a great buy.
Posted by anonymous on May 11, 2012
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Hughes & Kettner 2 of 3 customers found this review helpful
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Overall  
Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Oshawa, Ontario
I bought this amp, on the feedback i was getting from other users, and i was not disappointed, there is just something special that Hughes and Kettner does that others do not.The tone is great and even at 1 watt, it is surprisingly loud.. The more you crank 1 watt the dirtier it gets, switch it too 5 watts and it becomes clean again..I just play at homebut i would have no problem taking it for a Jam session, I am also interested in using it for recording..The only negative remarks is, 3 knobs on mine where not straight, but it was an easy fix.I also think it should have came with the foot pedal for the price..I also have a Mesa TA-15 and i like the Hughes and Kettner TM better.
Posted by Rick on Apr 3, 2012
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TubeMeister 18 Head 1 of 1 customers found this review helpful
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Product Experience   I own it
Closest Store   Saskatoon South, Saskatchewan
This amp is simple yet effective! 2 channels are great plus the lead boost adds a nice thick distorted tone. Plenty of volume and power for small gigs and for me i mic it up anyways. I compared this to the tiny terror and ended up getting this because of overall performance. the looks are also pretty hard to beat. overall, it's a good sounding, compact amp and i would definitely recommend it!
Posted by anonymous on Mar 6, 2012
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Rental rates


This product is normally available for rental. Please contact your preferred location for further information.

1 Day from $14.00

1 Week $28.00

1 Month $55.00

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Protect your investment with the Long & McQuade Performance Warranty

A warranty can be a very important factor when making a buying decision. Because repairs can be very expensive in terms of parts and labour costs, manufacturers usually only provide one year limited warranties that generally only cover items that malfunction due to a manufacturer’s defect. With an important purchase such as a musical
instrument or piece of studio gear, however, many people want to have the peace of mind in knowing that their investment will be protected should the product no longer be performing at 100%.

Because of this, Long & McQuade provides our customers with a FREE one-year Performance Warranty on most of our products. The Long & McQuade Performance Warranty supplements the manufacturer’s warranty to ensure that our customers receive complete “no hassle” warranty coverage within their first year.

How does the Long & McQuade Performance Warranty differ from most manufacturers' warranties?
  • Performance Guarantee: Normal wear and tear is covered, so your product will be performing as well as the day you purchased it for the entire duration of the coverage. Band and Orchestral Performance Warranty does not include replacing pads or cleaning for woodwind instruments, unless deemed necessary by our repair staff. Ultrasonic cleaning for brass instruments will be provided if deemed necessary by our repair staff, but is not routinely offered under the Performance Warranty.
  • Product Replacement: If your product cannot be fixed or costs too much to fix, we will replace it with the equivalent model for no additional charge. If this is not possible, a full refund will be provided.
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Long & McQuade reserves the right to restrict the purchase of additional years of Performance Warranty. Used products come with a 3-month Long & McQuade Performance Warranty. Some products (i.e. computers, software, cymbals and other items) are covered only by the manufacturer‘s warranty. Consumables (i.e. strings, reeds, drum sticks, batteries, tubes, cross faders) are excluded as they are designed to be replaced. Cosmetic Damage, Accidental Damage, or problems caused by Humidity or Temperature Issues are not covered. Speakers damaged by overpowering are generally not covered. Our coverage does not provide compensation for loss of use. As of June 2018 the Performance Warranty is no longer transferable. The warranty is only valid in Canada.

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Some manufacturers provide warranties for longer than 1 year; however, these are usually limited warranties that do not provide the same coverage as the Long & McQuade Performance Warranty. Customers interested in more complete and convenient (but not necessarily longer) coverage are still able to purchase additional years of the Performance Warranty.

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