Hughes&Kettner TubeMeister Deluxe 20

For starters i have to say that this is a beauty... From the second you unpack it captivates your sight. But that is nothing compared to when you finally open it. Blue light emerges out highlighting every detail and all the knobs. Simply stunning... But now to the serious stuff... I got this for my home studio to record guitar. That was my only purpose since i didnt care about taking this on live stages etc. The amp is amazing for recording. Has a very nice clean channel but the phenomenal is the lead one. Amazing tone and by raising the gain it can produce a pretty heavy tone for all of us who want to play heavy metal from time to time. For even more heavy tone there is a boost button that gives even more gain to the lead channel and it gets pretty crazy. I am not playing thrash-death metal etc so i only used the boost button on some solos and not in rythm guitar cause it is too heavy for my style but well it is there for anyone who wants it. The red box is amazing to record with and it is nothing like other cab sims that sounds terrible.
This thing is LOUD. i mean really LOUD. That is why there is a switch to set the amp on 20 watts, 5 watts, 1 watt and even 0. Great for late night recordings!
Trying to get a con but i cant find anything serious... I'll just say that when it is on for quite a lot of time it gets pretty hot and you cant really touch it from above but then again it is not to be touched there since even if you want to move it has great handles on both sides and they re not warm at all.
In general you cant go wrong with this amp if it is recording what you are after but even in live stages you wont be dissapointed cause this thing has a lot of power!
5 stars cause i cant get more.

Pros:

- Beautiful looks with the blue lights
- Insanely loud for such a small amp
- Ideal for both home and stage use because of the ability to switch from 0 Watt (silent for line), 1, 5 and 20 Watt
- Sound: the amount of bass makes you tremble, incredibly loud
- Clean channel sounds crystal clear
- Overdrive/boost channel can be nice for guitar solo's exclusively
- Comes with a nice bag

Cons:
This is about the overdrive & boost channel only:

- EQ function is very limited. You either get a HUGE extreme bassy gritty tone OR a super thin tone with poor attack. I totally miss the versatility in this function. If you are a (hard) rock/heavy metal riff/rythm guy, this amp won't make you happy
- Lack of mid tones. I just couldn't dial in a warm, stable driven middy sound, because the extreme grit keeps overruling every setting you apply. Turning down the gain, treble and/or mid knob, makes a terrible thin and dull sound
- It's too fuzzy. I love a stable drive/distortion, but this amp doesn't seem to be able to offer that. It sounds like either the overdriven tone is peaking all the time (the fuzzy sound) when you turn up the gain OR your tone doesn't have attack when turning it down. Adjusting the EQ didn't help. Also tried combining a Tubescreamer and an Empress distortion pedal with it. Clean channel with both pedals didn't help either. I guess this just is the amp's sound and I don't like it.

Beautiful clean sound. If you like constant fuzz tones and extreme grit and bass in your overdrive, this is a nice amp. Don't buy this when you search for a warm, punchy and clean overdrive sound.

The approach that H&K have taken to the design of the amp and the compromises they have made for the lunchbox format work really well for me. I had been considering options for an upgrade to my current amp for a while. Wanted something that would work well with my overall set up and be useful for both stage and studio work. I play ST type guitars for the most part, have used H&K amps in the past but, like others, have tended to find them on bright side and better suited to LP derivatives. That said I have always liked the format and the build quality. I read reviews and decided to give TM Deluxe 20 a go and am not disappointed. The only con I have is that it doesn't come bundled with a foot switch as this is pretty essential in any live setting. Within hours of arrival it was on the way to the rehearsal room. I use the amp with a 2x12 cab loaded with celestial V30s. Plugged in the amp, plugged in the footswitch, set the tone controls to mid setting, adjusted the levels of the channels to give a mild crunch on the clean channel and an overdriven "rhythm" tone on the lead channel with the same volume on each channel and ran through the entire set without changing anything. Several gigs in and I still haven't tweaked much. We play a mix of fairly hard edged R&B as a power trio and I get full and rounded tones from this little amp that sit well in the mix with more than enough balls for most of the venues we play. IMHO H&K's approach is perfect for the lunchbox format. They've concentrated on creating separate channel voicings that are fit for purpose and what they have chosen works great for me. If you are used to using the tone controls on the amp to get the sound you want, this amp takes a different approach. As I see it the tone controls allow you to tweak the sound for the room and stage dynamics you're dealing with. If you don't like the basic channel voicings H&K have given you then this is probably not the amp for you, though I struggle to see what is not to like. It also take the guess work out of things. I toyed with giving the amp four stars for features as it is a lunch box and lacks the versatility of it's grown up brothers, but given the sheer useability of the amp combined with power soak, red box DI and a effects loop I believe it rates 5 stars for the format.