Hughes Ketner Statesman amp

[roland_rat]

Hi guys,

Im starting to think about geting another amp.  I wondered if any of you had tried any of the hughes and ketner Statesman amp range out.  Im looking for a fairly low gain amp ( I have a ENGL screamer and a mesa F30 that cover the higher gain stuff for me).  A decent reverb would be a bonus, but as a minimun it must have a reverb. 

This is in the very ealy stages of me thinking about it.  I was tempted with the KOCH studiotone amp on the seconds out board for a time. Any ideas greatly received.

Cheers guys

[dave_mc]

what kind of budget do you have? i haven't tried the statesman, but from the reviews i've read i don't think it's meant to be *that* low gain... i wouldn't really call the studiotone low gain either. EDIT: do you have any minimum or maximum wattage requirements?

[roland_rat]

Hi Dave, 

Was calling it low gain as comparred to ENGL screamer and  to a lesser extent mesa F30.  Certainly no bigger than 50 watts will use an attneuator when used at home.  I liked the demo I heard of the laney l20h but what i have heard from the hughes ketner stateman range sounds that little bit nicer.  No real limit  though the six hundred mark for statesman is do able without having to sell another amp to purchase the new one.  So I could go for a lonestar special or somthing similar but I would need to have a clearout to do it. I would perfer not to.
The Koch I was was thinking the first two channels  without the boost on OD would maybe be ok.  Unfortunatly im finding them not the easiest amp to find to try out locally. 
Pity becauce the one on the seconds out really is a great price just a bloody long round trip to try it out.

[Gizmo]

Well they do a 20w and a 40w dual and quad el84 versions.

I like them. I've heard a 20w before and it sounded gd. The amp is voiced kind of like a Vox but can get marshally if tweaked. The gain can be pretty high if required as it has an inbuilt boost function.

The reviews rate it highly in terms of sound and spec + they are pretty cheap. The only down sides are the non master clean channel and the non standby switch. This is only a prob if you intend to play at home i.e channel 2 can be quiet but when switching to clean it gets louder. At higher levels though the clean sounds good.

this is a good demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvh7hrI-fkY

Worth a try

[dave_mc]

yeah, the laney lionheart is nice, if you like class A amps and don't need more wattage for big gigs. i haven't tried the H&K, as i said, so can't really compare them. machinehead had a deal on the 20 watt head with the 2x12 cab, i think, if they haven't already sold it.

my only concern about the koch (and this is from only trying it once, quite a while ago) is that amps which can get to the highish gain stuff often still have that tightness when you turn the gain down, which prevents them from sounding truly vintage (from what i can remember, when i tried it, the koch sounded a bit too modern for me, as i was also after a vintage-ish amp at the time)- i mean, the screamer can be run at lower gain too, and i'm assuming that doesn't sound "vintage" enough for you? just would be worried that you buy another amp which is very similar... :lol:

are you only playing at home? if so, a cornell romany/romany plus or plexi (haven't tried the plexi- assuming it's of similar quality to the romany plus i've tried, it should be good though) might be worth a look... only the romany plus has reverb, though. or those martamps which twinfan is always talking about, they look really nice (and good value) too, but i haven't tried them. advantage of the martamp would be that you can get exactly what you want...

[roland_rat]

Hi,  I missed out I have a cornell romany too.  Unfortunatly it is not the romany plus so no reverb.  Nice amp but it really does need that bit of reverb to set it alive.  I would be hoping to get some home use and some pratice room use.  I agree with what you were saving about high gain amps played at low gain not sounding vintage. Thats how I find the screamer just too tight sounding for vintage.   I like the the screamer and what it does it does well but  a nice vintage sound is not one of them.

[roland_rat]

Opps forgot to say thanks you Gizmo in my last post.

[dave_mc]

oh, i didn't realise you have a romany. do you like its tone? if you do, maybe get a (good) reverb pedal? or, at least, bring it to a shop to try it with a few reverb pedals. EDIT: if you need it for practice room use, might not be loud enough, though.

only other thing i can really think of is maybe checking our martamps, as i said already? :)

[roland_rat]

Hi Dave, Thanks for the reply

The Romany never leaves the house normally.  I use it with a boss re20 space echo pedal on straight reverb setting. I know not the best for straight reverb but its best i got for now.  It is a nice tone especially with a little reverb but not quite what  the tone I got in my head I want to have a play around with.   I would like the tone a little more like a real vintage  warm marshally tone  on the 2nd channel maybe not as much gain needed but with that sort of loseness to the bottom end. Only thinking classic rock not metal for the amp.   Oh and a good clean channel if possible.

[Lew]

tried one couple of days ago and thought it sounded really good

[dave_mc]

^ ^ not sure if you can get both of those in the one amp (at least without paying loads :lol: )... big problem is if you already have the romany you need to be careful you don't buy something which sounds a lot worse... the romany plus i tried was awesome... :lol:

[Ratrod]

I heard some clips with Geoff whitehorn playing the Statesman. sounded very good.

Also worth trying is the Engl Classic Tube. It's like a hot rodded blonde Bassman with a little JTM45 thrown in the mix.

The clean channel is wonderfull. It has a gain knob so you can dial in a touch of grit to get a nice breakup tone. The dirty channel is the same as the clean channel, it only has more gain. Great rock n' roll and blues tones. It nails early Malcolm Young.

With the RE-20 on a slap echo setting it is a great rockabilly and psychobilly amp. Great for Stray Cats and Reverend Horton Heat. Forget about the RE-20's reverb, the Engl Classic Tube has a 6-spring Accutronics unit.

[roland_rat]

Thanks guys.   For all the help and ideas I will try and check out the Statesman whe I get chance.