# Blackstar HT-100, or Peavey 6505+?



## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

First off, If youve seen my other posts, you can tell Im really indecisive with amps, so sorry if youre getting irritated with my posts Anyway, Im looking for a new amp to upgrade from my B52 AT100, and Ill probably be getting this next amp as a graduation gift. The amps Im looking at are the Blackstar HT-100, and the Peavey 6505+. They seem like they would fit my band pretty well (we play death metal in E and C standard) since I like to have a more British tone and our other guitarist likes a more American tone. Anyway, which do you think would be more worthy of death metal? I like the tone of the Blackstar, and I love that the highs arent harsh like the 6505+, but I know the gain structure of the 6505+ is a little better, but Id like to have a clean channel, and the Peavey doesnt have that. Another thing, this amp will be in my rig up until I get a job and save up enough for an ENGL SE670 EL34 (thats my DREAM amp) so resale value may be another thing for me to consider but I dont know the resale value for Blackstar AT ALL.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

Oh and also, Djentyness helps. I like to have a Djent tight tone, since we do some djent stuff, and the amp has to be very clear and articulate


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## CptColtFlash (Jan 13, 2012)

I know for a fact that the 6505 is about as tight and djenty as you can get, without spending your life savings of course haha, but the blackstar is a bit more vintage and british sounding. Im not sure how tight you could get the gain channel on em either. But the cleans are just so damn beautiful! Sounds like a good old fashioned dilemma my friend.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

CptColtFlash said:


> I know for a fact that the 6505 is about as tight and djenty as you can get, without spending your life savings of course haha, but the blackstar is a bit more vintage and british sounding. Im not sure how tight you could get the gain channel on em either. But the cleans are just so damn beautiful! Sounds like a good old fashioned dilemma my friend.


 
It really is a dilemma Its not like I really NEED the clean channel because we dont ever use cleans. But it would be nice to have them. And I havent heard a super tight tone out of the Blackstar. It seems Id need an EQ pedal along with the Boost to really tighten it up...which means more tap dancing


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## ozzman619 (Jan 13, 2012)

if you like more of the british tone, why not go with the 6534+, isnt it like the 6505's british brother


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## Key_Maker (Jan 13, 2012)

ozzman619 said:


> if you like more of the british tone, why not go with the 6534+, isnt it like the 6505's british brother



This!

I haven't tried it but i just can think the awesome tones you can get from it


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

ozzman619 said:


> if you like more of the british tone, why not go with the 6534+, isnt it like the 6505's british brother


 
It is, but its just Im trying to not spend so much, and finding a used 6534+ Is pretty hard. When I do find them used, theyre generally in the $900 range, and $500-$750 would be the preference


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

Also, my cab is an Avatar 412 with Eminence legends, so I doubt Ill really be pulling out the marshall tone out of the Blackstar with those speakers


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## Angus Clark (Jan 13, 2012)

Haha, I've been following your VHT thread, and just noticed this one pop up after you mentioned that you were looking a Blackstar.

Yesterday I tried out the HT-20, preferred it to the 6505+ I tried a while ago. I thought tonally it wasn't that dissimilar to Fryette/VHTs; dry and got some grit to them. Boosted it sounded awesome, really chunky and tight, without fizz - Djenty, if you will 

The HT-100 would be the same with a ton more features and wattage (headroom) - So my vote goes to Blackstar.


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## ExousRulez (Jan 13, 2012)

incinerated_guitar said:


> Oh and also, Djentyness helps. I like to have a Djent tight tone, since we do some djent stuff, and the amp has to be very clear and articulate



Wow so you went from from death metal to djent? You have made A LOT of threads on this subject, just go to the store and buy something you like! 

I have a blackstar HT and I would not recommend it for "djent" death metal or any extreme form of metal. Its basically a marshall with a bit more gain, the way I would describe it is, SHITLOAD of gain but the voicing is not aggressive and is loose and muddy without a tube screamer. I have my od9+ set on pretty extreme settings combined with a noise gate and im using an emg 81 which is basically the tightest and clearest high gain pickup out there.

