Hughes & Kettner Access Preamp

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? If you can't get a good sound out of this preamp, you need to stop playing! Editing patches are a breeze, everything is big button control, and none of that hidden password treatment with a rocket scientist degree that you need for Rocktron, Roland preamps! I have downloaded the manual off the internet with no problem! Never upgraded!

I use a 72 fender thinline telecaster, or a 71 Fender Strat, 1980 charvel jackson into this preamp with a Rocktron Voodu in the preamp loop. I use a Yamaha UD-1 for effects in the effects loop. Then I run this into the return loop of a Traynor YCV 50 blue amp with a extra greenback 12" speaker in a separate cab. Doesn't seem to be that noisy in live playing( which is what I like doing). I can get everything in the way of artists ( SRV, Santana, ZZ top, Steve Vai) except for the heaviest metal thus the Rocktron Voodu in the preamp loop. THe clean chanel is just right for what I do and the 2 tube channels have been described enough in this rating. I love all the things this preamp does. It fits all my needs.

I have never needed a backup with this preamp, but I always have the Rocktron VOODU valve in the preamp loop if needed. So far I haven't needed it as a backup. I would never use any preamp without a backup. That's just dumb to be without a backup. Ever have a power surge while playing. I have and it ain't pretty. What do you do without a backup in this situation. You go home. I Always keep a VOX tonelab in a computer bag in the truck for emergency should everything fry. Just plug in the house mains and keep going! Sounds pretty nice too!

I have always had good support from the company. They always turn me on to an outfit in the states who can answer your questions or fix your preamp. I had it repaired after 10 years when I was at home turned on preamp and smoke started coming out of unit. went to place recommended by H&K office. It was back in 2 weeks and worked perfectly!

I play blues , rock, and country. It does a good job for everything but the real hard metal. I have been playing for about 15 years and I own too much gear to list. I am an effects junkee. If it wre stolen or lost I would definitely want another one, but have you ever tried to find another one. Man talk about the holy grail. I love everything about it. I'm not proud. I love this preamp! I have had Boss/Roland preamps.. Rocktron prophesy, voodu valve, pihrana. tech 21 psa, and a thousand foot pedals ( boss, ibanez, botique and this baby does everything I want!

Access with Stageboard. The easiest midi controlled preamp I've ever used. Everything is right in front of you without hidden submenues, although Version 2 has a few burried for continuous control and other added features, like a numerical display to go along with the green LED's, version 1 doesn't have that, still very simple. I have both version 1 and version 2, and sound module A and B.

3 Channels-
1)Clean solid state
2)Tube Crunch
3)Tube High Gain.

3 effects loops
A)Series
B)Parallel with stereo returns
C)Parallel true stereo.

Plus a Preamp loop where you can switch a separate preamp in and out of the mix, and change its channel with the built in switches, I had a Soldano SP-77 that worked great here, now using a Triaxis with full midi implementation, along with a G-Major and a Marshall 9100.

While I've found no preamp that can get every sound I've ever wanted, this certainly gets some very nice tones. Within minutes you find great sounds. I'd put it somewhere between the ADA MP1 and the Triaxis. Much warmer and more musical than the Engl E580. Never muddy (I found that a TAD high gain low noise 12AX7 in V1 and a Tung Sol reissue in V2 sounded best out of about 2 dozen tubes I have laying around. Noise is no problem at all with a G-Major's noise gate, and even without it, it's better than most. There is a big difference between Sound modules A and B. A is much more 80's sounding, more like a Marshall. If you want Earth shaking bass with module A you will need a powerful amp like a 2:90 with a deep switch. I ran it with a Marshall 9100 and it wasn't enough. I play mostly Jackson USA King V's, a Les Paul might help with more bass. Module B is a different story, it is much more modern sounding. Way more bass punch than Module A. Module A is a little warmer sounding for lead guitar work, B will deliver more bottom end crunch for heavy rhythm work. B is also very warm too for lead, so overall I would choose B.

The clean channel was also changed by user requests to get rid of the compressor circuit so it could be driven into overdrive, which they did. I have no opinion here as I like my cleans clean, if I want overdrive I'll use channel 2, but I guess it does create another feature if you want something different with a mild solid state clip. You couldn't do that with Module A.

