Audioholic
New member
Tell me whats up on the HT-100 heads. Really liked the tones from the HT-5, is this an improvement or just more of the same? PRo's and cons appreciated.
M
mrkmas
New member
Never used one, but have not heard alot of negative about the blackstar heads overall. From what I hear they are pretty solid 
Audioholic
New member
mrkmas":20jfauwf said:Never used one, but have not heard alot of negative about the blackstar heads overall. From what I hear they are pretty solid
I was blown away by the HT-5. I mean it wasn't perfect, but I have spent much more money and not get the sound that I have wanted, and I really gelled to the Blackstar sound you know. It was tight, yet not harsh, and just had a nice sound to it, and recorded well, I had not as good of luck with more expensive stuff sadly. Just curious if the bigger bro is an improvement, the price seems really good you know.
M
mrkmas
New member
Audioholic":190sr1y2 said:mrkmas":190sr1y2 said:Never used one, but have not heard alot of negative about the blackstar heads overall. From what I hear they are pretty solid
I was blown away by the HT-5. I mean it wasn't perfect, but I have spent much more money and not get the sound that I have wanted, and I really gelled to the Blackstar sound you know. It was tight, yet not harsh, and just had a nice sound to it, and recorded well, I had not as good of luck with more expensive stuff sadly. Just curious if the bigger bro is an improvement, the price seems really good you know.
Woops, I worded that poorly. I used the 5 before, But it was so long ago I dont really remember it that well. I remember I didnt hate it though haha. The 100 watters do seem like a great value for what they do but those I have never played. For me personally, the HT-100 is a shared EQ so that wouldnt jive with me. I would need the HT 104 which has seperate EQ.
LP Freak
Well-known member
I checked out the new 104EL34 and have to say it sounds really good. There's allot of different tones available in it for sure. It's got a great clean channel, loop sounds great, takes pedals well, and feels solid. What more can you ask?
Audioholic
New member
Yeah but there is a thousand dollar price difference between those two heads no?
Neeklaus
New member
B
bigangryguitar
Member
I have had the ht-100 for a year now. It is by far my favorite head I have owned to date. It is very marshall-like but with a touch of Mesa in there. It is made in Korea and comes stock with crap tubes and the knobs feel a bit cheap but other than that the build quality is good. The board does use some surface mount stuff but I have yet to hear of any reliability issues with it. Here are my thoughts as far as pro's and con's:
Pros:
Killer modded Marshall high gain tones, two lead channels each with a voicing switch. The voicing switches take you from pretty old school up to in your face molten metal. You don't need a boost but I prefer one (that is true of EVERY amp I have ever had). The ISF control let's you go from very thick mids (kind of a Marshall\orange cross) or to the other direction still middy but very, very tight and articulate. All the tone controls are very active and interactive. After a year i'm still finding new sounds in this amp.
Clean channel is absolutely fantastic, has two modes which both sound killer. This clean channel is as good as anything I have tried on a channel switcher once I put a nos 12au7 in v3, before that it was good. One of the more dramatic tube changes I have ever had.
Effects loop, Master volume and even the emulated out are all stellar. I have found nothing the loop doesn't like and it's switcheable between +4 and -10.
Cons:
For me this list is pretty short but others will disagree i'm sure.
1. The amp is a bit dark by nature and a tad compressed but it's nothing a tube swap to a lower gain preamp tube won't fix if you want it a bit more open. I currently have a 12ay7 in v2 and it makes the orange channel more of a crunch to hard rockish channel and leaves the lead channel to the high gain, metal stuff. nice setup this way we'll see if it stays, I have a tendancy to swap tubes way too much :O
2. Still not 100% sure on the build quality of the pcb board, seems a bit thin but I have yet to or hear of anyone having issues. Kind of reminds me of the board from the Engl I had, seems like it could be beefier but holds up.
3. I have heard people say it feels a bit solid state to them which I disagree on 100%. It does have zender diodes in there much like a Jose Mod so i'm sure that's where that comes from but to me it's pure bliss.
4. without either an overdrive or cranking the clean channel you don't get a ton in the way of great lower gain tones. Having said that with a good overdrive on the clean channel it's my idea of a great blues sound.
5. Fairly picky about guitars, tubes, pickups etc.
Overall for what these things cost it is the steal of the century. I have owned a number of great amps over the years and this is easily my favorite due to the flexibility it has and not having anything I don't like about it. There are amps out there that do singular things better but I have yet to come across a lot of amps that can cover the amount of territory this thing does so well.
_Shane
Pros:
Killer modded Marshall high gain tones, two lead channels each with a voicing switch. The voicing switches take you from pretty old school up to in your face molten metal. You don't need a boost but I prefer one (that is true of EVERY amp I have ever had). The ISF control let's you go from very thick mids (kind of a Marshall\orange cross) or to the other direction still middy but very, very tight and articulate. All the tone controls are very active and interactive. After a year i'm still finding new sounds in this amp.
Clean channel is absolutely fantastic, has two modes which both sound killer. This clean channel is as good as anything I have tried on a channel switcher once I put a nos 12au7 in v3, before that it was good. One of the more dramatic tube changes I have ever had.
Effects loop, Master volume and even the emulated out are all stellar. I have found nothing the loop doesn't like and it's switcheable between +4 and -10.
Cons:
For me this list is pretty short but others will disagree i'm sure.
1. The amp is a bit dark by nature and a tad compressed but it's nothing a tube swap to a lower gain preamp tube won't fix if you want it a bit more open. I currently have a 12ay7 in v2 and it makes the orange channel more of a crunch to hard rockish channel and leaves the lead channel to the high gain, metal stuff. nice setup this way we'll see if it stays, I have a tendancy to swap tubes way too much :O
2. Still not 100% sure on the build quality of the pcb board, seems a bit thin but I have yet to or hear of anyone having issues. Kind of reminds me of the board from the Engl I had, seems like it could be beefier but holds up.
3. I have heard people say it feels a bit solid state to them which I disagree on 100%. It does have zender diodes in there much like a Jose Mod so i'm sure that's where that comes from but to me it's pure bliss.
4. without either an overdrive or cranking the clean channel you don't get a ton in the way of great lower gain tones. Having said that with a good overdrive on the clean channel it's my idea of a great blues sound.
5. Fairly picky about guitars, tubes, pickups etc.
Overall for what these things cost it is the steal of the century. I have owned a number of great amps over the years and this is easily my favorite due to the flexibility it has and not having anything I don't like about it. There are amps out there that do singular things better but I have yet to come across a lot of amps that can cover the amount of territory this thing does so well.
_Shane
M
mrkmas
New member
Since my original post, I manage to play one. The cleans were soso, at low volume. I found them kind of sterile but to be honest I am extremely picky about the clean channel of any amp. The OD channels were great and covered alot of ground. Overall for the price range a great amp.
Audioholic
New member
mrkmas":1kdyu1zz said:
cool, I Barely play clean cleans anyway..
B
bigangryguitar
Member
Audioholic":1d26d72o said:
For a channel switcher the cleans are really nice but as I said they but absolutely crap glass in these and they are biased cold. Is it a twin, no but I can count the number of channel switching clean channels on one hand that are better with a good nos preamp tube in there.