Boutique Tone, Lunchbox Size: TubeMeister Deluxe 20 Deal!
The versatile Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister Deluxe 20 is Currently at a Great Deal Price at Thomann
Boutique Tone, Lunchbox Size: TubeMeister Deluxe 20 Thomann Deal · Source: Hughes & Kettner
The Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister Deluxe 20 is a compact, lunchbox-style amp head that brings the boutique-quality sounds of the company’s flagship TriAmp Mark 3 to a more accessible format. With the current Thomann price promotion, it is a perfect time to buy this versatile all-tube amp head.
TubeMeister Deluxe 20
The Home and Studio Solution
For recording at home or in a professional studio, the TubeMeister Deluxe 20 offers a range of features designed for convenience and uncompromising tone.
Weighing in at just five kilograms, this 20-watt, all-tube amplifier is a flexible tool for guitarists, excelling in home recording, studio, and live performance environments.
Thankfully, Thomann now owns Hughes & Kettner, and so there is a fantastic set of promotions with up to 40% off the range currently, until the end of this month.
Priced at $485/£438/€498, this amp has a lot to offer. Therefore, we thought this was a great time to reevaluate this classic compact all-tube amp head and see what it has to offer.
Stage & Studio
This could be the perfect studio amp for players who want to cover a lot of ground and capture great amp tones in the studio. Plus, it can also handle live work with ease, thanks to this range of tube amp tones and its flexible outputs.
Loud, Quiet, or Silent
The most notable of these is the built-in Power Soak, which allows you to reduce the amplifier’s output from the full 20 watts down to 5 watts, 1 watt, or even 0 watts. This “silent recording” mode is a godsend for capturing the rich, saturated sound of the power tubes without disturbing neighbours or bandmates.
Red Box AE
Complementing the Power Soak is the groundbreaking Red Box AE (Ambience Emulation) DI output. This feature eliminates the need for miking up a speaker cabinet, allowing you to connect the amp directly to a PA system or recording interface.
Direct Recording
The Red Box AE provides four different settings—Vint./Mod. and Small/Large—which mimic the sound of a mic’d-up cab, delivering an impressively realistic tone.
This ensures that the amp’s authentic dynamics and feel are preserved, making it an invaluable tool for direct recording. The illuminated control panel, with its dedicated master and gain sections for each channel, also ensures ease of use in dimly lit studio settings.
Versatility for Live Performance
Despite its small size, the TubeMeister Deluxe 20 is a formidable live amplifier. With 20 watts of all-tube power driven by two EL84 power tubes, it provides plenty of headroom to cut through the mix on stage.
Its pair of ECC83 preamp tubes provides lots of character and great drive tones when required, and reacts nicely to overdrive pedals and boosts. It can also deal with time-based effects easily via the built-in effect loop on the rear.
The amp’s two channels, Clean and Lead, cover a wide tonal spectrum from pristine cleans to dynamic crunch and powerful high-gain sounds. The Lead channel also features a boost function, effectively giving the amp a third channel for a push in fullness and sustain for solos.
The amp is not particular about speaker cabinets, and can be used with a 1×12″, 2×12″, or even a full 4×12″ cabinet, providing connections for impedances of both 8 and 16 ohms.
For larger gigs, the amplifier can be connected directly to the PA via the Red Box AE, ensuring a consistent, mic’d-up sound without the hassle of a physical microphone. An optional footswitch allows for seamless channel switching and booster activation, making the amp highly responsive to a performer’s needs on stage.
Uncompromising Tone and Feel
Inspired by the TriAmp Mark 3, the TubeMeister Deluxe 20’s preamp is a new design that gives it a touch-responsive feel. The clean channel offers plenty of headroom, but can also be pushed into a satisfying overdrive for power chords and dynamic workouts.
The lead channel is more aggressive and can achieve high-gain tones, while the shared three-band EQ allows for extensive tone shaping.
Key Specifications
- This is a 20-watt all-tube amplifier with two channels, Clean and Lead. The Lead channel also has a built-in Boost function for extra gain.
- A Power Soak feature lets you select between 20, 5, 1, or 0 watts, making it ideal for everything from the stage to the studio or even silent practice.
- The preamp section uses two 12AX7 tubes, while the power stage is driven by two EL84 tubes.
- The amp features a 3-band EQ (Bass, Mid, and Treble) for classic tone shaping.
- For direct connection to a PA system or recording interface, the Red Box AE (Ambience Emulation) DI output offers vintage and modern voicings as well as small and large cabinet simulations.
- Other features include a serial FX loop for your pedals and a single speaker output that can handle either 8 or 16-ohm cabinets.
- The amp is compact, measuring 35 x 15 x 15 cm and weighing only 5 kg.
Zero Watt Recording & More
With its combination of an intelligent power soak, the Red Box AE, and an impressive range of tones, the TubeMeister Deluxe 20 is a lightweight powerhouse designed to meet the demands of modern guitarists in any setting.
I like using pedals, and I prefer to have them plugged into a tube amp head, as it is far more responsive than using a virtual amp for my taste. This is where this compact powerhouse of an amp can shine and reward players with dynamics and a real amp tone, with no software updates or menus to deal with.
The TSC Tube Safety Control allows users to bias tubes easily, so it is perfect for players who like to tinker with tube amp biasing. This is a handy feature and makes this little tube head a lot more user-friendly than most.
While this Thomann Deal is running, it is a no-brainer at such a low price. It could be the perfect hub for your studio, and it can you can achieve a range of classic amp tones without having to buy any more hardware.
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