Amp Suggestion

Cheers, I wouldn;t buy it blind anyway but I think its worth a shot. If I have a whole spare weekend when I get back from Portugal I might actually go to Anderton's in Guildford cos they just have so much stock I could probably try all my options in one spot.
 
Go for it.
If you're in the market for a small tube amp, you've got a lot of choices but the TT won't steer you wrong.
It's not like other 15W amps have four channels and five EQ knobs either.
 
Found a good shop in Bristol today with good selection.

Tried a blackstar studio 20. It was fucking great. Really liked both channels. The clean just has a tone control but it worked well with my guitar and the preamp section starts to crack when using a humbucker at high volume. Loads of tone variation in the crunch channel and more gain than I commonly need. I was quite happy just sitting there playing kinda forgetting I was amp testing which is probably a good thing. Happily when you max out the volume on the clean and crunch channels they are pretty much exactly the same volume (controlled with the master of course in the shop).

Also tried the 5W blackstar. The gain channel was really good, plenty loud enough for me and I liked the tone a lot, just as much as the Studio 20. Problem is that the clean channel is fucking shit. Cranked it to full and it doesn't have anything like the balls of the crunch channel. There's no master on this amp either.

They also had a Marshall DSL 15c which I would like to try when I revisit to take the Studio 20 into a private room where I can work the power section a bit. Decent day out.
 
JDOD said:
Found a good shop in Bristol today with good selection.

Tried a blackstar studio 20. It was fucking great. Really liked both channels. The clean just has a tone control but it worked well with my guitar and the preamp section starts to crack when using a humbucker at high volume. Loads of tone variation in the crunch channel and more gain than I commonly need. I was quite happy just sitting there playing kinda forgetting I was amp testing which is probably a good thing. Happily when you max out the volume on the clean and crunch channels they are pretty much exactly the same volume (controlled with the master of course in the shop).

Also tried the 5W blackstar. The gain channel was really good, plenty loud enough for me and I liked the tone a lot, just as much as the Studio 20. Problem is that the clean channel is fucking shit. Cranked it to full and it doesn't have anything like the balls of the crunch channel. There's no master on this amp either.

They also had a Marshall DSL 15c which I would like to try when I revisit to take the Studio 20 into a private room where I can work the power section a bit. Decent day out.
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I am pleased you liked the HT-20. If that was the combo with the Rocket 50 speaker I am rather surprised as well! The R50 is almost universally detested (tho the 20 was designed and voiced for it which is why perhaps the amp is reckoned to be a bit "dark?).

Regarding the Five, when it was released EVERYBODY said the same thing, "rubbish clean channel!"
I think, because the amp LOOKED like a "proper" guitar amp, lots of pots, speaker Z selections, FX loop,
people just expected it to kick clean ass like a 15 or 20 watter, it won't. It is jeeeust 5W clean and soon dirties up. The original G10-40 was an ok speaker but not nearly as sensitive as say a V30 (into a 4x12 v30 cab the amp is pretty startling!). Don't know what the mkll 12 incher is.

The HT-5 was perhaps the first 5 watter that did not look like a toy or a very cheap practice amp and maybe peeps thought Blackstar were telling porkies about the five watts ? They weren't!

Dave.
 
Tried the Studio 20 again and have decided I'll get it when I get back from Portugal (I'm there now and it's paradise - just having a post surf morning coffee in a cafe with wifi).

Not sure I care that it has an r50 in it, it sounded good to me and this time I played it for ages in the sound booth where I could crank it.

Blackstar have really good price control, as do lots of people these days, so I'd like to get it from my local shop. However Andertons are chucking in a free pedal on their website. I'll walk I to my local shop with a roll of notes and see if they'll discount me the price of the pedal as I'd like to buy local.

I tried the DSL15c and to be honest I though it was a bag of dicks. Just fizzy and shit.
 
Did it.

Couldn't get him on price but managed to get an sm57 thrown in for 20 quid and a pack of strings.image.jpg
 
Yeah, its a great place. I'll definitely be going back.

Will do, seemed like a pretty good deal really. The amp is normally priced at £499, so with a bit of haggling, telling him that Anderton's would throw in a free Blackstar drive pedal, he ended up giving me the amp, SM57 and a pack of hybrid slinky strings for £520. Would have liked to discuss it with him a while longer and try wangle a strap too and I forgot to get a handful of picks off him but the shop was closing, it was my birthday yesterday so I wanted to get home and have a glass of wine and play for an hour.

Never owned a valve amp before and only rarely had the chance to play through them. Love it so far.
 
Nice! Glad you got it, but Im sure you would have been happy with a bunch of other amps as well. I love my buddies combo and enjoy my setup as well.
 
I actually came close to getting a tiny terror and cab on the day. It sounded amazing, probably better than the blackstar. But it only did the one sound, blackstar is far more versatile.
 
Also, this little beauty just arrived at my desk thanks to my mrs as a birthday present:
20150703_150654.jpg
 
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