Hughes & Kettner GrandMeister Deluxe 40-40/20/5/1-watt Programmable Tube Head

this amp blows me awayso many things it does from clean to paint peelingiPad app works great as well, its freered box out sounds awesomevariable power out is so nice to have

Has lived up to the hype so far. Looking forward to getting the MIDI foot pedal for it to maximize its flexibility and versatility. Does a great job of covering everything from death metal to soft acoustic songs.

This head sounded horrible out of the box. I tried everything besides changing out the tubes. The clean sound was good but any kind of gain put to the amp sounded high ended and horrible. If you play heavy metal it might work for you.

I've had this amp and the H&K midi controller for a few days now. Most reviews seem to be on the money as to the features. There is a lot of versatility with the 4 channels, plus a boost that works independently for each, plus the various built in effects. The reverb seems nice and believable. The rest of the FX... well if you're into that kind of stuff you probably already have your own. These can serve in a pinch or for just messing around.The foot switch/controller... not sure how sturdy it will prove to be if you step on it a lot. You absolutely need it to be able to control the thing and make full use of the available range of presets.There are a few annoyances and one big drawback, IMO- The rubber feet are not tall enough for the head to clear the carrying strap on my extension cabinet- the available Android and PC apps for programing the presets are not officially supported, and do not appear to be open-source [EDIT: the PC app is broken right now Aug. 2022]- the foot controller only identifies what preset you are on by number- you really NEED the midi controller and some kind of software interface to use this amp properlyAlmost all of the knobs are NOT analog controls but digital switches. You set things up on one channel, save it, then on the next channel.... it defaults to something, but generally this is NOT where you left the controls on the previous channel. Thus there is NO visual indication at this point as to how the amp might be set at this point. This gets confusing in a big hurry, and the fact that the FX are programmed using the same knobs makes it even worse.I haven't had a chance to play with the app yet, so I can't comment on the quality of that product. I think if the app turns out to be adequate I'll probably keep this thing. If not, it's probably going to wind up feeling like too much of a PITA for me to want to use it very much beyond the 4 basic channels.EDIT: I installed the 3rd party PC app some kind person made available. It looks great, but it has a pretty bad bug and some smaller ones that make it nearly unusable. I'm not an Apple person nor do I plan to become one. I wish I had realized what a pain this thing is to program without the software interface.

Amazing amp!

I am taking the time here to provide some feedback to perhaps improve the way this company operates.1) I saw a three year warranty when I purchased this unit. Nowhere (and I looked very carefully) did it indicate that was not the case. After I bought this unit - the first thing I did which I AlWAYS do is register it. When I tried - it rejected me - but said NOTHING as to why I could not register. it was almost as if I was supposed to just know somehow. So - I both did some digging and emailed them. I was shocked when I got an email that said they don't offer a 3-year warranty to those in the USA or Canada. So - ethically - why was that NOT printed clearly in plain sight? I even searched other sites to see if they had a reason posted - nope. So - strike one here for being responsible and misleading customers.To be clear - there was a one year warranty in the USA (not 3-year everywhere else on earth) at a general electronics shop out of New York. I can assure you from past experiences - I would not have bought anything knowing that I would have to ship it to New York if it did not work. (Also - I had to dig to figure this information out! That was not cool at all!).However, I will add there are some businesses that have their own tech center and will attempt to repair the unit. My unit didn't work (more later) at all. I was able to send it back to the place I bought it. I will have to wait and see what happens if they cannot fix it ( I am clearly not going to lose $1500).In my opinion - if you have to return something that requires expertise to repair, you want to return it to the factory from which it came - or a trained tech center. I seriously doubt they sent anyone from Germany to New York to train the electronics shop.Anyway - if you have any problems with your unit, this is what you will have to do to get it fixed. this alone dropped my rating to zero stars.(an update to this was that they said they would now honor their 3 year warranty. really? I think stating on every USA and Canada website this unit is listed for sale on - should have stated clearly the real warranty at the time)2) Horrible tech. My unit did not work - at all. it turned on but none of the features worked - none! turning nobs did nothing. Ok, so what was the trouble shooting on this unit? Well, I can tell you their technology is from 1970s - it's terrible. You rely on LEDs to tell you if there is a problem. if they light a certain way, it works! According to the LEDs on this unit - mine worked! (no - it didn't work and there was Zero software or any kind of modern day tech to tell you what the problem was).My thought when I read the debug in their manual was - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! In what century are we?! How does a $1500 Head Amp NOT have software - and software to tell you everything about the amp? I get it - it is super cheap to toss some microcontrollers on there and use the oldest, cheapest, lowest tech, and least expensive way possible to control the amplifier. if you are still doing the old hack it out engineering on your products and refusing to write a basic application to control and trouble shoot your unit, then know simply cheating your customers. Ones that will run into problems and not every buy your product again.So - my unit never worked. This tells me the tests it went through on it's way out of the production door was to power it up and look at the LEDs - then ship it. that's as bad as it get.

The amp sounds amazing at first after only 6 months of owning the amp went out. Contacted the seller for warranty because Hughes and Kettner doesn't handle this directly. Got the warranty repair number I had to pay shipping for the repair got the amp back played maybe an hour turned off. 2 days later I go to play again and pop amp goes out again exactly what happened before. I Contact the seller again get another repair Auth. Send it in again and was contacted that now I. Liable for cost of tubes 219.00 for this repair. I will not buy Hughes and Kettner again I should have went Marshall