Amp Nerds please help.

[jibidy]

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.

[martinw]

http://www.musicradar.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35

[jibidy]

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!!! :(

[f.sardis]

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.

[jibidy]

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?

[f.sardis]

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?

[f.sardis]

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,

[jibidy]

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.

[f.sardis]

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.

[jibidy]

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.

[f.sardis]

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?

[d1dsj]

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.

[jibidy]

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.

[HTH AMPS]

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:

[f.sardis]

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.