When I got my Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 18, I immediately thought to myself, “I need another amp like I need a hole in the freakin’ head.” But in the back of my head, I was thinking this was going to be a good purchase. I was counting on the RedBox DI solving a lot of my recording issues; especially with respect to ambient noise. In my home studio, which is my garage, I share the room with my water heater, and not having much sound padding other than a carpet, my mics pick up a lot of ambient noise. It’s especially challenging to record clean guitar. So I was hoping that the TubeMeister’s DI would solve a major sound problem for me.
Well, it has. The amp is billed as being able to do silent recording, and after playing around with it for the last week, I can confidently say that it lives up to the billing – in a big way.
I came up with a song idea this morning, and after just quickly laying down a rhythm and test solo track, I’m SO loving this amp. Check this out…
The guitar I’m playing is Katie May, my Slash L Guitars custom by Perry Riggs. For the rhythm track, I’m playing in single coil mode in the neck position, and the lead is played in humbucker mode in the bridge position. For the clean, I’m playing with the clean channel with the Master cranked and Gain about 9am so the signal is absolutely clean. For the lead, I’m playing the lead channel, with the Master at 10 am, and the Gain at 3pm.
Kind of weird settings from what I’m normally used to. What I found with this amp is that it breaks up pretty early. It’s not a bad thing, but I’ve had to kind of rethink my amp settings. But in spite of that, once I figured out how to set up the amp, I can’t believe the gorgeous tones it produces. And imagine that these tracks were recorded with the DI!!! OMG! It’s amazing!
Guitar Gear 
Where do you get a amp like this?
All the major online retailers carry it. Here’s the link to Musicians Friend: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/hughes-kettner-tubemeister-tm18h-18w-tube-guitar-amp-head. But you might want to check eBay and CraigsList to see if there are any used ones. I got mine used from a friend (but it was brand new for all intents and purposes because he only gigged with it once, then put it away).
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