BLACKSTAR HT1R COMBO AMPLIFIER WITH REVERB
Blackstar may appear to be a newcomer to the market but their pedigree and experience stretches back beyond recent memory when it comes to the guitar amplifier.
It’s like this…a few short years ago, two electronic design engineers (who happened to also be musicians) decided that they would leave the relatively secure environs of Marshall Amplification and strike out on their own…which they did. Fast forward a few short years later and you have the surprise (not surprisingly) success story of Blackstar Amplification. The secret of course is that the two chaps designing Blackstar’s range of amplifiers and pedals had also designed some of the most popular professional valve guitar amplifiers of the last twenty years…hmmm, it does all make sense now, doesn’t it?!!
So, this UK-based amp and effects manufacturer with impeccable design credentials and R&D pedigree is now being taken very, in fact very seriously by tone aficionados throughout the world. Blackstar’s high-end Artisan and Series One amps are used by established artists as diverse as Metallica’s James Hetfield, Rose Tattoo, Gus G (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne), Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Recently, Blackstar’s best-selling valve amp, the immensely affordable HT-5 combo, won the prestigious MIPA award for Best Combo Amp at the 2011 Musikmesse Show at Frankfurt. Blackstar have proven that theirs is an amp company to be reckoned with.
First Impressions…
It’s a fact, for years guitarists have been asking for world class valve tone at their fingertips regardless of their situation…at home, recording, driving around the countryside as a sales rep, keeping the Missus happy, practicingback stage before the gig…you know what we mean. Well, you called and Blackstar answered…enter the answer to all of these situations, the blisteringly awesome HT-1R REVERB ONE WATT all valve amplifier.
We were also blown away when we heard a blues harp roaring through this baby…it sounded quite simply, amazing!
Right then, let’s get down to business…
The Blackstar HT-1R REVERB guitar amplifier is based on the HT-5, just in a smaller footprint, lower output (heh!…a happy wife is a happy life..nudge, nudge…!) and with a reduced control set. From the front, the HT-1 looks like a scaled-down version of the HT5, with the virtually identical black cabinet and grille cloth, gold piping, and the bold, white block lettering proudley bearing the Blackstar logo. The HT-1 also features a custom designed 8″ speaker and we would expect nothing less.
The Blackstar HT1R measures 308mm x 305mm x 172mm and is so compact that you have to look twice to realize it’s packing an 8″ speaker making it a true, self-contained combo.
The amp itself features two channels, clean and overdrive. Overdrive is implimented via a pushbutton switch…simple. The other front panel controls consist of just three knobs: Gain, Volume and EQ/ISF (Infinite Shape Feature. There’s a single 6.3mm (1/4″) phono input, plus two additional 6.3mm (1/4″) phono jacks for Emulated Output & Headphones and MP3/Line Input. It’s interesting that Blackstar went with the 6.3mm ( 1/4″) jack here, rather than the more consumer-oriented 3.5mm (1/8″) mini…it simply means that you can use the Blackstar HT-1 to accept other preamp outputs, from sources other than a guitar (such as a keyboard, drum machine, or vocal processor).
The power switch and indicator LED complete the top panel’s control scheme.
On the back is not only the expected 240V AC IEC power cable port, but also a pleasant surpris…for an amp in this price range at least…an extension speaker jack that accepts any cabinet with an impedance of 4 to 16 ohms. This is quite handy in a recording amp, as it allows the performer to keep the control panel close by (say, in the control room or in front of a computer) while the speaker of choice is placed in another location for optimal acoustics and mic’ing.
As one would expect, plugging in the extension speaker disables the onboard speaker. The overall feel of the amp is professional and well built. There’s a nice padded handle, matte-black corner guards and four solid rubber feet.
One might be forgiven in assuming that this amp has been designed to be used primarily for largely indoor use (the loungeroom, bedroom, rehearsal and recording studio), but it is gig-worthy beastie and it will travel well.
Bee bop a loo la…one watt’l do ya!
Hmmm, sorry about that one…the boss mentioned something about a bloke called Gene Vincent….at the heart of the Blackstar HT-1 is an all valve (tube_ driven signal path. The valve compliment consists of one ECC83 (12AX7) and one ECC82 (12AU7). These valves don’t have to produce ear bleeding output levels but rather provide that classic and authentic “tube-tone” at much lower and useable levels than the the typical output valves such as the EL84 or 6V6.
One of the HT-1’s key features is it’s Reverb Control, its single EQ control which features Blackstar’s Infinite Shape Feature (ISF).
