After listening to the hum on the Epiphone Valve Junior for far too often, I decided to get rid of it and, wound up getting a Blackstar HT-1 to replace it. The only way the VJ sounded good was with a booster in front of it! I could have had it modded but, the blackstar came with headphone compability for after hours playing. Here is the new mini one watter:

I love how to-the-point these little tube practice amps are. Takes just a moment to set it and forget it.

How are you liking it jacstrat?

Real easy to use. Great tone. Unlike the VJ I dumped, it is quiet. I dig the headphone feature as well. Using just 3 knobs there is a great variation on tones you can pull up as well. Do you know what kind of speaker it has in it? I don't feel like opening it up right now and, the Blackstar site did not tell me. I may check out their forum at least just to find out. Part of the thing about Blackstar that I read and hear about is ease of use, as well as excellent tone. I wonder what kind of tubes are in there as well?

It's a Blackbird 15, it's same as the one they use in the 4 x 8 cab!

Thank you!

hi , sorry to hear about the probs with your EVJ , i have the head version which was modded before i got it , it's had a master volume and tone added and 2 gain switches , it's a great sounding tube amp , you should hear it through a marshall 1960A 4x12 cab , sounds superb and not a bit of hum . I have heard that the can sound a bit lifeless before modding though , and a headphone socket would be a bonus but hey , it is what it is i took mines to a rehersal one day , i was getting some funny looks to start with , that wasn't long in changing loud enough for drums and bass going in a rehersal room , and it's nice and light , i hope you have much fun with the little blackstar , it looks well cool , cheers
Alan

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i have the ht-60 and i love it. RCB told me about a boost pedal that really, really impressed me.
cool to see so many others diggin' these amps. thanx chet.

[quote="alanssaab"]hi , sorry to hear about the probs with your EVJ , i have the head version which was modded before i got it , it's had a master volume and tone added and 2 gain switches , it's a great sounding tube amp , you should hear it through a marshall 1960A 4x12 cab , sounds superb and not a bit of hum . I have heard that the can sound a bit lifeless before modding though , and a headphone socket would be a bonus but hey , it is what it is i took mines to a rehersal one day , i was getting some funny looks to start with , that wasn't long in changing loud enough for drums and bass going in a rehersal room , and it's nice and light , i hope you have much fun with the little blackstar , it looks well cool , cheers

I had purchased one that sounded perfect. I took it back and got another one because the tolex was ripped on it. The second one I got, which is the one I traded, was cosmetically perfect but, It had an awful hum, which seemed to only get worst! I tried a different speaker and, it helped some but, the hum was still there. After putting the original speaker and tubes back; I noticed when I put a LBP-1 power booster in front it sounded pretty good! The hum was still bugging me however. I could see me getting another one in the future in the head version. I've heard that now they have fixed the hum problems on the later versions.