Blackstar amps

brendansmith

http://www.blackstaramps.co.uk/products/ht-5/ht-5.html

Anyone have any experience with these amps or the one above in particular?

'Blackstar, jewel of the night-ta!'

Yakult

Never played one, but are supposed to be very good amps.

Theirs actually a blackstar stack in my local so I will go and play that today

johnboy8

just ordered the ht5 head myself.looking forward to hearing it.

Sergio

Blackstar is a company that was setup by afew guys who used to work with marshall for years as techs/engineers.
their stuff amps&pedals are very impressive as i heard them this year when i was over at the london guitar show.

brendansmith

R_H_C_P wrote: »

Never played one, but are supposed to be very good amps.

Theirs actually a blackstar stack in my local so I will go and play that today

Please do, try the ht5 combo too if you could and tell us what its like.

johnboy8 wrote: »

just ordered the ht5 head myself.looking forward to hearing it.

Yeah it seems to have alot more features than the tiny terror or the little giant, wuoth the footswitch, tone knobs etc.


Also what is meant by 'effects loop'

boycey

Ive asked the lads in X-music to let me know as soon as the HT5 heads come in, Im gassin big time for one!! Theres a great demo on you-tube too-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQjADxog0Es

BTW Brendan, I cant think of a good techie answer for an effects loop, but its basically a send and return (output & input) where people usually stick in their modulation effects like chorus, delay etc so that they get a 'cleaner' effect without it getting mushed up by any distortion or gain. I like using them , many others dont. Theres no right or wrong when it comes to using effects, that the fun of it!!

Sofaspud

The effects loop goes between the preamp and the poweramp, basically meaning that the "send" bit outputs the sound of the amp after it's been coloured by the EQ / gain / whatever from the amp. This can go into effects pedals so the exact sound being modulated is the sound that would e going to the speakers. The return goes straight back into the poweramp, and through the speaker, so whatever goes into the return is amplified.

Even if you were to plug something else into the return, i.e. a multiFX, you could completely bypass the sound of the amp's preamp and only amplify the exact sound coming out of the pedal.

Yakult

brendansmith wrote: »

Please do, try the ht5 combo too if you could and tell us what its like.

Is that the 5watt combo or 15?

Is its the 15 I could give it a go for you!

Paolo_M

brendansmith wrote: »

Also what is meant by 'effects loop'

An effects loop allows your to insert effects pedals after the preamp section of the amp so as not to colour the preamp tone.

It works best for modulating effects such a chorus, delay etc.
Think of your normal effects chain before the amp. I'm guessing you'd normally put your chorus after the overdrive because this is what (usually) sounds best. That's what the loop does, you can use your chorus after the amps preamp circuit. It's, in effect, chorusing your distortion rather distorting you chorus which sounds, subjectivley, better.

The driver for developing the FX loop came from musicians who wanted to replicate studio created effects in their live rig, things like delay etc. In the studio these effects are (usually) added to the straight guitar track afterwards which gives a, subjectivley, better tone. Putting these pedal effects before the amp just didn't cut it and so the FX Loop came about.

The "send" circuitry drops the signal level down to a level usable by the pedal (without overdriving them, some preamp signals can be 80V+) and also reduces the impedance of the signal down to a low level which the pedal cannot "load". This usually requires a preamp valve section or transistor in cathode/drain/emmiter follower configuration. The "return" circuit takes the signal returning from the effects and boosts it back up to the level that the signal was at before it was "sent" to the loop.

A well designed FX loop circuit should not "colour" the tone in any way except, obviously, from the effects themselves.

Having said all of that, people have used delay, chorus, flange etc. for years between the guitar and amp and not many have died from the "poor" tone produced!! :pac:

brendansmith

R_H_C_P wrote: »

Is that the 5watt combo or 15?

Is its the 15 I could give it a go for you!

Its the 5 watter!

Yakult

gah they only have the 15 if that would do any good?

brendansmith

R_H_C_P wrote: »

gah they only have the 15 if that would do any good?

I think the 5 watt is class a/b and the 15 watt is class A.

Still id like to hear what anyone has to say about black star amps in general.:):)