BlackHeart "Little Giant"

[Music Man 91]

soundclips?  eventually? 

 

[jackthehack]

Sure...

 

[jackthehack]

Youwsur!  This thing rocks like a monster! Running it through the 12" Celestion Vintage 30 in my Blues Deluxe. After first 30 minutes my impressions are:

1.) Remove any gain/boost/distortion pedals in the effects chain, superfluous with this head, got all the sustain/distortion you can want by dialing it up..
2.) As you can see from pic, leaving tone controls @ 12 o'clock position to start out with.
3.) In either 3w triode mode or 5w pentode mode not much need for me to ever go past the 3 o'clock position on the volume, EL84 is REALLY saturated past that point.
4.) IS LOUD, plugged into Vintage 30 (100dB @ 1w) will leave a slight ringing in your ears after 10 minutes, and that's not on 10.
5.) In pentode mode flat out with a RG BBQ bridge PU on ten a struck A chord will be very reminiscent of a old LP plugged into a Marshall 50w tube half stack 11'ed out (but a lower volume) crunch sustain rolling to feedback.
6.) Sweet spot for me is 3 o'clock in triode 3w mode, sounds similar to the Blues Deluxe at 8 or 9 in terms of tube crunch, but at the BD volume level of about 2, PERFECT.
7.) Stock tubes are funky "no-names" just labeled 12ax7/EL84 China in white lettering; will go out and get GrooveTube replacements tomorrow, may be only mod this amp really needs, at just $149 & free shipping $40 bucks worth of quality tubes still make it quite the bargain.
8.) Unit is SOLID, built like a tank.

I may have the perfect practice/recording amp here, anybody know where I can find a 12" JBK D120? I'll build it it's own little cab...

I'll try to get some sound clips recorded over the weekend with different axes

 

[Music Man 91]

perhaps you could but the matching blackheart cab

it has a specailly designed speaker called 'the balckheart'--supposed to match the head perfectly

it may be worth checkin' out.
good luck jack!

 

[jackthehack]

Saw that, actually might buy one just to save the hassle of building a cab, but would replace that Eminence speaker of I did. If the cab's built as well as the head I'd wind up spending more than $129 in materials and my time building it

 

[Music Man 91]

seems like a good deal to me

 

[Shmoopie]

did i not say it was LOUD?

this will be the first guitar amp i buy.

 

[jackthehack]

Went ahead and ordered the Blackheart 1x12 cab and new tubes today. May have to wind up getting their 15 watt head as well...

 

[stubhead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pB5hV21Y00

I wish people would stop inventing neat stuff.... I "need" a E-H Stereo Memory Man w/Hazerai too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGObQs7JNr4

It's just like nitrous oxide!

Remember how even the most anti-materialist hippies always had great dope & Martin guitars?  :toothy12:

 

[dbw]

Hehe, I was thinking the same thing, MusicMan.  If I turn my amp past TWO the windows start vibrating... if I turn it past four my cat flips out... one day I turned it to seven and my neighbors called the cops.    :headbang1:

And my amp's only 100 watts.  You've got a Triple Recto, right MusicMan?  :headbang1:

 

[Music Man 91]

correct-amundo! That BAMF is LOOUUD!--but rockin. to tell you the truth though, when i bought it, i tested it right next to a dual recto. since volume is a logrhythmic relationship (5 watts is 1/2 as loud as 50 watts) there is barely any difference in intensity between the dual and triple. but, their sound characters at the same volume are quiter different since one of them is working at a higher intensity than the other to sound the same. so, th etone of that particular triple recto was my fav. so i bought the thing. sorta wish i had an attenuator.. of well, who needs to hear things the next day anyway?

 

[jackthehack]

Crap! All the tubes I ordered to experiment with are inbound, but the 1x12 matching cab is back ordered till 17 March....

 

[ibob74]

That looks familar...

