Hughes & Kettner Tubmeister 18

This amp head that I purchased last week; arrived yesterday at work.  By the time my wife and I went out to eat and spent time at the Health Club, I only had about 30-45 min. last night to give it a spin.  I ran the head into a 4/10 cabinet and set it at the 1w setting.  Grabbed the Les Paul, ran through Clean, Overdrive and Boost settings.  VERY NICE!  I am truly impressed already.  True tube tone at bedroom volumes.  Seemed like some of the compression and sag were there at these low volumes.  Though I could have kept at it for hours, I had to give it up for the evening. 
 
I got up this morning and thought, I have 15 minutes before I have to leave for work.....let's try the Strat and single coils.  Oh, man.  The tones were awesome, still at 1w.  I had it set up in the garage, so as not to wake everyone up at 6:30am this morning, but the volume was very low and still had the tone. 
 
I have a lot more to test; 5w, full 18w, the Red Box out silent recording.....but so far....this may be my best hardware purchase in the last 10 years.  Others have reported that the Red Box out for silent recording is extremely usable.  If this ends up being the case, I see my amp sims taking a long break.

Excellent!  Thanks for sharing, Michael.  I've had my eye on the H&K meister heads, like I need another amp.  I got interested in Hughes & Kettner after seeing Rush live and hearing Lifeson's sound tear through Geddy's bass and the Professor's booming and crashing.  I never heard him sound so good (though it didn't improve his licks).  So it's good to hear a first hand review.  Please keep it coming.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

Congrats on the amp! Have you ever tried to record with it (or any head) going direct and using IRs for cabs? I think that would be an interesting test.

clintmartin
Congrats on the amp! Have you ever tried to record with it (or any head) going direct and using IRs for cabs? I think that would be an interesting test.

Hey Clint, No....not yet.....but that is next on my list.  It has the Red Box cabinet simulation build in for just that purpose.  My family has not been cooperating lately.    I have had some in-laws move in while their house is being painted (interior) and it seems like I have no personal space all of the sudden.   
 
Every-time I try to go fire it up in the last 2 days, seems like another emergency has occurred.  I'm hoping that things settle down this weekend.  

Oh cool, thanks Bob.  I honestly don't know yet how to use the Impulse Response for the mic.  Do you load that into a program to simulate the mic?  Does it just go into your FX bin, or does in need a host like S-Gear....maybe Perfect Space?

A little digging and I found Perfect Space listed somewhere as capable of loading IR files.  My installation shows Perfect Space as 32 bit though

I like NadIR as a cab loader.

Those are NICE amps. The poor mans Mesa Mark V and that is just in a manner of speaking, it's a great amp at a great price point! Nice!!
 
J