Blackstar Artisan 30: Any good?

jeztone2

I've been trying various combo's today. But I seem to remember that these, although made in Korea were point to point wired & also a birch play cab.

Im sort of getting my distortion with pedals now. So as a good clean with chime platform?

Any owners, any horror stories?

ecc83

Well P2P from a turret board! But very nicely done.

No horror stories, the very early ones had a couple of mods but nothing drastic, send me a good photo of the internals and I could probably tell you if they have been done.

Sound? Not for me to say, will go very loud if you mean the 2x12 combo (V 30S). Very versatile tone/voicings. The 2 by 2 jack setup can be used as a kludged "FX" loop.

Uber reliable and not very hard on OP valves. ....'king heavy!

Dave.

jeztone2

Cheers fella

Not seen a specific amp yet, just looking!

Cabicular

I have one
Brutal amp unless you are on a big stage
I just found it punishing in most venues
It's great but not appropriate for me
The low end thump when clean though
Trouser flapping!

Fiftyshadesofjay

One of my all time favourite amps!

They work great as a pedal platform, you can also get some cool sounds by blending the channels.

The second channel has gain and master volume controls which are handy. It is super loud and super heavy weight wise.

GavRichList

I absolutely loved mine. Heavy as shit, but that's the only bad thing I could say. Sounded beautiful.

lamf68

I've had a 30 combo, 100 head and 4x12 cab and am now on a 30 head and 2x12 cab. My favourite sounding and looking amp. Seriously consider head and cab over the combo though, as the other lads have said the combo is fooking heavy. Huge relief to switch to a head and cab.

I use the 2nd channel on the 5th setting, fuck knows what it's supposed to emulate but it's darker, and blend in channel1 at low volume with the gain cranked up full and set to the bright channel, immense sound and with a few added drive pedals you'd swear it was a full stack.

jeztone2

Thanks guys. Still not 100%. Am gonna try to try one out. 

Cabicular

If your local your welcome to come round and try mine (Edinburgh)

jeztone2

Cheers chap. Im in Slough though 

tone1

Loved my Artisan 15

ecc83

tone1 said:

Loved my Artisan 1

Ah, yes. Unless you really need the KA capability of the A30 the A15 is a good choice. Loud enough for most venues even with the Greenback but will go that bit louder into a 100dB/W driver.

Note that the A30 has a 10 watt option (the 15 does 5W) .

Can I make mention of the A100? The "forgotten" Blackstar. BSH build, super reliable (again, very OPValve friendly and, like all Bstar valve amps,. has SOME o/c load protection) .

Might find one cheap and there will be nothing wrong with it save valves.

BTW, the second "darker" channel uses the rather rarely seen EF86 for a bit of a different sound in the 15 and 30s.

Dave.(sorry, this is getting a bit spammy!)