New Blackstar product

EdGrip

Love the sound in that clip - don't even mind the distortion, though I'm more a fan of filthy fuzzy pedals for that. If it turns out to be as good as this suggests, I might get one to go with my poor old Marshall 2x12 that's saddled with that shit solid-state Marshall two-knob slave head thing...

monquixote

ICBM said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

According to @icbm the innards of an id is nothing anyway, so simplify it and it isn't that hard to imagine a mini head

It's not nothing, but the innards of an ID60 head would fit in a 2U rackmount casing without even re-arranging anything - and there's still a fair amount of space in the chassis at that - and possibly something about the size of a Tiny Terror if you did.

I really wish they would make that product. 

It's nuts that they don't.

koss59

http://www.soundland.de/catalog/images/products/tn/28/284087-715x750.jpg Unfortunately it looks like it's going to be a battery powered amp, is anyone ever going to make a decent backup amp for gigging musicians!!

guitarfishbay

Surely the AMT Stonehead fits the bill for what people are asking for?  The only thing is availability.  A Blackstar product would be far easier to try out in shops etc.

koss59

Apart from that looks bigger than my toaster, has more knobs than Downing street and probably costs a fortune. We need one channel, a digital reverb simple eq and at least 50 watts and make it the price of a pedal :-) don't ask much do I.

gubble

This might sound a bit far out there. But could we not build such a beast?

DartmoorHedgehog

gubble said:

This might sound a bit far out there. But could we not build such a beast?

Something like the power amp from a modern "class D" bass amp with the preamp from a modeller like the ID or similar would be ideal as a backup I'd imagine, and not too expensive.  No idea why nothing like that already exists.  Modern bass amps are tiny, light and with huge power output, but those class D power sections don't seem to be used much in guitar amps.

DrBob

gubble;388470" said:

This might sound a bit far out there. But could we not build such a beast?

Ooh, forum amp, I like that idea. I could contribute nothing useful beyond buying one & maybe making the tea but I'm in.

Max_b3

If you want a backup amp as described above, why not get a Roland Cube 60? Sounds better than the newer 80 IMHO.

Cirrus

Maybe a backup amp NOT filled with compromise is a non starter.

If they start to make it sound good it becomes bigger/ heavier/ more expensive which defeats the point.

If they make it sound bad they need to make it cheap too or no one will buy it, which defeats the point because who wants to buy a bad sounding, unreliable cheap amp?

ICBM

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Something like the power amp from a modern "class D" bass amp with the preamp from a modeller like the ID or similar would be ideal as a backup I'd imagine, and not too expensive.  No idea why nothing like that already exists.

It does - it's the ID60 head.

Don't be fooled by the apparent 'head' size, the top half of it is fresh air! And it weighs about as much as a large handbag - well, possibly a bit more, but it feels slightly lighter than it really is because it's so big…

If it was worth the trouble of rehousing it you could make it half the size.

DartmoorHedgehog

ICBM said:

the ID60 head. If it was worth the trouble of rehousing it you could make it half the size.

I suppose the manufacturers think people want it to be the size they think an amp head "should" be. Marshall SS heads are the same. But it seems more acceptable for bass amps to be small.

 

I seem to remember you reckoned an ID would fit in a Tiny Terror sized box, which is still not as small as some of the bass amps is it?  I suppose the Micro Terror is cheating by using an external PSU.

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Something like the power amp from a modern "class D" bass amp with the preamp from a modeller like the ID or similar would be ideal as a backup I'd imagine, and not too expensive.  No idea why nothing like that already exists.

It does - it's the ID60 head.

Don't be fooled by the apparent 'head' size, the top half of it is fresh air! And it weighs about as much as a large handbag - well, possibly a bit more, but it feels slightly lighter than it really is because it's so big…

If it was worth the trouble of rehousing it you could make it half the size.

ideally rehoused into something smaller, less complicated and cheaper. As lunchbox amps are pretty trendy a simpler lunchbox ID doesn't seem an unmarketable idea.

impmann

koss59 said:

http://www.soundland.de/catalog/images/products/tn/28/284087-715x750.jpg Unfortunately it looks like it's going to be a battery powered amp, is anyone ever going to make a decent backup amp for gigging musicians!!

Yes they did already...

ZT Lunchbox

Job done.

ICBM

DartmoorHedgehog said:

I suppose the manufacturers think people want it to be the size they think an amp head "should" be. Marshall SS heads are the same. But it seems more acceptable for bass amps to be small.

I seem to remember you reckoned an ID would fit in a Tiny Terror sized box, which is still not as small as some of the bass amps is it?  I suppose the Micro Terror is cheating by using an external PSU.

At least the Marshalls use some of the space for the top half of the power transformer and the reverb tank . The Blackstar is completely empty - even the transformer is fully within the chassis.

