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

Awesome amp with a ton of tones. The clean tones are nice and sparkly and you can also get great heavy distorted tones. All around amazing amp that can play almost any genre. It sounds good with active or passive pickups, but I think it really shines with active pickups. The built in effects are pretty decent as well. They aren't the most customizable or absolute best sounding, but are very passable and I got rid of my pedalboard because the onboard effects are all I need for like 90% of situations. The midi pedalboard (not included, rip) works great and you can save a lot of preset tones. One great thing about the presets is that they save the wattage setting as well, so you can have a bank of presets all at 1W and save a different bank at 40W for practice/live.

I've had no issues with this amp in about 4 years of using it. I've had to replace the power tubes once but it was easy and has needed no other maintenance.

I bought a Grandmeister 36 with the pedal 432 a few days before the deluxe 40 came ou, and every YouTuber guitarist seemed to get as GM40. Oh well.It is truly amazing. O did buy a custom Mesa Mark V:25 head and cab which was a life time goal so it doesn't really count. The GM is the answer to my 12 space rack rig (80's). The GM is a super light amp that fits my Mesa 2x12 vertical cabinet. Fantastic rog that I still use even today.

This thing sounds SO GOOD when paired with the H&K cab but I suspect any cab with V30s will do. This thing pairs VERY nicely with the V30's. Whenever I go back to modelers or profilers after playing this amp they always feel harsh by comparison. This thing can get so spongy with a lot of sag when you drive it hard which you can always do since it has the power soak and I absolutely love it. Even playing with the sag options on modelers and profilers can never really replicate this feeling. When I play on something digital, I quickly adjust and forget all about the feeling difference. But whenever I switch back to one or the other, I ALWAYS feel it.

The built in effects are all pretty good. They are a bit basic and limited in parameter adjustments, but they absolutely get the job done. More importantly, they all sound nice and musical. The reverb and chorus are particularly delightful. While the delay is also excellent, it is not full featured, and I don't think it does subdivisions. That being said, if you had this amp, a compressor, a wah and a volume pedal, you would be set for 99% of anything you could want.

The ONLY complaint I have is the foot controller is a bit limited and can't change certain things. Like being able to turn the boost or effects loop off while in preset mode. You would just have to make another preset with those things engaged or disengaged. This limitation can apparently be bypassed by using a MIDI controller but i have never tried.

I've been using Marshall/Mesa/Peavey amplifier heads for 30 some odd years at the time of this post and was ready for something else. I wanted an amp that did not resemble a Marshall at all and settled on giving the H&K Grandmeister Deluxe 40 a try. Right out of the box I set it up to melt my face off and it does that. Then I wanted clear clean channel because I might want that someday and it does that. I wanted FX to mess around with. We have delay, chorus, phase, vibrato, reverb. yeah, it does that. Then, just for fun, lets see if I can make it sound like a Marshall. Yep, it does that too. You can pretty much make this thing sound like any amp you want it to be. Fender Reverb...it does that. Mesa Boogie...it does that. Vox (God forbid)...probably will but who wants that? It's a light head and after hauling around Boogies and Marshall's it is a very nice change of pace to still have energy after loading out and packing in. The built in DI box is great. Just plug in an XLR and I'm ready to go. There is this complaint on the interweb by various gaming chair keyboard assasin's of this amp sounding "fizzy". Yes, it can sound fizzy but it doesn't have to. This is a feature, not a problem in my opinion (truly a feature not a bug!). It has the ability to fizz but if you use your ears to adjust the settings and sensitivity instead of your eyes you can dial it out entirely or make it fizz however you want. Another feature is the built in noise gate which is really nice. I mean the reality is that I don't need to hook up a single stomp box, I can plug amplifier right into a mixer, audio interface or cabinet and I'm done. Oooo, and it has blue light so you can see where you are when the light cans are off and everything is completely dark except for a red LED here and there and you need to crawl back to your amp without being able to see anything using only your guitar cord as a guide, you know what I mean? This amp provides a blue light locator beacon so you can see if you need to (I needed to). I really don't have any cons to report in regard to the sound one can dial up or the power capabilities and on the subject of power, this amp is very loud. My Marshall is a 1975 50 watt outfit and its not as loud as the GM40. YMMV. Accessing the tubes however is another story. You have to take the thing apart to get to the tubes. I haven't done that yet but go and watch the youtube video and you can see what I mean. Just something for future me to look forward to. Cheers!

This amplifier is pretty outstanding. I'm able to get a massive range of tones from it including a vintage Marshall tone. I also really like that it has cab-emulation for the DI output and can be directly recorded into an audio interface

I've had this little amp for months now, and it still surprises me. You basically get a tube amp and modeler all in one. Mine has the JJ tubes which I believe all the new ones come with now. Here is a breakdown.

Pros
- Small size makes lugging it around easy, and the included case is nice
- Looks cool with the blue lights
- Can be switch to 1 or 5 watt mode which makes home playing at quiet volume levels really easy. No need for an attenuator.
- If you don't have a pedalboard, the onboard effects (reverb, delay) and modulation (phaser, flanger, chorus) are all very useable and sound great.
- The Ultra channel sounds great for metal and gets pretty heavy.
- Clean channel has very nice cleans
- Crunch channel has nice crunch, and lead channel is great for leads or soloing
- Built in noise gate
- FX loop
- Built in Boost button and footswitch for soloing
- And one of the best parts is the Red Box cabinet emulation. Just plug an XLR cable into the back and into your audio interface and you can record with it as is or play through headphones for silent practice. This thing sounds way more realistic than my Fractal FM9 or the Helix I used to have when it comes to direct recording and practicing through headphones. Less knob fiddling too, menu diving, or dealing with third party IRs, and I can easily hook up my pedalboard to it to use all of my effects.

