Hughes & Kettner Attax 100 Combo

I got my Attax 100 in approx 96/97, i play rockabilly, psychobilly, soft punk..and it covers these styles with ease, nice clean/crunchy tones and good biting distortion

I use a '73 Tele, fitted with 'Hot' Seymour in bridge, and an Alnico Pro 2 in neck..i find the clean channel really does make my guitar sound like a Tele, as it should! i love it

Too be honest, my amp served me well gigging regular for 6 yrs, every weekend more or less solid, but, neglect on my part (which i very much regret) has rendered her a home amp now, (i often left her in the band van, hence the cold/warm scenario took it's toll) other than that, it's a tank, never let me down

Never had too get it repaired for at least 6 yrs, see above, no idea how helpful H & K are..surely a good thing! And when i did get it looked at, it was just dry joints really that needed sorting.

I've been playing now for about 15yrs, i can honestly say if it got nicked when i was using it, hell yeah i'd buy another, it does all i could ask of it..i keep looking out for a second hand one in my local shop..they must be good..none ever turn up for sale! I've owned the latest one (tour reverb 100) and gigged that for last 18 months, have too say tho, the Attax 100 beats it, i'd trade in the Tour Reverb for an Attax 100 any day

Like probably said before, this amp has a clean and crunch channel with shared EQ, and a distortion channel with 2 types of distortion (can be switched via frontpanel or midi). It also has an FX loop, headphones out and recording out (line out). You can also attach another speakercabinet. The amp has a very good reverb. Mine also has midi, but I have no floorboard so I don't use it. The amp came with a 3 button footswitch for switching clean/crunch clean/distortion and FX loop on/off. The FX loop button can also be used as a booster, by plugging a cable into the fx send and return. you get a nice boost when the fx loop is on.

I don't miss anything on this amp. They could have left the crucnh channel away because it's useless, but well, al those knobs look impressive ;-)

I use this amp home and in my rockband, has enough power for everything I guess, the 110 watts are really loud

I use a Jackson dinky and a Jackson performer Randy Rhoads. The dinky gives more of a deep metal sound and the Randy Rhoads gives a lighter rock sound.

I play rock and metal, and this amp does it good. The clean could almost make you drool and the distortions are good too. Distortion is pretty heavy ( with my Jackson dinky) but not suitable for nu-metal (which I don't mind). for really heavy sounds you need a distortion pedal, I use my boss Gt-3 when I want those sounds.

The amp is not noisy at all. You can use it for jazz, blues, rock, metal, whatever you want. This amp is really versatile.
The clean channel has some kind of tube saturation thing built in so it starts to crunch when you turn the volume up. When you use the master volume, this doesn't happen. I've put the master volume on about 7? (that was LOUD!) and the sound was still perfectly clean. When using the high input with humbuckers, the clean starts to crunch earlier, of course.

I just love the sound of this thing, but because the crunch channel is so useless I'll give it a 9

I bought it used in 2001 but it still looked new, now it still looks new and nothing ever broke down. I hope it stays this way but I'm confident that it will

I got the manual off the H&K site, that was nice of them. But further I've never dealt with them so...

I play about 3 years now, with this amp, sometimes a boss gt3 and Jackson guitars. The other gear I own is not relevant for this review I'd probably get the same amp again if this one would be stolen. Maybe I'd buy a full tube amp but these amps aren't so expensive and in my opinion they just sound awesome. I compared this thing to a peavey bandit, fender princeton, marshall AVT 50, marshall VS100 and more but I like the H&K the best (that's why I've bought it of course)

So if you look for an amp that is not too expensive, doesn't have tubes (it has one 12AX7 in the pre-amp) and sounds great, I'd recommend to try one of these.

I'm absolutely positive about the futures of the attax 100. It has a clean, a crunch and an overdrive channel. The overdrive channel has 2 possablilities. It also has a real good reverb. But it's a pitty it can't be controlled by the footswitch.

I play an Epiphone SG 400 and a Jackson Kelly performer. They sound great with this amp. I use them in combination with a Boss Metal zone (mt2), it absolutly sounds great when they are combined. I use it for practising with my Band and also for performances.
The distortion of the attax sounds pretty well, but for the real heavy stuff i recomend a extra pedal like a metalzone.
When playing clean the amp gets a crunchy sound at high volume, but i like it.