Before you said you played a triple xxx then you were asking if it was a low mid or high mid voicing, normally if you play an amp you that already. check out my post in this thread and you will get an idea of my current opinion on the peavey http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/183415-xxx-users.html


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## ExousRulez (Jan 13, 2012)

CptColtFlash said:


> I know for a fact that the 6505 is about as tight and djenty as you can get, without spending your life savings of course haha, but the blackstar is a bit more vintage and british sounding. Im not sure how tight you could get the gain channel on em either. But the cleans are just so damn beautiful! Sounds like a good old fashioned dilemma my friend.


 6505 tight? No fucking way, one of the most loose amps on the market, even looser than a rectifier once you hear behind the fizz.

Oh and the blackstars cleans are awfully muddy and buzz with my neck pickup even with the bass turned all the way down and treble all the way up.


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## djinn314 (Jan 13, 2012)

While I like the 6505 series, I would take a look at Egnater's stuff. It might be a little bit more but at least you get a 6 button foot switch with mid range boosts for both channels?. I've never heard a Blackstar other than the Series-1, and those are nice friggin amps. But a man can dream eh?


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## Angus Clark (Jan 13, 2012)

ExousRulez said:


> I have a blackstar HT and I would not recommend it for "djent" death metal or any extreme form of metal. Its basically a marshall with a bit more gain, the way I would describe it is, SHITLOAD of gain but the voicing is not aggressive and is loose and muddy without a tube screamer. I have my od9+ set on pretty extreme settings combined with a noise gate and im using an emg 81 which is basically the tightest and clearest high gain pickup out there.



Really? Which one do you have and what are your settings? It wasn't perfect by any means but the HT-20 I tried sounded far better to my ears than you describe. It's only got the one OD channel so it don't know which channel/voicing it would be on the higher wattage ones but unboosted it gave a nice crunchy rock tone (Marshally), but boosted, with gain, bass and treble set fairly low and mids almost cranked and the ISF almost fully British, I thought it sounded pretty solid. I was using a Schecter Hellraiser C-7, and it handled the low A very well I thought. One thing that surprised me though was that even though I was going through a V30 loaded cab, I didn't detect any high mid spike. I guess through Eminence Legend loaded cab the amp could end up sounding like a mud pile.


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## asher (Jan 13, 2012)

I've got both a 6505+ (here at school, and gigs) and a HT-5R combo at home, so I might be able to help some.

I really love the way the 6505+ feels on gain. I could tweak around the sound - I'm not married to the voicing that much, I do like it - but something about how it responds is fantastic. As far as how it applies to you, there is a significant amount of tweaking and harshness-taming that you can do with a 10-band EQ pedal in the loop working on either the lead or the clean channel. The cleans certainly leave some to be desired, but I've got my EQ pedal set to smooth those out, and it's certainly workable as that's my main gigging channel right now. The voice of the crunch boost on the Rhythm channel is also definitely something you might want to play with instead of the lead.

As far as my HT5R, I'm pretty fond of the ISF knob being on the brit side. It sounds pretty great for upper register stuff. However, my experience with both 6 and 7 is that the farther to the Brit side you turn that knob the looser the bottom end starts to feel. For Estd it's still probably fine, I don't really know about C. Might still work fine. I much prefer the American side for low riffing on the 7 side, but the top end gets a little harsh. This is also another great candidate for an EQ pedal to tweak the gain sound, and do keep in mind I'm running this through the stock 12" combo speaker, which I'm sure is doing the sharpness no favors.

the cleans on the HT5R are a strong point IMO, especially when you realize it's a low power entry level tube combo that's meant to be versatile. They can get fairly nice and warm and fat and also rather shimmery, the reverb sounds fine, and despite only having a volume and the shape knob you can find a very usable tone easily. Is occasionally a bit honky sounding though.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

ExousRulez said:


> Wow so you went from from death metal to djent? You have made A LOT of threads on this subject, just go to the store and buy something you like!
> 
> I have a blackstar HT and I would not recommend it for "djent" death metal or any extreme form of metal. Its basically a marshall with a bit more gain, the way I would describe it is, SHITLOAD of gain but the voicing is not aggressive and is loose and muddy without a tube screamer. I have my od9+ set on pretty extreme settings combined with a noise gate and im using an emg 81 which is basically the tightest and clearest high gain pickup out there.
> 
> Before you said you played a triple xxx then you were asking if it was a low mid or high mid voicing, normally if you play an amp you that already. check out my post in this thread and you will get an idea of my current opinion on the peavey http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/183415-xxx-users.html


