What is it?

Home practice sessions are something that benefit every guitar player and there’s plenty of gear options out there to facilitate that when it’s not possible to use a full rig, whether that be a headphone amp, affordable amp modeller, guitar plugins or a small practice amp that can be run at a reasonable volume. The latter being dominated most recently by the likes of the Positive Grid Spark and Boss Katana series and most comparable here, the Positive Grid Spark Go.

Blackstar has had the Beam Solo guitar headphone amp available for a while, and now that has been joined by the Beam Mini, a tiny desktop amp with speakers and a comprehensive set of practical features.

The Beam Mini looks and feels classy with a textured rubberised finish and sits solidly on any table with its controls easily accessible on the top. It takes its power from any five-volt (500A) USB-C charger like you would use to charge your phone – a cable is provided with the unit.

A full charging session will give you 18 hours of playing time. You plug your guitar into a socket on its right cheek, and there are headphone and USB sockets on the rear.

The headphone socket will also handle headsets with mics should you wish to input vocals, while the USB socket facilitates recording via the built-in audio interface with multiple audio inputs and outputs.

The unit is not only a source of guitar tones but also uses a Bluetooth connection to function as a speaker for music streaming, which you have a choice of playing along with.

Blackstar has really paid attention to acoustic design here and the combination of the sealed, acoustically-tuned cabinet with two full-range drivers and auxiliary bass radiator units puts out an extremely powerful sound for such a small device, with expansive imaging courtesy of Blackstar’s Super Wide Stereo technology.

Specs

• PRICE: $229 | £169 | €189
• ORIGIN: China
• TYPE: Portable practice amp
• FEATURES: 5x presets, Bluetooth audio streaming, removable carry strap, USB audio interface, app with tuner, metronome and more 
• CONTROLS: Power button, Bluetooth pairing button, Patch, Gain, EQ, FX, Volume, SpeedDial
• CONNECTIONS: Standard instrument input, 1/8” stereo headphone output, USB
• POWER: Internal Lithium-ion battery charged via USB (18 hours’ use on a full charge)
• DIMENSIONS: 152 (w) x 89 (d) x 79mm (h) 
• CONTACT: Blackstar Amplification

Usability and sounds

The full functionality of the Beam Mini is accessed wirelessly via the Beam app, which is available for iOS and Android, but the physical unit itself is usable straight out of the box and perfectly capable of standalone use without a phone in sight.

There are five user-defined patches stored onboard and accessed from the top panel, which has a small array of buttons to access various aspects of the sound to be adjusted by a rotary SpeedDial. Basically, you can choose your patch and adjust the Gain, EQ, FX and Volume – the white light Beam intuitively illuminates in line with any changes you make.

The patches are constructed in the same way as those in the ID:X Floor pedals. You get a Pre-FX in front of your chosen amp, then the amp followed by a fixed chain of three effects (modulation, delay and reverb), all passing through Blackstar’s proprietary IR-based CabRig DSP. All of this is easily set up in the app, which has very clear visual representations of everything – just pair up your phone and the Beam Mini over Bluetooth and you’re good to go.

The 12 modelled guitar amps include several Blackstar models such as the St James, plus the brand’s Ampton range of modelled classic amps, which includes Fender Twin, Vox AC30, Marshall Plexi and JCM800, Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier and Peavey 5150. All have fully adjustable conventional controls and you get Blackstar’s ISF to adjust the tone stack characteristics from UK (Marshall) to USA (Fender) sounds.

You also get some bass amps and an acoustic preamp. The CabRig facility gives you a choice of six cabinets with either a mic’d sound via a choice of virtual mics, or the ‘In the Room’ option, which works really well in a practice situation, offering more of the experience of standing next to an amp while you play.

With 35 effects available to populate the pre- and post- effects slots, there’s a wide range of flavouring to complement the amps and create quality, playable tones for a wide variety of musical styles – something that is reflected by the factory-programmed patches provided by Blackstar in the app.

What really sets the Beam Mini apart, though, is that besides all of the modelled sounds provided by Blackstar you also get access to a humongous range of amp captures. Blackstar has teamed up with Neural Amp Modelling pioneers Tone3000 for access to the open-source NAM platform, including the recent A2 capture technology.

Scroll down to the bottom of the Blackstar amp menu and you can engage NAM and scroll through its range of snapshot captures of physical amps and rigs for selection for placement in your signal chain (at the moment you can’t have a Pre-FX with it, but you can add the post-FX).

Checking out the captures, I found some excellent tones among them ranging from staple amps to weird-and-wonderful curios. Yet, as anyone can upload their own captures, there are also plenty that are a bit lacklustre. However, sort out the wheat from the chaff and you’ve got access to a cracking range of sounds, playable straight from the hardware for free.

The Beam app also comes with a metronome and a range of backing tracks in various styles that you can stream into the unit and play along with, but you can also stream any music you want into it, which is where an update expected in late summer will offer even more potential for practice.

In August 2026, Beam Mini will be able to integrate Moises AI stem separation, letting you isolate or remove instruments from any song, thus you should be able to take any song and remove the guitar part, allowing you to play your own part along with the band instead.

The other side of that coin is that if you’re struggling to learn a particular guitar part, you may be able to isolate it from the backing and the vocals to hear it with clarity.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★★

The Beam Mini packs all the elements you need into a fully portable practice amp and does it in style for a very reasonable asking price.

MusicRadar verdict: It’s a somewhat different take on a dirt pedal, and probably not designed for chasing what we generally think of as traditional guitar/amp tone. But it offers an alternative set of flavours and textures and is especially useful for anyone who records DI guitar. More colours in that paintbox is no bad thing.

Hands-on videos

Blackstar

The Studio Rats

Peach Guitars

• "The amp and effects modelling unit for those who’d rather play than get bogged down in too many details" Blackstar ID:X Floor Two review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Blackstar Amplification have taken Doug Aldrich’s super-juicy, super-hot 100-watt signature Ruby head and turned it into a compact five-watt tube amp combo that’s loud enough for the studio and small stages, quiet enough that you can crank at home without bothering the dog.

If you need any more proof that pets – neighbours, spouses, sensitive houseplants, too – will not be bothered by the new DA5 Ruby, just look at the picture at the top of the page; Aldrich’s magnificent dog endorses this new amp, too.

Aldrich insists the new amp might be smaller but it has all the same electric guitar tone as its larger sibling.

“I’ve always believed that great tone shouldn’t be reserved for the big stage,” he says. “The DA5 Ruby changed everything for me – all the character, all the punch, all the attitude of my live rig, but something I can plug in at home and just play.”

Blackstar has retained the same push-pull tube architecture of the larger head, using a using a 12BH7 power valve to give you the same dynamics, feel and compression as the larger amp. And there is onboard power scaling for those late-night sessions (and anyone who is woodshedding in an apartment block).

“Combined with Blackstar’s Power Reduction, players can enjoy authentic valve performance all the way down to 0.5 Watts without sacrificing tone,” says Blackstar, who describes the “core signal paths” of the DA5 as being directly based on Aldrich’s touring amp, the DA100.

The speaker, however, might well be the star of the show. This 50-watt 12” driver was co-designed with Aldrich, with the former Dio and Whitesnake guitarist involved with voicing it. It allows the DA5 Ruby to punch well beyond its weight.

“The speaker is the secret weapon,” says Aldrich. “It just has this size and weight to the sound that you don’t expect. That’s the magic.”

The DA5 has two channels with four switchable voices. You have Blackstar’s patented ISF feature, its onboard CabRig DSP simulator with three user presets for direct recording. You can record direct via USB-C or balanced XLR.

There is also a stereo headphones output for silent practice. And Ruby by name, ruby by nature; it shares the same red vinyl aesthetic as its sibling. Each amp ships with a footswitch and a COA hand-signed by Aldrich.

“It’s killer,” says Aldrich. “It’s got all the tones from the original DA100 Ruby but in a five-watt combo and I love it so much.”

The DA5 Ruby is priced £669/$849 and is available now. See Blackstar Amplification for more details.

What is it?

Following on from its ID:X series of modelling amps, Blackstar has expanded the ID:X range with a release of three floor processors, the ID:X Floor One, Two and Three. All of these have the same onboard DSP so are capable of the same sounds, but each delivers it in a different way.

The small One unit features three footswitches as does the Two, which adds a treadle for control of wah, volume or effect parameters. But our focus is the Three here, which ups the flexibility quota by having eight footswitches and adding an effects loop among other features.

The ID:X Floor Three gives you amp and effects modelling with 99 onboard patches to store your sounds. It features 12 guitar amp models, three bass amps, two acoustic voices and an acoustic simulator. In addition, there are 35 onboard effects in various categories.

While the (very) affordable price is a major factor of its appeal, another is that it is gloriously easy to use with a proper hands-on aesthetic: there are some screen parameters to navigate, but there’s no deep diving into the menu, and operation is really intuitive.

Specs

• PRICE: $399 | £279 | €279
• ORIGIN: China
• TYPE: Amp and effects modelling floor pedal
• FEATURES: Buffered bypass, 99 presets, tuner, tap tempo, noise gate, hardware FX loop, 2 in/4 out audio interface
• CONTROLS: Voice switch, Gain, Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, ISF, Master, 10x buttons, 2x turn/push encoders, footswitches (Channels 1, 2, 3, Tap, Pre FX, Modulation, Delay, Reverb), treadle
• CONNECTIONS: Standard instrument input, Standard Send, Standard Return, Standard ‘To Amp’, XLR Outs (L/Mono, R), TRS stereo line out/phones, 1/8” stereo line in/streaming, MIDI In, MIDI Thru, USB
• POWER: Supplied 9V DC adaptor, 500 mA
• DIMENSIONS: 397 (w) x 195 (d) x 68mm (h)
• RANGE OPTIONS: ID:X Floor One ($269 | £169 | €189), ID:X Floor Two ($319 | £219 | €235)
• CONTACT: Blackstar Amplification

Usability and sounds

Although the treadle is plastic, the ID:X Floor’s bent sheet-steel chassis offers confidence that it’s rugged enough for use underfoot, and has the connectivity to take care of all the common onstage, studio and home tasks.

There’s a single guitar input with a pair of main XLR outputs for connection to a front-of-house mixing desk or PA, plus a single output to connect to an amp or FRFR speaker.

You also get a stereo line output that’ll take headphones for silent practice and, tied in with that, there’s a stereo line input for an external audio source – Bluetooth streaming is not supported.

