My HT-5(H) settings for Wicked Blues

[6StringBender]

Subject: Re: HT-5 settings Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:29 am

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I play "Nasty Blues" and my absolutely favorite tone comes from combining My HT-5H with a 1x12" Jensen "Vintage Ceramic" spkr.(C12Q) and shoving it all through an Epiphone Sheraton II.
I use no pedals/gadgets/gizmos, just an Ernie Ball "Ultraflex" cable with the killswitch built into the guitar input jack, to avoid "pops, squeals,etc." when plugging in/out.

These are my settings........
Guitar: both tone pots/wide open
Neck volume/8
Bridge volume/6
I use both p'ups for playing rythym and neck only for intros,leads,and solos (makes it literally SING)

Amp: (depending on song) clean channel/wide open
OD channel: ISF/10 o'clock
Treble/5 o'clock
Mids/3 o'clock
Bass/12 o'clock
Volume/as needed
Gain/9 o'clock for humbuckers.....10 o'clock for single coils and P-90s

I'm waiting for the stock tubes to start degrading and have nice NOS replacements for both, but even the stock tubes sound fantastic!!
If the NOS tubes make it sound any better I'll just be "beside myself" with joy.

I LOVE my Blackstar, and plan on being a lifetime customer !!!!

[ezietsman]

With treble on 5 o'clock do you mean its open all the way? If I do that its REALLY REALLY nasty bright. On my guitar, Epi LP standard with Seymour Duncan JB + Alnico II Pro my fav blues setting is more or less as follows:

Mild:

Gain: 9 o'clock
Bass: 2 o'clock
Mid : 10 o'clock
Treble: 10 o'clock
ISF : 3 o'clock

Turn down volume a tad on guitar. I have modern wiring so turning down the volume also cuts the treble.

I get a really nice smooth blues tone using my Digitech Hardwire CM-2 pedal with Gain=0, Bass=2'clock, High=11o'clock and Volume so that it boosts the total volume slightly.


If I want to go nasty blues I use the 'Mild' setting and put the gain up to around 12-1 o'clock.

My guitar is much brighter after its re-fret. So your mileage may vary considerably depending on the guitar and the pickups. The JB has lots of mids and is bright and high output whereas the Alnico II Pro is, well, think Slash - November Rain, very smooth and mellow. Best neck pickup in the world!

[6StringBender]

With treble on 5 o'clock do you mean its open all the way? If I do that its REALLY REALLY nasty bright. On my guitar, Epi LP standard with Seymour Duncan JB + Alnico II Pro my fav blues setting is more or less as follows:

Mild:

Gain: 9 o'clock
Bass: 2 o'clock
Mid : 10 o'clock
Treble: 10 o'clock
ISF : 3 o'clock

Turn down volume a tad on guitar. I have modern wiring so turning down the volume also cuts the treble.

I get a really nice smooth blues tone using my Digitech Hardwire CM-2 pedal with Gain=0, Bass=2'clock, High=11o'clock and Volume so that it boosts the total volume slightly.


If I want to go nasty blues I use the 'Mild' setting and put the gain up to around 12-1 o'clock.

My guitar is much brighter after its re-fret. So your mileage may vary considerably depending on the guitar and the pickups. The JB has lots of mids and is bright and high output whereas the Alnico II Pro is, well, think Slash - November Rain, very smooth and mellow. Best neck pickup in the world!

I forgot to mention that my 1x12" cab w/the Jensen Vintage ceramic spkr. has a heavily ported baffle plate (4x1" holes, between the spkr. screws and the baffle corners) that bring the lower mid/bass output up dramatically, balancing the brightness quite well........

The cab is actually an old Fender Frontman 60w Bass combo, that was shorted out, so I pulled the power chassis, made a new grille cover frame, to cover the 2.5" gap left by the absent chassis, covered it w/vintage Fender cloth, ported it mercilessly, and installed a new Jensen C12Q 35w spkr.

Here it is.........Before rebuild


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and the finished rig......

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