Already got mine, it's a surprisingly great sounding practice amp. Cleans are nice, the fully pushed gain is like an old 60's cranked Marshall. Within reason, obviously.
Hey Steven, They sound pretty good don't they. I wish it had built in reverb. If it did, it would be even better. I personally never like the sound of a totally dry amp. It does the pushed gain sound well. It's got a nice natural feeling breakup I think, which a lot of solid state style amps lack.
My thoughts exactly! It sounds great on it's own anyway, and I'd probably gig with it to be honest... but it's also really handy to keep as a backup should your amp ever go down!
Hey! Thanks for the commment, welcome to the channel. They're really cool amps. They would be awesome for small gigs, practise amps or backups for bigger amps. The tones are fantastic, especially from this Vintage one, this is my favourite out of the 3
Can this keep up with a drummer in and emergency situation? looking for a lightwight, small form-factor back up amp. never had a amp fail on stage but want to make sure im prepared if it does. I run a 4x12 @4ohm
I think the Masquerader is growing on me. Am I hearing right that this and the provocateur have a bit of what you could call a “raspy” sound to them? On this guitar it’s a bit more subtle but they have this mid-rangey rasp that I have t heard anywhere else
They're certainly raspy. They have quite a unique sound I think. The Masquerader looks Strat-ish... but it's quick a thick body and the bridge pickup is hotter than a typical single coil. It's more like a hot-Tele in the bridge and a vintage Strat in the neck and middle. But coupled with the rosewood neck it gives the guitar an interesting sound. Strat meets Tele with a bit of anger. The same for the Provocateur. It's Les Paul-ish in it's look, but its more of a slab body like a Tele style and it's got the three brass saddle bridge. It plays like a Les Paul and sounds like a cross between a Tele and a Les Paul Jr! The bridge pickup is the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates which is modelled on the 50s PAF set in Billy Gibbons 59 Les Paul.
@@MilesICBarker Awesome! Do you have the three single coil one too? The grey one is lovely. I have the other Shergold guitar in the grey, the Provocateur
@@LeighFugeGuitar Hi Leigh - yes, the 03. It was a tough call between that and the p90-Hum one, but in the end, you can always add dirt - you can't add clean :)
Hi leigh, have you tried the line output in a sound software and a cab sim? I would like to know if this product can compete with a tech 21 preamp or a blackbird vacuum tube? to record @home
Hey! I haven't tried it yet... but I'm doing a video soon on an IR Loading pedal from Engl and I'm planning to it for that video! So watch this space! It was designed to be used that way which is cool, so it should sound pretty good. I have high hopes!
Great sound, both amp and guitar. I really like your playing in the intro.Thank you! One question. The mini-head seems very similar to my Vox Mini Superbeetle, which also has the adjustable ohm output. I'm thinking I could plug that into the celestion speaker "cab" that comes with the superbeetle. Do you rekon that might work?
Hey Neil, thanks for checking the video out. Yeah it sounds great for such a small thing! Out of the three small heads they did, this was my favourite one. Yeah as long as the ohm range of the amp head and the speaker match you can certainly pair them
Hey man, Welcome to the channel, thanks for the comment. Great question... I mean... in theory, yes. The headphone out has the H&K redbox style speaker sim built in. How it would sound through a PA, I'm not sure. You'd probably need a DI box of some sort. The other option would be to use the Line Out into a cab loader or IR pedal and run that into the PA. I'm doing a demo on an Engl IR pedal soon and I'm gonna use the H&K mini heads for it. I'm also curious because for me, that would be the perfect small direct rigs for gigs where I just need a pedalboard!
@@LeighFugeGuitar nice! exactly what I’m looking for, an affordable “ampless” setup. When I heard it handy Redbox cab-sim built-in I got a little excited LOL... when you plug in headphones, does it cut off the speaker output?
@@jamestsquid Sorry for the slow reply man, didn't get a notification. The awesome thing with the Spirit Nanos is that they don't need a load, so you can literally use it with headphones without connecting a speaker to it in the first place. You could also use it with a cab sim or IR pedal, or plug it straight into your audio interface to record with.
