Blackstar amps.

[Mrmadd]

They can hide anything they wish, bottom line gets to be........,
Is it a fun amp to play through?
I say YES to all their stuff.

It is not Marshall, but it is a very acceptable sounding line of amps.
HT20 CLUB, 2 HT1 COMBOs, HT5R HEAD, and a couple ID core models.
All sound great in their own way.

Never thought to mention Blackstar on this forum.
They sound better than a lot of other brand name amps mentioned on this forum.

 

[sim76]

I have a HT60 Stage combo. I agree it was missing the sparkle when I got it but as soon as I got it home, I plugged it into my cab with greenbacks, sounded better instantly. Within an hour of owning it, I pulled it down, installed the 70's greenbacks, tested various valves and settled on the JJ's for both power and preamp (I remember the groove tubes and electro harmonix sucked). Originally the amp was biased very cold, once the JJ's were in it and biased to proper specs, it sounded way better. I also did something else while I had it stripped down but it was a fair few years ago now and can't remember what it was.
Straight out of the box though, they are OK, but nothing special.
Oh, and I have a schematic somewhere on my hard drive which I found online when I bought it, so you can find the schematics for them if you try.
To whoever was saying about the bandit 112, I have one sitting next to the blackstar and the blackstar kills it (may not have originally).
The seventy fifties or eighty twenties, whatever those celestions are called are just crap (and very light) and the original valves (TAD) were not much better.
So if you have speakers and valves laying around like I did and can change them out, they can be a great amp!

 

[masher_uk]

ok so what the problem with these amps guys.
i never hear a word about them here on the forum period.
not even in the Amps we dont talk about in public thread
except for gunner and myself.
from the demos ive seen on youtube they sound damn nice
so whats the problem? i hear they were started by ex marshall
workers and designers? is that the problem? whats really going on?

Our lead guitarist here in the UK uses an HT Stage 60 straight in with just a cable and either a Strat or an LP Standard (both USA made) - no pedals, no mods - and it sounds amazing.

 

[rando]

Them little portable toys can surprise you. I have a little id core stereo 10 and it's a great little noodling amp. Sounds huge, much bigger than it has a right to. I forget exactly what I paid for it but it was under $50 at a pawn shop. The same shop has another for $40. Everytime I plug into the little bastard it makes me smile. A fun little amp. The HT1RH head I have falls into the same category. I Paid $100 for that.

Try the Toys just for the hell of it..the stereo 10 won't replace the big boys, but for an all in one just plug in one cord and jam, mines a blast.

I still like the Stereo 40 that was cheap years ago. Fun to play for the wide Stereo with built in effects.

 

[mojodelic]

At 62 years old I've had/used almost everything. Sold off what didn't work/kept what did- what works for me is an SV20C, a Blackstar EL34 10, My homemade 5F1 & a Blues Jr. YMMV but this works for me.

 

[John BNY]

I like Blackstar amps. I have an HT5R combo that I use as a practice amp when wanting to play along with MP3 tracks, and it has very nice tones at relatively lower volume. I also have the HT60 Soloist, and I do like its tones. They are high gain amps with saturated and scooped gain tones. Those tones in my view don't particularly cut through well in a band mix, but provide some nice syrupy tones when playing alone. I don't think these amps do the "edge of breakup" tones particularly well, and that is a bit of a negative.

I use my Marshalls when playing with my band, but I do like the saturated tone when playing on my own. All in all, my Blackstar amps are keepers, and I've never had reliability issues with any of them.

 

[Cornfilled Screamer]

I had an HT100 head that I ran through a Boogie 4x12 (with EV’s & Celestions). Never cared that much for the OD channels. Kind of harsh and stiff. Had heard that a lot of the dirt came from basically a tube screamer stage. Even with a graphic EQ - just couldn’t get what I wanted.
Ended up using a Digitech RP1000 through it with 4CM - and that was a pretty big help, believe it or not. Ran that for awhile, but it was too inconsistent going from room to room.

For the cleans - it was actually damned good. It also ran well with the RP1000 - lots of headroom in the clean section before it would breakup. Plenty of power.

Ended up getting a JVM410h and traded the Blackstar on a 1960A cab with Greenbacks for the JVM.

The footswitch actually used an old style 9 pin PC printer cable - which I found pretty odd!

In conclusion - not a fan of the dirt section, but the clean channel was pretty darned good.

 

[Wildeman]

I like my little Bleakstar........ Alot!

.

 

[junk notes]

Blackstar Artisan 100

 

[Old Punker]

I have never seen these in any of the local music stores, so it's probably an exposure issue here in the land of moose and maple syrup. It's hard to compete with Marshall / Mesa / Fender.

 

[Zado]

For the cleans - it was actually damned good.

