RatingsPros:Great sounds across all channels. Flexible programmability. Cons: Optional footswitch is expensive, but critical for best functionality. Street: $879 Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 hughes-and-kettner.com
| Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design: Value: |
Hughes & Kettner is a reliably forward-thinking amp company. With their blue-lit fascia, multi-knobbed control panels, and high-gain tendencies, they’re about as far as you can get from retro-obsessed. And the new Black Spirit 200 couldn’t be more emblematic of these modern-amp-design leanings.
The programmable, 4-channel, solid-state amp features a host of built-in effects, can handle about a zillion presets, and includes the company’s Red Box AE+ DI/speaker simulator. But the most newsworthy deviation from tradition here might be the Black Spirit’s total abandonment of tubes—enabling 200W of power in a compact head that weighs less than eight pounds and can also be set to operate at 2W or 20W output power.
Complex Yet Simple
The Black Spirit’s front panel appears busy (little surprise, given its many capabilities), but it’s more intuitive than it looks. Push buttons enable several functions, including turning on the power, storing presets, and accessing effects. The three leftmost knobs are dedicated to master volume, presence, and resonance. The next seven knobs, however, serve dual functions. In default position, they control sagging, noise gate, treble, mid, bass, volume, and gain. When the “FX access” button is pushed, the functions switch to a cab-type selector (with eight selectable knob locations), reverb, delay level, feedback, delay time, modulation type (you can choose chorus, flanger, phaser, or tremolo), and modulation intensity. A final knob enables you to choose from four channels—clean, crunch, lead, and ultra.
Preset options abound on the Black Spirit, which makes 128 programmable locations available as 32 banks of four presets—and is, well, probably more than you’ll ever need. As with many amps and pedals that have preset options, amp knob positions stop correlating with what you hear as you switch between presets. But there’s an iOS app that lets you visualize and remotely interact with all the parameters in real time (an Android version is in the works).
If you really want to maximize the Black Spirit’s potential, getting the optional FSM-432 MK III MIDI board is key. It’s a little pricey, at $219, but if you play live and change sounds in real time, it’s arguably essential. This seven-button footswitch lets you directly recall presets, use virtual effects in stompbox mode, or tap delay tempos. It’s very well made, and switching between presets is seamless, without any popping or noise.
Saving presets is easy on the Black Spirit. You press the store button for two seconds and it overwrites the current preset. If you want to save the preset to a different location, you push the store button quickly and use the footswitch to assign the location where you want to store the sound.
Hughes & Kettner exhibited restraint with the effects selection. Rather than throw every effect under the sun into the unit, they’ve included staple effects that cover the needs of most guitar players. There are limits beyond just the effects count. You can only use one modulation effect at a time, for example. But if you depend on more esoteric effects, you’re not out of luck: You can simply patch external effects in via the effects loop.
Generating Splendid Spirits
I tested the Black Spirit with a Celestion-equipped 1x12 cabinet using an Ernie Ball/Music Man Axis Sport. I started with the clean channel set with presence around 9 o’clock, resonance around 1 o’clock, gain around 7 o’clock, and sagging, noise gate, and all EQ controls at noon. I also applied a little slapback echo and reverb. The sound was clear, with a slight put perceptible compression— perfect for muted, single-note, pop-funk rhythm figures. Adding chorus gave the same settings a dreamy, atmospheric texture perfect for lush, complex chords. Using the crunch channel with presence at around 1 o’clock, resonance around 1 o’clock, gain at 10 o’clock, and sagging, noise gate, and all EQ controls at noon (plus a touch of flanger), I generated rhythm sounds with an aggressive bite.
The lead and ultra channels are excellent for heavy styles, and can cover the gamut from thrash to modern, detuned metal. I got great results with the ultra channel’s presence around 1 o’clock, gain at maximum, the noise gate around 1 o’clock, and sagging and all EQ controls at noon. Having a built-in noise gate helps make these over-the-top sounds useable, though at these gain levels, fast 6th-string chugging felt a bit muddy. I was able to solve that problem by reducing the resonance, which meant output with less body but a lot more clarity. The sagging control is useful for these kinds of dynamic adjustments, too. More aggressive sagging settings gave the amp a more liquid feel, making quick, upper-register playing much easier.
The Verdict
At $879, the Black Spirit is not cheap for a solid-state amp. Interestingly, the Black Spirit’s tube-equipped siblings, like the GrandMeister Deluxe 40, are only a couple of hundred bucks more. But given its deep clean-to-high-gain tone-shaping capabilities, this amp will be worth the money to many players—particularly on the shred end of the spectrum and those into the notion of a compact, self-contained amp/effects setup that can fit in an airplane overhead and handle an arena-sized gig. Factor in the Black Spirit’s Red Box direct-out capability and you’ve got a very enticing and utilitarian package for the price.
Effects Bakery MECHA-PAN BAKERY Series MECHA-BAGEL OVERDRIVE
Konnichiwa, guitar lovers! 🎸✨
Are you ready to add some sweetness to your pedalboard? Let’s dive into the adorable world of the Effects Bakery Mecha-Pan Overdrive, part of the super kawaii Mecha-Pan Bakery Series!
🍩 Sweet Treats for Your Ears! 🍩
The Mecha-Pan Overdrive is like a delicious bagel for your guitar tone, but it’s been upgraded to a new level of cuteness and functionality!
