“When you want the sound and versatility of a big amp but don’t want to deal with more volume than you need”: Blackstar HT Series MK III HT-1R, HT-5R and HT-20RH review

A blackstar HT20RH MK III head on a studio desk.

There will always be a time and a place for big, powerful 100-watt tube amps, but for a vast majority of guitarists today a smaller amp is much more practical for everyday recording, practice and performance applications (in other words pretty much always unless you’re playing at the Megadome Super Stadium, and even then most can do just fine by mic'ing a smaller amp through the PA).

For many years now, the Blackstar HT Series has offered guitarists a compelling variety of small guitar amps of various sizes that are packed with cool features and a plethora of useful tones.