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Blackheart Little Giant BH5H

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luvmyshiner

luvmyshiner

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Well, I sold a couple of things in the last three weeks. My Oscar Schmidt OE30 and my Behringer GMX110. Sold the Oscar Schmidt because after playing CB's electrics, I realized how bad it sounded, and I sold the Behringer because after building the Firefly, solid state just ain't the same.

So I've been looking for a new tube amph to buy with the new funds, to go with Shiner's Custom Cab v. 1.0, and after researching the fret and other sources, I'm thinking I'll go with the Blackheart Little Giant. I'm probably going to order it tonight, but I thought I'd double check with y'all for input. Yea or nay?
 
Over the last year I've developed a serious pedal addiction. :thwap: I've found that the BH5H amp takes pedals very well. If you plan on running a few pedals, the BH is a good choice. Or if you play primarily clean. The BH is a very clean sounding amp until you turn the volume all the way up. Only then do you get some grit.

It is a warm sounding amp. So if you like plugging straight in, it is a great little amp. Or if you want to run some pedals into it for a nice OD sound.

tung
 
Blackheart Little Giant

OK...what the heck.....I'll play "devil's advocate" here. What can the Little Giant Head give you that you don't already get from the Firefly Head? If you are running both thru the same cab, the thought here is that you have more at your disposal with the Firefly than with the LG. The LG has a few more watts on hand, but other than that.....what am I missing? I was under the impression that the Firefly was an awesome little package.

'Splain yourself son. :D
 
Thanks Tung. I always respect your opinion. To be honest I don't even have an electric at this point. CB's collection is top notch so I play one of hers when the mood hits me. One of the reasons I decided to get rid of the modeling amp was that CB has a nice little collection of pedals now. She has four, and with the two Robert is sending me we'll be up to six. Looks like I'm going to have to build a pedal board pretty quick.
 
The Firefly is awesome Pie! But five watts . . . come on dude, that amph goes to eleven.:bravo:
 
I've searched around for the "next" amp and unless some new amp comes down the line, I will be getting the Blackheart LG. The reviews here and elsewhere have been nothing but positive. In the past, I always had something that I was willing to sell, but I am down to only a few items. My RP350 which I have not aggressively tried to sell (waiting on my daughters poor friends) and possibly the Jamman. The Washburn has become the guitar I leave out and plugged in for some quick minutes, so that is probably off the market now as I am growing fond of it.

Based on my research, I think you will be happy with the Blackheart.
 
I recently bought a Blackheart Killer Ant for practicing, and it is a fantastic sounding, apartment level amplifier. I also installed the Bitmo Anteater mod to it, and the addition of the tone control is a definite plus. As to the 10" sealed cab it came with isn't so hot. I currently have the amp connected to my Eminence GB12 equipped sealed back Lopo cab. I have a 10" Weber alnico speaker on order, hoping it'll make the Blackheart cab more pleasant sounding.

To come to my point, I'd definitely recommend Blackheart for their amps. This one is very well built, and sounds great!
 
After I got my Little Giant, I bought a Handsome Devil too I was so impressed. The Little Giant has a really nice tone, very simple, stays clean but begins to break up when you crank it and yes, it does take pedals very well. I run mine either through the Blackheart 112 cab or a 212 cab and it sounds fantastic through both.

Seriously, these amps are very good and literally are a steal for the price. I've played amps that I paid alot more for and they didn't sound as good as these.
 
I got the Handsome Devil and all I can say is I'm glad I bought it. :)
 
Little Giant

Shiner.........Go for the LG head then. Hard to believe but the HLD head costs $150 more than the LG head, yet the LG head only costs $20 more than the Little Ant head.

SIX pedals???? :D Dude, what other pedals do you/will you have beside the Rabid Rodent? Just curious.

Does Maggie May enjoy all of the git-fiddle playin'? :D
 
piebaldpython said:
Shiner.........Go for the LG head then. Hard to believe but the HLD head costs $150 more than the LG head, yet the LG head only costs $20 more than the Little Ant head.

SIX pedals???? :D Dude, what other pedals do you/will you have beside the Rabid Rodent? Just curious.

Does Maggie May enjoy all of the git-fiddle playin'? :D
Click to expand...


[...] i think he already did, about ten minutes ago. :D

pedals:

boss ds-1 [thanks again, Muddy]
rabid rodent [thanks again, DVM]
boss dd-3
boss ch-1 [the dd-3 and ch-1 were xmas presents from shiner and byproxy]

and now, shiner's two coming from Robert.

as to maggie... interestingly enough, just like katie, she immediately seems to know instinctively that getting around the guitars is Verboten.

i even had the LP plugged in the tv room this weekend finally getting to practice some. didn't touch guitar, cable or stand.

but i think she likes acoustic better. or maybe just shiner's playing. ;)
 
You know, now that you mention it, the Handsome Devil may be a better choice. It is going to have a bit more clean headroom. It will get seriously loud in a small room when cranked, though. The HD is cathode bias, so you can just pop in a new set of tubes when the time comes, you really don't have to worry about biasing unless you want to.

