Hamstead Artist 20+RT MkIII 20W Head, Cream

Product discontinued

Hamstead Artist 20+RT MkIII 20W Head, Cream

Product discontinued

Hamstead Artist 20+RT MkIII 20W Head, Cream Overview

Hamstead Soundworks Artist 20+RT MkIII Head Overview by GAK:

The Hamstead Artist 20 has been designed from the ground up to encompass maximum tonal versatility, without compromising on tonal quality. Delivering everything from shimmering cleans to warm, natural, harmonically rich overdriven tones. It's powerful, portable, and it loves pedals and guitars of all types. Built without compromise in the UK, it is already a modern classic!

From the warmest of mellow jazz through sparkling country cleans, to mean, gritty blues and classic rock grind, this amplifier has it covered. All with a depth, clarity and feel that allows the personality of the player and guitar to really shine through – perfect too, for all your favourite pedals & effects. The Artist 20 also features an adjustable and footswitchable 'Voice' switch that adds presence and bite to the upper midrange, and adjustable Bright switch that adds a touch of brilliance to the top end. 

The Artist 20+RT includes Hamstead's signature Reverb and Tremolo circuits. The Reverb has depth and tone controls, allowing it to suit different styles of music, guitars and venues. The Tremolo has depth and speed controls, using analogue control of the signal to give a smooth, even sweep at any speed. Both are switchable on the front panel or using the included footswitch.

This MkIII version builds on the refinements of the MkII which included the bright switch, the 'clean gain' switch and the voice level switch which controls the amount of mid-upper boost. The new features on the MkIII are:

• New refined styling, also the 'regular' cream covering is lighter. Also the head is around 20% smaller than the MkII.
• You can change the order of the Reverb and Tremolo in the signal path.
• There has been an addition of a mute switch. In use it’s like standby, but better for the valves.
• The bright switch has 2 settings now. This includes the previous setting from the MkII and a new, more subtle, setting.
• The Triode/Pentode switch has been replaced with an all new power reduction circuit! There are now 20W / 7W / 2W modes. This allows you to drive the power section harder at lower volumes.
• The footswitch's footprint is half the size of the old one making it far more pedalboard friendly! The switches themselves are TheGigRig designed OptoKicks (which use light instead of potentially unreliable mechanical switching)
• Overall the amp has a slightly lower noise floor

Every aspect of the Artist Series’ construction is of the highest quality. From the eyeleted epoxy glass boards, to the thick aluminium chassis and British made custom wound transformers, the Artist series is nothing short of world class, marrying classic and contemporary design and manufacturing techniques. All amps come with a 5 year warranty as standard.

5 out of 5
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Rated 5.00 out of 5 09/7/2018

Fantastic sounding amp head.

Donald Hall