Blackstar HT5 amp head clean channel

[totalnewb]

When I put it on the 'boost' channel with the gainI barely have to have the volume up on that one at all for it to get very loud, but on the clean channel I have to turn the volume on it a lot more for it to get close to that loudness. I have the gain volume turned up just a tad and i have the clean one close to midway. Is this normal?

 

[AliceLG]

That hasn't been my experience. I usually have to put them quite close to each other with the OD channel a little higher to balance them. How high is your gain? I have it at 11:00 at the most.

 

[totalnewb]

That hasn't been my experience. I usually have to put them quite close to each other with the OD channel a little higher to balance them. How high is your gain? I have it at 11:00 at the most.

My gain is barely up, and yeah they are nowherre near close for me. My boost volume is almost to zero. But my clean knob is almost to halfway just to be audible.

 

[totalnewb]

anyone?

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

Doesn't sound normal to me. Maybe make sure your preamp tubes are seated properly - one is for clean and the other for distortion (at least on HT20) so maybe one has come unseated?

 

[Mike]

Yes its normal. The clean volume turns up a lot more gradually on that amp. On the Overdrive channel, the amp gets pretty loud not even half way between 0 and the first notch. There is nothing wrong with your amp.

source: I own/have owned 2.

Edit:

My gain is barely up, and yeah they are nowherre near close for me. My boost volume is almost to zero. But my clean knob is almost to halfway just to be audible.

Just read this post so possibly ignore my previous statement. There could be a tube not seated all the way. But almost to halfway on the clean and you're not exaggerating? then somethings not quite right. I can post a pic later of what mine looks like with the channel volumes each set to an audibly equal volume for you to compare. I have brand new tubes in mine, so if it's radically different I'd say you may have a problem.

 

[totalnewb]

Yes its normal. The clean volume turns up a lot more gradually in on that amp. On the Overdrive channel, the amp gets pretty loud not even half way between 0 and the first notch. There is nothing wrong with your amp.

source: I own/have owned 2.

Edit:



Just read this post so possibly ignore my previous statement. There could be a tube not seated all the way. But almost to halfway on the clean and you're not exaggerating? then somethings not quite right. I can post a pic later of what mine looks like with the channel volumes each set to an audibly equal volume for you to compare. I have brand new tubes in mine, so if it's radically different I'd say you may have a problem.

Yeah, go ahead and post. And zi may have been mistaken earlier, but not by much. It becomes audible at the first notch. However, I called the sweetwater guy and he had me turn both up to 10 and make sure They both got nice and loud. I was able to hear that they both got loud, but everyone's asleep so i wasn't able to play around with it too much. For comparison though would be great. At least it would be a comparison to go from. They said they'd swap it if i was still worried about it. I plan to turn it up to the 10s tonight and play around with it. I could have sworn that I had taken note of the volume knob before though, so unless something has changed that I am unaware of between then and the second time i tried it I am at a loss other than to fault myself.

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

Here's another test - If you know any drummers, i'd guess if you can get both your cleans and distortion loud enough for band jamming, then nothing is wrong. With my HT-20, both channels had just enough volume/headroom to keep up with a heavy hitting drummer (well, until i installed a Wizard speaker, then the amp was crazy loud). If the clean channel can't get loud enough for a band setting, then you may have an issue.

 

[totalnewb]

Here's another test - If you know any drummers, i'd guess if you can get both your cleans and distortion loud enough for band jamming, then nothing is wrong. With my HT-20, both channels had just enough volume/headroom to keep up with a heavy hitting drummer (well, until i installed a Wizard speaker, then the amp was crazy loud). If the clean channel can't get loud enough for a band setting, then you may have an issue.

I don;t know any drummers? Anything else I could try?

Hell, i barely know anyone locally to begin with. ( I am a bit of a hermit).

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

I don;t know any drummers? Anything else I could try?

Hell, i barely know anyone locally to begin with. ( I am a bit of a hermit).

Haha...me too somewhat. I suppose if your clean channel can still get "too loud" when cranked over halfway its probably ok...which is basically the same as testing against a drummer.

 

[Mike]

Here you go:

This is what I have mine set to for a little bit louder than your normal bedroom volume. It's really hard to capture where all the knobs are in a picture because no angle I tried showed all the dots and white tick/hash marks, but I did my best.

Anyway, my volume for the overdrive channel is about 1/3 of the way between 0 and the first white hash mark. The volume for the clean channel is just about halfway between the second and first tick marks. The volumes are damn near identical to my ear.

 

[totalnewb]

Here you go:

This is what I have mine set to for a little bit louder than your normal bedroom volume. It's really hard to capture where all the knobs are in a picture because no angle I tried showed all the dots and white tick/hash marks, but I did my best.

Anyway, my volume for the overdrive channel is about 1/3 of the way between 0 and the first white hash mark. The volume for the clean channel is just about halfway between the second and first tick marks. The volumes are damn near identical to my ear.

Yeah, the volume on the clean is just a little lower than that for audible in bedroom volume, but not by much. Witht he guitar volume knobs turned all the way up.

It's just below, or at the line, i can't remember exactly which.

 

[totalnewb]

Alright, so I cranked it full volume on both, and it gets loud. To the point that i wouldn't be comfortable playing it for long in the same room with it without wearing earplugs ( which I did besides initial loudness testing) which brought the volume back to a bit above room level for me. However even at full volume, I found I had to dial back the volume on my guitar when switching to the gain channel a bit to match the volume on the clean.

-edit-, even though it was really loud in my room, the sound didn't seem to spread throughout the house as much as I would have thought.

I had the door to the hall closed, and door to my room closed though and had it aimed at my closet.

 

[FifthCircleSquared]

This is what I have mine set to for a little bit louder than your normal bedroom volume. It's really hard to capture where all the knobs are in a picture because no angle I tried showed all the dots and white tick/hash marks, but I did my best.

Anyway, my volume for the overdrive channel is about 1/3 of the way between 0 and the first white hash mark. The volume for the clean channel is just about halfway between the second and first tick marks. The volumes are damn near identical to my ear.

Your settings are nearly Identical to mine on this amp. To answer your original question: Yes, on this amp, these settings are normal, if you are trying to keep the volume the same between the two channel.