The Fundamentals Of Handling Coreblade; How The Knobs Work; Selecting Presets Using The Included Fsm 432 Midi Board; The Channel Section - Hughes & Kettner COREBLADE Mode D'emploi

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The Fundamentals of Handling COREBLADE

C o r e b l a d e is a tube amp, and it works much like other tube amps.
But its handling concept is more advanced, so time spent getting to know how it
operates is time well spent.

1.1 How the Knobs Work

One set of knobs controls all four channels. Your choice of channel determines
the knob's assignment, for example, which of the CLEAN, DRIVE, or ULTRA
channels the GAIN knob addresses at the given moment. The great advantage of
this design is that the channels are truly independent and do not share GAIN,
VOLUME, or tone controls. You can even adjust PRESENCE and REVERB
settings separately for every channel!
NOTE: The knobs look and feel like standard-issue pots with a 300-degree
control range and left and right stops. But there's a difference that may take
some getting used to: The knob setting programmed in a preset is independent
of the knob's physical position. In other words, when you switch from one preset
another, the knob's actual position may not reflect the setting programmed
in the preset, and you may well hear something other than what you're seeing
would suggest. The knob will respond like any other conventional pot as soon
as you move it. The STORE LED in the MASTER section tells you the knob
setting stored in the preset. It lights up when the physical position of the knob
corresponds to the preset setting. More on this in section 4.3.
HEADS UP: You may hear soft background noise when twisting knobs. This
sound is made the Programmable Resistor Matrix, or PRN™ for short, as it
switches.

1.2 Selecting Presets Using the Included FSM 432 MIDI Board

The FSM 432 serves to select the 128 memory slots arranged in 32 banks of four
presets each. You can easily configure setups any way you wish, say by assigning
the four presets of a bank to a song.
1.2.1 PRESET A B C D
Presets within a bank activate directly, that is, you can switch straight from A to B
within the same bank. The LED above the A, B, C, and D buttons indicates the
select preset.
1.2.2 BANK UP/DOWN
To access a preset in another bank, select the target bank using the UP and
DOWN buttons. You can continue playing with the current preset while you're
navigating. The display shows the bank's number; it flashes until you select a
preset by pressing A, B, C, or D. The FSM 32 switch will not switch over to the
new preset until you do this.
1.2.3 TAP
TAP offers you a quick, convenient way of adjusting delay time. It's particularly
handy on stage: Simply tap your foot on the TAP button in time with the beat to
match delay time to the tempo. See section 3.2 for more info.
C o r e b l a d e
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The Channel Section

C o r e b l a d e sports four channels, each voiced very differently and
accessible via a chicken-head selector switch. The power amp feedback circuit,
which has a formative hand in shaping your tone, is also reconfigured during
channel switching. The programmable knobs afford you full access to all sound
parameters in every channel. We even painstakingly fine-tuned knobs' control
ranges and characteristics to match the selected channel's voicing.

2.1 CLEAN Channel

's CLEAN channel certainly merits its name. It delivers
C o r e b l a d e
sparkling fresh sounds, offers oodles of headroom, and remains undistorted even
when driven by high-output pick-ups. It's worth your while to experiment with
different GAIN settings in combination with the switchable BOOST.

2.2 DRIVE Channel

Your first stop for classic overdrive at its finest. This channel sweeps the sonic
spectrum from clean to mean, and countless tones in between. Engage BOOST to
conjure a rude rock roar.

2.3 ULTRA I Channel

Look no further for modern high-gain sound with all the articulate response of
a Teutonic tone-generator. This channel's masterfully musical compression sends
those riffs and licks flying off your fingertips. Hit BOOST for an extra helping of
in-your-face sound pressure.

2.4 ULTRA II Channel

Get your high-gain tone right here. The ULTRA II channel's top end slices, dices,
but never sacrifices its thunderous low end for raging metal riffs and larger-than-
life lead tune. Dropped tuning conjures a quasi religious experience.

2.5 GAIN

The GAIN knob determines input sensitivity and therefore the preamp's
saturation level. Paired with BOOST, it is your most important sound-sculpting
tool.

2.6 BOOST

BOOST targets specific frequency ranges and kicks them up a notch. This yields
even more assertive, creamier, or punchier tone, depending on the channel.

2.7 BASS, MID, TREBLE

The three-band voicing section's sound-shaping action is fine-tuned for each
channel, and specifically addresses the frequency ranges that define each channel's
characteristic tone.
HEADS UP: These are classic passive tone controls that influence one another.
For example, if you crank the MID knob, the BASS knob will be less effective
than when you back the MID knob down. PRESENCE and RESONANCE
are independent of the three-band voicing controls; that is, their action remains
unaffected by other knobs' settings.

2.8 RESONANCE

Set the RESONANCE knob to 12 o'clock and you will hear the normal
resonance created by the amp-and-cabinet combination. Twisting it to the
counterclockwise dampens the speakers and the cabinet's resonance for a looser,