Blackstar founder and designer Ian Robinson explains ISF this way: “Tone control circuits in amps made by Marshall, Fender, and Peavey are basically the same. Different component values produce the characteristics of their respective tone stack frequency responses. ISF delivers exactly the same response of all those amps, plus all the infinite positions between them. So instead of having to choose a Fender tone stack or a Marshall tone stack, the guitarist playing a Blackstar amp can find a sound at any point in the tonal continuum to get exactly the sound they want. The circuitry that allows this is very simple, but also very clever. That’s what comes from spending 12-hour days for two and-a-half years in a shed, doing technical research!”
Whatever the result was of the wood-shedding on the part of the designers, ISF works. Because there are no other EQ controls, ISF acts as a sort of EQ shortcut knob. You should find the reduction of the EQ stage down to a single knob quite liberating and it should enable you to focus on your guitar and effects tone once you dial in your sweet spot.
This is what one cat had to say…”I was recording much more quickly with the excellent grab-n-go tone of ISF than if I’d have to monkey with the amp controls more. This approach would only be viable if the tones that unfolded during the ISF knob’s travel yielded the results they did. I was almost afraid to touch the knob after I discovered a nice Deluxe-meets-Bassman sound around 11:00, but I was reassured by the time I got to the straight-up 12:00 position with a nice Vox-y grit”.
Redcoats vs Bluecoats
The tone not only travels across the Atlantic in the space of a 270-degree knob rotation, it does so seamlessly. You really can’t tell where the USA leaves off and the UK begins, but 9:00 is definitely a bright and glassy Fender sound, while the 3:00 position yields the crunchier, midrange-rich bite typical of Marshalls. Between the two is where the magic happens. You can dial in your own sound that is neither fish nor fowl, but uniquely your own. Wherever your ears let you release the ISF knob, it’s eminently a musical and useful tone.
One highlight of the channel switching is the smoothness between the clean and overdrive states. When the clean channel is maxed out with respect to Gain, and then dialed back once the Overdrive switch is engaged—it’s very hard to tell what the difference is. You hear it, but you don’t get the feeling that your sidestepping through some IC chip: the progression is much more harmonically true and organic.
The sound quality on the emulated output is excellent. While you don’t have the versatility you would with a mic in front of the speaker (after all, you can choose different mics and move the mics around), you do get a great overall sound. One excellent use for the HT-1R I found was to combine a miked sound with the emulated out. At first, you can’t really tell which is which—a testament to the qualities Blackstar has imbued the output signal with. There’s a real feeling of air in the output. Whether they achieved that through EQ, phase placement, or the aforementioned shed-bred voodoo, the electronically emulated sound makes a viable complement to the miked sound. As a bonus the excellent Reverb sound becomes stereo if you employ a TRS Y-cord, plugging the split ends into separate mixer channels. Nice!
As this amp is to be used for recording, and will presumably be close at hand, no footswitch function is provided to switch channels. You must physically use your hand to press the Overdrive switch. But because the controls are top-mounted (as opposed to being accessed from the front), this makes quick channel-switching operations awkward. I recognize that adding a footswitch jack would have increased Blackstar’s costs, but it was the one feature I kept wishing for during my practice and recording uses.
A great use for the HT-1 is as the “world’s best amp simulator,” as this is how you would use it in a recording setup by plugging the emulated output straight into your computer’s DAW. Doing so allows you to experience all the dynamics and sensitivity of a real valve amp by actually recording with a real valve powered guitar amp…simple really.
and in the end…
Blackstar’s HT-1R is the perfect amplifier for practice and recording. It could even be used for live gigs providing that you plan to run this amp through your FOH and monitoring system. Our experience and that of most of the people that have bought a Blackstar HT1 from us is that they are playing through the HT-1R for its authentic valve tones at low volume levels. Now, that still leaves a lot of situations for the amp to fill, and it must be emphasised that one watt of pure valve power is extremely loud, especially when you consider its size and nominal rating. The ISF also works amazingly simply yet well. We’ll go so far as to saying that it’s even intuitive…USA on the left and UK on the right, just like looking at a map!
Forget the crazy setup and routing rigmarole you go through with VST plug-ins. Buy a Blackstar HT-1, plug in your guitar and play…with or without the speake just as nature intended.
The Blacksatar HT-1R is an incredible way to experience real valve tone for the same price as a transistor amp, for personal playing or recording…this is the business!
