How The Knobs Work - Hughes & Kettner Grand Meister 36 Manual

1 Quick Start ................................................................................... 3
2 The fundamentals of handling GrandMeister 36 ........................... 3
3 The channel section ..................................................................... 5
4 The effects section ....................................................................... 5
5 The Master Section ...................................................................... 6
6 Rear panel .................................................................................... 6
7 Tube Safety Control (TSC™) ......................................................... 8
8 MIDI ............................................................................................ 9
9 Technical Data ........................................................................... 10
1 Quick Start
Red Box
DI Out Send
Tuner
Line Out
Mains In: Connect the factory-included power cord (Mains Lead) to this
socket.
MIDI In: Connect the MIDI Out of your favourite MIDI controller to the
MIDI In. Though this is a 7-pin interface, you can connect a standard 5-pin
MIDI cable and use any standard MIDI controller. The two additional
terminals (1 and 7) serve to supply phantom power to the Hughes &
Kettner FSM-432 MIDI board.
The MIDI In is as important as the Input for your guitar! Only via MIDI you
will have access to all 128 presets of the GrandMeister 36.
Input: Connect your guitar to this input using a shielded cord equipped
with 6.3 mm (1/4") jack plugs.
Undigital. Total recall.
FX-Unit
Return
MIDI Out/Thru
MIDI In
FSM-432
Speaker: Connect a speaker cabinet designed for guitar amps to this jack.
Using a single speaker cord, you can connect any cab with an impedance
of 8 Ω to 16 Ω. We recommend the matching cabs Hughes & Kettner
TM 112 or TM 212.
Power/On Switch: Set this switch to On to get the mains power flowing.
The amp lights up, and the tubes will begin to heat up.
Play/Standby Switch: Give the tubes about 30 seconds to get toasty;
then you can flip the "Standby" switch to "Play". The amp is now ready to
operate. When taking a longer break from playing, please use the "Standby"
switch so the tubes remain at operating temperature. This protects them
and ensures they last longer.
2 The fundamentals of handling
GrandMeister 36
GrandMeister 36 is a tube amp, and it works much like other tube amps.
But its handling concept is more advanced, so time spent getting to know
how it operates is time well spent. The following basic facts will help you
under stand the amp's operating concept:
• Although GrandMeister 36 is an analog tube amplifier, all its switching
and controlling functions (except the Master knob) are programmable.
• Depending on the amp's operation mode, some knobs and switches
have different functions.
• All settings can be saved and recalled via MIDI. For this purpose, you can
store your sound settings into 128 memory slots, the so-called presets.

2.1 How the knobs work

GrandMeister 36 is a four-channel tube amp. All four channels are
controlled by the same set of knobs. Your choice of channel determines
the knob's assignment. For example, when you have chosen the Clean
channel via the chicken-head selector switch (see chapter 3), the Gain
knob will determine the Clean channel's amount of gain. If you switch
to the Lead channel, you can use the Gain knob to control the Lead
channel's gain amount. The great advantage of this design is that the
channels are truly independent and do not share Gain, Volume, or tone
controls. You can even adjust Presence, Resonance and Reverb settings
separately for every channel if you like!
Note: The knobs look and feel like standard-issue pots with a 300-degree
control range and left and right stops. But there's a difference that may
take some time getting used to: The knob setting programmed in a preset
is independent of the knob's physical position. In other words, when
3