Blackstar , Marshall, or Hughes&Kettner?

[adam245]

GAS strikes again! This time I'm looking to upgrade from my little Blackstar Ht-5.

I play a lot of different music so needs to be versatile but key tones are: good cleans (John Mayer-esque preferred), and good marshally crunch tones.
I play a lot of blues/blues rock (especially Clapton), Rock ( big GNR fan), and metal (Metallica and Iron Maiden mostly)

Needs to have a di out & some kind of attenuation so I can use it at home and for recording as well as rehearsals and gigs

I've been looking at either:

Blackstar series one 104 (probably the el34 version)
Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 100
Hughes&Kettner TubeMeister deluxe 40

What do people think of them?

I've found the marshall on ebay for about £250 (plus postage) - but has no footswitch

Blackstar £300- £360

or Hughes and Kettner £490 (though I may be able to haggle that down a bit)

Is it worth the extra 100 odd quid for the portability of the H&K???

Cheers

 

[renderit]

I always liked the looks and recordings of the H&K but never went there.

But always because something else showed up available at the same time I couldn't pass on.

Last time it was a Longhorn Vaquero.

If you do let us know what you think...

 

[Blue97FXSTC]

The Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 100 looks like it would check all your boxes.
Three channels, all tube, VPR mode, real spring reverb, speaker emulated XLR line out, output mute for recording, two effects loops.
What a feature set.
I own a 2203, and it has THE Marshall sound.
If that 2000 TSL can get there, for me it would be an easy decision.
Foot switches are easy to find or make.
Plus I think it will hold it's value better than the others on your list.
£250 (~$325) is a third of the going price on Reverb.
If that were for sale here in Texas for that price I'll take two, please.

I just looked at the offering of new channel switching 100W Marshalls heads.
The JVM series.
Digital reverb.
Hard pass.
One more reason to choose the all analog TSL.

 

[adam245]

The Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 100 looks like it would check all your boxes.
Three channels, all tube, VPR mode, real spring reverb, speaker emulated XLR line out, output mute for recording, two effects loops.
What a feature set.
I own a 2203, and it has THE Marshall sound.
If that 2000 TSL can get there, for me it would be an easy decision.
Foot switches are easy to find or make.
Plus I think it will hold it's value better than the others on your list.
£250 (~$325) is a third of the going price on Reverb.
If that were for sale here in Texas for that price I'll take two, please.

I just looked at the offering of new channel switching 100W Marshalls heads.
The JVM series.
Digital reverb.
Hard pass.
One more reason to choose the all analog TSL.

The seller for the tsl 100 has decided against posting - annoying but fair enough I guess they're pretty heavy!
What do you think of the blackstar? Iirc they're all ex-marshall techs? So it might sound quite marshally?
Pretty hard to find a lot online about the S1 el35 version - and seems to be like marmite for most.

The marshall does look like it would tick the boxes though, so I'll see what else is up for sale.
At any rate it doesn't weigh almost 30kgs like the blackstar

 

[adam245]

I always liked the looks and recordings of the H&K but never went there.

But always because something else showed up available at the same time I couldn't pass on.

Last time it was a Longhorn Vaquero.

If you do let us know what you think...

I've seen some recordings of it sounding really good, others make it sound a bit meh

Will have to see if there's any near me I could try - out of stock everywhere I've checked rn though

If I get it I'll post my experiences with it

 

[woolyfox]

TSL and a good Attenuator/load box for recording

 

[adam245]

TSL and a good Attenuator/load box for recording

Is the built-in power reduction any good? What attenuators/load boxes would you recommend?

 

[DrewB]

Every H&K I've ever tried has very quickly resulted in ear fatigue. Don't know what's going on with me/them, but it ain't good.

 

[adam245]

Every H&K I've ever tried has very quickly resulted in ear fatigue. Don't know what's going on with me/them, but it ain't good.

Is that like a brightness thing? Like the amp kicks out a bunch of high frequencies and causes fatigue? I have heard its a very very bright amp.

