I have this amp in the 40w version. The MKIII and all. I think it's pretty darn good on its own, and then straight up excellent with a boost of some kind. It has all the features I want and a very good low end. 🤘
This amp came straight from the 80’s! Its classic british tone in the beginning of the video it’s awesome! It reminds me of the glam metal sound of the 80’s like Cinderella or Britny Fox
As someone who just bought a Blackstar HT20 Mkii combo (with EL84 tubes), if you want a good metal tone then I'd recommend getting an OD and an EQ. My amp without pedals has a solid tone, but the pedals turn a solid tone into an incredible tone, imo. I bought an MXR 10-band EQ and a JHS Bonsai OD, and it's hard to put my guitar down and stop playing because it sounds so good. 👍 Ola, if you're looking to try a new OD pedal, give the JHS Bonsai a go! It models nine of the most popular OD pedals, including I think three of the Ibanez TS pedals (808, TS9, TS10). Its my first OD pedal, but it might be the only one I ever buy!
Hey bro, great advice. I just bought the JHS Bonsai, and a Fulltone OCD Obsessive Compulsive Drive Pedal as I thought I would need them both. Should I get rid of the Fulltone OCD as the bonsai will be good enough with the amp's gain? Thanks for the help!
@enacku well, I'm no expert, but you basically have two drive pedals. An overdrive like the Bonsai will have a higher output than a normal drive pedal (hence "over"drive). If you want high gain, the Bonsai delivers that. I think the T7 and JHS modes on the pedal have the most gain. Personally, I'd swap out the OCD for a noise gate if you don't have one already. The Bonsai is pretty noisy, so a gate will take away all the hiss and noise. Hope that helps. 👊
Clean sounded amazing, honestly. Given that Ola downtunes so much, usually his cleans sound quite sterile, but it still seemed to generate a bit of sparkle.
For the price, I think they sound pretty decent and are super versatile. Big plus for the 100 watt is the independent volume controls for OD1 and OD2. The 50 watt has a shared volume and there is a HUGE volume drop switching from one to the other. I was considering because I wanted a 3 channel amp where I could set up OD 1 for heavy crunch and OD2 for the chugs and switch between the two live, but the volume drop makes this impossible on the 50 watt.
Actually they make very good sounding amps. Series One are mean amps and I like their digital Silverline too. Lots of good tones there. And their ID:Core small amps are maybe the best at the moment in comparison to any other make.
Not saying they don't sound good. I used to own one (needed service quite a few times though). They just don't have their own sound or character. @@tankerbrigade
@@tankerbrigade What you described has nothing to do with HT Venue 😀but you are right - early models had more something but this is utterly disappointing.
@@kaytrell To me HT-Venue MKIII is way better (sounding) amp than MKII. The only thing I don't like with Blackstar is their (looks like) over-engineering but they are not the only one out there doing it.
Cool Ola, thanks for another video!!! I have this amp for almost two months now and play it in a dual setup with the JCM 800 Zakk Wylde top, each with a 4x12 cabinet. The Blackstar is absolutey georgous on its own and the PERFECT partner (at least for me) for the Marshall! The ISF to the left is acutally "Modern U.S." sound and to the right "British". Together with the EQ and the second voicings you get a ton of good sounds. Use all the knobs and switches...it really does a lot more than you could put in a quick tryout video. You can load different IRs and I changed the reverb over the software...awesome. If you have the chance to test this amp: knock yourself out. Love you Ola and cheers from Germany Dan
Always try a Tubescreamer and a Boss SD-1. I think this amp would sound better with a Boss SD-1 in front of it. This amp is in the same category as the EVH Iconic. It's an amp. It works. Throw pedals at it. Make your noises with it.
I have the mkII venue. With the preamp volume at 6 or higher it really comes alive. It doesn't sound great at low volume. Mine likes the tube screamer the best.
