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Average of 14 User Ratings
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cheapest route to tube sound
Posted by James Morton from Virginia on Nov 26, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: hobbyist
Reviewer's Play Style: metal
My quest ends here for the best way to record heavy rhythm guitars quietly and cheaply. My setup: HT Dual -> audio interface -> convolver plug-in loaded with impulse response -> parametric EQ. This gives me the huge sound of miked tube amp, all from a little metal box. The tube in this thing is no gimmick; it's where all the distortion comes from. Real tube distortion has this special throaty, vibratory, resonating quality that really adds power to your power chords. Additional Info: 1) sounds really good through the clean channel of my Roland Cube, 2) Channel 1 on crunch with gain at 90% gives a very articulate distorted sound that works for technical/prog metal though unforgiving to sloppy playing, 3)Channel 2 with gain at 50% gives a stronger but looser bottom, good for leads and more distorted rhythms, 4) Channel 1 on clean has some tube compression to it and breaks up nicely at higher gain. 5) I swapped the tube for a Tung Sol, a bit smoother distortion, but not absolutely necessary since the original Sovtek was already decent sounding. Recommendation: buy this if your amp does not have satisfactory distortion, or if you want a real tube alternative to a pod for direct recording. One of the best purchases I have made.
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THE PEDAL
Posted by Emberv3 from Allentown PA on Sep 13, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Hobbyist
Reviewer's Play Style: Rock
The HT-DUAL is "THE" Distortion pedal to own. I have no complaints after purchasing it. I have been searching for a pedal to replace my mxr m-151 doubleshot which I have been using for about 6 years now, but am growing sick of the tone of it. The biggest issue for replacing it was finding something that matched the versatility of it, and the HT-DUAL more than fits the bill. I usually use the first channel with pretty high gain to be a rhythm distortion, and then my second channel with max gain is my lead channel. Days of sustain and beautiful harmonics with a smooth tone that can be adjusted to virtually any style. I love this pedal and it is now my goto pedal for any application.
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Best Distortion Pedal I've Tried So Far!
Posted by Simon from Toronto, Ontario on Sep 8, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Hobbyist
Reviewer's Play Style: Rock
Great sounding pedal. See other reviews for the Pros and Cons. I just wanna say last time I went to a rehearsal room and plug it into a crappy Yorkville multi-purpose amplifier, and my guitar sound beat my bandmates' JCM and Peavy tube amps EASILY. It's funny to see them dropping their jaws. When I bought my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with extension cab in the sound was PHENOMENAL. Well to be honest I think my BBE Sonic Stomp helped too. I set Ch.1 at slight gain, sorta like a clean boost, while Ch.2 to almost full gain distortion. At around the same price you won't find any better deal. Tried Vox Bulldog too - The HT Dual beats it EASY. BUY.
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big box = big tone
Posted by Stratoman from dallas on Jun 23, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: hobbyist, Active Musician
Reviewer's Play Style: Rock, Blues
This distortion box has more than delivered for me. I tried it out and fell in love with it. Some pros about it are, sounds great, two channels, tube driven, and the ISF feature. Cons, uses its own power supply, its big, and has a buffered output. All in all a very nice pedal it can take you from a Fender Twin to a JCM 800 if thats not versatility at its finest I don't know what is!
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Blackstar HT Dual Review
Posted by Albatross from Milwaukee on Jun 23, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Active Musician
Reviewer's Play Style: Rock, Pop, Blues
The only negative I've found with this pedal is that the knobs seem kind of cheap, especially the dual knobs where if you turn one, the other will turn also. If they improve the quality of the knobs, this would get a perfect rating from me.
The sound quality is unbeatable from any similar pedal I've heard. I used to have a tube screamer but this pedal beats it easily. The amp emulator allows you to plug the pedal right into your PA board and disregard ever using an amp again. Of course you can also use it in conjunction with an amp also. Both channels get pretty dirty, which is good. I was afraid the lesser of the channels (channel 1) wouldn't give me enough distortion, but it's great. I set Ch 1 at a lower volume than ch 2, and use ch2 for solos. You can get a great variety of tones from this pedal. Very fun to play around with! I strongly recommend this pedal.
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