Blackstar Amplification Reviews 13

I bought a beautiful Blackstar St. James, but after a few months the power tubes failed. It turns out this isn’t covered under warranty. I find that very poor service from Blackstar!

Get 1 guitar from them,really nice and convenient for my practice.
also get 1 electric piano from them ,easy for carrying everywhere.

Sent an amp back for a couple of checks, communication and customer service, particularly from Ollie, was first class.

I purchasedaBlackstarDebut 50R and what an amazing tone machine it is.From sparkling clean to total rock tones and everything in between. I use it for teaching, rehearsal and small gigs. A true versatile amp. What can I say. Buy one!

dull packed with harmonics. cheap and dirty.
well... wasn't actually cheap.

narrrrrrsty.

Bought a HT Club 40MKII in January from DanGuitar. Nice amp, but the foot switch died within a week. DanGuitar tell me they have contacted BlackStar several times, but got no response from the company.
Non-existent after service from Blackstar’s side.

Having heard excellent reports of this company's amps, I was pleased to hear they had created a VST plugin of the St. James 6L6. The news came from Plugin Boutique, who offered a download for around £30

I paid up and quickly received a receipt and a link to Blackstar's web site - which I latterly have discovered owns a curious anomaly, it contains NO ability to create an account, well not until you put an item into its checkout basket that is.
Back to my download attempts using the supplied link to Blackstar.
The supplied link has a three part input, the first two requiring, my email address and my iLok sign in ID.

After entering these, the third input requires a code (supposedly) to be sent to my supplied email. No such thing as happened with my main email and an attempt to use my GMAIL provided a response - but NO 'Code', just the news that my iLok was not registered to the GMAIL address and did I wish to accept that for this plugin... I answered yes, but still no code, and no sign at iLok of any such licence for me.

I am now one week on from my purchase and despite "tickets" being raised by both 'Plugin Boutique' and 'Blackstar', plus numerous attempts on both Windows and MAC... I have heard NO meaningful excuse of WHY I have not received a 'Code" from Blackstar. How they have managed to have such a good reputation must have contained better attention to detail than this.
It does appear though that the option pay $69 at the Blackstone site - whilst creating an account is open to me,,, I have left my choice in their basket, holding your breath for me to enact that purchase is NOT recommended.

As of today I have cancelled the order with Plugin Boutique and I have notified both parties that the original order is CANCELLED and... I require a refund.

ADDENDUM 24 January 2024
I now have finally downloaded this Plugin.
Apart from an automated reply from Blackstar indicating they received my first email there has been no direct contact with me.
However, it seems Plugin Boutique have been interested enough to have had some talks with Blackstar and have been in touch quite concernedly with me to provide updates; I now have the goods I paid for.

No one should imagine this was an easy feat.

Little care in a user interface - that seemingly spared every expense, leaves almost EVERY stone unturned in the business of guiding those unfamiliar with what is required, on Blackstar's, No bell's, No whistle's web offering.
The original ONE STAR I gave them should be upgraded though, because the product - although not seriously tested by me, yet - DOES look very much like the real deal and I believe three Stars more appropriate at this time.

Should this item perform even better than 'Guitar Rig 5' ... I may up it further.

What can I say, they always have a better relaunch with each product launched, studied in detail and with a sound that is always at the top!

I bought a Blackstar Unity 250 bass amp from Rimmers back in June. It duly arrived and as far as I could see the amp was new, and undamaged. I’ve been using the amp since then. In November I decided to remove the speaker grill to see exactly what lay behind. To my frustration, on removing the grill the speaker’s central dome (the one that sits over the voice coil) was damaged, as if someone had deliberately poked it.

Well, it wasn’t me, but I knew myself it was going to be hard to convince Rimmers/Blackstar that the speaker was damaged on receipt. The moral of the tale is CHECK EVERYTHING when you purchase something new.

Anyway, I contacted Rimmers to convey that the speaker was damaged. Frankly, I was not expecting anything other than an expensive repair bill. An extremely helpful lady named Lucy responded to my request for help and engaged and equally helpful Maxx at Blackstar to work out what could be done. After some photographs of the damage were sent over, it was decided that the amp be returned to Blackstar, and they would replace the speaker under warranty. The only problem was how to get the amp back to Blackstar (it is a reasonable size and quite heavy).

Lucy tried to help with this too by trying to get some packaging for me but I think I lost out to Rimmers Black Friday sale. Following that, Lucy very helpfully contacted Rimmers’ Edinburgh shop and it was agreed that I could take the amp there and they would ensure it got to Blackstar.

I cobbled together a box, packaged the amp, and took it to Rimmers Edinburgh, where a nice guy called Pete stepped in to help. He assured me everything was under control and that he would ensure the amp was sent to Blackstar. Off I went, fingers crossed that all would be fine.

The amp was couriered to Blackstar, repaired and returned to Rimmers Edinburgh. All within a week!

To be honest, other than the damaged speaker, the amp left me in pristine condition. I was hoping it would come back in the same condition as sent, but hey, no one loves your stuff like you do!

To my absolute delight, the amp came back in mint condition. I believe it was guy called Phil who did the repair. So, thanks Phil, first class repair job as far as I’m concerned. Sincerely appreciated.

I’ve taken the time to write this review as normally the only reviews I write are down to the absolutely shocking post sales service you get from companies.
Rimmers and Blackstar have been exceptional. Both companies could have easily rejected my claim for a warranty repair given the nature of the damage. But they didn’t, and both companies did their level best to sort this out. Pretty impressive these days given that everyone seems to talk about customer service but very few seem capable of delivering it. Both these companies definitely do ‘service’.

Buy with confidence from Rimmers, and be assured if you buy a Blackstar product, you’ll be able to get it serviced by guys who care and clearly know what they are doing.

Hope this helps.

Its a rare thing to find such great customer service these days. They bend over backwards to help a customer and it's bought my loyalty. Will definitely be using them again.

I recently purchased an HT-5R Mk2 from Andertons and am very pleased with it. After forty years of solid state amps, it is great to have valves again.

This little amp is crisp and clear. With the half watt button in, a good humbucker can really make it sing even at low volume. Drive it hard and it just gets better. Change channels and you have all the dirt you need.

I've collected a few different guitars over the years - Les Pauls, 339, Tele, Strats etc and they all sound better through this amp. I had been thinking about new pickups for the Tele but it turns out they weren't the problem, I just needed a better amp!

If you are looking for a valve amp for home use and recording, this is the one you need.

I purchased an ID Core 20, and had to replace the kettle lead a couple of times due to the poor design.

Went to their Facebook chat and spoke to Tommy, i wasn't expecting a reply to be fair, however i did receive one the next day, so really impressed!

He understood my concern and informed me of the reason of the known fault however stated they were aware and updated the issue, not only this, but was told they would rectify it as a gesture of goodwill, all of this from a massive company and from a customer service agent who actually cares about their customers.

Tommy is the reason why i will only use Blackstar Amps, friendly and quick to reply, banging job dude and thank you!!!