I just spent about 90 minutes with each of these here in Hong Kong. Plugged into a Mesa 4x12 believe it or not. I thought they were toys. I was SOOOO wrong. Granted, most anything is gonna sound great and huge out of a Mesa 4x12. But even though these things weigh next to nothing and are all plastic in construction, they just sound frickin' great. All three have similar but very different gain profiles. Ain't technology great? Plus they got that RGB action.... :)
@@thomasraven OK. I care why? They're amusing and sound surprisingly decent. Ain't gonna replace my HK Grandmeister 40 or Mesa Lonestar head or even my Katana but the point of my comment was to offer potentially informative feedback after first hand sampling. It was not to discuss or excuse its construction. No skin off my back man...and not to be snarky, but you might be missing out on an amusing, possibly surprisingly useful device.
Great video! as always! I picked up the the "Spirit of Vintage" a week ago to use with my Epiphone Es339 and it works exactly as advertised. Beautiful clean tones when needed. I use a reverb pedal and delay just a little of each to sweeten the tones into a 12 inch Jenson from a 65 Fender Deluxe. Very loud indeed!
At that price, a stereo rig suddenly looks very affordable, maybe with two 1x12 cabs, and you'd have 100 watts. Hmmm..... The perfect thing would be these, with an effects loop, for £30 more.
Got a MV50 Rock a few years back when transitioning from digital Combo to Analog Head for gig convenience and tone, and it was a revelation! So much rock and feel (also through a 2x12 V30), and I expect them to be in that ballpark 👌🏻
Give Pete a school uniform and with this intro you could convince me that the video was about Andertons forming an ACDC tribute band. Those little amps are mighty. You could legitimately strap one to your pedal board and save yourself dragging around a full on tube head just sending the line out to any desk where you would be gigging. Get a cabinate with neodynium speakers installed to go with one and that is a back saver for a touring guitarist. With the 'Spirit of' line H&K should launch one based on Alex Lifeson's sound. After all, the name 'Spirit of Radio' shouts out to any Rush fan who sees this video.
Lee, please do a blindfold shootout with these and the other micro amps. they all sound good on RUclips but need your help as to the sonic differences.
Sorry Bea, but these amps don't "figure" out anything at all "inside", considering the one speaker out. It is a Class D powerstage. It has 4 Ohms as minimum impedance to run safely. It then produces arround 50 Watts. 25 Watts with an 8 Ohm Cabinet and 13 Watts with a 16 Ohm speaker. Like any other non valve powerstage does too ;) Don't make them smarter, then they are! But they sound really really good. Only downside is the missing FX Loop, dealbreaker for me. Allthough you could run the headphone out stereo into a delay or something and then into a Mixer. If I would need something like that for home use, I would not bother with a guitar cab, but use it as mentioned to improvise an FX loop.
Just needs an effects loop for reverb or echo? No thinking about it I'll just keep my Katana with it's speaker, 4 amps, power soak, and lots of really usable effects. Thanks.😁
Oh man, those sound great! I'm a metalhead, but I actually preferred the Vintage for some reason. I really wish it had an fx loop though, for running a looper AND a boost effectively. It would be a perfect travel amp. Well, it IS, but even more so...
If these had an effects loop, Hughes & Kettner would have a winner. Compare this to the Orange Micro Dark. It has an effects loop, which is what makes it a go-to amplifier. And when I would go to an open-mic, I could plug the Effects Send into the Effects Return on the venue's house amplifier, and instantly have a familiar sound. Without that,, you are stuck with what you get at the house amplifier, or lug your own cab.
I never noticed before... Is Rabea a lefty who learned to play right handed, or is he one of the very few right handed persons who wear their watch on their right wrist? :-D Nice tones out of them there tiny boxes!
