The REAL Reason to Hate Blackstar Amps (and others like them) 

Your amp is a BEAUTIFUL example of how hybrid amps should be done. Tube sockets are chassis mounted and away from main board. ICs are socketed and easy to replace. There’s room to solder. It’s very well made. It’s a lifer amp! Your grandchildren will inherit and enjoy it. images.app.goo.gl/HLWaaZKyNhp4Myze9

“Hate” was just echoing a headline.

Those MusicMan amps are cool.

@@TheGuitologist best intelligent response ever..go Brad

Everytime you listen to a great Credence Clearwater Revival tune on the radio your hearing a guitar tone straight out of an early hybrid amp. Kustom amps like John Fogerty used were hybrids too.

I think i can do even better Ehem!... Don't buy blackstar amps bc you can't fix them, there hahaha

Legend

There are 10 service centers in the UK listed on the Blackstar website. And KDH was talking about his Series One amp, which doesn't have tube sockets soldered to a circuit board. Service in the US is done through Korg-US.

@@CaptainRon1913 would you mind providing some links? I'm really interested

i know a company that produces crap, overprices it bc they invest money to cribble a functioning product down to a paperweight, they FIGHT repair, not like not caring of making it possible, they will get after you just for talking about repair, they have service centers but you could throw 500-1000bucks in a river and watch it flow, that is less expensiv and more productiv and ppl still LOVE it. so this sounds a little bit harsh, they are just not good not intentionally bad just for jerking off to ripping customers. but i am not a guitar guy, i do not even knowb how i ended here.

What year was that?

@@TheGuitologist probably 2013-ish. I meant to say repair not modify, not sure where my head was at.

They did the same thing for me 10yrs ago about fixing the efx loop on my 6505+. Same thing, guy with a heavy southern accent. He was cool, gave me a few other tips too on modding that amp

@@christopherallen5603 That's what I call End User Support.

they emailed me a Valve King diagram in about 2002 i think they sent me my diagram / schematic not that it helps, quite happy to email a copy on to you buddy but i expect you already have Valve King schematics. Nice one Mr Lindsy.

I bought a pristine 2nd hand Blackstar HT Club 40 last week - absolutely love it. Played in bands for 30+yrs. Retired from it all now and play for my own amusement and at family doo's. I play only clean and the BS clean channel is superb, to my ears anyway.

@@redstrat1234 I miss my ht 100 for the clean channel alone. Especially the class a voice. None cleaner.

The thing about them is, they like to play the whole British angle and align themselves with the Laneys, Marshalls, Oranges of this world but dont actually build in the UK. im sure theyre great guys and the products decent and that where somethings made doesnt matter et al. but...why play the British company angle so hard but not actually build your gear here?

They have repair centres everywhere, this video is just bad information.

@@JunkBondTrader good amplifiers don’t need to be taken to authorised repair centres.

same. gigged mine hard, too. no issues other than standard maintenance/tube replacement. ten years old and love it.

I've been playing a ht60 mk2 and love it. It came recommended by a friend of mine who has 10+ blackstars. I asked him about this video and he just laughed and said he hasn't had any problems. He told me he had one serviced awhile back and doesnt remember it being an issue. This was click bait and we all fell for it.

@@ChristopherStandardTime There you go Christopher that’s your answer please see my comments above.

You will learn the hard way. I bought so much stuff that worked for years and now I just throw 1500.00 amps in the trash because of 350.00 ,350.00 and 350.00. Maintenance charges.

Yeah fuck this guy 😂

This isn't just about taste. But Scott planned obsolescence. You can still buy it but I think you should be aware of that before you do so. That's the whole point.

I have a blackstar Id core 100 and love it my fear with buying a blackstar tube amp is the two hour drive to the closest guitar store and there are no electronic repair shops where I live when you say serviced I’m assuming you meant like tube replacement and general servicing no major work was ever required I’m asking because I like the blackstar tone and they’re affordable

@@darylbaker5620 tubes arent light bulbs,ive owned 20 tube amps,never had a tube fail in 35 years

That’s what I was asking grinned what he meant by servicing what is it that needs serviced I’m not fuckin stupid I know tubes aren’t light bulbs I’m asking because I live a long distance from any guitar retailers not convenient for me to take an amp in for servicing

I had the valves checked but they did not need changing last time around. I’ve not had them changed in all the time I’ve had the amp.