This is a players preamp, you won't have to tweak all day to find that "just right" sound, it all sound great, as opposed to spending countless hours with the Triaxis, there's more sounds in the Tri, but it takes allot longer to find them.

Haven't had any problems. I run it in combination with a Triaxis, so if one ever fails I can quickly switch to the other.

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly metal, this preamp has loads of useful features and is super easy to use. The distortions are superb, the clean sounds just as great. Is it the best I've ever tried? close to it. The Triaxis can do a little more because of the Dynamic voice feature, and it has more channels, but the tone controls on the Access have a much wider usable range, and if you feel the need, you can get the same effect and more with outboard EQ like what's in the G-Major, and there's no degradation of tone, it sounds great. I have about 30 years experience with guitar playing and have tried every midi controlled preamp worth mentioning. In comparason, if I could have only one, this would be it. I like the Triaxis too, I have version 2 with the fat mod and it sounds great, even better with the added preamp mid and treble boosts with the Access. The Access is so much easier to dial in though. I bought the Triaxis first cuz I couldn't find an Access, had it been the other way around I may have never bought a Triaxis as it has added allot to the confusion of programming 2 preamps now. They are different though and compliment each other very well.

I can't say I hate anything about it, everything about programming it is smooth and fast. The buttons all work very well, the sounds are great, you can call up any effect you have in any of the 3 loops in an instant, if you need another flavour, you can run another preamp in the preamp loop and switch between the two, still using all the features with the second preamp, and switches for changing channels on another preamp or poweramp like the 2:90 or Marshall 9100.

If you're looking for a preamp that has allot more to offer than the average and sounds great at an incredible price, look no further. This Access can hold its own with the likes of the Bogner Fish, CAE 3+ and Engl E580 at a fraction of the cost. Tone is in the ear of the beholder, and lets not forget the right set of tubes. While they aren't the same in any scense, the Access ranks up there with an astonishing tone and well thought out features. The Engl E580 is about the only other midi controllable preamp that even comes close to the features but falls short. Plus I found the Engl's tone great for metal rhythms, but sounded rather harsh and brittle for lead work in comparison to the Access's warm and singing lead tone. If you can find one you'll do a little better with Version 2 and sound module B. It can do everything 1A can do and more. Unfortunatly I've found many owners don't know what they have, version 2 is easy to figure out; on power up press and hold switch 2 while turning on the mains, a 2.00 will appear in the display. As for sound module B you either get lucky like I did or hopefully the owner you buy from can tell the difference. The $830 was for version 1A and it came with the original Hughes & Kettner Stageboard for changing presets. Version 2B was mint but had no Stageboard and I picked it up for about $750. These have been cheaper lately on eBay but I haven't seen anymore version 2B's since last Christmas '06, so I'd expect them to be a bit higher. The only way I would ever sell my 2B (incidently I sold 1A recently, didn't see the need to keep it and I have a midi pedel to change presets) would be if I could find a state of the art preamp that can do it all without tubes. I'm a tube freak and tone junky, so I won't be easy to please, but Fractal Audio has come out with a new product that is supoosed to be miles ahead of the competition, and I may give it a try. In order to afford it I'd have to sell my complete rack of Access, Triaxis and G-Major. I'm on their waiting list so only time will tell, we'll see. Clearing out 2 rack spaces is very tempting if it can do all of what I have now. It's quite pricey though.

I almost never give 10's in a review, and it doesn't mean the Access if perfect, but with other units getting 10's that aren't near as appealing, what else could I give it.

It has buttons instead of knobs, control depth 0 to 127 (128).
REALLY EZ to Change(editing) and save the patches. I don't think the one would not need any manual.

I use this gear for a recording session, so what I'm telling you is based on recording situations.

1. Noize
Knowing that all the tube gears have noize, still, I got to say this babe got some noize. And unfortuantely, this noize is not that easy to be eliminated.

2. Clean Channel

It's TR clean channel, it's not like fender clean, but it's worth way beyond its cost. Comparing other TR clean, Tech21's PSA-1 also has great clean sound, but I think ACCESS's clean sound is more natural. PSA-1 is just too much made up fender.

