I'd be really interested in a video explaining what makes a good, or at least logically engineered, amp from a tech's perspective. 2 grand for something that'll need its entire circuit board replacing every three years is shocking and I can't remember the last time I've had a chat with any musician about an amp that isn't just recycled marketing about how it sounds, which is meaningless if the thing's guts are constantly having built in electrical hernias every couple of years.
I remember seeing a B+ reducer circuit using a MOSFET and a Zener in a couple of places such as Blencowe's book. I never understood why you'd want to do that until watching a couple of your EL84 torture videos. Now it makes sense.
Luck of the draw for me maybe? I have a Series One 100 with 6L6's. The original owner purchased it new in 2012 and with in less than a week brought an Axe FX and sold the BlackStar to me at a loss. a couple of months into owning it I had to send it to an authorized BlackStar repairmen in Melbourne as it had tube issues. Since then it has not missed a beat in 10 years of gigging until the weekend when it started doing very abnormal things. I know nothing about amp repair other than if it has issues I'm F'd. This is where I am today. I do love this amp, it is apart of me and my sound. To repair this is not going to be cheap, but it has to be done. I may only get 3 years out of it, but I might get 10 again. While I'm working that out I've obtained JCM900 clone to tie me over (Yes Clone - the value of everything is through the roof at the moment and I am increasingly being price out of all the markets!). The reality for me is I will more than likely have to buy another amp that is easily repairable, dependable. Thanks for the informative video. It did not help me fix my issue but made me realize that it will be the abuser in this relationship. I might have to let her go.......
Thanks for the video and for the information. I must say a few things as some people here got the wrong idea. 1. Some amps are good and some less than good. A very GOOD design always draws more money. 2. A truly full valve amp will not have a lot of distortion/overdrive and in most cases will not achieve that drive unless you crank it up fairly high. 3. A good design does not always sound good. And there are more like this, but let's get to the conclusions. To get an amp at 4-500£ in UK, sale price, you can't have the best of the best. We live (unfortunately) in a society where goods are not made to last long (if you don't believe me, for those younger here, ask your parents how often did they change the fridge or the washing machine 25-30 years ago and compare with what happens today). You want the best, you pay. And good amps, with good design (although not always) jump easily to 1500£. The fact that people here are watching this and based on 1 video they say I'd better avoid this company, are simply idiots! I've seen (as I would like to buy a second Marshall) tens of videos with Marshall heads or combos with a lot of issues, overheating, bias, all kinds, yet we are dedicated and wanting to get better. And when I say this is because I already have an amp with heating issues, yet I'm fixing it and keeping it and wanting to buy a second one. One last remark, Blackstar is NOT THE ONLY ONE using solid state components in their tube amps, so before jumping to conclusions, let's study! Now, Brad ... just saying a number, doesn't make it a bad thing. Your opinion is that 300V is too high, and probably you have your own reasons. Is it bad? Maybe or maybe not. For example VOX uses 350V on some of their amps with the same valves. Flaw? Let's not base our conclusion on one opinion, we need more than that! Manufacturers are saying EL84 can get 300V, then it's good (who am I to argue with that?). You don't like it, that's perfectly ok, but don't slam a manufacturer based on that only. Again, cheap = affordable but not the perfect design, expensive = can't buy it, but it's a very good design. Anyways, I wanted to make it short and yet, here I am 400 words later ...
Thanks for watching and your comprehensive comment, mate. It's possible to have a great circuit topology with poor implementation. It's also possible to have a poor circuit with faultless build quality. Either presents a poor end result. On the plate voltage note, I didn't say 300v is too high. I said 400v is too high. Approaching 400v, they arc. Often. That is bad design.
At 12:25, I like how your "tweaker" screwdriver has a diagram on the butt end showing what type of tip it has so you can pull it right out of the tool caddy without having to fumble or examine it closely for the correct tool. However, a flat-blade screwdriver isn't really the right tool for those trimpots, which have a *flat-bottomed* Philips-like slot. Special screwdrivers with a non-conductive hard plastic or ceramic tip are available to fit those trimmers. I'll bet you already have one but just didn't bother to find it. I prefer to use the correct (and non-conductive) tool for adjusting bias pots so that you have more fine control, won't slip and won't short out anything nearby, and won't chew up the pot. PS, multi-turn trimpots are cheap these days ----- 10 or 20 turn Asian clones of the little square blue Bourns trimmers ---- but you never see them in guitar amps; I wonder why? I put one in a Peavey 5150 once and changed the bias resistor, biasing it hotter but with enough leeway to still be able to adjust it back to the stock, "cold", factory bias setting.
