Any of you have any experience with this little amp?
The flexibility of this amp makes it very interesting.
The Direct out and 'silent mode' for recording at night.
This is a great feature for anyone not wanting to wake the rest of the house.
 
I have been leaning toward the Mesa TA-15 but I think this amp deserves some consideration.
Just from the online demos I don't feel like it sounds quite as good as the TA-15, but pretty hard to tell
listening thru laptop!
One feature it has over the TA-15 is an effects loop.
 
Anyway, just wondering if any of you have played or heard this little guy.
 
Dave

I have the 5 watt version. It has the red box direct out but no effects loop. While I'm mainly a bass player, I like the sound from the unit and I put a tube screamer in front of it for more drive. I've got a cheap Peavey 112 speaker cab to run it through so with a better cab it can only improve the sound. The red box direct out is a lot darker than using a real speaker. It has a good crunch tone and the clean sound is usable, though with mine the clean is at fairly low volume compared to how loud it gets from the boost button and the gain turned up.

I nearly bought the HK 5 Watt amp/cab, but after a bit of research, I went for the Blackstar HT5S which does have an Fx loop
 
Tonewise, there's not a lot to choose & the Blackstar also has a great emulated speaker out - the only real downside is the shared EQ between the clean & dirty channels

Thanks for the replies.
I will check out the Blackstar as well.

Bristol_Jonesey
I nearly bought the HK 5 Watt amp/cab, but after a bit of research, I went for the Blackstar HT5S which does have an Fx loop
 
Tonewise, there's not a lot to choose & the Blackstar also has a great emulated speaker out - the only real downside is the shared EQ between the clean & dirty channels

Ok Jonesey I checked this thing out (sweetwater online).
Honestly did not know it existed.
I was pretty blown away by the demo they had on their site as far as how it sounded.
The reviews were pretty gushing on it as well.
 
Anything else you can add as to how this thing sounds clean/overdriven?
Are you pretty happy with it?
 
The price is certainly nice vs the Mesa TA-15!
 
Curious, what made you change your mind from the HK to this?
 
Appreciate anything else you can offer up.
 
Dave
 

Dave, Like I said, there wasn't much between the HK & the BS - even then, the cute blue glow of the HK nearly sealed it!
 
One of the main decision points was definitely the inclusion of an Fx loop. This adds enormous flexibility if you have a medium sized pedal collection, as certain time-based Fx are best off not going in your front end.
 
But to the amp itself - the clean is clean, crisp, and rolls up & down really smoothly with your guitar volume
The OD channel is pretty awesome for 5W - don't be fooled, 5W is LOUD - you could get away with using it live at a pinch, provided you're drummer isn't some sort of animal.
 
Then there's the extra control called Infinite Shape Feature or ISF for short - this does a very passable attempt at morphing from British at one extreme & American at the other, with all sorts of things happening in between.
 
It's very quiet electrically, making it ideal for recording, and the emulated speaker output gives a very good approximation of the actual sound, so you only need a minimum of EQ to get it sitting nicely in any mix.
 
The power option is a bit of surprise - Blackstar have used a 12BH7 in the power amp, which is a dual-triode model, only usually seen in much bigger amps.
The idea is to run it in push-pull mode, so you get brain melting distortion at bedroom levels (well, almost bedroom level!)

Jonesey - thank you very much for that info.
I wondered about the 12BH7 tubes. Interesting.
Good to hear about the clean side. The demos on YouTube don't do a very good job of showing it.

Drummers, animals....lol. That is one definition we could use...

Brain melting distortion is a beautiful thing.

I stopped at Sweetwater today to talk to one of the guys about the 3 amp options I am considering.
Well actually I was just stalling on having to get to girlfriends family reunion...
Would rather spoon my eyes out...less painful. I digress..

Anyway I'm Gonna' stop in one afternoon next week after work and test drive the Blackstar, the H&K and the Mesa TA-15.

Should be enlightening.

Dave

I'll look forward to hearing what you think about all 3 Dave.
 
The Mesa is about 2 - 3 time the price of the other 2, at least here in the UK, and that's without any speaker cab(s).
 
