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..

Fairly simple 3 channel preamp with midi control. Mine has version 2.01 firmware.

This is _so_ subjective and dependant on numerous variables starting with the choice of tubes. There are two 12ax7 preamp tubes which can be changed to reflect the tone and gain characteristics you desire. Mullard or Electro-Harmonix are good choices. I would recommend experimenting with different varieties of tubes to find what you like. The Tube 2 channel is capable of distortion in the vein of Soldano and Mesa. The only difference that I hear is that there seems to be less headroom in the saturation. I do think that the European heritage of H&K shows in the preamp design. The sound isn't especially fat but more clinical and precise (if that makes sense). The de-noiser only works with the boost functions turned off. While this seems a bit odd, in truth there dosen't seem to be much of a change with it on or off. The power amp will make a huge difference in your final sound. Choose a smoother tube power amp to offset the aggressive tone. I give the sound an 8 because I have never found something that, day-in and day-out, gives exactly what I want.

The Access seems fairly stout but it should be protected in a shock case as the PCBs and tubes aren't as tough as the metal and switches. No reason to gig w/o backup because the Access has a switchable external preamp loop which I use with a racked Mesa head. If the tubes failed, The Mesa can take over.

Apparantly H&K are not exactly regarded as customer-centric, but I have never known of anyone needing repair work that could vouch for them either way.

I have a rackmount Mesa head and a rackmount Peavey Rockmaster preamp that share the rack with the Access. They all sound different to me which is why I have them. Nothing sounds like a Mesa; that pinched nasal-toned Santana distortion and glistening Fenderish clean tone both have great headroom and the Access can't mimic it. The Peavey has a looser Marshall type high-gain tone that really can't be precisely replicated. The Access has a character of its own and it deserves to be judged on that alone. It is capable of getting in the ballpark when trying to duplicate your favorite artist. Will it nail it? Can't really say. I bought it for versatility and it does that well. However, I am still waiting for the preamp of my dreams. It does 85-90% of what it is asked. That seems good enough to keep it. If you can find one, go ahead and snag it! It dosen't suck.

I use a 59 paul with pafs, hamer centaura, hamer steve stevens, 57 strat, 83 max les paul through this rig, Kid Korina V replica. I used this rig though a strategy 400, a duncan KTG-2100 power amp, vht2150 poweramp, 2 ADA 2-12 slant cabs loaded with EVM 12's, 2- Marhsall 4-12 cabs Loaded with celestion vintage 30's. This was my main rig for gigs 8 years, playing style, blues, fusion, heavy metal, hardrock.

This preamp is smoking hot, you can get nearly any sound you could ever want from plexi crunch to smokin hot beyond overdrive hell soldano hot rod tones. the beautiful thing about this preamp is that you can pick any tonal setting save it and then recall it up, there is a 128 settings, I only used 48 of them, and I only really used 2 banks, maybe 12 settings at most. I chained my intellifex black face to my Access and was able to instantly call up any efx that I wanted with each setting, this preamp totally smokes! I can't say you can get exact tones of tweeds, dumbles or and old blackface, or even a roland jazz chorus, but you can get remarkably close.

The front panel features from left to right: Input jack, Headphone Jack, Headphone volume level, Gain, Master, Balance(for left/right balance), volume, bass, mid, treble, precense, treble boost button, mid boost button, LED display, Clean mode select, Tube 1 Select, Tube2 Select, Channel Up/Down Select, Midi Channel Selector, Midi Program Selector, Midi Rcv Selector, Switch 1, Store button, FX A selector, FX B selector, FX C selector, Switch 2, Mains(power switch).
Programming is not as complex as you might imagine... it would take some time to get into this, but believe me its pretty user friendly :).

Before I get into it I want to say I mentioned a few Poweramps I used this with, by FAR this preamp sounded best with the VHT 2100 and the KTG2100, it just didn't sound as good with the Mesa Strategy IMHO. Running this rig stereo with my 2 Marshall 4 X 12 was by far the best as well. The ACCESS only sounds as good as the poweramp you run this thing through.

The Tube 1 and Tube 2 channels are flawless, and they can get nearly any sound you want if you are patient. I was able to get nice Hendrix, Blues breakers, Cream and Bad Company tones from TUBE 1 channel, and I got Ozzy, Metallica, Van Halen Brown Sound, from the TUBE 2 channel. Couple this with the fact that you can add any effect you desire from your favorit efx unit... you get the idea, you can go from VAI to Carlton by stomping on your footswitch. I'd give these 2 Tube channels 10/10 for their versitility.

