Blackstar HT-5R 5-Watt 1x12-Inch Guitar Combo Amp with Reverb

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $569.99
Sale Price: $499.99
Today's Bonus: 12% Off

• 5 Watt, all-tube, 1 x 12-Inch Combo amp with Reverb; Exclusive ISF control
• Tube Complement: 1 x ECC83 (12AX7), 1 x 12BH7 Power Tube; 12-Inch Blackbird 50 Speaker
• 2 Channels: Clean (Volume, Tone); Overdrive (Gain, Volume,); 3-Band EQ; Digital Stereo Reverb
• Emulated Speaker (1 x 12-Inch or 4 x 12-Inch) Out is great for recording - use along with the speaker(s)
• Series Effects Loop; Stereo MP3/Line input; Headphone out; Footswitch for switching channels

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Check out the video review. This is a fun amp. The only problem was a knob fell off and had to put it back on. When you get one new make sure all knobs are snug and make sure the standby switch works. The Isp adjustment gives you a great range of sound. Dial it to American side and get the clean of a Fender tube or dial it to British and get a Marshall sound. ISP works well if the Mid tone is at 1/2 or less. Enjoy!

Buy Blackstar HT-5R 5-Watt 1x12-Inch Guitar Combo Amp with Reverb Now

After spending 50 years of wanting to learn to play the guitar, i got this amp as it met my expectations for the features i require at this time,the main issues i wanted was

Plug in and play.

Access to headphones

Input to play backing tracks

Low wattage

And most of all great sounding.

Read Best Reviews of Blackstar HT-5R 5-Watt 1x12-Inch Guitar Combo Amp with Reverb Here

As a disclaimer I do not own and never owned HT-5R. Friend of mine bought used one at about $320 and asked me to check it. I brought my practice amp Fender Mustang II to compare. We played two guitars Tele with Lollar pups and Japanese 335 clone. I did not like the tone I was getting esp with Tele it was harsh and scratchy with no bottom end. No air. No sweetness. Amp sounded very boxy and small compared to Mustang II they both have 12" speaker but HT-5 sounded more like a not very good 8" amp. Also for a tube amp it had no punch solid state modelling Mustang was better again. I tried in vain to get some "pretty" clean tone out of 335-clone was a bit better but nothing to write home about. Clean channel starts breaking with volume at about 2 o'clock and it is not a very pleasant sounding break. "Tone" control alone on clean channel is not enough perhaps with EQ pedal in effect loop one could get something nicer. Drive channel is sortta all or nothing deal if you try to get just a "smudge of dirt" (and have some EQ control which you don't have on clean channel)and set gain control low then you get almost no volume. And in general I would not say it is very loud 5W tube amp. Higher gain settings were marginally better but to compressed. Reverb was a bit of a joke what amp do you know on which you start hearing reverb around 12 o'oclock? ISF control did not impress me at all it really sounded more like another mid tone control than "US" vs "British" tone.

To summarize:

for $200 you can get MUCH better sounding Mustang II with headphones, AUX in and USB output for recording. Which you can tweak (via USB and software on PC) in thousands different way. It sounds good at bedroom level and at 40W it will keep up with a drummer (I played it on open air stage with 5 piece band and had no issues with headroom and guys in the band could not believe it was not tube amp).

If you REALLY just must have tube amp then buy used Blues Jr at typical price $350 they will be cheaper. I would say that only reason to get HT-5 would be if you absolutely must have recording option and need high gain... for lower gain I would just buy Snowball USB mic by Blue (or Yeti) and put it in front of Blues Jr to record. If Blues Jt is too big for you then get Fender Champ 600 5W costs $150 and IMHO even with 6" speaker sounds better that HT-5R. Anyways my 2 cents...