Blackstar pedals

ICBM

thecolourbox said:

So the HTDual clean setting is the same as the sound on the HT5 amp clean channel? I really liked the clean on my HT5 when I had it, only moved it on as I upgraded to a Fender The idea of the HTDual doing the HT5 clean setting straight to PA appeals to me…

It should be pretty similar, except that on the amp there is a power amp as well, whereas the HT-Dual just has the preamp and a speaker emulator.

ThePrettyDamned

As an aside, have you heard of amptweaker pedals? They do the big rock and tight rock... And sound amaze balls.

Same emulated stuff, but with noise gate and other bobbins, too.

ecc83

Small point?

Looking back at some curves for the DS2, the ISF control is very interactive with the middle pot.

Dave.

ICBM

hugbot said:

Theres more to it than that in reality of course, but thats where blackstar is going with the whole ISF thing: http://www.stompboxresource.com/IMAGE/blackstar_isf.jpg

I thought I would wait until I had the actual pedal in hand before I posted this definitely, just in case I had taken leave of my senses or something... but no.

0 on the ISF control is clearly the more "British" sound and 10 is the more "American". Blackstar have it backwards .

GavRichList

I have an Artisan 30, and used to be endorsed by Blackstar in a former life. Had a few of their pedals on a tour once; the delay pedal sounds wonderfu if I recall, particularly through their own amps. The standard drive (whatever its called) wasnt all that impressive to me. Really good quality builds.

 

Not sure I entirely standby Blackstar Amps having their own sound; you can get the Artisans to do pretty much anything you want.

mike_l

@GavHaus thanks for the input

I've not tried an Artisan, but I did like the others. I have MattG's HT on its way.

ICBM

GavHaus said:

Not sure I entirely standby Blackstar Amps having their own sound; you can get the Artisans to do pretty much anything you want.

Except sound interesting?



I tried an A30 for a while. It was impeccably well-built, but while I couldn't really fault it I couldn't get one single sound out of it that I actually liked or (in my opinion) had any character at all. It did very much have that 'Blackstar sound' to it, and nothing else.

Still, I know a lot of people make the same complaint about Mesa Rectifiers, which I find one of the most versatile amps, so it's probably something to do with me .

GavRichList

Once you start blending the channels on an A30, it sounds so rich. Beautiful clean. Always suited my twangy fenders.

Corvus

I'm with ICBM on the treble, mine's maxed but it's OK. The ISF just on the brighter side. The other direction doesn't suit my setup. The US/Brit thing is just marketing hooey.
Filth options have come & gone but the HT always stays. With my Orange maxed and the HT pushing it it's flippin' lovely..

One odd thing is they started off at 16v and after 2009-ish went to 22v for some reason, though there doesn't seem to be much if any difference sound-wise. And the rt.hon Brian Swatton, local tech, says the valve glow is actually an LED

jeztone2

ICBM said:

The ISF is a variable frequency mid control. The lower you have mid set, the more dramatic the sweep. It doesn't affect the low-end much if at all, even at the lowest-mid setting.

I actually liked the extra bass on the higher-gain channel and found the mid-gain one too middy, but maybe it's just me... (I found the whole thing too middy and not bright enough, in general.)

I stand corrected, I guess its just how my ears interpreted it. It just seemed less flappy at an 11 O Clock setting. There ok pedals, could do with a redesign me thinks.

ICBM

Corvus said:

One odd thing is they started off at 16v and after 2009-ish went to 22v for some reason, though there doesn't seem to be much if any difference sound-wise. And the rt.hon Brian Swatton, local tech, says the valve glow is actually an LED

The reason it was changed is because the 16V was AC, with a transformer power supply. These are now frowned upon by the EU energy consumption Nazis rule-makers, so it was changed to a 22VDC Switch-Mode power supply, which are more efficient. The pedal circuit itself operates at the same voltages so the sound won't have changed. (16VAC rectified gives 22VDC.)

And yes, the glow is mostly an LED… but there *is* a real valve in there and it does glow, so why have it? Although it does at least let you know the power is on even when the pedal isn't engaged, I suppose.

Corvus

I never twigged the AC... all this time... live & learn!

hugbot

ICBM said:

hugbot said:

Theres more to it than that in reality of course, but thats where blackstar is going with the whole ISF thing: http://www.stompboxresource.com/IMAGE/blackstar_isf.jpg

I thought I would wait until I had the actual pedal in hand before I posted this definitely, just in case I had taken leave of my senses or something... but no.

