Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 50 W Combo

Well, further to my review below, I felt compelled to write this based on my experience.

Great on the rare occassion that it actually works!

This amp has turned out to be the most unreliable amp I have ever bought !


The first week I had the amp, everything was fine and dandy and then one night the footswitch completely stopped working. Had a read of the manual and reset the midi channel/omni on the amp and footswitch which sorted it all out. About 2 days later, the same thing happened but this time it would not reset. I carted my amp and footswitch back to Rhodes to check which it was and it was the footswitch which they instantly swapped ut for a new one.

All was then fine for about a week till the night of the 1st gig !! We got through the first half fine but then about 3 songs into the second half the volume on the clean started to drop out. About 2 songs later the most aweful crackling noise started in the clean channel. Fortunately (or so I thought) the last fe songs we do require purely crunch and distortion settings. However, 3rd song before the end mid way through the song, the crunch completely cut out for about 20 seconds and then came back ! Fortunately we're a 2 guitarist band so our other guitarist quickly picked up on this and filled the gap. For the last couple of songs, it just about made it with some rather strange noises.

The amp was then "fixed" by the distributor and after going to London to collect, got it home and the same thing happened with the amp within about 10 minutes of using it for the first time. In addition to this one of the footswitch buttons stopped working at the same time.

In summary, this amp is as unreliable as it gets. What a heap of junk. If there was an option on here for a zero it would have got it.

I bought this amp from Rhodes Music in London who were good in getting the footswitch replaced with their own ones and got the amp to H&K (actually SCV who are the distributor) quickly .

My fault was "fixed" by SCV by just replacing the power tubes and nothing else. It took them a week as well to do this and this was after being "fast tracked" My fault returned within 10 minutes of using this amp again.

Rating of 1 for SCV although I would give Rhodes a 9.

If you've got any sense, DON'T buy this amp it is very unreliable.

Due to the problems I had, Rhodes kinly gave me a credit note to use in any of their stores and I used it to buy a Marshall JVM 410C which will hpefully be much more reliable

The Huges and Kettner Switchblade is a 50 watt 1X12 valve combo with 4 channels. It's the world's first valve amp with full midi switching and built in digital effects. Some of the features include midi in and through, selectable series or paralell effects loop, various extension options for cabs and the included effects are reverb, chorus, delay, flanger and tremolo.

The amp runs on 2 X 12AX7 preamp valves and 2 EL34 power amp valves. Out of the factory, they run Tube Amp Doctor valves.

This amp has 132 assignable 'patches' which are controlled via the included H&K midi footswitch. You can save your patches for any desired sounds and call thm back up regarless of the settings on the amp at the touch of a button.

Flexibility doesn't get any more then this on a valve amp.

After purchasing the H&K and getting it home, I was amazed by the shear flexibility of the amp, I found myself putting all my effects pedals on Ebay (bar my wah pedal and tuner!) as the in built effects are so good.

My style of music is Rock and Blues. I play in a female fronted cover band and we paly stuff from Led Zep, GNR, Lenny Kravitz, Green Day, Therapy through to stuff like Sheryl Crowe so I need something that's going to be flexible.

Guitar wise, I'm mainly using a Gibson Les Paul Standard Faded so humbuckers all the way.

So the sounds:

The clean channel is crystal clear and chimey. As someone has stated, if you hit the strings very hard, you will get a slight amount of distortion from the speaker break up but my style is not in that vain so it doesn't effect me.

The crunch channel is pure marshall valve crunch, this channel is exceptionally crisp and has the sweetest midrange I've ever heard on any valve amp crunch setting. This channel will go from light blues, through crunch all the way to near full distortion.

The Lead channel has just as much distortion as most modern high gain amplifiers and when set to 10 on the gain is absolutely searingingly hot. I use this for the heavier rhythms that I do but also use this channel with a higher channel volume setting as my lead sound for solos. Again, absolutely singing midrange

The Ultra channel picks up where the lead channel leaves off. It is very much full on Thrash / nu metal and very Boogie Rectifier type distortion. I only mess around with this channel as it's really not my sound type and not something I'm aiming for/need but it's still very good for what it does. I had great fun chugging out Pantera - Five minutes alone on this. I like my distortion very mid range whereas on this channel, the mids are very scooped and it has a thunderous bottom end and fizzy top end. Perfect for that style of playing.

This amp is VERY VERY VERY LOUD. I play in a fieve piece band and with the Randall, I would have the master volume set to about 9 with the channel volumes low, the Boogie would sit on about 6 on master volume but with the channel volumes set low, this has been sitting on around 4 of the master volume !!!!

To summarise, it's outstnading in the sound department hence I'm giving it a 10.

