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January 27, 2009

Rockschool... What Rockschool?

I knew it would happen.

I took my new amp out of the box and... well, I didn't spend much time on my Rockschool homework! This is by no means a definitive review of the beastie, but... IT'S VERY COOL! Absolutely no background noise. Good clean. Good crunch. Very controllable. Easy to dial up a fab sound at any volume. I'm sure it'll go loud, too, but I didn't have to take it off it's leash to get a nice sound!



More later...

5 comments:

Furtheron said...

I have my fingers in my ears singing "la la la la"...

I do not want to buy a Blackstar amp - I do not want to buy a Blackstar amp...

Ken Skinner said...

Well, it's early days but I was really surprised at how clean and simple everything was. My basic 'want' was an amp which didn't need lots of gadgets plugged in to make it sould good and which could be dialled from clean to crunch without stripping paint from the walls. This one seems to hit the mark.

If I had to complain straight off then it would just be that I'm used to two overdrive channels so that you can switch up into high gear with the pedal. With this one it's gonna be Old Skool use of the volume knob! How retro is that... using a volume knob?!?

I actually spent an hour last night deliberately *not* opening the box, thinking that somehow I'd manage to creep past it to get to my guitar for practice. When it came down to it I had to open it up, though, as I was wasting time not opening it. Also, I was slightly scared that initial signs would be good but when I got down to it I'd be disappointed. So far I'm definitely not disappointed.

Whilst I've only spent an hour or so with it so far the quality of this box has surprised me. I think it underlines that you really don't need to spend megabucks to get a nice sound in your living room.

Istvanski said...

Sounds quite pokey, Ken.
I'd need more drive meself, so I'd end up using a Marshall Shredmaster pedal as well as an Ibanez Wah demon thingy too.
First time I've ever heard a Blackstar in action, cheers.

Ken Skinner said...

I wouldn't judge anything by the video, S... it screams up a storm if you crank the gain... I think that was on about 4ish (basically what it sounded like out of the box!) When I get the chance I'll think about doing a range of demos for the different settings...

When I cranked the gain there it was overdrive a-go-go.

...maybe wait until the neighbours are asleep, just to make sure I don't disturb them :-)

I'm not good with pedals, though. I've had a few in the past but always had 'what was I thinking' buyers remorse!

Having said that I was at a blues jam a couple of weeks ago and one of the guys there had a little blue (I think) pedal that just gave the amp an incredible smooth, hollow, blues/rock sound. No clue what it was, but I do want one of them!

Ken Skinner said...

And I just noticed how dark the video is! Mebbe I should have turned the lights on!!!!