Im going to give the sound on this preamp a 9, which says its pretty stront, but I would have given it a 10 had I been totally happy with the clean channel.... the clean channel was ok, pretty decent and passable, but, it just lacked the punch and clarity I had hoped for, I wanted a clean channel with lots of head room, but this channel is extremely soft compared to the other two channels. The way the clean channel is set up you can't get any overdrive out of it no matter how you set the gain and the master. Supposedly once you kick the gain up past 1/2 the H&K will kick in a compresser... I could get a decent enough sound out of it, but it just felt like I was not getting all the OOOMPH out of the channel that I felt it should give, I played with the setting extensively trying to get a nice sustainy, compressed clean tone, but never could get remotely close. If you're looking for a clean that you can use for things like the intro to Stairway or for Rock Ballads, then it will serve its purpose. If you want to use this channel for jazz musings, I don't think its strong enough. I'd give this channel a 6.5-7.0 out of 10.0... seems that the clean channels in a lot of preamps have this same problem. I found myself using the tube 1 channel as my clean in most situations.

This preamp is quiet, and versitile, I passed on a Bogner Fish and went with the Access because it sounded fairly close incomparison to the Bogn

This is essentially a 3 channel Preamp, solid state(for clean), tube1(for clean to crunch), tube 2(for crunch to metal). More features than you could ever want! Midi switching, acts as a midi controller for non midi preamps and effects. has 3 seperate effects channels all remotely switchable with optional access floor board or throught the front panel.

I have had this preamp since 1990, and it still is going strong, no problems at all, well made solid and excellent craftsmanship makes this a pro's dream.

Luckily I have a local rep and he has been great, I have had absolutely no problems whatsoever with any questions or acquiring eprom upgrades.

I have been playing for 23 years, I have owned/still own numerous preamps and amps, pre cbs black face twins, deluxes, super twins, 50's tweed deluxe, champ, bassman. Mesa Boogie Mark1, Mark II, Mark III, Marshall Plexi 50(small chasis), Marshall 100 Plexi(jmp), Laney AOR100, Ada MP1, MARSHALL JMP1, Egntar IE4, Egnater M-4, Kahsa Rockmod2, SOLDANO Hotrodded JCM100, Bogner xtc.... you get the idea...

If this were stolen or lost, I would have to get another, its indispensible and I can't think of another preamp that offers this versitility without adding modules or having to worry about fiddling with settings while performing.

Like I said I tried this next to a Bogner Fish, and at the time I ultimately chose this one over that, I personally think that my favorite Preamp is the EGNATER IE4, but as versitile as the IE4 is, the ACCESS is simply hard to beat in a live situation, if you need a wide tonal variety in your arsenal. In our situation we played anything from AOR rock, to HEAVY METAL, and every point in between, so I needed this kind of versitily in one rig, and this thing delivered and still does deliver. I have gone through lots of preamps and amps, but this has remained a staple in my collection to give you an idea of how attached I am to this thing. I have actually considered having someone at H&K mod the clean channel to get it up to snuff of the two 2 channels, if they could have gotten that right this would rate an easy 10. I wish I could get the same clean sound that I get out of my Egnater IE4... if I could this would be ultimate.

One note, it also depends on the kind of tubes you put in the Access too, believe me don't be cheap about tubes, and as I also mentioned before, using a quality poweramp is essential. My favorite Power amps are the VHT2150 and the KTG-2100.

If you want to check out all the features this preamp has, then go check the H&K site, they have a copy of the users manual there.....

These are apparently quite rare and are no longer being produced by H&K, if you find one you can steal it for about 500-700 bucks with a switch board, these are underdogs and sleepers, people have told me that because this is a hybrid of sorts, because all the tone and switching is electronic that it could not sound as good as a Egnater or a Fish, well I have to disagree, this thing is fantastic, and if you're willing to play with this thing, you'll find that you can obtain nearly any sound imaginable... this thing probably will never be obsolete, in a way I think H&K went backwards, Im surprised that they never took this ACCESS and built an amp around it using some its features.

Overall a 10... considering what you can get these for now... you'll be pleasantly surprised and simply delighted!!! YEEHAW.... :)

Interface is pretty straight-forward (aside from the MIDI programming): gain, volume, balance, 4 band EQ, pre-gain stage mid and treble boosts. 3 channels (solid state clean, tube 1, and tube 2). The 3 effect loops are really handy, 1 mono serial loop for stomp boxes and 2 stereo parallel loops for rack effects, which can be switched on/off per patch. Room for 128 patches, I can't imagine what you'd do with all those, but too much is always better than not enough. My unit has software version 2.1, the latest upgrade which adds a few features (mostly MIDI stuff). Hughes and Kettner is a German company so the manual is oddly worded, but it tells you what you need to know. 2 12ax7 tubes. The LED chains are pretty cool if you're into light shows and people asking "what's that??". Considering this unit came out in the early 90's I give it a 9 for features/ease of use.

