BlackHeart "Little Giant"

[-CB-]

Bout the same as a frayed wire, whisker coming out on a connection, and using the wrong plug.....  For sure, you'd have to:

Insulate the jack from the chassis - cant have "ring"  going to ground... really, cant have ring at all, cuz if you touch it..oops.  Well just scratch that whole idea....This precludes using 1/4 inch footswitch type stuff.

You can use some of the keyed plastic connectors, like are found on Mouser, DigiKey etc.  You'll need at least 3 conductors - plate, screen, and screen return.  You wont need the shielding - since after looking at the schemo of the amp, its clear its not needed, they dont touch the control grids.

Switch... something rated for 500vdc should do it.

Use the relay - its easier then overcoming the safety issues. 

Think of it this way - if you croak:  Somebody's gonna have to clean the mess.  Plus, I'll be top poster here then... and really, who wants THAT to happen?  Not I, not I!~.

 

[jackthehack]

Got the Blackheart 1x12 cab in today; like the head, extremely solid and well made. The only thing I have to make a direct comparison to is the 12" 8 ohm Celestion Vintage 30 in my Blues Deluxe I've been playing the head through to date. As far as efficiency goes, no real difference in volume, Eminence "Blackheart" speaker has to be right at 100 db @ 1 w/meter. Sounds great, a little different from the Celestion in the Deluxe; may primarily be due to difference in the closed cab/open back cab designs; will have to pull the back off the cab and check it out.

As the cab only costs $10 bucks more than the Celestion Vintage 30, I'd rate it quite the steal....

 

[jackthehack]

BTW - If you were interested in one of the BH15H 15w heads; Blackheart hasn't started shipping them yet; initial orders to dealers should be in 6-8 weeks.

 

[Shmoopie]

a shop 80 miles to the south of me has one or two, and i think they ship
let me check.

 

[Shmoopie]

nope i only glanced and i was wrong

"on order, expected arrival date unknown"

http://elderly.com/new_instruments/names/blackheart-bh15h-%22handsome-devil-head%22-amplifier--BH15H.htm

 

[jackthehack]

I know the guys I ordered from; they're on the West Coast and will get some of the first ones in; said they were shocked about how many of the 15 and 100w heads people were pre-ordering as no one's seen anything but the 5w ones yet.

 

[Shmoopie]

I'm not surprised, I've been chomping at the bit to get back to B's music to play that little giant again.

 

[misplacedsanity]

How much clean headroom do these amps have? Seeing as how they don't have an effects loop, would I be able to run a pod infront of it without it distorting at bedroom levels? Or am I best sticking to something better suited to the job?

 

[dudesweet157]

The definitely don't have a lot of clean head room, but that's not what low wattage tube amps are about.  It's all about getting that good power tube saturation at volumes that don't get the cops called on you.

 

[jackthehack]

Define "clean"? It doesn't start saturating the V2 tube until you're a bit over 50% of volume in triode mode, a hair less in pentode mode, you get relatively clean "singing" through about 7.5 - 8 in the triode mode, a little less in pentode; then you start getting good tube "crunch" distortion.

You have absolutely NO need for overdrive/distortion effects with this amp; dial the max you want on the amp volume and control it from the guitar volume knob; below 7 or so on the guitar volume you're going to be pretty clean; dime the guitar volume for more overdrive/distortion, there's plenty there in the amp circuit.

If you're not used to tube amps, you're going to need to rework the optimum volume level on your "pod" or other effect/pedal with volume/gain tyepe controls; I'm assuming you like the sound of a tube amp. You can pull somewhere in the neighborhood of 104-105 dB "clean" using the matching speaker cab; plenty loud enough for bedroom/music room/recording.

 

[misplacedsanity]

Thanks for the replies. I guess this isn't what I'm looking for, if I were to use the distortion from the Blackheart and I'm plugging modulation/delay effects in the front of the amp I'm going to be hearing a lot of mush. I need something that's super clean.

 

[guitlouie]

I need something that's super clean

Roland Jazz chorus!  Twin reverb! Oh, did you mean clean and small and quiet?  I guess those don't fit the bill, except that they are the most exceptionally clean amps I have ever heard.

 

[neilium]

One trick for putting a delay pedal in front of an overdriven amp: turn the delay output way way low. The unaffected signal from the guitar will be overdriven, and the delay will be reasonably clean and not compressed.

For super clean and portable, look into what the archtop jazz dudes use. I don't like Polytone amps, but they fill a niche, and way better guitarists than me like them a lot.

Also, there are some smaller versions of the Roland Jazz Chorus, JC75, JC-55.

 

[Crappy]

Thanks for the replies. I guess this isn't what I'm looking for, if I were to use the distortion from the Blackheart and I'm plugging modulation/delay effects in the front of the amp I'm going to be hearing a lot of mush. I need something that's super clean.

I'm running a boss super chorus, flanger, digital delay, MXR phase 90 and crybaby in front of the amps into a Rocktron noise gate there is
no mush to be heard anywhere. Sounds clean and warm and every note is clear.

I have also tried it with a Boss Super Distortion, sounds really good with it. I have it set down real low, just enough to give the heads a kick.

 

[misplacedsanity]

Thanks for that. Sounds like good news. I really wanted to get a couple of these amps, they're too cheap to pass over and I haven't heard one bad thing about them (apart from there lack of an effects loop). Many thanks for the clarification. Much appriciated.

 

[kataar]

is there a possible mod to put in an effects loop maybe? or is that just too much work for it to be worth it?

 

[jackthehack]

Stock schematics and board layouts are at:

http://www.rowbi.myzen.co.uk/Blackheart/blackheart.htm

I don't know that it would be worth jacking with; I don't have any issues putting effects in front of the amp

 

[-CB-]

is there a possible mod to put in an effects loop maybe? or is that just too much work for it to be worth it?

Generally... an effects loop has to be buffered to get the impedances straight - its doable, but... dunno if its worth it.

 

[jackthehack]

OK ; here's the deal; Sovtek 12AX7WB in V1 Groove Tubes Silver Series EL84 in V2. Screwed the back of the head back on, on mine.

If you can make it sound better than that. let me know...

 

[-CB-]

WBs... shhh well kept dark secret... shhhh