Send and Return sockets allow you to connect external pedals into the system (with the option of having them pre- or post- the amp modelling), and there’s a pair of MIDI sockets for implementing MIDI control.

A USB-C socket enables connection to a computer to take advantage of the unit’s audio interface capability for recording, along with Blackstar’s Architect software editor and librarian, which offers a quick way to set up sounds with a few mouse clicks, and also gives you access to any firmware updates.

The onboard patches are arranged three to a bank and are instantly recalled with the first three footswitches on the lower row, which are also used for scrolling through the banks by pressing two simultaneously – something that requires a slight angling of the foot. The fourth lower row footswitch offers tap tempo or calls up the tuner. The footswitches in the upper row turn the effects in a patch on and off.

These are arranged in a fixed but logical order with one effect before the amp block, and modulation, delay and reverb effects coming after the amp.

There is a choice of two compressors, auto wah and envelope filter to select before the amp, as well as a comprehensive range of dirt options that includes models of Tube Screamer, Klon, Rat and Big Muff, among others.

The modulation slot offers chorus, flangers, phasers, tremolos, UniVibe and vibrato, while there are five different types each of delay and reverb.

The amps are chosen by a six-way rotary Voice switch allied to a button that selects one of three banks of six. The first bank has signature Blackstar amp sounds including various St James models, and the second bank features the company’s Ampton models, which cover classic tone builders: a Fender Twin, Vox AC30, Marshall ‘Plexi’ and JCM800, Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, and Peavey 5150.

The usual array of controls (Gain, Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble) are available as easily grabbable knobs for the amps, but you also get some extra tonal variation from the ISF knob, which is designed to morph from British to US sound. On top of that you have a selectable choice of modelled output valves – EL84, EL34 and 6L6 for Vox, Marshall and Fender flavour respectively.

Each amp has the CabRig IR-based speaker simulation that offers a selection of cabs with adjustable mic’ing and room options, or ITR (In The Room), which gives you more of a feeling of playing through a real amp in a real space, rather than listening to a mic’d cabinet.

Plenty of options, then, to dial in a range of tones. But it’s worth starting with the factory-programmed patches that have been carefully curated to be usable for common guitar tasks straight out of the box. Alternatively, you could switch to Manual mode where the sounds are purely down to the position of the physical knobs and switches.

What you get is an effortlessly usable unit that delivers dynamically playable amp sounds. The complementary effects are suitable for a wide range of styles, and also give you a passable simulation of acoustic guitar that will fit in nicely with a band mix, as well as alternative acoustic voices if you use an electro-acoustic.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

The ID:X Floor Three costs just £279. Just think about that – there are plenty of boutique dirt pedals that do one simple task and cost around the same.

With the Floor Three you get a full amp/cab and effects chain, fully footswitchable. It can be used as your sole onstage item if required or fulfil the at-home roles of being a practice tool and the source of all your recorded guitar sounds when connected to a computer.

Where’s the catch, then? Well, there isn’t one. Okay, you can’t experiment with the effects order and the sounds aren’t quite in the same class as the (much more expensive) Neural and Fractal units, but they are good, eminently playable sounds from clean right through to high-gain.

MusicRadar verdict: All three ID:X Floor units should attract the attention of anyone who wants to get into the world of modelling processors, but this model is the one that is most capable of making the graduation from bedroom to stage.

Hands-on videos

Blackstar Amplification

The Studio Rats

Cameron Cooper

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Jared James Nichols wasn’t looking for a new guitar amp but the amp found him anyway. A longtime endorsee of Blackstar, with whom he had worked on a range of signature amps, he had no complaints.

“The thing with the Blackstar stuff is there’s literally no – how do I say this right? There’s no drama,” says Nichols. “No, like, ‘Oh, I’m going to leave!’ I’ve had an amazing relationship with Blackstar for almost 15 years, which is crazy.

“It’s crazy to say! And those guys, before I was doing any touring, they were letting me play amps, and they were letting me borrow stuff, and then eventually giving me amps. So, like, my whole tone, truly, was built with these Blackstars.”

And yet, lately, Nichols had been curious. He had been curious about Marshall amps. He felt there was “a taboo” about even speaking about this with friends. Blackstar, after all, was founded by Marshall alumni. Maybe it felt like cheating. But he couldn’t escape the fact that when presented with a vintage Marshall tube amp – specifically a non-master volume (NMV) 100-watt 1959 Super Lead ‘Plexi’ that he used alongside its contemporary descendants to record his latest studio album, Louder Than Fate – it brought out something in this playing that he hadn’t fully heard before.

“I was trying other things, and in my heart, every time I would plug into a Plexi, I’d be like, ‘God, man, this is just that thing,’” he says. “Because, as a fingerstyle player, and as someone that plays this dynamic range, I could always hear my fingers with a Plexi. No matter if I put on a Tube Screamer, or a Klon, or a wah, or a fuzz, I could still hear my fingers under it.”

It also got him thinking about electric guitar tone in 2026, when there are so many options available to us, many of which are great, and this great agglomeration of stuff, transparent this, high-gain that, multi-channels with different modes, onboard cab sims and MIDI-controllable electric toothbrushes. It all gets a bit much.

“In my gut, I kept going back to these old, non-master volume Marshalls, because there’s just something so pure, and they’re so raw,” says Nichols.

And they really are so raw and so gnarly. These amps were originally designed as public address systems. The volume is… Well, let’s just say, the vintage Plexi is not for everyone. They are a challenge.

“They’re almost scary in a way to a lot of players, because it’s like riding a fucking bronco, man! It’s like you really have to harness this amp,” says Nichols, who gets noticeably louder when talking about the Plexi. “It’s not an easy amp to just plug into and be like, ‘Oh yeah!’ It’s bone clean, and then it’s like you have to figure out how to almost be at one with the amp in order to make it really work.”

Amps like that are like an MRI scan. Nichols found the Plexi articulated every detail in his playing, good and bad.

“When I started to really dig into it – like I said, when I got that ’68 – I just noticed that something changed in me as a player,” he says. “Something was being a little more honest, something was not shying away from any note I was playing – it wasn’t shying away [from anything]. Even when I’d hit something wrong, I’d be like, ‘Oof!’

“Even when I’m simply hitting a single note line with the band, it’s just the physicality of it and the weight of the tone. It does something to me psychologically as a player where it puts me somewhere else. When I’m playing through these amps, I can’t lie, because I always have to deliver, because it’s not like I have this über-delay setting, or, there’s this built-in reverb.”

Such amps reward expert players and punish sloppiness. Not all are like that. There are some amps – and every experienced player will have a preference – that flatter your playing, with a natural compression and a feel that is forgiving. A little spring reverb can be the elixir you need, a way of letting a bit of air into your playing. There is nothing wrong with that.

It was only when Nichols went in for a session with Joe Bonamassa that he realised he might have been hiding behind his amp, and he was paying the price.

“With the Blackstars, man, I got so used to, playing with so much reverb and so much compression,” he says. “I remember, one time I was playing – and I was playing with Bonamassa – and he plugged in, and he was playing a Dumble-modded Twin, but he just plugged it in, and he hit a low E, he went ‘BONK!’ And he went, ‘WAH WAH WAH’. And then I hit something, and it was almost like his amp was punching me in the face, and it felt like mine was in the corner in the back.”

So, Nichols bit the bullet. He made the change. And when he rocked up to record Louder Than Fate under the watchful eye of producer Jay Ruston, he had the ’68 Plexi, and he got to work, and it was a learning curve.

There is a golden rule of recording guitars in the studio that small amps are worth their weight in gold. Turn them up, stick a good microphone in front of them and it can be the sound that unlocks the session. You will find a Fender Champ in every recording facility for this very reason.

Nichols was recording an album titled Louder Than Fate. He went in the other direction.

“Ooh, man! [Laughs] It’s funny. I’m smiling and I’m laughing because I’m thinking about the absolute domination of big amps I used,” he says. “It was so insane. Okay, so here’s the thing. I’m with you; a Champ, a Supro, a Deluxe, a little Tweed, whatever it is, you turn those things up, man! You put a good compressor on in the studio – even live, man – and there’s nothing you can’t do with them. They’re just incredible amps, right?

“But what I noticed, especially for this record, was I had this ’68 Marshall Plexi alongside these newer Marshall Modified Super Lead Plexis. Dude, those are my jam, man. Those are the amps. Out of all the new stuff that I was able to try – and Marshall’s been amazing letting me try all this different stuff, a lot of great stuff – what hit me right away was those modified Plexis. So a lot of this record, you hear a ’68 and these Modified Plexis.”

There are a few key differences between the original late ‘60s vintage tube head Nichols was plugging into and their modern counterparts. The new models ship from the the factory with Clip and Bright switches.

The biggest difference, however, is the addition of the master volume. Nichols’ ’68 belongs to a more innocent time, the NMV era, and it was a real grizzly bear in the studio. They had to take two of the power tubes out the back to run it at 50-watts and it was still, to use a technical term, “insanely loud”.

“I mean, all the amps I used were huge, 100-watters, man!” says Nichols. “We had to kick the ’68 down because it was so rowdy, bro. It was so rowdy! We had it in a room, like, in a booth, and it was shaking the walls so bad that you were able to hear it in the tracking, and I was like, ‘This amp is a monster.’”

This is the kind of anecdote that will have digital advocates showing up in the comments, reasoning – not unreasonably – that the amp modeller can put a choice of tube amp tones at your feet and it won’t take the paint off the walls. Nichols gets that. Totally.

But he’s looking for a very particular experience. He’s like a storm chaser hauling ass in a pickup across an Oklahoma highway in pursuit of a twister.

He believes there’s something magical, quasi-epicurean from all this volume

“There’s something really, really beautiful that happens – especially when you’re using unpotted pickups, old-school stuff guitar-wise,” he says. “And I’m not saying just vintage guitars, but when you have volume, and you have these pickups that are reacting to what’s coming out of the speaker that’s hitting you.

“Obviously, we know there’s this whole debate of digital versus tubes. The thing that I feel is the digital cannot produce in a certain way is that power of a tube amp absolutely screaming through a speaker, just hitting you and hitting your guitar. And in turn, that’s making these guitars react and do different harmonic stuff that they wouldn’t do at a lower volume – or with a smaller amp. A lot of these tones I’m getting, and these overtones, did come from the amp.”

And that takes us back to why Nichols made the switch and nailed his colours to the Marshall mast.

“When I hit these Marshalls, man, it just literally gets me closer to the sun, if that makes sense,” he says. “It’s closer to the sounds that literally keep me up at night, which is, honestly, it’s exactly where I want to be.”

