Front Panel - Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 18 Manual

To avoid very loud and unwelcome surprises, make
a habit of backing the VOLUME knob of the guitar
connected to the TubeMeister all the way down
before switching on the amp.

1.1 Front Panel

POWER/ON
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
Give the tubes about 30 seconds to warm up; then
you can flip the STANDBY switch to PLAY. The
amp is now ready to operate. When taking a short
break from playing, please use the STANDBY switch
so the tubes remain at operating temperature. This
protects them and ensures they last longer.
INPUT
Connect your guitar to this input using a shielded
cord.
CHANNEL SELECT
This switch activates either the CLEAN or LEAD
channel. Its LED lights up blue when you select the
LEAD channel. Connecting a footswitch disables
the front panel button. You can then switch channels
via footswitch only, and the CHANNEL SELECT
light indicates which channel is active.
CLEAN Channel
The CLEAN channel delivers warm tube tone.
Its dynamic range is considerable, sweeping from
pristine clean to throaty crunch sounds. Remarkably
responsive to the various pickup types, it also reacts
to the slightest nudge of the guitar's volume knob.
GAIN
The GAIN knob determines the CLEAN channel's
input sensitivity. Depending on the output levels of
the pickups in your instrument, the channel will begin
to overdrive somewhere around the 12 o'clock setting.
This knob does not influence the LEAD channel.
MASTER
This knob adjusts the CLEAN channel's volume
without affecting the LEAD channel's volume.
LEAD Channel
The LEAD channel delivers harmonically rich tube
distortion and plenty of gain reserves to go from
edgy overdrive to soaring lead sounds. You can even
clean up its tone by backing off the guitar's volume
knob. This gives you a huge spectrum of sounds
to play with simply by working the pickup selector
switch and adjusting the volume knob.
GAIN
This knob adjusts the amount of tube distortion.
To discover the amazing range of sounds that this
channel puts at your fingertips, we recommend
that you first set the GAIN knob to the 12 o'clock
position, and then experiment with the guitar's
volume knob, pickup selector, and the amp's
BOOST switch.
MASTER
This knob adjusts the LEAD channel's volume.
Again, first set GAIN to the 12 o'clock position
and experiment. If you wish to conjure creamy
lead tones, turn the knob well up to dial in smooth
power amp saturation. If you're aiming for an
edgier metal sound, say for heavy riffs, try backing
off the MASTER knob and turning up the GAIN
knob. Usually smooth power amp saturation is less
desirable for this type of metal tone.
NOTE: Be advised that you cannot mute the
TubeMeister 18 by turning the LEAD MASTER knob
all the way down (to the far left position). If you wish
to play at very soft levels, we recommend that you
attenuate the amp's overall output by selecting either
the five- or one-watt mode (see POWER SOAK)
rather than backing the MASTER volume way down.
LEAD BOOST
This switch re-voices the LEAD channel to summon
modern high-gain sound that pairs plenty of punch
with endless sustain. Its LED lights up red when
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