new blackstar mini stack/combo fao mike/lamp
Moderated By: mods
OK, I went into the local GC today to pick up the red jaguar I was talking about for 459 USD new... (awesome price...) and I saw a HT-5 stack 499 USD. Well, since I have been waiting for the egnater to come in I decided tp plug the jag into the ht-5... Needless to say in less than 5 minutes they were pulling boxes out of the back and I walked out with a MIM jaguar and the ht-5 stack.. I had 20% off 1 item xmas qpon as well, so it was 400USD for the head and 2 cabinets...........I may still get another egnater down the road to throw on the second cabinet, or a used TT or something, but it is a pretty cool.amp....
They say great minds think alike....Sometimes we do too...
I don't have the ability to do samples. If I can;t get around to it, I may see if DOTS, St Jimmy, Chico, AL, or Dogma wants some one on one time with it... They can do some demos. I just don't have anything set up at home and even when I am home, I got 2 kids running around making demos hard..
It looks and sounds cool as hell though.
It looks and sounds cool as hell though.
They say great minds think alike....Sometimes we do too...
So, first impressions
It sounds awesome... I have only been playing at bedroom levels and it sounds great, the controls give you alot of tonal room, and it actually sounds great at low volume. By low volume, my wife was in the next room playing zoo tycoon and didn't even know I was playing.
The ISF function really only seems to make a big differenc when the mid is dropped down some, but when you have the mids at noon or below, you can definitely hear how it affects the sound...
The overdrive is great...Slightly chimey cleans to blues up to grunge tones no problem...Throw a pedal in front of it and you could probably get your Megadeth on.
The cabinets sound good and the fit/finish is awesome. It even comes with all the speaker cables (actually the head comes with 2 cables and each cabinet came with 1 so now I have 4... And the footswtich is definitely included (although way too short of a cable at like maybe 10 feet long. you can tell the plan for this was practice and home studio...How you gonna use the footswitch on a stage.
I will check it out more tommorrow at a better volume and update.
It sounds awesome... I have only been playing at bedroom levels and it sounds great, the controls give you alot of tonal room, and it actually sounds great at low volume. By low volume, my wife was in the next room playing zoo tycoon and didn't even know I was playing.
The ISF function really only seems to make a big differenc when the mid is dropped down some, but when you have the mids at noon or below, you can definitely hear how it affects the sound...
The overdrive is great...Slightly chimey cleans to blues up to grunge tones no problem...Throw a pedal in front of it and you could probably get your Megadeth on.
The cabinets sound good and the fit/finish is awesome. It even comes with all the speaker cables (actually the head comes with 2 cables and each cabinet came with 1 so now I have 4... And the footswtich is definitely included (although way too short of a cable at like maybe 10 feet long. you can tell the plan for this was practice and home studio...How you gonna use the footswitch on a stage.
I will check it out more tommorrow at a better volume and update.
They say great minds think alike....Sometimes we do too...
- Mike
- I like EL34s
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I saw one in Vintage & Rare on Saturday, they do look very nice (by the way your Boss sounds fucking awesome!)
Do me a favour and try some low palm-muting around 3 o clock on the gain channel (which is a lot of Gain I gather), apparently there is an issue with some bad "farty" clipping due to the ancient 240V/230V thing (people design for 230 for Europe and since we have 240V things sometimes go wrong)
See this thread for discussion:
http://www.musicradar.com/forum/showthr ... 00&page=12
This is the pertinent post from Blackstar themselves:
Do me a favour and try some low palm-muting around 3 o clock on the gain channel (which is a lot of Gain I gather), apparently there is an issue with some bad "farty" clipping due to the ancient 240V/230V thing (people design for 230 for Europe and since we have 240V things sometimes go wrong)
See this thread for discussion:
http://www.musicradar.com/forum/showthr ... 00&page=12
This is the pertinent post from Blackstar themselves:
I see myself getting the stack in 6 months or so so I can get a rev 2.0 version.As a company we are very wary of intervening on user forums as we believe that companies should not use forums to promote their products or put a positive spin on any customer service issues. However, in this case we feel that some clarification of the current situation is required.
The HT-5 palm muting issue is caused by ‘mains overvoltage’. This is where the mains supply voltage varies significantly above its nominal rated value. This issue is prevalent in the UK where historically the mains voltage has been 240V rather than the standard European 230V. This is compounded by the fact that mains supplies can vary significantly locally, so some areas of the UK may be more susceptible than others. Although we always extensively test new products before their launch, this mains variance means that a minority of HT-5 users in the UK may experience the palm muting issue on units from the first production run. We have now implemented a simple modification to the HT-5 making it immune to these mains voltage fluctuations.
We will of course remedy any HT-5 problems that any Blackstar user may have. If you have experienced the HT-5 overvoltage issue than please return the unit to the dealer you made the purchase from.
As musicians ourselves we are very passionate about Blackstar products and take all customer service issues extremely seriously. We are also very proud of our UK dealer network and are confident that Blackstar customers will always receive first class service from them. Obviously, if this is ever not the case you can contact us directly at enquiries@blackstaramps.com or 01536 312620, on this or any other issue.
I came across that forum while googling issues with the amp and this is pretty much the only thing which is stopping me from buying one. Hopefully its not a huge issue. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.Mike wrote:I saw one in Vintage & Rare on Saturday, they do look very nice (by the way your Boss sounds fucking awesome!)
Do me a favour and try some low palm-muting around 3 o clock on the gain channel (which is a lot of Gain I gather), apparently there is an issue with some bad "farty" clipping due to the ancient 240V/230V thing (people design for 230 for Europe and since we have 240V things sometimes go wrong)
See this thread for discussion:
http://www.musicradar.com/forum/showthr ... 00&page=12
This is the pertinent post from Blackstar themselves:
I see myself getting the stack in 6 months or so so I can get a rev 2.0 version.As a company we are very wary of intervening on user forums as we believe that companies should not use forums to promote their products or put a positive spin on any customer service issues. However, in this case we feel that some clarification of the current situation is required.
The HT-5 palm muting issue is caused by ‘mains overvoltage’. This is where the mains supply voltage varies significantly above its nominal rated value. This issue is prevalent in the UK where historically the mains voltage has been 240V rather than the standard European 230V. This is compounded by the fact that mains supplies can vary significantly locally, so some areas of the UK may be more susceptible than others. Although we always extensively test new products before their launch, this mains variance means that a minority of HT-5 users in the UK may experience the palm muting issue on units from the first production run. We have now implemented a simple modification to the HT-5 making it immune to these mains voltage fluctuations.
We will of course remedy any HT-5 problems that any Blackstar user may have. If you have experienced the HT-5 overvoltage issue than please return the unit to the dealer you made the purchase from.
As musicians ourselves we are very passionate about Blackstar products and take all customer service issues extremely seriously. We are also very proud of our UK dealer network and are confident that Blackstar customers will always receive first class service from them. Obviously, if this is ever not the case you can contact us directly at enquiries@blackstaramps.com or 01536 312620, on this or any other issue.