Collection: Blackstar

About Blackstar

Blackstar designs guitar amplifiers at its headquarters in Northampton, England. Four amp specialists who held senior posts at Marshall, Bruce Keir, Ian Robinson, Paul Hayhoe and Richard Frost, began their research in 2004 and launched the brand at the Musikmesse Frankfurt trade show in March 2007. The patented ISF control, found on amps from the FLY 3 to the Series One, moves the tone stack anywhere between an American voicing and a British one. A second patent, DPR, lowers the output power of a valve amp so the power valves distort and compress at any volume.

Valve Amps

The HT MK III series starts with the 1 W HT-1R and the 5 W HT-5R for home and studio, then moves up to the HT Club and HT Stage amps for gigs, with combos, heads and matching cabinets. St. James amps are ultra-lightweight valve amps with EL34 or 6L6 power valves, and the 50 W EL34 combo weighs 12.8 kg. Many of these amps record over USB with the CabRig cabinet simulator. The TV-10 A pairs a 6L6 power valve with an American voice, and the TV-10 B gives a British one. For modern high gain, the Series One 100 MK II is a four-channel 100 W head with MIDI switching. Jared James Nichols and Doug Aldrich each have a signature head, the JJN 50 and the DA100 Ruby.

Digital, Practice and Mini Amps

Debut amps cover practice and first gigs in cream or black, from the 10 W Debut 10E up to the Debut 100R. ID:CORE V4 combos give six voices, 12 effects in Super Wide Stereo and USB-C recording for playing at home. ID:X is a DSP modelling amp for stage and studio with EL84, 6L6 and EL34 response settings, and the ID:X Floor units are floor modellers for electric, bass and acoustic guitar. The FLY 3 is a 3 W mini amp that runs on batteries. The Beam Solo headphone amp and the Beam Mini desktop amp load amps, cabs, mics and pedals from the Beam app.

Bass and Acoustic Amps

Unity bass combos run from the 30 W Unity 30 up to the Unity 500, and the Unity 250ACT active cabinet links to them. Unity Elite pairs the 700 W 700H head with ultra-lightweight cabinets. Debut Bass 15 and 25 suit a first amp or home rehearsal. For acoustic players, the Sonnet 60 and Sonnet 120 have microphone and instrument channels with their own EQ and reverb levels, and the ACOUSTIC:CORE 30 can run on batteries.

Pedals, Interfaces and Accessories

The Dept. 10 Boost, Dual Drive and Dual Distortion each run an ECC83 valve, and the two drive pedals add USB recording, an XLR output and the Cab Rig speaker simulator. The Dept. 10 AMPED models are 100 W amps in pedal form that drive a speaker cabinet or go straight to a PA. LT pedals are compact boost, overdrive and distortion pedals that run on a 9 V battery. POLAR 2 and POLAR 4 are USB audio interfaces built for guitarists and come with the St. James plugin suite, and Polar Go is a pocket interface and stereo recorder for a phone. The range also includes the Live Logic MIDI footcontroller, the AIRWIRE i58 wireless system, amPlug 2 FLY headphone amps, footswitches, power supplies and cables.

Shop Blackstar at Blackout Audio

Order online or visit the Blackout Audio store in Toronto. Orders over $199 ship free across Canada, and the team can help you choose between a valve amp, a modelling amp and a pedal amp.