Off Topic Blackstar Amps

[eegor]

Has anyone had experience with these products? I saw on musiciansfriend that they were available for preorder which has me thinking these are too new for anyone to know what they're like. I was thinking about buying the two-channel pedal, but I have no idea what it'll sound like.

 

[Dizzy]

Has anyone had experience with these products? I saw on musiciansfriend that they were available for preorder which has me thinking these are too new for anyone to know what they're like. I was thinking about buying the two-channel pedal, but I have no idea what it'll sound like.

I was really keen to check them out and was in detailed email correspondence with the Aussie distributor back in November 2007 regarding the Series Ones...... They were supposed to be available in late December....... then delayed until January.

It's now mid-May, and I gave up a long time ago.

 

[eegor]

It says they'll be ready in June I believe. June or July.

 

[roburado]

I tried a couple of these Blackstar amps. I couldn't tell you what models they were, but they were nice. They hit the GC around the time that Egnater's Tourmaster came in. I was a lot more impressed by the Blackstars than the Egnater-lite amps, which is really what those amps are. Cool amps, those Blackstars.

 

[Bungo]

I know Dave is stocking these at Machinehead here in the UK.

I believe he rates them quite highly.

No doubt he'll chip in to this thread when he can.

Machinehead Music-Amps-Guitar Amps-Blackstar, Guitar Shop - Where service counts!

 

[DaveB]

Sorry just caught up with this one......

For those that dont know Blackstar was formed by 4 ex Marshall employees, including amp designer Bruce Keir. They do all the R & D work here in the UK and have their products manufactered in Korea.

They first released the range of HT pedals - these are all valve boost/drive/distortion pedals which operate at 300V much like an amp. They have received rave reviews everywhere. The HT Dual is by far the best selling pedal we have ever dealt with across all manufacturers - and for £139 sounds like it should cost a whole lot more.

The Artisan amps came next - these are all hand wired in Korea and consist of a 15W, a 30W combo and a 100W Plexi head. Once again they sound amazing - the 30W 2*12 is Vox like, the head is possibly one of the loudest things I have ever heard. My personal fave is the 15W though, two channels, four inputs just a vol and tone for each - sounds even better when you jump the inputs.

Series One amps are the rock/metal amps - last I heard there will be a 40W combo, a 100W head and a 200W monster. They are due to arrive later in the year.

I predict great things with a start like they have had.

For those that are sceptical about a Korean built chassis take a look at the sample one I have in store.

Dave

 

[roburado]

I guess it was the Artisan amps I tried. Very, very nice for a Marshall-type thing.

 

[Chris G]

There has been a lot of publicity surrounding Blackstar in the UK press (Guitarist magazine has carried reviews and they did an interview with the owners).

To come back to DaveB on this I have to say that as a UK consumer I was disappointed to learn that they're not building them in the UK and that has put me off somewhat. I have no illusions that the build quality will be just as good as anything that they could produce in the UK.

I've not tried one but if they do the Marshall-type thing as roburado suggests I'd rather support UK workers and buy a Marshall. Isn't that part of the argument as to why BP keeps all the EBMM guitar manufacturing in the USA?

 

[dstockden]

There has been a lot of publicity surrounding Blackstar in the UK press (Guitarist magazine has carried reviews and they did an interview with the owners).

To come back to DaveB on this I have to say that as a UK consumer I was disappointed to learn that they're not building them in the UK and that has put me off somewhat. I have no illusions that the build quality will be just as good as anything that they could produce in the UK.

I've not tried one but if they do the Marshall-type thing as roburado suggests I'd rather support UK workers and buy a Marshall. Isn't that part of the argument as to why BP keeps all the EBMM guitar manufacturing in the USA?

I agree with you on that Chris.

 

[DaveB]

Whilst I understand your point of view regards supporting UK manufacturing I think we just have to realise that it is becoming less and less economically viable to produce anything in this country.

To have the Artisan hand-wired in the UK would make it a much much more expensive amp (the 15W combo is only £799 - look how much the Marshall hand wired products cost).

At least with Blackstar you are supporting a UK firm.

Dave

 

[DaveB]

The other thing I forgot to say is that I tend to think more about the tone than the country of manufacture......

If money was no object then the US would get my cash (Divided By 13, Two Rock)

but UK designed and Korean built has the lead on anything out of Bletchley at the moment!

Dave

 

[eegor]

I tried out an HT-DIST the other day at GC through a Fender 5W, and even through that little piece of crap that pedal sounded amazing. I will definitely be buying one this summer.

 

[southpawmax]

I would think it would be possible to produce a fairly competitively priced hand wired amp in a Western country these days using some sort of an assembly line type of production. Even on a small scale, say you have 10 guys wiring up turret boards, 7 guys installing them in the chassis, etc. pay them all like $15 an hour and sell each amp for $1500. Say you have a total of 50 employees working 40 hours a week, thats $30,000 a week in labor. Build 50 amps a week and factor in cost of parts at say $400 an amp and you still turn $25,000 a week in profit

 

[Dizzy]

Based on the Build Quality of Land Rover vs my Wife's Korean Hyundai Santa Fe, I'd be buying the Korean option !!!













(PS : I own a Disco 3 TDV6 - LR have finally got their act together !)