I always see these things a year late😅😹, but yeah, I just purchased the Spirit of Metal...because why? _T.O.N.E._ I looove tone, and these lil babies have tone in great, steaming gobs! I've been acquiring guitars and now have 7...I think it's 7, maybe I should count...., and have been a happy Helix user since 2019. But since I write and record my music and play all instruments myself, I do not want to _ever_ need a certain tone or sound quality and not be capable of achieving it. To that end, the H&K Spirit of Metal. Even though I love my Helix, I still dig amps too. And now that playing live may be possible again, I do not want to move a shit ton of gear, not on a circuit where there are 3 or 4 bands per night. You gotta be in and on and set up and rock and then out. And believe this or not, I have all kinds of trouble with sound engineers in the clubs; they do not wanna let me use Helix straight to the house PA! They worry that it will blow up their sound system! Man, like what century are these guys in, anyway? Well, now I got a solution for what I call, Slightly Outdated Sound Engineer Syndrome, or SOSES for short. Sound engineers who suffer from SOSES are gonna get SAMAS! Sky's Awesome Micro Amp Solution! No matter what, I will never be robbed of good tone🤣😅😹🤜💥🤛
Are these just smaller more tailored sounds of the black spirit? Does the full blown black spirit cover all these tones? I don’t recall the blackbspirit sounding this good. May have to go rewatch some vids. Oh forgot to give you guys props for that killer intro jam. 👍🏻
I'm starting to pick up on the nutube sound I think, I hear a similarity in these vs the vox mv line, and tbh I love the flavor. I'm all for it and currently trying to swap over to analogue for reliability
I love me some Hughes & Kettner. The vintage/cleans are incredible, but they're struggling with making the leap to a high gain sound up to the same standard.
Why am i seen overdrive pedals on the floor? Since these amp heads only have one channel, does it work well with a boost overdrive pedal for the convenience of switching from a cleaner sound to a more driven sound? Do these amps sound good when the gain is set low and an overdrive pedal is use to boost the signal in front? Does it has a similar tubeamp saturation when a booster pedal is put in front. I would get one of these if i could manage to add more gain and less gain via a pedal without using the distortion of a pedal as such in order to use it for Live gigs while being able to go from cleaner to more saturated without having to reach for the knob.
I really want to see them played against the Micro Terror and the Micro Dark. I have the MT and wouldn’t mind trying that Vintage, but I also don’t want to drop $240 on something I kind of already have.
The Vintage and Rock sound great. But huge oversight by H&K not to put an FX loop on these. They are gainy amps and most people who play with gain use delay. You can certainly run delay and verb into the front and tweak the pedals to sound O.K but they'll never be as clean as an FX loop using gain. Good opportunity for someone to come up with a decent FX loop mod for these and then they'd be really useful. They could have put a small jack of some kind and offer a breakout box or adapter for an FX loop as an accessory.
The metal one sounds a bit messy, for what it propose it lacks a bit of definition IMO. Spirit of Rock immediately throws Rabbea into Nuno mode, which is awesome!
The ONLY thing that stops me from buying this literally this second is that they have no reverb. If it had an effects loop to put one in id be fine with it as I have a really nice reverb pedal. I just can't really enjoy a sound with no reverb, especially on clean.
Now we just need one modeled after an Alex Lifeson tone, and call it the “Spirit of Radio”
It doesn't seem out of the realm of possibilities, considering Lifeson was a Hughes and Kettner artist for a long time
Sold!
Instant buy
Take my money!
you just made my night
Sometimes I forget what they are promoting and just give a thumbs up for the jams. Such great playing from both!
My favorite intro jam all year.
That 'Intro' jam was OUTRAGEOUS!!! Thanks you amazing two!!
I really enjoy watching the comparisons between all three amps I always love the sounds of the tubemeister combo amps when they hit the market
I used to play on a tubemeister 36 head over a custom 2x12 cab. It was amazing. One of my favorite amps I've ever played through.
Nice sounds in 'n out these little boxes ... H&K seem to know what they are doing!
Demonstratione excellenteeee!
Thanks for tuning in & glad you enjoyed the video!
Yes through a 4x12 cab= sounds awesome
What was the pedal Pete used with the vintage?
Hughes & Kettner is an amazing brand. My Grandmeister 40 ended my amp search, the feature set on it is ridiculous and it sounds great.
These little things actually sound really good on here
Love how these two just get into the groove when jamming i think they forget there recording.
2024 and I’ve come back to this intro jam!
These are perfect for a cramped apartment or the bed room. Might have to get one.
They even have the Redbox emulation connected with the headphone out, so perfect for bedroom recording!
