Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: jibidy on December 24, 2008, 07:40:23 PM
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First off merry christmas!!
About a week ago i bought a blackstar HT-5 head and took it home and plugged it into my Randall 2x12 (Korean or Chinese, not the expensive american ones). 16 ohms out to 16 ohms in. And in high gain settings whenever there was alot of bass (when i let a chugg ring out most noticably) it made a horrible popping zappy noise. So I phoned up the shop and he said test it all the general problems (cables connections e.t.c.) and bring it in if the problems persist. So i tested it alot, and even through headphones, because it has an emulated output, it still made the horrible crakly noise whenever i got grungy.
The tech at the shop said there didnt seem to be anything that looked wrong tubes were fine and all components/pcbs no dry joints. So he gave me a new one today and its still making the noise!!
So I'm thinking the problem must be in my guitar or cab.
I'll try to arrange trying it on another cab/guitar soon. But could anyone suggest what it may be? Or maybe tell me of any similar situation.
Ps. im guessing the two heads are from a different batch because the first lot sold out and they only ordered heads and combos, then they got the mini stack set which is the head that i have.
Merry Christmas everyone.
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http://www.musicradar.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35 (http://www.musicradar.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35)
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AAAhhhh i see. Thanks.
So it seems to be a manufacturing problem or design flaw.
What do you recommend i do to resolve this problem? Refund?
Shame because i think it sounds awesome!!! :(
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you are not using a booster at the front by any chance are you?
mine makes that scratchy noise when i palm mute with the gain maxed and the booster at max and even then it only does it when i am on the neck pickup which makes me think it is related to the amount of bass frequencies boosted.
i got my gain running at 6 most of the time and the volume at around 2 and it never does that. i use a maxon 808 to boost for solos or for more wet parts and i got the balance at 7 and the overdrive at 4. never have a problem.
i think it is just a matter of too much gain and given the 5W it has, i do not think it can take loads of it.
I got the mini stack by the way.
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Well you see, I like lots of gain and fuzz. Thats half the reason i chose this particular amp. I dont think that it shouldnt be able to take gain or being boosted. The sound happened if i have the gain anywhere over 1-2 o'clock. straight into the amp vintage hot pickups ang let it ring out and let mute ring out. try that, if not still max the gain. I hope it doesnt happen to your amp aswell, but if it does then it is good confirmation.
If it cant handle its own gain control then whats the point? If thats the case i'll get a refund and spend the extra for a laney lionheart or orange tiny terror.
Its just a shame because i felt that i was getting along nicely withit.
How have you found it so far?
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no mine plays just fine under its own gain but i will try tomorrow to crank the volume a bit and see how it behaves then. at the moment with gain at max and volume at 2 i got no issues at all.
if you are saying your amp crackles without a booster then there is certainly a problem. Mine is from the second batch by the way but i doubt they changed anything between the two production batches. I just got it yesterday.
what is your volume when you get the crackling?
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ok mine does not play fine under its own gain with my neck painkiller. it is fine for the other guitar with EMG but it seems the painkiller neck is too thick and bassy for the amp. it only affects palm mutes which is not something usually done on the neck pickup anyway but still it is a bit disappointing :(
i tried another preamp valve and it did not change anything. As you said, it appears to be a preamp thing but the interesting part is that even if you roll off the bass on the amp to 0 it still does it. It seems the amp hates being hit with low frequencies and high gain. The problem exists before the signal even reaches the EQ,
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AAhh I see. Blackstar are going to have a mass re-call on there hands!!
I really liked this amp, its a shame that its seems f***ed.
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it is an odd situation for me because i never do palm mutes on the neck pickup. i am gonna tell the shop anyway but i will not swap it until i am sure blackstar has solved the manufacturing issue. it seems some people have it swapped only to get another faulty.
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Yeah i swapped mine and got the same problem :(.
Unfortunately i do tend to play slow grungy stuff, and when im rockin out with my octave multiplexer it sounds like an elephant on bubble wrap.
I think i'll spend more and get a laney.
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it seems to be very specific to a frequency that noise. i tried drop D and it did not do it so much. It seems to do it when palm muting very near the bridge in standard tuning.
still my guitar with EMG does not do it but the painkillers do it alot. it is not a problem that affects me much since i tend to leave my gain at around 7 and i do not play slow chug parts.
by the way, do you find that the cable length of the footswitch is a bloody joke? it is barely long enough to reach 2 feet away from the stack. what were they thinking?
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I'm glad this thread was started... I was ready to pull the trigger on a combo, I'll wait until the bugs are sorted.
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Yeah I think the footswitch cable is a bit of a joke but I'm a bedroom player so it doesn't bother me so much.
Yeah I'm pretty annoyed that they have a problem I wish I had waited, but Im definatly going to try and get another nice little tube amp. The blackstar seemed so perfect for what I wanted out of it because none of the small tube amps seem as versatile.
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Its a real shame this has happened with the HT-5, it could be a BIG seller for them. Hope they get the gremlins sorted quick - thats what happens when you farm production out to China... QC? What QC? :roll:
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well i am a bedroom player too and having to sit right next to the stack is annoying. it would cost them next to nothing to give us 20 feet cable for the switch.
:x british engineering is dead. period.
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well i am a bedroom player too and having to sit right next to the stack is annoying. it would cost them next to nothing to give us 20 feet cable for the switch.
:x british engineering is dead. period.
Chinese Engineering is dead!
I've got to admit I had reservations about this amp although I was tempted at the price. But I remember my HT Dual when I changed the valve and looked inside, masses of surface mount consumer grade electronics on several PCB's, when I read the HT5 used the HT preamps I was slightly put off the amps.