I have the studio 20. It's good I'm my apartment gets no noise complaints and I paid 350 used. I don't dime it but need to eventually. Playing with a tube screamer cleans it up
I have this amp. Just got the 60 combo . It’s definitely bassy. Gotta turn the bass down a smidge. But once you do that it gets real tight and aggressive on channel 2 with the voice switch
I have the 50w mkIII and the "voice" switches are nothing more than a gain boost. So when used with the foot switch it functions like stepping on an OD pedal or volume boost.
I've been proudly playing the HTCLUB50 for almost a decade now, and it's been amazing. These amps take some time to genuinely break in and sort of smooth out. Mine has the early edition of the Cab IR, but through the matched V30 cab its amazing. Blackstar is highly underrated IMO, as most players are looking for an immediate option and 600 presets. To each their own!
I second this. I've been playing my Club 50 for almost a decade and there is time needed to let these amps settle in IMO. Nothing more than my ears, I don't know enough about the science of amps. I just know how I feel when I play.
I like Blackstar as a company but this amp/cab/mic combination isn't my favorite. Once you put an overdrive in front of it, it came to life. Not sure if it's my speakers but the amp's distortion didn't excite me like it should. The built-in IRs sounded great, it's cool to see that included.🤘
I own this amp and I love it. I use it with an engl 2x12 and a evh 2x12 as well and sounds awesome. I don’t think the matching cab sounds very well with the HT3
They keep on making upgrades to the amp but never address this. The Celestion Seventy 80 is just not the speaker for these amps. I've experiences this since their inception. I was working at a guitar store and liked the amps plenty but whenever someone wanted to try with a different cab, it was always night and day. Just generally blah speakers that they keep on putting in every HT amp cab and combo. Any of the special edition combos that have had a different speaker have always sounded better then the standard editions as well. They could probably get a better non-Celestion speaker but then they can't use that in the marketing.
Celestion 70/80, the cheapest OE Celestion so makers can advertise Celestion speakers in their cabs. Not that I am in the market for this head, but I have to wonder how much better it sounds through a closed cab V30 loaded cab or cabs
I think it sounds very good. I'm into classic and hard rock. 70"s 80"s. Kiss sabbath Rush Lizzy. I mean a good eq and clean boost should fix this amp to tailor any tone. Amp looks great!
Wondering what it would sound like with different speakers. Got to quote Glenn from Spectre Sound. “You want to change your tone? change your speakers.”
He used second voicing on OD2 channel which is actualy the od boost built in, so he literaly played the amp through 2 ODs adding ts808, thats why it sounded like it sounded.
I have the ht venue 2 its okay i like better now in my 4x 12 cab i have 2 v30/s and 2 greenbacks also the tone is much better! Would i buy this amp or new one? No!
My wonder years were spent growing up in Frashtown! Frash metal, Frasher magazine \m/ :D I'm actually prefering the tone of voice 1 and the isf seemed more low-mid stoner focused at max than scooped. For a grand, it might cover a lot of ground if it takes pedals well. I'd like to see a more in-depth review after you had some time to fiddle with it.
Sounds like a Blackstar, which is pretty good but theres a subtle "squish" in the mids I'm not a fan of. (I prefer the harsher/grittier sound of a Marshall better) But they are sonically versatile amps, and I like how you don't need any effects or overdrive pedals to have a good tone to fit most situations. I wonder what speaker they use in the cab.
Maybe it’s the cab and/or the mic placement but it’s got a weird crackly fizzy distortion. The impulses didn’t improve on that as well. You didn’t seem all to excited either. 😅
As usual, very mixed opinions on this one from everyone. Its a similar situation to the metalzone; you've got the crowd who hate them and wont even give them a chance and then you have people who understand that alot of their stuff is actually pretty decent. I think its a great sounding amp!
Speaking from personal experience with a MKII. Switch to KT77 Tubes and swap half of the speakers to vintage 70 and it’ll deliver that heft left to be desired for metal. I used gold lion tubes for preamp and power amp.
if nobody knew the name and it was in a great song, 50 percent of nayers would be lapping at the shoreline going wow amazing guitar sound, eyehate is a sonic shitslide unfortunately, sounds cool gets it done and cheaper than the tuther brands, best looking mesa clone yet lol
I've owned a few Blackstars, Oddly, the only one that really gets METAL tone is the ID. Core models, Oddley, these inexpensive amps get Dimebag tone quite easy. The other Blackstar amps, not so much.