I've only just got this amp so I couldn't say.

H&K are generally regarded as making very reliable products and I have owned various other Hughes and Kettner amps throughout my playing history and never had any problems with them so I suspect (touch wood), that this should be reliable.

The warranty on this amp is a year for the amp and 3 months on the valves.

Although I've never had to contact H&K, I've heard that they will give really good advice and actually even help people out after the warranty expires as, as one other poster above, stated, they do stand behind their products.

I've been playing for around 13 years and usually gig about 2 - 4 times a month.

Up to this point, I had two main amps - A Randall RH50T valve stack and a Mesa Boogie F-50 combo which are both very good amps and have their strong points and weak points. The Boogie had an amazing clean but suprisingly, I prefered the distortion on the Randall so I was looking for something that could deliver both and not just one or the other.

I had it in mind that I wanted to get a combo as I got fed up of lugging a stack around to gigs and rehearsals so I went shopping and looked at the following combos:

Fender Twin, Supersonic and Hotrod Deville
Vox AC30
Marshall DSL, TSL and JVM
Engl Screamer
H&K Switchblade

I tried the switchblade first and was totally blown away on first impressions. I did try the others as well and the only one that was close for me was the Engl Screamer which has amazing distortion but is shared EQ with both channels so it was a bit of a one trick pony as it's difficult to get a good EQ setting for two different channels to work well together so it was very inflexible.

I've not really touched on the effects at all but all I will say is that I have owned lots of amps in the past (some good, some very bad)which includes a Mesa Boogie F50, Randall RH50T, Marshall Slash Stack, Marshall JTM30, Marshall JMP1 & 9100, Marshall JCM800 & 900, H&K Attax 100, Laney Pro tube to name a few but this is by far the best amp I have ever owned and although I've only owned it for a few weeks, I can see very few things topping this for quite a few years so this is definately a keeper! For me this has blown every other amp I've ever owned out of the water and that fact that it has effects built in as well is one of the biggest bonuses ever. As before, I've sold the contents of my pedalboard bar the very very basics.

If this was lost or stolen, I would be gutted. I would go straight out and buy exactly the same amp at the best price without even bothering to test anything else.

I started playing in a band last year, and until that time I had a Behringer, which was not good. I thought let's spend some more money for an amp you can play on for some years to come. I talked to some experienced guitarplayers and came to the conclusion that I wanted to have buy a Vox AC30 with TC Electronic (G-major & minor) effects or a combination; the Switchblade. The G-major is a very nice piece of equipment, but for me too complicated. Pricewise the Switchblade was ofcourse also more interesting, but that was not my motivation; the Switchblade is easier to operate.

It has 4 channels: clean, crunch, lead and ultra. They are easy to program via the footswitch. The footswitch is very solid, but the click it makes is also very loud.

It has enough power. I considered the 100W, but in the store they advised me to take the 50W, because it was loud enough.... and they were right. Even when rehearsing, when I'm, next to our loud drummer, the volumeswitch is on 25 %.

As already mentioned, it can make all sounds you need when you play pop/rock/blues/heavy metal etc. The lead-channel is VERY loud.
The ultra channel is quite noisy, which irritates me.

The clean channel is very clear and bright.

I play it with a Fender Telecaster (lite ash), a Fernandes Retro-rocket and a Cort M520. All guitars sound great on it.

Until now no defects. I do not have a backup amp.

I called the Dutch importer and they were very helpful. AT the store I bought it I have very good experience about their service, so I don't worry.

I've been playing it for a year now and am very satisfied. Ofcourse I only have 1 reference, which was the bad Behringer. If it was stolen I would buy another one. I love the sound and the easy programming of the sounds. I hate the weight.

This is the 50 watt combo version. All tube midi controllable amp. Made in Germany in June 07. I bought this amp to have a small combo that I could take to practice and small gigs. My main amp is the Switchblade's big, big brother, the Triamp with a 4x12 matching cab, so obviously something a little smaller to easily carry around is a nice alternative. And trying to match some of the tones on the Triamp is no easy task, but this amp comes close enough for what it is inteded to do. I play mostly progressive metal and progressive rock. This amp is very versitle. It has four channels - Clean, Crunch, Lead, and Ultra. All the channels are programmable. That means that each preset you are programming, you can dial in the volume, drive, eq, reverb, delay, modulation, and effects loop in or out and parallel or serial. The only knob that is not programable is the master volume. But this controls the overall output of the amp. At first, I thought it would not have enough power with 50 watts and only one speaker. (I don't know why, I barely use my Triamp on the 100watt setting. I always use 50 watts and it is plenty loud with a lot of headroom). But, this little baby does have plenty of power and the one speaker handles it very nicely. I give a 9 here because the onboard effects could be a little better and a noise gate would have been nice as well. But, overall the amp is incredible for its size and very versitle.

