Hughes & Kettner Tubeman Guitar Preamp

Very simple, controls are very sensitive, as mentioned elsewhere so a small tweak can make a big difference in sound

This is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review on a piece of guitar equiment. This unit is incredible. A friend of mine uses a H&K Tube Factor which inspired me to check out H&K products. I tried it and it sounded great but the big volume boost between Ch1 & Ch2 didn't work for me so I looked at the Tubeman which has 3 channels, EQ and independent level controls for each channel, and gain for Ch2 & Ch3.

I have a mid-range set up: a MIM Strat & a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and this pedal has been the best investment I've ever made in terms of getting incredible tone from my gear. Some people use this in the return of the effects loop, and it sounds great there but I use it in the regular preamp input, with the EQs on the HRD all about 12 O'clock. Using the tubeman in conjunction with the 3 channels on the amp (clean, drive & more drive) you can pretty much nail any rock/blues/country tone you choose.

The only slight quibble I have is the 3rd Channel on the Tubeman can sound a little muddy to me on clean channel of the amp however on the drive channel with the volume and tone pots rolled back on the guitar, you get a killer Cream tone. If you

Not noticed any significant noise problems but there is a slight increase in hiss, but nothing major.

It's built like a tank

Never needed to contact them

I'm a hobbyist, who plays at home and I'm still learning. I mostly play Blues & Rock which this pedal suits perfectly. I don't record so can't comment on that but I am incredibly picky about tone and versatility and this pedal delivers on all levels. I love it.

My gear is: MIM Strat & MIM Tele with Seymour Duncan pickups - Dynacomp - Home built GGG Marshal Blues breaker clone - Tubeman - Univibe - H&K Replex Delay - Fender Hot Rod deluxe with an MXR Carbon copy and a Holy Grail Plus Reverb in the effects loop.

First of all: I'm reviewing the Tubeman MKII. I've discover that section underneath the 'Amp' reviews, but I think it belongs here.

It's a second hand Tubeman and it's pretty obvious because it looks beaten up. Despite the looks it works fine, so I just bought it anyway. The boring stuff: 3 channels, master EQ and volume, clean volume, crunch volume and crunch gain, overdrive vol, overdrive gain and overdrive voicing. The voicing seems to be a mid-scoop. The manual is nothing special.

The Tubeman is almost very versatile. The main things missing are an XLR DI output and dedicated EQ per channel. To me those are not important, but to some it might matter. Especially for demanding live applications. It's a shame the thing needs a special power supply unit. Internal PSU would be better.

I'm using a Musicman Silhouette Special and a PRS Santana SE through it. No endless tweaking, the sound is almost instantly there. I'm pretty pleased by the effectiveness of the equalizer. Some equalizers just don't work the way you want to (poorly chosen bands), but this one is spot on. Main purpose of the Tubeman was to replace a Line 6 POD X3. I'm not into the tweaking-business anymore. I need good clean, good crunch and good overdrive and I'm done. The Tubeman is just that. Sounds better too. No, I'm not gonna praise the tube for that. Sure, the tube does matter, but the gain levels achieved within the Tubeman surely can't be put out of one little 12AX7. No, that's not bad. I guess that's how most similar designs are also setup. As long as it is well thought-out and engineered, I don't have any issues with opamps and other non-tube-stuff.

The crunch can get a little raspy at higher gain levels and you can mess up the overdrive with the voicing knob. Just use the controls wisely, avoiding extremes. Overall it just sounds great and covers a broad spectrum of tones.

Curious as I am, I opened up the thing. If you unscrew the plastic sides, you'll see it consists out of two metal plates. One is the frontpanel with the controls, window and footswitches, the other is the darker housing. Seems like a solid design. The frontplate can freely move without putting strain on the PCB. The knobs and switches feel very solid. The knobs are countersunk in the frontplate so you'll have a hard time destroying them. Opening this thing gave me a lot of trust in the reliablity department. It's really build like a tank. Tube replacement looks like a pain in the ass, but I haven't tried it yet.

