Blackstar HT1 1 watt amplifier demos of Shadows tunes

[dave robinson]

Having owned this great little amp for a couple of weeks now, I have by request made a few one take demos of some well known Shads tunes, to demonstrate how close a sound it reproduces to our beloved Vox ac15/30 amplifiers but at a very acceptable 'bedroom level' which won't annoy anyone.
For those interested here's the link to hear the music - I used mostly UB Hank BT's and three Shads minus Hank tracks. The Blackstar is DI'd into the desk along with the BT's and mixed and recorded as I played, badly in some places . . I would be interested to know if you agree that the sound is - or is not there . . . .
http://www.4shared.com/dir/MjuOFPcx/Blackstar_HT1_demos.html

[chaddopete]

Sounds pretty near spot on to me Dave.

Cheers

Pete

[rogera]

Sounds very good Dave.

[dave robinson]

Thanks Pete and Roger, it's certainly a very cheap set up @ £169 for the amp, the echo is the Magicstomp and the guitar is my 60's Classic Player Strat with Vintage Tonerider pickups. I love it to bits.

[asimmd]

Hi Dave

Thanks for doing these demo's,they certainly show that the amp
is a capable performer.

They are all very good but my favourite has to be Sweet Dreams.

Alan

[dave robinson]

I actually think it sounds even better when using it's internal speaker rather than the DI. The beauty is in the great tone at a very, very low volume, difficult to achieve with higher powered amps. It can be used in the bedroom/ living room giving the player the right sound, but it doesn't penerate through the house and annoy the other occupants - or the neighbours.

[Bojan]

Definitely an excellent sound. I think the best sounding ones are Sweet Dreams and Apache!!

[dave robinson]

I recorded these tracks using the DI out into my Yamaha MG102c mixer which is in my living room connected to two active Carillon AM08 speakers. My computer is played back through these and it makes for easy practicing in my armchair. As mentioned before I feel that the amp sounds more authentic when used through it's own speaker, which gently 'breaks up' to give a lovely warm distressed sound as though the amp is being driven, so what I need to do is to try and simulate that effect through the DI. The capability is there with the controls and it's a case of finding the 'sweet spot' with the gain, but I've enjoyed playing with it as it is and to be honest up to now couldn't be bothered to apply myself - however . . . .

When I used the HT1 last night at my gig, I took some EQ away from the mixer channel and let the amp do the tone shaping, just pushing the gain into the mixer until a little 'distress' could be heard. It was almost like listening to a Vox AC30 on stage, which is what I am trying to achieve. I have yet to perfect this technique, but I'm more than certain that the removal of EQ on the desk is the key - the question is getting the correct blend. I'm working solo again tonight so I will do some more fine tuning as I'm confident that the sound is there, I just need to patiently try different positions with the controls, enough to get some valve compression into the sound, without it taking over.