Hughes & Kettner
TubeMeister 18 Combo

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of night - even during silent recording.
Serving up three different sounds at the touch of a footswitch, the soulful Tube-Meister 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.
The TubeMeister 18 Combo offers all the tasty features of the Head plus the shimmer and shine of a digital spring reverb. The Celestion 10˝ speaker was customdesigned
specifically for the TubeMeister. Housed in a sophisticated Thiele-Small enclosure, it conjures a far bigger sound than anything one might expect from a combo.
Rock on Stage - Play at Home - Record at Night
Features:
• 2 Channels
• 18 Watts
• FS-2 optional footswitch
• 1 x 10" Celestion custom speaker
• Soft cover included
Specifications:
• Dimensions: 15-1/2" x 14-3/16" x 10-1/4" (395 x 360 x 260 mm)
• Weight: 20lb. (9.4 kg)
Reviews
Great with some reservation 1 of 4 customers found this review helpful




















Great portable and versatile combo 0 of 1 customers found this review helpful




















Convert from Solid State 0 of 0 customers found this review helpful




















I have previously owned a few solid states and before getting this I tested out some of the Orange models. This definitely came out ahead for cleans and I can get a nice punch when I pair it with my fuzz pedal. The build in distortion is nice and crunchy, especially when the tubes warm up.
Expensive, but the best tube combo for practicing metal! 3 of 3 customers found this review helpful




















1) The EQ is SUBTRACTIVE. This means that turning up to 10 is your initial sound, and anything less slowly cuts that frequency. You'll get the purist sound, but tonal options are more limited than an active EQ. So it sounds better, but can't produce as many tones.
2) The boost should instead be called the Metal Button, because it is a HUGE boost in gain and bass. So it's not your usual lead boost.
3) The "Custom Celestion Speaker" is actually a 10" Vintage 30. It is ONLY available in this combo and the equivalent 10" Tubemeister ext cab to my knowledge. So it produces a great, familiar sound with a slight twist.
4) The clean and dirty channels share a 3-band EQ, but have independent gain and volume. For the clean channel, H&K recommend using these 2 knobs to dial in the majority of your tone.
5) There is an odd problem with the OD channel at the bottom of the volume range. When you go below 1, the volume dips quickly and then comes back out of phase, and doesn't run through the effects loop.
So bearing all of that in mind, here are the pros and cons:
Pros: Pure EQ, Metal friendly, self-biasing tube circuit that detects damaged and blown tubes and shuts them off, great speaker, built-in Redbox DI, 2 great channels with a bassy metal boost, 10" Vintage 30, 18w/5w/1w/speaker off modes, goes from bedroom volume to unbelievably loud. I really can't convey how loud this little amp can get.
Cons: WAY louder than you'd expect, difficult to dial in a quiet high-gain settings, difficult to get at the tubes yourself, footswitch NOT included ($60, and they designed it so others can't make 3rd party ones), and the clean channel is usually described as "Fizzy" unless you run it through a different cab.
Excellent Amp 1 of 1 customers found this review helpful




















You get lots for the $$$ 0 of 0 customers found this review helpful




















feature packed little combo that sounds big, pt. 2 0 of 0 customers found this review helpful




















The Tubemeister EQ controls don't offer much change. Also it doesn't take distortion pedals well like some amps. Normally they go between the guitar and the main amp input but I only found the effects loop brought out the distortion pedal's tone, even then the amp master volume didn't have much effect (the pedal's volume control took over): I had to change both volume controls which isn't how it's supposed to work... If you're considering adding effects pedals to this amp try them out and play with the volume controls to make sure they work for you.
feature packed little combo that sounds big 2 of 2 customers found this review helpful




















My main use is playing at home so having the 1W setting is great because it is plenty loud in the lead channel. Clean channel is best at 5W or 18W at home. Cleans are crisp and clear, nice bottom end and lots of high end snap, could use more mid-upper mid body though as it sounds a bit thin in that range. Lead channel offers a nice range of crunch tones for blues and rock. Turning on the lead boost (in lead channel only) adds more smooth distortion, all of which sounds great. My only complaint is there isn't enough gain to cover metal tones and cutting solos, adding a pedal in front fixed that (even a Tech21 GT2 analog amp simulator pedal worked nicely even though it has no speaker emulation bypass). Other than that it's a very rocking sounding amp.
The digital reverb is controlled by a knob on the back not the main control panel, a bit inconvenient. It sounds okay and there no springs to clang around, but it is more of a convenience as I don't find it doesn't sound that big (the control knob seems to control the length of the decay).
The on-board 10" speaker does the job but it doesn't compare to a decent external cab tone wise, I suggest trying both. It does offer a good amount of volume and bass when cranked thanks to the mostly enclosed unit, more than adequate levels for home use. Tone wise the 10" sounds a bit compressed and not as open as a decent 12". Still I like having a built-in speaker for when I take the amp out of the house or even out of the basement in winter. Plugged into a 1x12 cab really brings out the amp's true character, don't let the 10" speaker fool you.
Build quality seems decent, my unit had no issues out of the box and seems find so far after a few weeks of light-moderate use.
Having looked at a few lunch box amps this one stood out because of its feature set and sound quality. If you don't care about having the 10" speaker or reverb go for the head. Personally I like having all the features packed into one unit since it's less gear to carry during transport and the combo is only a few pounds heavier than the head. If you want metal tones I suggest a pedal in front. Overall I'm quite pleased with the combo, sounds much bigger than it is, definitely worth checking out.
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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
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