I play pop and rock, and the Tubeman does it very well. It does way more than that. I'm really glad I bought it, it's a great addition to my tiny home studio. Would buy it again in a heartbeat.

Can't get much simple than this.

Wow. The more I play it, the more I love it. I run a fairly complex rig as follows:
70's Fender Strat or Gibson LP > Boss DynaDrive > Boss GE7 EQ > Boss Blues Driver > Analogman TS9 Silver > Boss NS2 Noise Supressor > A/B/Y Switcher > TUBEMAN > Analogman Chorus > Digitech RP300 Mutli Effects unit (for EQ, Delay, Reverb ONLY) > stereo outs to 1981 Peavey Classic VTX and Marshall 212 combo in the "Power Amp In", or "Effects Return".

The A/B/Y switcher alows me to switch from the Power Amp Out on the TUBEMAN to the Mixer Out for an easily portable rig for my Church Band. The Mixer Out sounds absolutely great through the Church PA.

With this rig, I run the stomp boxes for different flavors and use the TUBEMAN as a 3 channel amp. Clean can be bell-like, or pushed to slight breakup for great Blues. The Crunch can be Bluesey on the mild side, to a Marshall-like crunch for 80's rock. The lead channel w/ voicing knob can get a very thick distortion with loads of sustain. The voicing control is a mid scoop type of control and offers a lot of range. I run it to match the channels 1&2, which for me is about 9-10 o'clock. The TUBEMAN is the best tone ivestment I have ever made...PERIOD. Very, very touch sensitive and even when heavily distorted, all the notes are clearly audible. Awesome.

3 years and not a hiccup - touch wood.

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Been playing over 25 years and have tried many, many amps and stomps. Would have nver dreamed the a preamp would ultimately define my sound. The TUBEMAN really is a high quality, great sounding 3 channel amp in a box. My Church liked my tone so well, they even bought one for the church so the youth group and guest musicians could use it. It truly puts any modelling processor I have ever tried to shame. Put you favorite pet stomps with it and enjoy!
BTW, this unit DOES NOT like ANY other preamp in line with it so it will sound BAD if you plug into the input of your normal amp. If you use a mutli FX processor, bypass the amp and speaker models and use the delay, reverb, or modulation effects to taste and you'll love it. Well you may not, but to me, this is the deal.

I have two of these, one I bought new back in the day & another I got used at a good price.
Sounds are all there, if a little "over the top" in some cases.
Used to use them on the road but they retired to the studio honorably some few years back.
I have the original overlay/manual for both of these and it IS useful even if setting them up is a no-brainer anyway.

My favorite is the blues setting, which allows just the right amount of pick responsive breakup, and the rock setting with the volume maxed and the gain barely cracked open - gives a full, fat but clean sound.
Funk setting is generally a little too wiry with my single coil guitars.
Jazz setting is great for the rare occasions when I get mellow.
Even at 63 I ain`t ready for that rocking chair.
I have used Tubemen with amps PA and of course in the studio.
Really consistent sounds regardless.

Originally I would have answered "Yse" but I had a problem with a bad electricity supply at one venue which blew the main transformer in one of my Tubemen. Also tookj out our main PA amp and the keyboard players $2,000 synth so I guess I cant complain too much.
The replacement transformer was not at all expensive but after about a year of doing nothing but sit in the studio, it has died again.
Mind you the original one I bought has done better, only the rotary selector switch has broken on that - it still works but it goes round and round continuously instead of stopping after four clicks!

Sennheiser UK are their agent for spares in England and the service they offer is second to none.

I have used these for bass DI, guitar livce and in studio and jsut about anything else you can think of.
Only stopped using them when I got a Pod & started doing a wider range of material that needed more different guitar sounds.
Been playing pro for fifty three years & have more gear than you fcan shake a stick at (blush) Down to only nine guitars and one bass at present.
Been tempted by the mark 2 and I guess if they were both stolen I would pretty much certainly buy a mark 2, given that the originals are getting like rocking horse poo these days.

