Blackheart Handsome Devil

[TelZilla]

Hey, anybody tried one of these? I tried one out at lunch and I thought it was a way cool little amp.

I'm pretty sure it was 2 X EL84. I thought it did the chimey british thing pretty well, but was maybe a touch too bright.

I thought the master was very usable. And I enjoyed the half power switch.

Anybody got a Schemo or anything? Is this kind of AC15 architecture?

 

[TelZilla]

bump. nobody?

 

[tombm3]

I ordered one today. Sorry I can't help but can report by the end of the week.

 

[Doug Ferguson]

Don't know how beholden they are to an AC15, nor have I had a chance to play through one, but they're on my radar as a possible future buy. I like the BH5H I've got, so I imagine the BH15H is a worth choice. I prefer the heads to the combos (with the Little Giants) or the speaker cabs -- I'm pretty much an open-back cab person. My only beef with the Handsome Devil, and it's very personal, are the EL84's. I'd prefer either 6V6's or EL34's in the power end, but that's only because most of my amps are EL84 powered and I'd like something with a bit more headroom.

 

[TelZilla]

I ordered one today. Sorry I can't help but can report by the end of the week.

Excellent. Thanks, man.

Specifically, here's what I'm interested in:

• Solid state or tube recto?
• What tubes are in the preamp? I think it's 2 12 AX7s
• What tubes in the power amp?

 

[FenderGuy53]

Specifically, here's what I'm interested in:

• Solid state or tube recto?
• What tubes are in the preamp? I think it's 2 12 AX7s
• What tubes in the power amp?

This may help:

(link removed)

 

[jmaul]

Excellent. Thanks, man.

Specifically, here's what I'm interested in:

• Solid state or tube recto?
• What tubes are in the preamp? I think it's 2 12 AX7s
• What tubes in the power amp?

I've had one for a few weeks now.
- "the Handsome Devil is equipped with a pair of 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section, a pair of EL84s in the power amp section, and a solid-state rectifier with internal 6V — 2A rectifier tab that permits future mods with 6X4 or 5AR4 type tubes." This obviously means there is no sag, which takes away from the potential voxy-ness right out of the box.

- 2 generic chinese 12AX7's. It does not seem to be overly gainy and I would not put a lower gain tube in any of the preamp positions.

- 2 generic chinese EL84's

so here are my impressions, through a closed back EV12L in Avatar contemporary closed back (orange like 112 cab), used exclusively with strats, and primarily through an ash/maple with staggered alnico single coils...

The stock tubes are terrible. I would recommend anyone getting this amp pony up for new tubes asap. The tubes are hissy and thin, etc., etc. You know what bad tubes sound like. Converting to a tube rect. would be a good idea depending upon your application of the amp. Personally, I miss the sag. All that said, I haven't done the tubes yet, and dont plan to convert to a tube rect. for a long while, and this amp still gets more play than my other two tube guitar amps.

- General fit, finish, and construction is top notch. Pots feel great and are not scratchy. The cab and tolex is outstanding- I feel I could throw it down a flight of stairs and all would be well. It is a heavy beast around 30-40 lbs for just the head. This is much more formidable that the tiny terror or night train, and the ample size of the chassis and the size of the transformers really show the value for price. If anything is upgrade worthy, other than tubes/rect, it is the jacks. They seem to be metal, or at least mostly metal, but do not "lock in" your cables the way a nice switchcraft will. OT seems on the higher end for stock unit, and I can't see it needing replacement unless you are on an endless tone quest.

on to front controls:
- There is no standby. Common sense says this would be a nice feature to add in, to help the little guy live longer.

- 15w/7w switch. I keep it on 7w when warming up. Not sure if this lessens the hit to the electronics upon power up but it cant hurt. 7 w seems warmer and rounder. volume is noticeably less (possibly just more contained), despite whatever the watts to db math says. 15 watts is more open and airy, with much better dynamics. I obviously prefer the 15w setting.

- presence knob- I assume this is NFB? Definitely tames the hum. I do not see a real tone loss with this, you may bleed off some highs but (at least with stock tubes) this really seems to be a hum and hiss knob. I obviously keep this on 0, where the hum and hiss are gone.

- B/M/T tone stack - I love this tone stack. You can't really change the character of the amp, they are subtle, and allow you to really refine your sound based on the guitar and cab. You will always sound like you are coming through this amp, you cant twiddle and go from fender to marshall, but you can knock down the bass or mids to manageable levels if you feel they are too present. I think in general, this is a darker british flavored amp. You will not be rolling off the treble very often, but you also wont need to keep it dimed. typically bass lives in the 9:00 - 2:00 range, mids in the 9:00 - 4:00, and treble pretty much stays constant at 1:00 for me.

- level and gain - This is where the crappy tubes really uh... shine?
The "dime the level and gain to taste" trick isn't quite what the dr. ordered here unless you are gigging or want to break up the party next door. I have yet to find any "awesome power tube distortion" here, but I have come to mediocre power tube grit. putting the focus on the preamp and using more gain and leveling to taste gives better od and breakup at usable volume but the tubes are so crappy the od is a bit brittle and nasally, and obviously has the signature pre amp hiss.


