Koch Multitone

This is an update of my previous review, which I believe is directly below this review.

3 channel 100 watt head with a solo boost function and reverb. Speaker damping, direct recording output, 50 / 100 watt output selector, 2x4-2x8-1x16 speaker outs, 1x serial and 1x foot-switchable parallel effects loop make up the rich feature set of this amp...in a nutshell.

Great set of features!

Ok....I gave this thing a strong rating on sound in my previous review but now I need to revise this rating. This sucker's a big fat 10...hands down, no question. I'd even give it the ol' spinal tap '11' rating if I could.

I recently changed the preamp's tube configuration with a JJ ECC803s in V1, Tung-sol gold pin series (cryo-treated) in V2 & V3 and a Groove tube 12AX7-R as the power tube driver in V4. (4x JJ KT-77's make up the power section.)

Prior to changing these tubes (the only constants here are the Tung-sols, which didn't get changed) I had some noise (popping, hiss, etc) and an annoying electric 'zap' that came through the speakers every time I took it out of standby. I tried out MANY tubes and couldn't completely clean this amp up. I falsely concluded that it might be the amp and that this was related to what I perceived at ther time as possible quality control issues at Koch. Wrong.

I had the amp checked over by a local tech whom I trust 100% and he said this amp was built very well and I should have no concerns with its build quality or reliability on a stage. His only critisism was the footswitch...which could really be improved on. It doesn't reflect the quality of the head. The footswitch looks and feels a little cheap...though it works well and shouldn't break if handled carefully.

OK...Back to the sound. I had this thing running through a THD hotplate and into the Koch 4x12 cab last night with my Soldano Decatone head and EVM-equiped Soldano 4x12 side-by-side in our studio and compared them. I had just changed the V1 tube to a JJ ECC803s.

Wow. That's all I can say....WOW!!!

Both myself and my bass player (who also owns the studio) were of the opinion that the Soldano would be the clear winner in this comparison and would exhibit a better tone overall in all channels. Wrong again! Dare I even say this?....The Koch sounded better to the both of us. There....I said it. It's true. The clean was cleaner and warmer than the Decatone...like a classic fender, the drive channel was like an old Marshall bluesbreaker and the OD channel was hot-rodded Marshall heaven. HUGE ballsy tone. There was much more versatility between the Koch's 3 channels than there was with the Soldano Decatone (Also a 3 channel head). The Soldano was like 3 settings of the same amp (3 great settings, mind you)....but the Koch was like 3 different amps in one head.

I was impressed with it before but I'm totally blown away with this amp now. There's absolutely no doubt Koch deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the other legendary boutique amp makers such as Soldano, Diezel, Bogner and Mesa Boogie. The sound is top-notch in all 3 channels.

I had doubts here before but they've been appeased since then. The Koch is road-worthy and gigging without a backup wouldn't worry me too much at all. Although gigging with a backup is always recommended no matter what amp you have. Things happen on the road...especially with tube amps. The footswitch needs to be built more heavy-duty....but that's about the worst of it. Other than that...solidly built.

Koch has always responded to my emails over the years. (I've owned a Pedaltone for years) It may take a few days but they always reply. The canadian distributor, 'Audionova' are great. They stand behind all their products and value their end-users out there who are using their gear. They fixed my Pedaltone (also a Koch product) free of charge long after the warranty expired. A class act.

I've been playing for about 26 years. I have had lots of great gear over the years and currently have the afore-mentioned Soldano and Koch Multitone as well as a Mesa Boogie Blue stripe Mark III combo and an Orange Tiny Terror (AWESOME little amp and a GREAT buy! I'll be reviewing that one next!). For guitars I'm using a Les Paul Standard, a PRS standard 22, a Godin LG signature, an Eric Johnson Strat and an 80's strat with Evans pick ups. All sound fantastic with the Koch...and all sound like a different guitar is being plugged into the amp...as it should be!! The Koch lets the true tone of your guitar shine through!

This review is for a Koch Multitone series I 100 watt head with 4x12 Koch speaker cabinet. The series one is a slightly more basic version of the series II which has replaced it. 3 channels...clean and 'Drive' channels share the same EQ controls (B,M,T) but each have independent volume controls and channel 2 of course adds the 'Drive' (gain) knob. Both these channels have the EQ in the input (pre-gain) stage. The 3rd channels has its own B,M,T controls plus Gain and Presence controls. The EQ does its thing in the output stages (post-gain) in this channel to help tame and shape the enormous amounts of gain available in this channel. A speaker damping switch offers a 'hi' and 'lo' damping choice and helps to get either a vintage (lo) or a more modern (hi) attack to your sound. There is also a footswitchable rythym volume and reverb level which is active for all channels. The reverb is sacrificed when using the parallel loop located on the back panel. This sacrifice enables you to insert and remove your effect/s of choice at will via the reverb on/off switch on the foot controler. There is also a serial loop which is not foot-switch controlled. There is a 50-100% power selector and a 1/4 recording output jack with speaker simulation which is voiced to a 2x12 cab. 2 x 4ohm, 2 x 8ohm and 1 x 16ohm speaker outputs as well as a channel selector switch are also located on the back panel. I do wish it had channel selector jacks available for use with a controller. Otherwise, a very well-featrued amp.

This amp sounded pretty good when I purchased it from the western Canada Audionova rep here in Vancouver BC. The clean was great, the drive channel was very cool and the gain channel was 'ok'. However, after spending lots of time and money properly rebiasing and retubing this amp I can now say it sounds awesome and deserves the 10 rating I give it for sound quality on all 3 channels now. I tried a wide variety of pre and power tubes in this thing and was never simultaneously impressed with all 3 channels until trying the following combination:

JJ ECC83s in all 4 preamp sockets

JJ KT77 in all 4 power tube sockets

I tried, the Groove Tube mullard 12ax7's and the Tung-sol gold pin reissues as well as Ruby EL34's, Koch EL34's, Groove tube 5881's, Electro-harmonix 6L6GC and EL34's...and Sovtek 5881's too. I tried MANY tubes out and the best and most articulate performance were with this combo. After changing to the KT77's and letting them burn in a while it was a whole other amp...IMHO. This amp has a bouncy, shimmering clean that is very close to a Fender vintage clean. Pure heaven when you kick in the reverb which is lush and warm. The 'Drive' is a convincing plexi growl. A smooth vintage overdrive that will pull you in and make you play for hours. Smooth, slightly broken up tones I've looked for a very long time jumped right out of this excellent channel. The response to the guitar's volume knob takes you from a warm, pushed clean to an AC/DC crunch at will. Very, very impressed with the clean and Drive channels on this amp...oustanding performance and makes this amp worth every dime even before hearing the gain channel's ballsy roar.