They should have evolved the Series One platform, those amps had a lot of potential and looked really good. I don’t care for any of the Blackstar stuff now. Not even a consideration.
OLA!!!! HELP US THAT ARE TRYING TO CHECKOUT ON YOUR SITE. Spent 3 days before site went down, have waited till it came back up, I have guitars and case in cart, can not check out...... Help :) Thanks for all you do for us on TH-cam etc.
Would've sounded better in a different cabinet cos their speakers are a bit sharp, a bit too bright similar to Marshall's Seventy-80 speakers or Jensen. If was through a Creamback or Greenback, that would've been cooler and nicer.
I don't know why Blackstar and other manufactorers uses Celestion 70-80 Speakers.. they are just meh. If you send out your amp for review why not having cabinets with popular speakers..
I have this amp in the 40w version. The MKIII and all.
I think it's pretty darn good on its own, and then straight up excellent with a boost of some kind.
It has all the features I want and a very good low end. 🤘
Cab ir 2 sounded phenomenal but it sounds great overall!
This amp came straight from the 80’s! Its classic british tone in the beginning of the video it’s awesome! It reminds me of the glam metal sound of the 80’s like Cinderella or Britny Fox
As someone who just bought a Blackstar HT20 Mkii combo (with EL84 tubes), if you want a good metal tone then I'd recommend getting an OD and an EQ. My amp without pedals has a solid tone, but the pedals turn a solid tone into an incredible tone, imo. I bought an MXR 10-band EQ and a JHS Bonsai OD, and it's hard to put my guitar down and stop playing because it sounds so good. 👍
Ola, if you're looking to try a new OD pedal, give the JHS Bonsai a go! It models nine of the most popular OD pedals, including I think three of the Ibanez TS pedals (808, TS9, TS10). Its my first OD pedal, but it might be the only one I ever buy!
I agree with you! Anyone who uses a Blackstar amp One thing that cannot be missing is the MXR 10 BAND EQ pedal.
Hey bro, great advice. I just bought the JHS Bonsai, and a Fulltone OCD Obsessive Compulsive Drive Pedal as I thought I would need them both. Should I get rid of the Fulltone OCD as the bonsai will be good enough with the amp's gain? Thanks for the help!
@enacku well, I'm no expert, but you basically have two drive pedals. An overdrive like the Bonsai will have a higher output than a normal drive pedal (hence "over"drive). If you want high gain, the Bonsai delivers that. I think the T7 and JHS modes on the pedal have the most gain. Personally, I'd swap out the OCD for a noise gate if you don't have one already. The Bonsai is pretty noisy, so a gate will take away all the hiss and noise. Hope that helps. 👊
Thank you. @@quigonjinjer
Definitely agree with you Ola, voice 2 is the way to go. Not blown away by this iteration of the amp.
Clean sounded amazing, honestly. Given that Ola downtunes so much, usually his cleans sound quite sterile, but it still seemed to generate a bit of sparkle.
"Have you ever been to thrash town? Well, you need to go there." Freakin yes! 😝🤘
Born there, live there, going to die there!
Agreed you want a versatile amp this is the way to go!
For the price, I think they sound pretty decent and are super versatile. Big plus for the 100 watt is the independent volume controls for OD1 and OD2. The 50 watt has a shared volume and there is a HUGE volume drop switching from one to the other. I was considering because I wanted a 3 channel amp where I could set up OD 1 for heavy crunch and OD2 for the chugs and switch between the two live, but the volume drop makes this impossible on the 50 watt.
From this demo seems like Blackstar stepped it up with this iteration you made it sound good man
It's a Blackstar. Jack of all trades, Master of None.