Thanks for tuning in. 🤘
I just spent about 90 minutes with each of these here in Hong Kong. Plugged into a Mesa 4x12 believe it or not. I thought they were toys. I was SOOOO wrong. Granted, most anything is gonna sound great and huge out of a Mesa 4x12. But even though these things weigh next to nothing and are all plastic in construction, they just sound frickin' great. All three have similar but very different gain profiles. Ain't technology great? Plus they got that RGB action.... :)
Glad I don't live next door to you buddy :)
@@joesatchton212 Plastic? Pass.
@@thomasraven OK. I care why? They're amusing and sound surprisingly decent. Ain't gonna replace my HK Grandmeister 40 or Mesa Lonestar head or even my Katana but the point of my comment was to offer potentially informative feedback after first hand sampling.
It was not to discuss or excuse its construction.
No skin off my back man...and not to be snarky, but you might be missing out on an amusing, possibly surprisingly useful device.
That was just phenomenal playing well-done guys, really great sounds out of such a small amp
Love the faces that Rabeea does when he plays 😂
Sergio Serra Music Especially when he looks like he's chewing on gum! 😜
finally found out that the "broken radio alarm clock" [top right] is actually a dB meter
Now you tell me! I've been late so many times because of that!
What, the radio, that swaps FM frequencies all the time?
The closed caption said "im a beer" for Rabea 😁
I love seeing Rabea and Pete together. I liked the vintage one the best.
That PRS sounds sooooooooooo good. I love it so much. My dream guitar
Great video! as always! I picked up the the "Spirit of Vintage" a week ago to use with my Epiphone Es339 and it works exactly as advertised. Beautiful clean tones when needed. I use a reverb pedal and delay just a little of each to sweeten the tones into a 12 inch Jenson from a 65 Fender Deluxe. Very loud indeed!
The best advertisements on the internet. I actually look forward to them!
Good God, Rabea is an amazing player! Pete is, too! This magic in the intro was really just a jam and improv, wish I was that good.
That intro... 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
"I'm on a Highway to Guildford...."
Love the way the tiny LEDs on the front look like stage lights.
Happiness is an Andertons video with Pete and Rabea!
Wow this intro was pure DC power ! ! You nailed it.
That opening jam...
From Leo: I appreciate the skills of these great guitarists. Good Jams!
Quite tempting...wish it had an effects loop for some reverb and delay though
Thanks gents, that was a lot of fun.
that intro was freaking awesome
Hughes & Kettner have always produced great amps. Had an ATS MK2 in the early 90's which was epic!
greetings from Chicago' you guys should have had Rob do this with them ' it would have been a g3 at Andertons ! you guys rock !
God i love these jam intros!
They're always great fun when Rabea shows up! 🤘
Is always so sick when you guys jam together!
I'm not a highgain guy .... but this metal one is spectacular 0_0
At that price, a stereo rig suddenly looks very affordable, maybe with two 1x12 cabs, and you'd have 100 watts. Hmmm..... The perfect thing would be these, with an effects loop, for £30 more.
Those look super fun!! Currently have an Orange dark terror and I love it!
Got a MV50 Rock a few years back when transitioning from digital Combo to Analog Head for gig convenience and tone, and it was a revelation! So much rock and feel (also through a 2x12 V30), and I expect them to be in that ballpark 👌🏻
Honore & Massaad ! Greatest rock band of all time!!!! 🤘🤙🤘
Soon we will be having amps built into guitar cables and we only need to plug into the speaker cab!
Or maybe someone would stick an amp inside of a speaker cab!! That would be a great combo! Wait...
Or just put the amplifier in the guitar! Wait, that's already a thing...it's called an "acoustic guitar"...huh, ya learn something new every day
@@OwlOfBlues Haaaaaaaa!
Give Pete a school uniform and with this intro you could convince me that the video was about Andertons forming an ACDC tribute band.
Those little amps are mighty. You could legitimately strap one to your pedal board and save yourself dragging around a full on tube head just sending the line out to any desk where you would be gigging. Get a cabinate with neodynium speakers installed to go with one and that is a back saver for a touring guitarist. With the 'Spirit of' line H&K should launch one based on Alex Lifeson's sound. After all, the name 'Spirit of Radio' shouts out to any Rush fan who sees this video.
With our photos of Lee & Pete from Black Friday, an AC/DC tribute band could well be on the cards!
Sounded great and I agree Pete, I would chose the Spirit of Vintage too...stay safe guys!
