Opinions on Blackstar LT Drive

tampadragon

So I seem to have rediscovered the love for my Epiphone SG and my little Vox VT15. Had a great week of playing for the first time in ages.

So instead of looking to buy a new guitar or amp I'm looking for a nice Drive pedal that will give me that bluesy crunch and after looking around I came across the Blackstar LT Drive 

http://www.blackstaramps.com/products/lt-drive/

The sound samples sound good, it looks like it's well built and most importantly of all isn't super expensive. I was tempted by the new Vox Flat4 Drive pedal until I saw the price, it's really hard to justify £100+ for just one pedal!

Has anyone used these, played with one in a store or have any opinions on them, before I commit to the purchase? My nearest Guitar store is in Brum and that means a train journey and a whole day out of my very precious weekend so testing it myself will be problematic.

Cheers

Bob

daveyh

I have a Fulldrive II and a Bad Monkey, but if it's of any interest from what I've heard I really like the Drive and have been thinking of putting together a 'quick' board and this is my probable drive.

Thought that might be of interest for a frame of reference for me. Personally I'd buy mail order, less hassle to return than the cost of the train journey and time. 

dindude

Only heard the you tube clips but the drive seems pick of the bunch to me and sounds like a good option for what you decsribe.

Also echo the thoughts of buying online. If you don't like it, return it, and you lose the cost of return postage only. Still cheaper and less hastle than the train.

 

martinw

Can't you just set your amp up to give you a bluesy drive?

tampadragon

martinw said:

Can't you just set your amp up to give you a bluesy drive?

Can't seem to, but i'm a massive Tone newbie. It's a Vox Vt15 which is a moddeling amp and I wouldn't even know where to start to get that bluesey crunch all the cool tones I've heard involve a drive pedal of some sort.

I've alos just spotted the Mooer Blues Crab which , on youtube at least, sounds fantastic. Anybody got opinions on this?

monquixote

In my experience drive pedals don't always do the business into modellers. (Well they didn't into a G3 or a Fender Mustang)

Don't forget most of the YT demos will be a pedal into a nice valve amp and most of what you are hearing on lower gain demos is the valve amp.

ddlooping

@tampadragon, have you tried the following settings?
http://www.valvetronix.net/valvetronix/rock-blues-overdrive/rock-blues-overdrive/details_1058.html

ddlooping

You might also find some interesting settings at http://www.valvetronix.net/valvetronix/vt15,30,50,100/model_5_name_1.html

tampadragon

Thanks @ddlooping I'll check those out tonight. The VT15 does have a valve power amp circuit, but if that is the case is there a good cheap valve practice amp?

monquixote

tampadragon said:

Thanks @ddlooping I'll check those out tonight. The VT15 does have a valve power amp circuit, but if that is the case is there a good cheap valve practice amp?

Blackstar HT1 

Laney Cub

Vox AC4

ddlooping

tampadragon said:

Thanks @ddlooping I'll check those out tonight. The VT15 does have a valve power amp circuit, but if that is the case is there a good cheap valve practice amp?

You're welcome.
I personally don't think you need a valve practice amp, your VT15 should do the job, enabling you to practice, nicely.

samzadgan

i use to have a VT15, and they are really good amps. Some of the modelling on those are quiet good...especially the cleans.

I eventually got tired with fiddling wth knobs and for a long time i set it to manual and used the fender clean amp model and it served me for a clean or slight amount of gain tone which i then put pedals on.

monquixote

ddlooping said:

You're welcome.
I personally don't think you need a valve practice amp, your VT15 should do the job, enabling you to practice, nicely.

Agree with this, however if you want to get into the wacky word of ODs valve is the best route.

ThePrettyDamned

I think the vt15 is the model that actually doesn't have a valve in it. Even the bigger ones are not a true valve power stage - I wouldn't know what it actually did, though.

I'd say play with the modeller. The ac30 or the 70s UK model are both good at that blues crunch, just keep tweaking that website has useful start points for sounds, but don't be afraid to deviate.

Pedals that give great blues sounds are normally running into a valve amp, and you hear a combination of the solid state pedal and the valve crunch. The amp you have should emulate both fairly well

tampadragon

Thanks for the feedback, I'll try playing with my amp. The VT15 does have a valve for certain as I can see it through the grills in it.

ThePrettyDamned

My bad - the older series ones didn't until you got to 30 watts.

You should have no trouble. They're great sounding amps, I still miss my old one. Try the UK 70s model

Dave_Mc

tampadragon said:

I've alos just spotted the Mooer Blues Crab which , on youtube at least, sounds fantastic. Anybody got opinions on this?

Quite nice, but doesn't have a ton of level boost (or gain) on tap, and as everyone else has been saying, OD pedals tend to work best into valve amps.

Shouldn't be too hard to get a decent bluesy drive type of tone out of a valvetronix, if anything they tend to excel at the lower gain tones. I don't have one myself but I have a little mini 3 and you can easily get bluesy drive sounds without pedals. Off the top of my head, try either the Fender blackface setting (it's called "Black 2x12" on mine, I'm assuming it's something similar on yours), the Vox AC30 setting ("AC30TB" on mine) or the dumble setting ("BTQ clean"). And basically just don't set the gain control too high, modellers tend to have more gain than the original amps would have had. Neck pickup (especially if your guitar is a strat) will help, too, as will adding some reverb (your amp should have built-in reverb).

That's what I normally do for those bluesy-type tones.

monquixote

Lots of midrange as well!

tampadragon

Wow thanks, I'll try those models out later, I'll also try lowering the gain and using the neck pickup, I have a coil tapped Epi SG with Gibson pickups in so I'll try it as a single too. Great being able to get advice on this stuff.

Dave_Mc

^ No worries, hope that helped a little.