I don't find the sound hard rock, there is no punch without excessive dirt almost metal.

Hello,
I have a tubemeister 40 deluxe, I loved the YouTube videos of the demos, and now that I have it, I can't find the hard rock sound of AC/DC, Zeppelin, nEIL YOUNG, Purple, Creedencem Thin Lyzzy, Black Sabbath. , Judas...etc. (and some 80's metal)
I use an Epiphone Las Paul with JB pickups, and a 2x12 cab with a Celestion type V.
The crunch channel with gain 13, treble 13, mid 15, record 11, starts to give me AC/DC sound, but I miss a little "punch" in the mute range.
If I increase the gain to improve the mute range, the sound becomes too brutal and begins to mix with something that reminds me of metal. The same thing happens with the guide me channel.
If I start removing gain, the sound becomes thinner and cleaner, it no longer has any punch.
How could I solve it?
I have tried a BOSS distortion and overdive pedal, and I did not like the mix on any channel (clean, crunch, lead), since the pedal takes away body, mids and makes it too brutal (and I spent a long time moving the settings ).
Any recommended pedals that are compatible to push something to this crunch?
I'm a little disoriented, honestly.
I bought this amp so I wouldn't have to use pedals, and now it scares me to think that PEDALS CAN'T BE USED BECAUSE THEY DON'T MATCH VERY GOOD WITH THIS AMPLIFIER.
I have a 1-month trial, and if I don't find a solution, I may have to return it.
Please help.
Thank you so much.

I wonder if this might help?  Understanding and using the H&K input buffer

This has been a problem for as long as I have been coming here.  My own take on it is that younger guitarists nowadays are moulded to think they are not men unless the Gain is in the high 90%.  My own take on getting classic sounds, which are all I'm interested in for my own playing, you need less and less and then a bit less.  That is actually the view of AC/DC themselves in terms of their own sound.  It is not as driven as people think.  Loud yes, distorted no. And what do you mean by Gain 13? I could easily be missing something obvious that you mean but I'm not sure how that describes the setting of the Gain control.

H&K users really need to take a lesson in how that input buffer stage of the TM and GM amps works, and how to get the best out of it.  Read the thread I've posted and see what you think then give it a try.

If you look into speaker recommendations you will find that a lot of people, (including myself), do not think these amps sound very good with Celestion V type speakers.  You need a more classic speaker to get nearer to a classic sound, something along the lines of G12M or G12H maybe.  All H&K amps are very sensitive to the speakers you pair them with.  That might be part of the problem you have.

Hello. Continuing with the thread, what you suggest seems like very good suggestions to try with other G12M and G12H type speakers. I understand that you are talking about G12M Greenback 25 watts, G12M-65 Creamback 65 watts and its more modern version G12H-75 Creamback 75 watts. I am also considering a 1x12 cabinet, and of course, with a 40 watt TM head I understand that I am going to need at least between 40 and 60 watts in the speaker, since I have always understood that the speaker cabinet must have between 1 and 1.5 times the power of the head, so the greenback would be ruled out as it only has 25 watts (a shame because it is Angus's preferred speaker). Is this so or am I wrong? Thank you very much for your contributions.

Yes, the G12M I am talking about is the modern 25W version but the G12H are - - - wait for it - - - a set of 4 of the classic '60s "Jimi Hendrix" models.  Actually, despite all of the hype, they aren't that different to the G12Ms in real use.  Sure, I could sit with my ear pressed to the cabinet cloth for an hour making up new ways of describing vanishingly small differences I imagine I could hear.  But, in truth, what a waste of my life!  They both sound the same playing live with a band and even if they didn't, who cares about minute tiny differences in response?  The room makes much more difference to the sound than the G12M/G12H setup does.  I even set up my '60s Marshall 4x12 to contain 2x paralleled G12M and 2x paralleled G12H with switching so I could select between either of the two pairs or all 4 thinking I was doing something clever.  Having only a pair made a significant difference at smaller venues but I never really used the speaker swapping between types as it made no difference.

That 4x12" G12H Marshall cabinet has been thrashed with my '60s Marshall Super Lead 100 for years with no bad effect.  And that includes my years in the 60s/70s giving it some real high volume stuff.  Those really were the days.  They have not suffered at all.  Mind you, we weren't playing chugga-chugga music with a pair of distortion pedals in series to make sure the square wave is a perfectly flat one!  Speakers in distress by being overdriven too much usually let you know with the roughness of their sound long before they will burn out.  But, you have to be listening and not just hearing to be aware of course!!!

You would ideally have more power in your speaker setup than the amp can produce but you don't want to have too much or the speakers will never come to life.  Using a 25W speaker with an amp which can be slugged down to 20W as yours can is perfectly feasible.  I've played gigs like that with a single G12M in a 1x12" cabinet.  I have a 60W Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10" which I have modded to include a switching unit in the back to swap from 4 speakers to 2 to 1.  I keep the impedance matched of course.  I use a Fryette Power Station PS100 which makes it easy to let the amp work hard but keep the output power down.  It is a terrific solution to playing in smaller spaces.  A single 10" speaker can be allowed to light up to its best level, while 4x10" at the same output would be struggling to sound lively with the lack of drive to each of them.  Speakers die off if the level of drive is too low.

I have an H&K Deluxe 40 and also struggled in the beginning to dial in the right sound. I tried putting pedals in front, replacing them with JJ tubes, etc., until I found my sweet spot for rock/metal, which is using the Ultra channel with very little Gain (until it just breaks) and then tweaking the EQ and Presence. I got lots of help from Bordenbert and really recommend his posts on the Input Buffers. Point is, don't give up!

Here's a nice video where you can hear the difference between a Celestron Vintage V30 and a G12T-75 with a Tube Meister - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MKkHgYuXDo

That's an interesting vid Proddy, thanks for a great post.  It clearly shows how much the speaker is a very influential factor in the sound stakes.  I far preferred the G12T to the V30 in that setup.

I'm glad you really got what you wanted out of your GM40D, hearing that makes time spent on longer posts with more accurate info in them worthwhile.  The H&K amps are definitely "finnicky" with settings.  (That's "pernickety" in American! )  You really need to play around to find the sweet spot just as you described and the window can be narrow.  This is what you would expect from a piece of kit which has really broad tonal capabilities though.  And it's great to see someone who has had an open mind to the idea that - - - less is more!  Less Gain, less sources of distortion, a simpler signal path, can make for a very clear and precise controllable sound rather than just yet another mass of rasping square waves.  The GM40D really is a precision tool in a world of blunt force implements if you approach it correctly.