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Photos too small? Click on photos, screenshots and diagrams in articles to open a Larger View gallery. January 2010
Other recent issues: | Hughes & Kettner Statesman Dual 6L6Guitar combo ampPublished in PM March 2009  Printer-friendly versionReviews : Guitar: Amplification A recent addition to the extensive and innovative valve amp line-up from Hughes & Kettner is the Statesman range, whose marketing proclaims them to be “today’s most advanced classic valve amplifiers.” We put a Dual 6L6 model to the test.  The Statesman Dual 6L6 2 x 12 combo guitar amplifier, like all its siblings, does wear the genetic heritage of its inspiration somewhat on its sleeve, as that particular valve/speaker combination is one of the hallmarks of our friends from Fullerton. Couple that with a retro-chic aesthetic that strangely reminds me of those massive classic Russian radios of the 1960s and you’ve probably got an idea of where the Statesman Dual 6L6 combo is coming from. However, this is the noughties and the amplifier is built by Hughes & Kettner, so we’re not talking about a clone here; we’re talking about a very different beast entirely. Hughes & Kettner have designed the Statesman Dual 6L6 to produce, from the one amplifier, the signature tones of airy American clean and fat and focused, rough-and-ready British rock. From a player’s perspective, this is a great idea, but, as you’ve probably noticed over the last few months, they’re not the only ones who are heading down this particular pathway. But they are the first that I’ve come across with a pair of 6L6s providing the power. Construction and control  Contrasting pointer knobs on a black panel make it very easy to see the position of all controls under any stage lighting conditions. The Statesman Dual 6L6’s cabinet certainly looks the part with its luxuriously comfortable leather handle, red-brown Tolex covering and blonde, tweedy grille cloth surmounted by the black control panel with its creamy-white, super-sized radio knobs. When you go round the back, things get very unusual indeed. Most of the back space is taken up by the amplifier’s massive, black-painted chassis, with only a slim slot left above a relatively narrow bottom filler panel through which you can just about glimpse the twin Eminence Rockdriver Cream 12-inch speakers, which have been custom-designed for the Dual 6L6. As the Dual 6L6 follows the common current paradigm of two individual preamp channels feeding a common power amplifier, the control layout is generally much as you’d expect. However, this being Hughes & Kettner there are a few extra switches dotted around, and unlike its Californian forebear, the input is on the right, with the controls running in reverse of the usual order. On the extreme right you’ll find the solitary input jack sitting next to the Clean Channel. As per normal topology, you’ve got Volume, followed by the reciprocally interactive Treble, Mid and Bass. Sitting in the gap between jack and Volume is the illuminated Twang button, which adds a preset level of high-mid boost to your sound. To my ears, unless the Treble knob is sitting in the region of three o’clock on the dial, the Twang control doesn’t actually do a lot, but does add a certain something when you’ve got your treble boosted, at which point the mids are being cut in reciprocation. After Clean Channel comes the Drive Channel, selected either by depressing the appropriate one of the two illuminated switches that sit between them or via the included FS-3N footswitch. Still going from right to left, the first drive control is Gain, which can be further boosted by the illuminated Boost switch or via the footswitch. Next up is the Master volume control, closely followed by the same interactive tone control setup as on the Clean Channel. The last two front panel control knobs are common to both channels and control the overall presence and reverb levels. Finally, the Standby and Power switches complete the line-up. Rear features  Unlike many combos, the Dual 6L6 gives you plenty of flexibility for combining the internal speakers with an additional cabinet. Round the back, the size of the rear expanse of chassis is mostly due to the unusual way in which the preamp and output valves are mounted. Usually, these hang down, but in the Dual 6L6 they sit upright behind the bars of a coverplate, protected from the rigours of the road. Also lurking underneath this plate are the test points and trimmers for balancing out the hum and setting the bias current of the output valves, which will be a real boon when you get round to swapping out valves in the future. In addition to the valves’ secure home from home, the back panel reinforces the innovative streak in Hughes & Kettner’s philosophy. First on the left you’ll find a Reverb Balance rotary preset that controls the relative levels of the Accutronics spring reverb for the clean and drive channels, allowing you to set, for example, a wet clean and a dry drive and anything in between. It’s a really neat touch that I haven’t come across before. Next to this sit the Smartloop FX Loop Send and Return sockets, which can be switched to be series or parallel. Unusually, but very welcome, the output of the effects send can be dropped by 10dB to suit non-line-level effects, simultaneously boosting the gain on the return by +10dB to compensate. The FX loop and the reverb can also be switched in or out if you add an additional FS-2 footswitch. Next