Opinions about Hughes and Kettner Montana?

[Jerry Finn]

I recently got a Parker Fly Concert. I know it was designed for bronze
strings, but the guitar store set it up with nickel flatwounds, and I
really like the sound, so I left em on. I've been playing it through
my DR, and I really like the tone--it doesn't sound like a piezo, or
an acoustic, with this setup. I play post-modern jazz, i.e world
fusion type stuff, clean, with a lot of reverb--think, Gabor Szabo.

However--I took it in to play it through some acoustic amps, just to
hear how it sounds--and I played it through a Marshall soloist--the
100 watt version, and a Strawberry Blonde. Both amps sounded pretty
good, but the SB sounded more natural and accurate. This experience
made me want to get an acoustic amp, to get the broader, more natural
range of tone than I can get with my DR. The thing is, if I get an
acoustic amp, I would like to be able to use it with my other axe,
which is a PRS modded for Barden 2-tone pickups. I've heard a Mosrite
through an Ultrasound 50d, and as long as the attack was light, it
sounded nice, but if you got carried away, the tweeter broke up pretty
ugly. I don't want that.

I saw some posts here about the Hughes and Kettner Montana, and I
checked out their site, and they have bright and dark inputs on the
amp, which seems to imply that its designed for both piezo and
magnetic pickups. The posts on this amp are pretty old, and I'm
wondering if anybody has any opinions on this amp lately, especially
if they have heard different types of pickups through it.

Sorry for the length of this--I just wanted to answer up front the
kinds of questions that I would have to ask if someone posed this
question to me.

Regards,
Jerry Finn

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."--Walt Disney

[Hojo2x]

Jerry Finn wrote:

>I saw some posts here about the Hughes and Kettner Montana

>they have bright and dark inputs on the

>amp, which seems to imply that its designed for both piezo and>magnetic
pickups.

> I'm>wondering if anybody has any opinions on this amp lately, especially

>if they have heard different types of pickups through it.

Jerry, we don't have a Hughes & Kettner dealer here in the Anchorage area,
where I live, but last fall I stopped by their dealer in Kenai-Soldotna,
Alaska, and played a wide variety of guitars through one of those Montana model
amps.

I was very impressed with it - it was a fairly expensive unit, no question, but
very flexible, very versatile, and sounded great with everything I ran through
it.

I had a Martin D-16GT with a McIntyre pickup in it that I owned at the time
with me, and that was a particularly true-sounding guitar and pickup
combination. The H&K Montana reproduced it very faithfully, but also did well
with a Gibson Les Paul that I took down off the wall and plugged into it. (As
well as a number of other acoustic-electrics and solidbody electrics I tried.)

I don't remember all the amp settings and inputs I monkeyed with while I was
there - it wasn't the only amp I tried out while in the store - but I spent the
bulk of my time with that amp, since it sounded so good.

I think that the Montana might be a very good match for your needs.

Wade Hampton Miller