The sound quality is very impressive. I used an A/B box to compare it to my Triamp in order to program the presets and I was suprised that this amp can deliver some of the same tube as the Triamp. Of course, the Triamp has a bit more depth and warmth and running through a 4x12 cabinet with Vintage 30's also allows the Triamp to sound much more punchy and deep. But, the Switchblade was getting very comparable tones considering it being a 1x12. I am very impressed. The clean channel does get some distortion at loud volumes when hitting the strings hard, but this is actually some speaker break up and not amp distortion. If playing with normal pick attack on the clean channel, it is very sparkly and chimey. The nice thing is that on this channel, if you want to get some dirt, you can by turning the gain up. This is great for playing lightly and then increasing attack and picking up some bite, or by having the volume down on the guitar and turning it up for that nice Vox kind of tone. The distortion channels are very nice, crunch is fantastic and can get that Marshall like tone with no problem. However, keep in mind this is a 1x12 and will only respond like a 1x12 will. It will not sound like a 4x12, but it comes close for a little guy. I use both humbuckers and single coils and both sound very nice on this amp. The amp suits my playing styles very nicely in that it can go from clean to crunch to very nicely distorted tones very quickly. The effects are good, but there is not many of them. You get reverb -which is a nice modeled spring reverb, delay, which is also very nice, and modulation which includes, chorus, flange, and tremelo. One thing to keep in mind is all of the Switchblade's knobs are very sensitive. There is a lot that you can do with just a very small turn of the dial. There is some digital scratchiness when turning a dial. But, the manual says this is normal as the processor is working behind the scenes. It is not very audible and certainly does not get in the way of the performance. It only happens when setting up sounds. The only way it would effect your sound is if you were dialing things during a performance at very loud volumes. It is normal for the DSP. Is it noisy? Yes, on the lead channel. It sounds like any other tube amp when the drive is cranked. You get that overdrive hiss. No worry though, a noise gate gets rid of it right away, but overall it is not that annoying and because this channel is nicely compressed, it is not noticeable at all when playing, just in between songs. If you are using a tube amp at loud volumes, you need a noise gate any way. It would have been nice for H&K to provide it on the Switchblade since it would be programmable. This amp does sound awesome! If you would be using this as your main amp, I would recommend the 2x12 combo or the head with a 4x12. But, if you are looking for a great tube amp that sounds amazing and is easy to carry around. This is it. It is unlike other 1x12's in that it is still relatively large in size and the cabinet is mostly closed back, with just a small slit in the back to help with the speaker dynamics. This cabinet really makes a difference and helps this 1 12" speaker deliver the goods. It is amazing to see this little amp put out so much tone! If you need really lush effects, the effects loop works very nicely. I hooked my TC Electronics G-Major to it and it sounded fantastic. But, what really impressed me was how good I was able to get the chorus and delay to sound close to the G-Major. And so I thought, why bring the extra gear? The Switchblade handles it nicely. But, it is nice to know that if I need more lush effects, that it will work very well with my existing effects unit.

I don't know. I have not had it for that long. It is built like a tank and I have dealt with H&K before and they stand behind their products.

My experiences have always been positive. I spoke with them before buying it and explained what I was using it for and they helped me make an informed decision about this purchase. In the past, they have gone out of their way to make things right.

I have been playing for over 26 years, mostly professional. I own a Hughes & Kettner Triamp MK II Alex Lifeson Signature Edition with matching 4x12 cab. I own Gibson Custom Shop guitars, TC Electronics G-Major and a Boss TU-2 Tuner and Boss NS-2 Noise Gate with 2 Ernie Ball voume pedals (one as volume the other as expression for the G- Major) I also use a Framptone amp switcher and a Heil Talkbox driven by a 30watt Roland combo). I also have a Pod XT Live (which I really have no use for now after getting the Switchblade) I use a H&K Tubeman for direct recording. What I love about this amp is the wonderful tone in a small package. It can compete with a larger amp, but will fall short at higher volumes. But, this is a 50 watt combo it is not a 100watt head with 4x12. I tried many combos out there. Too many to mention, and I chose this one because of its awesome tone, and small size with the added feature of programability and onboard effects. I do wish it had a built in noise gate and a direct out. But, my Triamp has direct out which is what I would record with anyway when not using the Tubeman. Overall, you would not be disappointed with amp if looking for a great tone in a small package with alot of versatility. H&K has done it again. The Swithcblade amps are a great idea blending digital programability with all tube tone. Can't go wrong!