Cons (Sort of)
- Not really a negative, but if you're looking for a Marshall, Mesa, Diezel, Fender, or Vox, it isn't that. It can get sounds close to those, but obviously H&K has its own sound.
- Footswitch is sold separately. Its definitely worth the purchase though.
- The FX access section is a little confusing at first, as is the change in volume between channels since you have so many separate channels, but its pretty easy to navigate after you mess around with it. Its definitely way easier to use than a modeler like the Helix or Axe FX.

If you're looking for an all-in-one versatile and lightweight amp to use at home, gig with, or record, I'd definitely recommend the H&K Grandmeister 40. There isn't really anything else like it in its price range and I'm surprised more amp company's aren't trying to follow Hughes and Kettner's lead with an amp that has amp modeling like capabilities built in.

Great amp great paired with line 6 hx effects

Ok when you say it's one of the best amps in the world
You better back up your . I wrote a review of the Fender
57 vintage twin amp and said something like it was amazing
And I loved it and I still do.
When you look at this amp with 40 watt tube amp, my first
Reaction was this amp is kinda small.
Wow , size does not matter with amp , it is thundering and
Clean at the same time. To compare to a Fender 57 twin or
A Marshall 100 watt amp, there really is no comparison.
Why??? The sound is cleaner, the overdrive and crunch is by far as good as it gets! The clean tone has a beautiful tone that is jus great sound. With all the effects, there is no other amp that I know that compares. From the delay to to reverb to the boost and more and more features, you will not play anything else , it's that great......JUST BUY IT , you will LOVE IT, it's amazing.

I have had a Evh el34 and stealth as well as a JSX and a JVM in the last few months. Trying to find a better amp then my old Hughes Kettner Switchblade. The Switchblade did everything good but nothing great. So if kept trying amp after amp. Each amp did one thing better then Switchblade but I kept missing it's versatility. I had to buy pedals and all that mess on the floor.

I was not up on current Hughes and Kettner amps and frankly the size of them looked toyish to me. Well I'm glad I found a review of this amp. It's amazing on almost every setting. From nice cleans that get dirty like a Vox to punishing high gain. And all the effects are more then just ok. The onboard delay is quite nice as well. All in all this amp is perfect for me.

I picked this amp after a lot of research and demo viewing and it delivers. Im bust using the 4 channel settings, boost and effects loop and haven't even dug all the way in to the onboard effects. I cant use it at anywhere near full volume in my music room - very powerful and makes my Friedman 2x12 sing and scream. More to talk about but enough said. It is awesome.

This is quite the amazing amplifier and it's my very fist fancy tube amp! It gets me some very nice beefy cleans to some hard hitting metal rhythm and lead tones. My Majesty and Strat both sound great on it for different reasons. All I use is a compressor going into the amp for a little more "oomph" on both guitars and that pretty much works. Every now and then i'll step on the Tube Screamer for tighter crunch.

When the amp first arrived, it did sound very harsh and the distortion was very "fizzy"... I read on forums that everyone almost immediately swaps tubes to fit their needs as some do like that fizzy sound. I switched to JJ tubes for everything and it made it alot better (to my ears) in my opinion. I like a warmer tighter crunch sound for metal and solely use the Lead / Ultra without boost and gain around noon, although i've seen demos with people doing solid sounding tracks with the Boost and higher gains.

My cheap Katana cab sounds pretty good with most of it, it tends to "warble" on palm mutes when trying to get that tight crunch (not the fault of the amp i'm sure) but I'm really looking forward to trying this thing with a Mesa or Marshall 4x12 to see how tight it can get.

All in all i'm very happy, the onboard effects are nice to have (especially to save some quick patches with the midi foot controller which is a must with this amp too) but if you have nice Reverb/Delay/Chorus pedals, it probably won't replace them. As always thanks to Myron who got everything out perfectly!

yeah, it's worth $... Buy the midi foot board with it so you can really dig into the effects presets. Running mine into an Orange 2x12 PPC212. It's like being in guitar tone heaven.

I couldn't be more pleased with this monster.

One of my favourite amps I have. Fire breather. Clean to mean.

Love this amp the only pedal you need is a tuner!

I don't know what I can say that hasn't already been said. This amp is nothing short of amazing. If there's a bad tone in this amp, I haven't found it yet and neither has anyone else who's played through it. It works equally great with humbuckers and single coils and sounds great from clean to massively overdriven. I personally don't like to drive the gain much past 12:00 on any of the channels for my tones, but I've heard it used to great effect by other guitarists. It has it's own flavor and while it heads in the direction of other major amp voicings on some of the channels, the flavor is still very distinctly H&K, and that's a very good thing IMHO. I've had mine for about a year and it makes everyone in the room happy when it's glowing blue. I chose this amp for it's tone and versatility and it hasn't disappointed in the least. It still has the stock tubes and sounds amazing through the H&K Vintage 30 loaded 2x12. I now have the tone I've been searching for. It takes pedals well, but I love just plugging straight into it. The direct out/cab sim is also fantastic. I always record an extra track with the direct out and it's great for late night playing and recording activities. The ability to save up to 128 presets is also amazing. This would be awesome in a live situation and has proved invaluable in the studio providing instant recall of settings for emergency retakes. A thoroughly fantastically designed and built amp head.

A big thank you to Mark Bruhn for hooking me up with this amp! It's always a pleasure to work with Mark and the service at Sweetwater is second to none.

I"ve had this amp a few months now and I couldn"t be happier with it. I got the whole rig, Amp head, midi pedal, and 2x12. I was stuck deciding between this and the EVH 5150 el34 50w head, and ultimately went with the H&K due to all the features, especially the power soak as I live in an apartment.

