What ever happened to the hughes and kettner coreblade?

[JimmyMoorby]

I bought one of these once with the intention of it replacing my orange rockerverb and thinking I could retire all of my fx.  It was endorsed by/the sig amp of Jeff Waters and I cant remember which guitar mag it was (A big well known one) said it was the best metal amp ever...a big claim against say rectifiers, 5150's. jcm 800's etc etc!

My first one broke within half an hour.  The replacement lasted several hours.  Some serious issues going on here which they tried to pin on me with different reasons each time.

This was years ago.  I know Waters has stopped using them  (I think he uses EVH 5150 iii amps now but thats beside the point) and i've never heard of any one who uses a coreblade.  I checked recently and wondered if theyd been taken off of the market but theyre still out there.

They actually sounded really good but clearly theres some massive issue there.

Any one with any experience?  Just curious more than any thing

[Telerocker]

They sort of faded away, however they are still in the catalogue. No good marketing for H&K if so many fall apart. I had a Statesman Quad and own now a H&K Statesman 50 head/2x12 cab. Never had/have any issues. But these are different and simpler amps than the Coreblade and the Switchblade with midi, digital spring reverb en fx on board.

[Toe-Knee]

I bought one of these once with the intention of it replacing my orange rockerverb and thinking I could retire all of my fx.  It was endorsed by/the sig amp of Jeff Waters and I cant remember which guitar mag it was (A big well known one) said it was the best metal amp ever...a big claim against say rectifiers, 5150's. jcm 800's etc etc!

My first one broke within half an hour.  The replacement lasted several hours.  Some serious issues going on here which they tried to pin on me with different reasons each time.

This was years ago.  I know Waters has stopped using them  (I think he uses EVH 5150 iii amps now but thats beside the point) and i've never heard of any one who uses a coreblade.  I checked recently and wondered if theyd been taken off of the market but theyre still out there.

They actually sounded really good but clearly theres some massive issue there.

Any one with any experience?  Just curious more than any thing

Jeff was back to using Labogas when I saw him earlier in the year but a friend that saw him at a different venue said he was using marshalls. So I presume at some venues hes using amps from his collection and others using whatever the venue supplies.

For what its worth I also saw a recent video of a clinic where he was still using a Coreblade.

H&K valve amps have always been a bit sketchy reliability wise imho. Some are absolute tanks while others in the same line can fail easily.

The SS amps are more reliable and often sound pretty similar as H&Ks have a very SS edge to them.

[JimmyMoorby]

Its obvious why they never took off but im surprised theyre not 'infamous' now.

[Alex]

The Coreblade was never the "best metal amp" ever, it was more a learning exercise for H&K. They gained a lot of insight into preamp design though and some of the technology is apparently used on the very successful Tubemeister series. I think specifically the way effects are integrated in the sound patch and the turning pots are part of that. In retrospect for me it is clear that the Coreblade was a step in R&D for H&K to get ahead of the competition in know-how; if you think about it before that they really only had the Triamp series which they were known for. Since then they have been able to diversify their range a lot.

My favorite H&K is hands-down the Puretone head!