When an amplifier comes with a warning that says Warning: Highest gain of all time, I think to myself “I like to live dangerously.” I also remind myself at times like these that I’m looking for an amplifier head that will suit my guitar playing needs. Luckily, the bulk of my guitar playing is heavy metal riffage. I need the highest gain of all time. Silverblade Hellhound 20 warning message … Challenge accepted.
20 watts is of course pretty loud for home playing use. Luckily this amplifier also rolls back to 10 watts. That’s loud for home, but the good kind of loud. Home metal loud. So far, I’m still impressed. Time to check the features to see if I remain impressed.
- 20 watts (switchable to 10 watts)
- Clean and distorted channels
- 2 x ECC83 preamp tubes
- 2 x EL84 powertubes
- 4, 8 and 16 ohm speaker outputs
- Bass, Middle, Treble knobs
- Presence knob
- Individual volume knobs for the two channels
- Gain knob for the distorted channel
- Two colour options (black/red or blue/white)
According to the PDF from the official website, this head was made in Hell. Good to know. Checking out the official imagery, there is also an effect loop. Handy.
Of course, looks aren’t everything (I know). Luckily the Interweb has come through as usual and provided us with audio and video examples. The official Hellhound 20 website has them both. A video and audio samples. They all sound good to me. There is also this YouTube video that takes you through quite a few different tone variations using the Hellhound 20. So far I remain impressed. I’m sure I’d be more impressed though if I could only hear an example that was being recorded through a miked amp.
Luckily I can (so you now can too). The sound file that really did it for me was this 41 second teaser video. That’s a brutal metal tone. Silverblade Hellhound 20 … Seriously considering this amplifier.
Disclaimer: I’ve not played through this head. I have not experienced the sound or tone of this head other than through video. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.
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