 
Yes, I went from death metal to Djent. We're a death metal band that has djent sections in a few of our songs, but I always EQ an amp to be as tight and mid range punchy (or djenty) as I can get it with it still sounding full during big open notes, got a problem with the description? Deal with it. Basically, I set my amp up to have the same characteristics as Misha Mansoor does. Big, but tight. And with the XXX, I played it, got a good tone, but that was BEFORE I really knew what I was doing, so I didnt really have the perspective I do now, and I didnt mess with it much since it was during a break at practice.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

asher said:


> I've got both a 6505+ (here at school, and gigs) and a HT-5R combo at home, so I might be able to help some.
> 
> I really love the way the 6505+ feels on gain. I could tweak around the sound - I'm not married to the voicing that much, I do like it - but something about how it responds is fantastic. As far as how it applies to you, there is a significant amount of tweaking and harshness-taming that you can do with a 10-band EQ pedal in the loop working on either the lead or the clean channel. The cleans certainly leave some to be desired, but I've got my EQ pedal set to smooth those out, and it's certainly workable as that's my main gigging channel right now. The voice of the crunch boost on the Rhythm channel is also definitely something you might want to play with instead of the lead.
> 
> ...


 
The crunch channel on the 6505+ is something that I absolutely love. Every time I jam on one I dont want to stop haha. But the reason for me bringing up the Blackstar is ive heard them sound DECENT, and I havent gone down to the local guitar shop that stocks them to jam because the people there are dicks Id like to play one, but its not too often I get the opportunity. I would go to that shop, but the manager there has a problem with me and my band because he was our worst sound engineer weve ever had at a show and we got pissed off at him for it, so Its faily hard to work a deal out because, even though Im well known and all the employees like me, the manager wont allow them to take a good deal off the euipment for me, but still allows it for our drummer They want $1250 for an HT100, which is outrageous in my opinion, so I dont even bother with going there and looking at hit haha


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

ExousRulez said:


> 6505 tight? No fucking way, one of the most loose amps on the market, even looser than a rectifier once you hear behind the fizz.
> 
> Oh and the blackstars cleans are awfully muddy and buzz with my neck pickup even with the bass turned all the way down and treble all the way up.


 
If youre calling the 6505 looser than the rectumfriers than you really need to have your ears checked, or learn to eq. I have a B52 AT100, which is just as tight as the dual rects, and the 6505 is MUCH tighter.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

Angus Clark said:


> Haha, I've been following your VHT thread, and just noticed this one pop up after you mentioned that you were looking a Blackstar.
> 
> Yesterday I tried out the HT-20, preferred it to the 6505+ I tried a while ago. I thought tonally it wasn't that dissimilar to Fryette/VHTs; dry and got some grit to them. Boosted it sounded awesome, really chunky and tight, without fizz - Djenty, if you will
> 
> The HT-100 would be the same with a ton more features and wattage (headroom) - So my vote goes to Blackstar.


 
Well I definetely need to jam on the Blackstar. I loved the sound of the 6505+ but I still havent played the blackstar, so I dont know the differences yet


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## ExousRulez (Jan 13, 2012)

incinerated_guitar said:


> Yes, I went from death metal to Djent. We're a death metal band that has djent sections in a few of our songs, but I always EQ an amp to be as tight and mid range punchy (or djenty) as I can get it with it still sounding full during big open notes, got a problem with the description? Deal with it. Basically, I set my amp up to have the same characteristics as Misha Mansoor does. Big, but tight. And with the XXX, I played it, got a good tone, but that was BEFORE I really knew what I was doing, so I didnt really have the perspective I do now, and I didnt mess with it much since it was during a break at practice.



If you want djent you should get something line 6, and its impossible to go from a "death metal tone" to a "djent tone" in one song. My blackstar can be "djenty" although I don't use that technique. I could upload a video but my only recoding source would be my iphone which doesn't pick up the sound to good.

And on the blackstar, the ISF knob on the british side it is muddy and if I were playing in a band it would be inaudible.


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## ExousRulez (Jan 13, 2012)

incinerated_guitar said:


> If youre calling the 6505 looser than the rectumfriers than you really need to have your ears checked, or learn to eq. I have a B52 AT100, which is just as tight as the dual rects, and the 6505 is MUCH tighter.