Honestly I've seen other videos of this amp and have also played it plenty and have never heard it sound this bad. But for that price you would hope it would last longer atleast
great vid! Maybe you can try and overclock one of these things and get more cpu power. Maybe even run it through one of those online bench test to see how it stacks agains other cpus, ram and video cards.
Ahhh, I remember the late 90's - early 2000's drooling over the benchmarks on Tom's Hardware back in it's glory days. I would have sold my left nut for a Pentium 3 Tualatin @ 1.4 ghz
Love this video, even though I can barely follow much of what you are doing. When you say 2000 dollar amps is that a non-USA dollar amount? Thought these launched for like a grand USD WITH a 2x12 vertical cab, exactly or even a little less than buying a standard Blackstar HT 20 and matching HT 2x12 cab. I sure dread the day when my HT-60 goes, probably sooner than I'd like but it's made it 6 years with one tube swap/bias!
At that plate voltage, you’ll never clip those el84. High master volume settings will clip that transistor phase inverter first. Would explain the non-musical overtones. A few of the Blackstar I’ve seen essentially are set us in the preamp to be a tube screamer into a Princeton style preamp. The design makes them sound better at bedroom/music store demo volumes than some other all tube options, so I’m sure they sell a ton that way, but at gig volumes, there are definitely a lot more options out there that cost the same or less than these.
In the EXACT same boat as you ...had done research and listened to 20 different tube amps and just THOUGHT I KNEW what I wanted ...UNTIL THIS....but a half stack for 1000 usd ....not for 2000 ....NOT ME!!....lol
"Cuts the bias off if you've got no speaker plugged in". Do you mean to say that it goes to full negative-bias voltage at the EL84 grids in order to limit plate current, so that it won't pass enough signal and current to damage the transformer? Seems to me it would be simpler just to use a relay or electronic version of same to mute the audio before the output tube grids if there's no speaker plugged in. PS, I can't believe they charge $2k for this niece of crap. You could buy a handwired all-tube amp for that kind of money.
Yes, there's a line to the sleeve switch on both the input and speaker jacks on most Blackstar amps which swings the bias to -90v or so when nothing is plugged in to either of the jacks. The only one I've seen so far which didn't have that circuit was the HT5 and the Artisan series.
Interesting. That's about 1425 yankee dollars. You know what happens to Greeks who bring bad news, like "Your amp's a piece of unrepairable crap that you paid way too much for and we've already got enough e-waste." They killed them. We are in that same pickle.
Looks like something you would take to the computer shop to get fixed instead of an amp tech. Most amp tech's decline working on SMT {surface mount technology} amps. Can't believe they can getaway with charging so much for an SMT board based amp. Let alone someone buying one. A Boss Katana sounds better for way ,way, way less cash. That would be the way to go imho for a basically disposable SMT amp. You can actually get replacement boards fairly readily and cheap for the Katana. Not so much for Blackstar.
@@BradsGuitarGarage Oh I'm aware. I'm just saying, I happened to come across one lol considered it but after watching your video, I'm not so sure it's the deal for me
Blackstar as a company is total garbage. Theres no repair centers in the states for them. They wont send schematics of their amps. Half the time they dont respond to emails, and when they do they are very short and basically just reading general info like a reboot. I got a amp from them when i first got into playing guitar and i ended up selling it within a month or so. The damn thing would scream (feedback) in my face no matter what volume it was set to or how far away i was. Most of the pots were scratchy and sounded like shit and when ever i could actually get Someone on the phon@..,&i9
Развлечения
I'd be really interested in a video explaining what makes a good, or at least logically engineered, amp from a tech's perspective. 2 grand for something that'll need its entire circuit board replacing every three years is shocking and I can't remember the last time I've had a chat with any musician about an amp that isn't just recycled marketing about how it sounds, which is meaningless if the thing's guts are constantly having built in electrical hernias every couple of years.
Preach, brother!
Well, I've had a Blackstar HT Stage 100 for over 4 years. Built like a tank and has never let me down. Best sound I've ever had with my Gibson's.
Check back in another 4 years.
I remember seeing a B+ reducer circuit using a MOSFET and a Zener in a couple of places such as Blencowe's book. I never understood why you'd want to do that until watching a couple of your EL84 torture videos. Now it makes sense.
Luck of the draw for me maybe? I have a Series One 100 with 6L6's. The original owner purchased it new in 2012 and with in less than a week brought an Axe FX and sold the BlackStar to me at a loss. a couple of months into owning it I had to send it to an authorized BlackStar repairmen in Melbourne as it had tube issues. Since then it has not missed a beat in 10 years of gigging until the weekend when it started doing very abnormal things. I know nothing about amp repair other than if it has issues I'm F'd. This is where I am today. I do love this amp, it is apart of me and my sound. To repair this is not going to be cheap, but it has to be done. I may only get 3 years out of it, but I might get 10 again. While I'm working that out I've obtained JCM900 clone to tie me over (Yes Clone - the value of everything is through the roof at the moment and I am increasingly being price out of all the markets!). The reality for me is I will more than likely have to buy another amp that is easily repairable, dependable. Thanks for the informative video. It did not help me fix my issue but made me realize that it will be the abuser in this relationship. I might have to let her go.......