Oh boys, 4K! Awesome👍
wow that intro jam was a full fuckin song, a full song i would listen to more than once even
That is the Dog's Danglers... Vintage is really nice.
You can notice Pete at his right hand movement. 👌
Buying that gosh darn Spirit of Vintage right now 🤘😎
Lee, please do a blindfold shootout with these and the other micro amps. they all sound good on RUclips but need your help as to the sonic differences.
THAT intro! 🤘👌💨
Sorry Bea, but these amps don't "figure" out anything at all "inside", considering the one speaker out. It is a Class D powerstage. It has 4 Ohms as minimum impedance to run safely. It then produces arround 50 Watts. 25 Watts with an 8 Ohm Cabinet and 13 Watts with a 16 Ohm speaker. Like any other non valve powerstage does too ;)
Don't make them smarter, then they are!
But they sound really really good. Only downside is the missing FX Loop, dealbreaker for me. Allthough you could run the headphone out stereo into a delay or something and then into a Mixer.
If I would need something like that for home use, I would not bother with a guitar cab, but use it as mentioned to improvise an FX loop.
Hell ya some pete and rebea jams always like you guys jaming togther never disappoint
That intro was cool
Great playing guys :)
Just needs an effects loop for reverb or echo? No thinking about it I'll just keep my Katana with it's speaker, 4 amps, power soak, and lots of really usable effects. Thanks.😁
My fav is all three turned up to 11! Wet dry Wet
Nice intro guys !
Dude Rabea looks good with the weight loss man. Healthy af it’s been a while since I watched.
GREAT intro !!!!!
Oh man, those sound great! I'm a metalhead, but I actually preferred the Vintage for some reason. I really wish it had an fx loop though, for running a looper AND a boost effectively. It would be a perfect travel amp. Well, it IS, but even more so...
Epic opening!
If these had an effects loop, Hughes & Kettner would have a winner.
Compare this to the Orange Micro Dark. It has an effects loop, which is what makes it a go-to amplifier. And when I would go to an open-mic, I could plug the Effects Send into the Effects Return on the venue's house amplifier, and instantly have a familiar sound. Without that,, you are stuck with what you get at the house amplifier, or lug your own cab.
They're little, cheap, loud and have good tone. I'm not sure what else you want in a gainy head. Thanks for the demo.
I use the Black Spirit 200, and find that turning the sag control down low helps tighten up heavily distorted djenty tones these amps are capable of.
Rabea a monster as always.
Do you think it's a pity they don't offer a version with an effects loop?
That Vintage sounds awesome. Love me some chewy saggy Strat tone.
Hmm, wonder what the humbuckers sound like through the Vintage & Rock???? The Vintage may be all you need...
WOOAH!!! YOU GUYS ROCK!! ✌🏼🔥😁
I couldn't tell if the opening jam was blues or metal but I liked it.
I never noticed before... Is Rabea a lefty who learned to play right handed, or is he one of the very few right handed persons who wear their watch on their right wrist? :-D
Nice tones out of them there tiny boxes!
Not Too Shabby 👍👍🎶🎶🎸Seems like The Rock Unit Gave a Pretty Good Clean.
Sounds like Airbourne!😀
With all due respect to the Captain & Chappers.... Pete & Rabea jams are the best !!!!
Agreed
Just another bit of kit to add to the wishlist!
Would be cool to have a all of those in a three channel amp to compete with the katana
I’m getting new amped out. Everything sounds like something already made.
Hey guys! Any info on the decimal display would be much appreciated!!! I own the spirit of Vintage; amazing tone in such a small package.
I always see these things a year late😅😹, but yeah, I just purchased the Spirit of Metal...because why?
_T.O.N.E._
I looove tone, and these lil babies have tone in great, steaming gobs! I've been acquiring guitars and now have 7...I think it's 7, maybe I should count...., and have been a happy Helix user since 2019. But since I write and record my music and play all instruments myself, I do not want to _ever_ need a certain tone or sound quality and not be capable of achieving it. To that end, the H&K Spirit of Metal. Even though I love my Helix, I still dig amps too. And now that playing live may be possible again, I do not want to move a shit ton of gear, not on a circuit where there are 3 or 4 bands per night. You gotta be in and on and set up and rock and then out. And believe this or not, I have all kinds of trouble with sound engineers in the clubs; they do not wanna let me use Helix straight to the house PA! They worry that it will blow up their sound system! Man, like what century are these guys in, anyway?
