Hughes & Kettner MKII vs MKIII?

A

Agufish

New member
Hi Rig Talk!

The title pretty much says it all. I've always wanted an H&K TriAmp and since they've just released the MKIII for $3999, you can get a used MKII for about $1500. Now I know that they've added more power tube sockets for EL34s and 6L6s to be used in tandem, and each channel now has its own gain stages/EQ, but is the MKIII really twice the amp as an MKII?

I play rock and metal mostly, but sometimes I like my amp to clean up nicely. The question is should I get an MKII or hold out for a good deal on an MKIII?
 
Well what type of a tone are you going for...I had a MKII which was an interesting amp, I ended up running 6L6s in it. With 6L6s on the American high gain channel (channel 4 ?) It sounded like one of the best recto type of tones I've had.....In the end the amp had more of a poweramp type of driven distortion than I like ..

There amps don't keep there value so I wouldn't recommend the new version unless you get a sick deal
 
the4thlast1":2avqtk10 said:
Well what type of a tone are you going for...I had a MKII which was an interesting amp, I ended up running 6L6s in it. With 6L6s on the American high gain channel (channel 4 ?) It sounded like one of the best recto type of tones I've had.....In the end the amp had more of a poweramp type of driven distortion than I like ..

There amps don't keep there value so I wouldn't recommend the new version unless you get a sick deal
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Right now I've got a Bugera 6262 and a Mesa Dual Rec, and while I like the tones I can get from both of them for high-gain metal stuff (the Mesa more so), I'd like an amp that can do that plus get Marshall-y Plexi tones.

I thought about your value point, too. That's a big reason why I'm thinking of getting an MKII. They aren't any worse amps than they were a year ago and its not like I'm going to use all those extra features on the MKIII. Do you have any experience with the Grandmeister 36?
 
Agufish":2jki0gn2 said:
Sounds good to me haha! But how much more brutal is it than the MKII that's what I want to know.
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Depending on how you like to do math, it could be 1/3 more brutal or 3 times more brutal.
 
Just an FYI regarding buying a used H+K. About a year ago I bought a almost new Coreblade off of Ebay. Worked great and sounded great for about a month and a half and then out of the blue it would not save any presets whatsoever. I've sent a minimum of a dozen messages to H+K via their website and have never ever received a response. Sure, it may have been a used amp, but they didn't even ask, they didn't even respond. That said, I owned several H+K amps in the past and didn't have any problems. But this one sealed the deal for the future for me.
 
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