Have you any experience/opinions on the marshall or blackstar?

 

[woolyfox]

Is the built-in power reduction any good? What attenuators/load boxes would you recommend?

Torpedo Captor 16 Ohms for Marshalls, good reliable all rounder. For a load box only, Fractal Load X (8 ohms only though).
If you really want to get nerdy.

 

[DrewB]

Is that like a brightness thing? Like the amp kicks out a bunch of high frequencies and causes fatigue? I have heard its a very very bright amp.

Have you any experience/opinions on the marshall or blackstar?

No, I didn't perceive the sound as over-bright, but didn't care for what I was getting out of them. The hearing fatigue that set in within a few minutes was the last straw. I've always loved Alex Lifeson's guitar sounds except through the time period he was using H&Ks.

I was a Plexi guy when I was 2 years old, but didn't start playing guitar until I was 15. I've owned a bunch of Marshalls and hand-wired versions and typically prefer JTMs and JMPs. My experience with the TSLs has been minimal, but the TSL100 is a big improvement over the TSL60 to my ears. I have no experience with that particular Blackstar, but their other amps I've plugged into (not a lot of time-spent, mind you) have given me a favorable impression of them. Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[adam245]

No, I didn't perceive the sound as over-bright, but didn't care for what I was getting out of them. The hearing fatigue that set in within a few minutes was the last straw. I've always loved Alex Lifeson's guitar sounds except through the time period he was using H&Ks.

I was a Plexi guy when I was 2 years old, but didn't start playing guitar until I was 15. I've owned a bunch of Marshalls and hand-wired versions and typically prefer JTMs and JMPs. My experience with the TSLs has been minimal, but the TSL100 is a big improvement over the TSL60 to my ears. I have no experience with that particular Blackstar, but their other amps I've plugged into (not a lot of time-spent, mind you) have given me a favorable impression of them. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Thanks for the insight on the H&K, think it might be between the marshall and blackstar now

 

[Dave P]

Blackstar has crappy technical support. They do not supply techs with any proprietary parts like PCB's and such. So if your Blackstar goes up in smoke and fries some PCB traces, you have an expensive door stop.

 

[longlowrumble]

Blackstar has crappy technical support. They do not supply techs with any proprietary parts like PCB's and such. So if your Blackstar goes up in smoke and fries some PCB traces, you have an expensive door stop.

Well, a Blackstar-certified tech would be able to fix it, but not everybody has one of those close by. OTOH, the OP seems to be in the UK, so that probably wouldn’t be an issue. The Blackstar HT Club 40 I had was a terrific amp.

 

[adam245]

Well, a Blackstar-certified tech would be able to fix it, but not everybody has one of those close by. OTOH, the OP seems to be in the UK, so that probably wouldn’t be an issue. The Blackstar HT Club 40 I had was a terrific amp.

Yeah I'm in the UK - so a tech wouldn't be too hard to come by if need be? I've found a series one 50w for £250 - seems a pretty good deal. Getting ready to pull the trigger but don't want to be left with a brick

 

[longlowrumble]

Yeah I'm in the UK - so a tech wouldn't be too hard to come by if need be? I've found a series one 50w for £250 - seems a pretty good deal. Getting ready to pull the trigger but don't want to be left with a brick

Yah, I bet you’d be fine. Here’s the UK service finder, fwiw: https://blackstaramps.com/service-centres-uk/

 

[woolyfox]

Blackstar for some reason have never had the following that Marshall garnered. The ones I've tried are perfectly serviceable and similar to Marshalls. Here in Canada, I would put Blackstar in the same camp as Traynor.

Side note, my main amp was built by Cliff Brown, formerly of Blackstar R&D now runs 633 Engineering.

 

[adam245]

I managed to get a marshall jvm205c for £370 in very good condition with the footswitch and leads. Very happy with my purchase! Cleans are much nicer than I'd expect from a marshall , and the crunch and od tones are great! Footswitch works brilliantly too! Thanks everyone for your input!!