As easy to use as a stomp box, but with 3 seperate outputs voiced for diffent applications. The direct out comes with red box speaker simulation for recording or plugging directly into a PA. It has 4 preamp settings for clean to super-distorted. Just plug it in and dial in your settings - easy.

I have two of the orginal floor units. Over the years I've used them for direct recording and for live performance in every imaginable situation. I'm an active professional performer with 28 years experience, and this is my favorite preamp ever (I've had the tubeman for about 10 years). I've had _every_ piece of equipment imaginable and I just keep coming back to the tubeman. Nothing else I've ever tried sounds as good for direct to tape, or direct to PA sounds. Every new piece of equipment offers some new hope, and I use and tweak them diligently, but side-by-side, these things always end up sounding better. I work regularly with performers in all genres, who together represent 10's of millions of albums sold, I own a large music instruction studio, I regularly run sound for local events, and I've been performing guitar for decades. I typically use a few favorite Fender tube amps as my main workhorses, and these give me some good live high gain options. They're also the main thing I use for direct sound whenever I need or want to record without a mic'd amp. Everyone always seems to give the same reaction when they hear the direct tubeman sound - and immediate "wow, that sounds really good!".

The tubeman really responds like a good amp. Even on the highest gain sounds, turn the volume down on your guitar, and you a great, spanky clean sound that's crisp and clear, with plenty of high end response, and no noise. I have never found another preamp that responds that well to changes in input dynamics.

I've had them for about ten years, and they're still going strong. They've been dropped, and been through an auto accident.

Haven't had to deal with them.

They're definately one of my favorite pieces of equipment, especially for direct recording and live to PA. Just wish they hadn't stopped making it. I haven't tried the new ones yet, so I can't comment. I have heard that the new ones don't have a true bypass - that's a bummer if it's true. They're fairly pricey, but still a good value. This gives you the killer instrument tone you're looking for - just add some effects at the board. Very natural - it responds like a _good_ tube amp.

A little confusing to begin with, but you get used to it after a while.

I won't go too far into my setup but I am a tube lover. On each setting, the character and juice that the tubeman gives to my tone is indispensable. The amp (which is an all-tube Laney tt50) sounds lifeless without it. What I really like about it is that even the first channel (which comprises only a volume knob) is so well balanced and characterful that I find myself reverting to it all the time without any tweaking! The third channel is slightly muddy but it is the main gain channel and is to be expected from a tube unit like this. I bought this to increase the depth of my tone. The tubeman is so good that it is virtually an amplifier in it's own right. This pedal is amazing, if you can afford it and you love authentic, warm tube sounds, then this will do wonders for your setup.

It's very well built. All h and k products are. Tube changing certainly IS possible, but a little difficult.

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I got this on the cheap and I love it so much that iit is my amp backup. If my amp failed (which it won't, touch wood) i'd just whack the tubeman into a mixer and be done with it. To be frank, I'm not sure my tone would suffer all that much from it!

Even a 6 years old child would know how that would work. What about the manual? never used it and is still under dust.

uh... well i must say that i was looking for a good personal sound. witch is the search of every guitarist i guess. my first amp was a Marshall valvestate. Later a H&K Duotone, witch is a very good amp if you like the classic british rock. The mid's are tooo harsh. Finaly i came to an old fender bassman, but not enough gain. i always used a Vox tonelab, great for studio but life???? a friend told me about the tubeman and i must say... GREAT. just what i was looking for. i still hear the fender sound with a +. the crunch and lead are amazing. i even use a boost pedal in front and still great. But, as previously mentioned, the hummm is anoying if your not playing. but whatever...

this is definitely THE sound. i will use it on stage. My goal is to find the same in rack version... auw, that hurts. will i ever have some peace?

never dealt with them

normally i play any kind of music. it kan depends from roch to crunh, metal to funk... that's why i used the tonelab for several settings. but the volumes levels, kind's of amps etc... that's not always that easy. now i have my own sound. Never mind hte other settings. i play covers with my sound. but try to keep the style as it was.

So easy to use - I never had a manual and didn't need one.