General tone...
It has its own thing going on, for sure. It has a great tone and I'm not really keen on changing the circuit. If I had to put it into one of the main categories, it would be marshall. It is not bright. It is not chimey. With new tubes, a tube rect, and a celestion blue in an open back cab, it might get pretty voxy. The tone stack and circuit are in the dark marshall camp out of the box. If you want a fender sound, you would most likely need to go to much greater lengths to get there. Perhaps 12AT's in preamp, tube rect, and jensen clones in an open back to start, then I'd assume you might need circuit mods or an eq pedal to get to even 90% fender.

All of the above is guitar > cable > amp.
This amp also takes pedals really well. I've used :
- a SS gain pedal- Lovepedal Les Luis. Helped get me more towards a fender tweed grit and OD.

- a Tube OD (and mild eq) pedal - EH English Muffin. This really brought it into marshall OD territory at house volumes. This combo was really really fantastic. If you want to do late 60's/70's rock at home and practice with this amp, I'd SERIOUSLY recommend this pedal. Got mine used but pristine in the $120 range. This pedal shined much more with this amp than my Fender based amps.

- Colorsound wah - worked fine and as expected. This is a noisy pedal, it is part of its charm, and the amp didnt hide that.

- Muff Diver original muff clone - I honestly havent been able to make this pedal sound very good through any of my setups. This one is no exception. If anyone has some recommended settings for this box, clue me in asap.

 

[jmaul]

Don't know how beholden they are to an AC15, ... My only beef with the Handsome Devil, and it's very personal, are the EL84's. I'd prefer either 6V6's or EL34's in the power end, but that's only because most of my amps are EL84 powered and I'd like something with a bit more headroom.

1) This amp is very far from AC 15 sounding, but I havent played it through a blue. See above review for more info...

2) This has far more headroom than other push pull 2 x EL84 amps I have played. If you dime the level, keep it on 15 watts, keep the gain below 12:00, and play single coils, you would be hard pressed to even enter grit territory. This is from playing through a EV12L, obviously a low wattage jensen or celestion is going to break up more, but if you have the appropriate cab, headroom shouldnt be an issue up to practice/small gig volume.

 

[soonertele]

This is a very interesting thread,,, Thanks,,, I am right on the edge about to buy one but can't quite make the leap.....

 

[krauser2]

a little more money..., but worth it

phaez amp

 

[TheSmokingMan]

Start at v1 with a 5751, should smooth it out.

 

[TheSmokingMan]

Try v1 first then if its still too much you can A) drop v1 to an even lower gain tube B) put a second 5751 in at v2. I haven't played the 15 watter in a while but it definitely was grainy like the jet city 20 and the 5751 smoothed that out nicely.

 

[Rick330man]

These amps have been out of production for a while, but they definitely developed a loyal following. I am hoping other owners will share their experiences on how to get the best tones out of these.

I own both the 15 watt Handsome Devil head and the 5 watt Little Giant head. My Handosme Devil came stock with JJ EL84s and JJECC83s. The amp really comes to life when you've got the "Level" at 5 to 6. The drive channel requires tone stack adjustments to be usable, but it is very usable. The good tones are there, but you've got to work for them.

I've been running a GE 5751 in V1 since pretty much the day I bought it. JJECC83s make lousy phase inverters, so I swapped the stock V2 with a Shuguang 12AX7. This set up sounds very respectable, but I'm going to try some tube rolling in V1 and V2 and see if I find better combinations.

Chime in with your experiences.

 

[Lilticus]

I just bought one 2nd hand, the 15/7 watt combo after I watched a YouTube vid of a side by side comparison with a Blues jnr , in the vid they sounded identical but I'm guessing he had stripped the tubes out and replaced them cos I cant get that tone , close but no cigar, I can get great tone with the tubes in it and I got if for £110 so I'm not complaining but I do want and probibly need to change the tubes and want something more like a fender tone , any ideas on some cheap tubes that'll do the job , I don't want to be spending more than £20 per tube really if I can

 

[Fred Rogers]

I just bought one 2nd hand, the 15/7 watt combo after I watched a YouTube vid of a side by side comparison with a Blues jnr , in the vid they sounded identical but I'm guessing he had stripped the tubes out and replaced them cos I cant get that tone , close but no cigar, I can get great tone with the tubes in it and I got if for £110 so I'm not complaining but I do want and probibly need to change the tubes and want something more like a fender tone , any ideas on some cheap tubes that'll do the job , I don't want to be spending more than £20 per tube really if I can

I have a Handsome Devil. Mine sounds much better after I changed the stock tubes out for JJ's. You won't get it to sound fendery. It's more in the Vox family of tone. I really love this little amp. I own a bunch of vintage Fender amps, Marshall and Vox and I still sometimes pick the Handsome Devil over those amps for playing. It's a great amp for gigs. Easy to carry with great tone.