Blackheart Engineering BH5-112: Why More Versatility Doesn't Necessarily Mean More Controls
We follow the wacky Owen O'Malley as he rocks the Blackheart BH5-112 so hard that you'd think he was a New Jersey native. If this Little Giant was a character from the 1994 epic adventure The Little Giants it would definitely be Becky O'Shea.
Owen gives this amp a rip with the volume dial turned every which way (this simple amp doesn't have much else to say). Its tonal range would make Rick Moranis proud.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING "I LOVE ROCK & ROLL" THROUGH BLACKHEART BH5-112]
OWEN O'MALLEY: I'm Owen O'Malley, you're watching Gearwire.Com, and that is the Blackheart BH5-112.
The BH5-112 is a switchable 5-watt/3-watt class A all-tube combo with a solid-state rectifier. It is perfect for recording. It gets nasty dirty. It's got a 12" Eminence Design speaker. It's a Blue Frame Eminence specifically designed for the Blackheart amps. There is a 12AX7 in the preamp and an EL84 in the power section. That EL84 is switchable between triode and pentode for that 3-watt/5-watt power difference.
It's a super simple one-channel amp. If we look at the top here, there's a volume control and a three-band treble, and then you've got our little 5-watt/3-watt toggle switch. Super simple amp but surprisingly versatile.
Let's bring the volume down to about 9 o'clock here. We've got our Gibson Special Faded 3 on the bridge pickup.
[OWEN PLAYS A COUPLE OF CHORDS AND LICKS THROUGH THE BH5-112 AT LOWER GAIN SETTING, BRIDGE PICKUP]
So down at 9 o'clock I mean it's pretty well behaved. It's got a nice, clean sound. Let's just hear the neck pickup.
[OWEN PLAYS A COUPLE OF CHORDS AND LICKS THROUGH THE BH5-112 AT LOWER GAIN SETTING, NECK PICKUP]
Now staying in a sort of relatively clean area, let's switch it into 5-watt mode. This is 3-watt mode, now it's going to 5-watt.
[OWEN PLAYS A COUPLE OF CHORDS AND LICKS THROUGH THE BH5-112 AT LOWER GAIN SETTING, 5-WATT MODE, BRIDGE PICKUP]
Quite a bit louder, quite about warmer sounding and fuller. It's really like having two different amps. Let's bring it back down to 3-watt and put the volume up to 12 o'clock here. We're going to keep the treble -- or rather the EQ flat this whole time. Back to the bridge pickup.
[OWEN PLAYS A COUPLE OF CHORDS AND LICKS THROUGH THE BH5-112 AT MIDDLE GAIN SETTING, 3-WATT MODE, BRIDGE PICKUP]
That's a great, sort of distorted rhythm tones there. Let's crank the volume up all the way here.[OWEN PLAYS A COUPLE OF CHORDS, RIFFS, AND LICKS THROUGH THE BH5-112 AT HIGHEST GAIN SETTING, 3-WATT MODE, BRIDGE PICKUP]
Pretty awesome lead tones, really just satisfying bright, full, thick distortion, really crunchy.
[OWEN PLAYS A COUPLE OF PALM-MUTED POWER CHORDS THROUGH THE BH5-112 AT HIGHEST GAIN SETTING, 3-WATT MODE, BRIDGE PICKUP]
Now that's in 3-watt mode. Let's kick it over to 5-watt mode.
[OWEN PLAYS A COUPLE OF CHORDS, RIFFS, AND LICKS THROUGH THE BH5-112 AT HIGHEST GAIN SETTING, 5-WATT MODE, BRIDGE PICKUP]
On the sort of rear underside of the amp here, we have a whole series of different external speaker outputs here. Right now, the speaker is connected to the 16-Ohm speaker output. Okay, it's a 16-Ohm speaker in this guy. Notice there's also two 8-Ohm connections and two 4-Ohm connections so you can connect this amp just to a whole host of different guitar cabinets, which makes it really versatile in the recording studio. Pretty cool little feature back there, and this is a 5-watt under $300 combo amp. I mean it's -- I like it.
They are designed by Blackheart Engineering and they are made and distributed by Crate, so they're -- it's almost like having a sort of little like boutiquey design amp but they've got delivery to major internet retailers and sort of brick and mortar retailers across the country. It's pretty awesome. Pretty great-sounding amp, and I like it.
You've been watching Gearwire.Com and this is Owen O'Malley. Thanks for stopping by San Diego.
guitar's out of tune, amp is
guitar's out of tune, amp is distorting the microphone. awesome.
out of tune?
are we listening to the same video?
you mean the one with the
you mean the one with the out of tune guitar and the overloaded microphone? yeah, i think we are.
guitar's out of tune, amp is distorting the microphone.
Great amp but bad demo, take care with the levels. You make Blackheart Engineering look bad.
Not to make excuses, but
Yeah, I've been having some problems with the mic preamps on our HD cams. Sometimes we don't have time to reshoot these things. Hopefully my gushing about the amp will make up for the audio problems.
yeah.
it's totally those lousy sony preamps overloading. Sorry bout that.
really?
All you have to work with are the crappy preamps on your camera? Where are the production values?
no.
we have an rme interface and a sound devices hard disk recorder as well. In this particular situation we were reliant on the sony preamps. Hope that clears things up.
the world needs it.
PLEASE do a shootout between this amp and the Epi Valve Junior.
its been done on youtube before,
but not with any kind of decent micing.
get the evj head/cab (combo does not do it justice)
and the blackheart combo or head/cab.
after all,
they were designed by the same guy.
also i've heard that the eq section on the blackhearts dont do much at all.
Fantastic Idea
We'll see what we can do about that shootout (though the epis are hard to come by). I thought the EQs were pretty well voiced, not too subtle, not too intense.
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