Nope, you can eq a rectifier to be WAY tighter than a 6505. Do you think eddie van halen wanted a super tight djent death metal amp? And why do you think everyone uses a tube screamer to boost one?


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

ExousRulez said:


> If you want djent you should get something line 6, and its impossible to go from a "death metal tone" to a "djent tone" in one song. My blackstar can be "djenty" although I don't use that technique. I could upload a video but my only recoding source would be my iphone which doesn't pick up the sound to good.
> 
> And on the blackstar, the ISF knob on the british side it is muddy and if I were playing in a band it would be inaudible.


 
Death metal tone doesnt have to be super loose and scooped. Also, I wasnt saying I want to go from one tone to another, Im saying it has to be aggressive but tight and mid heavy. My B52 is tight thanks to a boost and eq pedal, and proper eq'ing, but still has a huge sound to it. Believe me, if you know how to really tweak tone, its COMPLETELY possible to have a djenty tight rig that sounds massive with open notes. Also, guitars make a huge difference in my sound as well. My Ibanez RG420EX (E standard) has passive V7/V8 pickups and it sounds super tight and has an old school tone to it, when I use my Schecter (C standard), which has blackouts in it, it gives me a huge tone thats very punchy and perfect for our more prog/djenty songs. I never have to adjust anything in my rig, because each guitar has its own very different tone to it that suits what we use those guitars/tunings for. And with Line 6, I fucking HATE anything digital. Im old school when it comes to what I want my rig to be. No modeling or digital shit. All tube has the best tone IMO


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

ExousRulez said:


> Nope, you can eq a rectifier to be WAY tighter than a 6505. Do you think eddie van halen wanted a super tight djent death metal amp? And why do you think everyone uses a tube screamer to boost one?


 
And why do you think that everyone uses a boost and eq pedal to tighten up a rect? Theyre loose. Ive NEVER heard a dual rect get as tight as a 6505. You should NEVER play a dual rect without a boost if youre trying to play de-tuned extreme metal. Its so muddy it makes me want to beat a nun and punt a baby.


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## ExousRulez (Jan 13, 2012)

incinerated_guitar said:


> Death metal tone doesnt have to be super loose and scooped. Also, I wasnt saying I want to go from one tone to another, Im saying it has to be aggressive but tight and mid heavy. My B52 is tight thanks to a boost and eq pedal, and proper eq'ing, but still has a huge sound to it. Believe me, if you know how to really tweak tone, its COMPLETELY possible to have a djenty tight rig that sounds massive with open notes. Also, guitars make a huge difference in my sound as well. My Ibanez RG420EX (E standard) has passive V7/V8 pickups and it sounds super tight and has an old school tone to it, when I use my Schecter (C standard), which has blackouts in it, it gives me a huge tone thats very punchy and perfect for our more prog/djenty songs. I never have to adjust anything in my rig, because each guitar has its own very different tone to it that suits what we use those guitars/tunings for. And with Line 6, I fucking HATE anything digital. Im old school when it comes to what I want my rig to be. No modeling or digital shit. All tube has the best tone IMO


 Mid heavy does not mean djent, djent is not just about cranking the mids either, its about how you pick or something. I can not see it possible combining music with detuned 7 strings with pop vocals and aggressive brutal metal with insane vocals. Regardless, the 6505 is a mid heavy amp for sure and it would work wonders for any type of metal really. My blackstar is fairly scooped even on the british side of the ISF knob which is suppose to be more marshally, on the american side its pretty dry yet high gain and not tight at all. I have never played a 6505 myself though so all I can give is the blackstar wasn't made as a metal amp but can work with certain things, tight playing/pickups/ts and if you need a clean channel the blackstar is better but I still think its muddy.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

ExousRulez said:


> Mid heavy does not mean djent, djent is not just about cranking the mids either, its about how you pick or something. I can not see it possible combining music with detuned 7 strings with pop vocals and aggressive brutal metal with insane vocals. Regardless, the 6505 is a mid heavy amp for sure and it would work wonders for any type of metal really. My blackstar is fairly scooped even on the british side of the ISF knob which is suppose to be more marshally, on the american side its pretty dry yet high gain and not tight at all. I have never played a 6505 myself though so all I can give is the blackstar wasn't made as a metal amp but can work with certain things, tight playing/pickups/ts and if you need a clean channel the blackstar is better but I still think its muddy.