_GRINNER_ I’m a amp tech for 35 years in New York. I can attest that those amps are *not* fine. Sounds like you did basic maintenance on the amp by changing the tubes and your amp wasn’t dysfunctional.Very easy to pull out the tubes and replace them in even the worst built amplifiers. When the time comes to actually replace other components in those amps, will be a different story for reasons including what was mentioned in this clip. For example, the pots are soldered directly to the board. If you break one, that board will have to come out and that means complete disassembly of the amp. There’s also components on the board in amps built like that where the components really aren’t made to be unsoldered. Thus the board will be replaced instead. Most manufacturers of amps like this only release boards to authorized techs. If the nearest authorized tech is in another state, how far is that from where you live. You might be shipping the amp to a authorized tech or trying to get it fixed locally by a unauthorized tech. As mentioned in the clip, they don’t released schematics to unauthorized techs. You can probably see where gettin those amps serviced when the time comes to replace more than tubes could be a nightmare. Beyond tubes and maybe broken pots, I won’t work on them

A DR 100 you mean?...still trying to find one

@@torahwarrior2442 check out Ceriatone. Hand wired replicas for about 1k usd. They have the 103 and the 504. The mil spec wiring is there looking at their circuit. The guy who builds them is a Malaysian electrical engineer who went to college in the U.S.

@@torahwarrior2442 DR103 or DR504. Have a look at the Mark Huss Hiwatt Amplifier Pages.

That's the gold standard bud. The only amp makers other than HiWatt who match that standard are HiTone, and Harry Joyce.

We don't have those in Australia.

He didn’t want to find anything, he was simply out to trash the brand.

It's also not hard to find the USA Dealer/Service centers on Blackstar's website, but hey, navigating websites is hard for some people.

Ditto.....I did same. I live in Northampton and found a service center within 20 miles of my home. Doing a 200 mile nationwide search I found 18 service centres. Brad, I can understand why you dont like Blackstar, but you are no better than the guy you are critisising by spreading untrue info about their service centres.

Can't use the internet but fixes amps? I'd hate to see him near a wall socket with a paperclip.

@@ProjectBlackweather LOL!

Cost money for a word.

Jared has direct access for all the troubles he has with his amps.

Yeah same here pal,, I've owned a pair of Club 40 mk 1 amps for 6 years been using them on stage with zero problems just occasional tube change and bias that's all.

@@blakjack3053 my club 40 combo has never let me down either

@Baldspot they’re all great

I guess you're missing the point. When they go down, you'll be shit out of luck unless you send them to the UK. They will eventually break. It might be in 15 years but it will. These aren't like the old amps you can easily service and keep going for eternity,

@@megafauna7 the point is I’ve had my blackstars for years and years, they have never failed me. They are built like tanks. I’ve had my combo amp on for hours, it doesn’t get as hot as this guy says it does.

Agreed. Across all forms of tech.

Every journey needs a first step. Like if you had replacement chassis for combo amplifiers would be a start , really there is no need in cutting down trees to make new 2x12 s when there must be so many out there?

Love my Mark 1 HT Club 40. Still running strong.

@@thestratman9 Same here, man.

That you didn't have a failure is good for you. But everything failed at one point and what then? Also you might just have been lucky. His point still stands. If it fails you'll have no means to repair it. I hate planned obsolescence.

What's the name of the band ( or bands ) you were gigging with, and what clubs/establishments did you gig, and when. Honest question........nothing more.

That does not change that fixing a blackstar properly if the ic breaks its impossible. When ICs fail you are up to the help of the manufacturer, even worse if it is a microcontroller, then you need the partNO and the firmware. The tube amps can be fixed 100% of the time, the ICs can't, and are much more difficult to trouble shoot. Digital logic is much more complex than your basic analog signal path trace and replace.

@@jbmw16 most ICs in this kind of amps are cookie cutter opamps or maybe switching logic. Easy to find and dirt cheap. Unless manufacturer is an ass and grinds off the label you are good to go.

