Howdy!

I've been hunting for a decent valve amp, primarily home use for a while now. I also wanted something with plenty tonal options that could also manage a small gig just in case I grew a pair and fancied preforming live again. I was very close to buying a Marshall Class 5 but I found one that did everything I wanted (and more) the end!

This is my new Blackstar HT-5R Half Stack.



This amp totally exceeded all my expectations of what a 5watt amp could do. Its an absolute Tone Monster!



Here's the Spec from the Blackstar website:

Innovative 5 Watt valve head
1xECC83 and 1x12BH7 valves
Unique push pull power amp design
Award winning HT Pedal preamp
Two footswitchable channels
Enhanced tone controls
Patent-Applied-For Infinite Shape Feature (ISF)
Digital Stereo Reverb
Fully equipped for studio or practice
Speaker emulated output with 1x12 or 4x12 voicing
Effects loop with effects level switch
Footswitch included
Cool vintage styling
12" Blackbird 50 watt speaker, custom designed by Blackstar

And here's some close ups. Front & Back.





Comes with a cute little foot switch too!



The Big Hairy Review!

Clean Channel: Is great! The tone control gives a very usable range of tones from nice warm clean to bright and twangy with out being too dark or to harsh. Though my Strats sound amazing thought this amp I have to say My Godin Exit22 sounds unbelievably cool!

Overdrive Channel: Is F***'in Awesome! Absolutely no need to put a pedal in front of this amp. As far as overdrive goes it does it all: Sweet bluesy crunch to savage distortion! The ISF knob does a very good job of providing plenty of tonal options to choose from. The Blackstar's marketing slogan "The Tone In Your Head" is surprisingly appropriate.

Digital Reverb: Is tasty and works very well with both the Clean and overdrive channels. A great little feature!

HT-5R Head through a 4x12 Cab: Its pretty F***'in loud just through the 1x12 Cab but I was keen to see how it would handle a bigger cab. So when I demoed this amp I had the shop assistant run the Head through a Blackstar Series 1 4x12 angled cab. Blimey! Lets just say it can take it. Huge Sound, very gig worthy IMO!

Playing at Low Volume: I'm blown away by how good this amp sounds even at the lowest volumes. Both channels sound soooo good without making my ears bleed or scaring Mrs Bighair (and more importantly its Randel the Cat friendly)! Its perfect for home/bedroom use.

Other Features: I've only had it for a week or so and there are so many cool features I've yet to properly try out (Effects Loop, MP3 Line In or the Emulated Output). I'll update this when I've had a play with them.

Cost: All that cost me £389.00p. Worth every penny. Unfortunately It has eaten into my guitar building fund so it will be a while before I craft the next Big Hairy Geet.

This Amp Rocks and without question gets a 9/10 and the coveted Big Hairy Seal of Approval! love it!

Enjoy!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

Congratulations!,sounds like a cool amp.

Congrats on the new amp!!

I love my HT5R Mini Half Stack too!!!





I'm also going to check out the 40w and 60w Blackstar Combos.

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Chet Feathers

Authorized TonePros Dealer
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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Congrats Andy,I read a lot of good things about the Blackstar amps.Aren't they the company that's made up of ex Marshall engineers and employees?

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Congratulations on a nice little amp Andy!! Enjoy my friend!!

Nice score Andy........ Randel Rules

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Howdy!

Cheers Chaps!


Correct! Here's a link to the Blackstar Staff Profiles. Most of them worked for Marshall at some point. Bruce Keir was their Technical Director.

Apparently they were getting bored designing features that didn't fit the "Marshall Sound" so they left and started Blackstar Amps 4 years ago. Clearly a smart move!


HA! If I knew Chet had one I wouldn't have bothered looking at anything else and just bought one months ago!

Hope your well Chet and let us know what you think of those combos!


Randel the Cat says "Hi Mike...got any Fish?"

Enjoy!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

Sounds like a great little amp! And if gets a "Big Hairy Seal Of Approval" and an endorsement by Chet, must be a fine sounding amp!

Enjoy the new score.

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

Cheers man!

Chet's approval is all you need! That guy has excellent taste.

Andy

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Pending Greatness

+1111111111111111111 to all the rest.
----Danny,

Mighty fine!!!

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You dig?

At first glance something looked way out of scale in the pic. until I realized it was a lunchbox ampl. The infinite shape feature on those amps is something I want to play with. Does it adjust the bias to get the tonal differences?

A very fine amp you've got there andy. I've been impressed with the BlackStar gear I'v ehad a chance to check out. Enjoy that bad boy.

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Cracking little amp Andy, had a play with one and a bigger brother a while back while pedal searching, very impressed had I been looking for an amp I'd have popped for one of them no problem, jumped on their HT Drive pedals though, wouldn't hesitate if I was looking for a small amp, enjoy

Awesome!! I need to try one of those myself, I've been seeing some bands using them live when we play out.

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