Re: Low watt tube amp for hard rock and metal
As mentioned there are tons of great tiny tube amps these days. I have the HT-5 metal head myself, and I found the gain too much with the preamp tube that was in it. I downgraded to a 12AU7 as I'm not really going super heavy lately. I should go back to a good 12AX7 though as the clean channel has lost too much output since going down. You may just wanna try the regular HT-5 first, but if it's lacking and you don't like overdrive pedals, the metal would be good. I've got a much older champ style amp (Gibson Skylark) that has an extremely gainy Mullard 12AX7 in it right now, I play it more lately as I'm playing older stuff. However with a good 12AX7 I think the HT5 metal would be great. It definitely has a lot of gain, but I can't attest as to how it compares to the plain one.
I'd say the EQ is similar but there's just more gain available, opening up more harmonics. The mids don't seem scooped to me, although I do go a bit past 12 o'clock on the knob for it. I usually reel in the treble a bit and boost the bass a touch more than the mids but I like low end and am a bit touchy towards excessive treble.
You may prefer the metal version if you need searing gain at super low volumes. It'll never feel the same as moving a lot of air, but you can get the harmonic content with the HT5 metal, certainly. And it's plenty good for anything else, although I rarely go past 12 on the gain, even with the weaker tube. With a 12AX7 (especially the Chinese squeeler) I rarely got that far.
The digital reverb is nice. Pretty lush if needed but I can get just a subtle amount around 9 o'clock, as opposed to trying to tame a Fender spring unit. Maybe it's just the pots on some of them but it's really hard to get subtle reverb on some spring equipped amps, even though I like the sound. Not to mention the noise they're capable of.
It's not quite loud enough to gig unless I get everybody on low wattage stuff, but even then an overzealous drummer can make it seem a bit lopsided. Usually not an issue, but my bandmates' choice of overpowered amps is, so I borrow a Blues Jr. or mic my Skylark lately. However, I could safely leave the Blackstar in standby if I wanted, and just use the direct out. It sounds decent, not to mention there's an effects loop. I have one pedal and I rarely use it though. If I had the Blackstar in a combo I might take it out more. If I had it at 20 watts and as light as my Skylark (like a heavy Les Paul) I'd take it everywhere. I run it through a couple of old ADA split stack vert 2x12's at home though. It's plenty boomy and loud that way but can be tamed more than the Gibson, as it only has one knob. So even the Blackstar head is probably a pound or two heavier than my 1x10 combo, but it has way more options, and for your purposes, it's not really going anywhere, right?
If that's the case 5 watts may still be too loud, dependent upon your living situation. The 1 watt would be cool if it had all the same features. However I don't think it does, plus the 5 watts is pretty tuneable to the loud bedroom or quiet jam session. The DI with headphones ain't bad, not to mention you could amplify through computer monitors this way if you're just trying to get some oomph without shaking the house. And at such a low wattage, there's cheap attenuation options. A Mallory T8 wirewound pot is about 20 bucks and good up to about 15W I think. Problem is they only reel it down to about 4 I think, but I'm gonna give this a shot myself soon. Maybe try to wire 2 up with a heatsink.
I am interested in some of the other amps mentioned, though. The MV50 seems like something neat. I liked the Micro Terror through a 2x12 when I demoed it quite a bit, but I'm not really into the Orange sound all that much, plus I'm not sure how quiet it actually gets. Still, heck of a price for something that probably gets quiet better than an all tube amp and, y'know, it's tiny and could keep up with a band. Same goes for the Vox MV50 and the NuTube or whatever. Really interested in the technology, and given the design of the HT-5 itself (12BH7 power tube, it's weird) it would seem you could make a 5W power section out of these "new" tubes even though they haven't acknowledged the possibility. It should work fine, but it would make the amp roughly 2x bigger and probably harder to sound consistent at varying volumes, given the nature of the beast.