I'm using this with my Mesa 50/50. I tried it out in the store with a 20/20 and it actually sounded better through that (smoother, less harsh and honky in the mid-range). My other preamp is a Rocktron Voodu Valve, which I thought would be blown away by the Access but they're really competing side by side right now. The Access's clean channel is solid state, it has a compressed feel to it (which can be good or bad, depending on your taste). The tube 1 channel goes from a tube clean (you can tweak it to get a decent Fender-ish sound out of it) to a pretty high gain fuzz sound (think a Vox-y/Marshall sort of crunch). The tube 2 channel is where it gets a little tricky. I'm really suprised about the reviews here that say this preamp can't get that real high-gain Mesa sound. Whoever owned it before me had the first 30 or so patches set up to insanely high-gained ear-splitting chaotic noise. I've experimented with a Mesa TriAxis (and owned other Mesa amps) and the sound is VERY similar. Very well defined, chunky, thick, piercing highs, this thing absolutely SCREAMS with the bridge pickup on, the only thing I'd say it's lacking in this department is that infamous Mesa accented mid-range sound. But alas, this is the LAST thing I want to do with this preamp. I was enthused by the apparent versatility at first, but when I tried to get a lower gain setting in this channel, it just stopped sounding like a guitar. Turned to mud and yuck. After a few hours of tweaking, and trying every combination of about 8 tubes I had lying around, I finally got something along the lines of what I was looking for. A smooth overdrive tone that actually sounded like my axe. My advice for this channel would be to use the mid and treble boosts (these really help get it out of the mud as they're both pre-gain). Also the EQ works a little wierd, but it's voiced well and it's really where ALL of the tone comes from in this channel.

Overall, this unit is giving my Voodu Valve some friendly competition. Although it lacks some of the configurability (and of course, the built in effects) of the Voodu, it holds its own; and after some tweaking I was able to get some sounds out of it that I was happy with.
The Access responds VERY well to a guitar's volume and tone knobs. When switching pickups I hear a change in the voice of my axe that NO preamp (or amp, for that matter) I've ever tried has brought out before.

Well, I've only had it for a few days now, but it's been around for 10 years or so, and it's been used a lot from the looks of the pedal board and the back of the unit. So far the only problem I've had is one of the bass adjustment buttons doesn't click (it works, and it doesn't stick; it just doesn't click like the others). As far as gigging without a backup, it depends on the gig.

Never tried. From what I've heard these guys are pretty difficult to get ahold of. I imagine the fact that this is a discontinued product would make it even more difficult.

I've been playing for 10+ years, bought and sold a lot of equipment, and I'm pretty happy with the Access. I play improv' style funk/groove, classic rock, blues, jazz, fusion, southern rock, etc. I've only had this thing for a few days but it gives me a good feeling and I think I'll be hanging on to it for a while. It mates well with my Mesa 50/50 (4 6l6's), although I think it would sound better with a power amp w/ some softer tubes (el34's, even el84's) as it has an unsuprisingly European flavour.
It's not the holy grail of tone, but it sounds good.
It has some unique (and USEFUL) features that you'd be hard pressed finding in a modern preamp.

I'll use several Fender Stratocasters customized with mostly EMG pickups (HSS)
and that works great for me. I'm sure this amp will sound great with every guitar in every style. The music I'll play is mostly rock- oriented, so the tubes must burn like #@*+*@!! And they do !! Mayby not like a $ 3000 Mesa Boogie, but it sounds realy heavy !!
I'm still looking for a H+K VS-250 power-amp, cause this combi must sound like heaven and hell at the same time.

The H&K Acces is an fully programmable pre-amp with 128 user presets.
It's kinda like the Mesa Boogie Triaxx, but with 3( 2 stereo+1mono! ) effect-loops and two switch-inputs.You can choose between the tube-channels; clean, tube 1 and tube 2. Beside the usual e.q. volume, master,balance and gain, it also got an extra treble boost, a mid-boost and a precence fuction. The amp has two built-in Red Boxes, so you can go direct to the mixing console in a live or studio situation. It simulates a 4x12" speaker cab, and it's sounding realy great. I'll never use extra mike's, it keeps the stage clean from a jungle of mike-stands :-)It also has an noisegate built-in wich you cab turn on at the back of the amp (Why not on the front ??, Mayby because it's the only thing you can not program)
To program the amp is realy realy simple. Every part (like treble, bass, channel, everything !) has it own 2 knops. One for up one for down. So it's not the usual way of turning knops, but you slide, like the volume of your tv-remotecontrol. Every function has his own green led-slide, wich will lid up the higher/louder you put the amp. There's also an small display wich show's the level (between 000-127)
Just make your sound push store, and it's ready ! It's that simple.
No scrolling trough 600 menu's to make a nice sound.
I use to have a Digitech 2120 Artist, but you need to be a computer programmer to make a nice preset.Not me anymore !!

