BlackHeart "Little Giant"

[jackthehack]

Flaming Texas Special Strat ( http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=236.0 ) -> Dunlop Crybaby -> Visual Sound H2O with dialed down chorus on "Lush" -> Blackheart with GT-ECC38 + Groove Tubes Silver Series EL84 tone set at flat @ 7 volume in triode mode -> Celestion Vintage 30 = perfect SRV mellow blues tone, a la "Tin Pan Alley".

Bitchin!

 

[Shmoopie]

clips?

 

[Crappy]

This little amp rocks!!!! :headbang1:
I gave up on wainting for the BH cabs that were on backorder and picked up a marshall 2x12 cab to run the 2 heads into it

I have to say this sounds great stock without any mods or changing tubes out. (Now thats not going to stop me for changing them :laughing7

 

[jackthehack]

I ordered the cab from Musiciansfriend.com 28 Feb and got two separate backorder emails the first for 17 March and the second for 11 April, but got a ship notice yesterday, go figure....

 

[Music Man 91]

i wonder if plugging in the blackheat to a 412 cab will increase its output, since it is now driving 4 spekers instead of 1? maybe it will be a little louder? maybe?

 

[DiMitriR33]

acording to some that will increase output by 6db but i dought it. make that highly dought it. i've read that on hi fi forums and most of those guys are, or seem to be very educated but the ower will be distributed across all for speakers evenly and by that math each speaker will be down to 1/4 power or 6bd so adding them back together should give the exact same output. now there may be some other physics going on here but if there is i dought any increase will folow this rule. on that note an array (a group of speakers) is known to have a punchier sound. it should affect the tone and maybe preceived volume and you might like it better but i can't come up with a reason it would be louder.

 

[guitlouie]

I just went and tried one of these out to see for myself what all the hub-bub is about......I think that for 150 bucks,  well, I think I need one.

 

[jackthehack]

At $149, you can't afford NOT to buy one, besides the tube swap, another "necessary" mod I'm going to do is replace the triode/pentode switch on the amp with a footswitch.

 

[-CB-]

You might not want to do that foot switch conversion.....  The reason being, is the normal way to go triode/pentode is to connect the screen grid to the control grid, while disconnecting the screen grid from the high voltage screen grid supply.

Normally screen grids have about 5-10 percent less voltage on them than the plates.  Control grids have about 75 AC volts on them (AC signal riding on DC bias of some negative voltage... about -45volts to -55volts).

I dont think we want to do that... in a remote switching arrangement.

The "better way" (safe way, non-noise way) is to put a relay in the amp, have it do the switching, and control the coil of the relay with your footswitch. 

Keep in mind - and I've not heard the Blackheart... only others with TP switching - that when you flip the switch*, under load, it makes a loud pop, unusuable for stage switched use.


*not to be confused with ACME Truck Battery Co, Inc's "Flip the switch and start the bitch!" ad copy.

 

[Crappy]

I found a Boost Footswitch Mod for the amp.

 

[jackthehack]

Where'd you find that footswich boot mod? Has the amp designer's sig on it?

CB - The switch makes absolutely no pop or other sound even with the amp dimed; switching to pentode makes for good lead/boost/overdrive

If I fry it, I'll have a good excuse to buy the turret board mod

I just broke down and ordered the "Handsome Devil" BH15H head, too...

http://www.blackhearteng.com/bh15h.html

uniform price of $299 everywhere

 

[RLW]

It may be time to schedule an "amp intervention" for Jack.

:glasses10:

 

[Crappy]

Here is another mod for it
Power amp input mod

 

[Crappy]

This is the site I got the mods from.

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

 

[-CB-]

Its not the amp I'm worried about Jack.... its you bro!~

Its just poor form to run high V dc external.  And, you'll have to run the control grid external... means shielded wire at best, noise at worst.  The relay... you can find the voltage of the pilot light, run a relay that does the same voltage.  With bit of cleverness, you make the front panel switch continue to work (now controlling the relay instead of directly switching) and have a switching jack (maybe in the back) that forces footswitch use when the foot switch is plugged in.  Safe, elegant, efficient too, as the footswitch will be switching low DC voltages.

 

[jackthehack]

Hey, I made a lot of money this month betting on the price of Sprint stock to go down (DUH :icon_scratch and I've only bought this head and all the parts for a bass somebody's going buy from me, I'm doing good....

 

[jackthehack]

I bid on this, but it went over $300

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Supro-Tube-Amp-Supro-Supreme_W0QQitemZ140213537828QQihZ004QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[-CB-]

Akkk even worse.  They do the alternate - connect the screen grids to the plate in the BlackHeart.

so... the external switch will have the screen grid supply (high voltage) the plate voltage (higher voltage) and the wire to the screen grid (some carrying either high voltage ...) .

I dunno... just me but ... not good.

http://www.rowbi.myzen.co.uk/Blackheart/Documents/BH5_schematic%20Rev%2020070611.pdf
SCHEMATIC

 

[-CB-]

The boost footswitch.... is basically inserting a variable resistor between the "middle" control pot, and ground.

It uses a switching jack, and a relay in the footswitch, and a variable resistor (pot) in the footswitch.  What he doesn't do is use an old wah or even volume pedal to make the boost variable....

Its an ok take off of an old mod for that type of tone stack, as is used in Fender, Marshall, Vox, etc.

 

[jackthehack]

"so... the external switch will have the screen grid supply (high voltage) the plate voltage (higher voltage) and the wire to the screen grid (some carrying either high voltage ...) ."

What are the chances of starting my python boots on fire?