got to play a blackstar artisan 30... small review

[FiveIron]

got to sit down for about a half hour with a mint blackstar artisan 30. definitely a wonderful product. reminds me of a great cross between ac30 and a jmp. two sets of dual inputs, one for a simple volume, tone, and bass focus switch (5 positions). the other has a gain, 3band tone stack, and a volume control. lastly is a 30watt/10watt switch.

 

first off, i started with simple channel at 10 watts. very responsive at lower volume, great clean. open chords rang clear. raise the volume, you get a nice bluesy breakup much like an 18 watt marshall, but clearer. great channel by itself.

 

lastly, the next channel starts off much like a jmp with a bit less gain. this channel at 10 watts is just as clear as it's more simpler channel, but with low gain. at mid gain, you get a bit of resistance in the opening up of tone. this tone fits a tom petty-refugee tone to a tee. dime the gain and you get a very punchy, very thick tone with tons of overtones. now you flip the 10/30watt switch to 30watts. the amp goes into super thick territory. i was surprised how much this affected the tone. the compression almost disappears. very open, clear, and very loud.

 

all this with a new american strat.

 

i'm impressed.

[Herald of Light]

 

reminds me of a great cross between ac30 and a jmp.

 

 

That's a good way to put it. The first time I saw anyone talk about them here, everyone and their dog that commented acted as if they are identical Marshall clones, but they don't sound like that to me at all. Although they are certainly somewhat Marshall-ish, I have cranked a few of them up alongside AC30s, and they're not too far off.

 

I really like their cleans. They have a nice response. The distortion is pretty good too, but only when the amps are pretty much up all the way for what I'd want out of them.

 

I got to play the 15, 30, and 100 all at once the other day. They were all nice amps, but I think I'd just take the 15. Like I said, I think they need to be cranked, and I don't feel like the others really offer any advantages.

[FiveIron]

good prices for the tone too. nice build quality. 1899 ain't bad for the artisan 30.

[Danzig]

 

That's a good way to put it. The first time I saw anyone talk about them here, everyone and their dog that commented acted as if they are identical Marshall clones, but they don't sound like that to me at all. Although they are certainly somewhat Marshall-ish, I have cranked a few of them up alongside AC30s, and they're not too far off. I really like their cleans. They have a nice response. The distortion is pretty good too, but only when the amps are pretty much up all the way for what I'd want out of them. I got to play the 15, 30, and 100 all at once the other day. They were all nice amps, but I think I'd just take the 15. Like I said, I think they need to be cranked, and I don't feel like the others really offer any advantages.

 

 

Hi - Blackstar aren't available yet here in NZ so I'm really interested to hear more of what you think of the A30 versus an AC30, especially the cleans. How different are they? Which would you choose? Cheers.