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H & K Fortress Preamp - Need advice.

M

Matt in Jerzey

Feb 3, 2007
42
0
#1
I just bought a Hughes & Kettner Fortress pre on ebay on a whim. I've heard a few good things about them and I wanted to check out the sound. Has anyone here used, or currently is using, this pre? What is the tone like? Are you able to get any grit from the tube section? Any advice would be great, I would love to know what to expect when I get it. My setup is a QSC1450 amp, Eden 410XLT, ESP C-305 bass, Fender P, MM stingray.

I tried to find something on thier website, but it sucks and I'm tired of wasting my time on it. Thanks.
 
#2
Just thought I'd answer my own post. I got the preamp this afternoon, hooked it up, and wow. Even the ss portion of the preamp exudes tubelike goodness. The EQ is setup fairly well, the bass can get very heavy if you need it to. The tube section is also very good. I'm able to dial in quite a bit of dirt with the gain turned up. I'm still getting the compressor setup to where I like it, it takes time, and I'm not certain I like the compressor yet. Overall I am very happy with the tone. Granted, I'm coming from a PODxt, but I also owned an SVT IIP that IMHO did not sound near as good the this pre. Harmonics shine through as well, and it really picks up the subtle nuances from your fingers.

I'll try to get a sound clip or two together for examples.

BTW: I looked all over online and couldn't find much on this pre at all. I am trying to put some things together so anyone else who wants to know about this pre can get some info. Also, H & K never returned any of my emails. Bunch of douches as far as I'm concerned.
 
#3
Glad to hear you are happy with it. I saw one on Ebay a few weeks ago, did some searches, and the only thing I could find was that TB'er Tombowlus has one, and he gave me his opinions of it. You could PM him to compare notes and see if he has any setup suggestions. I ended up buying a couple of other preamps instead, but the H&K is still on my GAS list.
 
#6
Hi Matt,
I can only say: Congratulations to your preamp!
I also have a fortress in my setup, and I have used it for about 18 years now without any problems, and I am still very glad to have bought it.
It adds a lot of "thickness" to your instrument and kicks the bass "straight in your face" :-)
The only thing about it is that I lost the stageboard when I moved house 3 years ago, and I can't get a new one. Even in the factory it's no longer available!
But in general I can say that it's one of the best sounding and most reliable amps ever made :-)
 
#7
Yeah, this pre is incredible. I've also been searching for the stageboard, it's quite impossible to find. There was one on Ebay with the pre a while ago, but I missed it. It's a shame that H&K act as if this preamp never existed, I've emailed a few times with no response. I have the owners manual in .PDF, but my german is a little rusty.
 
#8
Grats, Matt! I have a Fortress, as well, and it is a very fine preamp, IME/IMHO. It is quite full sounding, and more aimed at vintage than modern tones, but that does not mean that you can't dial in a more 'modern' tone, just that it lends itself more to a warm/full kind of tone. In some ways, it reminds me of an F-1X, but definitely more tweakable.

The Fortress is kind of a 'sleeper', IMHO.

Enjoy! :hyper:

Tom.
 
#9
Yeah, that's it! They act as if the fortress never existed! :scowl:
Perhaps it helps if there are more of us to write them what a great preamp the fortress is and that it's not really a good service denying the stuff. ;)
I think I have an idea: You write an email about your problems finding a stageboard, send it to me, I translate it for you (I am german ... *g*), send it back to you and you send this now german mail to the guys at Hughes & Kettner. I write a mail with the same topic, and so we are already two ... ;-)
What do you think about it?
 
#10
Yeah, that's it! They act as if the fortress never existed! :scowl:
Perhaps it helps if there are more of us to write them what a great preamp the fortress is and that it's not really a good service denying the stuff. ;)
I think I have an idea: You write an email about your problems finding a stageboard, send it to me, I translate it for you (I am german ... *g*), send it back to you and you send this now german mail to the guys at Hughes & Kettner. I write a mail with the same topic, and so we are already two ... :hyper:
What do you think about it?
 
#11
I think is more time of mine to be wasted on those people. They suck for service. I hope nothing ever happens to this thing or I'll have to go to another brand, or search forever for another. Certainly no chance of getting help from HK. It's a good idea if they're were more of us who owned this pre, I just don't think they'll listen to 2 guys who own outdated equipment. Apparently, we suck too.
 
#12
Whoah there- I just got hold of one! I'm trying it at a gig on Saturday. If I like it- and it sounds at this point like I will, I like that older vibe- I'll get in on that emailing H&K too! Hey magicapple, will you translate one for me, if I send it to you, as well?

I see no reason why folks who make good gear should get away with leaving it on the side of the road, as it were! :eyebrow:

There are some of us...
 
#13
Matt in Jerzey said:
Just thought I'd answer my own post. I got the preamp this afternoon, hooked it up, and wow. Even the ss portion of the preamp exudes tubelike goodness. The EQ is setup fairly well, the bass can get very heavy if you need it to. The tube section is also very good. I'm able to dial in quite a bit of dirt with the gain turned up. I'm still getting the compressor setup to where I like it, it takes time, and I'm not certain I like the compressor yet. Overall I am very happy with the tone. Granted, I'm coming from a PODxt, but I also owned an SVT IIP that IMHO did not sound near as good the this pre. Harmonics shine through as well, and it really picks up the subtle nuances from your fingers.

I'll try to get a sound clip or two together for examples.

BTW: I looked all over online and couldn't find much on this pre at all. I am trying to put some things together so anyone else who wants to know about this pre can get some info. Also, H & K never returned any of my emails. Bunch of douches as far as I'm concerned.
Click to expand...

Hey Matt in Jersey, what are you using for a poweramp? I have a Crest FA901 and I seem to have to do a little work to get the volume up very far on this H&K Fortress I just got hold of. Without the Tube circuit engaged I'm having trouble getting much at all out of it. Otherwise all the controls work well.
 
#14
For you Fortress users bereft of documentation on it, I have a copy on .pdf. If someone knows how to upload it to a place it can be downloaded from I'll be happy to oblige- or you can PM me you email and I'll send you a copy in an attachment.

Pretty cool pre.
 
#19
Hi Fortress Users,
I've just got one of these - without the Stageboard - and just wondering how should I hook it up to my GK 800rb. Should I use the effects loop of the amp, or should I go with the bass directly to the Fortress and than to the instrument input of the GK? I really don't want to bypass the preamp of the head, I just want to color it's sound with the Fortress.
Another question would be the effects loops of this preamp: what is the diffence of serial and parallel? I see that in serial one can dial in the gain for perhaps unity gain purposes, but as far as I understand the parallel has even less feature than that: the manual advise you to blend the dry/wet signal on the effect processors...
I just simply want to run one or two fuzzes in the effects loop of the preamp, without loosing the dry signal of the instrument and to my understanding a parralell loop would exactly mean that, but I don't know how to reach this with the parallel effects loop of the Fortress.
Did I miss something or my understanding is correct that the parallel loop of the Fortress was not designed for this purpose?
 
#20
You can probably get away using the "pre/post EQ loop" send at instrument level and feed directly into the front end of G&K. Not sure where the tube section sits in relation to the loop but the diagram is on the top lid....same holds true for the compressor.

Riis
 
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