I'm not in the upportunity to take two rig's on a gig, so if it will brake down, i've got a problem. So far so good. I think the amp is weel-built. I bought this one second hand from someone who likes to use combo's again, but he use to have it for 6 years and never had a problem with it. So also this part is rating a 10

Never needed to contact them about this amp, but I'll use to know them, and the compagny is verry relaible.

This is actualy my second Acces, The first one I sold, because I thought I was better of with a Digitech 2120. That was a big mistake ! So I sold the Digitech and had to find a Acces again. That was hard, cause if you got a amp like this you dont wanna loose it. Because I'm a 19"Rack-Freak I like to use a lot of gear. (I like all the lights, and the Acces is the ultimate Cristmas tree !!), so I'll use the Acces together with an Lexicon MPX-1 and a TC-electronic G-Force on the two stereo FX-loops, and a Morley Wah/Volume on the mono loop. Also a Korg DTR-1 Racktuner,Behringer Ultrafex II and a TC-electronic Triple C (Mono compressor)are in the rack. On this moment I'm still looking for a good power-amp. I use to have a Marshall 9100, but I thought it was to big. The H+K VS-250 seemed to be the perfect amp for it, but is also verry hard to find seccond hand.

As the previous reviewers have already stated, this is one of the most easy to use programmable preamps around. The green LED chains really are great to visualize your settings. Most of the other buttons (those that are not for tone controls) have status LEDs. FYI, I have also software 2.01.

The ACCESS is really the Feature-rama of the rack fanatic. When building this preamp, the developers at H&K thought of nearly everything. It has the most impressive feature list of any programmable rack pre I know.

Three preamp channels of its own (more on them at "sound Quality")

Two different boost circuits (mid and treble boost) which are located before the gain control and thus before the preamp (that's the place where they belong). Those are individually activated by their own status switches.

One "preamp loop" where you can insert your own preamp of choice, should the ACCESS have not enoguh flexibility for you. This preamp loop alone is worth a few more lines. First, its send jack is transformer-insulated. That means you won't have problems with a ground loop with your external preamp. Great! Second, the send is located *after* the gain control and the boost. Its return is also located *before* the ACCESS's EQ section. This way your external preamp becomes programmable. Even greater!

The 4-band graphical EQ of the ACCESS is also great, more on that later.

Besides of the preamp loop, this thing has *three* FX loops, all individually switchable. Loop A is a mono serial loop. It is switched at its return. Loop B is a parallel loop with mono send and stereo return. It is switched at its return, too. With the combination of those you can make a serial loop that's mono send and stereo return. Just connect Loop A's send to your FX units input and its outputs to the returns of Loop B. Activate both loops.
What's more, there is also Loop C, which is a parallel full stereo FX loop which is switched at the sends.

The ACCESS has also two switching jacks, to switch, for example the channels on an external preamp or whatever needs to switched. Those have their own status buttons, also.

It's MIDI capabilities are nice, too. It can for each of its own patches send *four* different program changes on *four* different MIDI channels. You can control quite an array of external gear with it. All of the ACCESS's settings are stored within each preset. Switching between presets is very fast (almost instantaneous), and your signal is not muted. No dropouts while you play.

You get also two line level speaker simulation outputs which use a circuit similar to the Red Box. These are OK, but I like my ADA MicroCab better.

OK, so this thing is very flexible. But it has its own character, it's not just a "sound's like" like so many of those new digital boxes that just try to emulate what's been there before.

It's clean channel is solid state. This doesn't bother me at all since it sounds great. Better than most all-tube clean channels I've heard (no joke here!). It can be really warm and fat, or nice sparkly with really brilliant trebles. If you push up the gain control, are compressor/limiter circuit is gradually enabled. This makes your tone fatter and is great for funky rhythms and the like. If you turn the gain up high and drive the ACCESS with a hot pickup, the clean channel starts to clip in a pretty pleasant way.

The Tube 1 channel goes from tube clean (and really good tube clean it is) to medium-gain lead sounds. It has a defined mid range response, and it does not have such ridiculous bass response like the Tube 2 channel. The overdrive/distortion on tube 1 is very harmonic, complex chords are no problem. Also, all of the ACCESS's channels respond very well to volume knob or pickup changes. It's touch sensitive! The whole thing does not steal the character of the guitar connected to it.

