Hughes & Kettner Club Reverb

This is a 65-watt solid state amp with two channels, the first goes from clean to crunch, and the second is for higher gain. Has reverb, and stupidly did not come with a footswitch. Had to buy the footswitch separately. Footswitch has one button to switch between the two channels. Wish it had another button for switching reverb on and off.

This amp has a great clean channel, and a very good distortion channel as well. I use it with a Gibon Explorer Pro (hot ceramic humbuckers), and I can get a very heavy distortion out of it if I want, good for playing stuff like Metallica, Offspring, Pennywise. Don't use the fx loop on this amp - it changes the whole sound, and there is much more hum and feedback when using high gain. Not using the fx loop, the amp is much quieter and sounds way better.

Has broken twice, got it repaired the first time, the second I didn't. The first time something was wrong with the input jack and I got it fixed under warranty. The second time, the fx loop stopped working, but no big deal. The fx loop sucks anyways - effects sound much better in front of the amp than in the fx loop.

Warranty was for one year, which was up five years ago. So if it breaks again, I'll have to pay to get it fixed. But when it broke when it was still under warranty, getting it fixed for free was no hassle at all.

This amp was only $420 brand new and sounds very good, I'm really glad I bought it before it was discontinued. I'm still going to get a tube amp when I get the money (a Mesa Mark IV).

Sweet and simple, just the way I like it. Incredibly clear and vibrant, but dirty as Stern when I want it to be. No worthless built-in effects to muddle up or digitize my tone, just a simple spring reverb to give it a little extra depth. Way versatile. I've used this amp on stage for three and a half years, and every guitarist and engineer I've worked with since has asked me where to get one. So far it's been great in the studio too!

Makes my BluesHawk shine, but also does great justice to my Strat and Les Paul. Very transparent, so you hear the soul of the guitar more than the soul of the amp. Great for rock, but equally as good for jazz and blues. My Ibanez hollow-body also sounds quite good through this amp - very Kenny Burrell. The distortion channel is very typically German in tone, but the gain on the clean channel transitions nicely into the distortion channel. It works very well with every style I've used it for so far. Even my ancient Teisco sounds great through it! Not quite a tube amp, but close enough for the price!

I like to push this amp to its very limits to get as much tone as possible, so every 6 months or so I'll blow a fuse. But fuses are relatively easy to replace. The handle has worn out after years of constant use. Never had any real problems, so it's the only amp I'll take to a gig, whether it's rock, blues, jazz or country.

Never dealt with customer service

I've basically fallen in love with this amp, and all my colleagues want to steal it from me. I bought another one to use simultaneously for stereo effects, and it's blowing my mind! The only amp I'd prefer to this one is a Fender Blues DeVille 410.

This solid state amp has two channels with shared EQ, and it has reverb, and fx loop, a headphone jack. It is a loud amp. Much louder than other solid state amps I've owned of similar wattage.

The clean channel is very good. The clean channel distorts the higher you turn the volume, but since there is a master volume you can set it with exactly as much break-up as you desire.

The distortion channel is pretty good, but not spectacular. The 'shape' knob really helps dial in the sound you are after. The EQ knobs are not very responsive. The overall sound is a bit muffled without very much treble. I wish the gain would go higher. It's almost where I want it but not quite. Maybe a boost pedal or EQ pedal will help me get the amp where I want it. A lot of buzz on this channel, and my guitar has humbuckers.

The distortion channel sounds better loud. At bedroom levels it is even more muffled-sounding.

This amp has worked fine for me for several years, including playing pretty loud in a band setting.

I wish the EQ did more, and the gain went a little higher - other than that it's a great solid state amp, much better than others I've owned.

I believe this amp was made in 2002, because that's the year in which I bought it. I play multiple styles of music, including but not limited to reggae, classic rock, blues, punk, and metal. This amp has two channels, called 'clean' and 'lead'. I find that the amp without any pedals excels at clean sounds and at heavy distortion, but trying to dial in a good classic rock or blues tone is not so easy. Basically I wish that this amp had a third channel for those in-between sounds. The fx loop is very good, I've used it with a delay pedal before. The amp also has a headphones jack but it sounds really bad. I wish the reverb, which is decent, was footswitchable. This amp is loud, louder than other solid state amps I've played. I use it in band practice and have no trouble making everyone deaf. I also use it to practice at home.

My guitar is a Schecter with 'duncan designed' pickups. For effects I use a Boss OC-2 (Octave pedal), and a Boss SD-1 (Overdrive). The SD-1 gets me a good classic rock sound, or can be used for a solo boost (which would be another feature I would like this amp to have). The amp is never noisy. With the gain on 9/10 (which is the highest I ever set it, normally I play on 7 or 8), there is a slight buzz when not playing and that's all. This amp can basically achieve any high-gain distortion sound you could be after from Marshall to Mesa to whatever else. I have mine sounding very much like a Mesa Mark IV lead channel. The clean channel is very Fenderish. The reverb is decent but I've heard better. It is good enough though.

Hasn't let me down.

The company is in Germany. Who knows?

Best solid state amp I've heard. I can think of some ways it could be better (third channel, footswitchable reverb, footswitchable/adjustable solo boost), but it is certainly a fantastic value. I think H&K stopped making these for some reason.

Everything has already been said about it.
In some words this amp has all the basic features a "multi-style" guitarist needs.

