|
Blackstar HT Series HT-5H 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head
|
The HT-5H is the ultimate studio and practice head, packing all the great tone and innovative features of the award-winning HT valve pedals into a two channel, footswitchable valve combo. -
-
The patent-applied-for ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) circuit gives you infinite adjustment over the characteristics of the tone control network and takes you from the USA to the UK and any where in between. So now you can effectively design your own tone and finally find ‘the sound in your head.
|
Searched Blackstar HT Series HT-5H 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head in Reviews
Very nice for home use 
| Sound |
This is where this amp excels. Unlike a lot of the reviews I've looked at for this amp, I mainly focused on the clean channel because I use that most of the time. It's not quite Fender and it's not Marshall or Vox but it gets close to all of these on the clean side of things. It is not a sterile solid state clean, which I miss in some applications, but as with the other cleans I've mentioned, it gets pretty close with the volume down around 2-3. Even on clean settings there is a little chime/harmonic distortion when running the volume around 5, which gives the clean a great "mojo" for lack of a better word. It does not get gritty until you have the level up around 7-10, which moves into bluesy overdrive territory and is perfect for things like the Stones or dirty blues. The EQ and the ISF are pretty responsive. I found it took my pedals very well too. That is key for me since I like to get most of my distortion from various stomp boxes that I've accumulated. The beautiful thing about this amp is that it can handle those pedals, with a good clean channel, and it still has the distortion channel that is more than capable on it's own. Whereas the cleans went from clean to bluesy dirt, the distortion channel starts with a pretty saturated crunch and goes up to 80's thrash metal. The distortion channel was great and the only drawback the amp has is the shared EQ for each channel. It doesn't make things unusable, but it limits the amp's usability in a live setting. This is another reason why I prefer using my pedals for most of my distortions with this amp. The bass response was a bit muddy and the tone a bit boxy on the distortion channel when using the Blackstar 10" cab. However, it is not as noticeable when running through a 2X12 Marshall cab that I picked up. I believe that with an external EQ, or a quality cab, this is not an issue.
Most people looking at this product are probably looking for an alternative home use amp for recording and rehearsals that is portable and not too loud. This is probably one of the best on the market for that. The amp gets loud enough for rehearsals and small gigs, depending on the cabinet configuration you're using, but it can also be quiet enough for home use and as a recording amp. The emulated line out is good although I don't think it quite matches the amp's regular output tone. I also don't notice a huge difference between the 1x12 and the 4x12 configuration, although I tend to favor the 4x12 (this may just be psychological).
|
| Reliability |
It seems really well built. I'm not an amp tech and I haven't had it for that long, but it seems to be quality. The tolex around the head seems pretty thick and it is definitely classier in person. I like that there is a stand-by switch as I feel all tube amps should have these. There were some problems with the early runs of these amps that I remember reading about, but it seems that they've cleared up those issues. I'd like to note that the power tube used by this amp, 12BH-7 tube, is not the most readily available tube in most shops but EH makes one that can be gotten fairly easily from a major retailer or online.
|
| Customer Support |
Haven't needed to deal with them.
|
| Liked about it |
1. Great features in a small head that is very affordable - although they recently raised the price on these from $300 to $400 USD. It's still a good deal, but not quite the steal it was initially.
2. Pretty good clean channel and a great distortion channel in a small 5w package. More gain than the Mesa Express line as well as all the single channel 5w amps in it's price range.
3. Emulated line out is pretty good and more than capable of allowing you to record late at night or play with headphones. It mutes the speaker and you don't have to worry about frying your output transformer while you quietly wail away.
|
| Didn't like |
1. Recent price hike...I should have gotten it when I was looking at it months ago. Instead, I fork out an additional $100.