I've got this amp for half a year now, and it never let me down. Before this amp i used a marshall valvestate 8040. I had a lot of problems with it, and they were never solved, it is a shitty amp.
But the attax can deal with every situation, it is a great amp

I play for a couple of years now, and i really would buy this amp again, except if i would find a tube amp for the same price (nothing beats a tube amp). I compared this amp with a marshall valvestate 8040. The attax 100 really beats the shit out of the marshall.
The only minus of this amp is, like i said before, it can't be switched to the reverb by the footswitch.

I think it's a 90's amp (don't know exactly). This is a good sounding,
solid little combo. 1 12" speaker. Kind of heavy, weights almost as a
fender twin. I bought it used from a guy through the classifieds.
I tried it and bought it. For a time after I bought it I really thought this was an all-tube amp, it really sounds like it. Has a 3 switch pedal : Clean-Crunch, Crunch-Lead<>Lead and FxLoop. I play Hard Rock/80's metal style (original material) preference for the overdriven/no-too-buzzy distortion. The 2 lead channels are useful for different sounds. I consider it useful for a variety of styles
from jazz to rock to Latin to modern Metal. I don't like the grunge
and noisier distortions but you can get pretty distorted high-gain
sound with this machine as well as mild and moderate distortion.
What I could think of an improvement or wish-additional-feature
would be an additional 12 in speaker to make it a twin, it has
power enough. I haven't used the midi. I used the effects loop
with an BE-5 Boss multieffects and a Gt-1 Synth at the input and
sounded good, also.

Also I play sometimes at church conventional contemporary praise music, I used it at church for a season, it was good enough for cutting in with the band at full volume, the lead channel definitively useful when playing live for solos, for some reason my amp was rarely miked, all the other instruments were, so, I had to crank it up to almost full but made it Ok. The crunch and lead have distinctive voicing. I've used with that amp my Gibson LP std and my Gibson LP
Custom, sounds like a tube amp, great solid, pure crystalline sound, (not too bright as a fender twin). I mostly use the 2 pickups on
with 5-5-5-5 settings. I rehearse with my Rock band in the studio, it is good enough although sometimes I do need to push it a bit with an overdrive pedal for a little more boost and to hear it louder in a live situation and it is recommended an amp stand. I have many different effects & settings, multieffects and separate stomp boxes but for this amp I've used (that sound good) : Guitar->BE-5 BOSS->
H&K or Guitar->GeorgeDennisDist.Mind->IbanezCS9analogDly->H&K with or w/o a Guyatone Clip Compressor in front through the clean channel, set to 5 perhaps just before clipping. With this last setting you get a very rich sound, would I think of Bad Company kind of Hard-Rock
sound, clean, fat and defined not too sustained, just the right
amount. I have used it without effects and sounds good too, only
a bit dry for certain styles.
For some reason this amp didn't sound good with my Jackson fusion guitar, too thin or maybe it is simply not my taste. Really good sounding for being a hybrid amp. It is versatile and has decent power not noisy even at full volume.

Has never broke, I do care about my equipment and treat it right
but I've used it a reasonable amount of continous hours and it
has proved reliable. Haven't serviced or changed parts yet.

I've heard the service is not good but I have never contacted them.
Warranty? don't know, bought it used.

I've played for over 20 years electric (Rock & Pop), nylon acoustic (pop), I have other amps including mesa boogie nomad, Fender twins, Fender Bassman and others also solid state amps. What do I hate : thiefs, bad customer service, messy sound, mediocre equipment (not reliable). I'm not against cheap equipment or tools as long as I actually know what the product is worth to me, you can actually find productive use, say; for a cheap amp or guitar if you're good enough to use it properly for certain needs. If it was stolen?: it won't. (I
trust God for this) anyhow, These are not found very often so I can't say I'd buy it again but I probably would, given the case. Anything
else I wish it had? : all tubes,.. oh! and wings so I could ride on it.

