HT-1: oversensitive gain control?

[mpedant]

On the HT-1 (non-reverb), is it expected behaviour that, on the clean channel, nothing much happens as i turn the gain up until it reaches 50%, at which point there's a fairly pronounced ramp up in volume? This makes it really hard to get a clean sound I can actually hear - there's a tiny area of the gain knob in between "inaudible" and "starting to break up". This is on a brand-new amp, and seems not to be affected by the volume knob on either amp or guitar - the same phenomenon occurs every time.

Thanks

[Classicplayer]

I have the reverb combo model and yes, the gain control does not do much until about the 12:00 to,1:00 o'clock position. The gain pot according to an email I received from Blackstar is of a graphic type. That means it acts like a reverse audio taper pot for the first 50% of its sweep and regular audio for the remainder. I don't know what type guitar you play through it, but I play my Les Paul through my HT1R combo.

I set the amp thusly for the clean channel: gain on 11 o'clock, volume on max. ISF at about 10 o'clock with reverb to the same. I can get a very good clean tone between 7 and 10 ( usually at 7.5) on my guitar's volume controls. This is with a set of '59 Duncan pickups. You will have to experiment with the gain channel yourself as your idea of distortion may vary from what mine is. I tend to set my gain pot in the 1’ o'clock area though and adjust volume and the ISF around that for my grit settings.

Classicplayer