I play all sorts of music from clean blues to metal. It does all of that very well, and every channel is usable. Put the dials to noon on any channel and it sounds great and gives you a good starting point to work with. I was a little skeptical, as many are, about how well it will do metal, but it delivers. On its own you can get a really good metal tone, but if you stick a boost in front of it you will get bone crushing metal tones, and the built in noise gate definitely comes in handy here. Just today I put a cheap amazon clean boost on the ultra channel on 1 watt and was just amazed at how good it sounded. My cousin bought the EVH head, and the amps compliment each other very well, and listening to them side by side I"m still happy I went with the H&K. The only thing I consider a slight con is that I need the boost pedal to achieve a similar tone to the EVH, but the EVH doesn"t have all the built in effects, and the option for the awesome midi pedal (a must buy). The crunch channel on the H&K is also better than the blue channel on the EVH IMO. However, the EVH is an awesome head too don"t get me wrong, and it sounded killer on the the H&K 2x12.

If you"re like me and like playing all different styles of music, this is the amp for you, it does it all. I do plan on upgrading the tubes, and I"m a little disappointed in the cheap tubes it comes with, but all in all it still sounds great. I did have some loud cracking and popping when I first got the amp, but that has diminished as the amp got broken in a bit. I"m not sure if it was the cheap tubes causing that or not, but keep in mind that this may be normal for this head as I"ve received a replacement and both did the same thing. It did get better in time though. I"d like to thank sweetwater for the quick replacement.

Also, this thing looks beautiful. I wasn"t sure how much I"d like the clear front with the blue light. I thought it might look corny after a while, but it doesn"t. Every time I hit the power knob and it lights up, it"s a treat. Just get it!

I picked this up the other day, along with the wi-fi and pedal, I control it with my Ipad. Got it hooked up to a Marshall 4X12 Cab, All I can say is WOW. This thing can Crank if you want it too. I made the Wifey mad for sure. It sounds great at all Watts and Volume levels. I read on others reviews about problems when they received theirs, I did not experience any of those problems at all. It is surprising of the power in this head, Don't let the 40 watts fool you, It was shaking the dishes in the cabinet and vibrating the windows from across the house. That was without the Boost.

I was considering a Friedman a great amp no doubt and money was not an object. When i discovered this amp I was really intrigued. When I heard it I was sold. It does everything great and its all tube. great effects DI I could go on for hrs about the numerous features check the specs It is my desert island amp one amp to rule them all. Live Cover band/ Recording studio/ Compact rig/ practice amp
Marshall Vox Fender Mesa Orange all in one
I expect it to sound even better when the Chinese tubes are replaced. Id like to see a compressor in the effects group and a tuner. perhaps a 9 v supply on the back and a volume pedal on the controller controller

Solid build quality. Great tone and versatility. I can easily get shimmery cleans, British roar and modern high gain.
I primarily play metal and have owned 6505 before this. It is not a 6505 but I would say you can get something comparable with some tweaking.

The attenuation is great, I can easily play this amp in my apartment through my 4x12 and not wake the neighbors.
The iPad controls require a wireless midi adapter that costs extra.

I have not tried the direct box yet, but I hear it is great.

This amp is like nothing else I've ever played through before,
and I've played through quite a few amps... The combination of Tube tone with high quality digital effects make it one of the most versatile amps on the planet. I would almost compare it to the analog version of a kemper in the sense that you can get literally any sound out of it. What's more, every sound you do get is ear candy, I dont think it's possible to get a bad tone from this head... The other place where she shines is the "Redbox" built into the back. It allows you to run an XLR from the head to your audio interface for recording. It has a built in IR, you can pick speaker type ranging from Vintage to Modern as well as size. The "Power Soak" option lets you switch between watts the head is running at. When recording through the redbox I dont have a cabinet hooked up at all, I just leave the speaker off power soak selected. The tones coming into the DAW are the best I've had to date. I have tons of amp sims for tracking di guitars, I have a kemper in my possession at the moment as well. The H&K is the best of them, with Kemper almost tied for 1st. You cant go wrong with this head... I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to spend countless hours avoiding real responsibilities and just jamming endlessly.

Modern metal to 80s metal.
Wow

Just got it in the mail today. After only a few minutes of playing, I"m amazed at how great it sounds. Pure tube lush... amazing little head.

I have been waiting to get this head for a while.....I LOVE amps that have built in effects...great amp...lots of awesome tone and really awesome to be able to store so many different presets...thank you so much Lindsey Becker at Sweetwater for your constant support and help you provide....I am SO happy that I finally got this head and the 36 month NO INTEREST financing is a big help...SWEETWATER rules!!!!!!!!!

For last 10 years I've been using a Line 6 Spider Valve Mkii. For anyone that doesnt know it, it was light years ahead of its time... A programmable tube amp with excellent foot controller. I sing and play, and I dont have time to mess with pedal boards. I like the Line 6 because I can instantly change from one tube patch to another. Each patch holds any combo of amp settings and FX. But the Line 6 has a few issues - delay during channel switching being the worst. It makes a good Marshal tone tho, which is something I need from an amp...
So I went shopping for Marshalls, I was considering a JVM-205C but when I p[played one I thought it was junk compared to my old Line 6. It had horrible channel switching delay and had to be cranked WAY too loud to sound good.

The grandmeister 40 is really something else. The other manufacturers will now have to scramble to copy this. Quite similar to the line 6, but easier to use. This is the most user friendly amp ever, which is right up my alley. It has just a few very effective controls. I received it Thursday (thanks to Ben and team shipping it fast) and gigged with it Friday. Simple to dial in sounds, and its not too loud. The power braking options are fine, but I find they color the sound (as all power brakes do) so I dont use them... This is a very controllable 40W that sounds great at low volume. Really nice gradual master volume control.

