SDotD Blackstar Studio 10

mbenigni

mbenigni

Rock Star
TGF Recording Artist
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I have no familiarity Blackstar; I assume this little combo is a POS? In any case, MF is blowing it out at half price, so I'm curious to hear opinions.

I don't personally have any interest in a low-powered hybrid combo at the moment. If I did, I'm sure it wouldn't be on sale LOL.

(Link text is wrong, for whatever reason.)

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P.S. The one review on MF indicates this is an all tube design with 12AX7 pre and EL34 tube, not a hybrid amp as described.

If it had an effects loop, the 12" cab + power would be worth $350 just for utility value.
 
The Studio 10 EL34 deploys a EL34 output valve to give this amp a characteristically bright clean sound and a hot lead tone. The Studio 10 EL34 is a low gain, classic crunch amp that uses an EL34 in the power amplifier for superlative, warm British crunch. In this model we have included a hot pre-amp Boost for authentic classic rock / indie rhythm playing and classic, vocal leads. The speaker emulated output is taken after the Class A power stage, which means you can harness the tone the 6L6 power tube when going direct to the PA or an interface.
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:unsure:

Per Blackstar's website, this does have an effects loop. Uh-oh...
 
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More transistors than valves there.
 
Wow that product description is a hot mess. Yeah looks like all tube and sounds like they had 3 models in the line up with the option of EL34, 6L6, and KT88

 
Here's Tim Pierce talking about how great it sounds, whilst playing a bunch of sounds I personally think are kinda meh. There's even a moment where he says the reverb sounds good, and then plays something that sounds 100% dry. :D



$350 seems like a hell of a deal, but I'm thinking this is not an amp for me.
 
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SDOTD prices are often the normal price that can be found from other outlets. I frankly doubt this is a deal - more likely MF trying to trick a few unsuspecting deal hunters so they can cut losses.
 
EOengineer said:
SDOTD prices are often the normal price that can be found from other outlets. I frankly doubt this is a deal - more likely MF trying to trick a few unsuspecting deal hunters so they can cut losses.
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First thing I do when I see a SDotD is Google the product. These are still going for $600-$700 new, and $300-$400 used.
 
mbenigni said:
Here's Tim Pierce talking about how great it sounds, whilst playing a bunch of sounds I personally think are kinda meh. There's even a moment where he says the reverb sounds good, and then plays something that sounds 100% dry. :D



$350 seems like a hell of a deal, but I'm thinking this is not an amp for me.
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A guy like Pierce is at the level where he transcends the gear. I don't think he could sound bad if he tried to. He's just at a ridiculous skill level.

But Blackstars in general are not "bad" sounding amps. I've used them in rehearsal rooms or backlines and they were fine. They are not terribly unreliable either. There are 10s of thousands of these amps out there, if not more...

The "issue" with them is it's not hard to find something better at their same price.

If 350 was the normal price for this and that's all you had to buy an amp, then sure why not. At 700 it's very easy to find a better amp though. Especially you look at used gear.
 
GuitarBilly74 said:
If 350 was the normal price for this and that's all you had to buy an amp, then sure why not. At 700 it's very easy to find a better amp though. Especially you look at used gear.
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Yeah, at $700 it wouldn't even have caught my attention. But at $350 brand new? I think that's a pretty good value for a 1x12" cab with an EL34-based power section bolted on, before you even start looking at the rest of the features (preamp, reverb, effects loop...)

Anyway, ship has sailed, and that's OK since it wasn't something I need right now.
 
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