A fairly quiet tube amp

[atilla]

I can't count all the times I've seen threads about quiet "Bedroom" level tube amps in this forum. And I think there's finally one that sounds good and isn't too expensive - that would be the Blackstar HT-5.

My rhythm guitarist's brother picked one up and hauled it down to our practice space, where we spent about 30 minutes abusing it. I got to go first using my old Charvel 375. Instead of its two 10-inch cabs, we ran it through my Avater 212. Knowing my taste, Todd (KJ here on this forum) twiddled the knobs to get me some high-gain sounds. The amp has a nice, quick attack. With the volume and gain cranked, it doesn't hiss - but it does whistle and squeal if you stop playing. That goes away quickly if you back off on the gain and/or volume.

Pinch harmonics and muffled palm-muting do really well with the right settings. And you really can go from a fairly heavy modern distortion (though not brooootal) to more of a classic crunch. The clean channel does pretty well, but I wouldn't go so far as to say shimmering.

The amp's too quiet to go unmic'd in a band situation. It will be good for bedroom players and recording, though. For about $500, you get a pretty good amp. I like the Blackstar stuff so far.

[Cygnus X1]

Cool!
I thought I was doing well using three tubes to get moderately high gain.
I have to look, but that power tube seems to have a similar layout to the 6SN7's I'm using for the SEL-2. Mine runs single ended though.

I wonder just how small that amo could be built?

[Robert Burns]

My VHT 2/90/2 is absolutely quiet... even loud.

[jgcable]

My Legacy is so quiet I can only tell its on by the power light.

[atilla]

Quiet as in no hiss, or as in no squealies if you get too close to the amp?

[Cygnus X1]

Components have improved over the years.
Those old carbon composition resistors used to put out a lot of hiss, even when new.
Metal film resistors work better, and are dead quiet in comparison.

Capacitor technology has improved as well.

[jgcable]

Quiet as in no hiss, or as in no squealies if you get too close to the amp?

With my Legacy master volume on 4 which is crazy loud and the gain on 7 which is ALOT of gain the Legacy is whisper quiet. Not even a sound. Absolutely 0 hiss.
Compare that to a 5150 which at those settings sounds like a box of snakes or a ton of white noise.
I also notice that my bandmates V3 is dead quiet. You can't even tell the amp is on until he turns the guitar volume up and even then.. its just the pickups making a little active noise. No hiss at all.

If I get too close to the amp with the guitar volume up I get AC cycle hum and if you put the guitar next to speaker with the volume I get a nice controlled feedback. Thats normal for any amp.

[Tim_B]

Components have improved over the years.

Capacitor technology has improved as well.

Undoubtedly.
Capacitors is what I do for a living, and every time I look inside an old British tube amp and see all those blue LCR electrolytics, I wince.
In the UK capacitor industry 15 years ago, LCR was sometimes said to stand for 'low cost rubbish'.
Nothing wrong with them in that application, there's just MUCH better caps about.
If you can, go metallised over electrolytic every time ...

[atilla]

Undoubtedly.
Capacitors is what I do for a living, and every time I look inside an old British tube amp and see all those blue LCR electrolytics, I wince.
In the UK capacitor industry 15 years ago, LCR was sometimes said to stand for 'low cost rubbish'.
Nothing wrong with them in that application, there's just MUCH better caps about.
If you can, go metallised over electrolytic every time ...

Tim, are you referring to the huge blue filter caps like in an old Laney AOR?

[Cygnus X1]

Bad, poor quality (or too old) filter caps will exhibit hum.
Bad quality caps in the signal chain will hiss or crackle like a dirty pot.

Electrolytics dry out with age, the other caps are generally good enough.

It's often a bad idea to swap out old tone and bypass caps in vintage amps,
but replacing electrolytics is something that is necessary preventive maintenance.