Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

No need for biasing for the preamp, the power stage does require biasing, although you may be lucky.

made note of that.

Yeah cause I'm only changing the preamp not the power tube (unless it dies on me)

 

[Jeff5]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

Yeah the HT5 is not self or fix biased so probably requires someone to bias it. However, reading the Blackstar forums it seems that lots of folks have swapped power amp tubes without biasing and it's been fine. With regards to the EQ pedal (whichever brand you would get) you can use it in front of the amp or in the loop. It will just give you different tones and tone shaping options depending on where you put it.

 

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

how big a difference do gold pins make?

i have found a tung sol gold pin 12ax7 for £17 and that's without postage.... the standard one is £10....

also will try a JJ or should i try an EH? i'll keep the cost down and just buy two for now...

 

[AlexR]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

Hey LHS.....how many tubes does your HT 5 have??

I ask because I've just got a HT 50, and some tonal aspects aren't quite what I'd like.

 

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

It has two. one power tube and one Pre amp tube pre amp is a 12ax7/ecc83. I don't know what the power type is off the top of my head but as you would probsbly know the power tube is going to have little affect on the tonal aspects.

 

[zzmoore]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

how big a difference do gold pins make?...

Besides the Gold color.?

 

[LonePhantom]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

Ah, missed this. Gold supposedly gives better conductivity, but I'm not really sure how much of an impact this has in the whole scheme of things when the rest of the amp isn't wired with gold. Probably not a whole lot, as I found out after getting it. I think the gold pin ones are carefully hand selected though, so there might be more of a chance of getting an excellent example of the valve???

 

[alteredbeast]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

I just got an MXR 10 band EQ and put it in the loop and OH MY GOD. I liked the overall tone of the amp but wanted a little more gain and more "umph". This did the trick in spades. I already use a Tube Screamer when I want some more push, but that was nothing compared to an EQ in the loop.

i do the MXR10 in the loop, and use a maxon OD9 pro + in the front, and ill have to agree with Jeff5, tis bonkerz for real. I would like to try a different preamp tube someday too, but the EQ/screamer combo is holding me over.

 

[indie folk guy]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

gold pins are said to be smoother I didn't think much of em just get the standard one, if you buy from a reputable dealer you shouldn't have problems with duds. I really like Eurotubes for JJ and tubestore and tubedepot I believe were also good.

 

[shoggoth]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

Recently got a used HT-5RH and did a little tube rolling - bought a GT ECC803S (supposedly a re-branded JJ ECC803S) and it did sound better in some aspects but there was a lot of background hiss, actually put the Sovtek back in. Then, I rolled some of tubes I had in my JCM 2000 (Svetlana and Ei) and the Ei's sound absolutely awesome. Smooth, musical, yet can still get some serious dirt. They did take away some of "modern" sounding grit, but not much - I prefer the vintage sound more though.

I plan on using the headphones a lot soon (baby on the way) and getting a smoother pre made the emulated out a lot nicer too.

 

[JCM900MkIII]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

About gold pins...

It's snake oil. (a.k.a. bull****)

electrons going from copper to gold and back to copper.... yup, usefull....


People say they hear a difference, but that is just because those tubes are "selected" to GT specs.
It's like having 2 exactly the same tubes, but one has different writing.

That's all, carry on...

 

[shoggoth]

Re: Blackstar HT-5 tube ideas? (have asked before)

Recently got a used HT-5RH and did a little tube rolling - bought a GT ECC803S (supposedly a re-branded JJ ECC803S) and it did sound better in some aspects but there was a lot of background hiss, actually put the Sovtek back in. Then, I rolled some of tubes I had in my JCM 2000 (Svetlana and Ei) and the Ei's sound absolutely awesome. Smooth, musical, yet can still get some serious dirt. They did take away some of "modern" sounding grit, but not much - I prefer the vintage sound more though.

I plan on using the headphones a lot soon (baby on the way) and getting a smoother pre made the emulated out a lot nicer too.

So the Ei went microphonic pretty quickly, shame since it sounded so sweet. I wasnt about to shell out $$$ for NOS tubes though I would like to, so I picked up a Ruby 12AX7AC7 HG+ from Doug Tubes - definitely not as warm and sweet as the Ei but VERY quiet and clear when boosting the gain. Overall, the volume is lower as well, which is pretty cool because you can boost the clean volume until you start to get some power tube breakup and STILL have it well below ear bleed volume. Add a TS (or in my case a Maxon OD9) in front of that and it sounds gorgeous.

With the Ei I had the treble and mids at 10 and it still sounded a little smoothed out on the overdrive channel for my taste. The Ruby is much different, I'm dialing the treble back to 3-5 depending on where Im at with the ISF. I'd still like to eventually get a NOS tube in there, but the Ruby sounds pretty good and can get a similar (not the same) sound as the Ei with the treble dialed down.