Hey Neil, I recorded the tones for the video with a mic'd up cab. I was using a 1x12 with a Celestion Creamback inside. I don't recall it being overly loud when I recorded this video, but I do remember it was slightly louder than I would usually go. Is your 1x12 4ohm? If you run this amp into an 8 or 16ohm cab, it functions as a 25w (I think that's right...) amp, but when you plug it into 4ohm H&K designed it to double the output headroom to function like a 50w amp or there abouts, so that would give the perception of extra volume because theres more headroom
Hey Miles, I haven't tested it with pedals infront yet, but based on the way the amp feels I imagine it takes them pretty well. I think a Tumnus would work great into this because the clean boost would hit it a little harder.
In the UK it comes with a 240v supply. Most countries will ship it with the local power supply I imagine. Most of Europe runs on 220-240v. It's only really the US where the power is hugely different because they run at 110-120v.
Hey Brian, The Line Out of this uses everything in the amp, so you can run it straight into an IR loader, or directly into your Interface and add ID's in post. The Lineout gives you both the Pre and Power amp sim (The sagging control helps make it feel tube like too). The Headphone output also has the H&K RedBox IR loader built in, so you can hear it with speaker sims via that too. Hope that helps!
I like the spirit of vintage , this little amp delivers some serious tone...but no fx loop? Come on...even toy amps today come with at least some kind of reverb and/or delay.
Hey Mark, Yeah man, I totally agree. It's just a couple of extra jacks and an insert point between the pre and power amps. Not that biggest expense to include for sure. I can, on a clean amp, live without an FX loop but the lack of reverb is the one thing I didn't love about it. It's not a problem if you use reverb pedals, but I do think it's always useful to have built in reverb in an amp. I think if they added reverb and knocked the price up by £10-20 to compensate, people would still be cool with it!
@@LeighFugeGuitar Why can't you route the Line Out signal thru effects and then back into the Aux in jack? I realize it would blend the effected signal with the original, but many effects would be compatible with this and often people send a dry signal to another amp anyway.
Haha you went for it! Amazing. I hope you enjoy it! Yeah, November 11th is the date I heard from H&K but also from the Andertons website: www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/electric-guitar-amps/solid-state-digital-amps/solid-state-digital-heads/hughes-kettner-spirit-of-rock-nano-amp-head So it should be around that date!
@@LeighFugeGuitar Gotta see what it's like. I want something very small to just sit by my chair and mess with on headphones. I tried the Spark but it was a little larger than I wanted so sold it. Nice little amp but over hyped IMHO. This should foot the bill.
I was saying that to my guy at H&K. I love the tone of this amp, it feels good to play, its lightweight, portable and LOUD... but if it had built in reverb it would be perfect!
One of the things the Brit neighbors whose kid a bud of mine...I went to school with used to get on me about was to quit saying "real" and say "realLY".. as in "she's realLY hot" etc...now decades later I see a Brit say something is "real" great, wth...
They're super small. They were designed as mini heads. They are insanely loud considering how small they are. Perfect for gigs where you don't want to carry anything big or just as a small backup head.
Already got mine, it's a surprisingly great sounding practice amp. Cleans are nice, the fully pushed gain is like an old 60's cranked Marshall. Within reason, obviously.
Hey Steven,
They sound pretty good don't they. I wish it had built in reverb. If it did, it would be even better. I personally never like the sound of a totally dry amp.
It does the pushed gain sound well. It's got a nice natural feeling breakup I think, which a lot of solid state style amps lack.
@@LeighFugeGuitar
I'm not a big fan of reverb or delay anyway, but I would add an EQ pedal since it doesn't have a 3 band EQ.
That sounds right up my street and a handy bit of kit in an emergency. Interesting.....
My thoughts exactly! It sounds great on it's own anyway, and I'd probably gig with it to be honest... but it's also really handy to keep as a backup should your amp ever go down!
Great demo. Thanks!
Thanks Matt, glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for checking out the video!
Nice review! Those look cool
Hey!
Thanks for the commment, welcome to the channel.