Effects Bakery has taken their popular Bagel OverDrive and given it a magical makeover. Imagine your favorite overdrive sound but with more elegance and warmth – it’s like hugging a fluffy cat while playing your guitar!
Resistance to digital amps might just be futile at this point. Many tunes you hear—and an increasing number of live gigs—feature a bit of faux-tube tone somewhere in the mix. But while the sound of pro-level modelers can be nearly indistinguishable from their analog counterparts in a mix, the feel and simplicity of a real amplifiers remain appealing and even indispensable to many players. That said, modelers that make usability, convenience, and price priorities can convince even die-hard tube users to see what’s on the other side of the fence. IK Multimedia’s TONEX ONE is one modeling device that might make the cut. It’s likely the smallest, most portable modeler out there. And at $179, it’s easily the most affordable.
Big Tones, Tiny Controls
The TONEX ONE isn’t designed to put a million different options at your feet, and that economy may be the unit’s strongest feature. It features several different modes, but the primary operating mode allows you to either switch between two different models, or simply use the unit as a stompbox. Each model can be an amp, an amp and cab, a pedal, or a pedal driving an amp and cab. Judging by how deep the online repository tone.net is for user-created presets, the options are nearly endless, which speaks to the already sizable user base. It’s a little strange to consider a modeler in a package this small with so few controls. There’s a large main knob that controls volume and gain (when you’re in ALT mode), and above that are three illuminated mini knobs that control the 3-band EQ, gate, compression, and reverb. You can also plug your headphones directly into the pedal, which makes it a dynamite silent practice amp.
My experience with modelers is that high-gain tones and clean tones are relatively easy to achieve and typically very good. After unboxing the TONEX ONE, I loaded up a slightly dirty Vox-style amp to evaluate the edge-of-breakup tones. I paired the pedal with humbuckers (with a coil split option), Stratocaster single coils, and P-90s in a T-style solidbody. With each one, the Vox-style amp was punchy and clear but could also range to very nice higher-gain sounds. Naturally, each version of a modeled amp offers different gain structures, so it pays to experiment. Combining the humbuckers in a PRS SE DGT with a few hot-rodded Marshall emulations and the growl offered tones nearly as good as those from much more expensive modelers. In a blind test, I’m not sure I could hear—or feel—much of a difference. As I explored further and fine-tuned things a bit more, the ToneX One felt more alive in my hand,s and sounded much less shrill in the top end than other digital solutions I’ve encountered.
One of the most obvious tone fixers in a modeler—and maybe one of the most underutilized—is the EQ section, and kudos are due to IK for placing those controls at the fore. Being able to adjust the most immediate tone-shaping options without having to dig through menus or touchscreens is a pleasure.
There are many possible uses for the TONEX ONE. It can serve as a high-quality direct solution on your pedalboard, a portable recording interface, and a plug-and-play practice solution when high volume is a no-go. One handy setup I tried was disabling the cabinet emulation in the pedal and then plugging into the effects return of a combo amp, in this case, a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I immediately imagined many backline amp headaches being a thing of the past. You can always plug directly into a flat-response cabinet or PA system too.
Because it has such a small footprint and streamlined controls, harnessing the unit’s full potential, and accessing all the different modes, takes a bit of effort. You can store 20 different presets within the pedal and assign them to any of the three active slots (two for dual mode and one for stomp mode). And although doing this on the fly is handy, I found it much easier to program the presets via the easy-to-use desktop editor.
The Verdict
TONEX ONE benefits from a rather singular focus and its biggest advantage is that it’s not shrouded in unnecessary layers of tweakable options. You can simply load up a base sound or two, drop it at the end of your pedalboard, and go.The included software allows you create your own models and makes swapping presets easy. I did find the multitude of modes, and their color-coded indicators, a bit confusing at times, but IK’s documentation was very clear and got me through any trouble spots. The TONEX ONE would serve well to those who want to explore digital modeling but still hold on to their analog pedalboards, and at $179 it’s a steal.
For over five decades, audiences worldwide have marveled at Baxter’s inimitable and instantly recognizable guitar playing and generational songcraft. His output spans classic records as a founding member of Steely Dan and member of the Doobie Brothers in addition to hundreds of recordings with the likes of Donna Summer, Cher, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton, and many more. During 2022, he initially unveiled Speed of Heat, showcasing yet another side of his creative identity and introducing himself as a solo artist.
On the Storytellers Edition, his fascinating commentary pulls the curtain back on both the process and the message of the music. This version traces the journey to Speed of Heat and its core inspirations as shared directly by Baxter in the form of detailed anecdotes, candid stories, and insightful commentary on every track.
The 12-songalbum, co-produced by Baxter and CJ Vanston, is a riveting and rewarding musical experience that features a host of brilliantly crafted originals co-written by the guitarist and Vanston, as well as inspired versions of some of the great classics. Along the way, Baxter is joined by guest vocalists and songwriters Michael McDonald, Clint Black, Jonny Lang and Rick Livingstone. Baxter notably handled lead vocals on his rendition of Steely Dan’s “My Old School.” Other standouts include "Bad Move" co-written by Baxter, Clint Black, and CJ Vanston, and “My Place In The Sun”, sung by Michael McDonald and co-authored by McDonald, Baxter and Vanston.
As one of the most recorded guitarists of his generation, Baxter’s creative and versatile playing has been heard on some of the most iconic songs in music history, including “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton and “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer.
The stunningly diverse collection of material on Speed of Heat presents a 360-degree view of the uniquely gifted musician.
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