NAD

[hunter]

I'm surprised about myself that I bought an amp although I don't dig its looks. I mean the lights are somewhat handy and all but the name/brand ... It's a Hughes & Kettner Triamp MkII. Well it was a REAL bargain (around 40% of new and the optional MIDI interface on top) so I snapped this cheap in kind of an impulse buy/accident, and to my biggest pleasure, it arrived complete, in original box and great as well as working condition.

The tubes were really over though (after 6 years on the first set). So first thing after playing for 30 minutes and being quite underwhelmed, I threw in a quad of Mullard RI EL34s that I had flying around, biased them at 35mA and put it together again (I am a bit hesitant to replace the 9! preamp tubes quite yet). Now with the New Sensors it sounds surprisingly good, really.

I was expecting more of a workhorse for my top 40 band, but this is a quite nice amp! More open and organic than I expected. Well, got rehearsal tonight, so we'll see.

What I can tell so far:
1. Finding a balance for all 6 channels is difficult, but using 3-4 of them with an OCD up front seems like a winner. And who needs more than 3-4 anyways.
2. The best, best, best loop I have ever come across in my 27 different amps history! It is super transparent, switchable and the MIDI interface even remembers per PC if it's serial or parallel, so you can do both. Also got a second serial (but not switchable) loop which can come in handy.
3. Great cleans!!

Not sure if this can make me sell the 100B, I won't even start comparing the two, it would be like comparing an A8 and a Lamborghini. But I got the feeling the Triamp will be fun!  

Will give more of a review if I have a bit more miles on the amp.

[Twinfan]

So the AxeFX is completely out of the window then?

:lol:

[hunter]

So the AxeFX is completely out of the window then?

:lol:

Nono, it services me still well for the metal band and home recording, as well being a top notch FX unit. The Axe goes nowhere.

[Jonny]

You can always give it to me if you don't like it as much :D

[Lew]

I had the MK1 for a while, it does some things really really well. I remember it having a great clean and 80's hair metal gain. I imagine the clean will eclipse the Bogner?

[FernandoDuarte]

Great! This is the one who gets blue when powered? Love this look

[38thBeatle]

Looks pretty darn good to me Hunter.

[dave_mc]

sweet, i liked the one i tried. I wasn't that fussed on the two high gain channels, but the first four channels (!) kicked ass, i thought.

[Oli]

I tried one of these out a for a while a few months back, and wasn't impressed- i'd hoped that each 'pair' of channels would be voiced differently, but it was just the same sound with more gain... hope to hear some clips of this to see what you can get out of it :)

[hunter]

sweet, i liked the one i tried. I wasn't that fussed on the two high gain channels, but the first four channels (!) kicked ass, i thought.

That's my verdict too after first rehearsal. I think for Amp 3 to shine it needs to run on the 100W mode. In 50W mode it does a great Fender=>Marshall. I used an OCD in front to kick 2B over the top for the heavier stuff. Will spend some more time with amp 3 though, I think it's almost there, just I had dialed it in too bassy and fuzzy.

[Jonny]

Does it do the whole saves the whole effect and you can jump between a really spanky clean to a dirty crunch then to a metal one to your exact settings or is that just the Switchblade that does that?

[Antag]

 :o :drool: :jealous:  :D

Nice.  I've covetted a Triamp MKII for years, it's a lovely amp.  IMHO the clean & crunch channels (amps 1 & 2) are just about the best money can buy, absolutely gorgeous.

Also liked the high gain sounds a lot, I don't think they are bad but there are better amps out there for the full-on face-melting metal mayhem™ :twisted:

[shobet]

That's a lot of knobs

[hunter]

:o :drool: :jealous:  :D

Nice.  I've covetted a Triamp MKII for years, it's a lovely amp.  IMHO the clean & crunch channels (amps 1 & 2) are just about the best money can buy, absolutely gorgeous.

Also liked the high gain sounds a lot, I don't think they are bad but there are better amps out there for the full-on face-melting metal mayhem™ :twisted:

Well the good thing is that I can experiment a lot with tubes, as it's got loads of tubes, many of which are dedicated to Amp 3. Just wondering what is the best 12AX7 to tighten those two channels up a bit and make it more transparent ...?

[hunter]

That's a lot of knobs

Yeah but it isn't complicated, you have 3 times Gain/Gain/B/M/T/Vol, then Presence and Master, easy to understand, and then it's lighting up, so you always find stuff  8)

The knobs aren't the easiest to read though, rectifier chrome like.