And yes...that was a forshadowing! The gain channel is pure rock & roll! There is plenty of smooth, creamy gain available and the articulation is clear and focused even at high gain settings. You will hear the notes in your chord work! The mids are voiced smooth...not harsh like on many amps....so you don't have to tweak for hours to tame it. The bass response is huge and I recommend bass settings of about -4.5 for best results. Otherwise it can get boomy and conflict with your bass player's frequency range...turning you both to mud.

This amp is fantastic....great pro-quality sounds from all 3 channels. The Koch cab handles it all with ease and sounds way better than many cabs I've heard. The koch-designed Jensens sound a lot like vintage 30's and the 14-ply construction really helps to make this cab absolutely sing.

I have to admit to being marginally impressed with aspects of the construction of the amp's circuit boards and overall wiring. PCB's in tube amps aren't necessarily a bad thing (and are the norm now, really) as long as the wiring and soldering that goes along with it is solid and well-done. That said, plastic harness-connectors fitted with low-gauge computer-grade wire kinda scare me when seen inside a high power tube amp. Tube sockets that are mounted directly to the PCB's themselves bother me....especially at $2000.00+ price points. My Soldano Decatone is another pricey amp that also has uses a PCB based construction and design....but the surrounding wiring job to and from the PCB's and transformers in the Soldano puts the Koch to shame. Period. Also, plastic 1/4" input jacks that are mounted directly to the PC board for every single available instrument jack on the unit...including speaker outs...is disappointing to me. I have a pedaltone that has had some problems because of these jacks. I don't like them. For this kind of $$$, I want some more heavy duty jacks!! I would have to say I would probably hesitate to gig this without some kind of a backup for these reasons. I am also seriously contemplating having the construction and components upgraded by a qualified tech after the warranty expires.

At this price point I expected more when I opened this up and had a good look at the guts.

Audionova are great...no concerns at all with Mike and his crew. Very helpful and they back the products they carry. Koch have always responded to my emails in the past in a very timely manner.

This amp sounds GREAT!!! Some of the construction is disappointing for the money these go for. The cab gets a solid 10 and the amp gets an 8 because of the quality issues...but a solid 10 on sound. I have a couple high-end amps and owned many others... and the Koch walks tall among them for sound quality.

No update

Update.
I have chosen to update this review as I mentioned in my first review from about 3 years ago.
The sounds from this amp far exceed my expectations. Clean, chime, semi break-up, vintage growl, 80's crunch, jazz/fusion, full on metal this amp exceeds with a unique voice.
To update I would like to mention that anyone owning or considering owning this amp should definetly take advantage of it's ability to use many different types of tubes with ease. Mix and match your power tubes and fine tune the preamp tubes.
Also never forget to use the dampening switch go from tight ( hi ) to loose ( lo ) attack. I also use this amp's triode ( 50% ) and penthode ( 100% ) modes aswell. If you use the dampening switch and the triode pentode alone for tonal changes it's like having 4 amps in one. Triode is more classic sounding so try this with lo dampening to start and Penthode is more modern so try this with Hi dampening to start. Mixing and matching gives very cool results.
Modern and classic Marshall, Fender, and Vox style tones. Mesa Boogie and Soldano also come into the picture. I own a Soldano and I can get the third channel of this amp to sound very very close... Cool!!!
Best of all this amp retains a unique quality that makes it sound like no other. This is truely a Multitone amp.
Anyone wanting to contact me on settings see my info below.

Update.
My main reason for this update is this topic.
I would have to say after owning this amp for nearly three years it is absolutly releable. I have not had a problem with it yet. Built like a fortress this amp allways delivers.
On occasion I have had popping sounds from this amp but I found this to be the Electro Harmonix preamp tubes I was using... they do not last that long. I now prefer Groove Tubes and Sovtek for my preamp tubes.

Update.
Absolutly without a doubt exceptional. The folks over at audionova (see www.audionova.ca ) Mike and Noraseng are great at what they do. Emails are always repled to quickly and phone calls are not a rarity.
Keep up the good work guys Koch users really appreciate it. A great amp needs great support and Koch has that going on in spades.

Update.
BLOWN AWAY!!!
With so many boutique amps out there it is tough to make the decision to drop the $$$ on any amp so do what I did is what I'm gonna suggest. Take your time and go and try as many of the great amps you hear/read about. I've tried Badcat, Matchless, Orange, Tophat, H&K, Bogner, Marshall HW series, Fender, Roland, etc... I bought the Koch and I'm still Blown Away.

3 channel wonder. to many features to list

well. i sold my marshall tsl to get this or a bogner shiva. the store that had the shiva was closed on a sunday so i got this. i have had it 4 years now. i was kinda let down after really playing it. i was ready to sell it after i got a mesa stiletto but decided to retube it with 6l6's. HOLY SHIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!! wow, i'm blown away with it now. i put in jj teslas and its a little noisier but man,o man, this thing kicks ass now in all channels. i have a soldano avenger and just got a vht cl50. i run them thru my marshall vintage 30 cabinet. i would have to say this is the most brutal distortion of all these 3 amps. on 50 watts it's better for lead but on 100.......omfg!!! anything above 60% distortion level will be hissy though. but u don't need more than that! the clean is punchier with 6l6's too. a fanastic clean sound. this is the most versatile great sounding amp i have tried. period. oh, and the amp sounds better to me at 4 ohms than 16. so be sure to try it on that. it's just too much on 16. oh, and the "crunch" channel that everyone else refers to is actually a blues channel. it's awesome as well but i wish the eq was separate from the clean channel. to much bass will kill it.