I played in it with a Les Paul (LP) copy and a mexican Standard Strat. The clean channel is great if you re looking for a plain warm sound, you can play with the equalizer but you won't get a full trebble sound with it as basses are very present in it. You can go from very limpide sound to a fat crunchy whan playing with both volume and master. I particulary love the clean channel with volume at 8/9, it gives a great bluesy crunchy power sound.
The lead channel is for mass destruction sounds. You can have a great balance of color thanks to the voicing button, and when playin with both gain and master you can go from blues rock/classic rock overdrive to heavy metal/hard core trashy distortion, but without any anoying distorted sound features, the sound stays very precise (even in full gain sounds you will recognize your chords with perfection and soloists will apreciate to keep that precision in high pitch).
I would say that the clean channel is perfect for humbucker users as it has a poor treeble that needs a high output level. My strat single coils sound poorely with it, in my opinion, but it's not a valve tube after all, and the sound is really great when playing with a 2 humbuckers LP. The lead channel is the real great point of this model as I neverd heard such a bitchin heavy and precise distorted sound on any combo.
Definitly one of the best for rock!

I did some gigs with it with an external hp for better sound repartition. It buzzes a bit at high volume, so I had to cut the sound when not playing. In rehearsals, without the hp and in a little room the amp has the power to play with a regular drummer (not a butcher).
I never had any problem with it. But a friend of mine has the same amp and when the effect loop is unpluggled he gets a power loss prob. There must be a connection prob in it with some models but I never checked it as mine works perfectly.

Never had to use it.

I've benn playing with it for 5 years, taking it to gigs and rehearsals, plugging diffent effects on it (vox wah, ts7 tube screamer, zoom 2100), and it's still alive and works perfectly.
You can play at home on your own or with a band.
At this price you won't get such an as good combo as this one is.
I would change my amp only to get a good valve one.

I'm not going to rate features, and I will not go through all of them, because reviewers below have already gone through them. It has the features I need, and that's what is important.

The clean channel is great. I like to actually turn it way up and turn the master volume down for a really cool distortion sound. It reminds me of a fuzz pedal.
The distortion channel is definitely for high-gain such as metal and metal-ish sounds. There is much flexibility in eq and the contour knob. I find that I don't need to put the gain higher than 3 out of 10, and I can still play Metallica, Offspring, Pennywise, Tool, RATM, and similar high-gain music like this. I have passive pickups, by the way. I roll the volume on the guitar back to play Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and other medium-gain music.
This amp really can get practically any sound you could want if you know what you are doing.

I've never had a problem with it.

I have called them and they are kind and helpful.

I did have a nice tube amp but it was too loud, and once I stopped playing in a band I sold it and got the H&K Club Reverb after playing it at a local music shop.
I probably will never get rid of this great little amp.

The only feature I wish this amp had that it doesn't is a third channel. I like to have a clean channel, a crunch channel, and a vicious lead channel. This one has the clean and vicious lead, but I'm going to have to get a pedal for the other sound. The reverb sounds pretty poor in my opinion but I don't use reverb so no big loss.

This amp has a fantastic clean channel and makes some fantastic, fierce high gain sounds. I love it. Sounds better than any amp I've ever owned, and that includes two tube amps.

One time I had to get the input jack resoldered after it somehow came detached. I have owned this amp for over a year and it otherwise has been fine.

They were helpful in diagnosing the problem my amp had and in locating a repair place. The fix was free because it was under warranty.

I do not think a $1400 Marshall or Mesa Boogie is worth the price unless you're a professional. There are solid state amps such as this one that sound as good or nearly as good as the nicest tube amps for much cheaper. This amp is definitely a 'fantastic value'.

Fair amount of features - 2 channels, reverb (not footswitchable), fx loop, headphone jack (sounds awful through this), eq is shared between the 2 channels which doesn't matter. Not a real feature-laden amp, but has enough.

I play with two sounds - clean and distortion. I put the amp's distortion on 4 out of 10 and I can play Metallica songs just fine, and that's with a guitar with passive humbuckers (Duncan JB at bridge, Duncan '59 at neck). Really nice clean and distortion, better than some tube amps I've heard.

Mine had the input jack for the fx loop come loose, but I got it soldered back on (probably could've fixed it myself, but it was under warranty so the fix was free).
Other than that it's been fine and I've owned it for one year now.

They were helpful in getting my amp repaired.

Unless it breaks and refuses to function, which it seems a couple of people below have experienced, this amp is a fantastic value.

ATTENTION: DO NOT BUY THIS AMP!
I submitted the review below on 10-20-02 and have come back to inform people that these amps are no good.

Sounds okay. After owning it awhile it begins to sound more solid state and less tube-like.

After owning the guitar for several months, the sound began to cut out. I realized it was the fx loop which I had never even used. If I put a small cable from the output to the input of the fx loop this problem stopped. If I took it out it would cut out again.
Now the amp's volume suddenly went down by 90% and is difficult to hear. Several knobs make a loud buzzing sound when turned up. I am currently trying to get this amp repaired, but only for the purpose of being able to sell it to some poor schmuck on eBay. DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE AMPS!

The warranty card was in German. This sucks because I don't speak German - how hard could it have been for them to make a warranty card in English? I can't find on their website anywhere that I can contact the company, so I am going to go to some music stores this week and inquire about getting the amp fixed.

DO NOT BUY THIS AMP! DO YOU HEAR ME? IF YOU READ REVIEW AND BUY ONE AND IT BREAKS I HOPE YOU REMEMBER THIS REVIEW AND YOU WILL THINK "WHY OH WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN TO THAT REVIEWER ON HARMONY-CENTRAL?!"

Followup to previous post on this amp.This amp comes with a good speaker but I had an 8 ohm Vintage 30 I had pulled from an amp I sold laying around so...I swapped out the speaker just for fun and HOLY COW ! This thing sounds superb ! Very punchy and toneful,A joy to play.Sounds better than many tube amps and I own several.