3. Crunch Channel (tube1)

Pretty nice crunch channel, good for les paul type humbucker sound.
Excellent for blues, also great for hard rock.

4. Lead Channel (tube2)

Heavy gain for metal. Sounds great, and once you hear this, you'd notice why people who own one call this "a Tri-Axis Killer".

For its price, All channels are valuable.
(actually more than that.)

Comparing other 1 or 2 rack size preamps, (PSA-1,JMP-1,Tri-Axis,etc)

I belive that ACCESS is the one of the most versatile preamp and worth the money. I strongly recommend to get one.

VERY easy to use!!!

- Absolutely friggin' basic sounds (IMO I never played anything better!)
- Hybrid midi preamp
- Kiddy simple programming and editing of your preferences
- 128 sound patches
- 4 band EQ with mid and treble boosts
- 3 channels (clean, tube1, tube2)
- 3 FX loops (2 stereo and 1 mono), 1 external preamp loop
- Operates 3 effect units and 1 exernal preamp at the same time
- Recording output (integrated red box)
- Internal denoiser
- Very detailled manual
- Latest firmware 2.01

I run my Access preamp with the H&K VS250 amp, that is designed and is perfectly matched with the sounds of the preamp. I read somewhere on this page that it must sound like heaven... And yeah, it does like hell and heaven at the same time! ;o) I mainly prefer Ibanez JEM and Jackson Guitars with a huge amount of output signals. Mostly equiped with DiMarzio pick-ups. I also use a Takamine accoustic guitar.

My setup:

Hughes and Kettner VS250 amp, Hughes & Kettner Access preamp, ADA MP-1 preamp, Digitech TSR-12, Rocktron Intellifex, Korg Tone Works tuner, Furman PL-Plus, 2x 4x12 Mesa standard cabinets, ProStage MIDI controller, Dunlop CryBaby, Bespeco volume pedals, Sure wireless system, Neutrik cables

In my case it really sounds, like it does for Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencourt, Eddie Van Halen, Kee Marcello, Steve Lukather, Paul Gilbert and stuff like that. No problem at all!

Like I mentioned above the preamp has 3 channels. The clean sound is over solid state and comes clear and bright, nice sparkling and very good EQ ranges. Sounds great for rock and pop ballads. Tube1 is a vintage sound channel for slightly distorted sounds. Would be nice for some blues... Tube2 has absolutely one of the fattest and smoothest sounds I ever heard. Sustain like hell...! Not comparable with the grainy and rough Mesa Rectifier sounds! There are two options for mid and treble boost as well, which saturate the sounds even more. The whole range of sound quality fits perfect for music from the 80's and 90's. This preamp was built for rock and pop music!!! I use it for ballads, fat distorted bottom sounds, clear, screamin' and singing leads and solos.

I assure that this is one of the best solutions for playing live! The dream for any kind of gigs! ;o) Never had any problems during a gig.

n/a 'cause I never had any problems! ;o)

Here's a photo of my guitar rig: http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b344/tgalbardi/GuitarRig.jpg

The H&K Access preamp will ever be my buddy! I use it since 1997 and tested a lot of other stuff. My Access operates with 2 of the 3 FX loops and uses an additional external ADA preamp to achieve a bigger broadband of sound. I play guitar for more than 20 years. IMHO I never heard anything better! And that's no joke! One of the hottest guitar preamps ever!!!

Don't forget... The preamp is only as good as its player!

Great distortions!! Great for any style of music.
I do have to confess the solid state cleans just don't do it for me. I like the Rock Master cleans better. The Access's cleaner tube channel doesn't get clean enough for me.

This preamp just pure puts a smile on my face. The sounds are rich with definition blah blah blah. But the the external preamp loop which turns ANY non MIDI preamp into a programmable preamp since the 'gain' adjustment is before the loop and the eq and 'master' is after is an incredible feature. The two programmable relays I use flawlessly with my Peavey Rock Master. Crank up the gain on each of the three channels and control it from the Access.
Even if this preamp sounded bad the external preamp loop feature alone justifies what I paid for this unit. Now I don't need a splitter, midi channel/relay switcher and I don't need a mixer. Plus this separate cable-mess setup would only allow for channel switching.
Three effects loops (one serial, two stereo parallel).It doesn't have a tuner out but I use the 'send' signal of the series effects loop to mute my signal while I tune.