0 on the ISF control is clearly the more "British" sound and 10 is the more "American". Blackstar have it backwards .

Fender, Marshall and vox tone stacks: http://guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/sitebuilder/images/fmv2-644x410.jpg

ecc83

ICBM said:

Corvus said:

One odd thing is they started off at 16v and after 2009-ish went to 22v for some reason, though there doesn't seem to be much if any difference sound-wise. And the rt.hon Brian Swatton, local tech, says the valve glow is actually an LED

The reason it was changed is because the 16V was AC, with a transformer power supply. These are now frowned upon by the EU energy consumption Nazis rule-makers, so it was changed to a 22VDC Switch-Mode power supply, which are more efficient. The pedal circuit itself operates at the same voltages so the sound won't have changed. (16VAC rectified gives 22VDC.)

And yes, the glow is mostly an LED… but there *is* a real valve in there and it does glow, so why have it? Although it does at least let you know the power is on even when the pedal isn't engaged, I suppose.

Yes, small AC-AC power supplies will be outlawed. The main reason being that the dinky transformers* are SO inefficient that they use almost as much power unloaded as loaded! A well designed SMPSU consumes almost no juice until you actually plug it into the pedal.

The LED. Now I know many of you will think "Well he would say that wouldn't he!" but I truly belive there was not a shed of skulduggery about the position of the LED ref the valve.

It is simply a power indicator and as such the logical place to put it is on the power PCB? Now, the valve PCB sits atop that so if there was not hole under the valve you would not see the fekking LED!

I was not aware of other preamps that use an LED in an underhand way and I am quite sure the designers of the pedals were equally in the dark, valve mic pre amp not being in their sphere of interest.

The pedals WILL work without the valve but only as a unity gain buffer, high Z in low Z out (none of yer "true" bypass crap here!) . Virtually 95% of all the OD eeefectology comes from the valve.

I am not qualified to judge whether they got the ISF arse-about-face but I would not be at all surprised!

*The early AC traffs are also BUGGERS for squirting hum into your cables! Keep them at least 2 feet away. The old pedals are not that fussy about the voltage a decent 15V 20VA toroid in a tin will work famously. Fit a mains switch and you comply with EU regs!

Dave.

ICBM

hugbot said:

Fender, Marshall and vox tone stacks: http://guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/sitebuilder/images/fmv2-644x410.jpg

Certainly, but where's the Mesa Rectifier? That's what the "US" overdrive on the Blackstar is aiming at, not Fender - in fact, the Rectifier is a Marshall-derived circuit (via the Soldano SLO), which is originally a Tweed Bassman, whereas I assume that Fender chart is for a Blackface/Silverface since that's now the accepted "Fender tone".

In any case, using the tone stack response chart by ltself to illustrate the sound of a guitar amp is meaningless - the sound of the amp is dependent on a lot of other parts of the circuit where frequencies are passed as well. Even if it wasn't, the mid dips of the Fender and Marshall tone stacks shown there are only just over a hundred Hz apart! Which is too small to have any useful effect on a mid control - as well as nowhere near the range the ISF operates over.

Just listen to the control on the pedal and you'll hear clearly that it is backwards if that chart is really what they meant - although cleverly, they don't label it on the units themselves .

mike_l

Well a HT Dual has just arrived, courtesey of @MattG.

I shall have a good play this evening...

MattG

have fun with it mate, glad to hear it arrived safely.

I was particularly fond of sticking it on the clean mode and boosting that

mike_l

Cheers Matt.

I'll try that for a start.

mike_l

I loves the HT Dual, very flexible pedal, a bit shy on gain for the really high gain stuff*, but for virtually anything else it's brilliant.

I've not had a massive tinker, but using the RG and the HT into the clean Marshall (everything set to 5) without too much hassle, I managed a good Iron maiden like tone, then a quick flick round, early Metallica (before they used Boogies etc) to AC/DC. I would think Stones and Free wouldn't be too hard to find, using a suitable guitar and playing  style......

 

*Without trying one, I'd guess the HT Metal would be better for high-gain stuff.

guitarfishbay

I guess that shows how different we all are.  To me OD2 has more than enough gain, OD1 is so very nearly there and if you boost it then it is saturated enough for metal IMO.  I preferred the tone of OD1.  It doesn't have as aggressive a voicing as some metal amps/pedals though, it is voiced a bit more rock.