broke the footswitch but it was my fault i had to take it in to a shop and they got the schematics to rewire it. i emailed them and no reply. just remember if something goes kaput you will have to probably send it to europe to get it fixed, that will take alot of time and$$$. a hard amp to come by in the states.

see above

well, see my review for the stiletto trident. i just traded it for a vht cl 50. worth it? HELL YEA!!! and this koch now is the king of my soldano,vht and koch trio. if it got stolen i might try the powertone 2 from koch only to see how much more brutal the distortion can get. i will put a soldano avenger review up soon but i am waiting 'till i get the marshall 1960 b cabinet with 75 watt celestions. it sounded waaayyy better than thru my vintage 30 4 12 cabinet. i can tell u that i am a very lucky guy to have 3 kick ass amps. these are the top of the high gain hill and the clean and blues channel are top notch on the koch. the koch now sells for 1700.00 american but i still give it a 10 'cuz the soldano sells for 1550.00-a 1 channel amp. the vht is 2 channel high gain only for 1700.00 new. the koch is 3 great channels with 6l6 tubes. you can even mix the tubes if u like! with so many features it blows my mind!

MADE IN 2004 THIS TANKBUILT HEAD IS THE MOST VERSATILE I EVER OWN,3 CHANNELS WITH SOLO SWITCH FOR EACH CHANNELS,BETTER REVERB THAN WATH IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST (FENDER),I CAN RUN THE AMP WITH 2 POWER TUBES FOR 50 WATTS AND 4 FOR 100 WATTS,OR 2 EL32 AND 6LC FOR DIFFERENT TONES ,CAN PLUG ANY CABS WITH IT, I'M USING IT RIGHT NOW WITH A lINE6 2x12 CELESTIONS NOTHING FANCY AND THE JOB IS WELL DONE,2 EFFECTS LOOPS,RECORDING OUT,

I'M USING THIS HEAD WITH A TOM ANDERSON KOA HOLLOW DROP TOP WITH H3+
SAIR SAI PICKUPS AND SOUND FANTASTIC,1ER CHANNEL VERY CLEAN WTH TONS
OF HEADROOM WITHOUT BREAKING UP,2ND CHANNEL IS LIKE HAVING AN TAB MORE OVERDRIVE BUT YOU CAN DIAL MUCH MOORE,3THRD CHANNEL IS THE BEST OF ALL WITH THE GUITAR VOLUME YOU CAN GET SOME CRUNCH TO HIGH GAIN AND IT PICKS YOU PICKING DYNAMIC VERY COOL

I WOULD USE THIS AMP WITHOUT BACK UP BECAUSE OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS AMP, THESE GUY AT KOCH CARE FOR ALL THE DETAILS AND YOU CAN SEE IT AND HEAR IT

BEFORE I BUY THIS AMP USED I EMAIL SOME QUESTION TO KOCH AND THEY RESPOND TO ME THE DAY AFTER,THE COMPANY IS NEW SO THERE TO MAKE YOU SATISFIED,AND FOR THE SERVICE IS NEAR MY HOUSE IN DORVAL CANADA

I COMPARE THIS AMPS TO BOGNER SHIVA,MESA BOOGIE,DEZIEL HERBERT FENDER TWIN FOR THE CLEAN.THE ONLY THIHG I DONT LIKE IS THAT IF I PLUG SOMETHING IN THE LOOP I LOOSE THE INTERNAL REVERB OF THE AMP BUT I CAN LIVE WITH THAT

Amp is little over a year old. 50W,Three channels, 2 loops, boost or cut on each channel, spring reverb, tpo/side handles, full/half power switch, direct out with speaker simulator. I use it for everything from Country to Blues to Rock-very versatile.

I use an American Standard Strat, '62 re-issue Tele. Channel One is super clean with lots of headroom ; transparent highs and nice bottom end. Drive Channel is my favourite; shares the same EQ, but has an extra sizzle-goes from clean to crunch, but has a wonderful air with single coils. Perfect for Dan Huff Matchless tones with the Tele; SRV/Hendrix Tones with the strat. Channel three has more EQ; goes from clean to full saturation. Usually have to bring this master up further than the others at gig volume; could use a bit more mid for my tastes, but killer anyway.

Had to replace preamp tube early; it's a long way from Amerfoot to Calgary. I've had it for over a year; gets used weekly, been across the Country twice in the back of a Semi; no problems. Haven't changed the tubes yet.

Haven't had to contact them yet; I hear they're easy to get a hold of; helpful.

Been playing for 30 yrs.I've had Boogies most of my life; always wanted a Matchless and an old Fender. This seems to give me all these and more in one amp. Beautiful reverb, looks great, built well, real thick cover. If it got stolen or destroyed I would buy another right away. To get a boutique three channel tube combo with 2 effects loops, reverb and "wheels" for under 3,000.00 seems like a great deal.

3 channel,reverb,solo boost,nice direct out.Very powerful.Like reverb and solo switches on foot control.Could use slightly more agrresive EQ.Covers many styles of music.

Fender stat,#11 slinkys.Play blues,rock,some metal.Also like clean instrumental ballads.This amp has massive headroom.Reverb has to be one of the best.Distortion great at lower levels,below 60% gain,gets muddy wound tight.Got to test it right beside several different marshalls,peaveys,mesas and fenders.From clean to moderate distortion, it blew them all away without question!

Have had trouble but found out it was the electrical socket in my house.Loose neutral wire.No trouble since.

I know,Im not supposed to write all good stuff,but there really isnt that much bad.Talked to Mike and Noriseing at Audionova.They couldnt have tried harder.They said Dolph Kotch was going to call me about my amp-yeah right.Well HE DID!

Been playing 24 years,one of the best amps Ive ever heard.I own a full pa, small 1800 watts,but it sounds good.All EV pa.Crate and mesa amps dont get used much.Would like better eq and the possibility of a recto voice.

I play just about anything from Country to heavy metal. Amp seems very versitle but definately stronger on the clean side. If you appreciate the tone of the guitar coming through strong, then this is a great amp for you.

I play a Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Fender Strat Delux. I am now thinking of getting a maple necked guitar to suit the strong tones that come through this amp.

Volume is fading in and out. Not sure why. May take to a shop to check it out. I bought it used, so it may need biasing or a general tune up. Otherwise it sounds great.

