Official Blackstaramps Forum

Hi all, I am new waiting for an HT1R Combo to arrive that i bought used off Ebay. I am assuming that it will need revalved, as the guy I bought it from used it quite a bit, but never reolaced the valves.
I have no great experience with valve amps, so am looking for advice on which valves I should try, the sound I'm after is nice clean & blues/crunch, I'm not interested in high gain.
Any advice would be most welcome.
Brian.

http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=3005

This link might help to answer some of your questions, Uff

Watford valves has a very good reputation. So you will most likely not go wrong with that kit. Every JAN tube I have tried has sounded good. They were tubes made specifically for military applications, so they had very stringent QC standards.

The only "issue" I have is the Harma ECC83 (I put emphasis on the word issue, because it's a very strong word here). Harma tubes do not come from one country of origin or from specific factory. They are selected tubes from various manufacturers. That's not a bad thing, as the tubes are selected based on their specific quality and tonal characteristics.

The good news is that the HT-1 does not have to be biased when changing the power tube. So you can actually try different ECC82/12AU7's until you find one you like.

IMHO, Blackstars respond very well to TungSol and Mullard reissues.

Thanks folks, the amp will be with me in the next few days, so we will see whats what then.
If it turns out to be as good a little amp as I expect it to be, I will also change the speaker for a Celestion Eight 15. How far wrong could you go for £25!

Mind if I hijack your thread? Just let me know...

Here's my story: I have a 2012 HT-1R. Recently it started failing and losing volume after a few minutes of use. The nice people of Blackstar suggested replacing the ECC82. I had a Sylvania 12ax7 laying around and tried that, after researching a bit online and finding next to nothing advising against the choice of a tube with slightly different specs.

Didn't work. As a matter of fact, the amp started showing problems right away. I still don't think the choice of a 12ax7 instead of a 12au7 is to blame. Either there's a different issue or the replacement tube is faulty.

I even tried replacing the original 12ax7 with the Sylvania and kept the original ECC82 at the power section. To my surprise the amp behaved the same way as with the Sylvania in the power. Then I put back the original tubes and waited a few minutes. The amp is back as it was before, works for like an hour, then starts failing.

What you guys think?

Just wondering if it's a heat related problem, a valve or other component failing once a certain temperature is reached and then once cooled down becoming operational again?

Just a thought!