And even in this day and age, of sound limits onstage, in-ear monitors, all that pro audio stuff, Nichols argues that the old-school ways – an amp that turns 70 in a couple of years – still has a place in the modern rock player’s backline, and it still has the power to make guitar playing an act of transcendence.

“I played a Plexi onstage with the band. I’d already been playing it in the studio. I’d already had all of this knowledge of the way it was going to sound, so there was no surprises,” says Nichols. “And I’m telling you, man, I felt like I was levitating off the ground, because I was just going for stuff. I felt like I was in Cream in 1968. Like, the tone was so raw, and I just said, ‘This is exactly where I want to be. And sometimes, what’s the phrase? The heart wants what it wants. That’s what I wanted.”

Louder Than Fate is available to preorder, shipping 5 June via Frontiers. You can read more from Nichols coming soon to MusicRadar.

Blackstar Amplification has launched the Beam Mini, super-compact take-anywhere guitar amp that blew minds at NAMM 2026 with its state-of-the-art “component-level” digital modelling, AI stem separation tech, and access to more than 200,000 community-created Neural Amp Models via Tone3000.

If the prospect of having all those sounds at the touch of a button sounds inspiring, just imagine how the Beam Mini's onboard Moises AI stem separation technology could spice up your practice sessions. We'll have to wait for a software update in August before the stem separation is available on the Beam Mini, but it is a tantalising prospect.

“Want to play along with a classic track? Remove the guitar and step into the player’s shoes, or isolate a part to study every detail of the performance,” says Blackstar. “This works for all instruments, giving musicians a completely new way to practise, learn, and play along with their favourite music.”

With all this 21st-century functionality, access to user-created tones and AI tools for enhancing practice sessions, Blackstar is heating up a market that already has some very clever digital desktop amps, such as the JBL Bandbox range, which offers similar AI stem isolation, and the Positive Grid Spark Go, which similarly offers a huge bank of user-created tones sourced from its ToneCloud community

But AI and the NAM captures are just the headline features. There is a lot going on under the Beam Mini’s impossibly tiny IP66 dust and weatherproof cabinet, a lot of sounds.

It ships with 12 electric guitar amps, six modelled on classic Blackstar amps, with six Ampton models of classic guitar amps – and Blackstar promises authentic tube amp tone thanks to the “component-level” modelling tech that engineered them. We’ve also got a trio of bass amps, two acoustic guitar amps, an acoustic simulator – and what would a Blackstar amp be without the patented ISF feature for dialling in that Transatlantic voice? There are 35 “studio-grade” guitar effects.

Under the hood there are two full-range drivers and a pair of passive bass radiators. Blackstar says its Super Wide Stereo tech gives you “immersive, room-filling tone” that belies the Beam Mini’s size.

Beam Mini is also equipped with Blackstar’s CabRig technology, so you have all those IR-based speaker cabinet and mic placement options to work with. With a USB-C connection, you can also use it as a guitar audio interface for recording.

And you can even use a headset mic for tracking vocals and content creation. It ships with Ableton Live Lite.

This is one of these practice amps you can take to the park, the beach, the office, wherever, and you’ll get up to 18 hours of playtime from a full charge. You can stream audio via Bluetooth. You can increase the intensity of numerous effects at once via the SpeedDial.

The SpeedDial dominates a control panel that has just the essential buttons for Patch, FX, Gain, EQ and Volume. Simply press the button then turn the over-sized SpeedDial to adjust the parameter.

Deeper edits and patch creation executed within the Beam app. It is via the app you can access artist-created patches and share your own.

The expandability of the Beam Mini is something that is unique to the digital era. Be warned: your tone options just got bewildering. In practice, players have access to the 200,000 open-source Neural Amp Models that Tone3000 users have created and shared in its online library.

You can access presets created by Blackstar artists such as Gus G, Doug Aldrich and Will Sergeant.

And it has the essentials, too. Hold down the volume button and you have a guitar tuner. You can store up to give patches on the Beam Mini. Swap ‘em out via the app.

The Blackstar Beam Mini is available now, priced £169/$229, but remember: the Moises AI stem separation tech will be available via a software update on August 2026. For more details, head over to Blackstar Amplification.

What is it?

From pocket-sized amps like the Quad Cortex Mini to chocolate bars, we’re in an age of shrinkflation; things are getting smaller by the minute. Wireless guitar systems are not exempt from this trend, and many now boast a footprint small enough to hide down the back of the sofa.

In recent years, the wireless market has heated up considerably; with historical heavyweights Line 6 and Boss now challenged by fresh faces a la the Positive Grid Spark Link and Fender’s debut foray into the market, the Telepath.

All these systems look like toys in comparison to the once-industry-standard offerings from Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, and AKG, which required a larger box and a whole lot of cabling to get grooving.

The differences are night and day, and though Blackstar is a little slow in entering the ring, it does so with fair confidence. Several manufacturers have pivoted from the arguably overcrowded 2.4 GHz bandwidth to 5.8 GHz of late, and Blackstar has done likewise to try and gain the upper hand, but it takes things a step further; its built-in anti-interference algorithm automatically switches frequencies should its turf get encroached upon. Peace of mind is at its core.

Beyond that is a nine-hour battery life (with a 2.5 hour charging time via USB-C), bolstered by a self-powering down feature that kicks in after 10-minutes of inactivity to avoid wasted juice. It can beam a signal 100 feet with a minuscule <6ms latency, and there's a Cable Tone feature to appease the purists who feel that ditching the cable comes at an aural cost.

And with this being Blackstar, it remains in an accessible price range with its £149/€159/$169 price tag, undercutting many of its competitors.

Specs

Launch price: $169 | £149 | €159 |

Type: Guitar wireless system

Controls: Power, Pair, Cable Tone (receiver only)

Connectivity: 1/4" mono jack, USB-C 5V port

Range: 100 feet

Battery life: 9 hours from a 2.5-hour charge (via USB-C)

Contact: Blackstar Amps

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★½

Easily mistaken for a vape, the two devices – transmitter and receiver – are unassuming, with the hinged jack folding in for easy transport. But its plastic housing doesn’t strike me as being quite as sturdy as some systems I've tried, especially given that it arrives in a velvet pouch. It could certainly be a little vulnerable with a finish that's quite susceptible to scratching.

There are four channels on offer, meaning four band members could use the devices simultaneously without issues, and hitting the Pair button simply changes the channel number, cycling back to 1 after 4. In all, it makes for a sleek, no-nonsense approach to matters; it’s as plug-and-play as you can get.

Being colourblind, I do personally find that the colour differences between the channel lights being on/off to be a little unclear, especially glancing down to my guitar's jack, but it's a minor grievance.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★☆

Save for the very easy-to-miss markings on their sides, the two units are identical – and those labels are not only easy to miss, but only useful in a well-lit space. On stage, it could be a very different story. I would like a more foolproof way to differentiate between the two, but that aside, getting moving couldn’t be simpler.

Plugging into my Focusrite interface, hooked up to Reaper and various Neural DSP plugins, I'm able to walk around my house with no signal dips or latency. Walls are no object, and recording some chugs as I walk around, there is a small dip in signal strength – and therefore the volume coming out the other end – the further I travel, and one unexpected screech of feedback which quickly subsides, ultimately conks out at around 50 feet, which isn’t too bad considered the amount of material that stood between my computer and Charvel. Your average gig space doesn't tend to have those issues, of course!

It’s worth noting that there is no spluttering as I reach the cut-off point; it works until it doesn’t. Operation is as silent as your rig, meaning it doesn’t give off any extra buzz or hiss, and feedback is minimal, even when the two devices are centimetres apart.

Moreover, the generous battery life means I can play without dread – I even spend a few hours writing and recording on my computer without thinking twice about needing to charge. So there are plenty of benefits here, but it’s not flawless. Its lack of an active/passive switch may irk some, especially those who gig with several electric guitars, meaning that, for a small upcharge, the Telepath might edge it out for that user case.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Compared to playing and recording with a cable, the output I get is slightly lower, though not enough to be particularly noticeable unless you're analysing waveforms. The Cable Tone switch also slightly boosts the signal.

I find that with the Cable Tone feature the signal becomes a little warmer and a little less scratchy than without it engaged, but neither is quite as full-bodied as playing with a cable. In a live environment, I don't see it as a major issue, and it's not something that minor EQing couldn't fix.

Even then, I’m splitting hairs, looking at the minute differences; nothing here is unexpected. Honing in though, what I will say is the Cable Tone feature is too good to turn off, otherwise, the signal tends to sound a little too digital for my liking.

Verdict

It’s hard to criticise what the AirWire i58 offers for the price; it’s easy to use, packs a tiny footprint, and, through the Cable Tone feature and its anti-interference algorithm, looks to counter two of the biggest drawbacks of going sans cable.

There are a few minor gripes, like the difficulty of telling the transmitter from the receiver, and casing that I feel could be more robust in case of mishaps, but there is nothing overly crucial here – save for the lack of an active/passive switch, which lets down its otherwise commendable spec sheet, especially for the price. That might sway some players to shop elsewhere.

However, to add one more small negative: When plugged directly into my Quad Cortex, the receiver tended to fall to the ground rather than sit upright. It’s not the end of the world, but I’d have liked it to be hinged upright at all times

MusicRadar verdict: The Blackstar AirWire i58 is incredibly easy to use, packs a tiny footprint in an era of super-compact gig rigs, and tries to offer solutions to two of the biggest drawbacks of wireless systems.

The Cable Tone feature prevents the signal from sounding too scratchy or digital, and the anti-interference algorithm adds greater peace of mind to its performance.

What is it?

A few short years ago, a headphone amp was something you used in a recording studio or in audiophile circles. Headphone amps for guitar are a different beast entirely though, and could well make a case for replacing the traditional practice amp entirely thanks to the advent of modern modelling tech. The Blackstar Beam Solo represents the latest entrant into an increasingly packed field, where nearly every major manufacturer is offering a practice-friendly product of their own.

The Blackstar Beam Solo isn’t exactly pushing the boat out when it comes to design either. It looks very similar to offerings from Fender and Boss amongst many others, giving you a large rotary dial to control parameters alongside a selection of buttons for changing various functions. Bluetooth connectivity lets you jam along to music, and an online community is accessible via the web to provide custom tones.

Blackstar’s bigger competition has an ace in the hand in the form of small screens for displaying information, but that might not be the boon they think it is, thanks to the clever ‘light beam’ display that gives you various visual cues in order to aid usability - more on which later. It also offers the ability to record vocals alongside your guitar playing by using a headset microphone with its own preamp and reverb.