I just started a Koch group on the yahoo website. Check it out if you would like. http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/kochamps/

Newer model Koch multitone 100 head (tube). Older stock but was refurbished by amp tech prior to sale. This one has all the current features; speaker dampening, halfpower(triode) switch, series and parallel fx loops, rhythm/solo vol switch, recording out, 16/8/4 ohm outs, and five button footswitch. 3 channels footswitchable with master reverb. I use this amp for rippin country guitar smack in many different venues with a variety of cabinets and it always gets mic'ed. At 100 tube watts it's plenty loud but I use a powerbrake to really crush those tubes:) I give it an 8 for features because the clean and crunch channels share the same EQ.

This amp see's Tele's and Les Pauls on stage and everything else when at home. The name says it all-Multitone, it is what I always thought my 5150 II should have sounded like. It has enough versatility for most rock applications but if you want real Metal I suggest the Koch Powertone. The clean channel sounds plain at normal house levels with no break-up, but on 5+ with the powerbrake it sounds alot like my 64 bassman amp (blackface) the notes are not quite as fat and the lowend is more subtle but more convincing than most other clean channels at high vol. Crunch channel is where I spend my time on stage, it has seperate vol and gain from the clean channel. Wide variety of tones here, clean to Led Zep style overdrive. I run the gain on 5 and the volume on 7 then use the powerbrake for overall vol. This makes the notes fat but clear for dirty country then I use a super OD or a TS 808 for leads. For heavy country (don't laugh) I leave the OD on and use the vol boost for solo's. The third channel really has the widest variety of tones ranging from comp clean to very heavy rock via a 'dual gain' knob. I only rock out on this at home but you can bet it sound best when the vol is past 5 and the powerbrake is on. The presence control is very effective here. Other than microphonic pre tubes this amp has given me no trouble, I had mine refitted with 6L6's power tubes to clean it up a little while still stompin those tubes but when they die I may go back to the EL34's. I rate this as an 9 because the channels really complement each other with incredible overlap.

As above; no problems or stage let-downs with this unit. When close to home I never bring a backup but travelling I always have the Bassman. I should mention the refurbishing had to do with some caps/resistors being of low quality on NOS amps like mine, but since then flawless. I give this a 7 because of quality cotrol issues and the fact that they're built half way across the world and you're better off to settle you problems with a local tech

I have never dealt with the company personally but a friend who has a Powertone recently ordered an extension for his footswitch which took forever to get here of course and cost three times as much if he would've had one built locally.

I have been playing about 15 years and have many guitars. I play this head mostly through a closed back 212 with a G12H30 celestion and a C12K2 jensen (figure that one out) but it sounds equally good thru 412Mesa oldschool and a 410 tweed. Gods tone is this head and the original 212 oversized cab from the Bassman with jensen purples. I compared this amp with mesa's rectifier series and the old 5150 II that I used to own. This amp is kind of middle ground as far as the Hi gain channel goes, mesa was too fuzzy/fizzy and the peavey was too raw and open. If it went missing I might look at Bogners Shiva6L6 or some other hi wattage class A amp because of my pecadillos with the powerbrake. Peace

This amp was made in 1997, the serial # is 35, written in ball point pen. I like to play what ever is on my mind, so everything is what I play. 3 channels very nice reverb, Boost switch two effects loops(don't know why), two drives and stereo outs. The newer ones have more features. I only give 7 because the newer ones have more stuff.

I use a USA strat and an SG. If I can't get it with that than I need too practice more. This amp dose it all. I find it responsive for an amp with high gain. It dose get the creamy vintage sounds and the newer sounds that the kides love. I do not find it trebaliy as others have said. It crunches and growel, but I never got that big belching sound like an old marshall on 10. Then again nothing on earth beats the crap out of you like a superlead on 10. I find the amp dose fender sounds as well as new Hi gain sounds. This is not rare but amps that can do this cost a lot of money. As did this one.

It is a sensitve, but would you want somthing like a handmade, imported, hi performace piece of eqipment. Made like a truck or a Merceadies. Take care of your gear and it will take care of you.

Have never called them, I have not needed too.

I have had lots of gear. Been playing a long time and would hate too lose this one. If it were stolen, I don't think I could replace it, it's one of the first ones made. I would try to find one like it but wish me luck.

Not sure what year it was made but mine is the 100 watt combo version w/Koch Jensen speakers rated at 90 watts each. 3 ch...clean, crunch, and high gain. Clean and crunch share a pre EQ while the gain channel has post EQ and presence controls. A pretty decent spring reverb tank on board as well as a rythm/solo volume which is absolutely a wonderful idea that I also enjoyed with my Mesa. My only thought for Koch is to give the crunch channel its own gain. Dual gain feature is nice idea but limits one channel or the other. Only reason for the 8 really. And holy crap is this thing heavy!! Cabinet is very well constructed of I think 11-ply birch. A very clean looking amp!!

I use an Agile AL3000 Prestige and an Agile DC both with humbuckers. Yeah I know what you're thinkin...cheapass guitars with cheap pickups. Actually for the money, these things outperformed the Epi's I use to have including a flametop custom which I loved. If you don't atleast check out these guitars, you are missin out!! I run the combo through a Carvin 4X12 cab with Eminence V12's. Let me tell ya, the sound is so incredibly thick and warm on the gain channel and the clean channel is the best I have ever played. This amp has a very 3D sound allowing every nuance of your guitars tone to shine through. Was a Mesa man but their clean sucked ass compared to these. EQ adjustment is no problem with plenty of room to sculpt your tone which this amp has in droves!!! I run 2 EL34's and 2 6L6's and had the amp rebiased with no problems!! I play mostly nu-metal to rock and this handles both with more definition than my dual Recto. The only thing I might add to my set up is a Boss GE-7 to scoop just a hair more mids and use it to boost my signal from my guitars. Other than that-KILLER!!!