My amp was made in 1996. It has a preamp tube in it and three channels: Clean, Crunch and Lead. Lead has got a 2nd mode whixh offers more bottomend and gain. It has 120 Watts and an Celestion Vintage Speaker in it. Effects can be added through the EffectSend/Return. I hae also the H&K Midi-Thing in it. It works great ( costs about 150US$). Clean/Crunch and Lead got separated EQ's ( bass,middle,treble). It has everything I expect from a Combo!

It sounds really great: Clean sounds are warm, Crunch goes from bluesy to overdriven, lead 1 sounds british like marshall and lead2 sounds brutal as hell! Even heavy distorted Metal-Sounds are possible ( sounds modern with a lotta bottom-end!) Sounds awesome for my versatile styles.

Never had any Problems. I used it often live, but no problems after 6 years. Great! So I give it a ten.

Never delt with them! That should be a ten!

It's the best tube Combo I ever played! No Fender or Marshall can sound better. This amp sounds great for all kinds of music, especially metal, alternative, grunge and nice clean stuff. Killer-Amp for a cheap price! I would try to buy it again @ ebay if it would be stolen.

I already posted but wanted to check back and let you guys know how realiable this thing REALLY is...Sh*tty distortion??? Beats a marshall valvestate by FAR! This thing is a TANK, i've beat the daylights out of it and it won't quit, phasing problems yes, but when you use a GROUNDED plug(third prong) they go away, i finally got grounded plugs in my guitar room and instantly the problem was solved, so as for that guy..use three prong plugs like your suppossed to.. I've never had any problems when using three prong wall outlets..Still want footswitchable reverb though, guess I'm gonna have to go buy another pedal...

Still good for sounds...when I need heavier grounds I kick in a Marshall Gov'nor with the bass on full, the mids around 4, and the treble at 2 o'clock, probelm solved, and imitators exposed..the clean channel is great and gets a bit dirty when ya get past 5, I like that personally, when I kick on my 95Q (with the boost on) I get a touch of OD which sounds great to me... the crunch channel DOES lack volume but serves as good middle ground between the clean and gain channels, needs more gain on the crunch for sure which I also provide with the Guv'nor at the same settings just i usually keep the clean/crunch amp eq at 6/7 for bass, 10 for mids, and 7/8 for treble.

Like I said it's been an absolute tank..if it was a baby that was dropped on its head, it woulda ended up as Einsten...

Never bothered 'em!! Replaced the tube I got with it (sovtek) with groove tubes 12AX7's but never had any problem worth buggin them for. It sounds as if they have good service anyway

Great sound, never a problem...sounds better than any amp I've heard that costs twice as much..Once I get the Mesa 2x12 I've been eyeing my nieghbors are going to hate me even more(than they already do)
I compared this amp to a Crate 120watt 2X12(GFX??), and a Valvestate head, neither came even close. The crate flops out(can you say speaker fart and feedback??) around 5 on the master volume and the Valvestate just doesn't have the sound, let alone costing twice as much with a decent cab...
If the crate could handle its power and had a tube I honestly think I would have bought it, it lacks the clean sound and has problems when it gets loud so they lost me.

I bought this amp used about 2 months ago, and so far it has been great! It is the earlier version of the amp (black carpet covered), and the previous owner blew out the speaker, replacing it with a celestion. It came with a foot switch, and has more features than I could ever use. Three channels, plus a button for more gain on the lead channel.

I use an american made fender stratocaster with active emg pickups into: crybaby wah-> fab tone-> nobels distortion (for overdrive)-> ibanez digital delay-> the H & K amp. It works great for what I play (alternative, punk, hardcore, jazz, emo, etc.) but is a little quiet when jamming loud or gigging. I currently have the recording out leading to the effects return of a Yorkville 200B bass amp, and together it gets a really good range. The distortion in the lead gain channel is good, some of the best I've heard save perhaps a JCM 900, but if playing anything with excessive distortion I'd suggest just getting a fab tone or something and be done with it. I think I will be getting a 4X12 to add to this amp soon just to get the additional volume and depth.

I have had a few problems with the amp, but it was well used by the time I acquired it. A bit of maintainance work and it was sounding great again. its seems sturdy enough, and I would gig without a backup. I have to travel about 20 minutes each way to practice about once a week, and a good portion of the roads are very rough. It has survived all the bouncing and banging it has suffered through. Should last a while.