Everyone needs an easy fix for a disaster of a designed amp…what a POS. Love what you do. Keep up the excellent content.
Thanks for the video and for the information. I must say a few things as some people here got the wrong idea. 1. Some amps are good and some less than good. A very GOOD design always draws more money. 2. A truly full valve amp will not have a lot of distortion/overdrive and in most cases will not achieve that drive unless you crank it up fairly high. 3. A good design does not always sound good. And there are more like this, but let's get to the conclusions. To get an amp at 4-500£ in UK, sale price, you can't have the best of the best. We live (unfortunately) in a society where goods are not made to last long (if you don't believe me, for those younger here, ask your parents how often did they change the fridge or the washing machine 25-30 years ago and compare with what happens today). You want the best, you pay. And good amps, with good design (although not always) jump easily to 1500£. The fact that people here are watching this and based on 1 video they say I'd better avoid this company, are simply idiots! I've seen (as I would like to buy a second Marshall) tens of videos with Marshall heads or combos with a lot of issues, overheating, bias, all kinds, yet we are dedicated and wanting to get better. And when I say this is because I already have an amp with heating issues, yet I'm fixing it and keeping it and wanting to buy a second one. One last remark, Blackstar is NOT THE ONLY ONE using solid state components in their tube amps, so before jumping to conclusions, let's study! Now, Brad ... just saying a number, doesn't make it a bad thing. Your opinion is that 300V is too high, and probably you have your own reasons. Is it bad? Maybe or maybe not. For example VOX uses 350V on some of their amps with the same valves. Flaw? Let's not base our conclusion on one opinion, we need more than that! Manufacturers are saying EL84 can get 300V, then it's good (who am I to argue with that?). You don't like it, that's perfectly ok, but don't slam a manufacturer based on that only. Again, cheap = affordable but not the perfect design, expensive = can't buy it, but it's a very good design. Anyways, I wanted to make it short and yet, here I am 400 words later ...
Thanks for watching and your comprehensive comment, mate.
It's possible to have a great circuit topology with poor implementation.
It's also possible to have a poor circuit with faultless build quality.
Either presents a poor end result.
On the plate voltage note, I didn't say 300v is too high. I said 400v is too high.
Approaching 400v, they arc. Often. That is bad design.
At 12:25, I like how your "tweaker" screwdriver has a diagram on the butt end showing what type of tip it has so you can pull it right out of the tool caddy without having to fumble or examine it closely for the correct tool. However, a flat-blade screwdriver isn't really the right tool for those trimpots, which have a *flat-bottomed* Philips-like slot. Special screwdrivers with a non-conductive hard plastic or ceramic tip are available to fit those trimmers. I'll bet you already have one but just didn't bother to find it. I prefer to use the correct (and non-conductive) tool for adjusting bias pots so that you have more fine control, won't slip and won't short out anything nearby, and won't chew up the pot. PS, multi-turn trimpots are cheap these days ----- 10 or 20 turn Asian clones of the little square blue Bourns trimmers ---- but you never see them in guitar amps; I wonder why? I put one in a Peavey 5150 once and changed the bias resistor, biasing it hotter but with enough leeway to still be able to adjust it back to the stock, "cold", factory bias setting.
Love what you do! Have you checked out “The Truth About Vintage Amps” Podcast? Give it a listen next time you solder!
Honestly I've seen other videos of this amp and have also played it plenty and have never heard it sound this bad. But for that price you would hope it would last longer atleast
The mic setup wasn't ideal.
I'm saving to get an interface for the workbench to constantly mic up the test cabinet for future videos.
great vid! Maybe you can try and overclock one of these things and get more cpu power. Maybe even run it through one of those online bench test to see how it stacks agains other cpus, ram and video cards.
Ahhh, I remember the late 90's - early 2000's drooling over the benchmarks on Tom's Hardware back in it's glory days. I would have sold my left nut for a Pentium 3 Tualatin @ 1.4 ghz
Love this video, even though I can barely follow much of what you are doing. When you say 2000 dollar amps is that a non-USA dollar amount? Thought these launched for like a grand USD WITH a 2x12 vertical cab, exactly or even a little less than buying a standard Blackstar HT 20 and matching HT 2x12 cab. I sure dread the day when my HT-60 goes, probably sooner than I'd like but it's made it 6 years with one tube swap/bias!