With so many manufacturers jumping into the world of guitar headphone amps, the Beam Solo has certainly got its work cut out to make a mark, but that’s no bad thing for us guitarists. The amount of choice we have for compact, silent practice is really incredible these days, and it appears we’ve now got another contender.

Specs

• Launch price: $129.99 | £119 | €139
• Type: Headphone amplifier
• Origin: China
• Channels: 5 presets
• Controls: Patch, gain, EQ, FX, volume, rotary control
• Connectivity: 1 x 1/4" (instrument), 1 x 1/8", 1 x USB-C
• Weight: 0.45kg (0.99lbs)
• Dimensions: 67 x 37.2 x 20.5mm
• Contact: Blackstar

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★½

I’ve tested quite a few different headphone amps for guitar, and the Beam Solo unfortunately falters a little bit in this department. Compared to offerings like the Mustang Micro Plus and Boss Katana Go, Beam Solo feels a bit cheap and plasticky. It’s more lightweight, but larger, although this doesn’t affect how the guitar feels when it’s plugged in, nor it’s ability to fit into multiple different guitars.

The output jack offers 270 degrees of rotation, and I tried it in a Strat, Tele, Jazzmaster, and a Gretsch semi-hollow without any problems. Unless you’ve got a really weird input jack like those you get on some Strandberg guitars, I can’t see there being any issues plugging the Beam Solo into yours.

The chassis itself is fairly solid despite the plasticky feel, but the large rotary knob on the front face, which more than resembles a speaker cone, feels quite flimsy under my thumb and forefinger. When I press down hard on it the rotation becomes jerky which affects how the knob moves, and there’s a lot of give in it, which doesn’t exactly reassure me it’s going to stand the test of time.

The five buttons on the side of the unit feel much more robust, albeit their rubbery texture means they’re not quite as tactile as those I’ve tried on the Mustang Micro and Katana Go. They click when you push hard to let you know they’ve engaged, and on the opposite side you have switches for turning the unit on and pairing via Bluetooth.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★½

Plugging the Beam Solo into my number one Telecaster, I start by navigating my way through the unit via the buttons and jog wheel. Just above where you press the buttons there is an LED light strip that illuminates the control labels to let you know where you are. The display adjusts depending on what you’re doing, with the volume function gradually filling from left to right to show you what volume level you’re at.

The gain function works very similarly to the volume one, filling as you turn it up, while the patch setting lights up five different increments to let you know which one you’ve engaged. The FX button can be used to set a tempo by pressing it in repeatedly, while the large jog wheel sets the mix level, giving some very nice control that doesn’t require me to access a phone app, a massive plus for me.

It’s incredibly intuitive and I don’t need to look at the manual to start finding my way around the unit and dialing in tones. You also get a basic tuner when you hold down the volume button, which uses the LED light strip to show you whether you’re note is flat or sharp. It doesn’t tell you what note you’re on however, so you’ll need it to already be in the ball park in order to get the correct note.

Heading to the Google Play Store I set about installing the Beam app on my Pixel 9 phone. Installation is lightning quick, as is connecting the Beam Solo to the app, but unfortunately it doesn’t stay connected for long. After no small rigamarole with the Blackstar tech team, we eventually work out that it’s due to having used an earlier version of the unit, which was causing an issue that was preventing it from staying connected.

The app is presented really nicely, with some excellent high-resolution graphics to display the amps and effects, and an overall very slick feel when tweaking settings or moving between menus. Much like the Positive Grid smart amps, you can set five hardware presets that can always be recalled regardless of whether you’re using the app, and download user-generated presets that cover a wide variety of sounds.

The signal chain runs along the bottom, with editable sections for pre-fx, amp, post-fx, cabrig, and music streaming. When in these menus you can interact with the different amp and effects settings by sliding a finger or tapping on the various switches, and it’s a similarly smooth feel here, so you can make fine changes with little difficulty.

There's also a bunch of backing tracks and lessons in the music streaming section of the app, and I have great fun jamming along with the Midnight Drive Rock Guitar one. Currently it's heavily weighted towards rock and blues, and I'd love to see Blackstar expand the choice here as they make for really great practice tools.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

Putting on my favourite studio headphones I start with the five presets that come as standard on the hardware. They go from pristine clean to all-out high-gain lead tones, so all the basic guitar tones are well covered here. With eleven guitar amps, one acoustic preamp, three bass amps, and thirty-six different effects, there’s plenty of choice too, whether you’re a fan of Blackstar amps or you want some classic guitar tones.

The tones are absolutely incredible too. Turning up the volume on my Telecaster I’m greeted by an incredibly articulate tone on the Super Clean preset. Delivered via a model of the St James 6L6 clean channel, it’s definitely giving tube amp from the 60s vibes with ultra clarity at the high end and some lovely depth and warmth on the lows.

The Artisan 30 is the next amp model, with the preset named Super Crunch. It’s actually a little too crunchy for my tastes, but disengaging the overdrive pedal from the pre-fx menu sorts it right out, delivering those classic Marshall crunch tones that pair perfectly with power chords and double stops.

Moving on to the High Gain Stack I get an appropriately chunky guitar tone. So chunky in fact, that I immediately have to reach for my baritone tuned to drop G# in order to get some properly heavy tones. There’s plenty of low-end heft here, with a very pleasing distortion that doesn’t suffer from the fizziness I’ve encountered on other amp models.

Of course, the Blackstar amp tones are the star of the show here, but if you want some different tone profiles, they are available. There’s a classic Fender clean amp, a modelled Marshall, Vox, Mesa, and a 5150, each of which has plenty of the characteristics that make them such iconic tones in the world of guitar. It means plenty of choice for the tone connoisseur, no matter what your preferred poison.

There’s a bucketload of effects to add to the mix, with plenty of choice when it comes to gain stages and fuzz pedals. I find myself particularly enjoying the reverbs though, despite the fact there are only three to choose from. You get a plate, hall, and spring algorithms, which covers the most popular guitar-specific sounds.

You can also set a room reverb via the cabrig section, setting the size of the room, how much of it you hear, and the overall width of the space. This gives me a very realistic amp in a room feel with my headphones on, which paired with excellent modelling quality means an incredibly immersive playing feel.

Verdict

With so many guitar headphone amps available nowadays, it’s especially difficult to stand out. The Blackstar Beam Solo does so much so well however, that it definitely makes itself a worthy competitor against some rather large brands in the space. Although it’s been released much later than others, this has allowed Blackstar to pack it with some very nifty features.

The one place it doesn't cover itself in glory is the build quality. When holding it side by side with the Mustang Micro and Katana Go it definitely feels cheaper, lagging behind the more established competition. In particular the large encoder wheel feels as though it won’t stand up to much abuse. That said, the Beam Solo does get the most important thing right, which is how is sounds.

MusicRadar verdict: Blackstar Beam Solo can absolutely hang with the more established brands when it comes to its headphone amp offering. The modelling offers sumptuous guitar tones with plenty of variety and the addition of some useful features like recording via USB-C helps set it apart from others in the field. The build quality may not be the best, but it gets the important stuff spot on.

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What is it?

Much more so than electric guitar, bass really isn't a whole lot of fun without an amplifier. You sit there diligently plucking away, but all it takes is a slight increase in the volume of the TV in the next-but-one room and you lose everything except the sound of your fingers hitting the strings.

All the floor-shaking power and majesty of this most fine of instruments simply isn't apparent, and you end up feeling a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience.

Trouble is, historically, the entry-level bass amp has struggled to bring much of that power back. It can be a sad and thankless life for the overwhelmed, underpowered beginner's bass combo, the little speaker farting indecorously as you practice Hysteria.

It'll allow you to at least hear the notes you're playing, but a 1x8 combo the size of a box of matches is always going to struggle to transmit the low end needed to make playing bass feel good.

Or is it?

Northampton's well-respected Blackstar Amplification has sent over a new bass variant of its popular Debut entry-level guitar amp range, and it's time to see if it hits any different.

Specs

• Price: £179 | $299 | €239
• Type: Solid-state bass combo
• Origin: China
• Output: 25 watts
• Speaker: 1x8"
• Channels: 1, with switchable overdrive effect
• Controls: Volume, Overdrive button, Bass, Middle, Treble
• Connectivity: Instrument input, 3.5mm headphone output, 3.5mm line input
• Footswitch: None
• Weight: 8.45kg/18.6lb
• Dimensions: 348 x 348 x 251mm
• Contact: Blackstar Amplification

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

The bass range consists of the Debut 15 and this Debut 25, but even this bigger model is a compact thing indeed.

It’s light at 18.6lb, but feels satisfyingly well-constructed and solid. The quality of finishing is excellent, and the small row of controls all feel pleasing.

These Debut Bass models appear to be aimed squarely at providing competition for Fender’s two smallest Rumble bass combos, trading blows on feature set and price point; there also seems to be little to choose between the Blackstar and Fender offerings in terms of build quality, even down to the Velcro’d removable grill cloth.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★☆

The control set is simplicity itself, offering nothing you don’t need. There’s a volume control, naturally, and a three-band EQ, and… that’s it. In between, there’s a button triggering an overdrive effect, although with no further controls to adjust that.

Importantly, for a home-oriented amp, there’s also a pair of 3.5mm jacks on the top panel; a headphone output, and a line input for music to play along with.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Time to fire it up, then. For testing, a good Fender-style bass is as suitable a ‘control’ instrument as you'll find, so I sat down with my single-pickup, passive, P-alike 1983 Ibanez Roadstar and turned the Blackstar on. Now surely, with such a wee amp, there's no problem having the volume control around 9 o'clock to begin with? Wrong.

Make no mistake, the Debut 25 is loud – startlingly loud. Surprisingly so for an entry-level practice amp, I immediately had to duck the volume almost all the way back in order not to antagonise my neighbours. This amp could easily be enough for a rehearsal or even, possibly, a small gig. If anything, that volume control might be too much of a hair-trigger for low-level home use.

You might expect a dearth of low-end, but the Blackstar belies its tiny stature and punches out a strong, clean and even tone with a good amount of bass content. The three-band EQ does a solid job of cutting and boosting the right frequencies, and even at higher bass settings there’s no suggestion that the speaker or enclosure are struggling.

Introducing lower notes into the equation, there are no worries either - my five-string Warwick Thumb’s distinctive mid-heavy growl was ably transmitted right down to the lowest notes, while the back pickup of my Yamaha BB punched through with all the power I’d hoped for.

