Blackstar HT Club 40 MkII Black and Blue

HT Club 40 MkII Black & Blue
Style. Quality. And above all, Tone. HT Club 40 MkII Black & Blue comes equipped with RCA-style remakes of Blackplate 6L6 power valves, widely considered the holy grail of vacuum tubes ever since the golden age of tube manufacturing. Add to this the revered Celestion Vintage 30 speaker making this amp a true living classic.

Equipped with 2 channels and 4 footswitchable voices the HT Club 40 MkII is the ideal gigging valve amp for club sized venues.

In a unique combination of baby blue, tan and cream aesthetics, an iconic Celestion Vintage 30 and at the heart of it all, RCA-style remakes of Blackplate 6L6 power valves, the HT Club 40 MkII Black and Blue Edition is truly a living classic.

TAD have recreated the highly-regarded vintage Blackplate RCA 6L6GC valves, resulting in a deeper bass response and smooth top end. These exclusive 6L6GC-STR valves along with the true icon of amplifier speakers, the Celestion Vintage 30, will bring vintage quality and tone to the modern guitarist.

Ground-breaking new clean channel
After more than 3 years of intensive R&D and market research, HT Venue MKII flaunts its new ground-breaking clean channel. Housing two unique voices, one voice based upon classic American circuits and the second based on a timeless British tone.

Professional USB recording output
The simplest way to get valve character and tone in your recordings. USB connection on the HT Venue MKII allows for sending up to 4 channels of guitar signal, dry, preamp out and stereo emulated out into your DAW. Two further outputs on the rear, a stereo jack socket and balanced XLR, also allow the speaker emulated signals to be connected to external devices, perfect for practicing or live usage.

Richer more responsive overdrives
Outputting two lavish, punchy and reactive voices on its Overdrive channels, the high gain voices encapsulate a tight, focused tone borrowing from its predecessor. These two voicings help to supply the player with everything they need from an overdrive channel, creating a broad and diverse palette of overdrive tones.

What’s new? - cleans
The MKII’s clean channel offers two unique voices for the ultimate clean tone quality and flexibility. One based on classic American circuits and the second based on a classic British tone. The Voice switch reconfigures the preamp voicing, EQ and valve gain structure, as well as the power amplifier damping. This produces a bright, tight and clean but solid bass response for the American tone and a highly responsive ‘chime’ with a looser bottom for the British tone that can be pushed into the midrange when driven hard. All clean channels now include Bass, Treble and a Voice switch.

What’s new? - overdrives
Richer, Fuller and more responsive, HT Venue MKII boasts two voices on its Overdrive channels with high gain voices being tight and focused, drawing on the original award-winning HT Venue Series. These two voices provide a broad palette of overdriven tones. When switching between channels, the amplifier will recall the specific Voice setting last used on that channel. The 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. This is a result of unique preamplifier and power amplifier shaping techniques, which also benefit the player in the way the overdrives clean up beautifully as the guitar volume is reduced. Even at the most extreme settings, the Overdrive voices remain natural sounding.

What’s new? - pro features
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 at the other, a UK type response. Importantly, in between the two extremes lie an infinite number of alternative tone choices that would be otherwise unavailable. The amplifier features naturally sounding digital reverb that can be adjusted via the Reverb control on the front panel or turned on and off via the optional 5-way footcontroller. A switch on the rear panel selects between ‘Dark’ and ‘Light’. The Dark setting is based on a room reverb and the Light setting is based on a plate reverb.

Power reduction
A switchable power reduction circuit has been included with the HT Venue MkII models giving reliable, transparent attenuation down to 10 percent of the amp’s rated power. This means that the full tonal depth of the EL34 power stage can be enjoyed at any volume, retaining the distinctive sound of power valves working hard, making the HT Venue MkII perfect for any live or recording situation.

Footswitch flexibility
All modes are footswitchable, resulting in the widest possible selection of stage accessible valve tones and footswitchable boost on all channels. The supplied 2-way footswitch enables the selection of the Clean and Overdrive channels, and the two voices on each Channel. The optional 5-way footcontroller enables instant access to all channels and voices, plus the global boost function and Reverb switching for maximum control.

Compact & portable
All the HT Venue MkII products have been reengineered to make them more compact and portable with the regular gigging guitarist in mind.

Key details:

• 40 Watt valve combo
• 2 x ECC83 and 2 x Blackplate 6L6GC-STR valves
• 2x footswitchable channels (footswitch included)
• 2x footswitchable voices
• Boutique clean channel with expanded tone controls
• High gain overdrive channel
• Patented Infinite Shape Feature (ISF)
• Power Reduction down to 10% of full Wattage
• Digital Reverb with Dark/Light switch
• Speaker Emulated output with 1×12/4×12 voicing
• Effects loop with effects level switch
• USB output for recording
• 1×12″ Celestion Vintage 30 speaker
• Boutique cosmetic with baby blue tolex, tan basketweave fret and a special edition plaque