So i quickly dialed in 4 patches for each of the pedal board switches and I'm done. 1. Clean channel. Nice simple channel that breaks up nicely. Very responsive to how you play. 2. Crunch channel (this is channel is marshal sounding which was a relief to me and sounds good at low volume) 3. Crunch channel again with very high gain and the boost turned on (think Green day sound). 4. FX loop turned on - I use this for tuning. I run the FX out to a Boss tuner with no return. Then when I step on this switch the sound cuts up and I tune up. And I'm done. Awesome.
I'm not using channels 3 or 4. 3 Sounds like a modern H&K ish distortion, and 4 is pure metal. The resonance control really helps fatten a gain sound, try 3 o'clock ish. I have no problem with the stock Chinese tubes and have no plans to swap them. I love that it will auto bias when I do swap them tho. Noise gate is great.

So its amazing, and purdy too. Stunning when lit up. Everyone asks about it. Build quality is excellent. All metal chassis, but yet its really small and easier to carry. Comes in a super nice bag. Recommend the 2x12 cab standing on end, and the foot switch is essential - Its really rugged and the pedals are so well space I never hit the wrong one. The ONLY things I would have wanted that arent here are a tuner included in the footswitch like the old Line 6 has, and a wah pedal included in the footswitch.

Just go for it. You wont regret it. Stunning piece of gear. Sweetwater rocks.

I received this amp 5 days ago and have had a hard time not playing around with all of the features! Wow! Incredible tone and responsiveness. Great features as well as lush harmonics and sustain! Having owned many amps such as Messa Boogie, Marshall, Peavey, Fender and Blackstar, I must say that my expectations were blown away! I will say however, the Fsm 432 midi board is a must to unlock and control all of the features and functions of this beast. The effects are surprising and very usable. Amazing for a analog tube amp and the controls are very sensitive. Also the light up front panel is eye catching and unique. Playing a 2017 Gibson Les Paul Standard hp through it and I must say that this is a very good combination!

This thing is amazing, no two ways about it. I'll be honest, I don't have loads of experience with classic tube amps like Marshalls and Mesas, I've played them here and there at guitar shops but haven't owned them. But for me, this amp covers so many bases, it's really a Swiss Army knife. With the wattage control, your cleans can go from a nice breakup to shimmering clean. The crunch channel gives everything from mild bluesy to enough for great 80's rock rhythm. The lead channel kicks it up for great solos, and the if you're into metal, the Ultra channel cuts the mids and adds some thunk to the bass end. Add in the option to Boost each channel, and you practically have 8 channels which is insane. And the ability to control it all with MIDI and save your settings is just the cherry on top, plus the direct out option to go straight to a soundboard is really nice. I own a Fender Fat Strat and a couple PRS guitars, and they all sing with the amp. It can bring out the subtle nuances, but also bring out the shred. Seriously, just buy one already. Throw in the 2x12 cab and foot switch and you will be set!

I have not yet bought this amp but, I plan on doing so before the end of February. The demo of the amp is great. It sounds killer in the demo and Mitch and Don do a great job explaining the features and how they work to achieve these tones. Hughes and Kettner really did great on this amp. I can't wait to get one. Such a great sounding, feature laden amp!

Just think of what you could do for a rig with this amp as the center piece. You could run it to a center cab and take a line out, from either the Redbox or elsewhere, feed a Lexicon, Eventide, t.c. electronic or Bricasti reverb / multi effects unit and create a sound so lush and gorgeous it would be to die for. I can't wait to start tweaking!

One amp to do it all? For me? Yep. My PRS guitars freaking sing because of this amp and the matching cab. Wanna play Buddy Holly? You can. Feel like playing some Steve Vai? No problem. There where some reviews online that made me hesitant on the purchase but I am so glad I bought this.

I ran this amp into my 8i8 with absolutely no problem as well. Recording is going to be an absolute blast with this gear.

This is one extremely versatile little head with BIG sound! And the power soak feature is very pleasing to the wife and neighbors when practicing. You can get tones just as clean and pure as an innocent school girl or this thing can get as dirty as the nastiest hooker on music row here in Nashville! I could not be more pleased with this amp.

I think that another reviewer hit the nail on the head with the comment that the overall amp tone is sort of like a VOX with an old-school Marshall vibe. I preferred to change the tubes to all JJ, and that is a smart move if you prefer more old-school tone (the stock tubes are ok, but a bit harsher sounding).

I have been waiting for this combination of amp versatility, effects and cab emulation all in one box for a long time. It certainly saves on the set-up / tear-down time. What took me 40 minutes to haul in and set up now takes me about 20 minutes.

The thing that really sold me and put it in the no-brainer category was the ability to import / export libraries of sound presets. On Saturday night, I'm rocking out in my classic rock band and then on Sunday morning, I dial in my worship tones. Sure, you can do that all in one library, but for no-brainer click-and-go on Sunday, this is a huge blessing. Plus, if you're in a band that changes out songs inside sets, you can dial in whatever you need at the push of a button. One minute it's China Grove and the next it's Red Barcheta.

The power soak feature is truly amazing and something that I have been dreaming about for many years as well. You can either pipe the redbox out to a mixer, or just pick yourself up a Behringer P1.

The effects are really good. They're not super high dollar effects tones, but definitely good enough. Besides, add that extra delay on the back end of the loop or some boost effect on the front if you like.

Do not let the small size fool you. This sucker is loud! You are not going to go wrong with this investment. Enjoy.