The limiting factor with the ID60 is the size of the power transformer - it uses a proper linear power supply, rather than a switch-mode one as a lot of the mini bass amps do. ('Proper' as in not just traditional, but more reliable and much easier to repair if something goes wrong with it.) That alone makes it impossible to fit in a 'flatter' casing, although you could use a toroid instead. I still doubt it could all be got into something much smaller than a Tiny Terror, but if you also restricted the functionality - a lot of space is taken up by the large front control PCB - you could maybe get it down close to the size of a Markbass head.

ecc83

I dare say peeps are expecting me to chip in? (well, I am going to have a waffle anyway!)

I can promise you I don't know what's "in the box" but even if I did I couldn't tell you!

An ultra compact ID60? Feasable, would you just want a pre amp, EQ and reverb? If so use the 'verb from the HT series, not heard anyone ever say it was horrible? (you could even have a valve in it but I bet they would be accused of "tube tokenism"! ) .

Biggest drawback is heat I think. B's are very serious about component suitability and a good deal of my time was spent doing dreadful things to amplifiers to ensure that the transformers were fit for purpose. Putting an ID60 traff in a tiny box could push it to temperatures beyond its rating (fair, conservative rating that is. The "competition" is sometimes not that fussy!) .

Linear PSU ICBM? I was a bit suprised not to see one but you are right, a cheap, poorly designed switching supply would have been a big mistake but the technology HAS matured. When was the last PC PSU you had fail? If they did do it I would like to see the PSU as a separate "tin box" that plugs in and is service man replaceable (been there with VCRs, lost the hair, got the T shirt) .

The ID Core series are of course powered via an external SMPSU of some 40W capability but then nobody wants a backup amp with a forgettable power supply!!!

Lunchbox style? Big howls about Band Wagon jumping methinks? In any case the HT-5 head is close to that size and a bit of kitchen scaling shows that an HT-5H sized ID60 simpleton would come in under 10kgs or so.

Problem! The ID60 would be a lot quieter into an 8 Ohm speaker and most combos ARE 8 or 16? I have never heard a 60 thru a 4Ohm 4 by V30 but I bet it would be hard to order a pint over!

19inch rack jobbie? Definitely! I always thought they should have made a rack, studio version of the HT-5 with balanced FX i/o and a built in load.

But don't just come here a'speculatin' chaps..Tell Blackstar what you want!

Dave.

ICBM

I actually found the ID60 was plenty loud enough into 8 ohms, it's only at 16 that it starts to run out of puff a bit - it would probably get you through though, even into a single speaker... it can't be less than 15W even at that. I tried it through a Marshall 4x12" with G12T-75s and it was still comfortably loud enough. With the cab at 4 ohms it was *almost* as loud as a cranked 50W valve Marshall through the same cab.

I don't think bandwagon jumping is a problem - lunchbox-type amps are popular for good reasons.

digitalscream

ecc83 said:

Linear PSU ICBM? I was a bit suprised not to see one but you are right, a cheap, poorly designed switching supply would have been a big mistake but the technology HAS matured. When was the last PC PSU you had fail? If they did do it I would like to see the PSU as a separate "tin box" that plugs in and is service man replaceable (been there with VCRs, lost the hair, got the T shirt) .

Actually, PC power supplies fail all the time. Some brands are better than others, but the cheap ones rarely last more than two or three years...and when they do, they usually take a whole stack of other stuff with them (funny point...even if you order the PSU with all the other parts for a PC, the warranty doesn't cover the PSU destroying any other components).

Mind you, the some of the good ones can be surprisingly efficient, although you definitely pay for it. £80-ish for a quality 750W job.

ICBM

I'm not even that keen on the idea of a single-unit replaceable SMPS. You're relying on being able to get the right one in ten or twenty years, unless you want to faff about finding something else that fits/works.

I much prefer a big lump of iron, a few diodes and a couple of caps... if spec'ed properly they're as good as indestructible. I don't think I've ever seen a traditional solid-state amp like an old Peavey, Laney, Carlsbro, HH or whatever with a failed power supply that wasn't just due to cap leakage after forty years, and even that's easy to fix.

The slightly worse efficiency and weight is barely worth worrying about at guitar amp power levels.

So I was very pleased to see the iron lump in there when I opened up the ID .

ThePrettyDamned

A ht preamp into an id power amp?

As in, essentially, a ht-dual pedal into a solid state power amp (a good one, same that @icbm likes for repairability and reliability).

Add on a digital FX section for reverb (and delay from the demo?) and done.

Then, do a metal version using the ht-metal preamp pedal style preamp.

Actually, I'd buy that if it was cheap enough. It would be great for home practice, and I could probably sell some pedals to fund it and have a stereo rig with the bandit.