Blackstar HT Dist mini-review

[fazool]

I bought one of these $199 tube pre-amp distortion pedals from MF's SDOTD for $79, which is a great deal.


So, I've had it for a bit now and wanted to share some thoughts in case anyone else is intrigued by this.




I have two solid-state amps so I bought this to add some tube overdrive.

The settings are quite finicky and with so many controls, there is a huge variety of tonal flavors you can get. But, being so finicky, I found it a bit frustrating to get that sound I was after. My SBA distortion pedal was just a plug-in-and-go pedal without a lot of fiddling.

This pedal does need a ton of fiddling when chasing a certain sound.

The output level is very sensitive as well. I'm going to swap around my pedals - right now I am sequencing my phase90 after distortion but this amp is hitting the input channel so hard that I actually gain volume through the phaser.

I was a little discouraged last night and tried two things. The first I did was crank my amp volume up. This made a huge difference in the quality of sound from this pedal. At low (bedroom) volumes, you simply aren't going to get what you need out of this pedal. But when you crank up your amp volume, the tube sound coming from this pedal really starts to show.

So, observation 1: it's a waste for low volume, quiet use. If you are going to play loudly, then this sounds much, much better.


The other thing I did when frustrated was to "start over" with my settings. Everyone espouses setting everything at 12-o'clock and adjusting from there. I got so frustrated, I turned the 3-band EQ knobs all down to "zero". All of them. I was getting way too much out of each band, so I "zero-ed" them out and my sound was amazing!

I am convinced the bandpass filtering of the EQ bands is super aggressive, so the drive circuit is "gained" more to push through it, muddying up the sound.

So, observation 2: turn the three band EQ all the way down, on every knob. Then dial them up a TINY bit to adjust the tone. These are way overkill adjustments.

Oh, one other thing. To warm up the 12AX7 tube, it pulses 300V apparently in during startup. If your amp is on you will get two or three blasts as it warms up. Turn your amp volume to zero until this tube is warmed up.

[blue]

Well we all have different experience bases, expections, and gear. I found, not quite the opposite, but a very "sounds good right out of the box" tone from this thing.

But I always start the "getting to know you" relationship with everything but gain at 12 oclock, or whatever the midpoint is, and the gain at less than a quarter. Going from there I pay no attention to what the knobs say, and just go by ear.

The USA/UK knob is to my ear a "thickness/muddy" knob. More articulate on the USA side, and more thick/creamy/muddy as you go british, so you know, the opposite of the stereotypes of the people from those countries

All I can suggest is if you get even close to a tone you want, take a pic with your phone of the settings, and go from there. It has more knobs than most of my amps. It'll take some time to truly figure it out for anybody!

I've played it exclusively through a tube amp at bedroom levels, and its character doesn't change at lower volumes on my rig. However my amp (a boogie) has different voices on different channels, from vox, through fender, to marshall. And true to form, distortion doesn't sound too good on a clean fender compared to the marshall or vox.

First thing I would do is see if using the speaker emulation out with headphones gives you a different experience. If so, it may be a matter of using your solid state amps as PAs and just setting them flat (using the standard output not the emulated).

Sorry it's a disappointment on your end. I love it and am super grateful you posted it. Time will tell if it's durable. But it certainly is working out for me for "heavy" tones, which is something I didn't really have covered before. I was considering the EVH 5150 pedal (it really is awesome and more versatile than you'd think), and this thing saved me $100 at least.

[fazool]

Originally Posted by blue

...

Sorry it's a disappointment on your end. ....

Oh, no, don't misunderstand me. Perhaps the tone of my post sounded unhappy. I am very happy with it. It took a while to get it right where I wanted it (soundwise) and now I love it.

In fact, what prompted me to write this post was how much I loved the sound last night (at like midnight-thirty) when I got the settings just right and was cranking the volume and using headphones - I could really hear how great this thing sounded. I love it.

It takes a little while to get everything just right, simply because there are so many settings.

[MBE]

I had one of these. Also had an HT-5 mini stack. I found the distortion on these Blackstars to be quite good, but way too homogenizing for my taste. Every guitar came out sounding like an overdriven Blackstar. It's a good sound, but not transparent like my favourite overdrives are.

[rmp]

Hi!

I have the HT DUAL, and I agree, they are finicky. The HT DUAL has two settings, one for crunch/light dist, and the other for higher gain settings. The higher gain "channel" is very touchy.

It doesn't take much of a change to make a huge difference when you are trying to get a good balanced live volume setting. especially the volume/level control.

The EQ settings are kind of sensitive too. so you gotta really watch what you're doing when your changing things on the fly, or, as I have discovered,, when you don't intend to, and your foot accidentally brushes one of the controls.. (Look out!!!) sound mans night mare right there.

Once I got it set to where I had it nailed for my rig, it sounds really good.

I've had to replace the power brick, got a bit wonky a few months ago. I've had it for close to two years now, and I didn't buy the extended warranty,, would have been worth it, because it was not cheap.. 80 bucks to get the one right one for this pedal. OUCH!

[fazool]

Originally Posted by rmp

...
I've had to replace the power brick, got a bit wonky a few months ago. ... 80 bucks to get the one right one for this pedal. OUCH!

Wow!

I got the whole pedal with power brick for $79 on MF's SDOTD

[Steve DeRosa]

If you're having a hard time controlling your output level and/or modifying your tone, I'd suggest looking at the OEM 12AX7 tube; while I'm not familiar with the Blackstar stompboxes I'm willing to bet it's running one of those $1.29 POS Chinese specials that also find their way into virtually all of the low-end tube amps - loads of gain (the younger headbangers seem to like them) but not much tonal refinement. Spring for a good-quality tonebottle - new Gold Lion, Mullard, Northern Electric, Tung-Sol Gold, even NOS/JAN if you're willing to pay the price (www.thetubestore.com has a great selection, as well as their excellent Preferred Series house brand) - and I think you'll be surprised at just how much tonal control you'll have; if you still have too much gain or insufficient tonal control, substitute a 5751 for the 12AX7 - JAN versions sell for about as much as a top-quality new-production 12AX7, and they're far more durable than the latter to boot...

[guitararmy]

Deal of the Hour today....