I’m the guy that doesn’t want a million different preset tones built into the amp. I have enough pedals for that. The more stuff in the amp.. the more endless possibilities for trouble. I like the simplicity of the BLACKSTAR . THERE’S still plenty of adjustability right there that’s fine for me. Cheers
Sir, you're showing us again that each and every one of us can sound great, soulful, touching, profound as long as we put our heart and soul in it. That's the only ingredient that matters after all. Without tons of expensive gear, without decades of studying harmonic substitutions or perfecting somebody else's licks, we can all sound great if we do it with conviction. We should respect the instrument. We shouldn't take music for granted. But we can all move audiences. It's within our reach. Thank you, Sir, for all these gigabytes of pure gold you've been sharing with us! And all the best from Poland!
I currently own a Katana 50 Mk2 and just acquired the Blackstar Debut 50 after picking up the Fly 3. I got the Fly to take on vacation so I could play a cheap electric and was pretty stunned by how much fun I had with it and how great I think the tone sounds. I just got the Debut 50 and my Katana will be sold. I just prefer the tonal character of the Blackstar. I'm also impressed with how well it takes pedals in the front, haven't even tried the effects loop yet. I don't find any harshness with the Blackstar like I did with the Katana, and so many of the onboard Katana effects I abandoned using because I didn't like how adjusting them worked. It was like a constant bait and switch, you have reverb and delay and effects and knobs to control them on the fly but it always seem to put things out of balance adjusting them that way so I felt forced to dig into the software. I also don't feel that out of the box the Katana sounds as good as the Blackstar until you dive into the EQ settings. I spent weeks experimenting with the tone shaping and resonance and presence controls just to land on using the global EQ to cut all frequencies to my liking. While I eventually got my Katana to a spot where I thought it sounded "organic" it was hours of work. I'd rather just fiddle with knobs at the end of the day rather than manage a portfolio of presets - however - sound to sound - the Blackstar sounds amazing for its price. I cannot say I've heard the Katana sound amazing, I think you buy it for everything else it can do but I would probably steer towards a Line 6 product or Positive Grid unit for that sort of all-in-one solution.
@@neophyte_6665 both are great, the biggest difference to me is if you really want to get into the potential of the Katana you need to use software. Between the global EQ and tone shaping options you can really dial in what you like, it just takes time and has a learning curve. The Blackstar really just has the ISF control and if you're going to use pedals (like me) then you don't really need all those EQ layers. I'm not saying one is better or worse, they're both affordable, they both seem durable and it's easy to control the volume on either one. But the Blackstar is easier to use and it's quicker to get to a solid tone, whether clean, med gain, or high gain.
A bend of a string...the shift of an emotion and the story behind it. Thats why i switched from drums 27 years finally to guitar. Then 2018/19 and found your channel on the journey to find we live in the same realm. Kudos and hats off my fantasical friend. ❤
Yes. We all know its not a Katana. I had one and got fed up with pressing buttons to go from red/green and whatever the other colour was on all the effects . This is so very simple to use compared to the Katana. I shall go with the Blackstar and add my pedals.
After many years of watching Dave make things sound fabulous only for them to sound rubbish in my hands I think I have sussed out what is happening 🙂. (and no they are not deliberately sending Dave the good ones !). Same with Jimi , Greeny etc. Oh well, lol.
Personally I prefer the Blackstar over the Katana, and I've owned a Katana. The reason is mainly due to simplicity. The Katana is overwhelming, and their Tone Studio software sucks. I just want something to plug into and rock. The tones of the Debut also sound much better to my ears. The effects loop on the Debut is a plus too. This is just my opinion.
10 minutes after my first comment.. my amp arrived 🤪🤣 love it. Dang it’s loud! Clean channel is awesome. Nice and light , small footprint. Great for tight spaces ( gigs). Happy so far. Cheers
A good amp with little or no 'faff', just what the doctor ordered. Cheap enough to run a pair of them (wet/dry?). On my shortlist for sure. Never played a Katana but its full of stuff I'll never use. I'd rather just add a couple of pedals as required. As you say, horses for courses.
sneaky amps really arent all they are cracked up to be. essentially they are just presets dialed in from old settings because the amp is based on the old COSM tech platform of the gt floor series. really with the name "sneaky" wasnt attached to them, people seem to think there are hidden amps inside the amp
@@KenithCopeland The sneaky amps are not optimised for the Katana and are a bit of faff to use via Tone Studio but with the right software do give easy access to nearly 30 amps. Additionally sneaky amps give pedal combinations that are not possible using Tone Studio. My main Katana amps are Clean Twin, VO Drive & MS1959 I+II. As far as I am aware the five official amps live in the same electronics as the 20+ unofficial amps.
