 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential, my name is Lee Fuge and I'm here with MGRmusic.com and today we're going to be looking at the difference between channel volume and master volume on your Blackstar amp. The amp I'm using for this video today is the HT20 Mark II. This is a dual channel amp and each of the channels has its own channel volume that we can play with in conjunction with the master volume. The amp is mic'd with a Luit Audio LCT440 condenser mic and I'm playing my Schergold Provocator SP01 straight into the amplifier. So if you own a Blackstar product with multiple volumes on there you may be confused as to what they do but each one does have a specific purpose. So let's take a look at the top panel of the HT20 Mark II. So on the top panel of the amp I have the clean and overdrive channels. Each of the channels has its own volume control as well as the amp itself having a master volume control. Now each of these volumes has a very specific purpose. They each control a different part of the amp's overall tone. The channel volume controls the preamp so this is the preamp tubes which give the amp its specific tone. The master volume controls the power amp volume. We can get different ranges of overdrive and distortion by manipulating these volumes in different ways. So let's start off looking at the power amp volume. So I've actually got the master set to 10 here. I'm actually switched down to 2 watt mode but this works exactly the same on 20 watt mode. So the master volume is up at 10. The ISF is in the British side but my preamp volume is very very low. Now with the gain and the volume this low you'd probably expect quite a clean sound but here's how that sounds. Now if I reverse this so I bring the master volume all the way down here but I push the preamp volume up to 10 I'm still going to get distortion but it's going to sound different. The biggest difference between these two things isn't always in what you can hear but it's about how the amp feels. With the master volume pushed all the way up but the preamp volume all the way down I actually get a much smoother overdrive sound. It's a lot spongier to the feel so when I play it doesn't necessarily feel as tight but this is really great for blues and classic rock. But when I've got the preamp volume pushed and the master volume down I'm getting more preamp distortion. This distortion is a lot tighter and sharper. This is perfect for when you play higher gain styles of music like heavy rock or metal. Each type of distortion both preamp and power amp both react differently to the dynamics too. So I've still got this set up with the preamp pushed full and the master volume down so I'm going to turn this up full again and then I'm going to roll off the volume just slightly to see how this cleans up and now I'm going to do the same thing with the power amp volume so first of all I'm going to turn the channel volume right back down push the master volume way up here so it sounds on full and then I'll roll back. So to me the power amp distortion actually cleans up a little nicer as well. I personally feel that's a little more responsive to dynamics but it all depends what you're going for with your tone. The power amp distortion is great if you're playing classic rock and blues. The great thing about being able to run the master on 10 but keep the amp at a tame volume with the channel volume is that I can get these big classic rock tones at a room volume. Now if I didn't have that preamp volume the only way I would get this power amp distortion is to turn the amp up full. Now like I said I've got the amp down in the 2 watt mode but if I didn't have the attenuator as well this would be a 20 watt amp playing pretty loud to get the same level of overdrive. Not the most ideal thing for playing at home but because I have the channel volume it allows me to really keep that preamp volume in check while I get full saturation from the power tubes. If we combine the channel and master volumes with the ISF feature we can dial in a huge range of tones. So let's start with a very open classic rock and a British sound. That's what I've already got dialed in so I've got the master up on full, the ISF on the British side and a very low gain low channel volume. I've boosted the mids a little bit because that's pretty typical of a British style amp. So this is a great classic rock and blues tone. If I want a slightly higher gain really tight British amp sound I would bring the master volume back down push that preamp volume and I could also give the gain a little kick as well. If you want to dial in more of an American sound we can move the ISF all the way to the right position. I'm just going to scoop the mids a little bit as well because that's slightly more typical of an American style amp and we'll keep the preamp distortion high and the master volume low. If I now want to dial in a looser, spongier American style tone I can do exactly the same principle. So I'm going to bring the channel volume all the way down just to below 2 I'm going to push the master all the way up. I'm going to keep the gain at about 2 as well I don't want too much drive for this. This also looks great with single coils so I'm going to engage the coil split on this guitar and flip to the middle position. So just by manipulating these different volume controls and the way they interact with each other I've been able to get a bunch of different tones there and I haven't actually touched the EQ much only just scoop the mids slightly for a slightly more American tone. This also looks great if I want to dial in a big heavy American rock tone. I'm going to keep everything the same but I'm going to bring my master volume down and I'm going to go for the preamp distortion this time so my channel volume is all the way up and I'm going to set my gain to about half way. This should give me a big heavy American rock tone. So there you go that is the main difference between preamp and power amp volume otherwise known as channel and master volume on your Blackstar amps. Like I said you can dial in a bunch of tones from sort of tight really heavy responsive tones to smooth and spongy classic rock and blues tones just by manipulating these volumes. Both react differently with different guitars. I personally think the power amp distortion reacts great with dynamics. So if you go from hard to soft playing and you roll the volume a lot power amp distortion is a great way to go. If you want a heavy tight sound that preamp distortion is going to be your best friend. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you've enjoyed this video. Please let us know down below in the comments what you thought and if there are any features on your Blackstar amps you'd like us to talk about in future videos please let us know. Don't forget to check out Blackstar Amplification on YouTube for more free videos just like this one where we explore a bunch of different concepts all using your Blackstar amps. And if you're looking for a guitar teacher in your local area please check out MGRmusic.com. It's a network of great teachers all over the UK waiting to help you guys unlock your full potential. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you soon.