Don’t forget, there’s overdrive to be had as well. Although it’s only a simple circuit without even a level control, it's well-judged and certainly earns its place; a good general-purpose drive, with enough attitude to satisfy most bassists while practising. It’s not adjustable like an external pedal would be, but it’s great to have access to overdrive without fuss.

Verdict

In a world where even entry-level amps can be confusing and unintuitive as a result of too much being packed into too small a format, it's refreshing to use a practice amp that encourages you to stop messing around and... you know, start practising.

That said, the Debut Bass 25 also packs a hell of a punch that you might not be expecting.

It might actually be too difficult to control the volume accurately for quieter home use, but its solid quality, punchy tone and its surprising amount of headroom might make it a secret weapon for rehearsals, or even gigs.

MusicRadar verdict: Blackstar has created something surprising here – a practice amp that might annoy the neighbours a little too much. Its headroom, its build quality and its tonal power all suggest the Debut Bass 25 has the potential to break out of the bedroom and into louder, more demanding environments.

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• Blackstar St James EL34 and 6L6 combo and head valve amps review

The market for a headphone amps has just got interesting as Blackstar Amplification unveils the BEAM SOLO, a feature-packed little unit that can do much more than make silent practice fun.

Blackstar is bullish, describing it as the “most immersive, intuitive headphone amp on the market today”. But is it better than the MusicRadar-approved Fender Mustang Micro Plus?

Well, time will tell. But the BEAM SOLO is definitely got it in its sights. It, too, shares the compact plug-in-and-play design, with the integrated 1/4” instrument jack and a form factor that comfortably sees it fit in your pocket – and Blackstar is promising “pro-level” sound, with digital models of its guitar amps and access to its Ampton virtual amp library, which covers a wide range of classic tube amps.

The first thing that will grab you is how small this amp is. There is no room for an OLED display on a unit like this, but we do have a display of sorts, with an Interactive Light Beam running across the BEAM SOLO’s complement of buttons to let you know the changes to the parameter. Simply press one of the five buttons, turn the SpeedDial on the top of the amp, and then adjust the parameter. You can save these down to five onboard Patches, all presets that can be further edited via the accompanying app.

“We designed BEAM SOLO to give every guitarist the freedom to play and create anywhere, instantly, and without compromise,” says Blackstar. “Whether you’re shaping your sound with a twist of the SpeedDial or diving deep into your rig choices via the app, it always feels intuitive and immersive.

“You can record vocals, jam with backing tracks, or just enjoy the feel of a cranked valve amp in your headphones – all from a device that fits in your pocket.”

That’s right, vocals are a part of the equation. The headphones input supports a headset with a vocal mic, meaning you can stream external audio to the unit, play and sing along, or track vocals, with your vocals being handled by a “studio-quality” mic preamp and reverb.

Besides the Patch button, you will find a Gain button for setting preamp gain, EQ for adjusting treble, an FX button which you press then use the SpeedDial on the top of the amp to “dynamically adjust” all of the effects in your Patch simultaneously, and you can tap on this button for adjusting the tempo of time-based effects such as chorus and delay.

It will be interesting to hear how that plays out but this feature, which Blackstar calls XpressFX, promises “smooth transitions that feel natural”.

Blackstar’s In The Room technology gives your electric guitar tone that sense of space and feel as would when played through a quote/unquote real amp. We say “electric” but the BEAM SOLO was similarly designed for use with acoustic guitars and bass guitars.

And that is where Blackstar’s R&D effort is really going to be earning its corn. Players will check out the BEAM SOLO because it is a headphone solution for practice, sure, but they will buy it and use it religiously if those amp models – not to mention onboard effects, cabinet and mic sims – are all on point.

All of Blackstar’s virtual amps were engineered in Northampton (North-AMPTON, right?). “Ampton designs are more than just static profiles, they are the result of meticulous design, testing and optimisation – component by component, sector by sector,” says Blackstar.

Some of these models have been years in the making, such as the O.G. Blackstar Series One models, which were designed by the co-founder of Blackstar, the late Bruce Keir.

All of these models replicate the interactivity between the original amp’s tone stack, the thinking being that they won’t just sound like the amp that inspired them but behave like them too.

Finally, this is a digital product, so besides the deep edits you can make via the app – availing yourself of Blackstar’s patented ISF feature for Transatlantic EQ adjustments – you can also share your Patches with the user community, and download other players’ sounds, including from the Blackstar artist roster.

Doug Aldrich of The Dead Daisies, Gus G of Firewind, Will Sergeant of Echo and the Bunnymen have all created Official Artist Patches – and you can bet your bottom dollar Jared James Nichols has too.

For more details, head over to Blackstar Amplification. The BEAM SOLO is priced £119/$129.

Blackstar Amplification has launched the Polar Go, a guitar audio interface that is small enough to fit in your pocket and is designed to work seamlessly with your smartphone, tablet or laptop.

The Polar Go is equipped with Blackstar’s proprietary ProCapture Stereo Mics system, and has a combo XLR and 1/4” input, with +48V phantom power so you could hook it up with a condenser mic. There are dual USB-C outputs – one for power, one for data – and a 3.5 mm output for monitoring via studio headphones.

“Polar Go is more than a mobile interface,” says Blackstar. “It’s a complete, pocket-sized studio designed for the modern creator.”

We were big fans of Blackstar’s Polar 2 audio interface. It looked cool, was easy to use, exceptional for recording electric guitars. The Polar Go shrinks this concept down into a simple audio two-knob interface (for Input and Output volume) that is small enough to fit inside your pocket. And it, too, is designed for creators of all stripes, not just guitarists.

Blackstar has made this for singer-songwriters, rappers, spoken word artists, poets, comedians, podcasters and streamers, too. It is compatible with iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows, and with all major recording apps – GarageBand, BandLab, Zoom etc.

As the promo pic below suggests, you could take this down to your local park and track acoustic guitars – the birds and aircraft hum might even add a sort of field music authenticity to your work, open chords in the open air.

Sorry, we’re running away with ourselves here, but then that’s the point of a device like this. It’s a take-anywhere unit for capturing an idea – or developing on – as and when inspiration strikes, which as you know is hard to forecast.

Those stereo mics have a lot of range. Blackstar says they’ll “capture anything from ASMR to a grand piano”.

Under the hood, there is a DSP engine that applies the onboard reverb, compression, EQ and noise control. The Polar Go is designed to be used by the novice and expert alike.

The Polar Go’s rechargeable battery will give you up to six hours of on-the-go recording time. The accompanying Polar Go app lets you shape the sounds you are recording.

There is onboard video recording support, so you can synch up your A/V, presets for podcasts, guitars, vocals and more to get you started, and a Magic Wand tool to gussy up your sound in an instant.

“Whether you’re a singer-songwriter, podcaster, livestreamer or filmmaker, Polar Go transforms your audio from phone-quality to studio-ready instantly,” says Blackstar. “Just plug in and create, anywhere, anytime.”

The Polar Go is available now, priced £79/$129. For more information, head over to Blackstar Amplification.

Blackstar Amplification has unveiled its next-generation of digital guitar amps and promises that the ID:X is the “most natural-sounding modelling amp on the market today”.

It goes without saying that the ID:X is loaded with features. We have grown accustomed to electric guitar’s digital transformation, but even so, there is a lot to get into here.

Available as a 50- or 100-watt 1x12 combo, the ID:X presents players with six core amp voices, each selectable via a rotary dial, and a comprehensive suite of tone-shaping features.

Some of these features are reassuringly old-school. You still have the 3-Band EQ, with Gain, Volume, and Treble knobs doubling as Gate, Resonance and Presence respectively.

Long-time Blackstar aficionados will not be surprised to see the British amp brand’s patented ISF dial, which adjusts the overall EQ voicing from UK to US style, offering all points in between.

Fans of the Silverline series – aka, Blackstar gives digital amps a boutique makeover – will be pleased to see that the ID:X combos similarly feature a switchable tube amp response emulation, so you can “swap out your power tubes” on this 100 per cent digital amp, have it with EL34s one minute, 6L6s the next. EL84 power tube emulation is also on the menu.

All this is made possible by digital signal processing but so far we’re not actually dealing with anything that’s conceptually alien to tube amp purists – indeed, the goal is not to alienate these players but convert them.

Things really get interesting once we get to the effects. Blackstar offers heaps (i.e., over 35) of them. It also presents us with an OLED display screen so that we can do all the editing on the amp.

But note: you’ll want set aside some of our amp budget for the FS-12 and FS-18 footswitches, which are sold separately and will make this a more performance friendly proposition.

There is, of course, an effects loop, so you can easily integrate your hardware pedalboard. As much as we love our tube amps, there is something inherently practical in these digital designs. Blackstar has endowed these with MIDI outputs, USB, a 3.5mm line in. Maybe they’ll bundle it with an electric toothbrush should they ever launch a 2x12 version.

There is power scaling available on both models, so you can get it down to 10-watts or a single-watt for domestic practice with no drama. A single Anthem 100 speaker handles all business in the cabinet.

But the the ace in the hole might well be the onboard CabRig technology that presents these as more than just high-functioning practice amps. Hook the ID:X up to the device of your choice and you can swap out speaker cabinets, adjust the room size etc, then go direct when playing live or recording.

And… These are not expensive. US price is still TBC but at £349 for the ID:X 100 and £269 for the ID:X 50, that’s a lot of amp for the money. For more details, head over to Blackstar Amplification.

What is it?

The 100-watt tube amplifier – visual shorthand for the raw power of a loud electric guitar, and the decades of musical history therein. However, if you’ve tried to wrestle one down a narrow flight of venue stairs and cram it into the car, you probably wouldn’t blame those of us who switch to lighter, more compact solutions.

A few years ago, though, Blackstar Amplification saw an opportunity for change, with some modern thinking. The St James range broke cover in 2022, with an eye-catching strapline – “the lightest 50-watt valve guitar amps on Earth”.

Key to this was using switched-mode power units, eschewing heavy iron-block transformers. Strong, light candlenut plywood for the shells helped too, as did the Celestion Zephyr speakers, a weight-relieved design created specifically for the St. James. The result? A powerful 1x12 valve combo weighing 12.8kg - quite an achievement.

The idea clearly has some legs, as 2025 has seen the range expand. And now, the big guns have come out – here’s the St. James 100, available as a head or a 2x12 combo.