Actually they make very good sounding amps. Series One are mean amps and I like their digital Silverline too. Lots of good tones there. And their ID:Core small amps are maybe the best at the moment in comparison to any other make.
Not saying they don't sound good. I used to own one (needed service quite a few times though). They just don't have their own sound or character.
@@tankerbrigade
@@tankerbrigade What you described has nothing to do with HT Venue 😀but you are right - early models had more something but this is utterly disappointing.
@@kaytrell To me HT-Venue MKIII is way better (sounding) amp than MKII. The only thing I don't like with Blackstar is their (looks like) over-engineering but they are not the only one out there doing it.
Cool Ola, thanks for another video!!!
I have this amp for almost two months now and play it in a dual setup with the JCM 800 Zakk Wylde top, each with a 4x12 cabinet. The Blackstar is absolutey georgous on its own and the PERFECT partner (at least for me) for the Marshall! The ISF to the left is acutally "Modern U.S." sound and to the right "British". Together with the EQ and the second voicings you get a ton of good sounds. Use all the knobs and switches...it really does a lot more than you could put in a quick tryout video. You can load different IRs and I changed the reverb over the software...awesome.
If you have the chance to test this amp: knock yourself out.
Love you Ola and cheers from Germany
Dan
LMAO Ola always gets the isf feature backwards lmao
Haha wow seems like this amp can do better.
I can't wait until this channel reaches 1 million subscribers next year!
excellent demo and input. Thanks Ola!
Always try a Tubescreamer and a Boss SD-1. I think this amp would sound better with a Boss SD-1 in front of it.
This amp is in the same category as the EVH Iconic. It's an amp. It works. Throw pedals at it. Make your noises with it.
I have the mkII venue. With the preamp volume at 6 or higher it really comes alive. It doesn't sound great at low volume. Mine likes the tube screamer the best.
I am waiting for you hit 1 milliion subs man. You are awesome! Keep up the good work.
Ola can make anything sound good!
I'm really liking this getting some mean badlander vibes from this also!
They need to bring back the metal already. My HT metal 1 rocks.
Once dialed in. Sounds good
Hi, I have a kustom cabinet with celestion super 65's and I'd put 2 celestion g12 65 heritage speakers in it. Sounds great. Thanks again!
great demo - very good sounding amp - good job Blackstar
I have the studio 20. It's good I'm my apartment gets no noise complaints and I paid 350 used. I don't dime it but need to eventually. Playing with a tube screamer cleans it up
I have the 50watt version and It’s so great
Best sounding Blackstar amp so far.
I have this amp. Just got the 60 combo . It’s definitely bassy. Gotta turn the bass down a smidge. But once you do that it gets real tight and aggressive on channel 2 with the voice switch
Sounds like a good 80s style amp
I have the 50w mkIII and the "voice" switches are nothing more than a gain boost. So when used with the foot switch it functions like stepping on an OD pedal or volume boost.
I like blackstar because it's very neutral. Very good for metal. Cheers!
I've been proudly playing the HTCLUB50 for almost a decade now, and it's been amazing. These amps take some time to genuinely break in and sort of smooth out. Mine has the early edition of the Cab IR, but through the matched V30 cab its amazing. Blackstar is highly underrated IMO, as most players are looking for an immediate option and 600 presets. To each their own!
Amp break in?
Amp break in?
I second this. I've been playing my Club 50 for almost a decade and there is time needed to let these amps settle in IMO. Nothing more than my ears, I don't know enough about the science of amps. I just know how I feel when I play.
You know when Ola is not impressed and goes full on business review mode.
I have used a few Blackstar amps over the past decade I find ISF at 11 O'clock works best for metal and I agree channel 2 for sure👍
Agreed i keep mine clocked 😂 even with the gain low it sounds way better more of a marshall jcm sound
I like thrash town, it’s nice this time of year 🤘🏻
I like Blackstar as a company but this amp/cab/mic combination isn't my favorite. Once you put an overdrive in front of it, it came to life. Not sure if it's my speakers but the amp's distortion didn't excite me like it should. The built-in IRs sounded great, it's cool to see that included.🤘
Sounds good. And the price is always competitive.
