HT-DIST Review

By allowing infinite adjustment over the characteristics of the HT-DIST’s tone control network, the patentapplied-for ISF circuit allows you to effectively design your own tone and find the sound in your head. Add to this the dynamics of the high voltage valve design and a no compromise speaker emulated output and this pedal is a classic amongst modern distortions.

Ease of Use:	7
Sound:	9
Reliability:	7
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	8.3
Users rating:	8.7
Comments:	4

overall: 8.3

Reviewed by: no_thing101, on march 31, 2008

Price paid: $ 182.4

Ease of Use: The HT-DIST is as easy to use as one would expect. It has a volume, gain, bass, mids, treble and an ISF knob. The ISF basically changes between american and British sound signatures and mixes the two. My only complaint in this area is that it needs it's power adaptor to run. This isn't really a bad thing since either wouldn't work or wouldn't sound as good if it ran on batteries. Overall, nothing out of the ordinary in a good or bad way. // 7

Sound: I play with a Ibanez RG350DX guitar and an Vox ac15 amp. The noise level on the pedal is surprisingly low considering the amount of gain I'm stacking on and that valves generally have more hiss than transistors. As for the sound signature, with all knobs at 12 o'clock it sounds dark and smooth. This setting is about the right amount of gain for classic rock. Compared to your average good overdrive/distortion pedal it is smoother and richer. The distortion itself also has a quality to it that is hard to describe. It is just slightly different. As you back the gain off it doesn't clean off perfectly but you can get some nice bluesy sounds out of it. In fact I prefer this to the distortion that comes out of my ac15. It is smoother than my amp. On high gain settings it sounds great. The gain smooths things out even more. The gain does not really reach heavy metal levels though. // 9

Reliability & Durability: cant comment on this much since it's pretty new. It looks pretty sturdy to me. It's valve as any will eventually need to be replaced which is a reliability issue. Because of that I have rated the ht-dist lower in reliability than I would if it was solid state. // 7

Impression: Overall this pedal sounds very smooth, rich and full which is great for leads. I think it may be a bit too smooth for rhythm. It isn't very crunchy sounding. Despite this, imo it beats the other 20 or so dirtboxes I've tried in my time. I have to say it is only my favourite by a small margin. There are many pedals that I think do some things better than the Blackstar. The Blackstar is simply the best for my uses which are mainly blues, psychedelic rock and shred (fuzz for psychedelic rock please). As for the dirtboxes I've directly compared it to, here they are: Boss OS-2, Ulbrick 12axe, MI Audio Tube Zone, MI Audio Neo Fuzz, Catalinbread Silverkiss, Catalinbread Hyperpak, Catalinbread Supercharged Overdrive. I think the Blackstar HT-DIST is a great pedal and would recommend it to anyone wanting a serious distortion pedal. there's nothing I have about it. What I love most about it is flexible enough for everything I play. // 10

Comments

[filthylittleboy]

What's an ISF knob?

[JoelTheShredder]

i dont know but i heard these stomp boxes are the dogs bollax.

[deadlydunc]

they are the muts nuts... i have the HT-DRIVE overdrive pedal. it rules. although i hardly use it now i have my orange tiny terror...

[no_thing101]

the isf (infinite shape feature) controls whether the pedal gives a british or american type response. they could have put it in a switch but they made a knob out of it which is much more interesting. You can mix the two and get more neutral tones. i like having the isf to british cause i like lots of midrange.