Tube 2 ranges from crunch to really high gain. It is differently voiced than Tube 1. If I had to describe the ACCESS's distortion with a single word, I'd say "thick". Of course, this thing sounds really fat, but it also does not get wobbly or loose. The tone stays firm and "muscular", it gets not mushy. Again, chords don't end up in mud. The two boost circuits add to the flexibility, because they're located before the preamps. That way, they change the "character" of the distortion and not only its sound like a post-gain EQ. If you activate the treble boost, for example, the attack of the strings gets more pronounced, something which you can't achieve with post-gain eq.

The eq is very effective. The frequency bands are just at the right places for a guitar sound, although they act a bit different than on other amps. First, I'd have given them other names. I'd have named them bass, low mid, high mid, treble, not bass, mid, treble, presence, which is a bit misleading IMO. A presence knob is a power amp feature in my book, and the actual treble control does influence the high mids which are so important for guitar tone. But that's just nitpicking, the EQ is great. It's very effective, but since you can adjust every band in 128 steps, it also allows very subtle adjustments.

The previous reviewer mentioned that the ACCESS "won't give you that cranked-to-ten super-buzzy Mesa Boogie gain". Well, although I agree that it doesn't sound exactly like MESA high gain, it's gain reserves are quite high. I never use the full gain of Tube 2, because it is simply too much. But the preamp tubes really make a difference. I experimented with different tubes and ended up using one Sovtek 12AX7WA and one Sovtek 12AX7WB in it. These fit my taste quite fine. But they produce a slightly higher gain in the tube channels than the tubes I got with the unit - (two 12AX7A) which weren't the original tubes anymore, too.

The ACCESS is very quiet, too. It has a built in denoiser, which works with a quiet guitar and as long as the boost circuits are not enabled (those lift the noise floor so that the gate's threshold is too low then).

I use this preamp with a Mesa/Boogie studio preamp in the preamp loop which works simply great and gives me two more tone characteristics (the Mesa's clean and it's Mesa high gain, so I can have that, too).
For FX I use a Waldorf X-Pole dual filter (in the serial loop) and a TC G-Force (in the parallel loop C). The poweramp is the Hughes&Kettner VS250 which was developed together with the ACCESS and compliments it nicely.
The cabinets are Mesa/Boogie "road ready" 1x12s with Electro Voice EVM12L speakers. My main guitar is a PRS Custom 24.

This thing is an example of fine workmanship. All the buttons are standard microswitches which a) last forever normally and b) should one break can be easily replaced. The whole manufacturing quality is very high.
The master volume fader is high quality, too. No scratching or noises, although the preamp is several years old now. I've had no problems with the unit so far, and I hope I'll never have any, since they're out of production. I owned this thing now for 1 1/2 years. I'll give it an 8 because you never know...

They send me a printed manual once. At another time, they didn't answer my call. I have mixed feelings about the support, so I give it a 6.

I love this unit. It has loads of features, great tones, is easy to use. I really cannot understand why Hughes&Kettner doesn't make them anymore. They were really expensive when new, though, so maybe they simply didn't sell enough. I really hope that someday they'll make an ACCESS Mark II. They're rare. But really great. Especially since they're going for really good prices used now. So I give it a 10 and I will look out for a second one as a backup unit.

The access preamp is very easy to use -- probably the easiest midi guitar preamp around. All of the tone settings are available on the front panel. There are generally two buttons for each tone control - one button to increase a value of a setting and one to lower the value. Also, each tone setting is represented by one or more LEDs on a vertical 8 led bar. For example, when a high setting is active, the top LED is lit. When the setting is off or at 0, no LEDs are present for that option. There are 7-8 of these led bars on the front panel for gain, master volume, high, mid, low, presence, etc.

The LED layout is very innovative because you can basically look over at the preamp from a distance and get a general idea of the settings of the preamp.

The manuals are available from Hughes And Kettner's web site. My access has hardware version 2.01.

The Access is the easiest preamp that I've used to get a good sound from it. Unlike every other preamp I've used, it's hard to get an unusable sound from it. There are three preamp settings (clean, tube 1, and tube 2.) The fact that it's difficult to get a *bad* sound from it really shows that H&K spent a lot of time optimizing and tuning the tone/preamp settings for electric guitar.

The H&K Access has a very unique sound and I'll try to provide an objective and accurate description here.

