Have You Or Anyone You Know Had Problems With Blackstar Amped 2 100W Pedalboard Amp + FX ?

[Dave Lewis]

A friends just stopped working at the start of a gig last week and he took it back to the shop yesterday and they are sending it back to Black Star
to fix it.
It’s only seven months old and hasn’t been used that much.
He knows a guy who has had the same issue with his Amped 3.
When in the shop one of the guys who works there has just had the same thing happen to his Amped 2 but not sent it back yet.
I’ve had my Amped 2 for around six months for home use only and it’s still OK
I’m interested to hear what BS say was the cause ?

 

[KingsXJJ]

A friends just stopped working at the start of a gig last week and he took it back to the shop yesterday and they are sending it back to Black Star
to fix it.
It’s only seven months old and hasn’t been used that much.
He knows a guy who has had the same issue with his Amped 3.
When in the shop one of the guys who works there has just had the same thing happen to his Amped 2 but not sent it back yet.
I’ve had my Amped 2 for around six months for home use only and it’s still OK
I’m interested to hear what BS say was the cause ?
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Same issues on both units? Or different?

 

[Dave Lewis]

Same issues on both units? Or different?

Same issue on both Amp 2’s and a Amp3 .
Just goes dead and it’s none of the obvious reasons that one would check.

 

[Iron1]

That’s Blackstar’s MO. Works fine one second then doesnt the next. Heard/read that same story about a hundred times over the last decade.

 

[Shredder777]

I have consistently heard that their full size amps are low quality. I can only imagine what happens when you shrink it down to fit in a double wide pedal.

Afaict, blackstar is the only(?) mass produced amp builder who doesn't have a history dating back many decades. Its probably been 15 years now, but they popped up out of nowhere. Their defining characteristic is the ISF (para eq) knob.

 

[paisleywookiee]

It’s a bunch of shit stuffed in a little chassis. Lots to go wrong, and BS isn’t known for quality.
If it were me, and I wanted to stick with the format, I’d sell it off asap and get a BluGuitar Amp1.

 

[laxu]

Afaict, blackstar is the only(?) mass produced amp builder who doesn't have a history dating back many decades. Its probably been 15 years now, but they popped up out of nowhere. Their defining characteristic is the ISF (para eq) knob.

Afaik they are people who left Marshall to form Blackstar. They clearly have some technical knowhow, but the consistent thing seems to have been that getting faulty gear repaired is difficult and getting schematics is hard.

None of their amps I've tried are particularly impressive soundwise, and I do want to like them because they have interesting features usually.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Lots of blackstar aren’t repairable. They’ll just throw it in the bin and send out a new one. Cheap ass surface mount components that aren’t worth messing around with. Ex Marshall but a very different approach with their products and designs.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I was very close to getting one of those when I started diving into modeling. So glad I went with an HX stomp and native instead.
Although I think the feature set and ease of use for the Amped line is cool.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Best solution for anyone looking for shit like this is Amp 1 Mercury/Iridium and a VP4 or HX Effects. Better tones, more reliable.

 

[KingsXJJ]

I have some pedals from them that are solid so far.

 

[Dave Lewis]

It’s a bunch of shit stuffed in a little chassis. Lots to go wrong, and BS isn’t known for quality.
If it were me, and I wanted to stick with the format, I’d sell it off asap and get a BluGuitar Amp1.

As it happens my mate was retiring his BluGuitar Amp after years of faithful use and replacing it with the Amped 2
I’ve had two Black Star tube heads for years that work great so didn’t really think twice about buying my Aped2 that’s still working brilliantly.

 

[paisleywookiee]

As it happens my mate was retiring his BluGuitar Amp after years of faithful use and replacing it with the Amped 2
I’ve had two Black Star tube heads for years that work great so didn’t really think twice about buying my Aped2 that’s still working brilliantly.

Whoops!

 

[Eagle]

The Blackstar stuff I have had on the bench is junk built. Cheapest of the cheap parts. Never liked anything they make and a friend of mine used to work for them. The first thing I got was the tube pedals when they had just come out. All sorts wrong. The thing that made me laugh was the orange led behind the tube to make you think it had more than a millivolt through it. Hard pass.

 

[KingsXJJ]

The hardware I’ve gotten from Blackstar… whether drive pedals, amp pedals… Dept.10 stuff. Have all been cutting edge on delivering live or studio tones. I feel for those who might have had poor hardware experiences. None here.

Some might not like Friedman because it’s has too smooth Marshall tones and say the same about Blackstar tones. I welcome the refinement on these pedals. CabRig is a nice alternative evolution for IR’s and Amp Sims.

 

[Dave Lewis]

He used his BluGuitar amp into a Marshall 4x12 last night for his last ever gig in Scotland with TN .

 

[Eagle]

The hardware I’ve gotten from Blackstar… whether drive pedals, amp pedals… Dept.10 stuff. Have all been cutting edge on delivering live or studio tones. I feel for those who might have had poor hardware experiences. None here.

Some might not like Friedman because it’s has too smooth Marshall tones and say the same about Blackstar tones. I welcome the refinement on these pedals. CabRig is a nice alternative evolution for IR’s and Amp Sims.

Some does sound good, it’s the abysmal build quality that is the problem.

 

[BahamaDada]

I have consistently heard that their full size amps are low quality. I can only imagine what happens when you shrink it down to fit in a double wide pedal.

Afaict, blackstar is the only(?) mass produced amp builder who doesn't have a history dating back many decades. Its probably been 15 years now, but they popped up out of nowhere. Their defining characteristic is the ISF (para eq) knob.

Now that's why the little shithouse HT5 Combo is still working in my attic. The smaller the more reliable? :-D For real, that amp got kicked around, spent some years in a heavy smokers flat (friend of mine) and is generally abused. Mine was MIK, newer ones are MIC, maybe that counts for something...

Another for real: With these newish amp+poweramp-in-a-box pedals I would defintely only leave the house with backup. Those Class D amps just seem to go out a bit quicker than the stuff we (I) had before.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I’ve had no problems with these two.

 

[KingsXJJ]

I’ve had no problems with these two.
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Nice guitars too! The one on the right….