The old HT 20 had EL 34, but the new "mark II" HT 20 which is ultra similar to this JJN has EL 84.
Yeah he's saying 2k Australian dollars. Even accounting for the exchange, shit always has a bottom of the world premium
@@sweetforthetitties That makes sense!
At that plate voltage, you’ll never clip those el84. High master volume settings will clip that transistor phase inverter first. Would explain the non-musical overtones. A few of the Blackstar I’ve seen essentially are set us in the preamp to be a tube screamer into a Princeton style preamp. The design makes them sound better at bedroom/music store demo volumes than some other all tube options, so I’m sure they sell a ton that way, but at gig volumes, there are definitely a lot more options out there that cost the same or less than these.
What are some examples? I was shopping around and this jjn was an option now idk what direction to go in
In the EXACT same boat as you ...had done research and listened to 20 different tube amps and just THOUGHT I KNEW what I wanted ...UNTIL THIS....but a half stack for 1000 usd ....not for 2000 ....NOT ME!!....lol
I once had a Dr Z Maz18 that ate valves for breakfast. I've no idea what the bias read on that thing.
There isn't enough guacamole and salsa in the universe to make all those damn "chips" elicit any tasty tones.
I wish you lived closer. I am retired now and shack so bad I can thread a sowing machine running. I have some smd stuff I would like to give you.
My thought on el84 ok clean but over driven sound bad.
"Cuts the bias off if you've got no speaker plugged in". Do you mean to say that it goes to full negative-bias voltage at the EL84 grids in order to limit plate current, so that it won't pass enough signal and current to damage the transformer? Seems to me it would be simpler just to use a relay or electronic version of same to mute the audio before the output tube grids if there's no speaker plugged in. PS, I can't believe they charge $2k for this niece of crap. You could buy a handwired all-tube amp for that kind of money.
Yes, there's a line to the sleeve switch on both the input and speaker jacks on most Blackstar amps which swings the bias to -90v or so when nothing is plugged in to either of the jacks. The only one I've seen so far which didn't have that circuit was the HT5 and the Artisan series.
@@BradsGuitarGarage interesting idea, as long as its done in such a way that it cannot cause loss of bias voltage when the amp is being played.
Almost traded my 6505mh for one of these wadaya rekon?😅
I don't want another, mine works just fine.
Most boutique amps nowadays run higher plate voltages. Eats tubes but sounds better. Damn can't win
Interesting. That's about 1425 yankee dollars. You know what happens to Greeks who bring bad news, like "Your amp's a piece of unrepairable crap that you paid way too much for and we've already got enough e-waste." They killed them. We are in that same pickle.
I knew you'd be shitting on this one. Rightly so.
Looks like something you would take to the computer shop to get fixed instead of an amp tech. Most amp tech's decline working on SMT {surface mount technology} amps. Can't believe they can getaway with charging so much for an SMT board based amp. Let alone someone buying one. A Boss Katana sounds better for way ,way, way less cash. That would be the way to go imho for a basically disposable SMT amp. You can actually get replacement boards fairly readily and cheap for the Katana. Not so much for Blackstar.
Imagine dropping 2 grand on that
I found a JJN head for 600 bucks USD brand new
Good for you. I was referring to the Australian new retail price at time of release. As you'd know they're long discontinued, hence your bargain.
@@BradsGuitarGarage Oh I'm aware. I'm just saying, I happened to come across one lol considered it but after watching your video, I'm not so sure it's the deal for me
One-word Honest Review: Don't.
Looks like a computer to me!
It has 2 computers. The switching micro-controller and the reverb processor.
@@BradsGuitarGarage Very educational video I will not get a blackstar ht 40!
Look, they do the job, in my opinion, not sounding that great in the process, but they work.
Just don't expect them to be reliable for 5-10+ years.
@@BradsGuitarGarage on your advice I will not buy a ht 40 blackstar guitar amplifier.
So it's a mass produced product that's not reliable then!
Blackstar as a company is total garbage. Theres no repair centers in the states for them. They wont send schematics of their amps. Half the time they dont respond to emails, and when they do they are very short and basically just reading general info like a reboot. I got a amp from them when i first got into playing guitar and i ended up selling it within a month or so. The damn thing would scream (feedback) in my face no matter what volume it was set to or how far away i was. Most of the pots were scratchy and sounded like shit and when ever i could actually get Someone on the phon@..,&i9
Got to say it. That Blackstar sounds like $h/t!! Imagine getting it home and realising you’ve blown a couple grand on manure. 😳
Kids today are too stupid to know the difference.
What an overpriced piece of awful sounding garbage. You are much too kind to even agree to work on it. ;)
Really looks like an amp you can rely on while being on tour...
We should all stay away from this company
I don't want another, mine works just fine.