Anyone tried the new Blackstar pedals by now?

xSkarloey

I've read and watched reviews but can anyone here give me their own impressions?

I've mainly got my eye on the drive and the dual.

monquixote

I asked this recently and it appeared no one had. 

Let me do know if you give one a punt. 

xSkarloey

/\ Yes I saw it. I just thought a fresh one would help!

photek

I have used them quite a bit. Boost is ok, I wouldn't buy it purely as I prefer other my SHO and Klone.

Drive is very good indeed, versatile, good gain range and importantly for me sounds great at low gain as well as high.

Dist was a real surprise, I don't like distortion pedals normally but it does a great lower gain sound as well as massive sustain.

Dual was good, a bit tricky to set up and I seemed to use more gain with it than the drive even though I guess they are the same. You can set levels different so you can have channel 2 much louder than channel 1 and use it as a lead boost.

Didn't try the metal.

The volume pots are a bit strange, unity gain it pretty high up but there is plenty of volume available. Switches feel nice, pedals feel sturdy.

Johnnyseven

I have the boost, I like it so far.

photek

Andertons have them cheaper than most places. I Have just ordered the dual for £89.99 including next day delivery so I will report back properly after a gig or 2.

xSkarloey

Have seen that myself and am more than a little tempted. Look forward to hearing what you have to say.

DrBob

Just ordered the Drive from Andertons, I shall report back !

monquixote

Hurrah I knew you GAS fiends would sucumb eventually.

DrBob

Right, so I've just received & had a shot on my new Blackstar LT-Drive pedal.

Bearing in mind I'm no tone Junkie and have previously stated that I lack both subltety & finesse as a guitarist, I'd have to say I'm really pleased with it.

The best way I can put it is, do you remember the first time you had a go on a drive pedal and strummed a big chord and couldn't stop grinning ?

It's a lot like that !

Let's see, what else ?

It has more gain available than the Providence Sonic Drive that I've also got at the mo' almost pushing into Distortion pedal turf
It's actually also got a bit less background noise than the Providence as well ! which is good
Reasonably transparent in that you could easily tell whether I was going into the 'Fender' or 'Marshall' voiced channels on my Rivera.
Stacks well with my Spark Boost.

I don't think it's going to stop people from buying a load of other more expensive pedals but for £42 I'm well pleased.

Travisthedog

But i thought all blackstar stuff was shit and they were just paying off the magazines to write nice things about them all the time

How can this be

No I'm gonna have to get one

DrBob

Dude, I would point out that I'm prone to using too much gain too often and therefore you may find it to be a bit 'Marmite' for a man of yo' delicate sensibilities

Travisthedog

Delicate?

Sensibilities?

Whatchootalkinboutfoo?

xSkarloey

Travisthedog;148604" said:

But i thought all blackstar stuff was shit and they were just paying off the magazines to write nice things about them all the timeHow can this beNo I'm gonna have to get one

I think after that review Bob's the man to write for the magazines.

Thanks for that. Looks like I'm going to have to try this now.

monquixote

I spent some time in a shop with the LT Dual today. 

I was playing a US standard strat into a Laney VC30. 

First impressions are that it seems quite well made. The switches look like conventional stompbox switches, but they are actually softswitches like the ones on my Strymon and Bogner stuff. They seem to work well enough, but the switching is somewhat unconventional for a 2 channel pedal as it goes straight to which ever channel you click, or off if you click the one that's currently on, rather than having and on and off and a channel select. 

Soundwise it's a medium gain fairly chunky sounding drive box that works well into a clean amp. The ISF turns it from a bit flubby to quite tight (which is what I like) and seems to have a decent sweep. The pedal is inherently dark and the tone control doesn't really change that. 

Even playing the bridge pickup of a maple necked strat into a bright clean channel with the tone on the LT dimed there still wasn't much in the way of top end sparkle. I suspect like a lot of pedals that are designed to work well into a bright clean amp they are using a cap as a low pass filter which means whatever you do to the tone the very highest frequencies are going to be gone. Lots of pedals are like this (Tech21, Wampler, AMT, MXR DIII, etc), but the LT Dual seems to be more rolled off than most that I've tried.

That means you aren't going to be getting slashing rhythm in the style of the Jam / Who and with some filth it's always going to tend towards smooth rather than hairy Randy Rhoads type stuff.

Anyone who's used the filthy channel on an HT amp will probably know what's in store for you as it has that slightly compressed, beefy, smooth blackstar sound.

Perfect for a bit of power chord chuggage or a thick lead sound, but not massively versatile. 

The second channel shares the EQ and it's voiced in quite a similar way with a bit more gain (channel 2 at 12 was fairly similar to channel 1 with the gain dimed) so it's really a pedal that gives you two preset levels of the same sound which is no bad thing if you like that kind of thing. 

Personally I'd probably save the money and buy the more basic drive, or perhaps the drive and the dist as that would give you more tonal options. 

The chap in the shop mentioned how responsive they were to picking and indeed I could get barely breaking up with a light touch and saturated when hitting it hard which is quite impressive. 

In summary well priced, well made, good at what it does which is the Marmite "Blackstar Sound", but not massively versatile, too dark for me to want one, but a good choice for someone who wants to add a thick rock sound to a clean amp. 

xSkarloey

You put the usual reviewing suspects in the usual mags to shame. Thanks for the run down.

Thick rock sound eh? Sounds perfect for me.

handsomerik

Thanks @monquixote. That is indeed a great comprehensive review. I was very interested in this having owned an ht dual. That was one of the best sounds I had I think.

ChrisMusic

Excellent review, thanks @monquixote