I haven't had it long but I have a good tech that rebiases it for me. The only problem I have is than when the gain channel is on, I get a slight whistle somewhere if the reverb is on and the rythme switch is off and vice versa. If both are on or off it's fine. If anyone else has had this problem please email and let me know at drumtek89@hotmail.com. Other than that it has worked flawlessly

I've been playin since I was 8 and have had numerous amps with my last one being a Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier. I just happened to stumble upon this on ebay and decided to buy it and I have to say it was definitely the best buy I have made in years!! Without a doubt, the best clean I have ever played and the warmest, thickest distortion that will make you cream!!! Is it worth the retail cost? If I would have had enough money to buy it retail I would have!! If stolen, that person better watch their back!!! Like I said, another gain on channel 2 would be nice but I don't really use that channel alot anyway. Maybe I would if it had one. If you're lucky enough to find one for what I payed for it, don't hesitate....BUY IT!!!

multitone 100 head. im not sure how old it is. serial no. 0357. i love this amp. i traded a mesa single rectifier and marshall jcm 600 combo even up for it. best decision of my life. i needed an amp that had a great clean sound at loud volumes, a great bluesy overdrive, and straight up metal. it does all of these better than any bogner, soldano, rivera, cornford, zwengel, marshall, mesa, or any dr z amp ive tried. i play in a jazz combo, a funk rock ragae band, and a speed metal band. i use this amp for all of them. this amp has 3 channels. 1, clean, 2, uses channel 1's eq but adds overdrive, 3, balls out distortion. rolling back the gain to about 7 (goes to 20) gives this amp a great chunky sound.

i play in 3 bands. when i play with the jazz combo i run the amp at 50% power through a custom made 1x12" cabinet. its 3/4" solid ash with a solid oak baffle. its a 1/2 open back with celestion vintage 30 in it. this gives my clean sound a crispness that doesnt come out of my other cabs. in the funk rock ragae band i use a vht 2x12 cabinet with weber ceramic 60 watt speakers. it is a 7/8 closed back. its a very versatile sound. with the metal band i use a marshall 1961a with ev proline 200 watt speakers in it. its a 412 size cab, but 2 holes arent cut. great heavy thick sound. i also put a marshall 1936 cabinet on top of that with vintage 30's in it. i get some awesome breakup from the v30's and the ev's sound soooo tight.

i used to play a fender tone king with 2x12 cabinet for clean, marshall jcm 600 2x12 combo for bluesy sounds, and a mesa single rectifier with mesa 412 cab for heavy sounds. this amp pulls off all these sounds with ease. the clean stays cleaner, the middle of the road overdrive is bigger and more pronounced, and the metal sounds dont over-saturate at all. the mesa was really buzzy, almost thin. this thing rocks.

right away the amp quit working. this was purely because of a biasing problem. the store i got it from replaced the tubes with a different set of ruby tubes. the amp was never biased for these tubes. koch's biasing circuit is very touchy. you can run just about any tube configuration u want. to do this, it needs to be very sensitive. and it is. if its off, its way off. i blew an internal fuse. had my tech bias the amp and i havent had a problem since. this happened the very first day i had it. ive owned this amp for about 3 months now. i play through it about 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. i basically beat the crap out of this thing. it just keeps getting better. it weighs a ton. and its big. one of the biggest heads ive seen. ive played many gigs with the multitone. i wont use anything else. i dont have a backup. just a backup set of tubes and fuses. just in case.

i emailed koch about getting a head cover. they responded that evening. they actually sent me a cover for free because i talked to him on the phone about how happy i am with it. that really made my day.

ive been playing for 13 years. ive gone through line 6 amps, crates, peaveys, bogners, soldanos, marshalls, fenders, mesas, dr z, orange, metamps. ive used just about everything. this koch multitone tops them all. i would absolutly buy another. i am actually. im picking up a multitone combo. just for practice and smaller gigs. only complaints are size and weight. im not a little guy, so its no big deal. try to talk your singer to lug it in for you. ha, ha, ha. i love this amp. it makes me want to play nonstop. ive gotten in lots of trouble with the landlord about loud music late at night. oh well.

2002 Koch Multitone 100 all tube powe/preamp is a truely versitile amp for all genres of music, Jazz, Fusion, Blues, Country, Rock, metal, Nu-Metal etc...
There are 3 channels with a clobal master volumn. Switching is provided by a remote chorded ( 15 ft, 5 switch ) floor control which is included with the amp, or you can use the three way switch on the back panel for basic three channel switching, this switch overided when the foot control is pluged in. Included on the floor control are a switch to control ( on/off ) the built in Accutronics spring reverb and any effects that are in the parrallel effects loop.There are two effects loops one in series and one in parrallel both are tube buffered. No headphone jack as such but a jack for direct to recording console out with speaker 2+12 emulation is provided and works as a headphone jack. Other switchable options are a triode/pentode switch on the back panel used to cut output watts in 1/2 ( 50 watts ) voicing is more traditional in the 1/2 watt setting.
The only feature I wish it had is a built in power soak but koch makes a brillian power soak for a reasonable price.The reason for the power soak inable power tube clipping at lower volumns which is particularily useful in the studio.I'm going to use this amp in the studio and live.On the 1/2 output power setting (50 watts ) it has more than enough power to play small to medium venues, for anything bigger than that select 100% output power ( 100 watts ).
This is a mono amp with relay channel switching it also has 2+4 ohm, 2+8 ohm and 1+16 ohm speaker jacks for extension speakers, included are two Koch/Jenson speakers in an open back constructed enclosure, there is also a speaker dampening switch to allow very little ( or full speaker dampening from the power transformer

