St. James - Ask The Founders | Blackstar

[@emmanuelgranatello1896]

Finally someone that has the guts to deliver on the market a tube amp powered by an SMPS ! Kudos for Blackstar for disrupting the misconceptions among muisicians and tech guys along. I would love to see this solution on very low compact power amplifiers (0.5W to 1W) to enable musicians to enjoy the full sound of a tube amp at home.

[@emmanuelgranatello1896]

PS: ....a very compact and PORTABLE (maybe battery powered) low power amp ;)

[@Blackstaramps]

🤘🙏

[@philroselle1514]

Just got my St James EL34 head. I am blown away by this amp. Great cleans, vintage OD channel and great modern recording features. I highly recommend!! Kudos guys!!

[@roblaaa1845]

no problems since your purchase?

[@philroselle1514]

@@roblaaa1845 none

[@roblaaa1845]

@@philroselle1514 do you think the cleans are good compared to say a marshall dsl40?

[@philroselle1514]

@@roblaaa1845 To my ears, yes, much better

[@jarretthinds5621]

Thanks for the new design and taking the time to explain it here. Got a EL34 combo arriving today.

[@lincolnsmithers285]

Thanks for the insight. I just came back from my local guitar store where I did exactly what you suggested "use your ears". The St James initially wasn't even on my radar but after comparing a number of well known alternative products from well respected companies I decided it was the St James 6L6 that sounded the best. (Plus it saves my back after my Mesa combo.) Thanks guys. 😊

[@glennmcardle3209]

Thanks guys for all the hard work, imagination and vision! I've got a sj el35 on order arriving this week. very excited to put it in my set up

[@JJNicholsMusic]

🤘🏼❤🤘🏼

[@johnsmith-ug5tp]

I own a few Blackstar amps and they are awesome! Beautiful clean, crunch and dirty tones, modern features at a great price.

[@GuitarFromTheTomb]

Love to try one of these! Looks promising. This or a 5150 iconic hmmmmm.

[@QuincyHatch]

What’s the serviceability of these units? I’ve always loved a good BlackStar amp but as an amp tech for over 20 years… they’ve always been a hassle to repair. Especially the solid state, smd components… These look and sound amazing 🤘🏼

[@Henry-pj1td]

On the fawn version, is it possible to get an extremely mid forward sound on the american side of it? Because playing in a very crowded band like I do (drums keyboards sax bass another guitar llayer ect.) I cannot really have the luxury to go and play with a scooped clean tone, I found that on some amps it is possible but sometimes in order to get those mids you have to sacrifice a little bit of treble and bass which I don't really like

[@fastboy_guitars]

This is fascinating. I thought you guys got unfairly criticised over the use of solid state components in the ht series preamp. It’s good to hear a explanation of the power supply technology before forum speculation.

[@paulbuxton1326]

My head & 2x12 are on the way EL34 Fawn 🎼🙏

[@Blackstaramps]

🖤

[@omegasunn]

Is there a reason there's no more ISF? I mean it sounds great anyway- but I did like that feature !

[@bobirwin1]

Question are these cathode-biased fixed biased or is there a trim pot to bias the output valves when you change them?

[@pauljamesstevens4955]

Grid biased. There's actually 3 trim pots due to it having the lower power setting with a different bias setting.

[@NinecoreNeil]

Long project but worth it 👏

[@huseyintuter]

I am a home player for leisure... I done my research the reactive load design on that amp seems superior than anything else as actual power staging done by controlling the grid voltage of the power tubes which I guess is the most closest one to use variac in traditional way. Well it is quite expensive for home but I am sick of plugins albeit I have quite good ones on UAD Apollo. Good amp never gets old while a superior plugin will come every year. good investment for convenience and it is a great deal I will buy in 3 weeks time

[@rodrigoaquinoofficial]

Heroes!😍

[@Blackstaramps]

🤘

[@dannymoisan8]

I gig with the 2x12 combo and it’s taken the place of my heavy H&K

[@davidhay4362]

I've emailed you guys twice now asking you to build one without all the clever stuff. You are missing a big market here. The light weight is the biggest selling point but make it just one channel. A simple amp for gigging musicians. Build it!

[@gregjandt2841]

See what we want in a Video IS TO HEAR THE DAMN amp !!!

[@tonakkie635]

Another question: it would be great if you could integrate an autowah in the Silverline series with a next firmware update. Is that possible? Thnx.

[@Blackstaramps]

Our users feedback is essential to us, so we shall certainly pass this on to our R & D team for consideration 👌

[@tonakkie635]

@@Blackstaramps ok, thanks that is great. Hope that it is an "easy" fix👍. Hope to hear from you again.

[@fitinmusichildesheim6367]

I bought the 6l6 version an I am very pleased with the various clean and distortion sounds. The only thing I miss is the option to use a footswitch for the internal reverb effect.

[@tonakkie635]

Is there already some news about the autowah Firmware fix for the Silverline series? Is there an answer from Blackstar development if that is possible? Suggestion: Make it for instance only possible together with the Fs10 pedal and a firmware update. This might be commercially also a good idea💡

[@CCCowboy]

:D

[@Blackstaramps]

🤘

[@Andrew-su9rk]

So so pleased there is no ISF... please keep it that way.

[@RustyShackleford-pf3lz]

Too bad they aren’t made in the UK.

[@alexdenton6586]

Can’t stand tube amps , they’re way too heavy , music should be fun , not suffering of my body and soul

[@Blackstaramps]

Just wait until you pick one up 👀🤘🤘

[@johnsmith-ug5tp]

I own a few Blackstars and they are light compared to the vintage big 3 amps.

[@mossstephen1066]

I still don't really get the concept of the amps. Surely a player who wants a perfect American clean sound wants then to take that into a great crunch sound, like a tweed crunch, and not an ultra high gain sound? But then the vintage clean/crunch amp is based on el34s, for which you think marshall gain, and more brittle clean sounds.

[@Blackstaramps]

Hey Steve - the clean circuit on both amps is exactly the same (high headroom American clean), despite these kind of cleans being historically associated with 6L6 designs, the EL34 model will deliver identically on this channel. If you wanted to go into tweed crunch territory, you could either push the clean channel and dial back the master (+ set power amp to SAG). Or, dial the gain right back on the drive channel Voice 2 (American) - though this Voice does go in to high gain territory, it's designed to be highly versatile at lower gain settings too. Hope this helps 😊

[@mossstephen1066]

@@Blackstaramps thanks for giving this info! Seems like there are options for getting the combination of sounds. Will have to try them out when possible. Cheers.

[@johnsmith-ug5tp]

People assume all Blackstar amps are modern/drop D/death metal amps. Big mistake.

[@MegaOzzy1978]

You talk to muts

[@rudemood69]

do you guys have a youtube about how to use the cab rig or somewhere i can go to find out how to use. i love my 50watt 6l6 St. James.