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Alright dudes.

What are peoples experiences with this amp? There is one going for £700 ($1200ish). I know the MKII seems pretty highly lauded, but i haent heard much aout the first one. Obviously its not as pretty, but hey, its an amp.

Thanks for any advice,

Rich

I own one. I have the 'rare' comboversion that was only produced in 1995, for a short while (only 500 made). What makes mine extra special, is that it has the 6L6 power tube option (stock was EL34, but mine's a production 6L6-type, recommended tube types are engraved in the chassis).

It's a killer amp! Clean is excellent (and REALLY clean up to pretty high gain settings), really sparkles, very dynamic too. Channel 1B is a bit darker voiced and has a nice warm growl to it. Sounds especially awesome with singlecoils, but a warm low output humbucker will do nicely too.
Amp 2 is the only downside for me. Channel 2A rocks, it has that bright but chunky Marshall Plexi-vibe, but channel 2B is really dark and fuzzy. As they share an EQ, it's hard to find a tone you like on one of the two, that will also sound good on the other one. And due to the shared mastervolume for these two channels, you cannot turn the gain of 2B down without volume loss.
Amp 3 is awesome. Channel 3A is very open and dynamic, while channel 3B delivers big fat chunky balls-to-the-walls of distortion.

There's only two real drawbacks for me, that's the trouble of getting a good sound from channel 2B (so I don't use that channel, I like 2A a lot but just can't get a tone from it that will also sound good on 2B) and the reverb. The reverb is excellent, but it's not footswitchable and the level control is on the rear of the amp (why, Hamp;K, why?).
But all in all, it's still an amazing amp.

Cool, im a warm fuzzy distortion kinda guy anyway. I might see if i can get some time with it. Cheers for your help.

Wow Jeroen, I knew Hughes amp; Kettner's Mk 1 Triamp had 6L6s (I used to own an EL-34 one), but I thought the Mk II was all EL-34s.

I think they're fantastic amps. These are not for bedroom practicing, but they definitely own live. Great Fender-esque cleans on Channel 1a, Channel 1b gets a little quot;pushedquot; sounding, 2a gets a great vintage plexi tone, 2b is a bit dark and muddy to my ears (I never could get it to sound right, just used to ignore it), 3a gets some great modern rock overdrive and 3b is just a thick, articulate lead channel.

It is heavy, it's loud and it takes a whole lot of tubes, but if you have the opportunity to crank it often, it's a great investment. At $1200, that amp is a steal, I'd jump on it in a second myself


Originally Posted by the_ChrisWow Jeroen, I knew Hughes amp; Kettner's Mk 1 Triamp had 6L6s (I used to own an EL-34 one), but I thought the Mk II was all EL-34s.

I hope you didn't misunderstand me, I have a Mk 1 too. I own a 1995 Mk 1 2x12 combo, with two Celestion G12H100's. The Mk II is indeed all EL34, there's no 6L6-option available anymore.Originally Posted by the_ChrisThese are not for bedroom practicing, but they definitely own live.

I can get it to sound very good at bedroom level volumes too. Works for me


Originally Posted by JeroenI hope you didn't misunderstand me, I have a Mk 1 too. I own a 1995 Mk 1 2x12 combo, with two Celestion G12H100's. The Mk II is indeed all EL34, there's no 6L6-option available anymore.

Yep, that's why you said back in 1995, I should have known something wasn't adding up
I can get it to sound very good at bedroom level volumes too. Works for me

Cool, maybe the 6l6s simply sound better at lower volumes than the EL-34s. The nice thing about the Mk II Triamp is the half power switch. That will definitely help get some more bedroom level sounds. 100w of 4-EL-34s and something like 9 preamp tubes just ended up being too much power, but it was incredible sounding when I got those power tubes to really saturate.

What's the diff between the MKI and II?


Originally Posted by Benjy_26What's the diff between the MKI and II?

The Mk II is voiced different, has no reverb anymore and looks different (finished in black tolex, with brushed aluminium frontpanel with blue backlight behind the knobs and the frontpanel). That's about it, I believe.


Originally Posted by JeroenThe Mk II is voiced different, has no reverb anymore and looks different (finished in black tolex, with brushed aluminium frontpanel with blue backlight behind the knobs and the frontpanel). That's about it, I believe.

Yep, Channel 1 is handled a bit different. The preamp volume controls 1A and the master volume controls 1B. Channel 2 was completely revoiced (Channel 2B was no longer a disappointment) and Channel 3 was tweaked slightly.

The Mk II Triamp also added the half power switch. Like Joroen said, the reverb is absent on the Mk II (not sure why, the Accutronics system on the Mk 1 wasn't too shabby). The Mk II without a shadow of a doubt, is the sweetest looking amp I've ever seen. There's just something so incredibly cool and you know you've got something special as soon as you power it up.