Playthrough : Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100 head - Clean to High Gain

[@jaredhind]

I recently got the 50watt combo, absolutely love it! Great amps!

[@JimmyBlimps]

Nice play through. These are seriously great amps, I made a similar video to this on my channel with the purpose of selling it but when listening back to the capture I was just in love with it all over again

[@riffsnreviews]

Thanks ! I've seen your video :D (to be fair there aren't that many switchblade vids on YT). This is actually the amp that I've kept the longest up to now. It's more finicky than it looks, their "special" pots are precise and their range is large. I wouldn't mind testing a coreblade if I come across one. Switchblade a good amp that came out before it's time, everyone thought it was a hybrid/modeling amp because of the effects (yeah it has opamps) it got a lot of bad press when it was released.

[@JimmyBlimps]

+RiffsNReviews Too right! I remember researching as much as I could before I bought it to make sure I was understanding correctly what I was getting into, and pretty much all but OlaEnglunds videos on KZbin at the time were useless in determining if it sounded any good. Ended up feeling like a gamble, but when it came and I started exploring the sounds I was pretty quickly enamoured. I seldom play it these days but it's nice to know it's still in my armoury if I need it. Its high gain voicing in particular has really grown on me, I like it almost as much as my Bogner Uberschall which is really saying something.

[@torchlord11]

I have a Coreblade and a Switchblade, and I personally think you might be better off not buying the Coreblade. If you have a dark situation with your guitar and cabinet/ speakers then maybe going to the Coreblade might be a good thing it is much brighter in character the Switchblade and you can dial back presence and treble while raising the bass resonance to sort of getting into the switchblade warmth which seems automatic. I find the Switchblade can be too dark but heck just throws in brighter power and preamp tubes. I find the Switchblade changes character more when you change tubes where the character of the Coreblade doesn't change as much with darker preamp tubes because the amps overall sound is so bright naturally. If you want to really get deep sounds you can put some KT88 power tubes in the Coreblade and that evens out the brightness in sending it towards bass guitar frequency land.

[@zebe182]

Hello :) - I've got this amp in the 50W Combo Version and i love all these functions in combination with the floorpad. But there is a big Problem. The Feedback in in the Ultra and Lead Channel, when the the Gain is more than 12 o' clock. I can never use the Boost like you do it. Could it be a problem when I use much gain im combination with high presecne? Or are my guitar pickups just shitty :/ greetings from bavaria ;)

[@riffsnreviews]

Hi, I can't say I have any feedback problems, you could try lifting the combo off of the ground if it's on the ground. Could be your pickups, I had a guitar, a neck through ESP phoenix II with a SH4/59 set, that would always feedback, didn't try to do anything about it though, could have been that it wasn't wax potted very well under the pickup covers, or sometimes you just need to put a fat piece of packaging foam behind the pickup. Have you made sure that it's the guitar that's creating the feedback and not the amp that has a microphonic power or preamp tube? If not, to do so, don't plug a cable into the amp input, turn it on, put some volume and gain and just tap on the top of the combo, if you start hearing ringing through the speaker you've got a microphonic tube.

[@NathanielBlank]

Just got this on an insane deal surprisingly from Guitar Center of all places. Have only spent 5 minutes on it so enjoying witnessing you run it through its paces. I’m only running it through a single 12” Celestion G12H. Should still break up nicely even with that limitation. My only concern is how much the solid state portion of the preamp is making the tone versus the single preamp stage 12AX7’s contribution (the other is used in the power stage surprisingly). Thoughts on that? Do you still have yours?

[@hichembell9972]

I would love to hear some solos stuffs on the clean channel ...does it cut it ?

[@riffsnreviews]

I will have to revisit the clean channel with a more adapted guitar, i'll keep you posted, but yes no problem, it can jazz, blues, pop all you want, it's extremely versatile, the good thing about the clean channel imo, is it breaks up pretty late, and it's really good for dosing the break up with the guitar volume knob, even with high output humbuckers you can get a pristine clean at high volumes.

[@hichembell9972]

thank you for you quick answer..what about the character of this amazing clean that you are describing ?? is it like fender ?? marshall clean or ???

[@riffsnreviews]

More on the marshall side. But no I wouldn't call it amazing, if you are going for clean only tones there are better amps, but it can cover every genre no problem.

[@hichembell9972]

well i love the amp the idea ...im searching for a versatile amp which can do both chiming cleans and good dirt ...for the time being im just a pod user...I was determined to buy the line6 DT25 tube amp ..but i'm still searching and i found this amazing concept...i'm afraid to be disappointed with the DT ...a lot of people are loving it but...dunno it stil digital no ?? any advice ??

[@riffsnreviews]

Funny you mention the DT25 I was thinking about picking up one a couple of weeks ago, well the DT50, coz the shops are getting rid of the DT50 stocks for cheap, as the DT25 replaces it in the range. But they are apparently quite nice. Concerning the switchblade, and H&K amps in general, is they don't really have a specific character, a bit like most Laney products as well, they are not bad amps, they don't ooze a specific character but they can go pretty much anywhere, good at everything but excels at nothing, which is not a bad thing.