This amp is a tweaker and has the tone ive been searching for.This amp has 4 channels of raw energy with Cleans that sound great,Crunch channel,Lead channel that is nice for metal/Rock or what ever you use it for,,and Ultra for even more distorted shreading.Hughes & Kettner added a boost button to turn it up to 11 and give each channel some extra power and adds a noticeably different tone to your sound,add in a Master,Presence,Resonance,Reverb,Treb,mid,bass,Volume,Gain and 4 different Mod pedal effects with the gain controlling the Intensity.Fx loop a Noise gate with programable switch on back of the amp,and save slots for your saves settings,the list goes on and on.Just take my word for it,this amp can do alot of cool things but the tone that comes out with a matching 2x12 Hughes & Kettner cab and a 2017 Gibson Flying V Hp is just incredible.

Finally my 35 year wait is over. I've struggled with EVERY amp I've had in one or more (mostly more) ways since way back when I began playing. Alas, my day has come. I don't really know where to begin or end with this amp really because the good things to say seem endless. First and foremost, the sound is amazing - to me it seems to be the magic blending of a VOX and an OLD SCHOOL Marshall at my settings of personal taste. It NAILS rock, metal, jazz, funk, ...you just name it ...it's there. There is nothing it can't do and it's ALL readily available via a midi footswitch and program recall. It gets no more vertitile folks. Real tube twang too! Moving a dial merely a hair is significant and makes tone shaping combinations nearly endless. The build quality is top-notch and so are the materials used - robustly weighted steel construction with heavy duty switches and knobs and a thick plexi front plate that cleverly illuminates a beautiful sharp glow that looks completely high class and botique. This thing looks very expensive, and while not made in Germany the specs were no doubt demanded that would be as it was. I don't give credit easy but when it's deserved an I do I unleash. This amp is the end all be all and as of now I can see absalutely no reason why I would have to buy another before a very very long time.

A very versatile amp, able to deliver a wide range of clean to full on creamy distortion. With the added effects and noise gate, also a great all in one solution. I've tended to use it mostly in the lead channel where it's possible to get some great EVHesque tones while retaining a bit more clarity and sponginess compared to the full onslaught of the ultra channel. A great value for what you get.

There was word of the H&K forums that this amp was geared towards metal only. That it could not really do anything else well. That's a load of pure grade A BS folks. Yes, it can do metal. It certainly has the gain for that by the bucket loads. But, it can also do slight breakup, blues, rock, and country rock very very well too! Its all in the settings of the amps gain, and in the fingers of the player. Switching between clean to ultra thru my Helix effects is just awesome! I run a 4 cable method thru Helix for the effects. Yes, I know the GM-40 has effects too, and they sound good. But I use Helix for the wah and compression (where needed). In this way I have a patch setup in Helix just for the GM-40 deluxe, and I can also switch over to the Helix presets as well bypassing everything but Helix. Best of both worlds for me. The GM-40 right out of the box sounds great!!!

I have been waiting on an amp like this for quite some time. I love tubes but lately I have been using digital amps for the simplicity of it all. No more carrying around huge peddle boards which I spent thousands of dollars on. With that said...I bought the Deluxe 40 and the matching 2x12 cab. Amp is stupid easy to use and I had it figured out in about 2 minutes...BUT...I was less than thrilled with the tone of the amp when it first arrived. I could not put my finger on it at first being that H and K makes great stuff. The distortion had a sizzle on top, much like a Krankenstien which I am not a fan of. Even on light distortion, it still had that sizzle. So...after some research I figured out that the tubes in the amp where cheap Chinese tubes and although they are matched, they are not matched that well. Even the amp will let you know how well your tubes are matched by the lights in the back and how many times they blinked. Mine blinked 3 times. Not good. I ordered a set of JJ el84's (2 sets actually) and 3 JJ 12AX7's. Let me tell you, completely woke this amp up. The distortion is now smooth and has incredible articulation. No matter how much gain you can still hear every single note. The big plus...no more sizzle.

Now I have the tube tone that I want with all the effects built into the amp. This amp will cover so many different genre's of music it is ridiculous. On the clean channel, turn the presence and resonance all the way up and this think will spank with the Fenders. Pull down the treble and the presence and you have a great jazz tone. Crunch channel will hit all your AC/DC tones and 70's tones. Also great for blues. The lead channel, lower the bass and push a little highs and mids and you can nail a lot of the 80's tones. I have a great Def Leppard tone. I also use this channel for a lot of Rush. Drop the highs and push the lows with some resonance and it turns into 80's metal. The insane channel is great for metal and has serious thump to it.

The effects are good. I have heard better and I have owned better, but they are 90% of my previous gear on sound and tone. To my ear it is awfully hard to beat analog chorus and phase but these do more than a good enough job. Now the only peddles I use is a tuner, octaver and wah. No more peddle board.

The power soak is amazing. Worth the price of admission alone. Fully programmable. I have banks set for home play and banks for practice and banks for stage. All the same tones, just much louder as I go up in banks without having to touch the master. Just program 1 watt for the house and program the same tone with 40 watts for the stage. It doesn't get easier.

The boost function literally adds 4 more channels to the amp. Each channel has its own distinct voicing and hitting the boost will boost certain frequency's and change the characteristics of that channel. You don't need the boost for soloing. Just program a louder channel and use the boost for both if that is the sound you are after.

The Redbox....Wow. Plug and play. No more micing and it sounds great for FOH and for recording. Already started recording with it and I was blown away...just make sure you cut back on the lows. I also have banks set up for recording.

Now the last thing. The presence and the resonance. USE THEM. This is the secret to this amp. You could almost set the eq at 12 and just use the presence and resonance. they are that good. Amps I have had in the past I never took them over 12. With this amp it is a great extension of the eq, if you understand how to use them. I have sounds with them turned all the way up, all the way down and everything in between. These are the magic buttons on this amp.

