About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

metalmike

metalmike

New member
Hello, lately i'm thinking about getting an affordable small tube amp for home use (and even for future small gigs) and i decided to buy Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil with a 1x12 cabinet. I would like to ask you if it takes distortion pedals (and pedals generally) well, because i mostly play metal and this Blackheart as an Class A amp doesn't have as enough gain as i want. Any other info,recommendations or advices about this amp would be appreciated :)
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

it doesnt like distoertion pedals. you lose alot of volume. but a good overdrive or tube screamer works very well. all in all, it likes all pedals alot. but i've tried a mt-2 and a metal core it niether really does the trick. if your going for older rock. you wont need a distortion pedal. but if you are going for for heaveir guitar tone's. you may want to look at a different amp. it is not ment for metal. this amp is a plug and play monster. it's for things along the line of sabbath, zeplin, skynard even jimmy.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

ok so after thinking of what i said about the distortion. i went in my room plugged in a mt-2 and a ge-7 (eq). into my bh15. turn the gain down push the level on the eq up. and tweak it just a little. i gave it more bottom end. it's not bad. i dont like having to push it harder with an eq but it got it there. still not ideal for metal but it works. i got something very close to the metallica black album tone. but it will not do the harder newer stuff. like lamb of god. i've got a digitech distortion factory i'm gonna try in a few. if i can find it.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

Yes, my main concern is if it likes distortion pedals. Also, if you turn the gain completely down can you turn the level up as much as you want having absolutely clean sound (without a pedal of course)?
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

metalmike said:
Yes, my main concern is if it likes distortion pedals. Also, if you turn the gain completely down can you turn the level up as much as you want having absolutely clean sound (without a pedal of course)?
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if your asking if it's got alot of headroom? yes. andi've been playing with the mt-2 allday since i first saw this post. if you turn the volume to 7 gain to about 3 or 4. push the low to about 7, high to about 7, then control the amp with the pedal from there. i've got a real good low gain metal chunk. it sounds pretty sweet and alot louder than you would think. once those tubes get hot it starts to hit hard.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

Actually i wasn't asking about headroom (thanks for the info though) but i wanted to know that i.e. if you you have blackheart's gain pot all the way down and level pot all the way up does the sound stay clean and not distorted? I mean, the 5w version has only a volume pot but if you turn it to 5 and more the sound get distorted and probably you won't have good sound using a distortion pedal at this level (more than 5), right? But 15w version has level and gain pot, that's why i asked if turning up the level pot (having gain pot all the way down) distort the sound some time while turning it up or the sound stays clean until it reaches 10. So, after all, knowing that i have a better high gain pedal for metal than mt-2, do you think after some tweaking that i will manage to have a good (i'm not asking for the best, what you pay is what you get) metal sound? I have never had a tube amp before and man, as you know high gain pedals through solid state amps sound like crap.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

no you have to turn gain up a little to get any volume. but it doesnt start to distort until you get it past about 3
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

karpathion said:
does it like distortion? i thought it would be hard becouse it doesnt have a gain control. at least i thought it doesn't.
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YEa the gain knob has nothing to do with it. Many of the "modded plexi" tones you hear are a plexi with a pedal in front. No gain knob on those.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

Reckless Abandon said:
YEa the gain knob has nothing to do with it. Many of the "modded plexi" tones you hear are a plexi with a pedal in front. No gain knob on those.
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so how are you getting your volume? do you turn the pedal up? and keep the level down. i havent played with the little giant yet. i still just cant get a really good metal tone yet. i can get close but it just wont give me a good djent.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

I have my amp on 5-7 and set the OD as follows: Gain 2-3, Level 6-7, and tone 4. Nice 80's metal tone. If I turn up the gain it gets heavy. I play mine on 7 most of the time. The tubes really crank
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

Reckless Abandon said:
I have my amp on 5-7 and set the OD as follows: Gain 2-3, Level 6-7, and tone 4. Nice 80's metal tone. If I turn up the gain it gets heavy. I play mine on 7 most of the time. The tubes really crank
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yep thats about what i was thinking. i turn my gain to about 3, level about 7 and push just a little gain out of my mt-2 and i get a pretty good 80's metal tone myself. push a little more gain and i start to get almost a dimebag tone.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

Hello again :) A couple of days ago i found a music store here in Greece which had Blackheart BH5-112 only (besides, i chose to buy 5w combo version because 15w are to much for bedroom use and i will use it only there) so i went there to test it with my pedal...

...the result...

:eek2:

...which means that i heard exactly what i wanted to hear (how much more happy could i be?). I can't think right know about a negative thing about this amp (maybe because of my excitement) but many positives: good clean sound, good bottom end, well build, no noise problem, amazingly loud for its 5 watts and as i discovered myself it takes distortion pedals really well. I am going to order it in a few days from here (great price btw). That's all, thank you for your precious help.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

I've got the BH5 head and it sounds killer. I run it through a 4x12 Marshall cab with G12h30's. You'd never guess it was 3 watts (that's where I run mine). At full power it really grinds. Also, some folks have mod kits out for these amps, so you have even more tonal options. In my mind though they're just fine as is.
 
Re: About Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil

metalmike said:
Hello again :) A couple of days ago i found a music store here in Greece which had Blackheart BH5-112 only (besides, i chose to buy 5w combo version because 15w are to much for bedroom use and i will use it only there) so i went there to test it with my pedal...

...the result...

...which means that i heard exactly what i wanted to hear (how much more happy could i be?). I can't think right know about a negative thing about this amp (maybe because of my excitement) but many positives: good clean sound, good bottom end, well build, no noise problem, amazingly loud for its 5 watts and as i discovered myself it takes distortion pedals really well. I am going to order it in a few days from here (great price btw). That's all, thank you for your precious help.
Click to expand...


Talking about 5watt amps . . .


. . . this little beauty got my full attantion the last few days :

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/...eries-HT5H-5W-Tube-Guitar-Amp-Head?sku=483560

Good Price Too . . . & the clips on Utoob is pretty good !


James
 
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