The valve sound on this is genuine - without the noise floor you get with most valve amps. Hook this up to an overdriven valve amp on the channel 3 with full distortion for the most serene and divine sustain and feedback at low volumes.

The one downside to this unit is it doesn't have a BYPASS. Channel 1 is the 'cleanest' but it isn't 'clean'. OK in a studio where it is patched in so can be pulled out of the line, but live, it would be good to be able to defeat the unit for certain sounds.

Never had a problem in several years of rough useage.

Never had to deal with them. Web site has PDFs on the unit.

People who have Line-Pods and other amp simulators and multi-effects units across the price range when they hear this unit all want one of these. Some are quizzical about the #279 price new.

Very easy to use. If you cant Figure this out You should try playing the kazoo.

Gibson sg->Holier Grail(usualy bypassed)->Mixer. I have spent thousands and thousands on every kind of amp, pedal, or modeler you can think of only to be dissapointed. The fact that this is basicly all I needed almost pisses me off until I realize how much I LOVE my sound now. I play mostly classic rock. The Tubeman has a great clean channel that will slightly distort if I turn up the volume on the guitar. Channel two is great for classic rock. Channel three is killer distortion. I fell in love with this thing as soon as I got it but Being the never satisfied until you've tried it all person that I am I tried about a dozen different tubes in it. I ended up with a NOS Mullard 12at7 in it and believe it or not it sounds twice as good. Did I mention I love this thing?

Looks like you could shoot it and not kill it.

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If it were lost I would definately get another one.
One of my favorite features is how the knobs are down in a groove where they won't be accidently turned or stepped on.

I am using Stratocasters as well as a Les Paul and occasionally a ES-335 (copy).
As already mentioned above: suits any style and especially has a nice blues sound inside.
It is not noisy. Only higher drive settings produce some hum and hiss, as always.
The four different channels (Jazz, Funk, Blues, Rock) really should make anyone happy despite maybe some NuMetal-rockers.
What really makes this little box a must-have is it's real tube sound!
However, some of the higher gain sounds are - for my taste - a little bit trebly/scratchy in the top end. That sounds very amp-like, but I would appreciate a little bit more warmth in the Rock-channel.

Bought this one back in the 90ies - maybe 1994 or 1995? (price was 150 Euro)
I reactivated it recently after years of not using it.
Very versatile little box. I mainly play blues, and it works for that, but can cover almsot any style.
It has four channels, but switching only is possible manually and does not work perfectly, because you likely have to re-dial addionally.
For the use as general preamp, of course, it would need better channel-switching possibilities, but for use as a deluxe stompbox, everything is fine.
I use the box mainly in front of my Fender Princeton Chorus to get more tube character (really clean sounds are already fine with the amp, but those slightly overdriven sounds you get from tube amps is not really there without a little help)
I am unsure about the correct rating. For a stompbox it would be a 10, for a preamp only a maximum of maybe 4 is possible.

Just took it out of the box after some years of absence from my rig. The power supply was broken - had to get a new one (costs: 15 Euro).
And finally after >10 years, I replaced the tube: argh, that is complicated as you have to dismount the whole unit.
The power supply connection is not stage-friendly as well as the control knobs are endangered if you just jump on it (but the have metal axis and are solidly mounted to the housing - despite the channel switch)
At the end, I think reliability for live is not perfect and service is a horror.

Never dealt with H&K

I am playing electric guitar since 13 years now, and I purchased this unit almost at the beginning of my "career". I play different kinds of guitars and Fender amps.
If it was stolen, I'd possibly search for another one - but you only get them used today, and I might also look for alternatives. Anyway, I bought a new power supply right away, when the original one was broken.
I love, how this unit gives a tube power amp feeling to my tranny Fender.
Compared it to the Princeton Chorus drive channel, tube screamer and all built-in amps and overdrives of a Boss GX-700. For this little bit of overdrive, I like this one best.
Overall, I think of this pedal as a stompbox, that you could compare to tubescreamers and anything else compareable - and within this comparison, it is really really good!