Do yourself a favor and spend the money. You will not be disappointed, however, just order a set of tubes when you get it. My hats off to Hughes and Kettner. What an amp. for the money you simply cannot beat it and I have had a Marshall JVM, Krank Revolution, Mesa triple rec, Randall RM 100 (amazing amp by the way), a Bogner, Peavey Triple X, a few Line 6 toys and a Rocktron Prophecy. The only one that came close to this was the Randall RM 100...but it was just toooooo loud. Oh, and the blue lights are exceptionally cool.

Call Roq, who is my sales dude. He will take care of you as he as always done me and I put that poor guy through the ringer. Top notch guys. Sweetwater has had all my business for the last few years. Now if they will just get Suhr guitars. Hint, hint.

After searching for months for a replacement tube amp for my beloved but extremely weighty Fender Concert Reverb II (80s era Rivera model), I discovered this lovely amp head. I had started out with a quest to find a power-switchable tube amp to accommodate different room sizes (mostly playing in a bedroom at home) yet not sacrificing anything in tonal quality. I had seen/heard many of the smaller 1w to 20w heads, but none of them offered more than two or three common features.

I could spend the day telling you about all the cool features - but why? Just watch and listen to the demo videos...let your ears, and not your eyes, convince you that this Lunchbox-sized head is serving up all kinds of good, hot cookin'...and no matter what style you play, you're going to find what you want and need. I'm selling a few pedals off my board that I won't need any more...

Go get ya some!

For any metal heads out there that have been considering this amp, I would recommend it. I was somewhat skeptical of this amp when I first purchased it after much research and comparison to other amps out there. I knew that the clean tones and various crunchy tones would be great after all the videos online featuring that type of playing but I was worried how it would play in a metal context. After firing this beauty up I switch it to the ultra channel and went to town. All the knobs where set to roughly noon by default and even at those settings it sounded amazing. Great tone and low end response, which I was worried about. Just get it already!

I've had various tube amps and digital and analog amp/FX modelers & emulators over the years. And as good as one or the other option has been, tube or digital, there have always been limitations. I've alway dreamed of an analog all-tube amp with built in effects that didn't compromise on sound quality. Well that day has finally come AND MORE and leave it to German engineering to figure it all out!

I purchased the Grandmeister Deluxe 40 head, TM 60 watt 1x12 cabinet and the FSM 432 MKIII midi foot controller and they work and sound great together. I've had this amp for about a week in a half and have barely scratched the surface... First of all, as a tube head, each of the four channels sound awesome! The clean, crunch, lead and ultra channels each have such differrent tone characteristics...they aren't at all just "gainier" versions of the channel before, but instead each channel acts like its own separate tube amp (similarly to the H & K Triamp amp it's based on). And if you engage the "boost" button each channel has specific frequencies that get pushed that make each channel really sing!

The built in studio quality digital reverb, delay and modulation effects, which can be set up via the smart rotary buttons and control buttons, work very well and sound great, and the fact that every saved preset and it's fx settings can be "remembered" when you turn a knob and see when the "store" button blinks is clever to say the least. Plus the midi footswitch works without a hitch in storing any created presets and channel switching or boost and fx triggering.

Did I mention that the Grandemeister Deluxe 40 sounds HUGE through the 1x12 cabinet? If that wasn't enough, there's also the very useful noise gate, the convincing Red Box AE cabinet emulator output and the very useful Power soak buttons feature when you want the same high end tone but at lower wattage and volume.

And to top it all off, you can program up to 128 presets of your choice using any and every amp channel, fx, knob and button (except for the master volume) in whatever configuration you desire! I can imagine how powerful and versatile this amp will be as a worship leader/guitarist, a gigging player, and at home for practice and recording.

I'm thankful to be one of the few to get one early here in the USA and can't wait to get this rig all set up for future performances, rehearsals and sessions! Thanks to my sales rep, Aaron Cieslikowski, in making sure I recieved my order BEFORE Christmas and for following up afterwards too.

There's no doubt that Hughes & Kettner has set a new standard for guitar amplifiers.
The features contained in this marvel of technology are astounding. Like the smartphones we carry today,
this amp is to guitar players, the device we didn't know we couldn't live without.
4 channels, w/boost. Built in effects, midi capable, cab emulation, programmable presets, DI for recording. But where the rubber meets the road, as goes for any amplifier, the sounds that come out of it are simply awe inspiring. I've owned some pretty good amps before, but this one easily tops them all!
Go find one and see for yourself, or take my advice and just buy one.
You'll be happy you did.

It was time to finally get a new modern amp. All my 80's amps and cabs were bought out of lack of being able to afford a real amp. So I was talking to Max Rapp, my sales engineer and told him what I wanted and could afford at this time. I suggested a few different amps and he said those will work but you wanted to get something that was not what those old amps were, right? Of course I said yes. He suggested this amp. I'm so glad I took his advise. I love this amp. Before I bought it, I did my research on it as he suggested. So I pulled the trigger and all I can say now is WHY DIDN'T I do this years ago! This thing is INSANE! It does most anything and it's not hard to dial her in. I gave it 4.5 stars as there is always something better out there but not at this moment for me. Thank you Max!

I thought I would try one of these and purchased a year ago from Sweetwater. This amp has some really great, modern sounds. Currently I'm running it in parallel with my Orange Rockerverb and when they are both fully cranked it is heaven. This amp I feel covers some great high frequency ranges. It's has a super gnarly should when the mids are scooped. The EQ is pretty sensitive when shaping tone which is great. Besides running distrorted, it has some great clean sounds with modern shimmer when dialed down. I haven't really messed with the onboard effects but they're handy I'm sure for someone who needs that. The noise gate works half well though and doesn't dial down the sustain though will kill feedback if you are wanting that.
CONS: I feel the build quality is a little lacking. There is a lot of plastic parts used including the front glass and sides which I was a little disappointed with..