That's why they should concentrate on clean-breakup sounds, their low gain products are very nice (Artisan series, Artist series), but when it comes to higain their stuff often sounds congested, generic or quite good when played at home but gets lost in the mix with a band.

 

[johnny q]

Our lead guitarist here in the UK uses an HT Stage 60 straight in with just a cable and either a Strat or an LP Standard (both USA made) - no pedals, no mods - and it sounds amazing.

Yeah - I was seriously looking at this one when I needed a practical gigging amp that was not a vintage 4x12 1/2 stack! Covid put an end to my gigs...which put an end to my Blackstar HT Stage 60 quest :-(

 

[Frank DeVincenzo]

I just took delivery of an HT20 mkII head, purchased specifically to go along with an AVT 4x12 cab I just inherited from a cousin. Not a hi tech rig by any means, but, after researching 20watt heads in my price range($600)this Blackstar, on paper, will meet and more than likely exceed my needs.

My background is with combos, hot rodded combos with good tubes and better speakers. No metal or high gain in my set list. I play single coil, P90 and humbucker equipped guitars. On a good day I’m average at best.

I was considering the very inexpensive Bugera 20watt and the two inexpensive Marshall 20’s. The reviews I found seemed to acknowledge the gain/distortion side of the amps, celebrating this feature, whereas the Anderton’s review of the HT20 gave significant time and cudos to the clean and clean with boost side of the amp. That’s really the sweet spot of my playing. So...

Wish me luck. I’ll post my findings once I am up and running with this very new to me rig. I play with the geezers of the Jersey shore. I’m no rock star, just a guy who loves to play guitar. I think this is who the Blackstar budget line of equipment is made for. Superstars need not apply.
frankie

 

[JacksonCharvelAddict]

I played a large head at Guitar Center briefly. I got the volume up pretty good and I liked the amp. I don't remember what model it was. It sounded very modern to me. It had a good clean and the dirt channel was nice too. I think that a lot of people that don't like them are looking for a warmer more vintage sound. For a modern heavy metal tone they do the job.

 

[Dozer]

Necro thread I know but being a new member here I found this thread and wanted to give my 2 cents on the HT Series. I have owned a few of them in the past and currently own a HT50 MKII head and it's a fantastic amp for local gigging. For me to get the best out of the gain channel I ALWAYS keep the gain knob just below 9 O'clock on the dial and hit it with an SD-1 or similar if I need to have more gain. The clean channel I think is very good on voice 2.

These are workingman amps. They are never going to hang with a 2204 or a 1987x etc etc. They are aimed at regular Joe's that do bar gigs and such, and they hit the mark dead on. I paid 400 bucks for mine in like new condition. Zero complaints. For the money, in the used market there's not many more tube amps that can deliver the options and tone these things can.

 

[Moony]

I like the Blackstar HT amps range too.
Started another thread here a while ago > Klick < where I shared my experience with the HT-5R MKII.
I still own it though I have a few more expensive and even better sounding amps (eg. the Marshall JVM).

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a Blackstar HT.
They don't fail that often like it's often claimed in forums (because they are not handwired PTP full tube amps).
I think it's hard to get a real bad sound out of these amps.
I really dislike the newer St James range though and think they sound much worse than the HT range.

 

[dryz41]

i had about 20 tube amps so far. 4 of them are marshalls.
One of all time favorite among them is blackstar ht club40 mk2 6l6 baby blue. i ll never sell it i think. it stays till one of us dies

 

[aikiguy]

I still use an ID:60 for my studio purposes. Hugely versatile and a great sounding amp.

if I recall correctly, Phil Colin from Def Leppard was using them too. He certainly ripped on them.

I have a Blackstar Fly that rips (it makes you forget that you’re playing on a small amp), and ID Core that is totally awesome, and I have my ID:60 of course, and it’s awesome.

I used to have an HT-5R and loved it, too, although as mentioned earlier, it could use the help of an overdrive for playing burning leads. I also have the HT Dual pedal which is basically used to turn any clean amp into a three channel amp. It’s pretty cool, too.

Cool amps overall, IMO…

 

[Moony]

I used to have an HT-5R and loved it, too, although as mentioned earlier, it could use the help of an overdrive for playing burning leads.

That's why the newer MKII series HT-5 amps have a "voice" switch on the overdrive channel where you can activate higher gain.

 

[Karl Brake]

We should be talking about the new St James series....tube driven, but with a computer-age transformer that doesn't use a huge hunk of metal. 50 watter has 2 6L6 or el34 outputs and 2 12ax7 pres, 2 channel with a boost. The head is crazy light, about 12 pounds. Listening to the YouTube demos, I am unsure about the overdrive sound. If the heavyweight metal tranny can be replaced by a newfangled digital gizmo and sound the same, well, that's a big deal. I'm just about to pick up one new for the old 30 day trial. Anyone played a St James!? Raves and those types are all raving about it, but they are salesmen....