Blackheart Little Giant Head

[TS808]

The good news: My Blackheart Little Giant head arrived today!

The bad news: The cabinet for it wasn't shipped until today, so it's going to be a few days before I get to try it.

 

[Robert]

Cool, those are solid little amps.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Very cool! I would love to add one of those sometime.

 

[Spudman]

Welcome to the club.:beer:

I tried a few different tubes in mine but went back to the stock because they actually sounded best. Just play it and don't worry about changing anything.

 

[R.B. Huckleberry]

The good news: My Blackheart Little Giant head arrived today!

The bad news: The cabinet for it wasn't shipped until today, so it's going to be a few days before I get to try it.

That happened to me with my Dr. Z MAZ 18. Finally: tha amp of ny dreams had arrived. 18 hand-wired watts, reportedly versatile as all heck, and powerful beyond it's power rating.


But I had no speaker for it. :thwap:



Hang in there. The first chord is the sweetest.

 

[tunghaichuan]

Welcome to the club.:beer:

I tried a few different tubes in mine but went back to the stock because they actually sounded best. Just play it and don't worry about changing anything.

+1. I had the same experience. The Chinese EL84 actually sounded better than the JJ I tried. Weird. My best guess is that the circuit is voiced for Chinese tubes.

tung

 

[oldguy]

+1. I had the same experience. The Chinese EL84 actually sounded better than the JJ I tried. Weird. My best guess is that the circuit is voiced for Chinese tubes.

tung

That's good.........no spending extra $$$ to get the "best" sound......

Congrats on your amp TS808!!!:beer: Hope your cab shows up quick!

 

[Katastrophe]

Happy New Amph Day! Pics when ya get the chance, please.

 

[Bloozcat]

+1. I had the same experience. The Chinese EL84 actually sounded better than the JJ I tried. Weird. My best guess is that the circuit is voiced for Chinese tubes.

tung

...and if the foreign made tubes continue to get better as more and more amps are voiced for them, then soon we'll be back to the good old days of tube amp tone....:bravo:

 

[duhvoodooman]

Nice, TS! :AOK: :dude: :beer: Can't wait to hear them CLIPS!!

 

[TS808]

Thanks all....other than a Crate 15-watt solid state I had in the 1980's this will be the first low watt amp I've owned, so I'm looking forward to using it.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

D'oh! Congrats in advance.

I've never had a low-watt tube amph. Everything I've got is in the 40-60 watt range. Eventually I'll get around to something more manageable.

 

[Spudman]

D'oh! Congrats in advance.

I've never had a low-watt tube amph. Everything I've got is in the 40-60 watt range. Eventually I'll get around to something more manageable.

It's a perfect office amph.

 

[TS808]

I finally got the cab for the Little Giant today. I have to say, it is the perfect home amp and great for blues tones. It doesn't deafen the neighbors or my wife, and the dogs don't hide now when I plug in

It's definitely manageable....at 3 watts with the volume at 12:00 it's not overbearing loud, and I can even crank it a little more and still not make too much noise.

It's the first amp in a long time that I've owned with a 1 x 12 cab, and the tone is definitely something I'm not used to...I like the fuller thump of a 2x12 cab, but overall a great amp for the money. Very simple to use, and also takes pedals extremely well.

I think I'll be having some fun with this amp :AOK:

 

[Brian Krashpad]

It's a perfect office amph.

Unlike my guitar halfstack or bass fridge cab?

Congrats on rec't of the cab TS808!

Oddly, I don't believe I've ever had a 1x12, combo or cab.

 

[tunghaichuan]

Congrats on the BH head, and welcome to the club. :AOK:

Here is my BH 1/4 stack:

http://www.diycustomamps.com/images/BH_stack.jpg

I've had those RSA 1x12" cabs for over 15 years now. They are ported, and I have no problems in the thump department. I would like to eventually get a 2x12 or a 4x12 cab, though.

Although the sound is noticeably fuller running two cabs, vs. just one.

tung

 

[TS808]

Congrats on the BH head, and welcome to the club. :AOK:

Here is my BH 1/4 stack:

http://www.diycustomamps.com/images/BH_stack.jpg

I've had those RSA 1x12" cabs for over 15 years now. They are ported, and I have no problems in the thump department. I would like to eventually get a 2x12 or a 4x12 cab, though.

Although the sound is noticeably fuller running two cabs, vs. just one.

tung

I was able to find a new Crate V212T cab loaded with Tone Tubby speakers on ebay which I think will be a cool second cab option to mess around with.

 

[just strum]

Just an FYI:

If anyone is interested in the Blackheart BH5-112 Combo, Amazon has it for $299 (selling for $349 at other places).

I am going with the amp head, but I thought I would pass this along.

http://www.amazon.com/Blackheart-BH...8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1233882750&sr=8-3

 

[kiteman]

Great score mate. Gotta love them BHs.