 

[Shmoopie]

quit rubbing it in my nose, im planing on getting one, (and a micheal kelly patriot black) just give me three months

 

[-CB-]

since volume is a logrhythmic relationship (5 watts is 1/2 as loud as 50 watts) there is barely any difference in intensity

Give that man a ceegar, gold star, and bottle of Drambuie.  Go to the head of the class!~ 

I just hate the way they market amps by watts... like there's real difference between 40 and 60.  There aint.  Between 40 and 100, there aint.  Between 25 and 100, there is, but not too much.

Thank you, thank you and THANK YOU~

 

[stubhead]

I just need 500 watts to keep up with the drummer... the drummer don't think so.... :evil4:

 

[Crappy]

I'm in the same boat as Jack,
BH cabs are back ordered till March 18
Heads will be here this week

 

[Music Man 91]

like there's real difference between 40 and 60.  There aint.  Between 40 and 100, there aint.  Between 25 and 100, there is, but not too much

exactly, but also the wattage rating is only the clean headroom, once a tube amp breaks up, it exceeds its original wattage rating--so my amp reaches 150 watts when the master volume is at around "3"--the rest of the volume levels are far beyond that wattage rating--atleast i am pretty sure. so, that means that the blackheart is really more like 7 or 10 watts when ya crank the thing. unless i'm completly and uttery wrong...

 

[-CB-]

like there's real difference between 40 and 60.  There aint.  Between 40 and 100, there aint.  Between 25 and 100, there is, but not too much

exactly, but also the wattage rating is only the clean headroom, once a tube amp breaks up, it exceeds its original wattage rating--so my amp reaches 150 watts when the master volume is at around "3"--the rest of the volume levels are far beyond that wattage rating--atleast i am pretty sure. so, that means that the blackheart is really more like 7 or 10 watts when ya crank the thing. unless i'm completly and uttery wrong...

That just isn't true at all.  A tube can conduct only so much current.  The power supply can deliver only so much current.  The output transformer can only take so much current... and thats that.  And THATS where the wattage is determined.

When a tube distorts, whats going on is rather simple.  Your grid voltage goes positive, and the plate current goes up... as the grid voltage goes more and more positive, the plate current increases...till it cant increase any more.  At that point, the grid voltage still goes up, and you get no change in current.  Then the grid voltage comes down past the peak of the wave, and the plate current is still maxed.  At some point, the grid voltage, still on the way down, gets to a level that allows the plate current to begin dropping as well.  The section of the wave form, where the grid is increasing, and the current can no longer rise has certain time base associated with it, depending on the frequency.  So, for a certain time, the plate current goes up, levels off at its max value, then begins to drop.   

BEHOLD THE CLIPPED WAVE

The thing with tubes, and how they differentiate themselves from silicon is that they clip in a soft manner, with rounded shoulders on the wave, and very little or no ringing as the max current level is reached.  They clip in a non-linear fashion.  Silicon clips sharply, usually with a ringing edge on the beginning of the clipped portion, and a sharp shoulder.

In either case - the wattage does not go up.  What you've heard, or have been made to believe is totally and utterly false.

Having said THAT.....

Higher wattage amps have more clean "headroom".  What that means is... say you've got a 20w amp and 100w amp both running at about 15w output.  You smack a monster bass heavy chord.  With the 20w amp, that 15w level maxes out to 20w real fast, and the bottom end is not as solid or tight.  On the 100w amp, you've got a huge reserve there, for really tight, defined low end.  Try playing bass through a Twin Reverb or though a Showman or Dual Showman.  Just magnificent articulation, especially with guitar speakers.  Yes...!~~  Trust me!!

There is an ongoing debate as to whether the psychoacoustics of tubes vs silicon makes "tube watts" sound louder.  This has to do with natural perception of certain harmonics present in both clean and distorted output.  Could have much to do with speakers, and also with things like damping (which I wont go into now....).  I'm not convinced either way when the same criteria for power measurement is used.  That is, we take the same speaker load on each amp (tube vs silicon) and read both its voltage and current and multiply them to get the power.  Using manufacturers ratings is dubious at best, and silly when you see what they're really calling certain things.

 

[Music Man 91]

there goes my gold star , oh well, thanks for enlightening me once again CB!