This amp is state of the art and sounds great. However, I realized I play up and down with my volume pot on the guitar to clean up chords and then push it to 10 for lead sustain ala EVH style. This amp is made to be played with your axe on ten. If you want a voice thats cleaner or more sustain just dial it in on the amp and program it to the pedal board. I am to old to change my playing style so to ebay it went. Sold in about 5 seconds. Loved it but could not get one channel to do it all, because its not designed like that. If you are into heavy metal this is the bomb as most players in that style use ten on the volume pots on their guitars the majority of the time they be shredd'n. Built like a tank too...

The Grandmeister Deluxe 40 is an excellent sounding amplifier, it sounds good on all 4 channels and the effects included are top notch. If you know what you're doing then this amp is perfect. I've detracted a half a star because of how complex the initial stages are. I have the full setup with the midi, app, everything, and it can be overwhelming at times, trying to set all the presets and get everything just right. But let me tell you, once you have all that you are golden. It's a great amp and it's very practical.

Bought this this for a quick hookup on stage for a Theramin. Built in delay, direct to board, noise gate... why not. My stage rig is a Messa Boogie Road King, four camps in one and each one worth its weight in gold, downside... heavy. I call the Grandmeister my toaster, it's about the same size, but it's so much more, goodbye aching back, pedal board and hello plug and play Grandmeister. This is a real amp, not some modeling BS, this is what sound should be. Does it sound better than the Road King, nope, but it sounds pretty damned good and it cuts like a knife. There are so many presets that if you cant fit this into a rock band, there's something wrong. This little toaster cooks.

This is a great amp that sounds good and it's lightweight. I really like the on-board noise gate that makes it very quiet when signal stops, (No Hiss, great for recording with). I wouldn't expect it to blast through a rock style band practice or a live performance, but for what I use it for (which is recording and going direct into a FOH system while powering a monitor) it works great. Cab emulator sounds good also.

No guitar amp is perfect. But in terms of bang for the buck I can't think of one that can do better! I upgraded to the 40 Deluxe almost as soon as Sweetwater got it in, and am very satisfied. Better than the Grandmeister 36 especially in two respects, first its clean tone which is now warmer and more Fender-like, second the ability to set Power Soak globally rather than having to do so on a patch-by-patch basis. If you're upgrading from the 36 don't expect your settings for that amp to carry over as the 40 is clearly tuned differently...you'll have to re-EQ but the end results will be better.

So I have only had this in the US for 3 days. So my review is based on that....

1) Tone... It's a tube amp and it sounds great! I can get all the sounds I want out of this amp. Cleans, Crunch, distortion and heavy distortion. The distortion sounds great to my ear. I can get the modern distortion sound too. This probably sounds good to me because I prefer digital distortion and these effects are digital. The notes are articulated very well and clear. The sound is not sterile... It's only as sterile as you make it based on your EQ, Effects and levels.
2) Controls... Don't worry about this being difficult to operate. It is easy and only took me 5 minutes to figure it out. The knobs and buttons are laid out well.
3) Features... The features included with this amp are great. The 4 channels are nice, The power soak is awesome, Noise Gate works great, and TSC makes dealing with tubes easy. An added bonus is the soft case for it.
4) Effects... To my ear the effects are great. Better than any modeling amp I have heard. Better than most of the pedals I own as well.

I didn't give it 5 stars because...
I would like some more features! I would like to see a built in Tuner, Compressor, and WAH. If I had all those I wouldn't need anything other than the Midi controller on the floor.

Also not five stars because they don't produce a program to work with the amp for Windows. I have to wait for Fredo an external developer to have his new version working with this amp to use on a windows laptop. I think he has a mac version too. It is free.

Also not five stars because it would be nice to be able to program an expression pedal plugged in to the midi controller to control the master volume. This is not possible. Their directions to do this recommend buying an analog volume pedal inserted in the effects loop. You can use an expression pedal plugged in to the midi controlled but it will only operate the volume for the patch you are on and as soon as you change patches it defaults to what volume the patch was saved at.

I recommend getting the midi controller with it. I have the controller and there 2X12 Cab which I like a lot as well. If you want to program more buttons for midi you may want to consider a different midi controller.

Would I purchase again... For Sure! I'm very happy so far!

This amp is absolutely packed with everything you could possibly want in a lunchbox sized amplifier. From the onboard Redbox to the built in effects to cab simulation, it has it all. And it does it all very well. Add in the rackmount capabilities and you have the recipe for an all-in-one solution for pretty much any stage.

But... Unfortunately, I'm returning it. Not that there is anything wrong with it. It's flawless. But as a guitar player who has played on 100w tube amplifiers and "big bottle" valve amps (EL34, 6L6 and 6V6 tubes), this leaves a slight amount to be desired. You have to consider headroom. In my case, in our practice space, we do not mic our cabinets. So I'm competing with acoustic drums, another guitar player, a 2x10 bass rig and two singers. On the gain channels, it's no issue. The GM40D cuts right into the mix, carves its spot with plenty of volume on tap. The EL84s provide more than enough crunch to punch through. But on the clean channel, there isn't enough there. I have to absolutely CRANK the volume to cut through the mix. And when you have to crank that hard on EL84 tubes, break up is imminent. They just can't handle the heat like a big bottle valve. So you end up losing that pristine clean to the lack of headroom.

I'm not claiming this will be the case for everyone. But for me, this was a BIG issue. So much so, that I had to return it and opt for a different amp. If you need clean headroom, this amp isn't for you. But if you're a rock, metal or even blues player who doesn't mind a tiny bit of grit in your clean, this amp is perfection, all around. Its a shame it didn't work out for me, as I fell in love with the dirty sound of this amp. Hughes & Kettner have captured a bit of magic in this series of amps. Those looking for the same feature set, with more clean headroom, should take a close look at the Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200.