The previous poster said that the H&K is unsuitable for ultra-high gain applications .. and that his preamp squeals at high volumes. I think he might need new preamp tubes :-)

I've owned ADA preamps and a Mesa Boogie amp that provided higher gain. The H&K's gain setting stops at the point where the tone gets overly fizzy or buzzy. It is clear that the designers designed it this way intentionally. I'd say that the H&K is certainly suitable for rock/metal applications but it won't give you that cranked-to-ten super-buzzy Mesa Boogie gain. I don't think that this will be a problem for most players. Keep in mind that this preamp has been used by many pros (like Tony MacAlpine and Brett Garsed) that rely on a killer high gain sound.

The Access' clean sounds are very good. It won't emulate a cranked Fender amp but it will give you nice, fat, round (and warm) clean tones. Increasing the preamp gain adds some nice warm distortion to the clean sounds. I like the clean sounds as much as the Mesa Boogie Mark IV I traded for the preamp.

I haven't spent much time with Tube 1, but it's a mid-drive rhythm sound. I think that it's designed to cop a cranked Marshall sound, kind of like a JCM 800 tone. From what I've heard, I prefered the Rhythm channel on my old Mark IV compared to the Access.

I've spent most of my time with the Tube 2 high gain settings, and in my opinion this is where the Access really shines. The high gain sounds are some of the best that I've heard.

The sounds here are much like a combined Marshall/Mesa. The natural tone of the Access is very touch sensitive, fat, and warm. There is a lot of harmonic complexity to the sound here. The mid band frequencies have a bouncy/bubbly nature that are very unique. Playing a guitar with a neck humbucker is very unique and expressive. Another outstanding feature is the string-to-string clarity is fantastic. The high gain sounds are not blurred and mushy. The sounds here are not stale like many other preamps that I've owned.

Compared to my old Mesa Mark IV, I think that the H&K high gain sounds are thicker and have better string clarity.

You can get a loose/choppy marshall sound by reducing the gain setting and deactivating the mid and treble boosts.

Another favorite setting is a high gain setting with the treble brought to zero but the presence pegged. It's a very unique expressive "dark" sound, kind of like Frank Gambale's early 90s sound.

I use the Access with a Peavey classic 60/60 (6L6 power) and a Peavey 5150 4x12 cabinet.

Noise levels are about average.. It's much quieter than most high gain preamps that I've used but about the same as my Mark IV.

N/A here. I've owned the Access for several months but not long enough to know for sure.

I have left the Access on for many hours at a time and have noticed that it gets pretty hot when left on. I don't know if this will have any affect on long term reliability.

I've mailed H&K with some technical questions when I received the preamp and haven't received a reply yet. I hope they'll be more responsive if my Access breaks and I need technical assistance!

This is one fantastic preamp! They seem to be pretty rare, so if you can find one, check it out. I'd definitely replace it if it were stolen. There is nothing that I dislike or hate about it. It sounds really great and it's easy to dial up unique and good sounds. The UI is innovative, intuitive, and easy to use. It's definitely the best sounding tube preamp that I've owned.

Its quite easy to use..i have the 2.0 software and the patch editing and saving is downright simple.. it might take a while to get a good sound.. but experiment you'll get it.. i took me only 40 min to get what i liked.. and i found it in a the most unusual place as always!
just bought mine used.. and have only had it a couple days so i haven't really got into the midi controls so i give it an 8 because of that.

Well .. now here is where there is some discrepincy .. i play extremely heavy and distorted music.. and i heard that this comes close to a triaxis.. well. i absolutely disagree.. the triaxis stomps this into the ground... i mean the distortion is ok.. but just not of the gain of the triaxis.. i use it through a peavey 50/50 -> a peavey 5150 and a marshall cab.. the clean sound i think is great.. very customizable.. and can achieve a wide range of sounds... When i use this thing on high gain..get out the ear plugs. cause if i stop playing i get loud squeels although this is expected off of high gain tube distortion...overall i give it a 9 because for most people its a dream.. for me its ok

can't tell yet..

emailed them about a control pedal.. and got quick help ..great1!

I play grind/noise/hardcore. and its not bad.. but it could be better if your looking for insanely hi gain.. this wouldn't be my first choice... but its not bad with some tweaking.. its just a great quality preamp .i would recommend this just for the quality and overall versatility i'd buy it again.. if i was rich and could afford another preamp to boost the gain a little. the clean i think is great.. especially for solid state. and you can even use the second-midgain channel for tube clean which also sounds great.thats probably my favorite thing about this preamp. that and the EQ section..i love the real time changing. storing presets is fast and easy. i've had a digitech rp-7 before this and the RP had a little punchier distortion. but wasn't of this quality or comprehensiveness
the rp-7 just tried to do to much so it sounded weak in the end.
overall it gets a 9..