along sits the 2nd Volume Drive Channel preset. This sets up a second master volume level that overrides the setting of the front panel Master and is switched in via the FS-3N. Its range runs from 50 percent to 150 percent of the front panel level, so you just have to decide whether you’re using this feature to reduce volume for backup or to increase volume for soloing. The last features on the back panel are the speaker output jacks for 1 x 16Ω, 2 x 8Ω or 1 x 4Ω cabinet operation, plus the IEC mains socket. Amp in use  Effects loop level optimisation and the ability to assign the reverb between both channels in any proportion are not things you’ll find on every amp. As soon as you start playing around with the Statesman Dual 6L6, it becomes very clear that it is best suited to live stage use, rather than to bedroom heroics. It’s not that it sounds bad at low volumes; it’s just that, like others from its gene pool, the 6L6 really comes alive once the wick is turned up and the output valves are beginning to break into a sweat. The clean channel in particular seems to like volume, crunching up and saturating as channel and amp are driven harder. Humbuckers worked well here for me at higher stage levels and, not to be outdone, a Strat with Twang engaged really popped out its notes on country-style chicken picking. Rolling back the guitar volume cleans the sound up as you’d expect, and playing on this channel was a real pleasure. The Dual 6L6 maybe doesn’t have the most biting clean sound that I’ve ever come across, but it articulates the notes beautifully without slicing the top of your head off and has plenty of dynamic headroom to spare if you are wanting to keep it clean. I suspect that the ‘almost closed-back’ construction has something to do with this, as the clean sounds seemed a little more controlled and dark than you’d expect to get from a traditional open-backed amplifier. The drive channel certainly lived up to its British billing, with the Gain control delivering everything from a light bark to a full-throated roar. The cabinet construction certainly was helping here, as driven sounds remained tight and focused across the frequency spectrum. I liked what this channel gave me, and humbucker and single coil alike produced some great distortion sounds with solid tonality coupled with a real sensitivity to picking dynamics. Bringing in the frequency-flavoured boost thickened the sound up in a most attractive way and I ended up leaving it in for most of the time, as I liked it so much. Everything else worked as you’d expect and want it to. The Reverb Balance was an interesting addition to the control count and proved really useful. The tone stack did what it was supposed to do and had more than enough range to do its job. The 2nd Volume Drive Channel is another interesting twist, albeit unreachable if you don’t have the footswitch. Which brings me to the only beef I have with the Statesman Dual 6L6: the footswitch setup. This isn’t a cheap combo amplifier, so why should you have to buy a second footswitch if you want to switch your FX loop or reverb in or out? Since the Dual 6L6’s footswitches are simple bits of bent sheet metal with some switches and LEDs stuck in, surely Hughes & Kettner’s designers could knock up a five-way one specifically for this combo? Conclusion The Statesman Dual 6L6 combo is a very fine guitar amplifier indeed. It looks good, sounds good, is beautifully built, exudes quality, has innovative touches and only weighs in at 27kg (59.4lbs), so carrying it up a couple of flights of stairs isn’t too painful. The Dual 6L6 finds itself in one of the more competitive areas of the amp market, and nowadays, with the credit crunch inevitably meaning that buyers tend towards brands with the highest resale values (just in case), it may find itself at a disadvantage. This would be a real shame, as it deserves much more than that, despite my moan about the footswitch situation. If you’re looking for a versatile, seriously good amplifier, especially one with a unique character and that ‘certain something’ that sets it apart from the crowd, then the Hughes & Kettner Statesman Dual 6L6 could well be the answer to your prayers. 0  Published in PM March 2009  | Hughes & Kettner Statesman Dual 6L6 £1099 Marrying innovation to a classic valve amplifier approach, Hughes & Kettner designers and engineers have created in the Statesman Dual 6L6 a good-looking, versatile, great-sounding guitar amplifier that offers musicians a real alternative in today’s marketplace. The Dual 6L6 is one of those amplifiers that should be auditioned by anyone looking to buy a stage amplifier at its price point, as I can’t think of any other that offers the same practical innovations coupled with familiarity of operation and tone.
Tech Spec Statesman Dual 6L6 Clean and Twang, Overdrive and Boost channels. 60W power. Two 6L6 power amp valves. Two 12AX7 preamp valves. Accutronics spring reverb. Serial/parallel selectable FX loop. FS-3N footswitch included, second FS-2 as an option. Channels, boost and second master switching functions; reverb and FX loop with second FS-2. 2nd Volume Drive Channel. Twang and Boost mode. Adjustable Reverb Balance. Three-band EQ per channel. Speaker outputs: 1 x 4Ω, 1 x 8Ω / 2 x 16Ω, 1 x 16Ω. Twin 12-inch Eminence Rockdriver Cream speakers. Suggested speaker cabinet: STM 212. Protective cover included. Dimensions (WDH): 685 x 266 x 559mm. Weight: 27kg. |
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