They're really cool amps. They would be awesome for small gigs, practise amps or backups for bigger amps. The tones are fantastic, especially from this Vintage one, this is my favourite out of the 3
Can this keep up with a drummer in and emergency situation? looking for a lightwight, small form-factor back up amp. never had a amp fail on stage but want to make sure im prepared if it does. I run a 4x12 @4ohm
I think the Masquerader is growing on me. Am I hearing right that this and the provocateur have a bit of what you could call a “raspy” sound to them? On this guitar it’s a bit more subtle but they have this mid-rangey rasp that I have t heard anywhere else
They're certainly raspy. They have quite a unique sound I think.
The Masquerader looks Strat-ish... but it's quick a thick body and the bridge pickup is hotter than a typical single coil. It's more like a hot-Tele in the bridge and a vintage Strat in the neck and middle. But coupled with the rosewood neck it gives the guitar an interesting sound. Strat meets Tele with a bit of anger.
The same for the Provocateur. It's Les Paul-ish in it's look, but its more of a slab body like a Tele style and it's got the three brass saddle bridge. It plays like a Les Paul and sounds like a cross between a Tele and a Les Paul Jr!
The bridge pickup is the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates which is modelled on the 50s PAF set in Billy Gibbons 59 Les Paul.
Hey - that's my guitar! Mine's grey though - love it on middle+ bridge, or middle for cleans. For some reason it sounds especially good in open G...
@@MilesICBarker Awesome! Do you have the three single coil one too? The grey one is lovely. I have the other Shergold guitar in the grey, the Provocateur
@@LeighFugeGuitar Hi Leigh - yes, the 03. It was a tough call between that and the p90-Hum one, but in the end, you can always add dirt - you can't add clean :)
Hi leigh, have you tried the line output in a sound software and a cab sim? I would like to know if this product can compete with a tech 21 preamp or a blackbird vacuum tube? to record @home
Hey!
I haven't tried it yet... but I'm doing a video soon on an IR Loading pedal from Engl and I'm planning to it for that video! So watch this space!
It was designed to be used that way which is cool, so it should sound pretty good. I have high hopes!
Great sound, both amp and guitar. I really like your playing in the intro.Thank you! One question. The mini-head seems very similar to my Vox Mini Superbeetle, which also has the adjustable ohm output. I'm thinking I could plug that into the celestion speaker "cab" that comes with the superbeetle. Do you rekon that might work?
Hey Neil, thanks for checking the video out. Yeah it sounds great for such a small thing! Out of the three small heads they did, this was my favourite one. Yeah as long as the ohm range of the amp head and the speaker match you can certainly pair them
Hey great review! Could the headphone out run in a direct to PA live situation? Ie go ampless.
Hey man,
Welcome to the channel, thanks for the comment.
Great question... I mean... in theory, yes. The headphone out has the H&K redbox style speaker sim built in. How it would sound through a PA, I'm not sure. You'd probably need a DI box of some sort.
The other option would be to use the Line Out into a cab loader or IR pedal and run that into the PA. I'm doing a demo on an Engl IR pedal soon and I'm gonna use the H&K mini heads for it.
I'm also curious because for me, that would be the perfect small direct rigs for gigs where I just need a pedalboard!
@@LeighFugeGuitar nice! exactly what I’m looking for, an affordable “ampless” setup. When I heard it handy Redbox cab-sim built-in I got a little excited LOL... when you plug in headphones, does it cut off the speaker output?
@@jamestsquid Sorry for the slow reply man, didn't get a notification. The awesome thing with the Spirit Nanos is that they don't need a load, so you can literally use it with headphones without connecting a speaker to it in the first place.
You could also use it with a cab sim or IR pedal, or plug it straight into your audio interface to record with.
Are you recording with a mic or direct? If I set my amp on the setting you used for the crunchier tones, my ears would bleed with my 1 x 12"
Hey Neil,
I recorded the tones for the video with a mic'd up cab. I was using a 1x12 with a Celestion Creamback inside. I don't recall it being overly loud when I recorded this video, but I do remember it was slightly louder than I would usually go.
Is your 1x12 4ohm? If you run this amp into an 8 or 16ohm cab, it functions as a 25w (I think that's right...) amp, but when you plug it into 4ohm H&K designed it to double the output headroom to function like a 50w amp or there abouts, so that would give the perception of extra volume because theres more headroom
Really nice tone(yours).
Hey Phil,
Thank you for checking it out and thanks for the kind words. It's a great sounding little amp!
