Official Blackstaramps Forum

2. Easier access to tubes - its a PIA The preamp tubes on the HT (certainly on my 20) are certainly pretty awkward due to the deeply recessed sockets. A bit of rubber (I use a section of old bicycle inner tube) makes it much easier to grip them and pull them out - made it much less annoying when I ...

I think speakers are a very personal taste thing - they could put some "better" speakers in there and it doesn't mean everybody would consider it an upgrade. I bought a head, so it doesn't really apply to me, but I like the sound of it through my Orange open-back with a pair of V30s, whereas I reall...

Possibly a dodgy solder joint or other connection that works when cold but fails when the amp warms up and things expand and flex slightly. Resoldering the offending joint would fix it if that's the case, but it may be hard to find it.

Not quite sure what you mean... The normal way would be to put the cab on the floor and stand the combo on top of it. Will that not work for some reason? Or if you're talking about connecting the speakers, you need to move the combo's internal speaker plug into one of the "2x16" outputs and plug the...

FWIW, the Orange 2x12 cabs are 16 ohm. Not cheap, but should be available in Australia I would think. They do a full-size closed back (expensive) and a compact open back (not so expensive but still hardly cheap). I got my Orange PPC212 open-back second-hand for a reasonable price. Very nice cab. Har...

Changing the speaker for a more efficient one (like a V30 or something) would make it a bit louder (so more headroom). And you may prefer the different sound enough not to want another cab. Depends how MUCH louder you want the cleans - but if you end up going for a bigger amp, remember that power to...

FWIW, I'm using an Orange PPC212 Open Back with my HT20 head at the moment. I had a convertible back 112 cab before that I built from an old Marshall combo, and I mostly used that closed, but the Orange open back 212 sounds fantastic. If I was a metal player I might want a closed back, but for my pl...

The hardest thing about building your own box would be covering with tolex tidily. I'd be tempted just to use some nice looking wood and varnish it rather than covering with tolex (perhaps also add some metal corner protectors). If you forget about trying to make it look like a normal Blackstar head...

I've recorded from my HT20's emulated out quite a few times with good results. I just set the gain to where I want it, then adjust the output level with the channel volume. As we're only using the preamp and not trying to overdrive the power stage, does the channel volume really make much difference...

I've only had experience of one modeller "in the flesh", a Line6 Spider III, which I didn't like at all - Guitar Rig on a PC is way better. But at the high end they are getting pretty good now aren't they, with the likes of Axe-FX? Not tried one myself, but they sound pretty impressive in demos and ...