Tubes. They're the little glass wonders that provide power regulation and amplification for millions of musicians the world over. But while your tubes are taking care of your tone, who's taking care of them? Hughes and Kettner, that's who. "Tube Safety Control" is a brand new development in vacuum tube amplification, and it's making its debut on the new Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100 TSC.

But what is Tube Safety Control?

According to H&K, TSC is a comprehensive system that eliminates all the pragmatic drawbacks of gigging with a tube guitar amp. For starters, the amp not only automatically bias-adjusts, but it does so dynamically to compensate for a tube's naturally decaying characteristics over the course of its lifetime. This keeps your tone consistent over long periods of time -- great for touring guitarists who can't afford to bring a tech on the road, or for the next G 'N R album. ZING-A!!!!

Next, if a tube happens to fail in the middle of a show, the TSC circuit automatically and safely shuts it off and tags the offending valve with an LED indicator. And guess what: the amp keeps running. Huh? This we've got to see to believe.

The Switchblade TSC will be the first amp -- actually, the first series of amps -- to include this radical technology, and it's built off the Switchblade design: a four-channel, all-tube, high-gain amp with it's own DSP effects section including reverb, modulation and tap delay. The Switchblade amps run their effects section in parallel, let the user store 128 presets and ship with their own multi-function floorboard. Already pretty modern designs, with the addition of the "Tube Safety Control" system, they become . . . umm . . . in-modern. You know, like El Guapo.

The Hughes & Kettner Switchblade TSC line will include a 100 watt head, a 100 watt 2x12 combo, and a 50 watt 1x12 combo. They should be shipping by the end of April '09.