Blackstar ID:Core - Yamaha THR killer?

monquixote

I think it sounded pretty reasonable and it's well priced. 

The THR is a bit more upmarket so it's probably gunning for the new weird Line 6 thing and the Mustang. I found the drive sounds on the Mustang a bit poo so if you were more of a rocker the little ID would probably suit you down to the ground. 

Fretwired

monquixote said:

I think it sounded pretty reasonable and it's well priced. 

The THR is a bit more upmarket so it's probably gunning for the new weird Line 6 thing and the Mustang. I found the drive sounds on the Mustang a bit poo so if you were more of a rocker the little ID would probably suit you down to the ground. 

I only recently bought my THR .. if I were looking now I'd probably consider the Blackstar as the amp sounded pretty decent for £89 and has a similar bit of software to tweak the tone. Let's see what Yamaha can do when the Line 6 sale is complete.

I think this is all good news for the hard up guitarist.

ICBM

dindude said:

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!

The Fender answer to the Valvestate was really the Performer/Roc Pro series - they were pretty good actually (although like the early Valvestates are now starting to fall apart a bit) but didn't capture the market in the same way, possibly exactly because they were a bit more expensive.

The Hotrods I see as more Fender's rival to - and actually slightly more successful than - Marshall's DSL/TSL series.

dindude said:

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.

Agreed, at that price it's hard to go wrong if it sounds as good as it does in that demo - even though I only like two of the sounds, that would be enough, and I suspect most people will like more. And at least it doesn't look like a giant air freshener .

I would now like to see - but suspect I might not - the opposite end of the spectrum… a serious, professional-quality ID derivative. ie with things like a ply cabinet, better speakers, and a proper FX loop (not sacrificing the emulated output), possibly without the onboard effects except for reverb.