@@KingKong-mp6gj I am more concerned with microcontrollers being used for menu functions. That makes repairs a pain.

Smart man.

Smart man your dad was.rip fine sir

Got a 79 .. Love it.

Holy shit, what an awesome war story. From the working musician trenches.

Pfffttt, only 3011, wait til ye have ... ah don't matter 🙄

Lol so it took you 3k gigs to get a good tone out of peavey bandit?

@@TheGuitologist or.. the troughs even ; )

Actually it took a few months to fully mod that Bandit. Had push pull pots and we played a variety of styles, I could see next song on set list, turn around and push/pull and twiddle knobs and have a totally different amp. I moved away from Florida back home to Alabama, looked high and low for a first generation Bandit 50, found one broken for $40, did most of the mods I'd done to the other one. Went to a blues jam at a harmonica players house, he was an amp collector, had a wall full of tube amps. He saw that Bandit, insisted i plug into one of his amps in his collection. I told him I was set. He insisted use one of his, I insisted he STFU because he was getting obnoxious. At the end of the day, he bought that Peavey Bandit from me in 1999 and continues to use it live for his harp. I bought a Bandit 65, not same circuit with that TRANSTUBE crap. Still looking for another first generation Bandit for a reasonable price. After the mods It sounded surprisingly good and I used it for everything from bluegrass to metal, and it handled it.

I figured that might be the case, but it was asking for a post code, which I didn't have one offhand.

@@TheGuitologist G73,try that,it's Glasgow south and your local service centre will be shown,or not.And the whole thing sucks ass.

had one ,one week....bland as f

We have the same amp and the same name.

@@bradharris1110 lol

That's all that matters, man. If it makes you happy, use it.

Hope you enjoy the chips!

I have had several direct experiences with PCB becoming conductive. The other problem mixing ICs is the voltage tolerances involved usually means they'll fail even quicker than an all tube design on the same board.

@@TheGuitologist Yeah, some cheapo board. But in general modern PCBs are way reliable than any Tube design can ever be. Just do this test take any electronics that have been collecting dust over 40 years (VHS, 8-bit computers, etc.) and turn it on. It will probably work. The same can't be said for tube amps. Moreover, you don't have to replace any IC components over 10years of usage. The same can't be said for tube amps and power tubes particularly. The cost of replacement is just equal to a decent practice combo like Boss Katana. So everything comes down to price. I also don't like that things are made disposable but they are dispose now before their actual end of life. For instance, cell phones. My daughter still has an old iPhone(second gen. with the same battery) and no issue. I have Certina watch where I have not replaced battery since 2005 I bought it. It has an ultra-low power chip I was working on its design. Your last comment about voltage tolerance is not accurate. The analog ICs like op amps can have really big voltage tolerance in compare to digital circuits. Anyway, you can have good voltage(current) regulators for both to always provide correct voltage. Just look what are the voltage steps for controlling the CPU when you want to overclock it. The voltage is always there no matter the voltage in power socket (no extremes like blackout of course;). On the other hand, the rectified voltage on the tube anodes is changing way more with the voltage fluctuations from power mains. And as you know it has an impact on bias thus the sound. Nothing critical but good to know when you want to have a consistent sound for each gig.

Im having troubles with a Blackstar ht stage 100 mk1. I went to the blackstar amp aprecciation group and contacted Paul Stevens, main desing engineer of blackstar amps and he told me to change tubes. When the problem is the IC11 that manage the clean and distortion channels. I h4te blackstar costumer Service, they build things and dont even know how to repair them, sell and forget is their message they are spreading to the World.

I don't take those in either!

I didn't have any issues getting a schematic for my 6260. Of course it's an older one and they now use that odd auto biasing and tube life system and I won't touch that with a ten foot pole specifically because I can't fix it if it breaks.

I said Blackstar was like Bugera in the live stream of this video... So true. Good luck man!

a buddy bought a Bugera and couldn't use it for months waiting for repair

If you want to go down the rabbit hole google egnater amp repairs and the absolute nightmare a lot of people are having keeping their amps running.

