Killer Blackheart tone for the rocker with angry neighbors.
The Blackheart Killer Ant BH1H is a boutique-quality tube amp for the garage-playing musician that follows the tradition of Blackheart Engineering's Little Giant 5 amp. The Killer Ant amplifier head features Class-A, single-ended circuitry. The Blackheart Killer Ant guitar amp delivers the complete, classic, touch-responsive tube tone you need but at more manageable volumes for apartment dwellers and recording sessions.
Designed on a beer-stained cocktail napkin and prototyped, built, and tested in a one-car garage in Austin, TX, the little Killer Ant amp head is engineered to the same strict standards as the Little Giant 5 guitar amp, and delivers the tones and attitude you want when tone is everything and volume needs to be kept in check. The Killer Ant amp embraces 100% classic all-tube circuitry, but instead of a high power tube output section, it boasts a clever, all-tube power block pumping out a mere fraction of 1W. What you get is arena-rock tone at bedroom levels and no more angry neighbors.
Like its big bro, the Killer Ant guitar amplifier features completely overbuilt component specs, from 1W resistors in the signal path to double-sided PCB with 2 oz. traces. Even its diminutive cabinet, just over palm-sized, is built to take a beating with its 15-ply (18mm) void-free wood covered in durable black tolex. Final touches include distinctive white piping accents and a salt-and-pepper cloth-covered front baffle. 4-, 8-, and 16-ohm extension speaker jacks allow you to hook the Blackheart Killer Ant guitar amp head into virtually any cab you like, including a 4x12.
Blackheart Killer Ant BH1H 1W Tube Guitar Amp Head Features:
<1 Watt RMS, Single-Ended, Class A
Output jacks: 16-ohm jack (1) 8-ohm (1), 4-ohm (1)
Solid State Rectifier
Volume
DC Power to filaments for super-quiet operation
15-ply, 18mm-thick void-free plywood construction
Rock out without disturbing the peace—add the Killer Ant to the cart now.
Blackheart Killer Ant BH1H 1W Tube Guitar Amp Head Specifications:
Wifey doesn't dig glam rock or classic rock and is always complaining about me playing too loud. So I picked up the Blackheart Killer Ant thinking it might make for an interesting practice amp to play along with the radio and learn new tunes. I was shocked how great it sounds! At about 10'clock on the dial you get classic AC/DC riffage and classic rock tone at speaking volume! Crank it all the way up and you can get a nice 80's style crunch at just above a loud talking volume. I threw on an eq pedal and distortion pedal and used it simply as a volume/gain boost and got a great lead sound. There was enough gain gain for good early VH plexi type stuff, lots of pinch and natural harmonics! This amp is a gem for jamming with the radio at low volume or learning riffs without disturbing the neighbors...or wife! I gave it a 4 for features simply because there's no EQ, but that's easily fixed even the cheapest of pedals. I'd say the only downside is it's hard to get a clean sound, but any cheap solid state will do that if you need it, that's not what this amp is really for. If you play classic/80's rock and need a quiet practice amp that still sounds like your tube half stack, here it is!!!
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Love playing the ant
Posted by Low-volume-amp-guy from Atlanta, GA on Sep 10, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: hobbyist
Reviewer's Play Style: rock, blues
I have been looking for a low volume tube amp forever. I have built several different amps from scratch even to try to achieve a nice low volume for early morning playing in an unfinished basement with a family above. I would have built a killer ant similar design, but didn't want to go to the trouble to get a specially wound output transformer that would work with a 12ax7 as a power stage.
The Killer Ant can be somewhat loud depending on the speaker and perception (some mornings it seems loud to me, others fairly quiet through the same cab) but ultimately does mostly what I have looked for. It can get good crunch early in the morning without being too loud. I like the tone as well, it isn't as dull as some triode output amps I have experimented with, but has a nice clarity without being harsh. It sounds great with my strat and P90 guitars, need to dig out the 335 clone to see how humbuckers sound, but haven't yet done so in several weeks of ownership. I haven't even gotten around to swapping tubes as it has a nice chimey clean to me and a nice crunch with clarity. There isn't much headroom, but that isn't the point and there is plenty of clean through my greenback loaded 4x12 for clean practice and through a smaller, less efficient speaker cab I can crank it without complaints. Different speakers make a huge difference with this amp in both loudness and overall character. I'm not sure how well the stock 1x10 cab is as I only played it for a few minutes in the store with that one and have plenty of various speakers and cabs at home to play around with.
