From chiming cleans, to on-the-edge crunch, to full-on distortion, the HT-20 MkII delivers ‘the sound in your head’
EL84 Power Stage
EL84s are at the tonal heart of the HT-20R MkII combo and head. We applied our decades of valve amp design experience to combine the response and character of this classic British valve with a carefully voiced preamp to create wonderfully lush valve tones. From pure boutique cleans, to mild overdrive that cleans up by backing off the guitar volume control, right up to saturated distortion, this amp does it all.
Concentrated, to Concert-rated
The HT-20R MkII comes equipped with a power reduction feature taking you down to 2W without any tonal compromise, perfect for driving those EL84’s hard at manageable volumes in the studio or home.
When you’re ready to take to the stage, switch to full 20W and utilise the XLR DI output to simultaneously feed direct to the sound engineer with incredible sounding cabinet simulation.
Professional Recording Connectivity
The HT-20R MkII comes equipped with a direct USB output for the simplest way to get valve tones into your recordings without the need for an interface. Also included is a fully specified stereo recording output via XLR and jack with selectable cabinet simulation options of 4×12 or 1×12.
The best part? These amps have in-built load protection, meaning you can use them without a cabinet connected for silent practice and recording.
Patented ISF
The patented ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) control is unique to Blackstar Amplification and represents a major step forward in tone shaping flexibility. The ISF control shifts the response of the three-control tone stack between a US type response at one end and a UK type response at the other. Importantly, in between the two extremes lie an infinite number of alternative tone choices that would be otherwise unavailable.
Ground-Breaking Cleans
The HT-20R MkII has two footswitchable Clean Voices:
Voice 1: This clean voice gives a bright, tight tone with a solid bass response. The tone shaping is positioned early in the gain structure for a refined American tone and response.
Voice 2: This clean voice gives a highly responsive “chime” with a looser, resonant bottom-end for a British tone that can be pushed into a mid-range overdrive when driven hard.
Richer, More Responsive Overdrives
The two footswitchable Overdrive Voices are characterised by a tone which is high in gain, but avoids any of the detached top-end “fizz” often found in other designs.
Voice 1: This is the Classic “British” Blackstar overdrive. Rich and natural, it goes all the way to Super Crunch gain but cleans up beautifully.
Voice 2: Inspired by the critically acclaimed HT Venue MkII high gain sounds, this overdrive has additional aggression in the high-end with a tight and resonant low-end.
