The follow up to Blackstar’s popular HT-5RH has arrived in the form of the aptly named HT-5RH MkII. The second version of this amp head has a button that can instantly reduce the power from 5 watts to 0.5 watts. Of course, it comes with the standard clean and overdrive channels, the first of which offers the choice between a full British sound or a brighter, more pointed American one. The overdrive channel can be switched from a lively British crunch, to a sharper, resonant, high-gain American sound. The ISF control knob is there, as ever, to allow you to tweak the overall tone according to your taste.

HT-5RH MkII: add atmosphere with reverb or your own effects

If you prefer a little extra atmosphere with your dry sound, Blackstar have generously provided a built-in reverb. There's also a mono effects loop for adding external effects and as you'd expect the HT-5RH MkII works perfectly with the HT MkII cabinets although you can also connect any other 8 or 16-ohm cabinet. There's an MP3/line input for connecting an external sound source and you'll also find two mono outputs complete with speaker simulation. Finally, you can connect a set of headphones to the dedicated output and there's also an XLR output you can use to send the signal straight to a DI box or a small PA.