This amp is well suited for use with single coils or humbuckers, passive and active pickups, in fact it has two inputs, one for passive and one for active or high output passive pickups.I use a variety of guitars that fall in all four categories and the Multitone does very well with them all. It suits my needs perfectly as i require a very flexible amp and the mutitone delivers in spades.
It can be noisy but no more noisy that any other all tube high end amp, I have and have had other amps for comparison, if there is a poor ground as it is in many cases in residential settings any amp, tube or otherwise will produce noise. in my studio I have installed isolated grounded recepticles for all my gear as this assures a quiet operation.
Channel one and two share a pre preamp circuit EQ but the drive effects channel two only. Channel three has a dedicated post preamp gain EQ and seperate dual gain funtion.
This amp can go from classic clean ( fenderish ) to glass clean ( Roland ), to bellike clean ( Dumble/Fender ) on the ch#1, it is very hard to make this channel distort even at high volumns.
The crunch channel ( ch#2 ) is suited for Voxxy and Matchlesslike barely clipping clean tones ( I must say it does this equally good as any other fine amp ) to moderatly high gain like an early Marshall ( Bluesbreaker ) to more modern Marshalls like the JCM 800. This channel also has a very nice clean tone a little more jangly than CH#1.
CH#3 is the high gain channel and here is where the distortion can get really brutal. This channel goes from a warm clean tone to full on Bogner, Soldano,Mesa Boogie, ENGL, Budda, high gain. Still it lets the guitars voice shine through just like all the channels on this amp.
Noteworthy mention is the dual gain feature from one gain nob. This feature lets you go through a miriad of gain voicings by simply turning the dial.The bass responce and overall voicing is the first to rival Bogners voicing, it is tight and BIG and this is the reason why earlier I mentioned NU-Metal as a possible style it is suited for.
The upper mids are perfect and along the lines of Soldano.
All the tones retain a unique "Koch" quality to them making this a very sonically recognizable amp.
There is not a bad tone from this amp.

As with all gigging amps I would have a backup but this amp is built with the highest attention to quality so you would do fine with it for quite some time I'm sure.
The tubes are a factor in this amp as all tubes expire at some point, I carry a full set of Koch bias matched power amp tubes and a full set of preamp tubes at all times, as I would with any other tube amp/preamp.
This amp is fairly new to me so reliability is still up for critisism but so far it has not broken down.
For the reason above I will leave this rating blank and will give a reliability rating down the road.

I have dealt with koch many times on a purly question/answere and assistance base only through e-mail corrispondance and on this bases I give them a 10 out of 10.
Koch has placed thier customers and thier needs first, you will not get any better support/service.
There is a local dealer and local tek at my disposal if I ever need them.
All new Koch products have a 1 year warrantee and a lifetime of unsurpassed support.
I have not needed a repair but I allready know and have dealt with the local dealer and sevice on other issues and all was excellent.

I have been enjoying the top end of guitar gear for some time now ( 19 years ) and I was so impressed with the Koch Powertone ( see review here at Harmony central ) that I just had to own the Multitone 100 I also plan on purchasing the Koch Load Box ( power attenuater ). I also own Soldano, Budda, Marshall and have owned Fender and Peavy amps.
If it were lost/stolen I would replace it.
I love everything and hate nothing about this amp.
This amp also has the ability to take just about any power amp tube ( comes with 4+EL-34 power amp tubes ) with great ease and no fuss if you purchase Koch bias classed tubes, if not you can still change them out and bias them with the bias pots and included biasing procedure. I would not perform this if I did not feel competant for the task and nor should anyone as Koch mentions in the manual.
There is also a power amp tube cage to protect the user from accidental burn, cudos to Kock for that.Power amp tubes also have spring retainers to keep them firmly seated in thier sockets.
As mentioned before I wish it had a power attenuater built in but no biggie.
This is a handbuilt ( like a fortess ) all tube masterpiece and every aspect of it's design has clearly been painstakenly worked with reaching perfection. I got mine at a super price but I had allready started saving for one and was fully prepared to shell out over $3000 ( Canadian ) for it, so even at full price I would have been happy, this one just came along at the right time so I could not pass it up. Thanks to John Thiel ( Koch Rep ) and Long & McQuade in Calgary Alberta for providing such great service with the purchase of this amp.
You can check out my site ""Guitar From The Green Goo"" for gear reviews and sound samples of my various gear. Coming soon is the Budda Phatman and Koch Multitone 100 combo.

Fist let me say that while Koch may have started off with a few problems, each problem has been addressed since. 2002 Koch Multotone 2x12 combo. 100 watt tube guitar amplifier.I found this amp to have all the versatility any guitarist would ever need. 3 channel that are footswitchable. The Multitone is very easy to use due to its simple layout. One nice feature is the active & passive instrument inputs. Rated at 100 watts, this amp has more than enough power for an arena down to a bedroom. I beleive that Koch is on its way to becomming a big player in the USA market very soon.

I have used many instruments to test the Multitone out with over a 6 month period. From strats to Les Pauls at all volumes the Multitone continues to have tone for days.
The Multitone is perfect for every music style.
The 3rd. channel (high gain) does have a bit of noise when the volume on the guitar is turned off, wether it is a single coil or humbucking pickup that is being used.
The clean channel is very shimmerind and is well suited for jazz, blues or ballads. The second channel is great for that dirty blues tone. I would say it has a Marshall like brown tone. The third channel is high gain. The Multitone pounds out creamy gain! Perfect for the lead guitarist. Its somewhere between a ENGL and a Deizel as far as the amount of gain. The reverb is also fantastic, at least in the combo. I beleive that a short pan is in the head version and I have not been able to test it out for this length of time.
All three channels are different as far as tone goes.
The clean channel stays clean and so on.
It even has the same tone at low volumes.
The one tone I missed is that of an "A" class amp.
But the Multitone does not claim to be a "A" class amp either.

In 6 months I have not experianced any fuse or other problems what so ever.
The only flaw is that the cable for the footswitch comes out of the pedals socket every now ans then.
This is a wonderful amp that cuts through any mix.

No proublems eccept for the footswitch cable.

Great amp, fantastic tone and gain. No proublems to really speak of.
It would be better if it weighed in a bit lighter though. A common proublem with all combo amps.

I am submitting this portion as a follow up to my previous review.....Bottom line; this amp is extremely unreliable right out of the factory. I have had this amp blow an internal fuse twice, both times only minutes after it was turned on, both times on a gig. I had it retubed, rebiased, etc. I had to have the cable for the footswitch replaced because the original cheap cable suffered a small laceration with a little copper wire showing. So what happens??? The pedal doesn't work at all!!! This is ridiculous!! Even when I turn this amp on, I hear some popping noises going on with the amp. it almost sounds as if it gonna crap out on me.....So here's your dilema. This amp sound fantastic. But, just as fantastic as it sounds, it's very unreliable.

I don't even use this amp on gigs anymore. It's now my emergency amp(that's a scary thought). I use a Reverend Hellhound 1x12 and it smokes this amp in every way. I would never, ever buy another.

This amp covers most everything features-wise that I need from an amp. It's laid out very well.