Overall, I thought of a huge list of reasons not to buy it with various small homebrew amps and vintage practice amps at my disposal, but now that I did, it has surpassed my expectations.
Love the clarity, the low volume tube breakup, simplicity of just a volume knob and on switch, and the 4-8-16 ohm jacks. It also seems well built with the plywood enclosure and the insides look decent as well (I will probably only upgrade the signal caps in this one for now.) Another beauty, it only uses a couple of 12AX7's, so I should be able to use this amp without guilt forever as that will probably be the last tube ever to go out of production.
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Tube = Glorious
Posted by KGost23 from MI on Sep 3, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Hobbyest
Reviewer's Play Style: Rock, Metal, Blues
This is my first tube amp. I upgraded from an Orange Crush 30r solid state and this thing blows it away. I chose to go with a <1 watt amp because i live in an apartment with 4 other people at school and anything more wouldn't go over too well with the masses. Don't let the low wattage fool you though. This thing is amazingly loud for bedroom practice. I absolutely love my Killer Ant and would replace it with another if anything ever happened to it. At this price range there isn't anything that comes close.
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Overdue Underdone
Posted by Satchmoeddie from Phoenix Arizona on Aug 10, 2009
Experience w/product: I have used it
Reviewer's Background: 37 years playing
Reviewer's Play Style: Classic rock & country styles to jazz
This is a nice 1 watt amp that I would like to have seen with a small attempt at a tone stack, but the multi yap impedance out is a nice feature. I got too repair one, and like some of the features, but am not crazy about others. DC to the filaments is hard on the filaments, and leads to premature failure. The PC board issue is not a critical an issue when the tubes are as small as these, and the use of 2 oz. copper traces is a nice standard to keep. It is cheaper than doing a special order for 4 oz. copper, and cheaper than turret board hand wired flying leads or point to point, I do think point to point would have been very feasible in this amp, but it is much harder to design. When you put DC power to the filaments a main design issue for point to point has been overcome. I like the 1 watt output, but have a few reservations. I have a small collection of old Valcos, Silvertone Dannos etc, and they are all at least 5 watts. I have mad 1 watt amps, and all are point to point affairs with maybe 6 flying leads, and no PC board or terminal board of any kind. This does have a nice sound, but I think it could have been nicer. I was more reluctant to give it back to the customer than some amps I get in for repairs though.
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Their Swarming from the HILL
Posted by Formic acid man from Ohio on Jun 20, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Hobby
Reviewer's Play Style: Blues & Rock,
Imagine a hundred tones swarming from the ant hill as you plug in. Most studio player use the small department store amps from the 60's. You do not need 100 watts with a PA system. But you do need the tactile electro connection between the fingers and strings. And that's were this little ants Mandables come in. Sorry, its made in China, because the major brands want us to believe large expensive amps sound better. But this tube amp has only a volume knob and on and off switch. No stand by, ants are constantly working anyway. No carry handle, because ants pick everything up with their strong manables. It has 4, 8, and 16 ohm outputs. And it works very well with pedals.
I actually set the volume to 1, plug in an inepensive Danelectro Transparent Overdrive, Fab Echo, Cool Cat Fuzz and a Memory Man then step on the Ant Hill. The harmonic swarm quickly starts crawling up your pant leg. But don't worry, they don't carry you back into the nest and pick your bones. This amp can simulate the tone of Eddie to Billy Gibbons and anything inbetween its musical mandibles. It can saturate and break up at lower volumes than the Little Giant. I'm lookin at this little black square ant headed amp right now, and after a couple drops of honey, I can imagine this little amp with two antenae on top and some pincers under the toggle and chicken head knob.
With this in the picnic basket, you can march along with any insect, from blues, to country, to rock, to the sounds of a giant killer ant picking up a garbage truck and crunching it like a soda pop can between its pincers. It works well with a twelve inch speaker, and it dominates digital and transistor amplification. Go ahead and cover yourself with honey, then step on the ant mound and be prepared to get carried away into those dirty little tunnels deep underground. Who knows, maybe you'll meat the Queen.
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