Stop buying their shit. If we don't punish companies that do this it will become the industry standard before we know it and guess what! We'll be screwed forever after that.

@@TheGuitologist I agree.

@@TheGuitologist I play blues and rock. what amp should i buy for practice?

Then their product is inferior

Here's their email to me. Orange have passed on your enquiry to us as we are the Australian Distributor for Orange products. As per our company’s and the suppliers policy, service information is not available for public distribution. Please let me know if we can be of further assistance.

Blackstar and every other amp builder is doing the same thing. Most newer designed amps are disposable. If we're lucky we'll get 10-15 years out of them. It's no different than appliance and other electronics manufacturers. A fridge doesn't last 20 years any more and you can't buy the parts to fix most of them. None of this is great but seems to be normal now. The old designed valve/tube were built with components you could, and still can, buy off of the shelf.

Brad didn't show "KDH's Series One tube amp" as an example. KDH's tube amp circuit design picture is right on the front home page of Blackstar. There are NO tube sockets soldered on a circuit board.

Tone Master in my opinion are the best. And Fender Twin Amp. Best

Absolutely bullshit

@@mahoganymarco9199 Agree

I have to for a big American corporation.

And did you see when he ate his words and found a schematic first attempt ... are you in reality ????

@@thesojourner7722 Apparently you didn't watch the whole thing. It was labeled Blackstar but it was a Peavey.

Apologies... just didn't enjoy this dudes energy ... all the best and peace to you :)

@Undercoverbus agreed. A lot of these comments are clearly worth fuck all. The rest are people saying they have blackstar amps for years and not had any issues. It's not exactly common practice for Marshall and fender to publicly release schematics either so that's a bs argument too.

Same here with the Aussie Casio important....

That's always a good sign, and it's the MINIMUM of what we should expect as consumers.

Solid company from what I've heard. Used to have a VH100R. Loved it.

@@SakariKempas The Laney VH100R was an excellent but poorly marketed amp. It was everything the JCM900 should have been.

Good to know , thanks.

serialization is coming to everything. Apple and John Deere are just the beta test for this.

@@joepeezy4sheezy They will put serial numbers on every part in a device and have a central CPU or basic BIOS chip to which everything has to be factory matched. Apple makes it so if you buy an iPhone now, a new one, and you try to have the screen or some other part like a jack replaced, the phone won't fricking work! Look up Louis Rossman's channel and "Right to Repair". They also do this same crap with John Deere farm equipment and it's becoming a huge issue for smaller farmers.

@@TheGuitologist i believe the EU just passed legislation about spare parts beeing mandatory available for a 10 year period ,not sure if they only had computers and parts in mind but it applies to other tech products ,and i hope they can adjust this and lengthen that period for things like Amps

Brad The Scatologist.

The point here is the schematics were included in service manuals. Those were only distributed to licensed servicers. If you google a Marshall schematic for example, it's not there because the company released it publicly. someone else put it online. There was a website collecting Marshall schematics and some were missing because they relied on people getting their hands on them and posting them. Same as blackstar do now. Sometimes companies will give schematics but mostly because the product is not in production anymore. Only releasing schematics to authorised repair techs doesn't violate right to repair. You can still get it repaired. But releasing schematics to people who don't know what they are doing but want to stick their hands in an amp to save money is understandably a risk.

@@irishRocker1 I go one step further in hating blackstar amps , I hate the people that shill them too. To me they are nothing but greedy tossers fueled on cocaine or alcohol or both.

"Seems like Blackstar and others are just like Apple and make consumer electronics that isn't designed to be repaired. They will function fine, until one day they don't, then into the bin." If that isn't bad enough, they've actually done worse. Apple got caught putting software in iPhones that after a certain amount of time, it would slow the phone down so people would thing its just getting old and buy a new one. I don't know what the laws are, but in my opinion, its absolutely criminal. Apple is taking someone's personal property and damaging it in order to create a new sale. That's like a tire store throwing nails in the street to drum up business.

Don't worry! This is the same guy that got drunk and made a video at 3 in the morning claiming Rick Beato is an industry plant. My Blackstar is 10 years old and never had a problem.