 
Well we never do the pop vocals haha. Its death metal, with djent groove in parts of the songs. Im just saying I tend to EQ the way most Djent bands EQ, lots of mid, decent highs, and just enough low end. And ive played the 6505+ 212 before and loved it. I love the tightness of the 6505, could never get a tight tone from a dual rect. I just havent really had an experience with the Blackstar, so thats why I posted this. Im probably gonna end up going with the 6505+, but who knows.

This should give an idea of how we combine djent and death metal (though this is more deathcore, but it works)


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## ExousRulez (Jan 13, 2012)

ANY amp will sound loose with a recto cab IMO and theres SO much ways to set up a dual rectifier, different tubes, the newer ones have the extra channel and I think they have the multi watt feature too.
This isn't tight?


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 13, 2012)

ExousRulez said:


> ANY amp will sound loose with a recto cab IMO and theres SO much ways to set up a dual rectifier, different tubes, the newer ones have the extra channel and I think they have the multi watt feature too.
> This isn't tight?




If im not mistaken, that wasnt recorded with a dual rect. I believe it was a crate gc130 or an ampeg vh140. If it was the dual rect, its surely boosted, but no, its not that tight haha. Its tight, dont get me wrong, but not very tight


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jan 14, 2012)

incinerated_guitar said:


> If im not mistaken, that wasnt recorded with a dual rect. I believe it was a crate gc130 or an ampeg vh140. If it was the dual rect, its surely boosted, but no, its not that tight haha. Its tight, dont get me wrong, but not very tight



Its was Crate Excallibur and Triple Recto on that album according to Wikipedia.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 14, 2012)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Its was Crate Excallibur and Triple Recto on that album according to Wikipedia.


 
Thanks for the correction I forgot that the only crate they used was the Excallibur. Never gotten to play one, but I think after I get my hands on an ENGL SE670, Im gonna start collecting old death metal amps just for the hell of it


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jan 14, 2012)

incinerated_guitar said:


> Thanks for the correction I forgot that the only crate they used was the Excallibur. Never gotten to play one, but I think after I get my hands on an ENGL SE670, Im gonna start collecting old death metal amps just for the hell of it



Honestly to my ears, it really does sound like the Crate is overpowering the Dual Recto. It just sounds more solid state-y to my ears.

And I actually planned on that too since I'm such a solid state whore!  Get me a Randall T2, and then a bunch of old Ampegs, Crates, 80's/early 90's Randalls, marshall Solid states, and of course Crate. 

Holy thread derailment, batman.  I feel bad because I have nothing to offer to the OP.


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## Attercop (Jan 14, 2012)

I think the Blackstar is probably too loose to play anything djenty without some serious tweaking. You could probably get there if you really needed to, but the 6505+ will do it so much easier, and probably better. The Peavey actually has a nice clean tone with the pre above 8, but you have to roll down your guitar's volume to avoid breakup. So if you don't need any quick switching in songs, and if you just like to mess around with cleans, it shouldn't be an issue. Of course, it's not the Blackstar, but it sounds better than people make it out to.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 15, 2012)

Attercop said:


> I think the Blackstar is probably too loose to play anything djenty without some serious tweaking. You could probably get there if you really needed to, but the 6505+ will do it so much easier, and probably better. The Peavey actually has a nice clean tone with the pre above 8, but you have to roll down your guitar's volume to avoid breakup. So if you don't need any quick switching in songs, and if you just like to mess around with cleans, it shouldn't be an issue. Of course, it's not the Blackstar, but it sounds better than people make it out to.


 
Well I dont really need a clean tone for my band, but I love to mess around with clean music. I can always a/b if I really wanted a super nice clean tone, but I dont need it


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## Duke318 (Jan 16, 2012)

Check out a JSX. Good clean channel, and very tight and compressed. They can be had for dirt cheap nowadays.


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## incinerated_guitar (Jan 16, 2012)

Duke318 said:


> Check out a JSX. Good clean channel, and very tight and compressed. They can be had for dirt cheap nowadays.


 
Well idk, im back to the XXX since it matches with my Eminence Legends like no other. I have a whole plan set out for my rig thats gonna be awesome


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## Angus Clark (Jan 19, 2012)

I realise that you seem to have chosen a XXX but I thought I ought to mention that I meant that I had the ISF on the US side, not the British.


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