Lev
May 6th, 2011, 04:50 AM
Lately I've been considering a change of amp, I've had my (USA made) Fender HRDlx for about 12 years now and it has servered me well but it has it's faults. On the plus side it is loud enough to bring to any gig and cut through against the loudest of drummers. It also stays very clean at gig volumes meaning I can play a wide variety of funk, pop, blues, rock music at gig levels with a loud drummer without any breakup on the cleans.
On the negative it's too god damn loud to play at home even on 1 and the drive channel is truely awful to my ears. Ok I can put a dirt box on the clean channel but I've never been completely satisfied and I've tried a lot of pedals over the years. I think the concensus is that the stock speaker just can't do decent gain sounds. Everything in the amp is stock including the tubes - I'm a little clumsy and try not to open up electronic devices that can potentially kill me!
I could try new tubes and new speaker and pay someone who knows what they are doing to upgrade my amp without really knowing what it will sound like in the end. Or I could sell it, add a little cash and get something really sexy!
So I excitedly went researching the net for someting new and sexy to find the only amps that really met my criteria were the HRDlx III or the Blackstar HT-40 Club.
Here's what I'm looking for:
1) Clean Headroom to gig with - I think that means at least 30W
2) 2 channels with a useable overdrive channel - would be nice if I could trun the gain knob from the Rolling Stones up to ACDC - I rarely need heavier sounds than that.
3) Assuming it has a good overdrive channel then I'll be needing an FX loop for my M13.
4) It'd be nice if I could get good sounds at low volume so a good master volume control or variable power switch would be nice
5) Budget is about $700 which puts the Egnater Rebel out of my price range.
So I'm left with the HRDlx or Blackstar HT40.
The new HRDlx does appear to overcome much of the pit falls that my current version has; an upgraded speaker, tapered volume pots to give better control at low volumes, a redesigned overdrive channel (although it's not hard to improve on the existing one). However it doesn't hit me with GAS desire coz it's for the most part the same as I have.
The Blackstar has some amazing features like independent tone control for the clean channel, 2 voicing modes on each channel, ISF tone shaping control, 2 reverb modes, emulated out for recording/PA and by all accounts a fantastic overdrive channel that will go from Rolling Stones to death metal if required. It also looks very nice and is €100 cheaper than the HRDlx.
What's not to love? Well, call me an old cynic but how can you bring in so many features on a 40W tube amp and not comprimise somewhere? Is labor in Korea really that cheap? At least I know from experienece that the Fender will last forever, I have a feeling that I may be a little nervous with the Blackstar.
My next step is to find a store that stocks both and try to do a side by side comparison but have any fretters tried either of these models? Or have I missed anything else out there?
On the negative it's too god damn loud to play at home even on 1 and the drive channel is truely awful to my ears. Ok I can put a dirt box on the clean channel but I've never been completely satisfied and I've tried a lot of pedals over the years. I think the concensus is that the stock speaker just can't do decent gain sounds. Everything in the amp is stock including the tubes - I'm a little clumsy and try not to open up electronic devices that can potentially kill me!
I could try new tubes and new speaker and pay someone who knows what they are doing to upgrade my amp without really knowing what it will sound like in the end. Or I could sell it, add a little cash and get something really sexy!
So I excitedly went researching the net for someting new and sexy to find the only amps that really met my criteria were the HRDlx III or the Blackstar HT-40 Club.
Here's what I'm looking for:
1) Clean Headroom to gig with - I think that means at least 30W
2) 2 channels with a useable overdrive channel - would be nice if I could trun the gain knob from the Rolling Stones up to ACDC - I rarely need heavier sounds than that.
3) Assuming it has a good overdrive channel then I'll be needing an FX loop for my M13.
4) It'd be nice if I could get good sounds at low volume so a good master volume control or variable power switch would be nice
5) Budget is about $700 which puts the Egnater Rebel out of my price range.
So I'm left with the HRDlx or Blackstar HT40.
The new HRDlx does appear to overcome much of the pit falls that my current version has; an upgraded speaker, tapered volume pots to give better control at low volumes, a redesigned overdrive channel (although it's not hard to improve on the existing one). However it doesn't hit me with GAS desire coz it's for the most part the same as I have.
The Blackstar has some amazing features like independent tone control for the clean channel, 2 voicing modes on each channel, ISF tone shaping control, 2 reverb modes, emulated out for recording/PA and by all accounts a fantastic overdrive channel that will go from Rolling Stones to death metal if required. It also looks very nice and is €100 cheaper than the HRDlx.
What's not to love? Well, call me an old cynic but how can you bring in so many features on a 40W tube amp and not comprimise somewhere? Is labor in Korea really that cheap? At least I know from experienece that the Fender will last forever, I have a feeling that I may be a little nervous with the Blackstar.
My next step is to find a store that stocks both and try to do a side by side comparison but have any fretters tried either of these models? Or have I missed anything else out there?