Blackstar Series One

[Tellboy]

Having just watched the Jamie Humphries demos on YouTube of the Blackstar Series One range I was very impressed by the multitude of channells/controls on these amps but thought the actual sounds were very 'average'. Anybody got any experience of these?

[Dmoney]

i had a JCM800 apparently modded by one of the dudes from blackstar. dude had managed to melt off the corners on a bunch of caps and it was pretty nastily done. (some mod to negative feedback and the bias circuit). based on that ive never wanted to go near one.

though the 'infinite shape filter' sounds interesting. I kind of thing its a gimick

[indysmith]

though the 'infinite shape filter' sounds interesting. I kind of thing its a gimick

It's very much a 'set and forget' kind of control, but it does make a big difference to the tone and feel of the amp and different settings seem to suit different cabinets better and worse.

[Dmoney]

i kind of thought it might be one of those things that you try, and its fun, and then you set it, leave it, and don't go back to it because you really only need it set in one place.

[Tellboy]

The thing that particularly interests me is the Dynamic Power Reduction which can reduce the output to 10% apparently without any degradation of the sound. A 45watt combo which can be varied down to 4.5watts without any sound degradation sounds attractive - that is assuming the original sound is worth varying.

[Twinfan]

That can be fitted to most amps by Martin at MJW  ;)

I have Power Scaling on my Orion - it's superb.

[Tellboy]

So DPR is not something new developed by Blackstar - just a version of London Power power scaling?

I've just looked at the London Power site and can see Martin listed as a licenced user but no mention of Blackstar.

Based on Jamie Humphries demo soundwise I think I'd be more tempted to go for one of Martin's Orions than the 45watt Blackstar.

[martinw]

So DPR is not something new developed by Blackstar - just a version of London Power power scaling?

I've just looked at the London Power site and can see Martin listed as a licenced user but no mention of Blackstar.

Based on Jamie Humphries demo soundwise I think I'd be more tempted to go for one of Martin's Orions than the 45watt Blackstar.

"Power Scaling" is a trademark registered  to London Power, however the technology itself is not patented, and is fairly standard voltage regulation circuitry. There are other variations of it, and there's nothing to stop anyone else doing it, as long as they don't use the term "Power Scaling".
Limiting it to 10% as BS do eliminates the need for "drive compensation", the downside being that 4.5 watts is still plenty loud.

Glad the Orion has  caught your interest!  :) I think it's a bargain.

[Gizmo]

I think they sound a bit average as well. The main issue people are having with them is that they sound a bit thin. I have the same issue with the Blackstar Dual pedal i have.

My guitar teacher spent the day testing amps for a new band he's formed and was set on getting a Series one 45. He was very dissappointed and said the same thing. Ended up getting another amp.

For the money the spec is very good but they dont sound as warm as the artisan amps. The Guitarist demo came under a lot of stick on the guitarist website. Peoples comments were either thats just how they sound or Blackstar would be annoyed at the way Guitarist recorded the sound as it sounds lame.

I heard Jammie live at the London guitar show. He was using the 200w one set at 20w. On the higher gain lead channels it sounded much better but still not amazing to me.

[Tellboy]

The main issue people are having with them is that they sound a bit thin.

Yes - just what I thought after sitting through all the YouTube videos.  Interesting to see how they sell - as there has been so much hype/anticipation I expected them to be flying out of stores by the shed load.

[bucketshred]

I think they sound a bit average as well. The main issue people are having with them is that they sound a bit thin. I have the same issue with the Blackstar Dual pedal i have.

That's strange, I've boosted my JCM800 with the Dual and the DistX (which I own) and it can make my sound a lot fatter.

Paddy

[dave_mc]

i haven't tried the series one yet, but i tried the artisan 15 head, and i thought it was a bit over-hyped. It wasn't terrible or anything like that, it was decent, but to hear all the hype in the guitar mags you'd have thought it was going to be the next dumble...

[Tellboy]

After reading Gizmo's comment I had a look at the Guitarist forum comments (musicradar). Seems a fair proportion are not impressed with the amps - very definitely a try before you buy purchase.
Amazing - one of the guys on the forum bought a 100watt Series One head and was raving about it and then decided to sell it after 8 days  :roll: .  I remember a similar thing on the Matamp forum when I was interested in a Minimat. Someone who had 3 Matamps did an excellent comprehensive review of his amps and then seemed to disappear from the forum, sold all 3 (not for financial reasons) and ended up with an old Marshall JCM800 . I guess it just reinforces try before you buy.
Must add that I have bought some BKPs without being able to try and the reviews/comments have always been spot on.

[dave_mc]

^ i really hate when people do that. you can't completely generalise, but a lot of the time when people buy something really new, it's supposedly amazing for the first two weeks then they all start selling them. After dragging several other unfortunate people into the same mess with their cr@ppy advice.

[_tom_]

I went right off my HT5, its now sold. Definitely too thin (no beef to it), but I dont know if thats because I was comparing a 5w amp to a 50w. Good for low volume playing but I found myself caring more about the tone than the playing. So now I'm back to 1 amp and playing more :)

The HT pedal definitely fattened up Paddy's JCM800 though.