Blackstar HT Venue Club 50H MKIII Guitar Amplifier Head

Brand new from Blackstar is the HT Club50 MKIII head, an all-tube powerhouse leaning on the successes of the company’s HT line of amplifiers.

The HT Club 50 MKIII Head takes the platform of the HT Club 40 MKIII Combo and presents it in a compact 50w head format. Especially at its price point, the Blackstar HT is one of the only amplifiers of its kind to offer classic British and American style tones in one package, from boutique-style cleans to super saturated leads.

The devil is in the details for the MKIII series. Blackstar gave these amps a fresh cosmetic overhaul, with a metal plate logo replacing the more fragile plastic one, high-quality mini-toggle switches replacing the push button mode selector switches of the MKII series, and the switch to sleek chicken-head knobs throughout the front panel.

The control panel should look familiar to HT series users, starting with a master volume and two-mode reverb, three band EQ and Blackstar’s patented ISF tone shaping feature for the  dual-voice overdrive channel, overdrive volume and gain, and dual-voice clean channel with independent treble and bass controls. Output power of the HT Club 50 MK III can be scaled from full 50w to a manageable 5w.

Where the HT Club MKIII shines is on the back panel. Blackstar has updated the HT’s USB Audio out to modern standard USB-C. This feature makes digital recording with an all-tube amp simpler than ever by running USB-C out into your computer or audio interface.

Possibly the biggest feature of the HT MK III range is Blackstar’s CabRig output. This is a great expansion on the previous series’ emulated output feature, which only allowed the choice of a 1x12 or 4x12 style speaker simulation. The CabRig DSP speaker simulation, as featured in Blackstar’s immensely popular Amped series of floorboard amplifiers, allows the user to select from hundreds of possible cabinet, speaker, microphone and placement options via Blackstar’s free software and store three presets to the amplifier for easy recall.

For the player looking for a feature packed and highly adaptable amplifier with the tone and familiarity of an all-tube package, the Blackstar HT Club 50 MK III is an excellent choice. Plug into a Blackstar and shape your tone like never before!