Blackstar Studio 10 6L6

HAL9000

A 10 Watt combo purchased from Andertons. Not sure exactly what I paid but was around the £550 mark.

This is a very simple and straightforward amp - nothing too fancy about it. The control panel is simplicity itself with controls for gain, reverb, master, and boost (which can also be controlled via the supplied foot switch). Tone is controlled by just a single knob. Separate T/M/B controls would have been nice but to be honest the single knob seems to be sufficient. Back panel has sockets for effects loop, emulated output, and external speakers. Speaker is a 12” Celestion Seventy-80. Construction and build quality both appear to be very good. The amp is covered in a cream Tolex with a deep red (oxblood?) cloth for the speaker grill. Unfortunately the Studio 10 doesn’t come with any kind of a cover so you might need to factor in a bit more cash to protect it. I bought a cover from Roqsolid for about £50.

As indicated by the model name this amp has a 6L6 in the power stage. Blackstar produce two other variants which use either an EL84 or KT88.

Despite being only 10 Watts but this thing is surprisingly loud. Certainly loud enough to cope with jam nights or small gigs (as long as you’re not after too much clean headroom). Anything more would have this running out of puff, but it’s easily sufficient for my modest needs. Tone-wise it’s a bit of monster. Very clean and clear. Glassy highs, rather less in the mids, then a decent amount of bass ‘thump’. Probably Fender Blackface territory. Having tried a few guitars through it I’d say it suits single-coils more than it does humbuckers (in my opinion of course).

The really noticeable thing (having mostly used solid-state in the past) is just how well it responds to playing dynamics.

Finally, this things weighs in at just under 15Kg, so a reasonably easy one-handed carry.

Edit - having spent more time with this I’ve learnt that having the ‘gain’ up at around three o’clock brings things into Fender Tweed territory. I hadn’t discovered this before since I normally play fairly clean with the gain at no more than halfway. However, pushing the gain really does bring out some very nice Tweedy goodness.

BeardyAndy

Thanks for the write up. I'm a big Blackstar fan, I know they have a rep for being a metal amp but its so not the case. 

This one looks a bit like it could be the HT1's big brother, and that I would be very interested in. I nearly bought the HT5 as I assumed it was a step up from the HT1 but what I've read it's anything but!