I own this amp and I love it. I use it with an engl 2x12 and a evh 2x12 as well and sounds awesome. I don’t think the matching cab sounds very well with the HT3
They keep on making upgrades to the amp but never address this. The Celestion Seventy 80 is just not the speaker for these amps. I've experiences this since their inception. I was working at a guitar store and liked the amps plenty but whenever someone wanted to try with a different cab, it was always night and day. Just generally blah speakers that they keep on putting in every HT amp cab and combo. Any of the special edition combos that have had a different speaker have always sounded better then the standard editions as well. They could probably get a better non-Celestion speaker but then they can't use that in the marketing.
Celestion 70/80, the cheapest OE Celestion so makers can advertise Celestion speakers in their cabs. Not that I am in the market for this head, but I have to wonder how much better it sounds through a closed cab V30 loaded cab or cabs
☠️☠️☠️COOL Blackstar ⭐⭐⭐
I think it sounds very good. I'm into classic and hard rock. 70"s 80"s. Kiss sabbath Rush Lizzy. I mean a good eq and clean boost should fix this amp to tailor any tone. Amp looks great!
whoa this one sounds great
Would love to see you demo a Quilter Mach 3 head! No good videos for it anywhere beyond the usual lame blues rock. Love your channel!
Wondering what it would sound like with different speakers. Got to quote Glenn from Spectre Sound. “You want to change your tone? change your speakers.”
What speakers are in the cabinet?
Yup
Cameron Cooper has good video on this. Sounds f...g great! Even a Marshall your going to sit and fuck with till you find a tone.
It looks pretty cool. But doesn't sound very good to my ears.
It sounds like Ola has the pick up switch to that thick vubby sounding tone!
It’s the EL34 tone. A lot of people don’t like that sound.
@thisguy2973 that's not it. A lot of great amps is 84s, from mesa to engl.
Blackstar amps just suck.
Agree, hard agree. That is unfixably bad
I think it is because of their own cab , i watched other videos on this amp and it sounded pretty decent
I am personally a big fan of blackstar amps and I own a few of them.
What’s that riff at 5:12 ?
It's from The Haunted but I can't remember which song
First haunted album.
Bullet Hole
Sounded really nice and open, punchy, dare I say Marshall-like on OD1 and the first voicing. The higher gain settings were pretty dull and stunted.
He used second voicing on OD2 channel which is actualy the od boost built in, so he literaly played the amp through 2 ODs adding ts808, thats why it sounded like it sounded.
I have the ht venue 2 its okay i like better now in my 4x 12 cab i have 2 v30/s and 2 greenbacks also the tone is much better! Would i buy this amp or new one? No!
My wonder years were spent growing up in Frashtown! Frash metal, Frasher magazine \m/ :D I'm actually prefering the tone of voice 1 and the isf seemed more low-mid stoner focused at max than scooped. For a grand, it might cover a lot of ground if it takes pedals well. I'd like to see a more in-depth review after you had some time to fiddle with it.
I never really understood the Blackstar hate, I always thought they sounded decent, had great features and were well priced.
In my hands it's will be great
Tried one with my 7 strings Guitar and it can chug Deathcore. for sure add EQ and an OD.
I think a good combo with blackstar.....celestion super 65 and g12t75
It looks cool. Is that real leather?
Just remember if you had a mesa cab with it would sound great.
Seems kinda brittle. I'd like to hear it through a more conventional cab. Treble and Presence control position seems to affect tone most?
4 direct out, that's amazing!!! 🤩. What's the latency though?
aright about 3:16 it sounds like SoD lmao. love it
Isn't there a 6l6 tube option like before on these ....those actually do slay on the mk ii ones
They don’t offer one, but blackstar’s video on the amp said that you can definitely swap them out for 6l6s with a slight bias adjustment
The Mothership!!
Ola Hola! What was the cabine please?
