djroge1 Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 I had some time to kill so I went to the local GC and played around for a wee bit. I played 4 different Tele's and then I saw the HT-5 by Blackstar. Plugged in a LP studio and played around with the amp a bit. It's got some heavy distortion and the dial is supposed to go from American Recitfier (mesa) to British Marshall. Both are very saturated distortion sounds. I didn't play as long or as much with this amp as I'd have liked because there were some kids playing some metal stuff near by (showing off for his girlfriend) and I had to leave to pick up my wife at work. For the price it was decent though if you like those heavy distorted sounds - go check them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVeeWee Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 As a Blackstar HT-5 ministack owner, I find it great to see an amp expert like you djroge1 trying out this new brand. However I can't fully agree with your final conclusion, as if this is an amp you reserve only for heavey distortion sounds. The HT-5 gives me a broad range of sounds, from a real nice clean sound(and I even compare this with my Fender princeton) towards a heavy distorted sound... IMHO, for the price you've got yourself a polyvalent tube amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiamondJig Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 I just picked a full stack up @ my GC, they had it on sale for 499, then I did a price match with a samash coupon http://www.samashmusic.com/coupons/ 100 off to get it for 399. I see online they are now going for 799. Any way very nice little amp with nice features and the speakers sound pretty good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJustice Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 As DeVeeWee said, this is a versatile little amp. I mostly use the amp clean, getting the distortion from other boxes when I need it, although the high gain channel on the HT-5 is pretty good in itself and sometimes I use that too. BTW, mine is the mini stack, which is insanely loud for being 5W. Definitely a good amp, both clean and distorted. For the money, you can't go wrong. I'm even pondering whether I should get one more for a stereo setup... DJ -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 As a Blackstar HT-5 ministack owner' date=' I find it great to see an amp expert like you djroge1 trying out this new brand. However I can't fully agree with your final conclusion, as if this is an amp you reserve only for heavey distortion sounds. The HT-5 gives me a broad range of sounds, from a real nice clean sound(and I even compare this with my Fender princeton) towards a heavy distorted sound... IMHO, for the price you've got yourself a polyvalent [b']tube [/b]amp. Hey De, I didn't mean for what I said to be a definative review. I would have liked to play it longer without other loud guitars right aroung me. I only briefly tried the clean sound. What I tried to do in my short time playing was to hear the difference between the American and British sound. So please don't think of what I said as negative. Also, thanks for compliment about amp expert, but IMHO I believe others here are actually more knowledgeable, but thanks (unless that was sarcasism.. then well) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 When you guys say you use clean sounds on this amp, does this amp have a lot of headroom? or you mean playing at low volume? My experience is that if you have 5 watts tube you either get cleans if the amp has a negative feedback resistor or you get the overdrive that a 5 watter will inevitably give you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVeeWee Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Hey De' date=' I didn't mean for what I said to be a definative review. I would have liked to play it longer without other loud guitars right aroung me. I only briefly tried the clean sound. What I tried to do in my short time playing was to hear the difference between the American and British sound. So please don't think of what I said as negative. Also, thanks for compliment about amp expert, but IMHO I believe others here are actually more knowledgeable, but thanks (unless that was sarcasism.. then well)[/quote'] No sarcasism djroge1, I meant what I wrote about you being an amp expert(for example, I'm not)and sure man I know your review wasn't as complete as you wanted it to be due to the circumstances at your local GC. I just wanted to state that for that price you've got yourself a nice 5W-tube amp with a broad range of sounds...and to end with DrJustice words, insanely loud for a 5 watter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJustice Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 When you guys say you use clean sounds on this amp' date=' does this amp have a lot of headroom? or you mean playing at low volume? My experience is that if you have 5 watts tube you either get cleans if the amp has a negative feedback resistor or you get the overdrive that a 5 watter will inevitably give you.[/quote'] It doesn't have the largest headroom. In my case, when playing it clean, it's not cranked up much. So I guess that relatively speaking I'm playing it at a fairly low volume and thus not pushing the headroom a lot. Still it's as loud as I dare while sitting right next to it (I like to take good care of my still fairly good hearing). DJ -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 I play my HT-5 thru a 1970something Fender solid state combo thats had the power chassis removed and I converted to a speaker cab..........it's a closedback cab with 1x12" Jensen speaker. The clean channel thru this rig breaks up beautifully anywhere from about 2 o'clock on up the dial......... The breakup reminds me of actual Vintage Fender amps.......I LOVE IT !!!!!!!! Headroom? eh, it's 5 watts. On the OD channel, it sure doesn't take much (9 oclock will do it) to give your cound a good crunch, and not be "artificial sounding-or-too much" ...I use the ISF knob on about 1 o'clock, where it almost sounds like my antique Brittish Univox (pre-Japan) did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbtop Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I own the HV5 combo. You have to mess with the tone knobs (esp. the mid) while you're fiddling with that ISF knob to really find the sound you're looking for. I hooked my Alesis PicoVerb up to it for reverb/delay. But for only 5 watts, it's plenty loud. I haven't turned mine up past 9:00. Great little amp! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAS44 Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I didn't play as long or as much with this amp as I'd have liked because there were some kids playing some metal stuff near by (showing off for his girlfriend) and I had to leave to pick up my wife at work. I was there not to long ago... a kid had a 50W Mesa turned al the way up all gain... I couldnt hear myself think let alone play... when ppl o that it annoys the sh*t out of me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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