The overall tone of the amp has what I call a "greasy feel" to it. The tones are very, very good. The propietary Jensen's do a great job. This combo really does sound great, but only after I performed some repairs and upgrades. Read on...

Here's where Koch gets cheap. Why in the hell would any amp maker use 1/4 watt resistors throughout the entire circuit? I replaced the critical resistors on the screens and the rails with much better stuff. Also, the REAL cheap "Hum" trim pot had melted to the circuit board after only 10 minutes of playing. I scraped it off the board, and mounted a 100 ohm, 5 watt pot to side of the board. If it fries that sucker, this amp goes up for sale. And the kicker...the spot welds on the chassis corners were broken. Koch had better take a serious look at their quality control department before too many of these amps gets bashed around here in the states.

I'm into fixing my amps, so I don't give a rats ass about Koch's warranty.

The tones are amazing. The versatility is top-notch. The construction is borderline psycho. You make the call. I spent $15 on replacement parts to make this amp useable for gigs. An amp tech would charge you this plus his bench time. With a list price over $2k, you'd think that Koch would have all the kinks worked out; they don't. Be carefull when deciding on this amp. Oh, and another thing...I could care less if PRS or Santana endorses this amp like the ads say. As it sits from the factory, this amp needs help. I give it a rating of 5 overall because it does sound fantastic, but man...be carefull.

The amp was made in the year 2000. This is a great tube-amp. I use it mainly to play rock and blues. It handles these styles perfectly. A lot of possiblities in this amp. It has 3 channels, clean, crunch and distortion. A parallel and a serial fx loop and a recording out. You can also switch between 100% or 50% output power. There's also a switch for speaker dampening, but I rarely use it. This amp has lots of power, you'll never be able to crank it open in a small room. It has a solo/rhythm switch on the floor-pedal. It also had adjustable bias, this way you can switch between all sorts of tubes.

I use a ibanez js100 guitar. The guitar sounds good thru this amp. Pickup's could be better, but that's in the guitar. The amp is extremely silent in my opinion. The clean channel is CLEAN ALL THE WAY. It never distorts. The amp is like a magic mix between fender clean and all sorts of distortions. The distortion is as brutal as you want it to be, it goes up to 20 :-).

Only had small gig's but I would take it anywhere with me. Assuming your not putting it under extreme circumstances it'll never break. When I bought it there was one faulty tube but this was easily replaced.

This is where you pay all your hard-earned money for. The service EXTREMELY good. I had this problem with the amp : it produced a very loud hum, even when the volume was down. They helped me on every way they could. They even let me into the factory to help me out. Great guys. The problem turned out to be somethinh with the electricity in my house, so there was nothing wrong with the amp. The warranty is 1 year, but if you don't have any problems right away, the amp will last forever. Authorized dealers may be hard to find in foreign countries, that is outside of holland, because this is a dutch brand.

I've been playing for almost 9 years. If it were stolen I would get a new one immediately (if I had the money). I love the versility of this amp and hate nothing about it. I tried a whole bunch of other amps, but they didn't come close to this one. Especially because the clean and distortion channels are both great.

same as everyone else's

Im only submitting this for the reliabilty section. The sounds (when it works) are fuckin a.

Alright here we go.... I went to my buddys music shop to check out the new koch's they got in. (a multitone head, and 2X12 combo) I plugged into the head and was loving the shit out of it, when all of a sudden, it stopped. Mike, the store tech came over and we pulled out the chassis. We determined it to be a bad fuse. No biggie. So I was testing the amp when it stopped AGAIN. This time, all but one of the pre-amp tubes were bad, and had hardly any output. So we changed those out. I started playing again, poof. Stopped again within 5 minutes. This time the power tubes were bad. We replaced every single tube in the mamma jamma. I CONTINUED to try out the amp. Sounded great again for about 5 more minutes before it crapped out again. I decided to let mike work on it for awhile and I would try it again tommorrow. I went in, and he said he had it fixed, he was running them all day to make sure there would be no more failures. It wouldnt even turn on when I plugged in. Same thing with the combo next to it. I was thinking NOTHING could possibly be this bad, except maybe a mesa. (thats a totally differrent story) ask any mesa dealer that would tell you the truth. Anyway! It turns out that these amps were WAAAAAY off bias from the factory, I guess they thought when you convert from 220 to 110 volt, all you have to do is cut the differrence. Wrong. So Im gonna try them AGAIN today, and see if I can make them fail. If I cant make them, I'm probably gonna buy one. If not that, I'll save some money and get the jmp mk2 50 watter we have at my store. I'm gonna leave this field blank cause I dont want to bring down their overall rating.

Ive heard they were nice, and they sent a schematic. But they couldnt figure out how to bias their own amp? C'mon man, gimme a break.

sounds killer, works like shit.

Same as in other reviews.

Currently using a prs ce24 and a prs standard with maple top. The clean channel is very deep and round. Compressed a bit with hot humbuckers but very smooth. I'm beginning to like the crunch channel more than I did. It shares eq with with the clean channel. I do think the clean channel sounds better than a reissue twin. The crunch channel reminds me of a cranked bassman or an old marshall with tons of low end and good articulation. The distortion channel is very versatile. Jcm 800 to soldano. It really sings. The speaker damping is a cool thing also. My multitone has vintage 30's which sound a bit brighter than the koch/jensen designed speakers that are in the new amps. The new speakers more midrange presence with a different breakup point. The multiton is an expensive amp but a very well thought out piece of gear. You could pretty much do anything with it.

So far so good. Makes a loud pop when coming on at times.

Haven't returned emails. Koch is in the netherlands, could be a problem. Eden the distributor seems helpful.

I've been playing for nearly thirty years. I play everything from zeppelin, ozzy, metallica, limp bizkit to parliament. I like the versatility and would buy it again.

No brainer hear. 3 channels with reverb, 2 effects loops, damping switch, and solo (increased volume) button on footswitch. Lets not forget about the triode/penthode power switch alowing you to choose between half and full power for two very distinct tones. Possibly one of the most versatile amps I have ever seen.