Well, now I got a solution for what I call, Slightly Outdated Sound Engineer Syndrome, or SOSES for short. Sound engineers who suffer from SOSES are gonna get SAMAS! Sky's Awesome Micro Amp Solution! No matter what, I will never be robbed of good tone🤣😅😹🤜💥🤛
Are these just smaller more tailored sounds of the black spirit? Does the full blown black spirit cover all these tones?
I don’t recall the blackbspirit sounding this good. May have to go rewatch some vids.
Oh forgot to give you guys props for that killer intro jam. 👍🏻
WTF? A PRS Strat? Need to check that ;-) These Amps are great, cool review - thanks for this great video!
Pete's so funny, love these videos.
I'm starting to pick up on the nutube sound I think, I hear a similarity in these vs the vox mv line, and tbh I love the flavor. I'm all for it and currently trying to swap over to analogue for reliability
I love me some Hughes & Kettner. The vintage/cleans are incredible, but they're struggling with making the leap to a high gain sound up to the same standard.
Those the 58/15 LT pickups in the 594? Man, nice work!
Why am i seen overdrive pedals on the floor?
Since these amp heads only have one channel, does it work well with a boost overdrive pedal for the convenience of switching from a cleaner sound to a more driven sound? Do these amps sound good when the gain is set low and an overdrive pedal is use to boost the signal in front?
Does it has a similar tubeamp saturation when a booster pedal is put in front. I would get one of these if i could manage to add more gain and less gain via a pedal without using the distortion of a pedal as such in order to use it for Live gigs while being able to go from cleaner to more saturated without having to reach for the knob.
How do they feel on the feengies? Stiff ? or any dig under the fingers?
I'm thinking with these sag controls, the vintage and rock might make really good stoner rock style Amps.
These are similar to the vox mv series I think. They call it nutube
Immediately what I thought. Competition for the MV series and the Joyo BanTamps
Yeah, loved my MV50 Rock through a 2x12, guess they‘ll be very close
Unfortunately these are just solid state amp heads, there's no nutube or even 12AX7 in the preamp. Much more comparable to Hotone's little heads.
spirit of vintage is the perfect pedal platform amp
Y'all had me waiting for Ironman to show up at the beginning
I really want to see them played against the Micro Terror and the Micro Dark. I have the MT and wouldn’t mind trying that Vintage, but I also don’t want to drop $240 on something I kind of already have.
The Vintage and Rock sound great. But huge oversight by H&K not to put an FX loop on these. They are gainy amps and most people who play with gain use delay. You can certainly run delay and verb into the front and tweak the pedals to sound O.K but they'll never be as clean as an FX loop using gain. Good opportunity for someone to come up with a decent FX loop mod for these and then they'd be really useful. They could have put a small jack of some kind and offer a breakout box or adapter for an FX loop as an accessory.
Absolutely. Saving pennies instead of making an all-round killer product...
Are they better than the competition? The Fender, the Spark, the Spyder, the Vox, etc?
This thing runs with both outs? Line out and cab at the same time?
I've been looking for something to use with my pedalboard and headphones. I was considering the Iridium but this may be a better solution.
Love what you do very much!
Glad you enjoy it! 🤘
The metal one sounds a bit messy, for what it propose it lacks a bit of definition IMO. Spirit of Rock immediately throws Rabbea into Nuno mode, which is awesome!
Well shit. I was just typing a comment saying "Spirit of Metal, It will Chug" right when you mentioned Ola. lol.
The Difference between this and the Orange Micro Dark is what?
The appearance
No effects loop on these, different flavor, and around 30 watts
@@benjaminfowler4513 therefore the Micro Dark is better
@@benjaminfowler4513 Thanks!
The ONLY thing that stops me from buying this literally this second is that they have no reverb. If it had an effects loop to put one in id be fine with it as I have a really nice reverb pedal. I just can't really enjoy a sound with no reverb, especially on clean.
TC HoF in the front?
@@somethingbl I mean, that would be fine for a clean, but as soon as you add any kind of crunch on there it's going to sound awful.