Hughes & Kettner Spirit AmpMan Series AmpMan Classic 50-Watt Guitar Amplifier with Red Box AE+

General

The fully-analogue Spirit Tone Generator from Hughes & Kettner has been neatly and conveniently loaded into a fat, pedalboard-friendly stompbox. The AmpMan sets you up with two different channels, each with dedicated tone controls, and each opening up your tone with a full spectrum of both iconic British and American style sound, before putting it through a beefy 50 Watt strong built-in power amplifier. Equipped with Red Box AE+, this far-reaching amp-in-a-box can be seamlessly integrated in to a live rig or home studio with the full support of eight different speaker simulations.

The Spirit AmpMan Series: Tight Dimensions, Massive Sound

The meat of the AmpMan is definitely provided by the hyper-dynamic Ultra Response power amplifier, which somehow offers the same responsiveness as a genuine valve-driven amplifier. And, if it's what you're looking for, this compact unit even provides enough power to feed a 4x 12-inch speaker cabinet, while the Spirit Tone Generator tech on board has taken the complexity of a valve-amp, shrunk it down, and shaped a solid stompbox driven by a fully analogue circuit.

Authentic Playability

When it comes to standard amps, everything not only hangs on the sound, but on the playability, and this pedal-sized amp is no different. Both channels come with a Sagging control pot that tweaks both the response intensity as well as the compression amount and break-up, and the sweet detail here, is that the Sagging remains effective at any volume level. A separate footswitch for Solo, FX-loop, Boost, and Channel A/B is also provided, while the built-in IDB (Intelligent Dual Breakpoint) Noise Gate ensures that your tone retains rich musicality without any additional hum and buzz.

Convenient Functionality

Hughes & Kettner have evidently prepped the AmpMan for any possible set-up, so it can be used as a standalone power amplifier, the core of your pedalboard, a full recording rig, or a complete home-rehearsal rig complete with a headphone output, headphone a volume control and an AUX input.