Specs

• Price: $2,499/£1,899/€2,499
• Type: All-valve combo
• Origin: China
• Valves: 2x 6L6 and 2x EL34 power valves, 3x ECC83 preamp valves
• Output: 100 watts RMS
• Dimensions: 681 (w) x 528 (h) x 259mm (d)
• Weight: 19.5kg/43lbs
• Cabinet: Lightweight candlenut plywood w/ black Tolex covering
• Speakers: 2x 12" 70-watt Celestion G12Z-70 Zephyr
• Channels: 4
• Controls: (Front panel) Mains on/off switch, Standby/Silent switch, half/full-power switch, Power, Master, dual rows for Reverb, Presence, Treble, Middle and Bass, ch4 Volume, ch4 Tight switch, ch4 Gain, ch3 Volume, ch3 Gain, ch2 Volume, ch2 Boost, ch2 Gain, ch1 Bright, ch1 Volume, Input. (Rear panel): Solo level control, -10dB/+4dB effects loop level switch, Series/Parallel effects loop control, 3-way CabRig IR selector switch, 3-way Cut switch
• Connectivity: USB for Architect software, MIDI In/Thru, 2-way 1/4" footswitch input, 6-way XLR footswitch input, effects loop Send/Return, 1/4" CabRig line/headphone output, XLR CabRig balanced output, speaker outputs for 1x8 ohm or 2x16 ohm, speaker output for 1x16 ohm, mains input
• Footswitch: 6-button FS-23 floorboard included, switches for Clean, Crunch/Boost, OD1, OD2/Tight, Solo, Reverb
• Range options: The St. James 100 head is $1,899/£1,699 and its accompanying 4x12 cab $1,199/£899. In the St. James 50 range, EL34 and 6L6 heads are both $1,349.99/£899, 1x12 combos are $1,449.99/£999 and 2x12 combos are $1,649.99/£1,199. The St. James 2x12 vertical cab is $829.99/£499.
• Contact: Blackstar Amplification

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The St James 100 head weighs in at a mere 10.1kg, a remarkable figure given we’re used to similarly powerful heads being at least twice that. It remains compact too, and would fit on most vertical 2x12 cabs – ideal for packing a huge punch into a narrow slot on stage.

As for the 212 we have here – well, there’s only so far you can shrink a 100-watt amp with two speakers onboard so, naturally, it’s big. But its weight figure of 19.5kg puts it on an equal footing with a single-speaker, 22-watt Deluxe Reverb.

Despite the surprising lack of mass, the build is pleasingly solid and the finishing excellent, everything one would hope for at the £1,899 list price. Aesthetics remain boutique-inspired (calling to mind Bad Cat and Matchless), but subtly mean and purposeful. No genteel fawn Tolex here – it’s black all the way – and the control panel has ballooned.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★☆

The 50-watt St James amps use stacked pots, two channels being independently controllable from just one set of knobs – here though, we have four channels, controlled by two rows of (nicely weighted) standard pots. Clean and Crunch share the lower row, OD1 and OD2 the upper.

There’s a lot else on board, a key feature being continuously variable power reduction that lets the amp run anywhere between full and 5 per cent power – great for apartment-dwellers, resentful when their monster amp can’t stretch its legs.

Alongside reverb, the footswitch provides a solo boost, with a rear-mounted mini-pot offering 2 to 6dB extra volume on any channel. Usefully, the intuitive, surprisingly compact six-button floorboard connects via standard XLR cable – easy to find a spare!

Architect – Blackstar’s deep-editing software – links via micro-USB on the rear panel. Compatibility with the brand’s proven CabRig IR software, plus an inbuilt reactive load for recording without speakers, means it’s (home) studio-friendly too. The modern power supply tech brings universal voltage compatibility, for international use.

Where the 50-watt St. James can be had with either 6L6 or EL34 valves, there’s a different approach here – a pair of each. These run together when the amp is at full power or, via the half-power options available on the front panel, one can choose a dual-6L6 or dual-EL34 power stage.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

However it's run, the St James 100 is near silent - except a quiet, high-pitched electrical whirr that disappears once the amp warms up.

The first two channels alone contain all that many guitarists would need. Clean can provide sparkle and shimmer bathed in reverb, or crank the mids and volume for a Tele-friendly spank that country guitarists would enjoy - especially with 100 watts of headroom. There’s also plenty of low-end thump for modern rock and metal cleans, and our trusty Tube Screamer and Nobels ODR-1 both sound great into the front end too.

Crunch unlocks everything from pushed cleans to indie-rock jangle, a second tap on the footswitch activating a boost with quite an extra kick - Gibson-toting '70s rock fans will be at home here, even more so when in 50-watt EL34 mode.

OD1 is notably mid-forward, needing higher treble and presence settings for enough definition. However, its versatile gain range provides all sorts of fat modern rock tones, as well as soaring high-gain leads with that solo boost and some delay in the effects loop. A snappy Tele brings some welcome brightness back in, although OD1 also packs a sledgehammer punch when teamed with a Les Paul.

OD2 is higher-gain, noticeably more scooped, and comes alive when Tight mode is engaged. This sculpts the EQ artfully, eliminating flab in the low mids for a defined modern metal roar, clearly voiced with lower tunings in mind - enormous fun with our drop C-tuned Blackmachine B6. A similar facility for OD1 might've been an interesting addition.

Switching between full power and the two half-power modes yields subtle but interesting tonal differences on each channel. And that variable power scaling works a treat, taming the intense volume that can otherwise make a 100-watt amp impractical.

There’s certainly no shortage of excellent sounds here, although the shared EQs can be a head-scratcher.

There’s little issue between Clean and Crunch, whose voices lend themselves to similar settings, but the drastic difference between OD1 and OD2 makes it harder to dial in tones that sound like they’re part of the same amp.

Perhaps that's the idea – two very different high-gain voices, maximum versatility ≠ but it may compromise functionality for some.

Verdict

When all the many sonic possibilities are added together though, it is compelling to say the least – and that's before considering its lightweight cleverness, comprehensive feature set and the connectivity on board.

For many, the St. James 100 will be an extravagance in terms of size, wattage and, at $2,499, perhaps in terms of price too.

However, it is also clearly able to go head-to-head with similarly feature-packed amps, some costing hundreds more – most of which would be worse for your back.

MusicRadar verdict: This is a truly modern take on the high-powered ‘super amp’, full of clever design decisions and boasting features that open it up to all sorts of uses, beyond what might be expected – and most importantly, it sounds fantastic for a multitude of musical styles.

Also try

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Blackstar Amplification

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Blackstar Amplification has issued an urgent product safety recall notice affecting its newly launched Debut 100R guitar amps, citing issues with the combo’s cabinet that presents the risk of “serious electric shock”.

Both the Debut 100R 1x12 and 100R 2x12 combos are affected by the recall, and the British amp brand urges customers to check their amp’s serial number to see if theirs is affected. All amps with a date code between 2403 and 2411 should be returned. This product recall affects both the Cream and Black editions of the amp.

“Nothing is more important to Blackstar than the safety of our customers,” reads the Blackstar statement. “During routine quality checks, we have identified a problem with Debut 100R 112 and 212 Combos with date codes from 2403 to 2411.

“Due to cabinet production errors, a larger than intended gap between wooden parts of the cabinet can cause some electronic components to be accessible or partially exposed. As a result, in some circumstances a user could come into contact with safety critical internal chassis components. This poses a risk of serious electric shock.”

Thankfully, this product recall does not affect every one of the Debut 100R 112 and 212s, and determining whether your amp needs to be returned to Blackstar is easy. First, switch the amp off and remove the power cord, and take a look inside the open-back cabinet.

At the bottom there is the sticker with a bar code containing the serial number [see below].

These all begin with (21) then three letters – the following four numbers are the date code. If it reads between 2403 and 2411 inclusively, stop using it immediately and remove the power cord.

That could not be more important – do not be tempted to just carry on. Switch the amp off and get it fixed by contacting your nearest Blackstar distributor who will arrange everything. You can search for your nearest Blackstar distributor here.

All Debut 100R 112 and 212 combos outside of this date range are unaffected by the recall. Use them as normal. No other Blackstar products are affected. For more details on the product recall, head to Blackstar Amplification.

Once more, the affected date codes are below:

• 2403
• 2404
• 2405
• 2406
• 2407
• 2408
• 2409
• 2410
• 2411

And here is how to identify the date code on your serial number:

Blackstar unveiled the Debut 100R in July, describing the solid-state combos as “the ideal tool for guitarists seeking simplicity, power, and tone in an analogue package.”

Their 100-watt output offered ample headroom, ideal for using as a pedalboard platform, with effects loop, a two0channel design, footswitchable reverb, and a MOSFET-driven preamp to emulate tube amp tone and feel.

The Debut 100R has onboard power scaling, allowing you to take its output down to a bedroom-friendly five-watt setting. It has a speaker emulated headphones output for silent practice.

Blackstar has unveiled the Series One MK II, applying more than 30 modifications to its flag-ship high-gain guitar amp and promising a “world-class” performance from the four-channel monster.

This update has been a long time coming but then the Series One has been a huge success for the British amp brand since its launch in 2007.

It has been the go-to tube amp for metal players such as Ishahn, with even Neal Schon (one of the few occasions to imagine a shared universe between Emperor and Journey) declaring himself a fan of the amp.

But then if it’s not broken… right? Well, there’s always something that can be improved upon and Blackstar has done a lot here, comprehensively tweaking the circuit and the voicing of the channels. Aesthetically, too, this is a big update, with a smaller Blackstar logo sitting on a metal badge, the honeycomb patterned metal grille showing off the tubes within.

The idea is that the Series One MK II has everything you need for metal guitar, with more gain than you could want and, crucially, “best-in-class” note definition so that your downtuned chugs don’t turn to mush. “This amplifier delivers crushingly tight rhythm tones and thick, saturated leads without the unwanted fizz often found in other high-gain designs,” says Blackstar.

There is the power, 100-watts, provided by a quartet of 6L6 power tubes, with a set of four 4 ECC83s and a single ECC82 in the preamp. There are the channels with six modes: Clean Warm, Clean Bright, Super Crunch and OD1, OD2. The amp is MIDI-enabled, with an effects loop that has its own level control.

And there is an accompanying 4x12 PRO 412B MK II guitar speaker cabinet to match it with, featuring a “road-worthy” finger-jointed birch-ply construction and four Celestion Vintage 30 speakers for “a perfectly balanced midrange response with superior articulation and power”.

Signature Blackstar details remain. There is the brand’s patented ISF feature allowing you to give the overdrive channels a more US or more British flavour, or somewhere in between. Once more there are Resonance and Presence controls sitting alongside the master volume. Overdriven and clean channels are served by their own 3-band EQ.

