M5 Hotblack | Handwired Dual Channel Tube Guitar Amplifier

A Tribute to Hotblack Desiato and Disaster Area
The M5 "Hotblack” might just be the loudest 5 W amplifier in the universe; something it shares in common with Disaster Area, the loudest plutonium rock band in the universe. Once upon a time, bands needed huge 100 W guitar rigs to play venues, but these days a 5-15W amplifier miked through a 10,000 W front of house makes perfect sense. The great thing is that 5–15 W is all you need to create the perfect tone at a reasonable volume.
 
For the M5 we chose valve amplification in a compact head formfactor weighing in at just 9.1 kg. There are two channels. The clean channel (blue LED) is voiced to deliver a beautifully balanced chimey sound with a lot of headroom and percussive attack. The drive channel (red LED) is voiced to deliver overdriven tones ranging from silky smooth and compressed to punchy edge of breakup crunch. The master section provides reverb, brilliance (high frequency cut) and master volume controls. The M5's signature tones are produced with all controls sent to 12 o’clock and the master volume dimed.
 
The effects loop provides buffered FX send and return points via ¼” phone connectors. The send buffer amplifier has a very low output impedance and will drive long leads without significant loss of clarity. The effects loop is ideal for modulation effects such reverb, delay, chorus etc. that do not provide much signal boost that could cause the master stage to clip.
 
Because the M5 is a head only configuration, it can be paired with many cabinets and supports 16, 8 and 4 Ohm speakers. It has been matched and tested with Black & White cabinets and is known to produce excellent results with:
SC210GB            2 x 10” Celestion Greenback closed cabinet – reference loudness
SC112BL             1 x 12” Celestion Blue open back compact cabinet - loud
SC210RC            2 x 10” Eminence Red Coat closed cabinet – very loud
Don’t think that because the M5 is a 5W amplifier that it isn’t loud. Paired with a SC210RC cabinet, its is VERY LOUD. Loud is good but the tone is so true and pure that even standing right in front and up close is pleasurable, and in no way stressful. The M5 Hotblack is your perfect partner for making beautiful music with.
 
Design Philosophy
The Black & White Amplification M5 Hotblack, is the result of 12 years of painstaking research and development. When we wrote the brief for this amplifier, we threw away the rule book. No more voodoo, no more tethers to the old testament written in the 1950s. If something could be done better, we found a way to do it.
 
We challenged the status quo beginning with the user experience:
Why do you need more than one input jack?
If there is only one input jack, how do you deal with low output single coil pickups and hot humbuckers?
If there is more than one channel, how do you present the controls so that it is instantly obvious how they are related?
How do you enable channel switching from multiple sources and have a clear way to indicate the active channel?
Why have the power and standby switches on the front panel taking up valuable space when they are not used to adjust the tone?
 
The solutions we engineered to answer these questions are embodied in the DNA of the M5. Instead of a built in FET preamp to boost low output pickups, we designed the Pandora pedal so that it is perfectly matched to the M5's input stage, allowing instrument gain to be boosted or cut and the EQ normalized. All the controls on the faceplate are presented in a single line and grouped via features milled 1mm into the solid aluminium billet - elegant and simple. The label for each control is laser etched into the anodised surface above it - will never fade and can be seen when looking down from above. The currently active channel is indicated via a coloured LED situated below each control group - can be instantly recognised from a distance and always shows the truth no matter the switching source.
 
Specifications
Preamp
V1: ECC83S JJ Elec, V2: 12AX7 Tungsol
Power Amplifier
V3: EL84 Tungsol, stabilized fixed bias, pure Class-A Single Ended Triode configuration, bias current 45 mA
Power Supply
Tube supplies: silicon diodes, L/C PI filter 
Op amp and digital supplies: linear regulators
Line Amplifiers
Reverb and FX loop: TL072 JFET input op amps
Output Transformer
8W single-ended, air gapped EI, laminated 29M6 steel core
Power Output
Nominally 5 Watts RMS, 8 Watts RMS overdriven
Speaker Output
Switchable 16, 8 and 4 Ohms
 
Features
Blue Channel (clean)
Volume, bass, mid, treble, bright (switch), mid (switch)
Red Channel (drive)
Gain, awesome (see below), volume
Master Section
Reverb, brilliance (cut), master volume
Reverb Unit
Digital reverb unit simulating a long decay spring reverb tank
Effects Loop
Buffered FX send and return, nominal level 100 mV peak
Channel Switching
Front panel: momentary action push button
Foot switch: momentary action push button
MIDI: Program Change (PC) message on channel 11, PC code 127
Awesome Control
The Awesome control takes you from silky smooth sustaining mids to razor sharp highs that will cut through any mix. It can focus all the energy into a narrow band of frequencies that will make your guitar sing