G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome): VLOG: New amp gear

Friday, November 6, 2009

VLOG: New amp gear - Hughes & Kettner Triamp head

Between when I first discovered Mesa/Boogie amps and recently re-discovered them, I tried dozens of amps in an effort to find something that fit my style better (challenging, if only because the style of music I was playing seemed to be changing on an almost weekly basis!). On the journey, I went through a Hughes & Kettner phase where I tried a variety of models (e.g., Triamp mkII, Zentera, Switchblade, Edition Tube), most of which were sold off when I started assembling the monster rack rig. So this summer when I started jamming around with Almost Lifelike I took a look around the studio and realized... all my high-wattage multi-channel amps were gone. I started the search for a flexible amp and was stoked to find an original H&K Triamp mkI up for grabs on the local Craigslist.

The Triamp is one of the most impressive amps I've ever seen from a specs standpoint... 6 channels, 12 tubes (8 preamp tubes + 4 power tubes), spring reverb, dual FX loops (series + parallel) and optional MIDI switching. Compared to the Triamp mkII, the mkI is loaded with 6L6 power tubes... having owned both, I found the mkI to be much smoother in comparison to the mkII model. With 6 channels, pretty much everything from crystal clean to nu-metal chunk is available: I had mine dialed in for a skinny (funky) clean tone on channel 1A, a "pushed" clean tone on channel 1B, a JCM800-ish crunch on channel 2A, a fat "brown" lead tone on channel 2B, a heavier rhythm tone on channel 3A, and finally a full-on metal lead tone on channel 3B. Plus, let's face it, there's something cool about being able to see all the tubes glowing through the plexi-glass front (though admittedly, not as cool as the blue neon in the Triamp mkII).

So here are a couple of videos that show me putting the Triamp through its paces with a Ernie Ball Music Man JP 7-string guitar and a Rocktron 4x12 cabinet: