The Blackstar 45 series one is a medium sized, two channel all-valve guitar amplifier housing 2 speakers and running at 45 watts. The amplifier sounds great at low volume, yet there is plenty of volume to spare and would perform with ease at most medium sized gigs.
On first inspection, the front panel is clean and nicely arranged. There are a large amount of tone control options readily available, but it is not too daunting. A single row of dials makes sure that control knobs aren’t overwhelming. The amp looks great, feels sturdy and is well made and assembled.
Plugging in to the amp and starting with the clean channel with the gain on 2, selecting the ‘bright clean’ mode gives you a bright and sparkling tone with each note ringing out clearly. Perhaps the biggest selling point of this amp, and the Blackstar range as a whole, is the ‘infinite shape frequency’ dial, which, turned to one direction brings out a British characteristic in the tone, whilst turning it to the other side gives an American feel. Whilst this may sound like a gimmick, the control does present some amazing results and is well worth incorporating in to your tonal set up. On the clean channel with low gain, turning this control all the way to the ‘British’ side presented a ballsy tone which threatened to break up when pushed hard, whilst turning it all the way to the ‘American’ side gave an extremely noticeable bright twang sound, reminiscent of classic fender and mesa amps.
With the gain at half way and the ISF set al the way to British, the neck pickup of my guitar gave me a deep, resonant, yet crystal-clear twang perfect for country music styles. Selecting the ‘warm clean’ channel and turning the ISF control to the American setting meant that the bright twang was retained, yet the switch to the ‘warm’ channel meant that a new dimension of bass and resonance was added.
Switching to the overdive channel, the same amount of warmth and clarity was retained with the gain control around 2, especially with the ISF control turned to the British setting. Keeping this ISF setting and turning the gain up to halfway rendered a hair-raising ballsy crunch, perfect for recreating any 70’s classic rock tone, whilst turning the ISF control to the American setting cleaned the tone up and improved the clarity and brightness. Cranking the gain served only to heat up this signal, adding more sustain, but the ISF control still made tone shaping infinitely possible.
Pressing the ‘super crunch’ button, I was amazed with the levels of gain that were possible even at low volume. Turning the ISF control to the American setting and scooping the mids, the tone was powerful yet fluid, with lead work sustaining and cutting through perfectly due to the impressive gain levels. Turning the ISF to the British setting, I was presented with the raw, ballsy sound of cranked Marshall heads, yet still surprisingly modern, given the ‘super crunch’ mode selected.
To conclude, it is clear that the Blackstar has been developed by valve tone purists; the benefits of this being that the ISF control makes it possible to re-create just about any classic amp sound, be it the bright sparkle of early fenders, the raw crunch of mid seventies marshals or the fluid sound of high gain American amps. High gain lovers may find that the Blackstar does not deliver the compressed distortion levels of big peavey amps or mesa rectifiers, but from a crystal clear clean sound to a raw and biting distortion and anything in between, the Blackstar is the perfect companion.
Click here to see this amp in our online shop and reserve or buy one for yourself.
