The Celestion Vintage 30 has long been one of the most popular speakers on the market and it still leads the manufacturer's sales figures today. No wonder, as it offers a full and powerful sound with a little dusting of vintage charm, the result of Celestion's success in preserving that classic guitar sound while fully integrating modern materials and techniques. Powerful bass, penetrating mids, and a finely resolved treble make this loudspeaker a true classic, and Hughes & Kettner has managed to effectively fit a pair of them into the dovetailed birch plywood cabinet of the Tubemeister 212. With a power handling capacity of 120W, this cabinet is not only the ideal partner for the manufacturer's Tubemeister amps, but will also make sure even the largest amps can fully exploit their sonic potential.
As you would expect from Hughes & Kettner equipment, the Tubemeister 112 speaker is solidly built. A cleanly applied layer of Tolex protects every last bit of the birch plywood housing. In addition, reinforced corners ensure that it'll look its best for years to come. The handle on the top is strong enough even for this full-size cab, which weighs in at around 19.5kg (43lbs), while the four rubber feet on the underside ensure there'll be no shaking or slipping. The Vintage 30 speakers themselves are well protected behind a robust fabric covering that has been neatly attached to the housing. At the rear, you'll find both an input with a resistance of 16 ohms and an output that allows the Tubemeister 212 to be connected to any other speaker to form a stack.
With its compact dimensions, the amazingly high sound pressure for a birch plywood cabinet, and the creamy, warm tone, the Tubemeister 212 speaker is the ideal way to effectively and effortlessly round off your guitar top or rig in rehearsals, on stage, or in the studio. Regardless of whether it's used with a tube amp, a transistor amp, or a modeler with a power amp, the full sound of its dual Celestions offers outstanding bandwidth across the entire frequency range of a guitar's signal, without losing the vintage touch that makes the Celestion Vintage 30 so popular. Equally impressive are its clarity and presence, both for cleaner sounds and when playing with maximum distortion.
Hughes & Kettner is one of the largest German suppliers of guitar and bass amplifiers. Founded in 1984 by Hans and Lothar Stamer under the name Stamer Musikanlagen GmbH, the manufacturer from St. Wendel in the Saarland can boast of its numerous innovations. For example, its first venture into the field of guitar amplifiers, the ASR64 from 1986, was the first programmable amplifier in the world. Thanks to its compact format, the Cream Machine of 1987 can be counted among the very first mini tube amplifiers. Equally influential were the Red Box analogue speaker simulation, the first six-channel amplifier (the Triamp), and the ZenTera, which used modelling technology in an integrated amplifier even before Line 6.
Most musicians will find the Tubemeister's 120W output to be more than enough for all their gigs, and certainly when recording in the studio or jamming at home. However, for the largest events, the Tubemeister 212's output socket also makes it possible to operate two or more cabinets in parallel, allowing more ambitious guitarists to adapt their system to the venue or circumstances. The Celestion Vintage 30 is also an extremely flexible speaker when it comes to genre or playing style: Installed as a pair, as here, there's equal clarity and structure to everything from loud, high-headroom clean tones to heavily compressed metal sounds. In short, a speaker suitable for almost every guitar and every guitarist, which is one of the reasons it continues to be so successful.