After watching a couple more of his videos I feel my comment was unnecessary and very negative. I was making some unfair assumptions and have since realized this is a good guy with a big heart. I'm leaving my original reply up in hopes that if he read it he will read this and see my realization that I misjudged the situation. Please know I'm sorry for making the comment. I don't agree with the thoughts on Rick B still but that doesn't mean he's not a good guy. I do think his issues with blackstar amps are fair as well but I still think they're good amps. We can disagree and still be respectful of each other.

The Achilles heal of most Blackstar designs is the phase inverter design. The early HT5 series were so catastrophic that the only 100% guaranteed fix is complete pcb replacement.

Huh...imagine that.

Yes, he was being intentionally deceitful, in this regard. Also, the website links clearly lead you to your service options outside the UK. In the US, that's through KORG USA. Intentional inaccuracies, like these, should cause viewers to question the veracity of all information provided by this channel.

The support issue is a biggie. The MINIMUM we should expect as consumers is to be provided with service information on our products when we request them so that we can work on them ourselves or find a qualified tech to do the work for us. Bare minimum.

@@TheGuitologist Maybe its Blackstar's way of telling tech's not to even bother trying to repair this monstrosity.

@@gooseabuse that should be the tecks call.

@@johnsalaman503 yeah I was making a joke.

@@gooseabuse I got ya..and you are correct..rock on...

Exactly 👍🏻

Great amps never had problems with any of mine

This reads like a press release. Blackstar should make US service location easier on their own website. And they should drop the ridiculous protectionism on the schematic front. Cloaking a company policy in a non-existent legal rationale doesn’t fly. I will continue to persuade my audience to avoid products from manufacturers who do this. People have a right to choose to assume the risk of repairing their own products or making the decision to take those products to their technician of choice. I see you're a Blackstar artist. Nothing wrong with that. (You are a great guitarist, by the way!) But you do realize they are going to give you gold star service as a result of this? www.blackstaramps.com/uk/artists/profile/michelle-taylor

@@TheGuitologist I simply put together info that people that I felt people should know and not just the false picture you are painting from your armchair. I actually use these amp regularly and have done for years.... do you?

@@MichelleTaylor1 Very well said. He fails to mention that these amps won many industry awards for design and innovation not to mention retail awards etc he obviously has some grievance with the brand.👎🏻

I currently own a Blackstar HT5R mkii combo amp.

I might make a follow up video to address your question.

@@TheGuitologist Great!! thank you!!!

Soldano(I prefer SLO) is great but lets be real. You compare one of the best and very expensive amp with like the cheapest entry level stuff. You get what you pay for. But you also mentioned you had some issues with them. They are easier to repair for sure.

@@hbo001 no issue with Soldano , i blow up a tube one time ( my fault, i didn’t change them), and another time it burned an eminence 1x12 speaker ( always my fault) , Soldano declares 50w but mine i measured with my tech is 80watt... so it burned the coil of the private jack... with the princeton ( always my fault ) during a rehearsal i take to 10 and i f&@d up the main capacitor in a 40 years old amp it could happen...In both case i’ve seen the amps opened and in half an hour i’ve them back. All the techs that i speech were pretty amazed by how good are both amps in terms of sound and circuit. Really a good construction and schematic is almost a work of art to see... For me , reliability is important almost ( if not most ) than the sound. I’ve to trust that the machine works, but every every every tube amp Will have some problems one time, it’s part of the game like the guitologist said in the video!!! they’re like cars, you can buy a bmw or a Ferrari and you can say that not now, not tomorrow but one day you will have to service it ( hoping for sonething not so serious) . The problem is not the failure but the chance to fix it, the brunetti MC2 is not a cheap amp ( i paid it almost like the used hr50) so i was very angry and i’ve to send it to the factory.. and the fixed failure last for 3 month. I’m always sceptical with amps made by big manufactures because they think only about money, hot rod deluxes, devilles, marshalls, peaveys ( all mainstream amps i think) they sound good but they’re built ( now) like Sh€&7, for example i really like the clean platform of a fender hot rod, i like they’re sound but i don’t trust them. Same thing about Marshall.:. I’d like to have a plexi but I’ve seen the interior of modern 1987 or 1959 plexi and they ‘re a mess... Otherwise it’s not explainable why great builders like Soldano, Bogner, carr, friedman, victoria, lazy j, metroupolos..feel the need to build newer version of already existing amps.. because the classic manufactures don’t built the amps like 40 or 50 years ago ( I know I’m old inside.. 😉) ... sorry for the long answer 🤗

Yep. Problem with where you live, Oz, the prevalence of old, good amps is probably not high enough these days to rely on only those repairs. Or am I mistaken?

