Hughes & Kettner Cream Machine 1 Watt Tube Head (Made In Germany)

Overview
The Cream Machine is basically a low wattage high-gain Marshall valve amplifier in miniture and is used to produce that classic over-driven British rock guitar tone. Just crank the controls around to the level of distortion required, from a very smooth cream mode to when cranked a full sounding mini Marshall.

The Cream Machine is a 1W - two valve (12AX7 & 12AU7)
low-power pre-amplifier & amplifier combo in a super compact enclosure designed to produce guitar distortion tones. It was the first small recording tube-base amp produced. The Hughes & Kettner electronics construction is top-rate German quality.

The Cream Machine is not best for clean tones - it is designed to produce Marshall style amp distortion. For clean tones use a Cream Machine in sequence with a Crunch Master (Blues Master) and have the Crunch Master provide the clean tones and act as the power amp to drive the speakers.

This little marvel is a small powerhouse that will surprise you
with its apparent volume from just 1 watt, which has enough power to drive a 4 x 12 speaker cabinet. The advantage of the Cream Machine is that it drives when cranked a speaker cab around 20 decibels quieter than a 100 watt Marshall amp.

It is very difficult to get a good guitar sound in a recording
studio from a 100 watt Marshall amp because recording gear downstream of microphones can get overloaded when the amp is operating at distortion sound levels. The Cream Machine does a great job of emulating Marshall tube amps at reasonable volumes, which makes it ideal to record British cranked tones. The sound produced is in a range that fits in perfectly with recording and is more pleasing for sound engineers.

The Cream Machine has many interfaces compared to low power amps in current production, such as the Nano Head, which makes it better suited for use in recording environments than most current alternative products.

It also has the right interfaces to function as a over driven tube effect unit in a live playing environment. On the other hand, for miked low power guitar amps there are quite a number of brands on the market that are very nice, but they tend to be much more expensive than purchasing a Cream Machine on the used market.

Common Uses
Produce overdrive tones at sane volume
Distortion recording amp
Low power distortion practice amp
Miked distortion amp simulator
Over-driven tube amp effect (used in place of effect pedal)
DI box

Thrashy Distortion
Put a distortion pedal in front and will react as a full-size tube amplifier

German engineering with quality components

Specifications
Preamp Tube (Valve)
12AX7
Power Tube (Valve)
12AU7 power valve
Power Output
1W output @ 8 ohms
Front Indicator Lights
Bypass LED
        When lit bypass is enabled
Power LED
        When lit the unit is powered
Inputs
Front 1/4" input jack
Rear 1/4" input jack

Controls
Pre-gain Control              
          The amount of overdrive into the "tube amp" section
   
Master Level Control
          Controls the overall output volume

Tube Amp Control (On Back)
          Works with the two other controls to sweeten the sound

Connections (1/4" Jacks)
Speaker
Foot switch
Tube amp out
Instrument out
Mix out
Cabinetlator mix out
Inputs (One each - front and back)