I just got
a hughes and kettner cream machine and a crunch machine.Both were designed as preamps in the late 80's but also are 1 watt tube amps.They pop up on ebay about every week lately and usually sell for around $150.
The cream machine has more gain then you'll ever need but lacks tone knobs.Just gain and master and no cleans to be had on this one.
The crunch machine is tailored for clean and bluesy crunch and has the three tone knobs and a bright switch.
Both have an attentuator knob on the back to control the tube output level and have several outputs,line and instrument level.If you've heard of the h&k red box with cab simulation for direct recording both these units have this built into them.
I run my cream machine's instrument out into the crunch machine's input so i get to add another tube to my sound along with the 3 tone knobs.I've been playing with them,trying different cabs,swapping tubes etc.and i've gotten some great tones.
I'm into metal myself and with this set-up i'm getting close to that chunky wall of marshall sound.Believe me,1 watt is still too loud for me to crank these up at 3 am but with both attentuator knobs and the master and gain levels set right,i'm getting some great saturation at very low volumes.
I'm still tweaking and trying these out so i'm not sure what all they're capable of just yet.I'm hoping to do some recording with them soon.There are some clips on you tube of just the cream machine you can listen to and reviews on harmony central for both of them.Not a lot of info about these on the net.
A lot of guys here like the vox and the bugera but from the reviews i've read they're not really good for over the top metal tone.I've heard the Orange tiny terror will do metal fine.These h&k units are half rack space and will drive a 4x12 cab no problem.