As MIDI preamps go, this is about as easy as it gets. The most commonly used functions (EQ, gain and volume levels, preamp modes, boosts, etc.) have dedicated buttons -- no futzing through menus. All editable values range from 0 to 128. The preamp gain, bass, middle, treble, presence and stereo balance settings have LED step- ladder displays that give you a graphical picture of your basic patch setup. This is *extremely* handy because you can just glance at the front panel and see an approximation of all you primary settings.
When you delve deeper into the MIDI functions (continuous controllers and what not) the buttons have other functions and that can have you pulling out the manual to figure things out -- but truthfully, most people never get that deep into programming their gear. The manual itself is good -- clear and fairly concise. Although some of the illustrations could be better designed.

With the Access preamp, I use a Mesa Boogie 2:90 power amp, a Lexicon LXP-15 effects unit, a Rocktron Hush IICX, a 4x12 Ampeg cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30s, and a customized Kramer American Pacer guitar. This setup is pretty much ideal for me -- there's nothing that I really want to change out for something else.
The Access has three preamps modes -- clean, crunch and lead. The clean is a solid-state channel that is fairly decent. It has a "soft-clip" circuit that performs a subtle overdrive at high gain settings. Unfortunately, when I do use a solid-state amp I want it to be pristine clean and the soft-clip circuit activates too quickly with humbuckers for my tastes. The crunch mode is very versatile, going from Fender-esque clean, to an SRV overdrive, to a Marshall AC/DC crunch. All of the sounds are pretty damn convincing but not perfect. The crunch mode has better clean tones to my ears than the so-called "clean" mode -- more of that chimey, bell-like Fender thing. At mid-gain settings the crunch mode is very dynamic, cleaning up wonderfully with softer pick attack or guitar volume reductions. That's good for blues and classic rock, although that is one area where its jack-of-all-trades nature shows its limitations -- its just not the same as plugging to a Deluxe Reverb and wailing away. The mid range in the crunch mode is more pronouced which allows it to get at a Marshall vibe a bit better, but can be attenuated very effectively with the tone controls if you're going for that Fender sound.
Where the Access really shines, in my opinion, is its lead mode. The thing just *sings* in this mode. A very smooth, complex sound that sustains for days. It can sound a bit processed at extreme gain settings, but backing off a bit gives a great wailing tone with plenty of fluid sustain. It'll do the standard Marshall and Boogie impressions, but contrary to another reviewer, I think its lead mode has its own unique vibe -- I've never really heard anything quite like it. Interestingly, with some tweaking I've also managed to get good approximations of Eric Johnson's voilin-like lead sound, and Ty Tabor's (King's X) cool,mid-rangey roar.
The EQ controls are excellent. The bands seem to have been chosen very thoughtfully for the best response. Its bass response is really awesome. Although it offers a heck of a lot of *depth* for the tone tweaker its really one of those preamps that has useful sounds across most of its tonal range; unlike say, a Boogie Mark series amp, you don't have to fiddle for hours to find the good tones. Even at high gain settings it isn't very noisy. I use the Hush unit to quiet what little noise there is: Its kinda scary how quiet the whole rig is until you actually play something and this big, loud sound comes out of it.
The Access includes control functions that let it acts as the "master" in a MIDI guitar rig. It can do MIDI program change mapping not only for itself (mapping, say, program change 10 to patch number 63), but also for other MIDI devices. This is great for me because my LXP-15 was designed more for studio use and doesn't do program change mapping. It can also control footswitch functions of other devices and save the settings with the patches. I use this to control the Deep and Modern functions on my 2:90 power amp. The Access also has three FX loops -- one mono/series for my Hush; a mono-send/stereo-return/parallel loop that I don't use; and a stereo-send/stereo-return/parallel loop that I use for my LXP-15. The loops can be activated and deativated from the front panel and stored as a patch setting. The Access supposedly has Red Box speaker emulator outputs, but they don't sound very good; in fact, they sound alot worse than my external Red Box which is surprising.

I gigged *heavily* all over the Southern US with the Access for two years and I had no problems. Now its more confined to my studio since I've stopped gigging. I'm very pleased with its reliability.

I haven't had to deal with customer support at Hughes and Kettner.

When I was gigging with the Access I was playing in a progressive funk/metal outfit and the versatility was just perfect -- we'd go from clean funk, to wah-inflected Chili Pepper distorto, to scooped-mid metal chunk, to spacey freak-out textures all in the course of a single song. The Access was perfect for handling all of it without having to take four different amps on the road.
I payed big bucks for mine because they were high-ticket items back then. At the time, I owned an ADA MP-1 and I was evaluating the Access against the Mesa Boogie TriAxis and the Marshall JMP-1. I went with the H&K because it simply sounded better than the TriAxis and it was better built and quieter than the JMP-1. I've never regretted the decision.
Nowadays I've seen them used going for less than half of what I paid new (ouch!). And I intend to get one of those used ones as a backup.

