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The Hughes & Kettner User Forum

The Unofficial guitar amp and cabinets forum for users of Hughes and Kettner products. We are not affiliated with Hughes and Kettner!!


3 posters

    New TM36 owner..

    jackstrat357
    jackstrat357


    Posts : 1
    Join date : 2015-05-07
    Location : USA

    New TM36 owner.. Empty New TM36 owner..

    Post by jackstrat357 Thu May 07, 2015 3:01 pm

    Got my new TM36, and a pair of 1x12s.  Love'in the features on this amp. The sound - still working on that; not ready to judge yet.

    The setup: Les Paul Standard, Fender 57 Reissue with a Hot Rail in the tail. And POD HD500X for effects only and channel switching, 4CM.

    I have the TM36 sitting next to a Blackstar 60w Soloist so I can make really good comparisons of the two. Here are my initial thoughts on sound while excluding the HD500X from the chain - need to keep experimenting...

    Cleans: First thoughts are the Blackstar's cleans are a bit creamier than the ice-clear TM36. Too cold maybe. I think the Blackstar is more to my taste - but also love the fact that I can dial in some gain on the TM's clean and get a really subtle breakup while still being in the clean category. Someone at HK should get a cash bonus and a promotion for adding that feature.

    Crunch: The Blackstar is just OK. I noticed I have LOTs more control of the break-up on the TM. I can swing into the clean territory by just laying back my picking/strumming, while the Blackstar is pretty uncontrollable unless you pull back the volume on the guitar. I can dial in some nice crunch on the TM with a lot a variety and a lot of control.

    Lead: The Blackstar is only two channels but has a pretty nice high gain sound. But like with the Crunch, the Blackstar high gain is pretty one dimensional. The TM has more personality, but with certain EQ settings I now found the fuzzz I've heard about. It can get more fuzzy than a smooth mechanical grind. You can dial the EQ and remove the fuzz. I found keeping the gain down a bit and rolling in a TS9 does wonders. The TS9 works really well with the crunch channel too. Real high gain on the TM is good stuff - a toss up with the Blackstar.

    MIDI: With the Blackstar I had to jump through hoops to figure it out and finally made a custom cable for the Voodoo Labs Control Switcher so I could midi control the Blackstar- a giant pain in the arse. And yet another box to power and deal with. But I did get it working. The TM was too easy - it just works. plug in cable, learn button, press a pedal - done. After the Blackstar midi mess, that scored a lot of points for the TM.

    And the TM has the power soak. and switchable effects loop. You can't argue with that. The digital verb is fine not great, but I'll likely use the HD500X for that.

    Now back to it for more experiments.

    More playing, integrate the HD500X and we'll see. This could be the one....
    bordonbert
    bordonbert


    Posts : 1772
    Join date : 2015-01-28
    Age : 72
    Location : Southern England

    New TM36 owner.. Empty Re: New TM36 owner..

    Post by bordonbert Fri May 08, 2015 7:46 pm

    My experience was that the TM36 is a little cold and crisp to start with.  I think the amp really mellows after a playing in period.  Mine smoothed out really suddenly and came to life after about two months of steady use.  Mind you, I have no way of knowing how much is the amp and how much the speakers loosening up too as they were brand new Celestion Vintage 30s.  And for what it's worth I haven't bothered to change out the valves yet as I had planned to.  They sound pretty good as stock once they were played in.  I would prefer to have a more sharp sound available as long as I can dial it down as I want, rather than remove it completely and have to do without it altogether.

    Until then I had worried about a lack of bottom end and with the bass control having a very limited effect.  The bass control now has a steady effect across its whole travel.  It's not giving a really deep bass content but it is very nicely balanced, and whether the depth is on tap could be down to the speakers a lot.  I find that, as a block, the three tone controls have a slightly peculiar action.  They have more of a cut/boost feel to them than a plain tone stack type just cut.  Bringing the middle back to 12:00 from higher does a little more than lowering the middle level, it seems to reduce a liveliness or peakiness in the response and I find the adjustment below 12:00 to be of a different character to that above.  It's not a problem in any way, it just has a slightly different more subtle effect than I'm used to.

    One oddity I have found since the improvement is that the amp is so controlled and has almost a kind of transparency that the guitar tone controls work much more effectively than with any other amp I have used.  I just learned to dial down the tone on my LP Trad to go from sharp crystal tones to more honky then creamier ones.

    I have found I now use my own home grown overdrive pedal, (JFET SRPP type), a lot less.  I tend to fall back more on just my home grown boost pedal, (JFET SRPP type again), and can use the crunch/lead gain controls to set what I need.  I also set up a simple EQ pedal in the effects loop.  This is great for providing a bit more character to the sound and if needed, a little boost direct to the power amp stage without giving more gain at the front end.

    Give it time and play and play the damned thing to death!  I'm sure you will find it matures quickly into an impressive piece of kit which you really won't want to part with. You'll find there are some really interesting possibilities on tap and all you need to do is to find the best way to get to the really great sounds which are definitely in it.
    namklak
    namklak


    Posts : 187
    Join date : 2015-01-30
    Location : Denver, CO

    New TM36 owner.. Empty Re: New TM36 owner..

    Post by namklak Mon May 11, 2015 11:10 am

    I used the TM36 for a couple of weeks and one gig, and loved it soooo much changed to the GM36.  With the GM, I don't need 4CM.  But...
    I use the HD500X, and with the TM I used 4CM, worked GREAT.  I used the HD only for effects and MIDI switching (which works with even more flexibility on the GM).  The TM (and GM) work great with just a little solid state boost or very mild distortion.  I also tried an old TS-808 for fun - again, with just a little solid state boost or just a little distortion, they sound great.
    With the HD, I use either Tube Boost or Tube Screamer (with TS, gain less than 20, sometimes only 1).  I found I can get cool stuff with the HD mid-focus EQ.  I'm sure you've been to "meambobbo"'s page - a must for the HD500X.  I'm shooting for buttery Soldano or the old Plexi Super Bass tones, so I put the low pass freq at 30-35% and the LP Q at 60% for a little mid-boost to cut thru the band.  Dump the highs on the TM.  I also use the HD volume and wah pedal.
    I did switch to JJ valves, because it does make it less crisp, which is what I needed for my current Allman Bros tribute band.

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