How does it go with pedals in front? esp. rat or Tumnus?
Hey Miles,
I haven't tested it with pedals infront yet, but based on the way the amp feels I imagine it takes them pretty well. I think a Tumnus would work great into this because the clean boost would hit it a little harder.
Power supply included? In my country we use 220v
In the UK it comes with a 240v supply. Most countries will ship it with the local power supply I imagine.
Most of Europe runs on 220-240v. It's only really the US where the power is hugely different because they run at 110-120v.
anyone know if the line out is using the power section (for coloration so I don't need another power amp sim with my IRs)?
Hey Brian,
The Line Out of this uses everything in the amp, so you can run it straight into an IR loader, or directly into your Interface and add ID's in post.
The Lineout gives you both the Pre and Power amp sim (The sagging control helps make it feel tube like too).
The Headphone output also has the H&K RedBox IR loader built in, so you can hear it with speaker sims via that too.
Hope that helps!
@@LeighFugeGuitar definitely helps, TY!
Whats that guitar called again ? You mentioned it too fast :)
Hey!
The guitar is a Shergold Masquerader SM03. They're a UK based company and they make some awesome guitars!
Do you think it would sound good with a tube screamer or other overdrive pedal up front?
Absolutely! They make really great pedal platforms. This head on clean with a drive pedal in front sounds really good.
I like the spirit of vintage , this little amp delivers some serious tone...but no fx loop? Come on...even toy amps today come with at least some kind of reverb and/or delay.
Hey Mark,
Yeah man, I totally agree. It's just a couple of extra jacks and an insert point between the pre and power amps. Not that biggest expense to include for sure.
I can, on a clean amp, live without an FX loop but the lack of reverb is the one thing I didn't love about it. It's not a problem if you use reverb pedals, but I do think it's always useful to have built in reverb in an amp.
I think if they added reverb and knocked the price up by £10-20 to compensate, people would still be cool with it!
@@LeighFugeGuitar Why can't you route the Line Out signal thru effects and then back into the Aux in jack? I realize it would blend the effected signal with the original, but many effects would be compatible with this and often people send a dry signal to another amp anyway.
What did I think of it? I ordered it Leigh. Was it you that said Nov 11th was release? Sweetwater is clueless.
Haha you went for it! Amazing. I hope you enjoy it!
Yeah, November 11th is the date I heard from H&K but also from the Andertons website: www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/electric-guitar-amps/solid-state-digital-amps/solid-state-digital-heads/hughes-kettner-spirit-of-rock-nano-amp-head
So it should be around that date!
@@LeighFugeGuitar Gotta see what it's like. I want something very small to just sit by my chair and mess with on headphones. I tried the Spark but it was a little larger than I wanted so sold it. Nice little amp but over hyped IMHO. This should foot the bill.
@@LeighFugeGuitar I should have mine by Friday. It shipped!
I got mine from Sweetwater on like Nov 3rd
Needs an effects loop or built in delay to be a perfect little amp.
I was saying that to my guy at H&K. I love the tone of this amp, it feels good to play, its lightweight, portable and LOUD... but if it had built in reverb it would be perfect!
@@LeighFugeGuitar which a digital reverb takes next to nothing to add to the circuit board. Even if it had a small knob above to control it.
HOLD IT STILL! ....grief.
I reckon I can move it around a bit more!
@@LeighFugeGuitar Hahah I can understand the excitement... great sounding little amp!
One of the things the Brit neighbors whose kid a bud of mine...I went to school with used to get on me about was to quit saying "real" and say "realLY".. as in "she's realLY hot" etc...now decades later I see a Brit say something is "real" great, wth...
It's the UA-cam generation - my son has a 90% American vocab.....
I don't think it's the UA-cam generation for me. I'm in my 30s, I'm from the time of pre-UA-cam....but I'm Welsh. We speak funny anyway haha
The Welsh alphabet: C L, W, Y
@@stevenpeterson3734 That's not true! We have 29 differnet letters! hahaha www.felinfach.com/blogs/blog/welsh-alphabet-yr-wyddor
Looks very small..
They're super small. They were designed as mini heads. They are insanely loud considering how small they are. Perfect for gigs where you don't want to carry anything big or just as a small backup head.
I think that's what's interesting about it.