Shiner: The Killer Aant amp is around 1W, so it will be closer to your Firefly than the LG or HD amps.

Heck, if you wanted to get complicated you could run your Firefly into a cab sim like the Behringer GI100. Then run the line out of the cab sim into your BH amp. You have to load down the Firefly with a dummy load, but they are easy to make for a 1W amp like the Firefly.

tung




TS808 said:
After I got my Little Giant, I bought a Handsome Devil too I was so impressed. The Little Giant has a really nice tone, very simple, stays clean but begins to break up when you crank it and yes, it does take pedals very well. I run mine either through the Blackheart 112 cab or a 212 cab and it sounds fantastic through both.

Seriously, these amps are very good and literally are a steal for the price. I've played amps that I paid alot more for and they didn't sound as good as these.
Click to expand...
 
I've had the LG head for a while now and love it. My AD50VT sees very little use. I have a 1X12 (soon to be 2X12) cab loaded with a greenback and it sounds great. I am currently running an EH 12ax7 with stock power tube. I tried a NOS Jan 5751 in the preamp slot which cleaned it up even more, with nice tone but I liked the grit of the 12ax7. More experimenting is required!
I run a homemade fuzz, dan TOD, Boss ds-1, and EH small stone. The LG takes them very well. When I play at church it's mic'ed but I can't get it past 10:00 without being told to turn down! It's a loud 5 watts!
You'll enjoy it!
Cheers
Rev156
 
Thanks for all the input guys. Got the amph ordered last night, so hopefully it will get here this week. Oh, and I made sure to use the fret zzounds link.:AOK:
 
tunghaichuan said:
Over the last year I've developed a serious pedal addiction. :thwap: I've found that the BH5H amp takes pedals very well. If you plan on running a few pedals, the BH is a good choice. Or if you play primarily clean. The BH is a very clean sounding amp until you turn the volume all the way up. Only then do you get some grit.

It is a warm sounding amp. So if you like plugging straight in, it is a great little amp. Or if you want to run some pedals into it for a nice OD sound.

tung
Click to expand...
Yup. What he said. Congratulations on your choice.
 
One more thing:

The amp is voiced well for the stock Chinese tubes that come in it. You don't even have to upgrade the tubes when you get it. I swapped out a JJ EL84 in mine, and didn't notice a difference. Usually the JJ is an improvement.

Although I would use JJ tubes when it comes time to replace them.

tung
 
luvmyshiner said:
Thanks for all the input guys. Got the amph ordered last night, so hopefully it will get here this week. Oh, and I made sure to use the fret zzounds link.:AOK:
Click to expand...


Congrats on your purchase...I think you're gonna like it.
 
She came in today, and she is a monster! One of the lawyers I office with was laughing at me for buying an amph when I don't have any electrics anymore, but I reminded her that CB has four I can use anytime I want.:beer:

I noodled around with her for about 30 minutes, listening to all the other guitars in the room humming in harmonic approval. Tested out Wingsdad's ASAT and Rocket's LP, both sounded incredible, but different (excuse me, I meant "CB's ASAT and LP":D ). CB played around for about 20. Pics will be on the way this weekend.:beer:
 
luvmyshiner said:
Thanks for all the input guys. Got the amph ordered last night, so hopefully it will get here this week. Oh, and I made sure to use the fret zzounds link.:AOK:
Click to expand...

Congrats Shiner ,sounds like a good purchase.:AOK:

You guys in the U.S are lucky to get ZZounds link ,we Canuks don t get any deals from beein Fretneters + the - 20% on USD ad to that the shipping ..

I d say it turns down some G.A.S projects..
 
Congrats, Shiner! I bet you kids are gonna love crankin' up that amp and wailin' on the weekends. :)
How does it compare to the firefly? I think I remember CB sayin' how loud that little baby was.
 
They are different OG, but I don't know that I can really describe it yet. Other than the obvious (the Blackheart is LOUDER), it also seems to be "beefier" (is that a word?), darker than the Firefly. I'm still playing around with adjusting the tone knobs, so I haven't locked anything in there yet. I'll check back in a couple of weeks and see if I can give you a better description.

By the way . . . signature updated \/ \/ \/ \/ :beer:
 
just strum said:
I thought you would have gone with the two for the price of two sale and send me the one that was the same price as the other one:D
Click to expand...

I did dude! I shipped it to Rocket and he's going to send it to you with your free Epidot.:AOK:
 
Congrats again! You are warned: Blackheart amps are highly addicting!!

I'm having a great time with my Blackheart Little Giant and Handsome Devil. The tone and quality is very good, and the price is unbeatable too. The cool part is that the Little Giant sounds equally as good with single coils or humbuckers.

There are cool qualities of both the pentode and triode modes too..triode is a little "muddier" or darker, but again, a fun little amp and it WILL get loud.

Enjoy the amp...now run out and get an electric!!
 
Sounds like it's a winner Shiner :AOK:

Can't wait to hear some clips :rockon:

GG
 

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