@@TheGuitologist Pretty damn close, Brad. We have quite a lot of old Fenders from Blackface onwards. A reasonable selection of Marshall and Vox. Unfortunately, too many Mesa's. Very few old Gibsons amps. In short, we thank God for the Hot Rod series, and Bjr's for their contribution to cash flow. :-)

@@theguitaramptech I've had both of those on the channel.

I have JTM 60 and 30 watt combo amps. They are great amps in my opinion. They do need a small fan in back to help keep them cool because of a bad design, but they sound fantastic! They have started to go up in value because people are starting to find out great they sound. About 20 years ago, I paid $185 for the 30w, & $200 for the 60watter. They are worth about 3 times that now.

@@cantyouhearmeknocking1961 There’s another mod in lieu of the fan; just a shield between the tubes and the chassis. It’s because the tubes are sideways and under the chassis so heat radiates upward.

@@vayabroder729 Exactly. I have that mod on both as well. I did that first, but I ended up installing a 'computer fan' in each amp ,& I have never had an issue. I used to play in the Alabama/Atlanta areas quite a bit, & it is just soooooo hot & humid, that I installed the fans just for extra protection. Thankfully, I never had an issue with either one!

Like what precisely?

Exactly. You can pick up a silver faced fender from the 70s for half the price of one of these black stars or bugeras (Chinese made IC trash) and it will put them to shame. And that’s when fender wasn’t even building very good amps!! 🤣 My blackface fenders have no equal.

I made a 5e3 amp for under 300 with speaker and cabinet. And to get it more clean I used rob robs negative feedback circuit to give me all the clean headroom for me to use my pedals. And with a flick of a switch I am back to my tweed distortion. Best amp I've ever used.

@@codpug Just ordered a handwired 5e3 from Lil Dawg. I can't wait. I've been scouring Robinette's site and will be doing some mods.

@@JInfinity7 I did a ton of mods but after a few years removed them all but a few. I left the diode to protect the 5y3 tube. The switchable negative feed back so I can have more clean to use my pedals . I separated the grounds from the preamp to their own. And I highly recommend a humdinger for the heater wires if they dont have it on yours, Makes night and day difference in noise reduction. Other than that I just plain love the tweed amp sound.

The Fractal Axe III does that well. I run my old Fuzz Face pedals into it.

My boss katanas great

dafuq?????

Same here with a club ht 40..also my dark/ light reverb switch never worked right since new.i had to replace that.found a hand drawn schematic some one took the time to do.i imagine this is only going to negatively impact blackstar, mb they will change their minds, and give us the darn schematics..

And what happens when the boards run out? Or the factory folds?

@@TheGuitologist as you called it, "Just buy a new amp!" As a salty, seasoned, Electrical Engineer, I am truly starting to believe the dark consequences of parts getting super cheap is that the quality of design has plummeted. Looking at those BS amp boards, they reek of "we did it this way because it got the job done and the parts were cheap."

@@TheGuitologist use the box,and build an amp for that cab,great channel..thanks a bunch

That was my conclusion, too, but I tend to prefer simplicity when possible, so I agree with his fundamental point. Too bad he wanked out there at the end.

As is this crate tv 6210 I have it gave up the ghost, the pilot lights out and all the tubes are out but the led and channel switching work and both transformers come on you can feel so Im wondering is it fused through the pilot light?

I guess you are referring to amps with a bunch of tubes. I have had two or three Marshall valvestates for decades, one of them toured with me a lot for the last 9 years and been working for more than 20 years. It only has one tube in the preamp, and the seat for it is on the pcb. I guess that doesn't mean the thing about tubes vs pcb it is not true, but, as i said, doesn't apply to these hybrid amps in particular.

