ShortScale.org

Probably not the most exciting piece of gear ever, but my only amp purchase for 7+ years, and the first guitar related purchase at all for about 5. So it gets its own thread.

I’d been struggling with a solution for playing at home, especially when Mrs NickD is working and I’m not. My 18w Marshall is too loud, even with the attenuator on full, and the Roland Cube is a bit tinny to be honest, fine clean, and the effects are fun, but I don’t find the amp models all that satisfying. So I end up playing unamplified most of the time.

My local Cash Converters has had this Blackstar HT5 in for a little while, but it was too expensive TBH. They reduced it recently, and I made a cheeky offer a little below that, and got it this morning.

First impressions are that it sounds great at the volumes I need it to run at, I’ve gone through the different modes and voicings and settled on a vintage American sound, so probably an approximation of an old Fender. The 12 inch speaker means it has decent enough bass response, and on the 0.5 watt setting it isn’t disturbing Mrs NickD. Result. It also has the bonus of fitting pretty neatly between the cd racks and the records, so it doesn’t look messy in my office. It’s got a load of features too, line in, speaker emulated jack and line out, which also works on headphones.

No idea what it sounds like cranked, probably nowhere near as good as the Marshall, but then that isn’t the point.

Looks nice!

That’s very cool, great score!

Looks great!

I remember when these came out and changed the game - I can't remember people being that fussed about low wattage amps at the time.

Does it have that ISF control thingie?

Is the speaker emulated jack useable as a headphone output?

Like a small, handsome, rectangular elephant

Mike wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 3:54 pm I remember when these came out and changed the game - I can't remember people being that fussed about low wattage amps at the time.

Does it have that ISF control thingie?

Is the speaker emulated jack useable as a headphone output?

ISF - yes.

The speaker emulated Jack is intended to double as a headphone Jack and it sounds OK, definitely usable if I’m going to be playing late at night - but it sounds better, fuller really, through the speaker. I think it defaults to the 0.5w setting when using headphones as the switch does nothing once the headphones are plugged in.

Doog wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 4:12 pm Like a small, handsome, rectangular elephant

NickD wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 4:14 pm

Mike wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 3:54 pm I remember when these came out and changed the game - I can't remember people being that fussed about low wattage amps at the time.

Does it have that ISF control thingie?

Is the speaker emulated jack useable as a headphone output?

ISF - yes.

The speaker emulated Jack is intended to double as a headphone Jack and it sounds OK, definitely usable if I’m going to be playing late at night - but it sounds better, fuller really, through the speaker. I think it defaults to the 0.5w setting when using headphones as the switch does nothing once the headphones are plugged in.

It’ll be tapping off before the power stage(no point as no speaker to drive) so unsurprising that switch has no effect

It’s basically pre amp out via some filtering to emulate a speaker I think

the ht's are great value amps. congrats !

i've an ht1 that i really like a lot for in my apartment

Doog wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 4:12 pm Like a small, handsome, rectangular elephant

This. No one can feel that they've achieved everything if they don't have an elephant like that in the room.

Very nice. It looks like it was made for that wee space too!! The decent sized speaker def helps with still getting enough thump at low volumes.

An empty house for a few minutes this lunchtime, so I had the chance to dime the clean channel - it gets a decent crunch sound turned all the way up, and even on 0.5 watt setting, surprisingly loud, certainly enough to get the speaker working properly.

very cool and great job picking this up affordably. gear prices have gone so wild of late, it's nice to hear we can still take some back. any of the setting foot-switchable?

dots wrote: ↑Fri Feb 11, 2022 3:57 pm very cool and great job picking this up affordably. gear prices have gone so wild of late, it's nice to hear we can still take some back. any of the setting foot-switchable?

I haven’t explored the functionality yet, so can’t speak to how easy it is, but there is a foot switch and it covers clean-drive and switches modes when in clean and drive channels.