Blackstar HT Stage 100 MKIII Review 

Haha yeah I had a dry spell where I was just happily gigging with the same gear for a couple years and didn’t buy anything new to put on the channel and had a few things I bought but wasn’t impressed with, hence no videos.

Yeah it’s really got its own thing going on which could be good for someone looking for an amp that’s not just another Marshall or Mesa clone. Despite having an American vs British voicing thing on the advertisement, it’s not specific enough to be considered either. It is what it is. This ISF doesn’t magically turn it into a Marshall or Mesa. It just shifts the EQ’ing around a bit. It’s still simple enough IMO that there’s not really too much choice paralysis. I feel like the amp works best if both drive channels are on modern or vintage. I had a huge issue with all the sounds of the mark V I used to own. I was always fiddling with it trying to get a sound I felt like it could dish up with just a little more tweaking and it just never ended. This in comparison is pretty straight forward.

Yep. You actually put the amp into standby and just have the power on. This engages the preamp while safely leaving the power section in standby so that the transformers aren't working and needing a load to keep them safe. So it's actually not a built-in reactive load (like say the Mesa MKVII has) but rather a preamp output to a built-in speaker sim/IR loader. You obviously lose the character and feeling you'd get if you were using the amp fully operational with a load box and speaker/cab sim but at this price point, I feel like it's an acceptable tradeoff, especially if you're a player coming into playing guitar for the first time and want a good multi-channel amp that you can just jam with at home straight to the computer and also have the option to grab a cab and go on stage or if you've been playing and have a combo amp and want something else without having to go buy a new speaker cabinet. I thought this amp sounded better fully on running to my captor X vs in standby mode using the built-in speaker sim but again, it was nice that I didn't HAVE to have the captor to get a DI sound.

@@FastRedPonyCar I see.. thanks a lot for all the info!

This particular amp does requires a speaker cabinet to produce sound. I can be connected to a PC or Mac via a usb cable and you can then direct audio out of the amp to your computer without the need of a speaker cabinet. It can also send audio out of the XLR connector on the back of the amp to a PA system or stage monitor so it's pretty flexible.

@@FastRedPonyCar Thank You for your quick response, great channel, subbed!

@@mattdylan664 Thanks!

I was on a few forums. Not guitar world though. Mainly Harmony Central amp forum.

No, not even close. The BadCat Lynx would be the closest competitor in terms of high gain stuff from that company and of all the sound demos I've heard of the Lynx, it has a depth and harmonic richness to the sound that this amp (and other $1000~$1500 tube amps) just cannot produce. The Lynx is on my very short list of amps to try though.

@@FastRedPonyCar yea I tried a couple of the new Bad Cats and liked them,thanks for your advice I appreciate it

Since your comments is two months old I don't know if you've tried it since, but I've owned the new Lynx and was really disappointed personally (I sold it). I still preferred my ''cheap'' Peavey 3120 to it haha I didn't like where the top end and the mids were placed (for my taste). I think the biggest drawback for me was the stupid volume difference between going from the Lo to Hi mode on each channel. Also, the amp should've had a dual concentric knob like the EVH 5150 50w imho. In that way, the amp could've had a real clean, a crunch, a rhythm and a lead channel.

@@bengirard1984 Thanks for the info. I haven't tried the Lynx yet but still have it on my radar. I'm testing the 35w Mesa MK V right now. pretty fun and great sounding little amp. I like it a lot more than the Badlander I tried. The demo of the Lynx that Peach Guitars did on their channel sounded incredible and sounds like it would be a great fit for the style of music I play. Regarding the low/high volume difference, it may just be that they intended for the each channel to be set a certain way and to stay in that mode. In a way, the HT100 is similar in that the two voices of the two drive channels are really different and I wasn't a fan of mixing one drive mode on one channel with another drive mode on the other channel. It really worked the best when each channel was set to the same drive voicing.

@@FastRedPonyCar Yeah man I hear you. That’s what I figured (using the Lynx as a basically two channels, not four) but in the end, the distortion was too buzzy for me and the lack of a real clean channel bothered me a bit. But I’ll say this: It definitely has its own character so I can see why others love it :) I guess I still just preferred the overall tone and flexibility of my good old Peavey 3120. I’d like to try the HT100 MK3 at some point (great demo btw haha).

I'm sure you're trolling, but this thing has 4 El 34s and 2 ECC83s. And I'm 99% sure that is in the OD 2 only. It sounds damn near identical to a JCM 800 with minimal tweaking.

@@ryanmaxwelll2730 Sorry. I couldn't hear the difference. I am a fan of your channel. I don't troll. I do appreciate your dedication to the art.

Yeah I honestly have my suspicions. Only 2 12AX7's could be that it uses one for the primary input gain stage and the other for the power section phase inverter or something... Their video with the lead engineer saying it's 100% all tube though makes me wonder what tricks they use to get this much gain from just 2 tubes because as Bruce from Brit-Tone amplification explained to me, real preamp tube gain comes from adding one preamp tube to another to another which is how the Soldano SLO and 5150's have so much preamp gain... just lots of tubes. The power section though is good. I ran the friedman IR-D and my Synergy SYN-1 with the XTC module into the FX loop return and it sounded great.

@@FastRedPonyCar Yeah, yu always have the cool new stuff on and you give what I think is a real and interested personal take on it. Yeah, you have some cool toys. Keep on. Thanks.