I just got a Handsome Devil head myself. It's a 7/15 watt tube head and it's really sweet. I was playing it on my Windsor 4x12 cab and I decided to get a cab for the BH so I ordered a BH 1x12 cab. Sounds totally different from the 4x12 cab but so toneful.

Since my Windsor half stack is a 100 watt tube I ordered a MASS200 attenuator from Mr. Weber. Now I can get some tones without the darn thing blowing me out of my room. :rotflmao:

EDIT: Almost forgot, I retubed the BH head with Mullard Reissues and got a little more chimes over the stock Chinese tubes. The stock tubes turned out to be pretty good but the MIs improved the head some.

 

[tunghaichuan]

You guys have me gassing for a Handsome Devil head. I love my BH Little Giant amps. So much so, I have no plans for mods.

tung

 

[just strum]

Yep, I was hoping this would fade away. The plan was the ME50 and the BH Little Giant, but since I pulled back some gear sales, I had to stop at the ME50. It doesn't sound like any of you guys will be dumping yours any time soon.

 

[Spudman]

It doesn't sound like any of you guys will be dumping yours any time soon.

Definitely a keeper. :AOK: I have mine in the studio as my "go to" amph hooked up to a 1x12 cab. With a couple of dirt pedals and wah in front of it I can get some big rig sounds out of it without plaster coming off the ceiling.

 

[TS808]

Definitely a keeper. :AOK: I have mine in the studio as my "go to" amph hooked up to a 1x12 cab. With a couple of dirt pedals and wah in front of it I can get some big rig sounds out of it without plaster coming off the ceiling.

Exactly...both the Little Giant and the Handsome Devil sound great at moderate volumes. I'm VERY pleased with these amps.

 

[Duff]

One twelve cab

I actually read where a lot of guitar players prefer the one twelve cab or combo over the seemingly preferable two twelve.

According to what I read the single twelve gives a cleaner very powerful sound that a lot of people prefer. My Hot Rod Deluxe has a single twelve inch Jensen P12N and it sounds awesome.

Maybe someone else knows the technical reasons why some prefer the single twelve cab or combo to the two twelve. Maybe there is some technical reason that the single produces a different sound.

Duffy

Peace

 

[oldguy]

Cab configuration would have a lot to do with it. I prefer my Avatar 2x12 semi open back to my Traynor 1x12 closed back. They're both loaded w/ Celestion speakers, but the Avatar has more punch and is fuller sounding, as would be expected when sound can get out the front and back.
A well engineered, properly built cabinet is the key, IMO.
A 1x12, with the right design and loaded w/ the right speaker, can sound great. SPL and reflection of waves is a fairly straightforward math based science, building a speaker cabinet to take advantage of those principles, however, can be tricky.
I'm certain most people would rather lug around a single speaker cab, combo amp, etc. Less weight, easier to handle.

 

[Duff]

Building cab

Oldguy,

I know what you mean when you say it can be tricky to follow those cab building math principles. Just figuring out the design to take advantage of the right way to do it isn't possible for a lot of us; instead its a just build the cabinet for the speaker type of thing, and try to make it look good maybe even professional looking, but the principles are beyond us.

That's why I'm thinking of buying an old non functioning amp of original great design, combo, and using it to make the cabinet out of, maybe even the stock speaker if it is a great old Fender or something. But just using a quality amp of any brand that you can get inexpensively and putting a great new speaker in it would probably make a better cab than one that the average guy would be able to build from scratch and it would probably cost way less and take less time.

Plus, if it was a really neat old combo, tube type, you could consider having it fixed at some future date, but just use it as a cab in the meantime.

Peace

Duffy

 

[oldguy]

Oldguy,

I know what you mean when you say it can be tricky to follow those cab building math principles. Just figuring out the design to take advantage of the right way to do it isn't possible for a lot of us; instead its a just build the cabinet for the speaker type of thing, and try to make it look good maybe even professional looking, but the principles are beyond us.

That's why I'm thinking of buying an old non functioning amp of original great design, combo, and using it to make the cabinet out of, maybe even the stock speaker if it is a great old Fender or something. But just using a quality amp of any brand that you can get inexpensively and putting a great new speaker in it would probably make a better cab than one that the average guy would be able to build from scratch and it would probably cost way less and take less time.

Plus, if it was a really neat old combo, tube type, you could consider having it fixed at some future date, but just use it as a cab in the meantime.

Peace

Duffy

Check this site out, Duffy, it's interesting. Don't own an earcandy cab, but they're supposed to be the bomb.


http://www.earcandycabs.com/

http://www.earcandycabs.com/articles.php?req=read&article_id=31

http://www.earcandycabs.com/products.php?req=read&product_id=48