I think the blackstar cleans thing is always a red herring. When you read these reviews it usually says something along the lines of "cleans aren't on a par with fender cleans". Well.. What are? on the low wattage side they tend to be single channeled affairs where the louder you crank them, the dirtier they get, on the high wattage side there tends to be a clean channel that does what it says on the tin, clean sounds. reviews comparing things like a backstar to a clean fender isn't helpful as thats not the point of the amp, and not really a valid comparison. I don't know many marshalls that do sparkling 3D cleans either, and a Marshall would be a fairer comparison. having gone down and played them, taking into account price range etc, there's nothing wrong with the clean channel. There's nothing exceptional about it either, but you have to take it in context.
Do any of us us much in the way of clean tones anyway? and i mean significantly more than distorted tones, other than for a song, or isolated clean line or rythym part? Look at the demographic of the forum. Most of us are rock and heavier players, the OP was asking about Soldano lead tones, so why does a clean sound suddenly have any bearing on amp choice?
Just saying.
BTW I'm no Blackstar fanboy, just think they're excellent value for money, and what i really like is that they're up front about where they're made. Marshall, for example, isn't..
