Customer Reviews

Blackstar HT Series HT-DUAL Tube Dual Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, for those who cannot buy a high voltage head-amp this is the best deal. The gain on this thing goes from a TS-808 in roids to a Peavey 5150 level of distortion. You only need an equalizer in front of it and you will be in heaven. Get a high gain pre-amp for only a 1/6 of the price. BlackStar made my day! Ah, don't forget the speaker emulator output if you go directly to the mixer. Best distortion pedal out there.

The tone of this thing is a cross between Marshall and Mesa, but doesn't have that ultra tight buzz saw / djent tone like you hear on some ENGL and Peavey 6505 amps. But it's still tight and crunchy and powerful sounding.

It's real tube tone, no doubt about it. Between the ISF tone shaping knob and the EQ, I can get a HUGE variety of tones out of the HT-Dual. From tube-like cleans to bluesy overdrive to classic rock to 80s metal to modern crispy metal riffs. From jangly Beatles to scooped Metallica.

So yes, this does indeed do metal easily, more than enough gain for recording at least. And if you think otherwise, swap out the tube with a Tung Sol and that should cover it.

The emulated output isn't bad, but for recording I use the regular output and run it through some cab impulses in my convolution plugin. With some EQ shaping, you can get an EXCELLENT recording metal tone out of this. I'd have to spend half a grand or more on some other tube preamp to get anything even close. I use this pedal to record quietly due to neighbors and I think it beats any pod, amp sim, or digital distortion pedal hands down.

I've seen some online demos and reviews before buying this product, but i just realized what this pedal really stands for when i plugged it into the amp.
An whole world of sounds, from the brightest to the darkest tone.
From those clean vintage tones, going through Plexis and Tweeds, to the Modern high gains.
Lots of harmonics and organic sound.
The only cons of the pedal is that you can't really see the position of the knobs when playing live.
Also, independent eq for each channel would be really usefull.

After years playing, testing many different kinds of amps, preamps and drives, i thing i'm gonna settle with this one.
I recommend this product for any king of guitar player, in any style, you should find your tone.

This thing sounds great for anything from clean to hard rock. Really crisp and full of harmonics. The ISF is a great feature as well. This pedal doesn't really do metal but gets close. Problems: The stacked pots for gain and level have manufacturing issues. The top knob doesn't fit the shaft right, so they squish the shaft and it tilts the knob. This causes the knobs to rub and the bottom knob turns when the top one is turned. This can be fixed by the user. The switches feel cheap, I hope they hold up. Lastly, there is a short mute when switching between channels which makes it hard to use live. I'm glad I bought it...but there are some issues.

I own 6 tube combos and this is my new favorite. For recording/practice it can't be beat by a single other amp. The tone (clean & dirty) is amazing with loads of character and depth! The only thing missing is some sort of reverb which is the only reason for the 4 stars instead of 5. Perhaps Blackstar could have included the same digital reverb they used on the HT-1, but no matter...This amp is great and doesn't need reverb to make you sound good.

I'm mostly a rock guy, but also play a lot of funk, blues, and jazz. The clean channel has little headroom but it's enough. Granted you will never be able to play over a drummer with this clean channel. Cranking the clean channel provides a great old-school kind of crunch that you'd hear on an old Led Zepplin or ACDC record. The dirty channel can take it from there to a full on hot-rod Marshall gain. The dirty channel also sings when soloing.

The Celestian speaker (rated at 40 watts) handles the amp well. I've dimed all the settings without any flub whatsoever coming from the speaker. It's voiced well and is very well rounded.