It's been out of production for close to 20 years?

Never had to deal with them

I now have THE preamp that I need. They are getting (or always have been) hard to find. I see them on Ebay every 3-4 months or so.
It's gotta be one of the most under rated/appreciated preamps out there. They probably didn't sell a lot of them since the Yahoo group doesn't have much activity.

SIMPLE TO USE.SMOOTH EDITING STRAOGHT UP MANUAL.

LES PAUL CLASSIC,61 SG 57 STRAT.MARSHALL 9200 OR 20/20 DEPENDING ON ROOM.EFFECTS INCLUDE TC ELECTRONICS 2290,LEXICON PCM-70 DIGITECH DHP-33,VOX WAH EFFECTS LOOPS WORK GREAT.THIS UNIT KILLS THE TRI-AXIS

GIGS NON STOP.

VERY HELPFULL

I PLAY EVERYTHING FROM CLASSIC ROCK THROUGH THE 80S TO MODERN DAY.IF THIS PEICE WAS LOST OR RIPPED OF I WOULD REPLACE.

There's plenty of technique in this unit. I get along pretty good with th manual.

Various guitars: Brian Moore MC/1 (3X Seymour Duncan; Jackson Custom Shop USA (2X DiMarzio); Jackson Stealth (2X DiMarzio, 1X Jackson); Ibanez RG 770 (USA Ibanez')
Access Preamp (Boss Compressor in the loop) - Intellifex - Mesa/Boogie 2:90 - Marshall 1936 2X12 Cabinet
No noise at all - maybe because of the Hush of the Intellifex.
The Clean Channel (Solid State) is simply the best I've ever heard (10 points!). Very brilliant - great for pop or ballads. The two tube channels (1X American style; 1X British style) are also great, but you can find better ones - BUT NOT COMBINED IN TWO RACK UNITS WITH A CLEAN CHANNEL LIKE THIS ONE!!!
Try different tubes for the tube channels!

Had problems at ONE open air concert - needed a power station just for the access... . Total breakdown when I wasn't using it for a couple of months. That's all within the last 10, 11 years.

Asked for the manual - it came right away. No contact since.

The access is a complete workstation! I use plenty of the functions it delivers (switch 1&2 for the 2:90; Mono FX loop vor the compressor; Midi; treble boost; mid boost;...). If you're looking for one or two sounds, try a top. If you're looking for a veratile preamp with great features and sounds, this could be you're choice (compare with a marshall jmp1, boogie triaxis, vht-, soldano-, engl-preamps).

I'm running various Carvin/ESP custom humbucker guitars into this with a G-Force, VHT 2x50 amp, and have used several differnent cabs: Avatar with Eminence V12's, Recto 2x12 with V30's, VHT fatbottom and not-so-fat closed-back 2x12's, etc. For live use I ditch the stereo and use the VHT cabs one piled atop the other. It is clean, ticht, and f'in rocks. This preamp has the German metal idea of high-gain. It accomplishes it's high gain with just 2 tubes, compared to the cascaded gain stages of many other preamps using from 5-7 12ax7's. I However it does it this baby has high gain with more definition than I could ever find with countless other preamps I've owned, including Triaxis (I fiddled with that thing for 3 year and was THOUGHT I had good tone except for the "recto" mode, but this preamp found me finally selling it), Egnater IE4 (fantastic but I wanted really 2 channel 3's and 2 chan 4's with settings saved for live use), Rocktron Prophesy (an amazing all-in-1 box but just lacked something...), Mesa Formula (good studio amp for woman tones), Rocktron VoodoValve (not bad, bad doesn't respond to player nuance), etc. I love the somewhat clinical tonal signature coming from this for my style of progressive metal playing. Reminded me of my Engl 580, the best preamp I've ever had (job loss forced that sale). Chan 2 is what really makes me wet. If you know what you are doing, you know that the gain level you set at home at low volume will sound like garbage on stage. It will change everything with a cranked power amp and speakers moving a lot of air. So you'll set the gain no higher than 70 (of 128) or so on this channel and then you will NOT find it noisy -- unless you have crappy tubes. I recommend as did some otheres that you DO try different tubes. I'm using a Tesla and an old Chineese tube after much experimentation. I was hoping 1 tube applied to each of the 2 tube channels, but pulling 1 out left me with no ouput from wither chan, so I don't know where the tubes are in the curcuit. Bottom line though for me was plenty of gain with articulation. Of course amps and cabs make ALL the difference in any rack setup so don't despair if you don't like what you hear at first! I sold me Triaxis after I was sufficiently pleased with this box and haven't missed it much. It had a better (and much louder!) clean channel and the LD2 yellow was sweeeeet-- the best mode on that amp. Ideally I'd keep one in the rack and switch it in/out of the H&K's preamp loop when I wanted cleans or singing slow leads. However, the rack was getting too big to move by myself and my roadies are, uh....

