What about online reviews? Companies pay the reviewers to review their product – an absolute conflict of interest. You won’t read anything other than glowing comments. Oh, they’ll throw in a, “… I would have liked to have seen them add such and such, but overall, I was very impressed”, to make it appear that they are being objective, but they rarely are. Reviewers want to make sure that they are asked to review any / all products produced by that company in the future, right?
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Review: Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 36
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(I own the FSM-432 mkIII, but it's not shown in the picture)
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I bought this amp almost 5 years ago after studying numerous amps over the course of about two months, and I learned a big lesson. You need to PLAY the amp you are going to buy before you buy it!
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“Ok Captain Obvious”, you say. But I live on the Central Coast of California, and there aren’t a lot of big music stores nearby. I can drive a couple of hours to get to one, but then I have to sit in the maelstrom of wanna-be metal-heads, playing at a low enough volume that I don’t get judged – which is no way to buy an amp. Yeah... ok... I should grow a spine... but does this sound familiar?
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Youtube videos are misleading. No matter what they say, you have no way to know whether or not the signal chain is being sweetened (or post-processed, pre-publication… hey… nice alliteration, no?) in any significant manner. If you HAVE to rely on Youtube, check out Anderton Music’s “That Pedal Show”. Those guys do a pretty good job. Also, I highly recommend reading about any gear you’re considering at Gearslutz.com.