@@search895 Nope, it's not the number in itself, it's the way they are mounted. Directly to the PCB-board. And correct me if I am wrong, but aren't those Marshall amp tubes mounted both in the chassis and the PCB-board, not directly and only to the PCB-board?

Anything in the signal path effects the signal. So yes.

Not rocket science, is it !!

only 3?

@@frigglebiscuit7484 there’s other in the UK. If you’re in the US you don’t real understand how small the UK is. London is big by their standards, but if you compare it to say DFW, NYC or LA among others it’s not very bigArea wise.

Yeah we have a repair centre in Milton Keynes. Not a Blackstar fan myself but yeah there is plenty of places for repairs in the UK.

You did the right thing..for. sure..Great amp

I’ve a 1978 Princeton rv, t’s a monster amp. I’ll never sell it. Do you ever try to crank it? With a friend that has a two notes captor we use 2x12 sim IR with greebacks and the amp sound terrific!!! Almost like a Bogner, plenty of gain on tap, I was astonished , I’d never expect that... enjoy your amp 🤗

@@FedericoMemme If I crank it, I usually do it with a load box and a separate IR Cab pedal (OwnHammer EVM 12L IR). That way my wife won't complain (too much anyway).

Princeton doesn’t have overdrive unless you absolutely crank it though. That won’t be your only amp...

@@alexmurphy5289 i never said the opposite!! if you read, i said that i've cranked it, but not every amp sounds good when cranked , some of them are muddy and sloppy when dimed...and mostly i' didn't expect that level of gain from a princeton, at home i use it clean with some pedals. Ciaooo

Thanks. I'll look for that! I'm sure it was a goddamn nightmare.

And the fly 3 is basically just a 3” speaker in a spam can! Imagine one of those 100 watters.

@@Chrispy_tV I believe you also have to compare the product with its price point. Extrapolating the Fly3 case over the complete product range is just not realistic. There are a lot of companies that, for certain volume driven price points, get an off the shelf solution made by an OEM manufacturer, but that does not necessarily mean that they do the same to their high end products. If you would open one of those gimmick small Marshall micro amps, and see all that crap inside, would you also believe that they do the same in their high end stuff?

Mine is from 2011. Still going strong.

Come back when you DO have an issue, and have it successfully fixed.

@@threepe0 Would be totally redundant at that point considering me and many other Blackstar buyers have got more than our moneys worth and had it over a decade. If it breaks now its not even worth getting repaired

@@threepe0 My HT100 was dropped off the back of a truck, in a road case. Took it to a repair shop that they fixed right up. Been playing it for years with no more issues. The case needed to be bent back into shape tho. Don't understand all the self righteous whining about BlackStar. I have more than one and in nearly a decade thats the only problem I'jve ever had.

@@threepe0 considering what it cost and how long it lasted it was money well spent. IMO

All their pots are placed on a single PCB. With so many boutique Fender builders providing hand wired top notch circuits at about the same price, I would never buy an amp from Fender nowadays.

You want simple, well-made, non-proprietary, and classic tone.

This is EXACTLY the same situation with cars. They are now disposable.

Some years back I did some guitar work at a studio for a friend. I was told they had every amp you could think of to use. They weren't lying. All huge heads with a million knobs. I spotted a Dr. Z Ghia amp. Two knobs. Plugged in and seconds later said that's the one. Didn't even have to touch the amp for the whole session after that.

I personally like an fx loop for running my time/modulation pedals through. I don't like my delay in front of the amp. I don't see any issue with that.

A simple turret board circuit with 3 or so knobs and an effects loop isn't a problem.

There is no need to control ISF by microcontroller, ISF is just a potentiometer in a tone stack. TO220 transistors - yes, phase splitter Big heatsink - there are 3pcs of LM317 on it, they could hardly make it any hot and it's oversized. It's quite usual to have heatsink on some components INSIDE of the device, sometimes directly on a PCB. To all, complaining about ICs and SMT components inside of a tube amp... Don't you mind there are electrolytic capacitors inside of any tube amp, often near power resistors? :)