HDB-Friendly Guitar Amplifier

[Newbie]

Thanks for all the input.

Am making a decision between:

- BlackStar HT5 + Cab

- Tech 21 TM30.

Just hope to get a good sound at low volumes when I'm on my pedal. Don't wanna have to re-tweak so much when I'm doing lives/jammings

 

[Ized]

I wouldnt recommend the Blackstar at all, to be honest. Drive was alright but a tad too muddy and cleans were er, nothing special? It had that sterile character and lacked any depth to speak of. Even my old solid state fender frontman amplifier beat the cleans on it by a mile.

I would rather settle for a nice clean amp with warmth, depth and character such as the AC4TV.

 

[Newbie]

Hmm I see. I'll probably drop by Peninsula to try it out.

AC4TV is a really small amp but highly recommended. I'll go down citymusic to give it a try as well; hope it takes pedal well. Gonna abuse the amp i'll be getting with lotsa pedals

I wouldnt recommend the Blackstar at all, to be honest. Drive was alright but a tad too muddy and cleans were er, nothing special? It had that sterile character and lacked any depth to speak of. Even my old solid state fender frontman amplifier beat the cleans on it by a mile.

I would rather settle for a nice clean amp with warmth, depth and character such as the AC4TV.

 

[MrBukka]

Just a small input as a blackheart user, it is a good amp at a good price too, i am able to have nice clean tones and classic crunch tones (reminiscent of old school marshalls) by diming the vol which makes it a really loud amp even though it has only 5 watts (it has a pentode/triode switch to reduce the power to 3 watts). Oh and if u plug this baby through an amp cab loaded with 12'' speakers, it will be so loud that u will rarely go past 9 o'clock on the volume at 3 watts! Solidly built, 3 band EQ, takes pedals really well, with options of taking different amp cabs (4 ohms, 8 ohms, 16 ohms), with plenty of mods that can be done to it easily, and an affordable price tag. I had mine modded by goose and have been using it for the past 1.5 years and counting.

On a side note, if u do not wanna buy a seperate amp head and cab, the blackheart combo comes with a custom eminence 12 inch speaker which is an advantage over the vox ac4tv. Both amps do not sound the same but are definitely great tube amps for musicians on a budget, so go and try the both of them out!

 

[MARKED]

hi sorry to hijack,but i'm looking for something similar.don't feel like starting another thread.
i also wanna see if there're any HDB-friendly amps with good cleans and can take pedals well.
i'm thinking of getting a Vox Pathfinder.retails @ $148 at City Music.any comments?

u can try my vox DA 15, its way more versatile with all the other built in effects, i m letting mine off at somewhere tt price too! its definitely enough for a bedroom rocker, with nice vox cleans. worked well with all my pedals, the 3 band eq is quite sensitive in my opinion.haha

 

[Hydesg]

Just curious. What mod did Goose did to your blackheart?

Just a small input as a blackheart user, it is a good amp at a good price too, i am able to have nice clean tones and classic crunch tones (reminiscent of old school marshalls) by diming the vol which makes it a really loud amp even though it has only 5 watts (it has a pentode/triode switch to reduce the power to 3 watts). Oh and if u plug this baby through an amp cab loaded with 12'' speakers, it will be so loud that u will rarely go past 9 o'clock on the volume at 3 watts! Solidly built, 3 band EQ, takes pedals really well, with options of taking different amp cabs (4 ohms, 8 ohms, 16 ohms), with plenty of mods that can be done to it easily, and an affordable price tag. I had mine modded by goose and have been using it for the past 1.5 years and counting.

On a side note, if u do not wanna buy a seperate amp head and cab, the blackheart combo comes with a custom eminence 12 inch speaker which is an advantage over the vox ac4tv. Both amps do not sound the same but are definitely great tube amps for musicians on a budget, so go and try the both of them out!

 

[Ized]

Hmm I see. I'll probably drop by Peninsula to try it out.

AC4TV is a really small amp but highly recommended. I'll go down citymusic to give it a try as well; hope it takes pedal well. Gonna abuse the amp i'll be getting with lotsa pedals

The AC4 does take pedals well, i can get a metallica chug with it using my seventheaven. Most fuzzes also sound rather harsh and thin through SS amps but the AC4 seems to take fuzzes well too.

My advice is to bring down your fav drive pedals and test them out with the amp to get a better idea. I did just that and I was sold.

 

[Newbie]

Maybe it's just me but whenever I use a 1x10/12 VS. 2x10/12, the difference is quite significant.

Like, it sounds more 'dry' when its on 1 speaker. Is there any logical explanation for the above or is it just my hearing?

 

[MrBukka]

Hi hydesg, basically i wanted goose to make the blackheart into a much cleaner amp with a higher head room that has a certain vox chime in it, when cranked it gets nice marshall grit for bluesy stuff. His first thought was to make it sound similar to a JTM in terms of tone but instead it became something that's more than that, it became some sort of a hybrid between a vox AC and a marshall JTM.

So as the story goes goose changed a couple of caps and resistors although i am not sure what he changed exactly, changed out my stock output transformer to a hammond, added a mojo "deep" switch that gave 2 different voicings to the amp, added a high/low input switch, high/low gain switch and lastly a change of preamp (mullard 12ax7) and power tubes (sovtek military grade el84) .

Basically it kinda made the simple blackheart into a mojo gooseheart if u get wat i mean lol!
Oh and i gotta thank u cause now it's running through ur former ceriatone 2X12 cab which makes the amp come alive!