2. Shared EQ for the 2 channels - makes it a bit less versatile in a gig setting.
3. Knobs are chrome but don't offer much for seeing your settings, also a downer for a gig situation.
|
|
| Overall satisfaction: |
|
4.0 |
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this review
|
Small size, big tone
| Sound |
I use my LTD Viper and Epiphone LP with this amp, playing with SD and EMG pickups. I mainly use the gain channel of this amp which I find to be very impressive. I feel the amp really shines at approx half volume on the gaon channel. Clear, thick and articulate gain that really projects. Thanks to the ISF dial I have a unique high gain tone that is part Marshall grind and bite, and part Mesa tightness and thump.
|
| Reliability |
Have owned since late July '09 with zero problems. I have changed the stock (sovtek) preamp tube with an EH 12AX7 for a more pleasing sounding gain which gave the amp a bit more crunch and clarity.
|
| Customer Support |
No dealings
|
| Liked about it |
Things I like most about the amp are the size/wattage, the ISF tone shaping dial, and it's ability to create modern high gain tones at all volume levels.
|
| Didn't like |
I'm pretty satisfied overall with the amp, the footswitch cable length was solve easily with a female/female cable extender so no issues there.
|
|
| Overall satisfaction: |
|
5.0 |
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this review
|
Blackstar HT-5H - killer huge amp tone in a small
| Sound |
It seems that Blackstar have come up with a winning formula with the HT-5. Playing with the amp at extremely low volumes the HT-5 sounds a little muddy, but there is still a great tone there. It can easily be tightened up with the proprietary ISF knob.
Turn the amp right up and it sounds like a huge 100 watt stack, without the insane volume. Don’t get me wrong though, the HT-5 is still quite loud. I believe if it were paired up with the right speaker combo it will be more than sufficient for gigging.
The clean channel isn’t anything to write home about. It’s perfectly acceptable, without being really anything special. If you were wanting to play with the HT-5’s clean channel in a loud jam or small gig it probably wouldn’t cut it. 5watts doesn’t exactly lend itself to enough headroom for cleanliness.
You can however get a nice clean-ish sound out of the dirty channel when winding back your guitar’s volume knob. I primarily play on the dirty channel so the clean channel is not a real issue for me.
The dirty channel is where this amp really shines. There’s enough gain on tap to go from slight bluesy overdrive to fairly high gain metal tones. If there isn’t quite enough distortion for you throw an overdrive pedal in front of the amp and it becomes truly devastating.
The ISF knob really does make a difference to the HT-5’s tone. Keep the knob in the first half of its range and you’ll have a more US flavoured mid-cut tone, and the second half brings in the classic British tone.
I prefer a more woolly British sound from my amps, so I keep the ISF knob at about 3 o clock as I find it gives that classic Marshall-esque tone without getting too muddy.
There is a shared 3 band EQ comprising of bass, mid, and treble, and whilst sharing these seems somewhat compromising, it really isn’t a problem dialling in your sound, clean or dirty.
Starting with them at 12 o clock is probably the best place to start as it gets a pretty good tone straight out. I found that slight tweaks then brought out the exact tone I was after.
Turning the gain to 3 o clock, and the ISF to the aforementioned 3 o clock, and I was getting a great tone with enough grind for music like Iron Maiden and Metallica, and I could wind back the guitar’s volume knob enough to get to an almost completely clean sound, and everything in between.
|
| Reliability |
I haven't really had a chance to discover how reliable the HT-5H is, it seems exceptionally well built though. I don't forsee having problems with it.
|
| Customer Support |
I dealt with Blackstar's customer support before I bought the HT-5, and they are fantastic. Very quick to reply back to your questions, and extremely helpful. I had the customer support person checking things with the engineers to answer my questions!
|
| Liked about it |
- Amazing versatile tone at a bargain price
- Speaker cabinet emulator is a fantastic idea, and works quite well
- Looks great too...
|
| Didn't like |
- Looks great apart from the hard to read knobs
- Footswitch lead is a little too short
- Clean channel could have some more headroom
|
|
| Overall satisfaction: |
|
5.0 |
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this review
|
internal use: spec82 spec607 spec570
|
|
