Question for guitarists

[HA_DA_JA]

I was thinking off getting one of those Blackstar HT-5 amps.
I play guitar (not too well) and do some limited live band performances of small group of 200ish audiences.
I also record guitars and practise in bedroom.
So I dont know whether to go down the road of buying just the Blackstar HT-5H head or the just get the combo HT-5 unit.
Is the versatility of just the head really going to be used that often, that means I will have to get a separate cabinet.
But will the 10" combo give me all tonal palletes of really what I want?
Question questions, what are the answers??

[vanderlae]

If you're after your 'one stop shop' of sounds it may be more convenient to get the combo, especially if it will be mainly for personal/private use. Frankly there are better options for both live and studio but I agree that you can pack a lot of tone into a small amp. I'd rather use 2 small amps than one bigger amp, for instance. Anyway, something like small vox or fender may carve the tones you want but because it has less (or no) processing due to tricks like emulations and effects it will give you what your fingers and guitar say faithfully reproduced, and needless to say the recorded (or miked live) sounds will be nice, too. If you want masking and tricks though, go though HT.

[Gian]

I was thinking off getting one of those Blackstar HT-5 amps.
I play guitar (not too well) and do some limited live band performances of small group of 200ish audiences.
I also record guitars and practise in bedroom.
So I dont know whether to go down the road of buying just the Blackstar HT-5H head or the just get the combo HT-5 unit.
Is the versatility of just the head really going to be used that often, that means I will have to get a separate cabinet.
But will the 10" combo give me all tonal palletes of really what I want?
Question questions, what are the answers??

I have been playing guitar for about 25 years in various genres. And have had a few amps and guitars in my time. I also sometimes build 3-40 W tube guitar amps and some tube HIFI amps.

Just looked up the guitar. It is a 5 watt amp. You can get the head and a speaker cab, or just the combo.

Combos are convenient. Heads mean you can change the sound and to some extent the loudness.

You need to know what genre you are playing, as a 5W guitar amp will break up fairly early and sounds mostly bluesy up to high-gain. If you were to be playing jazz, for example, that amp would not be suitable playing in a combo for 200 people as you usually need a clean sound.

I think that any 5W amp is a great recording amp and smaller gigs where a distorted sound is required. But you need a little bit more headroom for gigs. Something like a blues junior 15W fender amp, tend to be a better option.

Just some thoughts.

[Gian]

Further to my above post, a note on speakers and guitar amps.

Speakers with high sensitivity (spl) of high 90s to over 100 give a louder sound before the sound starts to distort, while sensitivity of speakers under 90, the sound breaks up sooner.

For example, I built a 40ish watt guitar amp, like a fender bassman, played it through a vintage celestion 30, and sounded great, bluesy and rocky. Then I put the amp through an EV with higher sensitivity, and I had to turn it up heaps more before I got that same sound, so I found it sounded better as a jazz amp.

Amps and speakers are often things that guitarist mix and match to attain a particular sound.

[lonearranger]

Hi Dale,

A 5watt amp is a great option for practice and studio - esp if you dont have a sound proof or seperate room to place the amp in. The reviews of the blackstar 5w suggest it does not have much power before it starts to break up, so if you are looking for clean sounds then it may not be what you need.

If you are looking to play live you might want to look at something around the 15w mark.

Re combo vs head/speaker. If you are taking the amp on the road then its is certainly easier to take a combo, and if your combo has an output on the amp, which the speakers plug into then you always have the option of using with different cabs later on. If you are into heavier sort of guitar sounds then you may get a more suitable sound with a closed box. What types of amps are the players you like using?

Other amps to consider would be vox ac15 and the orange tiny terror (There is now a combo version too), and the fenders suggested by vanderlae. Some of these amps do have a low power mode too, which can help keeping the noise down and pulling sounds in the studio/bedroom.

You may also be better sinking the cash you save buying a combo rather than a seperate cab into upgrading the speaker in the combo, like a blue bulldog(or webber version) in an ac15. Again this can always be done down the track.

I think the approach of of the blackstar amps is still very much in the real tube amp no tricks type of thing. The ISF is really a tonal variation thing. The emulation is only used in the line out/headphone and does not come into play when using the speaker. I recently purchased the HT DUAL pedal and think they are making some good gear - goes from adding some nice crunch drive without fuzz to full on distortion, without the fizziness you get from lots of pedals. The pedal has the speaker emulation which seems more organic than most things that claim to bypass an amp for recording, but is not good enough to make me want to ditch a real amp any time soon.

Blackstar do have a 15w amp in the artisan range. I did try the 30w combo some time ago and though it had some nice sounds.

Best thing is to take your guitar out and try some of these amps and the combo/stack combinations and see what you like best in your price range. The sounds that make an amp stand out to me are the tones when it is moving between clean and dirty, and what happens to the tone when a chord is ringing out with a bit of dirt in it, are there any nasty aspects/harhness or fizzyness to the sound? Don't buy an amp based on the fully distorted sounds it can pull unless that is the only sound you will ever use.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Michael.

[Simon B]

from what you describe, the options of different speaker cabs wouldnt be used much so a head and then getting a speaker box seems more like a hassle

in my opinion go the combo, maybe chuck a celestion green 10 if you dont like the speaker..... and I am pretty sure the combo has a speaker out on it just in case you want to try a different cab. might need to check that though.

I hope this helps

Cheers Simon

[chris p]

NOOOOOO!!

Dale just sold me his spare 10" Celestion driver, don't encourage him to change his mind. They're crap, I tell you, crap!

[Simon B]

is it the cheap and nasty one, or the vintage 10 inch, or the greenback 10 inch?

[chris p]

g10 vintage

[Damien]

ok warning first. we stock and sell these amps.. i love them..

i have just been recording all weekend with the ht5 head and a artisan 212 open back speaker box... this combination was great.
i had the head in the control room, box in the live room as was able to get what we wanted quickly..

i love the combo (if i needed a small gig amp this would be it). the combo can still be plugged into an external speaker box (same as head) or used with the internal speaker

dont let the 5w thing scare you these things are loud. louder than a laney lionheart. they also break up much later than the lionheart on a clean sound. its a useable clean..

as i said i love these amps.

i have also set one up in leo sayers home studio for his harp (with an axxetrak speaker box). this is fantastic... we had lots of fun with the possible sounds.