REVIEW THREE BOSS IR-2 PLEASE! 🙏🏼
Sounds like a Blackstar, which is pretty good but theres a subtle "squish" in the mids I'm not a fan of. (I prefer the harsher/grittier sound of a Marshall better) But they are sonically versatile amps, and I like how you don't need any effects or overdrive pedals to have a good tone to fit most situations. I wonder what speaker they use in the cab.
Good points.
Maybe it’s the cab and/or the mic placement but it’s got a weird crackly fizzy distortion. The impulses didn’t improve on that as well. You didn’t seem all to excited either. 😅
A Wizard MTL review would be cool
EQ seems more fine tune tone than what they are normally
Ola have you used the chug pedal as an overdrive/boost?
you got the ISF wrong
I’m not a fan of how the Blackstars sound. Will you test the new Soldano amp?
As usual, very mixed opinions on this one from everyone. Its a similar situation to the metalzone; you've got the crowd who hate them and wont even give them a chance and then you have people who understand that alot of their stuff is actually pretty decent. I think its a great sounding amp!
I have the mark 1 version, to be totally honest, I don't see the point in upgrading, it's the best amp I've ever owned.
I have the mk1 as well and to me it honestly sounds just as good if not better than mk 3.
Blackstar 😱😱
Speaking from personal experience with a MKII. Switch to KT77 Tubes and swap half of the speakers to vintage 70 and it’ll deliver that heft left to be desired for metal. I used gold lion tubes for preamp and power amp.
It's a cool idea but to me black star amps have always sounded too muddy and bassy to me, but that's just my ears maybe
I would say a better name for the title would be: HT Stage 100H MK III. "HT Venue" seems to be the name of a series of amps
Another I could think of maybe....2 v type and 2 seventy 80
So cool !!
$1k for that seems very reasonable. No, it’s not a Mesa or Marshall or Deizel but those would be double the price at least, maybe more.
if nobody knew the name and it was in a great song, 50 percent of nayers would be lapping at the shoreline going wow amazing guitar sound, eyehate is a sonic shitslide unfortunately, sounds cool gets it done and cheaper than the tuther brands, best looking mesa clone yet lol
Seeing Jared nickels guy get his tone would be interesting
He was on Ola's channel recently.
This actually sounds massive to me, wow. So many modern and more expensive amps sound so sterile compared to this, just my opinion though.
Ola will it chug
I've owned a few Blackstars, Oddly, the only one that really gets METAL tone is the ID. Core models, Oddley, these inexpensive amps get Dimebag tone quite easy. The other Blackstar amps, not so much.
Okay so if that’s not the most exciting metal tone, I wonder what is?
Diego Cavallotti has one of these and it sounded way better in his demo video.
alone it seems just not impulsed but in mix I guess it might be already saturated and coocked
I like voice 2 ,, and switch over too voice Soldano
They should have evolved the Series One platform, those amps had a lot of potential and looked really good. I don’t care for any of the Blackstar stuff now. Not even a consideration.
Still no midi? Is it still a hybrid ?
Awesome
lets gooo
OLA!!!! HELP US THAT ARE TRYING TO CHECKOUT ON YOUR SITE. Spent 3 days before site went down, have waited till it came back up, I have guitars and case in cart, can not check out...... Help :) Thanks for all you do for us on TH-cam etc.
"Where is that? I didn't get that" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm the mayor of Thrash Town...😎
Would've sounded better in a different cabinet cos their speakers are a bit sharp, a bit too bright similar to Marshall's Seventy-80 speakers or Jensen. If was through a Creamback or Greenback, that would've been cooler and nicer.
I want to like blackstar... but they always seem to be missing something to me.
Shoulda tried a 7 string
Why don't all new metal amplifiers come with an OD pedal built in? It would save us all buying one then arguing over which works best.
A good metal amp doesn’t need an overdrive
little bit of 99 from the haunted right there XD
I don't know why Blackstar and other manufactorers uses Celestion 70-80 Speakers.. they are just meh. If you send out your amp for review why not having cabinets with popular speakers..