Hey I don't know why the other reviewers felt compelled to review the Access under "Effects" so I'm going to walk alone here and put the review under "amps" where it belongs. Show me the effects....? However, I won't list all of the features again. Suffice to say that this preamp was a product of the big rack-of-doom days and as such has more switchable loops and midi functions than you could ever utilize. She's fully loaded. I don't use pedals at all so I never use the loops. I just run the output in series through my TC G-Force. Don't use the denoiser, don't need to. More on that below. If you don't have a box to do your MIDI switching or only need a few then this box will accomplish those tasks and save you the expense and a rackspace.

Not sure how old mine is but it's been going strong for the 6 months I've had it for. I have not brought backups along. I guess one good thing is that there's a lot less heat in the box with just 2 tubes.

I own a crapload of gear and change my racks all the time. I do think this is a keeper for sure but want to try out a Soldano X99 if I can ever find a used one (no longer in production). All I know is that when I start powering up my rig I start smiling and get real excited, and that's what it's all about eh?

My Setup: Epiphone Flying-V -> Attax Preamp -> Zoom 9150 in Effects Loop -> BEHRINGER - PEQ2200 EQ -> cheap solid state Poweramp with Chorus (!!!) -> 2x12 Stereo Box
3 channels: Clean, crunch, lead.

Clean channel is solid state, but sounds pretty good for that. But I rather use the crunch channel at low gain for my clean sound (that adds nice warmth to it and sounds more interesting to me).

The Lead channel sounds very good to me, never had a better sound (but I used real crap before I had this unit).

This unit has an amzing sound, but just if you use it with an EQ .
Without EQ it sounds muddy with no brilliance at all.

The Sound Of my Poweramp Chorus adds an incredible ambience aspect to my sound (although the attax has a stereo effects loop I don't use it very much).

I give it an 8 because it just sounds good with my EQ and my chorus. I dont like it's sound without these effects, neither clean nor dirty. But in combination with my EQ and chorus the attax provides the sound I searched for years.

Never broken, no problems at all.

Never had to deal with them.

I play alternative stuff with some heavy sounds and much clean sounds. With my setup I get every sound I need. I would NEVER replace my Attax with something else. If it's broken, I need a new one.

It's self explanatory, yet offers the whole range of sounds at a press of a button. Thats the way its meant to be. No traps, no annoying bugs.

I use an Epiphone Les Paul Custom, Access Preamp and a Tube 50 Top as an external Preamp (for clean tube sound), a Korg A3 that covers most of the sounds you could think of and a Hughes & Kettner VS 250 2x50 W Tube Power amplifier. The Access preamp is exceptionally quiet even with a cranked up power amp, which testifies for excellent engineering. The tube 1 channel behaves much like Marshall JCM800, the tube 2 goes Soldano, so what more could be your desire ? A powerful CLEAN Tube channel (provided externally, s.a.)

I own the Access for two months, nothing can be said about this yet from my point of view.

Same as above, except all emails were answered to the best of their knowledge. Unfortunately, the Access was discontinued years ago, so it was not possible to get the bankloader Software from H&K. Solution: PLEASE join the User group at: groups.yahoo.com/group/hkaccess and share your experiences and / or software with others. I founded this group some days ago so please DO JOIN and give it some time to develop.

I play top 40, which was basically (re-)started this year, so from the instrumental part I'm a rookie. Yet with the kind of hardware I own, the only limit that I reach is myself ;-) and I think Im developing..