Blackstar ID:Core - Yamaha THR killer?

Fretwired

These amps are feature packed and sound pretty good .. here's the demo of the entry 10 watt [5 watt + 5watt] amp. Fast forward to 3:20 to hear it in action.



It retails at Andertons for £89 - the 20 watt is £120 .. this undercuts the THR range.

http://www.andertons.co.uk/Products/Products.asp?keyword=blackstar+ID-col-core&type=search&attributeXML0=

martinw

Nice to see Chris Griffin getting on.

RocknRollDave

He's not shit, is he? I suspect he could make most set-ups sound at least halfway decent.

ThePrettyDamned

Not convinced by the crunch sound the vids shows, but the rest sound like they are pretty decent.  

Not as nice looking as the THR - and if it's going to sit in the living room, that genuinely could be a concern!

EricTheWeary

More of an attempt at a Mustang killer?

The ID crunch and clean tones falling a long way short of the Mustang ones though but probably better at the heavier rock end.

If they could make an ID Mark II with some better Fendery voices, sort out the fx loop, remove the ridiculous TVP tag and take away the 'makes everything sound slightly worse don't know why they have it ' switch then Blackstar might have a world beater. In the meantime we have some in smaller boxes.

bazxkr

Seems pretty good for the money & great for home practice....but that guy probably make anything sound brill

I think the comment above about being very 'room' friendly is what helps the THR be where it is.

My THR in bedroom has not even been commented on despite appearing like magic overnight. Marshall class 5 in the lounge means she ain't a happy bunny & made me move it for Xmas tree which I thought was unfair.

I like the way thee small amps are getting big on thrills for very little money though. That can only be good.

Whether all the thrills means more things to go wrong down the line only time will tell with these & THRs etc.

Cheers  baz

John_P

It sounds useable to me - if yamaha brought out a 40w version of the thr I'd have one but until they do this could be a great little amp for home and rehearsing.  That's assuming two things - 40w on these is actually 40w and can keep up with a loud drummer and the footswitch option is useable.

ICBM

I liked the Clean Warm best and Crunch second, didn't really like the others at all.

I'm probably not the target market though .

jonnyburgo

Looks ugly and cheap, sounds ok though. It wouldn't cost much to make them look a bit more classy.

Fretwired

jonnyburgo said:

Looks ugly and cheap, sounds ok though. It wouldn't cost much to make them look a bit more classy.

I agree with that - I was more impressed with the £89 price for a cheap, small  practice amp. I think they'll fly of the shelves.

Yamaha clearly wins in the looks department. I think Blackstar like square block boxes.

bazxkr

jonnyburgo said:

Looks ugly and cheap, sounds ok though. It wouldn't cost much to make them look a bit more classy.

Hey Jonny...that's exactly what my ol' lady says about me... you know her ?????

Cheers

Baz

Fretwired

EricTheWeary said:

More of an attempt at a Mustang killer?

Not sure. I thought most people who bought the Mustang wanted Fender cleans and some other stuff. The Blackstar does do the Fender tone very well IMHO. I think if you like Fender tones you'd look at a Mustang.

ICBM

It reminds me more of the Roland Cube than either the Yamaha or the Fender, but that's probably just because of what it looks like.

jonnyburgo

True, and I hate the Cube look.

dindude

I'm warming to Blackstar as a company even if their sounds are somewhat different to what I normally go for. Got to respect a British based company that are going for it and taking on anyone, including giants like Fender and Yamaha, it reminds me of Marshall in the early 90s when they used to go after every price point with a quality product. Marshall's ambition left along with the guys that started Blackstar no doubt. Marshall are a dreadful company these days, releasing the same old tat in different formats or playing the limited edition game.

ICBM

dindude said:

it reminds me of Marshall in the early 90s when they used to go after every price point with a quality product.

You mean the 80s. By the 90s they were cost-cutting and churning out crap like nobody's business. That's where the rot started… even the JCM900s and early Valvestates - while much better than what followed - are poorly-built compared to the JCM800s, Jubilees and 5000-series solid state amps. The 'flagship' 30th Anniversary model is not exactly renowned for its reliability either… let alone the JTM30/60, although that might count as 'mid 90s'.

dindude

No I meant the first valvestate era, they took over the entire market at that point.

ICBM

dindude said:

No I meant the first valvestate era, they took over the entire market at that point.

They did - although a lot of that was exactly due to the cost-cutting and hence being able to sell them cheap. While they're not generally unreliable, they're so much less well-built than the previous solid-state series it's a bit saddening.

ThePrettyDamned

I wish they would make the mosfet lead 100 again.

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

I wish they would make the mosfet lead 100 again.

I wish they would make any amps that well again…

You can buy Mosfet 100s for as little as £100 now, if they reissued them they'd be about a grand going by the prices of their comparable stuff nowadays.

dindude

Don't disagree but I think they had to hit a price point yet still get the basics right, not everyone was doing that, you had the choice of cheap or good, but not both, and they cleaned up as a result. I remember reading in the Fender Amp book "The Soul of Tone" (utterly brilliant book if you haven't read it) that Fender man Bill whatshisface got so mad in one board meeting that Marshall were wiping the floor with him he ordered his guys to find a solution. They ended up pinching Richie Whatshisname from Marshall (who oversaw the first valvestate series) who then went on to produce the hot rod series for Fender, again pretty successful!

Blackstar are doing a similar thing here, £89 for a THR rival? It's not going to be the last word in build quality but if they've got the basics right they will clean up.