The head itself is a high quality construction product and includes a nice gig bag to go with it. H&K says in the manual that it only needs about 30 seconds on standby before playing so its ready to go quick. The lighting is unique and always draws the attention of guests that come into my studio that aren't familiar with the company.

The sounds that come from this thing are great. 50's rock and roll? Yep. Metal? Absolutely. You are getting your monies worth here.

I'm sure its hard to trust reviews on products like this from people that spent so much on the product. Of course there is going to be bias. Honest criticisms would be that wifi is not built into the product and requires another several hundred dollar purchase. Fender Mustangs are getting this done on their low end models, so I expect better here.

Out of the box I had a power tube short withing a first 30mins. Also the amp was very toppy with the stock tubes.

I replaced all the Chinese tubes with JJ's and now it sounds great. Great flexibility and portability.

I've had this a few days now. First off, it sounds great and there is a wide variety of tonal options at your disposal. The digital reverb sounds convincing, and the other FX are passable if you have nothing else.

It's a nice-looking amp, but I wish there was some way to dim the light display.

The rubber feet are not tall enough for the amp to clear a standard strap/handle on my extension cabinet.

And this is kind of where the love affair ends: Almost all the knobs and buttons on the device are really digital switches and when you change from one pre-set to another there is absolutely no visual indication of how the amp is set. Therefore, programming the thing practically -requires- some kind of MIDI controller and using the GM40 app. Otherwise switching between various patches is an exercise in frustration.. as soon as you touch a knob, it instantly overwrites whatever setting was stored for that control.

There are two ways around this kind of a design limitation: either provide some display of the value of the settings ON the amp itself (ideal) or provide some software app that displays them and can control the amp remotely. This is what H&K have done, but unfortunately the "official" version of the app is only available for iOS devices which leaves a lot of people, such as myself, out in the cold.

There are 3rd-party solutions available for PC and Android. I discovered the controller app for PC is, in fact, open source.

I bought this amp after playing one in person at a store when picking up my Charvel Pro Mod. First impressions are great, but with that being said over the course of a year I gave it a big time run through. Played it at church gigs, and with my original metal band. It really falls short. Had it retubed with JJ's because it was just so shrill on the high end. Didn't matter what I didn to eq it was mosquito like. Phase and flanger are weak. Pedal board it came with was just falling apart and I took good care of it. Great at home amp, but I sold it because it just was not that great. Red Box DI was cool but didn't make up for the rest. Lastly, don even waste your time with playing single coil pickups on this. Even the lightest distortion caused gross noise, and I have quality pickups and shielding. Noise gate couldn't get rid of this overbearing noise. The 4,000$ one I'm sure is great. But this misses the mark big time. Don't buy if you play professionally. Sorry H&K.

I purchased the head and matching 212 cabinet....looks cool and was fun to fiddle with but the tone is very stale. Clean is good crunch really never goes anywhere...lead has huge mid punch but is tone deficient. Ultra is great for metal and chugging. Each channel is EQ quit differently so trying use in a band setting just sucks. Use my jcm800 live use the Tubemiester for recording and practicing an home. Ended up being a fancy overpriced practice amp.

Well this is my first review of anything. I hate being negative but I think some should know about this amp. First off, I absolutely love the tones, and program abilities of this amp BUT I just can't trust it in a live setting. This was my second amp due to the first one making popping and whistling noises. This new one was doing fine until I played it live tonight. Out of the 8 songs I played 7 of them relied on my clean channel....that channel decided to do it's own thing in and out of the songs, sounded like somebody had a light switch on my power tubes....on, off, on, off, dimmer...then back on. 2 amps with different problems......the signs are there for me to move on.....I really wanted this amp to be great, but God has a different plan for me.

App is absolutely useless. You spend more time trying to get it to work than playing. Amp itself sounds fine but not very impressed. Should have spent my money on something else.

I'm very interesting on this amp. And sound not bad at all. But, it made in China most of the company closed out I don't think we can get any warranty for that amp so I just go for Marshall amp or EVH amp for safe.

After 3 weeks the amp had no output. According to their manual everything was functioning normally. Sweetwater techs had me run the guitar through the FX loop return and still no sound.

Sweetwater is sending me another amp. We're going to give it another shot. I'm not very hopeful at this point.

Wish I would have read the other reviews about no US warranty before I bought this.

I bought this a year ago to add to my growing collection of amps. I saw the ads that showed how amazing the distortion was. After receiving this amp and not getting it to play any kind of distortion, I should have returned it - but i put it aside until this weekend when i read the manual and tried again. I thought maybe it was a simple setting - which was why i set it aside until i had the time to play with it. Wrong. I tried all the modes and settings, maxed out the gain - nothing, did a factory reset, put it in crunch mode, tried every switch combo on the back - nothing. All i can get out of this poorly conceived amp is a clean sound on every channel - clean, crunch, lead, ultra, boost - nothing. There is no way this amp is putting anything out but a clean sound.

if you are looking for a head that gives nice distortion and is easy to use - avoid this one. I welcome the factory reps who made this thing to tell me how to get it to deliver any kind of distortion. Then i would ask them (if it was some obscure setting) why it was so hard to get that to work.

Right now - there is no setting that delivers distortion.

So one thing that IS important to me is the warranty. When I ordered this, I did so as I saw it had a three year warranty if registered within 30 days. After buying the GrandMeister Deluxe 40, I had trouble registering the warranty on their website. I then read through all their warranty information. it clearly says - North America is NOT covered under any warranty. So if you bought this product - there is NO warranty. Ignore the 3 year warranty - that does not exist. Why this company would sell this in the USA is a complete mystery.

It's going back.

Had board failure almost to the 3 month warranty issue. No USA warranty past the 3 months online after purchase. Obstacles at yorkville on warranty exchange,repair careful on what you purchase