I was interested in the Switchblade about a year or two ago when it first came out, but was sceptical about if it was really a tube amp because I only saw 2 12AX7's in there where as most high gain amps will have 4 or 5. But this week I grabbed one at an amazing price on an impulse and I don't regret it. Nothing Solid State about this thing! H&K is my new best friend, There's nothing but tube tone in there. I upgraded from a Spider Valve and the biggest up from a modeling amp is a true tube amp has amazing articulation of notes, modeling amps tend to mud up with high gain sounds. When you turn up the gain on the lead and ultra channel's you don't get more fizz like you would in a 6505 where more gain just means white noise. the more you up the gain, the more sustain you get, the tone doesn't change at all! Now I gave it 4 stars for quality for 2 reasons, rumor has it the footswitch is crummy, and if you have issues with the amp crapping out by all means try replacing the footswitch before selling the amp. And second, to change tubes there's no backplate to take off, you have to remove the preamp chassis via 4 screws on top of the amp, no biggie, just a hassle. There is no such thing as a bad H&K amp, get this one!

I purchased this amp after hearing how amazing the sound and capability was and was very happy with everything until about two months later in the middle of an important gig, the amp quit working completely and ruined an otherwise great day. It was sent back to the factory and was replaced with a new one that somehow didn't have all the factory presets intact and had to manualy replace them. Needless to say after about 6 months, the same thing happened to the next amp in the middle of a gig. The bummer is that now they are distributed by a different corporation that won't honor the previous company's warranty. Thank goodness the music store I purchased it through refunded my cash and I bought a JSX Peavey combo that has been more than great and dependable for me. So beware of this particular amplifier although it had supreme tone and versatility in my opinion, the unreliability outweighed the great sound.

Seriously, an amazing amp. I've been a Hughes & Kettner guy for years, but wanted to hear this new amp, so a local dealer got one in for me.

15 minutes and I plunked down the cash right there.

All 4 'channels' are great sounding and it took very little tweaking to get great tone. The clean channel with a good chunk of volume but not much gain is sparkly as hell and it sounds killer in a strat in a 2 or 4 position. Pull the volume back and give it gain and it becomes a great guitar volume controlled beast, Cleans up nice when you roll off, dig it for some very clean drive with the volume up!

The crunch and lead channels have the infamous H&K sound as well. There is more than enough gain on this amp for anything you want to get.

The effects are nice too, the chorus and flange will sound great at volume in a band setting.

The ability to store presets in banks of 4 is great. You can scroll up into other banks as well. Very versatile.

The one drawback, as noted, no tuner, but that's ok. I am installing the vol pot chromatic tuner into my volume pot, so the tuner is a moot point.

The amp is heavy and closed back too, so it can be a little woofy, but dial the EQ a bit and it flattens out nice.

The footswitch is built like a tank and has a 25' cord, so it will do well on most stages. It is 7pin MIDI, not 5.

I have been playing for 25 years and this is the best piece of equipment that I own. I don't consider myself a tone perfectionist nor a boutique amp aficionado but simply put--this amp covers the range for me. I love the clean tones and the range of blues crunch to obnoxious distortion. I play Strats with EMG SA PUPs and a Les Paul Standard. I use the combo by itself to practice and as a head with an extension cab for gigs. The only drawback is the parameter control of the modulation effects is limited but adequate. The best feature is the simple to use pedal board.

I've been playing professionally for over 20 years. I've played a number of amps, and this one is simply perfect for me. My band PLays music from the late 70's through today, plus some originals. The first time I plugged it in, I noticed the midi box had a short in it. I e-mailed Hughes and Kettner, and within 20 minutes, I had a response and received a new pedal 2 days later totally free! What Service! I play Carvin guitars, and they sound phenomenal through this amp. The first time I really played with it, I was hooked.We had a recent gig for about 500 or so people, and countless friends came up to say that I'd never sounded better. Easily programmable, fantastic tone, bite, and shimmering cleans with plenty of mustard when you need it. I simply love this amp! Can't say enough.