Blackstar 45 Series One

[rnolan]

A friend dropped of a Blackstar 45 series one combo last night for me to futz with. I haven't tried it yet but it does look interesting.  The midi implementation is interesting, seems to be all about integrating a mid Fx device as the 4 basic sounds (clean, warm clean, crunch and super crunch) are just repeated over and over.  From the amp perspective, all the midi controls is the 4 basic voice selections, just like the pedal it comes with.

[Dante]

That looks like a Blackstar version of my Grandmeister 40 Deluxe, feature wise. Oh wait, the Blackstar doesn't have any effects.....advantage; Hughes & Kettner

BTW: you couldn't pay me to play a BLackstar, not because I had one I hated, but because I was in a band with a guy that played one. He had to go on and on and on about how he never had any problems with it (solid state combo) while my ADA gear was dying and I was pulling my hair out to fix it or find something else.

Consequently, if I hear him say "I have a Blackstar", I wanna scream

[rnolan]

I had a play with it last night.  It was kind of ok I spose.  I got to try a small 5/15 w combo a while ago which I did like so I was hoping for better from this one.  I switched to my MP-2 after and it was so much better.

[Harley Hexxe]

I'll chime in here at this point.

  Personally, I'm with Dante on this one, but for a different reason. I tried a Blackstar at one of the local shops here and found the sound of it to be a bit underwhelming. It actually sounded cheap to be honest, not very good clarity, and artificial with the crunch and overdrive, very much along the line of how I hear the Fender Mustang series, except these aren't supposed to be modeling amps.
  There would possibly be only one model I might consider if I can ever find one to audition, and that would be the Artist 30. The only reason I say that is because one of my favorite guitar players has been using them for the past several years, and he always has a great tone, Waddy Wachtel. So far, nothing in the Blackstar catalog has impressed me. I'll stick with my Fender and ADA gear that I own.

It's pretty sad when an old modeling amp sounds more natural than a current production dedicated tube guitar amp, (Cyber Series).

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, this ones seems to be a very early model. It's very solid (and very heavy).  Reminded me of my Marshall in that input is RHS (as you look at it) and knobs kind of go left from there (gain/vol) eq, master stuff.  I didn't fiddle with the resonance knob (maybe that would have helped?). IIRC the little combo I used ages ago had input on the left etc. and also included a decent stereo reverb, but it also sounded way better (little EL84 thingy).

Of the 4 voices (gain stages), the warm clean was the best (sonically to me).  If you ran a pedal setup in front of it or one of those Boss things you've been futzing with in the Fx loop it would probably work better.  But then the external gadgets are making the tones.

While the other voices weren't the worst I've heard (and the channel switching was good), they just didn't come alive in anyway (and I was using Gibson 57 re-issues (in my SG)).

To be fair, I didn't get a chance (yet) to wind it up.  I was running it at 4 watts & no Fx.  But they rave on about how that's fine coz they do groovy things with the output tubes so you can (seamlessly) run on all power levels.

But this is all academic for me.  The MP-1 and MP-2 make most amps sound like toys in comparison IMHO.

[Harley Hexxe]

I hear you Richard,

   I believe the resonance control is supposed to give you a bit more low-end thump as I understand it.

   I can't really comment on that model you have there because I know nothing about it, but I will voice my opinion of the company as a whole. I don't believe they've broken any new ground with anything they've put on the market. I see them as a company that copies popular designs and builds cheaper versions of it. I also believe this is reflected in the sound of their gear. That's why I've never considered buying anything they have.

  I could be wrong, but I can remember there was nothing impressive about the one amp I did plug into...at all. This all now comes back to personal preference. What I may consider mediocre sound might be sonic gold to someone else.

  I have a stable full of great sounding amps already, so I'm all set.

[rnolan]

So my Monday night guitar student came last night and fired the Blackstar up.  He has a Fernandez Strat.  He bought a MP-2 rig on Saturday that I'd built ages ago for a friend (MP-2, Midiverb3, B200s Peavey 5150 Quad box (wired stereo))  Nice rig and a great price $800 AUD for the lot.  I think it's overkill for him, but he's a retired Engineer/lecturer and loves the complication LoL.  He pulled it all apart on Sunday and cleaned everything, apparently it had some salt from living at the coast.

So the Blackstar was a good introduction for him, he has been using some crappy little practice amp. I complained the BS had no bass and he pointed out the eq controls are reversed as in (as you look at it) Treb, Mid, Bass.  So I had been turning up the Treb, though it made bugger all difference, it still had hardly any bottom end.  We also tried the resonance (didn't do anything great) and their patented ISF (again much ado about nothing much).  And at the end I wound up the power DPR from 4w to 45w, just to give it a chance (made him get up from sitting in front of it ), again wasn't floating my boat.  The warm clean is a good voice, the rest leave me flat.

Someone told me that BS was started by guys who left Marshall to do their own thing?  This amp does seem a bit like an early Marshall (though not as good) with some extra bells and whistles (e.g. channel switching, power level control).  But it was a good teaching tool as all the knobs are on the front and will help him make sense of the MP-2 patch parameters, so not a total waste of time.

[Harley Hexxe]

BS sounds like a good name for the company