Is that them just using their name to inflate the price or is the amp that much better?

Bristol_Jonesey
I'll look forward to hearing what you think about all 3 Dave.
 
The Mesa is about 2 - 3 time the price of the other 2, at least here in the UK, and that's without any speaker cab(s).
 
Is that them just using their name to inflate the price or is the amp that much better?

Yeah the price of the Mesa is the same here, 2 - 3 times the others.
 
That amp does have more flexibility than the others in terms of what the clean and overdrive channels offer, independent of each other, but I also am pretty sure the Mesa name has something to do with that price tag...
 
Am hoping to do the test drive on all of them on Thursday.
Will be sure to post results.
 
I gotta say, for the price, right now the Blackstar 5 watt is looking real good.
That and a cab from Avatar and I am about the same price as just the Mesa alone with no cab, kind of what you stated above.
 
One of the things the sales guy at Sweetwater mentioned was that the Mesa responds very well to your
style of playing, to using the volume knob on the guitar and getting more out of the amp.
Guess that is a good feature if you have 'talent'....

 
 
 

Well disregard my last post about going and checking these amps out on Thursday. I got to that point in the road and my car turned left into Sweetwater. I had no control.
 
Anyway, here is how it went on the test between the H&K 18, the Blackstar HT-5RH and the Mesa Boogie TA-15
All heads were played thru a Hughes & Kettner 1x12 closed back cabinet, which has a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. I played a PRS SE custom.
 
The H&K was first up. set at 5 watts.
The clean channel was bright, warm and made me sit up and go WOW.
I really did not expect that sound. Did not matter how hard I pushed the master or the guitar volume knob.
It always sounded great. With the gain knob turned up it started to break up but still was very clean and
crisp, not muddy at all.
The overdrive channel:
Again I was very surprised at how good it sounded.
Thru all settings on the gain knob any rock rhythms sounded great.
The lead boost button took it to that next level. Sustain and power were there but again it did not feel muddy.
When I switched over to 18watts it was so loud that I couldn't turn it up very much.
I honestly liked the 5 watt sound better, but the 18 watt did not get a fair chance really.
It did not sound bad, just loud as hell..
 
Next, the Blackstar HT-5RH:
This thing did not look like a lunchbox amp head. It was huge!
Clean channel:  It sounded dull and lifeless compared to the H&K.
It has a master volume and 1 tone knob, so very little control on the clean channel.
I was disappointed immediately. Nothing I did could make it sound as good as the H&K.
 
Overdrive Channel: so this is what the Blackstar is supposedly all about.
Maybe I was still stunned by the clean channel, but I was not blown away by the overdrive side.
Yes it was good, and the ISF knob (American vs British sound) made a huge difference in the tone.
The British (Marshall) tone was dark and warm. The American (Fender) tone was a lot brighter.
Both were very good and setting it right in the middle was a nice tonal mix.
The reverb sounded pretty good for an amp reverb.
Crank up the gain and it really wailed, but again, not any better than the H&K to my ears.
 
Next, the Mesa TA-15:
Honestly this one did not get a fair shake at all. Lots of people were coming into the guitar room so it was hard
to play it loud and really hear it over others playing.
What I can say is the switches were so small it was next to impossible for me to see what they said next to them and to even be sure if they were set up, middle or down. (old eyes).
The flexibility of the Mesa was apparent though as you can control the power output of the clean vs the overdrive channels independently.  Also more tone controls for each channel.
The master cut/boost switch on the clean channel eluded me as to how to use it on the sound.
Again this was because of a bazillion people in there.
 
Conclusion:
For my 1st test drive of the 3 amps the H&K came out on top, hands down.
I need to go back again and give the Mesa more attention when I can actually hear it.
I need to see if a 2nd pass on all three of them elicits the same response as today did.
I also am going to try them thru a different cabinet.
The Mesa TA-15 cabinet is open back, 12" V30. So the test will be open vs closed back (today H&K closed).
Will also play a Parker Dragonfly as well.
Trying to play the guitars I play at home.
 
It was a blast.