It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
It's pretty universally regarded as an extremely average speaker of no noticeable character, which is why it's often used in cheaper modelling amps. It has no place at all in an upmarket valve amp.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
"I wish there was a head option - maybe aimed at the studio brigade. " Aha! Now Mac', the head versions of the Artisan 15/30 came quite a bit later. Whether that was customer led I have no idea. I am however pretty sure that the S1 50 head and some others WERE the result of customer pressure.
On the 'studio' front? Re ICBM's beef about Top Controls. I think the SE amps are actually aimed at the studio and home jockey market a bit and these guys largely sit down and widdle with their amps? As a six footer I find my HT-20 head a bit of a pain even atop a Greenback in a cab?
I can see the logic in 'ten watts'. The gig scenario is, I understand, moving ever more to lower power amps and PA? I still don't like single ended tho! I suspect marketing's dead hand here. If you want a 10 watter, 2 X 6V6. Pick a decent pair and they will last forever! ...LOVE to know if they are fixed or cathode biased (or, like the EL34 20, a bit of both).
Dave.
It may not be entirely down to marketing either - single-ended does have a 'certain sound', which some people like (and others don't, of course).
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
20W, however, can do it with a reasonably clean signal which gets slightly dirty when boosting for solos (that's how I gig these days). I don't know the electrickery involved, but surely a KT88 should be able to put out at least 20W even cathode-biased...?
On the other hand, a stereo pair of these things could be an interesting thing.
The reason you can get over 100W from a pair in normal KT88 circuits is because they're operated at nearer to the Class B end of Class AB than the Class A end, so the average power dissipation is a much lower fraction of the maximum.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Pile of junk. Honestly, I don't understand why the don't go with the A or V, they are not that much more money. Why build a really good amp and stick a crap speaker in it?
Also on the S1 combo they've forgone a proper EQ section in favour of the ISF control. I don't mind that on my ID combo at home but for a gigable amp (especially one focused on higher gain tones) you really need a proper EQ.
Here's to hoping the Artisan is turret board like the originals
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk
It's very much the wrong choice in a Blackstar though in my opinion - because the amps are already inherently tight, dark and middy. This does make me think it is a deliberate choice as much as for cost reasons, but when I've tried any Blackstar through different speakers than the stock ones it's always sounded better to me! In particular the HT-40 I tried through a Classic Lead 80 sounded really pretty good.
I don't even like the V30 in the Artisans, although I love it with things like Mesa Rectifiers - but with the Blackstar it makes an already middy amp worse. The Artisan sounds better with Greenbacks - some 15s did come with them as stock, to be fair.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
I do sometimes play with some real big hitters drum wise ..,the kinda guys where you have to wear hearing protection if you don't use IEMs otherwise it's just going to damage your hearing . In that scenario an HT5 may struggle to be crystal clean over the drums but then again in a situation like that you shouldn't really fight Volume with volume
All my comments relate to an HT5 head with a boost in the FX loop ... into quite a large one by 12 cab fitted with an old Celestion lead 75 speaker, that is a completely different animal to the little HT5 combo amp that most folks are familiar with
Quite but I have always thought that a PCB version of the Artisans (15 &30 at least) would be a good seller?
Get rid of the *&^%"!! valve rectifiers (and fit a switchable 'sag' R if you like. A standby switch if you must!) Makes the mains traff MUCH simpler and therefore cheaper . DC heat the pre amp valves. An effects loop is tricky given the peculiar circuit topology but I have a few ideas.
Those that know a bit about me know I came late to guitar amps as a job. My audio background is hi fi and PA. I am therefore ideologically opposed to SE valve amps! Ok for the arse end of a radio with a 12W pentode and 3-4W output but have serious technical drawbacks to me for any more power.
I cannot find a circuit atmo' for a single ended KT88 amp but kludging from the GEC 50W cathode biased circuit (virtually class A) the valve would need 425 on its anode and pull an Ia of 87mA. The bias resistor would be 525 Ohms and at least of 5W rating. Now, that all puts the cathode at 50V + so not only are you loosing 50V* of HT you are dissipating about half the deliver power, ALL the fekking time, in that bloody resistor! I would think that 1/2 a PPull kludge would put out no more than 12 watts or so?
Plus, all else being equal the output transformer would need to be about the size and cost of at least a 50W push pull design.
*ICBM. This is why I suspect part fixed bias. Ah! Just remembered. There was a Pye company hi fi amp that used an EL34 SE circuit. Was it called the 'Mozart'? Anyway it had some pretty fancy NFB circuits to tame all that distortion! 10W with a firm wind avast it. Speaker then were bigger and more sensitive.
Dave.