This amp is of course designed to push a lot of air about the room but it is housetrained by Blackstar’s patented DPR (Dynamic Power Reduction), a power scaling feature that allows players to dial the volume down and get face-ripping metal tones at 10-watts. A speaker emulated output extends your options when playing live or in the studio.

The Series One MKII head and cabinet are available now, priced £1,999 for the head, £999 for the cabinet. For more details head over to Blackstar Amplification.

It was only last month that Blackstar Amplification expanded its Debut series with a 100-watt twin-channel guitar amp that promised tones to rival tube amps from its solid-state MOSFET-driven design, and now we have a 30-watt version, the Debut 30E.

But there’s a difference. The clue is in the “E” of the Debut 30E designation. What could this stand for? That got us for a minute. On an acoustic guitar, that might be electronics, a pickup and preamp system to ready it for the stage. 

A solid-state practice amp? To our surprise it is echo, a tape echo emulation that is controlled by a single Delay dial and offers a neat retro alternative to reverb. Why of course it is, and if 30-watts is too much power, the Debut 15E 2x3" combo would be worth looking into. 

At lower settings, the onboard tape echo emulation could perform a similar function to the more commonly found reverb, adding a bit of depth to your electric guitar tone, getting it away from that all-to-direct dry tone that can make practice a little uninspiring. 

Turn it up and you can get some Echoplex-inspired repeats that will definitely resonate with the Brian May, Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen fan looking for a compact, affordable and easy-to-use practice solution.

Elsewhere, we’ve got much the same amplifier design as the others in the Debut series, which means it has plug-in-and-play levels of simplicity, and a high-end aesthetic, with a choice of cream vinyl with oxblood oxblood grille cloth or black vinyl with ‘biscuit’ basketweave grill. Both look neat.

The Debut 30E is a two-channel affair, with each channel served by the same Bass, Middle and Treble controls, plus Blackstar’s patented ISF feature, allowing you to dial in a US or British amp sound, or something in between. 

These channels and the onboard tape delay effect are footswitchable, and you’ll find the 1/4” footswitch input around the back of the combo. 

Everything else you will find on the control panel. As before, we have cream chickenhead control knobs. There’s Gain, Volume, four EQ knobs plus Delay, with buttons to toggle the channels and to turn the tape echo on and off. There is also a mini-jack audio line in and a speaker emulated headphones/line output for silent practice and recording.

When you play external audio through the line in and listen to it with guitar amp headphones, that audio is rendered in stereo. 

Those 30-watts of Class D power drive a single Blackstar 10” speaker. There is plenty of gain to be had on these little amps, and tape delay seems like an inspired feature. Available now, the Debut 30E is priced £179. US RRP TBC. See Blackstar Amplification for more details.

Blackstar has expanded its Debut series of guitar amplifiers with the 100R 1x12 and 2x12 combos, doubling the wattage and presenting players with 100-watts of juice, two footswitchable channels, two footswitchable reverbs, and if you are looking for a pedalboard platform on a budget then these might might well be in the conversation.

Like the 50-watt Debut 50R combos, Blackstar gives you the choice of cream and black vinyl finishes, with cream models featuring an oxblood grille cloth, ‘biscuit’ basketweave on the black models. The design is once more all-analogue, with a MOSFET-driven preamp designed to replicate the tone and feel of a tube amp. 

The two channels are voiced after classic Blackstar designs, with the clean channel taken from the HT20-R MKIII and the overdrive channel based on the MusicRadar-approved St James 6L6.

The big difference here is all that extra headroom that 100-watts gives you. And if you’re looking for a bigger sound, the 100R 212’s pair of 12” drivers would make a lot of sense – and potentially very good value at £349 street.

Either way, both models have a series effects loop, power scaling at the touch of a button that takes you from a full 100-watts down to a bedroom-friendly five, a speaker emulated line output that doubles as a headphones output for silent practice.

As with their smaller siblings in the series, the Debut 100R is designed to be player-friendly, a no fuss amp. That’s how Blackstar describes it, with no “bells and whistles” – but that speaks to how feature-packed today’s guitar amplifiers have become. These hardly want for features, and are well equipped for a variety of playing situations.

Blackstar says they are made for practice, recording, and live performance and describes them as “the ideal tool for guitarists seeking simplicity, power, and tone in an analogue package”. Just plug in your electric guitar and play is the message.

What else have we got here? There is a series effects loop. The tone stack features Blackstar’s patented ISF feature that allows you to dial in US and British-style EQ voicings and find your sweet spot in between. 

A 3-band EQ serves both channels. As with the other models in the Debut series, the 50R and the 15E and 10E practice amps, we have cream chickenhead dials on the control panel.

The clean channel has a Bright switch for adding a little top-end shimmer. You can use the front-panel’s button or one of Blackstar’s footswitches (sold separately) to choose between plate and hall reverbs.

Around the back of the amp, alongside the footswitch inputs, headphone/line out, and effects loop, there is a mini-jack line in input that allows you to play external audio through the amp.

The 100R is available now, with the 1x12 priced at £299 street, the 2x12 at £349. For more details, see Blackstar Amplification.

Blackstar Amplification might be based out of Northampton, England, but for its latest release, the guitar amp specialist’s R&D team have been looking across the pond to vintage US combos for inspiration, and they’ve come up with the TV-10 A. 

We’re just going to assume the A is for “American” because this compact 1x12 tube amp is all about US tone. It’s all about simplicity too. Look at the control panel. There are cream chickenhead dials for Gain, Tone, Reverb and a master volume. 

There is a push button to engage the onboard drive section, and there are standby and power on/off switches. There’s nothing complicated here. But then there is no need to complicate an amp like this. 

You can see the inspiration before you hear it, with Blackstar dressing this in a rich cream Tolex, the tan leather handle and wheat-coloured grille clothe offering a nice contrast – and the black control panel background the least subtle of its design references. 

Blackstar has equipped the TV-10 A with a digital reverb. Around the back of the amp you will find an effects loop with level switch so you can invite your pedalboard to the party. 

There is also an emulated line out that is positioned after the power amp section, ensuring that when you hook it up via stereo/TRS cable, and send that signal out for recording, you duly capture the response and tone profile of the Class A power output, and the sound of that 6L6 power tube and output transformer working overtime.

The included footswitch can be used to turn the Drive function on and off, making it something of a de facto two-channel design. And if you’ve got a Blackstar FS8 footswitch, sold separately, you can use it to turn the reverb on and off, too.

But otherwise this offers an old-school drive, with a Class A amp circuit driven by a single 6L6 power tube, and an ECC83 in the preamp. Blackstar says the reverb is voiced accordingly, and while it doesn’t say “spring” that is surely how it’ll shake out when you turn that dial. 

“Through meticulous R&D and listening to vintage reference units, we’ve faithfully captured the tone of the best valve amplifier reverb tanks,” promises Blackstar.  

Fitted with a 12" Celestion speaker, the TV-10 A weighs in at 14.7kg. And it strikes us that this, with 10-watts of tube power, is the sort of amp that could prove its worth in the studio and have enough juice for the stage, too.

The TV-10 A is out now, priced £599 street. See Blackstar Amplification for more details.

Blackstar has revised and upgraded its super-versatile HT series of tube amps, with the MKIII models arriving with the British guitar amp brand’s onboard CabRig technology, a new look, under the hood refinements and in 20, five and one-watt configurations.

The digital reverb has been revoiced for the MKIII edition of the amps. There are USB-C connections across the board. But it is the addition of the CabRig tech, bringing the HT MKIII amps in line with Blackstar’s St James and Dept. 10 Amped models, that has to be the 

headline upgrade, making recording that bit easier. Players can save their favourite three cab, mic and room settings down to presets on the amp, making edits via Blackstar’s Architect software. All three amps have load protection built in for silent recording and practice.

The HT MKIII Series comprises the 20-watt HT-20R head and combo, the five-watt HT-R5 and combo, and the HT-1R head and combo. In either format, the HT-1R is very cute but it’s no toy. 

The smallest of the bunch, it makes a very handy tube platform for home use, allowing you to dial in plenty of crunch without too many decibels, with that USB-C connection allowing you to send stereo audio channels to your DAW for recording direct. 

Its siblings in the series, however, make similar accommodations, with power scaling allowing you to run them at 10 per cent power for more friendly practice volumes. 

The HT series has always been compact but has never lacked for features. These are no different. All are two-channel designs with two voices per channel. The voices present players with significantly different amps sounds. The channels and voices are footswitchable across all three models. 

That said, the HT-IR offers the most straightforward feature set. Its front panel has dials for Reverb, an EQ that is provided by Blackstar’s patented ISF feature, which offers a US-style of EQ at one extreme, British at the other, plus Volume and Gain knobs.

The OD-select toggle switch selects between clean and overdriven channels, and you’ll find the 1/8” headphones/lineout on the front panel, alongside 3-way CabRig presets switch, and there’s a 1/8” line in too. Around the back of the amp, you’ll find the USB-C connection, a 4 to 16-ohm speaker output, and a footswitch input. 

The HT-R5 and HT-20R have got a bit more going on at the back, with a trio of speaker outputs (two at 16-ohms or one at 8-ohms) with a balanced XLR output plus 1/4” line out/headphones output and the 3-way CabRig presets switch. There is also the all important footswitch input, and an effects loop with level switch (+4dBu/-10dBV) for inviting your pedalboard to the party.

Around the front, the larger HT MKIII series models have more comprehensive EQ options. The overdrive channel has an ISF dials, Bass, Middle and Treble, with Volume and Gain dials plus the Voice toggle switch rounding out its controls. 

The clean channel has the Voice toggle switch, plus Volume and Tone. The reverb and master volume controls serve both channels, with the power scaling toggle switch handily located beside the on/off switch.

The HT-R5 has a single ECC83 preamp tube with a 12BH7 in the power amp. The HT-20R has a pair of ECC83s with a pair of EL84s in the power amp. The HT-1R has a single ECC83 in the preamp, an ECC82 in the power amp.

As for the matching cabinet options, Blackstar has rolled out the HT-112OC MK III 1x12, which has a semi-open back design, a 50-watt, and a Blackstar-designed 12” driver. The HT 212VOC MKII cabinet is rated at 160-watts and is loaded with a pair of 12” Celestion Seventy-80 speakers.

The combos have a similar complement of speakers, with the super-compact HT-1R housing an 8” Blackstar-designed speaker, the HT-5R has a single 12” Blackstar-designed speaker while the HT-20R has a 12” Celestion Seventy-80. 

