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Its been 7 weeks since I got my Blackstar HT-20 so it seems like a good time to do a review. Its the head version which I play though a home made cab which is loaded with
Celestons Vintage 30 leads. 

When I first played the amp I set the control on the clean channel and OD channel at 12 o'clock and it sounded good. On the back there is no 4 ohm output, 1 8ohms 1 16ohms 2 8ohms. There is a socket for a supplied foot switch to switch between  the channels and a very useful emulated out. There is also an effect loops in and out and an effects loop boost switch

The Clean Channel.

This channel has a simple two knob function, tone and volume. It is very responsive to touch and has very good dynamics. With a single coil you can get good funk and I have been able to get a very warm jazz tone though humbukers. In all it does what it says on the tin. The clean channel has in my opinion a little to much head room and needs to be played nearly at full volume to break up.

The OD Channel.

This has the bass, mid, treble control and the ISF feature, which I will come to later.

First thing first  the amp has a very nice vocal character to it that seems to be like a cross between a Marshall and a Vox. The upper mids are very throaty. The amp just makes the guitar sing and going into controlled feedback is a easy, (which me mate showed me how to do(. Then the gain, the amp has more than enough and there is no need for extra boost or OD pedals, especially if you have high output pickups.

This is the kind of tone that I've been looking for. It has a strong British flavor to it without sounding like a Marshall or a Vox
.
The bass response is tight and controlled. With the bass maxed out, you will not get as much bass as most amps as some amps (namely a Fender twin), unless you're trying to cover metal, this need not be an issue. In saying that, I think that Blackstar could have added a little more low end for those guitar players that like a chug.

The ISF control is a mint feature. It allows the user to re-voice the amp to get a more American or British flavor to the final tone. Those who say it goes from Fender to Marshall in my  opinion are wrong, it sounds more Messa then Fender to me, yet on the other side is very Marshall sounding.  The effect is nice. I tend to like the setting set at 2:00 O'clock, which just brightens it up when I find the right EQ. However, if you scoop the mids then you can hear the voicing effect in more detail.

There is a master control that controls both channels.

The emulated out works well with my line 6 UX2 and provides a good tone which is superior to modeling technology when recording. It seems to emulate a 4x12 cab as there appears to be, what I would call bass woof I associate with a 4x12 closed back cab. The emulated out also works well with headphones for playing at wife friendly volumes.

The amp comes with TAD tubes, 2xECC83, 2xEL34.

There is also a very useful digital reverb, yet it would have been nice if this was foot  switchblade.

Overall, I'm very happy with the amp. It just sounds great. For the price it has more features and suited my needs more then any other amp I looked at.

WOW WEE.

There great, had to get me pal down could not believe what I was hearing. Rounded, bite aplenty, both sound well balanced. The bridge sings with rich harmonics and the neck is just creamy. There Wilkinsons take on the PAF. Bridge is 8ohms and neck 7ohms.

Both me and me pal agree there better then the Gibson's ones in my SG.

I will post a sound clip.

Please remember, these pick ups are not from ebay there from Trev Wilkinson himself. His website is whamster.com if any one else is interested.

At £50 a pickup you won't find better. (Mine are the gold covered ones)

So we start this morning.

I was looking though ebay for some pick ups or my Samack RL. I think I should buy British as every man and his dog fits Seymour's. I stumble upon some Wilkinson's from a shop in ebay so decided to do a bit of research, then i stumbled across a site called whamster. Yet the Wilkinson pick ups on here where 4xs as much. So i put  together an Email asking why.

Next my phone rings as (I had filled out the registration form), the wife answers and brings the phone to me and says its Trev Wilkinson. I think yer right. Well fook me it was. He went into the reason they are so cheap on ebay and why his coast so much more. Chinese licensed model v Hand built Trev made.

Then we had 22 mins  on the phone after i placed my order and he offered to fit the pickups and set me guitar up, if I took it to him in south port.

He want into the history of the Broadcaster (telecaster) and how the skunk strip came about. Leo was against fitting a truss rod, Trev told me Leo could not play a note but he could bloody  hear one, and how he dis-liked the metal truss rod as it deadened the note and effected sustain. So his answer was to  fit a denser wood under the truss rod, (the skunk strip) in order to compensate.  Think denser means more in the same space, and the dence's wood Leo could find was walnut.

It was bloody great hearing an old tale about the Telecaster.

He went into telling me about caps and tone control. Trevs tip, if you don't use your tone control unwire it it makes your sound cleaner and brighter. And as for caps, modern ones sound better Trev tip, "only fit a paper n oil one if it gonna make you feel better".

Trev next bit of advice. If someone tells you pick ups effect sustain their talking from an exit only part of their body. Sustain is purely 100 % mechanical.

The afternoon.

Wife states you spending £100 on guitar parts then you can get decorating the living room. So off we go to Wilkinsons the shop not Trev. We buy wallpaper and what we think is matching paint. So I paint the ceiling white then its an hour and onto the walls. Well the colour the paint went  on the walls was noting like the colour on the tin it doesn't match the wall paper and looks like poo and mean poo. So I have got it all to paint again tomorrow.

Lucky me.