It is a great amp. Maybe a little underpowered, and the clean channel tends to overdrive over volume 6 or 7, but its a tube, thats what its supposed to do. I bought this amp because it was the same price as a used valvestate head, sounded better clean, and its a combo! I may upgrade to an all-tube in time, but this should do for now. I've been playing electric guitar and bass for over 2 years, and acoustic for who knows how long. It is a great amp, and with my setup it has a really individual sound (originality = good!)

Same features as the other reviews. I'm sure you know them by now. I would like to know when these things were made, it's looks pretty 80's, but hey: it's matches my Marshall guv'nor stylisticly. Quite versitile, from rolling fender clean, to Mesa-like grind on the tap of a switch. I wish the reveb was footswtchable like evrything else, i might rectify that problem though, but it would have been a great feature. I use the floorboard, it works well, i turn the FX mix on ten and use the far left foot switch for a kill switch which is nice. I use this amp for everything. Got a groove tubes 12AX7 for it yesterday...sounds WAY better then the Sovtek POS that was in it.

Humbuckers!! What else, do have coil taps though. It's nice and quiet on clean and crunch, but can get noisy on the lead channel. Like I said sparkley clean and Mesa balls all in one box...sounds great. I wanan run a 4x12(peavey/marshall) and a 2x15(mesa or rivera), this thing would sound incredable with one of those speaker combos, one 12' don't cut it with the 100 watt power section though, but still sounds great below 8 or 9.

I would rely on this thing and do. It has a total of 4 fuses, so if it was gonna blow it would be worth the money to watch it. It's well built.

No need to bug 'em.

For the price you can't get this kind of power and sound. The guys in the shop didn't know it has a tube preamp until someone said something after I had already paid and was on my way out the door :)

I bought the amp second hand and it is 4 years old. A bit beaten up on the outside but all the features were present. 3 Channels(clean/crunch/lead) although the lead channel has two modes so you can really get 4 out of it. 110 watts of power, fottswitch for the channels, 2 inputs(high and low), headphone jack, effects loop, room for two external speakers or speaker cabs and a line out.This is a really versatile amp as the three channels all work very well at their particular jobs.It has a real sweet sound thanks to the real tube preamp.It makes this baby sing. I play a lot of different stuff, from Satriani, to hendrix, limp Bizkit, U2, deftones and a bit of classic rock and the amp can handle everything. It has real potential for heavy stuff thanks to the Lead channel, but the cleans are incredible, lots of sustain and the reverb sounds great. I play in a band, and so it gets a lot of use, i play with various effects(although the korg Toneworks OD1 is one of my favourites), and an Ibanez SCA420 is my guitar and the amp sounds incredible with that setup.I never really use the effects loop as i don't really like them, they really aren't a lot of use to me as i don't really turn to totally clean at all so i really don't need it. All in all it is great, although it would have been better if it had of been a 2x12 although then it would have been well expensive, and i got it for a bargain #100!!!!!!!

I have to say the amp is incredible sounding.The cleans are beautiful and it starts to just drive at about 7 or 8 after being played for a while.It is great, although i have noticed that at about 8 when played with the crunch channel, the metal plate that the knobs are on tends to vibrate on the grill causing quite an annoying sound, that can be mistaken for a ratted out speaker, although it really isn't.
The Crunch channel, although it has taken a lot of flak, is really very good.It is smoooth!!! Blues players will love it, but i think it is great with tonnes of bass and treble, it really rumbles and sounds great with the humbuckers on my guitar.Using the different input jacks allows me to get a muddier or a cleaner sound, it is great. The lead channel though, can get really distorted but i use it for Lead guitar so i have the gain on 5 or 6, any higher and it is too heavy for lead, and more like a metal effect.It is really sweet, the sustain and the treble sound great when set up right, although it has to be set up correctly to be right, thankfully i got that done pretty quickly so it is now sweet!!!THe distortion suits my style of music perfectly as it can range for all of the types of music i like, i can do radiohead clean to Muse dirty and distorted to deftones(with the help of a Boss DS-2 Turbo).It really has a huage range,although it is never noisy at all when i plug it in, it always sounds perfect.The power is great, it has always had enough power at gigs and at practice to cut above the rest, even without setting it on 10.It always has enough power and raw sound to get above everything else.

