Blackheart amps

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:02 am

Anyone know anything about them? I played one at a guy's house last night, I think it was a 5 watt head, and it sounded great but they don't seem available to buy - in the UK at least.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:16 am

I think they're discontinued. They were made by Crate who's main distributer was Sound Control, they went under a few years back and since then I haven't seen them around. They crop up secondhand occasional with the 5 watt heads often being modified with various tone stacks and things.

This one sold recently: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RAT-MODDED-BL ... 35c87f62c3

I've never heard them but I've heard good things about them.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 1:25 pm

I think they were definitely more common over here, see some on craigslist etc every so often.

blane · Post by **blane** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:44 pm

I've seen one recently in the used gear section of my shop. A few years back the Blackheart and black star amps were on clearance because my shop was going to stop carrying them. I ended up buying the black star over the Blackheart because I thought it sounded better.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:37 pm

blane wrote:I've seen one recently in the used gear section of my shop. A few years back the Blackheart and black star amps were on clearance because my shop was going to stop carrying them. I ended up buying the black star over the Blackheart because I thought it sounded better.

blackstar is a different league

blane · Post by **blane** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:42 pm

Sloan wrote:
blane wrote:I've seen one recently in the used gear section of my shop. A few years back the Blackheart and black star amps were on clearance because my shop was going to stop carrying them. I ended up buying the black star over the Blackheart because I thought it sounded better.

blackstar is a different league

hmm... they were the same price at the time. each the 5watt models.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:44 pm

My work colleague has one and he rates it quite highly, especially after a tube swap... he said that made a great difference.

.. he's not a big fan of Blackstar either, & neither am I.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 12:55 pm

I have to say having started off not being sure and then playing around with it for a couple of years I am 100% IN LOVE with my original Blackstar HT-5. Get an original - the updated HT5R is actually a downgrade in my estimation due to the extra clean tone knob effectively losing the 3 band EQ on that channel. Additionally why bother with an onboard reverb when you can pick up a bheringer reverb machine or other dedicated unit that will give you more options and better sondz and then stick that in the effects loop? I don't really get the appeal of onboard reverb unless it's a proper tank verb.

Basically the gain channel is fucking brilliant I KEEP buying fuzz pedals and distortions and not one seems to float my boat as much as the existing dirt channel near max. Not one. That ight mean this amp isn't the best for dirt pedals or, as i suspect, the dirt channel is FUCKING AWESOME.

I dunno anything about other blackstar amps but for the 160 I paid second hand for it? I'm thrilled with it. There's so much on offer for that kind of price. I've not yet conquered the clean goodness yet but I just found out today one recommendation to dime all 3 eq knobs to make it pop. I'll still pick up an MXR 10 band EQ and that basically means for home use I have an infinitely tweakable amp that gets everything I need.

Would I consider another amp? Yeah sure, probably in addition to, rather than in place of the blackstar.

i love it so much I'm thinking of re-tolexing it in racing green because I am a ponce.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 1:02 pm

...or fuck it.

I should say I don't think it matched the 1x12 Orange I got with it, but with the 1x15 I use now it gives it more bottom end grunt that suits it nicely.