Hughes & Kettner have developed a great reputation for their amps, heads and amp simulation devices, but up until today all their products were a little too big to be called “stompboxes.” As the name suggests, the Hughes & Kettner Stompman addresses that issue.
This is an analog, full-fledged 50 watts amp in a pedal format powered by the company’s proprietary Spirit Tone Generator technology, which – according to the company – combines the best of all approaches to guitar amplification: the tube’s warm tone, the reliability and lightness of the transistor, and the near-infinite sound-sculpting potential of modeling.
Your usual Volume, Gain, Tone and Presence knobs are integrated by two rather unexpected controls for Resonance and Sagging. The latter adjusts the power amp’s compression at any volume, the former, we assume, affects the crucial mid frequencies.
As you can see from the image above, the pedal features a very useful FX loop, which can be bypassed through the right footswitch, and a small volume knob on the back panel that sets the amount of dBs pushed by the Solo footswitch (up to 6dBs).
The power amp has actually a variable output and will push 50 watts into a 4 ohms speaker, 25 watts into 8 ohms, and 12.5 watts into 16 ohms.
Check out the videos of this true amp in a box!
Hughes & Kettner Stompman, Builder’s Notes
The Hughes & Kettner StompMan is a full-fledged premium guitar amp in stompbox format. Able to deliver remarkable sound pressure levels, it serves up professional tone powered by Hughes & Kettner’s Spirit Tone Generator technology.
The StompMan was engineered to bring out the best in effects plugged into its input and FX loop. With this pedal-friendly design and a host of connection options, the StompMan is the perfect hub for every pedalboard and an ingenious go-to/ always-on amp for every occasion.
All you need to know about your Spirit StompMan amp at a glance
• Compact, single-channel guitar amp in stompbox format
• Fully analog, zero-latency Spirit Tone Generator technology
• Tone, Resonance, Presence and Sagging controls
• Sagging knob to adjust power amp compression at any volume
• Adjustable, footswitchable Serial FX Loop
• Power amp with 50 watts into 4 ohms, 25 watts into 8 ohms, 12.5 watts into 16 ohms
• Adjustable, footswitchable Solo function (0 to +6 dB)
• 50 watts power output