I'm giving it an 8 cause i don't really know.I have only had it for a few months but i have played several gigs and many practices, and in every one it has sounded great without any problems.It is a 4 and a half year old amp and yet the Tubes still sound great and play fine.It has never been serviced although, the past owner took great care of it, with the only damage being 2 of the metal tops for the knobs missing.I have and will continue to gig without a backup because i don't have one and i don't need one, this amp rules.

i have no idea of the warranty, but i am sure it has run out as it is 4 years old.I emailed them to find out about the tubes for the amp, incase i needed to get new ones as the amp was old.They got back to me in 2 days with really great answers.I have no idea what they are like for fixing things but i am sure they are great.

i have been playing for 2 years now and this is one of the sweetest amps i have played.I mean my friends Fender twin is better, as is my other friends marshall stack but i mean they cost about 5 times more so they should be.I have an Ibanez SCA420, and a Westfield Les Paul Copy, and many effects, plus a really crappy amp and this.I really love the Attax 100 and it is because it has such a full sound, rich distortion and it was very cheap, and for the deal i got i can't believe it, it really does rule.If it were stolen i would try and find another one, and buy it no matter what the price, it really is that sweet, one of the sweetest combos i have ever played.The only thing i would wish for is about another 50 watts, but all in all it is one pwerful(AND VERY HEAVY) beast.It is the all singing all dancing german BEAST and it sounds friggin sweet to pot.I love it

This amp has some good well though out features - 3 channels:-Clean, Crunch, Distortion all with eq consisting of Bass, Mid and Treble (the Crunch setting shares the clean setting). Reverb, Parallel FX loop with mix control, round the back there is a Rec out and headphones input with two speaker outputs. The good thing is this amp can be MIDI upgraded, unfortunately H&K have stopped manufacturing this product but I'm sure you could get hold of one if you searched hard. And you also get an excellent gig worthy foot pedal with three buttons for clean/crunch, dist and FX on/off.

I'm using this amp with a Vantage Strat copy (with EMG81 in bridge), and a standard Yamaha Pacifica 112. I run into it a zoom4040 just straight in not in the fx loop and sometimes a marshall jackhammer distortion pedal.I play all types of music (jazz, rock, metal, blues etc) but I am in an alternative rock/metal band so that is the main purpose of this amps performance. The amp has excellent clean sounds, this is where H&K exel, it is always christal clean at any volume level and it is very responsive to eq settings. The crunch is awful to my taste but others may disagree it seems with my amp there just isn't any volume in it and sharing the clean channels eq is a bit of a let down although I find the crunch channel unusable anyway. The distortions were also a big let down for me unfortunately, this amp is obviously focused for jazz, soft rock/blues players because there is hardly any gain on tap and it sounds week, it sounds very clear and seems quite responsive to the eq it just hasn't got any balls behind it. I guess a tube screamer or a good overdirve pedal would rectify this problem. In fact all the sounds I use come from a zoom4040 pedal and the amp responds pretty well to this and when I gig at high volumes with this amp I can get a pretty good sound, but the zoom4040 pedal is noisy and this is a big problem although my EMG cuts most of the noise out. So I'm going to give this a six because of the distortion sounds.

I have done about ten gigs with this amp and I have found a lot of problems, firstly I noticed a severe phasing coming form the amp, I got round this by after about two months experimenting by replacing the inout jack and changing the valve to a marshall (not any better or worse than the H&K) but marshall valves do seems more reliable. Also if you are thinking about using this for high voulume levels I founf that the speaker stands up after a couple of gigs and then starts to degragate dramatically. I get all kinds of crackles and weird problems, this amp is dodgy. Don't by it if you are using it than anthing else apart form practising.

I have to say that the customer support is excellent , I e-mailed them with my problems (jack, valves etc) and I got a quick response from them offering a solution I just wish I e-mailed them earlier.

I have been playing for about ten years, I have owned a lot of equipment, the amps I have owned include fenders, peavey and I think this is excellent for its clean sounds. But I am going to move on to something more reliable and apprioprate to my style of music. My advice - if your a jazz or blues player wanting a good practice amp then this is ideal choice. But if you are after an amp for rock/metal or soing any kind of gigging than look elsewhere.