Cool new gear: Blackstar HT-5 2011 revamp (HT-5R)

The newly revamped Blackstar HT-5 series, now available in a stack pack with 1X12" speaker cabinets.

Anyone who has reads my blog has probably realised how much of a Blackstar HT-5 fanboy I am. I have one and I’ve found it to be the perfect my my style, and it covers everything I want from quiet practice at home in my studio, to playing in my band (which happens to have a pretty hard hitting drummer). I bought the head, and use it through a 1×12″ speaker cabinet, and I think it’s the perfect speaker setup for the HT-5, over the 1×10″ that the original HT-5 models offered. Many people on the Blackstar forums agreed, and it seems that Blackstar have been listening to what their fans have been requesting.

The newly revamped Blackstar HT-5 series now features a number of new features that make the HT-5 pretty much the perfect amplifier for the everyday musician. The clean channel now has a single tone control, like the HT-20 series have, the digital reverb that all other HT series have had, and the new HT-5 combo and speaker cabinets have grown, now loaded with 12″ speakers. The other awesome thing is the speaker emulated output can now be used in conjunction with the speaker. This is about perfect for people playing live as the sound guy can patch directly into the amp for PA mixing, and still use the amplifier speaker for stage sound.

Here’s what Blackstar have to say about the revamped lineup.:


2011 sees the launch of the new HT-5, packing all the great tone and innovative features of the original award winning HT-5 with a unique push-pull power amp, dedicated tone control on the clean channel, 12” speaker, stereo MP3/line input and stereo reverb, making the HT-5 range the ultimate guitar amps for studio or home use.


It is fantastic to see that Blackstar have listened to their customers, and released products that meet them fully. Not many companies do this sort of thing, so I really must commend Blackstar for their efforts. I hope to try the new HT-5 series out, and compare it to the original.

Here is a great video of Rob Chappers demonstrating the new HT-5 combo:

And more from Music Radar at MusikMesse:

And Jamie Humphries from Blackstar playing a solo track:

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