I run a PRS mccarty and singlecut through this baby, and it goes through a mesa cab with vintage 30s. Unbelievable, great clean tone, similar to fender twin (stays clean at high volume). The distortion is crazy. I play rock/power pop (influences: creed and weezer), perfect at gain setting 10 (amp goes 0-20 on gain.) Hear a tiny amount of compression at higher gain settings, which I think is fantastic. The dirty is very much like a boogie, but without all the low end. This could cover ANY kind of music (please don't play country with this amp, it would be a tragic waste of this amps potential.)

Verrrrry new, haven't pushed it too hard yet, but I doubt any problems will arise.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

I made a leap of faith with this amp. I bought it without hearing it. I knew Paul Reed Smith played one, so that was good enough for me. I was very nervous when plugging it in the first time, hoping I didn't waste my money. I was blown away by this amp. I have finally found the last amp I will ever need. If lost or stolen, I would buy 3 more just for good measure. DON'T PASS UP AN OPPORITUNITY TO OWN SUCH A WONDERFUL INSTRUMENT.

This amp is new, made in late 1999. Has 3 modes(clean, crunch, dist) with clean and crunch sharing treb,mid, bass...Has 2 effects loops. 100 watts of power through 2 Celestion vintage 30's. 4 EL34s and 4 12ax7's. This amp has lots of power.

I use an alder body custom strat with rosewood fretboard. This amp really brings out the best in the warm alder wood, but also adding lots of it's own charachter. The clean chanel, when compressed a little, just sings on leads!! The crunch and high gain chanels are absolutely killer. This amp sounds very versatile. Jazz, R&B, Rock, country, you name it.

new amp

new amp

Great amp!!! We'll see how it holds up in the future, though. I own 3 boogies, an SWR for acoustic. This amp smokes my MKII, but not quite the MKIV. But the 2x12 makes it more appealing. Koch, great job!!

The amp has 3 channels, clean, OD1, OD2, reverb & 2 effect loops. It comes with a footswitch that changes all 3 channels ( one for each) one for reverb & one solo button that raises the volume one whatever channel your on.Its 100 watts, 4 EL34s & 4 12XA7s, and 2 Vintage 30's .This amp has some of the best features in an amp I've seen.

The amp sounds very good. It sounds very close to my SLO100. A little more high-end 7 & the distortion is not quite as smooth. But I'll say this honestly, For the money the Koch is a far better deal. The two amps are so similar in sound. The Dirt & Crunch channels are great & the clean is good. The features on the Koch are far better than my Soldano.

Brand new, Don't know.

Brand New. Don't Know.

I've been playing 14 years. I've had alot of amps & this is a great amp. The tone is good, the features are great, the price is great.

This all-tube amp was made in 1997 in Holland by Dolf Koch, who I know personally. It's one of the first that came out as can be seen by the serial number (No 20). It has three (almost) independent channels, of which the first two (the clean and pre-eq overdrive channel) share the bass, middle and treble controls (There is another Koch model, called the Powertone,in which the crunch and lead channel share equalisation). The post-eq lead channel on the Multitone has its own eq, which includes a presence-control. It's a pretty basic amp, which however has one interesting feature: a solo/rhythm volume switch, which works on all three channels. It doesn't add extra distortion, just volume, to give you more power for solo's. The two different levels can of course be set. Further more the amp has two effect loops, one serial and one parallel and several outputs (4, 8 and 16 Ohm) so you can use it in all kinds of speaker setups. Also the speaker damping can be set to high (best for clean sounds) and low (best for distorted sounds. The effect is however marginal and can best be heard on high levels. The amp comes in a head as well as a combo version. Mine's the combo version, which is equipped with two 12 inch Celestion Vintage 30 speakers, which are probably the best guitar speakers in the world. The amps power output is 100W, which is acually more than enough for my recent purposes. I play in a semi-professional top-100 band, which has a powerful and great sounding PA, so I really don't need al this power anyway. There's however also a 50W version available. Both versions come with a five-way footswitch to handle channels 1, 2 and 3, reverb on/off, and the solo/rhytm switch.

I use my Koch with a custom-handmade guitar (mahogany Stratlike body with quilted maple top, maple neck with ebony fingerboard, Evans pickups (S-S-H) which by the way are fantastic, Sonic Ranger active electronics and a Wilkinson convertible tremolo). In the past I've used all kinds of amps, solid state as well as well tubes (Fenders, Marshalls, Hughes and Kettners, Boogies) but this is definitely the one amp for me. It is absolutely easy to use and to get the sound or sounds that you want. The clean channel is okay, nothing to revel about. Just what a good clean channel should be: warm yet crispy clear. By the way, it keeps clean all the way up to maximum volume. The crunch (pre-eq) channel in my opinion is the real marvel in this amp. It goes from compressed clean sounds to high gain distorted sounds and everything in between. It is really suited for ALL kinds of music styles. Finally the lead channel is ultra high gain heaven. With most of my previous amps I usually had to set the gain all the way up in order to get a nice singing lead sound, but with this amp I rarely set it above the twelve o'clock position, but boy, does it sing! As is to be expected from a high class amp, it is very quiet. Only when the lead channel is selected with very high gain settings, some noise can be heard.

The only problem I have encountered was that the covering came loose on some edges, due to teething troubles in the production process. Dolf Koch has assured me that this is solved right now, because now a different kind of glue is used. The amp is sturdily built and feels (and weighs) like a tank. Once the amp toppled and fell out of the band truck. Okay, the amp was in it's flightcase, but anyhow, when I turned it on there wasn't anything wrong with it.

Although I've never hade any problems with my amp, apart from the covering, which I glued myself, I have spoken with Dolf Koch on several occasions and he is always very helpful and interested about the way his customers feel about his products.

I've been playing for some twentyfive years now, so I think I'm able to make pretty good judgement. I own several other guitars, old amps, stomp boxes and so on, but none very special. Right now I'm using a Korg A5 multiFX-board (through the effect-loop), which I mainly use to get a tiny bit of chorus (just so that it's noticable) and sometimes some compression and delay. I know you get better resultats if you place the compression before the preamp, but it works okay for me. If it was stolen I definitely would buy it again, especially since it now comes with a speaker-simulated direct-out. If there's anything to be desired I would say that the equalisation could be better: I think it only handles plus and minus 6dB. On the other hand, the basic sound is so good, I very rarely feel the need for more eq.