The HT MKIII Series is available now, priced from £379 street for the HT-1R head to £799 for the HT-20R combo. 

For more details and specs, head over to Blackstar Amplification.

Blackstar has launched the HT Venue MkIII, adding its powerful CabRig technology to an already feature-stacked platform for what is surely one of the most versatile tube amps you can get for under £1,000.

When it launched in 2009, the Venue Series soon established itself as one of those guitar amps that you could deploy in all manner of situations – onstage, in the studio, and with a range of sounds that made it a very tempting proposition for jobbing pros and serious amateurs who needed a do-it-all amp that would pair nicely with any electric guitar in their collection.

The series was then updated in 2017 with MkII adding footswitchable voicings for each channel and the capability for USB/XLR direct recording. 

MkIII offers a complete cosmetic refresh and goes on to make further improvements under the hood, adding an newly designed digital reverb that has switchable Light and Dark modes for alternating between a plate and room voicing respectively. 

There are new state-of-the-art digital features such as deep editing – including of the reverb – via Blackstar’s proprietary Architect software. 

But it’s the CabRig software, bringing the HT Venue series in line with Blackstar's Amped and St James amp ranges, that is the big ticket upgrade here, offering a powerful DSP solution for applying cabinet, mic and mic placement, and room settings with close to zero latency.

MkIII allows players to pop the amp into standby and run it in silent mode, sending the signal direct to the mixing desk or DAW.

The HT Venue MkIII series is offered in a variety of sizes and power outputs. There are three combos and two heads. All have switchable power scaling that allows you to run the amp at a tenth of its full power rating. 

The heads include the 50-watt HT Club 50 MKIII and the 100-watt HT Stage 100 MkIII, priced £899 and £999 street respectively. 

The combos include the HT Club 40 MkIII, rated at 40-watts and priced £899 street; and the HT Stage 60 MkIII, which is a 60-watt amp offered in 1x12 and 2x12 configurations, priced £999 and £1,149 street. 

Rounding out the MkIII release are 1x12, 2x12, and flat and slanted 4x12 speaker cabinets.

The smaller HT Club models offer two channels, with two footswitchable voicings per channel, offering British and American clean tones, and classic and more modern overdrive voicings.

The clean channels have Bass and Treble controls. The overdrive channels have Bass, Middle and Treble. The larger models have three channels, again with two footswitchable voicings apiece.

Blackstar’s patented ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) allows you to dial in a US-style amp response at one extreme and a British-style at the other, and a mix of both in between. And those larger Stage models have global Presence and Resonance controls.

Blackstar uses a pair of ECC83s in the preamp, with a pair of EL34s in the power section (four EL34s in the HT Stage 100 MkIII). The combos and speaker cabs are loaded with 12” Seventy-80 Celestions.

Other connections include USB-C, a series effects loop, speaker emulated 1/4” and XLR outputs, and there is a two-way foot controller included with each amp – though you might want to upgrade to Blackstar’s five-button switch to make full use of the footswitchable voicings.

See Blackstar Amplification for more details.

Pedal-based amps have been around for a while but the last couple of years have seen them take off with companies including Universal Audio, Blackstar, TC Electronic, Walrus, Strymon and Victory all getting in on the action. And that's great news for us players because every company is offering something distinct, and with that comes options on how to use and take advantage of their potential on your pedalboard.

Pedal amps are distinct from multi-effects pedals and combined modellers in that they're primarily preamps or preamps combined with a power amp stage with cab simulation. The idea is you use them alongside the effects pedals on your pedalboard. But the lines can blur; some amp pedals now offer a few effects alongside their core proposition, and there are valve-driven amp pedals as well as those using solid-state modelling technology. The market has now become rich with choices in a relatively short time.

None of these choices have to be approached as a permanent replacement for traditional guitar amps; they can be, but they can be used as an alternative in scenarios where an amp isn't practical or possible; recording, headphone-based practice and jamming… and jumping on the train to a gig or band practice with a very light rig. Overall, amp pedals give us options but getting the best out of them or choosing the right amp pedal for you needs some consideration. 

1. IRs are important 

These can make the difference between the great and the good. While some preamp pedals are fine to plug into your existing guitar amp, if you want to go fully mobile you'll need to consider an amp pedal with its own speaker Impulse Responses (IRs). These are digital sonic snapshots of a specific mic'd amp and cab setup and are vital to recreating some the feel of a real amp's sound in modelled form. Having an onboard IR on your pedal amp will enable you to plug into a PA (no more carrying heavy cabs!) or your own FRFR (full range, flat response) active cab. 

Giving players a choice out of the box is always a positive. Victory's V4 range are tube amp heads (the preamp stage anyway) in pedal form with six onboard IRs supplied by French company Two Notes. Universal Audio's UAFX amp emulator pedals feature up to six speaker simulations that were captured by the company in-house. 

Other options like Strymon's Iridium enable you to upload third-party IRs – this offers players the chance to audition different options to suit their tastes. In the case of Walrus, it's taking IRs and ongoing support very seriously indeed; it's just offered a free firmware update for owners of its ACS1 amp pedal to use new custom IRs created by Tone Factor – and it's also redesigned the three amp models on the pedal "from the ground up." Impressive stuff.

Having more than one virtual cab option on the amp pedal is preferable because options are always welcome. But it's not the only way to get options; TC Electronic offers one with its Ampworx models but as some of the most reasonably priced amp pedals around, the money you save could go towards a separate IR loader, such as the excellent Boss IR-200 and Two Notes Torpedo CAB M / M+ models. The latter even offers four tube amp models too! 

2. One amp… or three? 

The phrase 'pedal platform amp' may seem a bit silly to some of you; because surely all amps are? But what it really means is how good an amp performs as a foundation; the option of high clean headroom for your overdrive pedals to thrive on without being overly coloured by the amp's own gain stages.  But do you want that? 

If you do, you'll want to gravitate to specific pedals; the Fender Deluxe Reverb apeing UAFX Dream '65 and TC Electronic Combo Deluxe 65 focus on a legendary studio amp with a wonderful clean tone and spring reverb. But both offer drive options too. The TC Ampworx JIMS 45 (seeking to emulate the legendary Marshall Bluesbreaker) also surprised us with its impressive clean capabilities and the Blackstar Dept 10 Amped 1 is a powerful lower gain platform that can also power your drive pedals too with 500mA of power draw capability to play with. 

But why narrow your options? The Strymon Iridium and Walrus's ACS1 both offer three different models each, based on classic amps with specific tonal flavours including the Vox AC30, Fender Deluxe Reverb and iconic Marshalls.  

3. Pedal placement 

Some amp pedals (including Blackstar's Amped Series and Victories pedal amps) feature effects loops to enable players to place their time-based effects after the preamp circuit and this can allow time-based effects like delay and reverb to sound clearer. It's a matter of taste and some players may prefer not to use it. But what if your amp pedal doesn't have an effects loop?

You could experiment with placing your delay and reverb before and after your pedal amp in the signal chain. But there's a snag – if you're using an onboard IR cab simulation in the pedal itself you'd be placing those effects after it, which is not the same thing as an effects loop. But it's absolutely not necessarily a bad thing. Try it either way and judge for yourself with your effects – it's as easy as moving a couple of pedals and plugging them in again.  

4. Extra features can change the way you use them 

The usability of an amp pedal can hinge on the additional features it offers beyond the essentials. For example, the TC Ampworx, Strymon Iridium and Walrus ACS1 all offer dedicated 3.5mm headphone outs that makes them great for silent practice with your pedalboard (although you'll need to have your delay and reverb placed before them to get the full pedalboard experience).

Elsewhere, Universal Audio's Dream '65 incorporates three different boost modes, alongside its inspiration's vibrato and spring reverb; potentially saving you a couple of extra pedals on the board. Some amp pedals, including the UA pedals and TC Electronic Ampworx, offer the ability to save the settings for one switchable channel; and then switch to a 'live' mode. This is great for a setup for second guitar – such as one channel for humbuckers and another for your single-coil guitar – but also an alternative tone within a song. 

On the IR side, Blackstar's Dept 10 Amped and preamp pedal series has taken the concept even further with its CabRig software; enabling you to go in-depth editing everything from mic type to room size and storing three of your own CabRig presets to switch between on the pedal. Or you can switch it off if you want to use an external IR or go into an amp.  

Four recommended amp pedals to try 

Universal Audio UAFX Dream '65 

We keep coming back to this because it's not just the most authentic modelling of a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp that we've tried, but UA's treatment makes it work so well as a pedal alongside our other effects.

Alongside a benchmark rendering of Fender's spring reverb, you have a lush vibrato but it's the three distinct boosts and six speaker options that make this such a great stage and recording tool. We especially like the option to have switchable vibrato or reverb, but we prefer to use the preset switch for a whole second channel and different boost. 

Universal Audio UAFX Dream '65 review

Blackstar Amped 3 

All Blackstar's Amped series are recommended but the sheer amount of gain options here, alongside genuinely useful extras make the Amped 3 an easy win for those who want to go all-in on this format.

We've already mentioned CabRig, and the ability to power other pedals but the solid state Amped 3 also boasts the choice of different emulations of power amp valves, onboard reverb and three channels with two voices each. There's a lot of gain capability here with Clean, Crunch, Overdrive channels and a switchable boost. 

Blackstar Amped 3 review

Walrus Audio Mako Series ACS1 Amp + Cab Simulator

Walrus's ACS1 is three amp models (AC30, Deluxe Reverb and Marshall JTM50) in one pedal, along with cab IRs but the company has decided to completely overhaul the amp models, while adding Tone Factor IRs on its Update 2.0. Walrus's willingness to support its products with firmware has always impressed us, but this takes it to a new level. 

The result isn't just an improved all-round experience with the amp models but the consensus suggests the ACS1 stacks with drive pedals better now. Plus, this pedal has one significant ace up its sleeve for us: you can use two different amp and cab models in stereo if you want! 

Walrus Audio Mako Series ACS1 Amp + Cab Simulator review

TC Electronic Ampworx JIMS 45

The reasonable price here and simplicity make this JTM45-inspired model a great entry-point in the world of amp pedals, but this is a serious contender too. Its clean tones impressed us as a platform but the overdrive capabilities did not disappoint. 

The onboard boost can be set pre- or post-preamp and there's a presence dial too for added tweaking. Players can set one channel as a preset as well, with a headphone output rounding out a value-packed pedal.  

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