That's not to say they don't sound good, I'm sure they do but there is a lot crammed in those things for the price.
You get what you pay for....save up another £250 and you could buy a hand wired british head amplifier with the best quality components that would last you a lifetime - British engineering is alive and well.
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You get what you pay for....save up another £250 and you could buy a hand wired british head amplifier with the best quality components that would last you a lifetime - British engineering is alive and well.
Well said that man! :D
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You get what you pay for....save up another £250 and you could buy a hand wired british head amplifier with the best quality components that would last you a lifetime - British engineering is alive and well.
sure like a Marshall for instance. Lifetime warranty it will blow up :roll:
as for Chinese engineering, they are going to the moon, where is Britain going?
I am not Chinese, i just call it as I see it.
And why does it have to be handwired? So I have to pay more for some guy with a soldering iron? PCB is good enough.
Check the "Imperial" pride at the door, the UK is not an empire anymore.
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PCB certainly is certainly good enough, if it's done well. Unfortunately in a lot of amps it isn't - they're made with cheap components and poor quality boards to save costs. This has led to the "PCB is bad" stigma. Something like a Mesa or a Bogner have quality PCBs and components, and they're designed properly, which shows in their tone. The only cost effective way to mass produce amps is to use PCBs, and it's so important to do it properly.
The Blackstar amps sound like they have a design flaw, regardless of their type of construction or country of origin. A shame, as they have some great products and this will affect their reputation.
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Check the "Imperial" pride at the door, the UK is not an empire anymore.
You're the one who brought nationality into it, by insulting British Engineers.
And who's said anything about Empires?
The point made by Tom is not nationality, but price.
If the Chinese do get to the moon, I guarantee it won't be by using the same manufacturing methods used in guitar amp factories.
Enjoy your amp.
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you missed a couple of facts though, one of the being that it is a British designed amp and the second one is that it is manufactured in Korea, not in China.
I do not understand where the comment about chinese engineering came from though. I made a comment about British engineering because the amp IS British. China on the other hand has no part in this in any way.
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you missed a couple of facts though, one of the being that it is a British designed amp and the second one is that it is manufactured in Korea, not in China.
I do not understand where the comment about chinese engineering came from though. I made a comment about British engineering because the amp IS British. China on the other hand has no part in this in any way.
I didn't miss any facts. I'm aware of Blackstar's design and manufacture policy, and I'm aware that their amps are Korean made. It wasn't me who said the thing about China.
I'm responding to YOUR posts, slagging off British engineering, which is clearly fallacious and ignorant. I suspect you actually meant large scale manufacturing, on which point it's hard to argue.
Then when someone points out your error, you assume this is because they are imperialists. :lol:
It's funny that Blackstar get grief on the one hand for claiming that their amps are British, which some people state that they aren't because they're not made here.
Then when there's a problem, it's claimed by others this reflects badly on British engineering!
In actual fact, it's entirely possible, that this is a failure of Korean QC or manufacturing procedures!
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Yes i was talking about large scale engineering which is what i consider mass produced amps, whether manufacturing happens here or in another country. The point is there is no large scale engineering left for the most part and the few things that remain have the quality of the HT-5.
Anyway, that was not the point of the discussion. It is an engineering fault by the way, not manufacturing. A guy asked Blackstar and they told him it is a fault with a resistor.
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.... the few things that remain have the quality of the HT-5.
Silly generalisation.
In any case, one incorrect resistor does not make a poor quality product.
I give up :|
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not silly at all. look around you, the evidence is there.
one wrongly specified resistor that went from research and development all the way to manufacturing without being spotted is a major failure and it makes a poor quality product. It is not like only mine is faulty. It seems the entire first batch is faulty.
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You get what you pay for....save up another £250 and you could buy a hand wired british head amplifier with the best quality components that would last you a lifetime - British engineering is alive and well.
sure like a Marshall for instance. Lifetime warranty it will blow up :roll:
as for Chinese engineering, they are going to the moon, where is Britain going?
I am not Chinese, i just call it as I see it.
And why does it have to be handwired? So I have to pay more for some guy with a soldering iron? PCB is good enough.
Check the "Imperial" pride at the door, the UK is not an empire anymore.
What's that, the Empire has fallen? :( Why did the news take so long to reach me here in Manchester??
I shall remove the imperialist chip from my shoulder imediately and never defend anything that is Brittish again!
(Just incase somebody thinks it is my imperialist pride talking)
The next amp I get will still be hand wired and Brittish though :D
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.... the few things that remain have the quality of the HT-5.
Silly generalisation.
In any case, one incorrect resistor does not make a poor quality product.
I give up :|
Exactly, sounds like they've under-spec'd a resistor and it's slowly burning up - I'm sure someone will get an arse-kicking in their R&D dept, but they're a new company and shite like this happens. I'm sure the amp will be fine once this small detail has been sorted.
For some perspective, AC30s have been blowing up due to poor design for over 40 years and we still love them.
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not silly at all. look around you, the evidence is there.
one wrongly specified resistor that went from research and development all the way to manufacturing without being spotted is a major failure and it makes a poor quality product. It is not like only mine is faulty. It seems the entire first batch is faulty.
I think that besides the bass popping problem the HT5 is an amazing product. It responds very well to my big muff and I really enjoy playing with the emulated output on my headphones. I think its a great product for £220 considering what else you could buy for that money.
I'll be honest, Im looking for other amps incase this problem cant be resolved quick but if it can I will keep this amp without question, and it wont effect my opinion on Blackstar. I've heard their pedals are great and they have some great players using their expensive handwired stuff.
LOL I never imagined this thread to go so crazy. Im not going to dis anything because of where its made, because it means i can afford it of its made in korea or china.