I rate this as an 8 because you won't be able to fire the preamp up and completely understand it. There are no knobs, only soft-keys. It's no more difficlt than an ADA and definately easier than the Triaxis Going through the manual is quick and easy and once you understand how the unit is laid out you'll be surprised at how easy to use it is. The manual supplies patch set ups for everything from Prince, Albert Lee, Lee Ritenour, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Van Halen, AC/DC, Metallica, etc. It's also tonally well-balanced so that you can pick a channel, set the tone controls to halfway and have a good starting point sound. Software upgrades are available which alter the basic tone structure and program switching. Just contact H&K. The unit also provides continuous control over various parameters in real-time although I have never delved into it.

I give a 9 in this category because there's always the chance something better will come along. Sonically this thing is awesome! For a preamp which is based on versatility I have yet to hear anything better including the Triaxis. It blows an ADA away! Channel one is a solid-state clean which is nice and sparkley. It has great headroom and begins to add compression as the gain is increased. This is a subtle effect but adds an almost acoustic property. Great for funk and chiming chords. Channel two is a tube crunch channel. You can dial up Fendery tube clean to Stevie Ray to AC/DC--all with volume knob response--turn down and clean up. Channel three is pure hot-rod Marshall/Boogie saturation. Plenty of gain--I play Metallica with Duncan single coils. No matter how much gain is cranked, you can still hear individual notes in a chord. Amazing complexity for a preamp. Another great feature is thebass response. No matter how much bass is increased the low end never gets flabby (are you listening Boogie?). Controls are laid out as Gain, Master, Balance, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence. No knobs. Soft-touch keys and an LED readout show you what's up. There are also pre-gain mid and treble boosts which are quite effective. The mid EQ control has the unique feature. As mid is increased the tonal range is narrowed. As it is decreased the range widens for scooped-mid tharsh. Cool! Three effects loops (one series, two parallel) give total control over any type of effect, stomp box or high-tech digital. Each loop can be assigned a MIDI channel for total control and when a loop is inactive it is taken out of the signal path. Loops are shut off at the send jack leaving delays free to decay over a patch change. The unit is very quiet even at extreme gain settings (unless you have non-humbucking pickups). A denoiser switch is provided but is ineffective (I couldn't tell the difference when it was engaged. The unit works best with its own stageboard switcher as this includes buffer circuitry to eliminate pops, level surges and also provides instantaneous patch changes. I have been told that a software upgrade allows these features with any MIDI footswitch. The H&K stageboard MIDI switcher is a wooden unit with 10 preset switches and up & down bank switches. It has an numerical LED readout--no patch naming. It's fairly sturdy (I've had mine for 6 years) as long as you're fairly kind to it. The connecting cable is hardwired into the pedal--boo! The individual footswitches seem to break at the most inopportune times but can be easily fixed with a soldering iron. The Access covers alot of bases very well but I wouldn't say it has its *own* sound character. It does sound very good though. I've run it with an Alesis RA-100 studio reference power amp and it sounded great. Of course the thing really shines with a nice tube power amp. I've had great results with a Mesa/Boogie Strategy 400, a Stereo 20/20, and my newest gem the Mesa Stereo Simul 2:90. It's cool to not that the Access has two 1/4" switch functions which allow you to control two of the 2:90s three functions: deep, modern and 1/2 drive. Also the Access has stereo recording outs with H&K's Red Box circuitry built in! What more could you want?

I've used the Access on every gig for 6 years and it has never let me down. I usually gig without a backup, too! The only problems I've ever had are with the stageboard switches breaking, but this was after many years of use. The Access uses two 12ax7s and tube life is 6-12 months.

Customer support has been very good. It helps that a company exec lives about 20 minutes from my house as does the authorized service tech! I've never had a problem getting anything I needed.

I would buy this preamp again in a heartbeat and so would anyone else if they were more widespread. For vresatility, ease of operation and sound quality I have yet to see it surpassed--even by Triaxis. The Triaxis does do one thing extremely well: the Rectifier circuit has an aggressiveness that the Access can't quite match, although it's close. The Access is a jack-of-all-trades type preamp. It does not, however cop the individual character of say as AC30, Orange, Hiwatt, etc. It'll get you in the ball park though. I wish it had a global EQ feature which would allow you to tweak all patches simultaneously as a room requires. A good power amp with presence controls does help this problem though. Check one out!