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Anyone else played them? For the money and being all tube they are some of the best Ive played in their price ranges. Their cleans are boutique level clean. And their versatility on the high gain channels are really nice. My new live rig for the electric is a Blackstar Stage 60 2x12 and the footswitch. No effects, nothing...and it sounds incredible. My largest show, was a 7000 person one a few months back, and I was playing my Rev through it and it just sliced through the crowd with an angelic tone!

Instructor

No just bought a marshall and it is bloody great.

Is your amp a tube, or one of the solid state MG series?

Blackstar Techs/founders were formally part of Marshall, in fact, they have the ISF knob which dials between the tube sound of a Marshal, and a US High Gain amp, like a Mesa.

So the Blackstar is like the Marshall +, I suppose, without some of the fatal flaws, such as making the sockets such that as it hung vertically and got hot that it started cold solder disconnect issues on the board, of the old Marshalls.

Plus in some aspects it's similar to a point to point hard wired (Blackstar) amp, and it can have some custom voicing mods performed on it, at the board level.

Instructor

Instructor wrote:Anyone else played them? For the money and being all tube they are some of the best Ive played in their price ranges. Their cleans are boutique level clean. And their versatility on the high gain channels are really nice. My new live rig for the electric is a Blackstar Stage 60 2x12 and the footswitch. No effects, nothing...and it sounds incredible. My largest show, was a 7000 person one a few months back, and I was playing my Rev through it and it just sliced through the crowd with an angelic tone!

Instructor

Ive got a Blackstar HT-5S. Build quality and sounds are awesome. Its no live rig but mic it up and I dont see why it couldnt be. The ISF feature is very useable to change the overdrive characteristic and the EQ works well. Ive done a review at http://www.gtrmusic.co.uk/blackstar-ht5 ... views_id=1

You mean HT 5?

Its no live rig, but it definitely can be used, Ive done it. I played along side a 212 Fender HR Deluxe, and held my own. It also has direct outs so you can put it directly into a mixing board, or, like you said, mike it up, which is a common thing to do anyways live.

I love my HT 60 2x12 Stage, but I hate dragging it around

Instructor

Instructor wrote:Is your amp a tube, or one of the solid state MG series?

Its an MG215. Think that is solid state, have just bought an distortion effects pedal and when I play my two new guitars though it the sound great. Think my ESP gonna get a metal pedal and a drop tune, because it dosen't sound as nice as my new the Vintage VS or my new vintage v100 mr.

Sound has a lot to do with pickups. I'd suggest looking into pickup upgrades, rather than a pedal or such. While pedals can hep somewhat, sound is really found at the pickup level. You might look into Seymour Duncan JB/59 for a well rounded tone that does well at a lot of styles.

Instructor

Instructor wrote:Seymour Duncan JB/59

In the ESP????

I think they are too higher output, think neck is something like 13 and bridge 16.

Tell that to ESP, they've been doing it for years...

I have them in at least 3 of my guitars. The only thing I dont do is some extreme metal stuff.

Sean

My Esp just booms bottom end which in my untrained ears opinion muffles the rest of the cord.

That particular model is primarily geared towards the metal player. As are most ESP models, but the pickups of the JB/59 have quite a bit of tight snarl and bite without being a buzzsaw. They clean up well though, you may not want to crank them.

It depends upon the general stuff you are trying to play.

Best,

Instructor

Just bought the 1w Blackstar amp today. Pretty impressed with both build quality and sound.

Will report back how I get on with it when I have had a little more time to play it!

I don't have a black star model on my peavey, however my ears are drawn to the peavey classic 50

I never played through one, but i heard a lot of good things about them. I do think they're pretty cool, but i could never afford the one i'd want. I do have some Black Star distortion pedals and they're really good quality, but i never had one of their amps.

I've played through quite a few Blackstar amps, and found them to be very good for the money! One of my friends owns a HT-1