@@sometimesdimneverthin Fx floorboard, katana librarian, those two third party apps also let you configure pedals in ways tone studio doesnt allow, doesnt make them magical. if sneaky amps give you a "different amp" then how come when you select one it still uses one of the 5 base amp tones of the katana as its basis. they are nothing more then eq variations. actually just like the variations the mk2 katanas have, they are just eq'd differently, its not a new "amp". in the main facebook group with close to 40k members, this comes up a lot, its just not as magical as people want to make it out to be and there's a reason boss updates have rendered these "sneaky" amps unusable
@@KenithCopeland To be pedantic there is one amp and some electronics from an old FX unit that manipulate the sound. The amp knobs and Tone Studio provide easy access to five software amp variations. Third party software gives easy access to nearly 30 amp variations plus other pedal combinations. The sneaky amps are not tweaks of the five standard each one is borne as its own thing from the COSM brain. None of the variants will be perfect but they are all a lot cheaper and more practical than the real thing. Some to my ears are good and others are awful but beauty is in the ear of the beholder so my opinion of each one is worthless. I think I paid about £250. If the sneaky amps were real they would have cost over £30,000 plus I would need a couple more rooms added to my house. There is a Custom setting which I have never looked at which might be how the likes of Juca Nery come up with even more amps.
@@sometimesdimneverthin if you watch jucas older videos you can see all he is doing is creating IR's and mimicking eq's of other amps, there are a lot of videos on how to do this with a convolution reverb plug in. they arent coming up with new amps its just a preset eq tone shape. dave has a bunch of videos where he takes a orange cr120 and gets various guitarists tones out of it, none of those players play a orange amp, he's not creating a new amp in that cr120, its eq shaping the katanas firmware is based on cosm tech like the older gt series floorbaords, that doesnt mean it is an old unit, its like a 2020 intel macbook is based on the same tech and firmware as a 2010 macbook, just updated.
Agreed. Those Blackstar Debuts are GREAT! I'd have to say I do prefer the Debut over the Kitana. Just sayin. Cheers from Los Angeles. If you ever need a crash pad in L.A. You can stay with us ; ) We have classic rock duo. Had 3, 4, 5 piece bands too. ; )
I've owned and played two boss Katana 50s and sold them and I just bought this exact same amp color and all .on its way now!! 😀..I'm 54 and I tried the Katanas Twice and just way to many features a fool around time for me ..I ended up playing with the amp more than playing my guitar..I wanted a more bar bones down to it amplifier that I could still play through my interface and the part I also like it the 12" speaker mutes when you run it through the interface for recording as far as I've saw on other reviews on UA-cam..hope I'll be satisfied..Guess we will see or on to the next one lol..Thanks Dave Great review..I think it's a great sounding amplifier for the type and style of music I play 👍 !!! Got the Amplifier from Sweetwater right after posting this and I Love it so far ! Been playing almost everyday!!!pretty awesome Amp for the price👍😁
I really like my Debut 50. I use the "distortion" channel, with the volume turned way up and almost no drive on it. That gets a great clean tone, and I'm using pedals in front of it for a drive sound. My favorite overdrive is a Nocturne Atomic Brain, which is just great into this amp. (Well, it's great into all my amps.)
Going back and hearing your latest Katana video and this, this seems to have a more jangley clean/edge of breakup. More Voxy. While the Katana seems more dull and round like a Fender the highs tamed back. You make them both sound glorious. But this one has a sweetness the Katana seems to lack. At least in the recording.
Blackstar’s gain structure is definitely unique. To my ears it sounds a bit darker and thicker than a Marshall, but still brighter and a bit punchier than an Orange. It sounds great tbh. I’m just not wild about the color-scheme of the amp itself (as shallow as that is). Are they available in a Black/Silver configuration?
I was quite impressed by the clean tones when you were plugged in directly, with all guitars, that sounded pretty convincing. I suspect the Katana will do a better job on the dirty side of the spectrum. Can't wait for the shoot-out video.
i love your mind with music brother,I started playing guitar because many times,you touched my soul with your music , I'm grateful to be able to listen to you
I’m still waiting for a video comparison between this and Katana 50, very curious! Someone’s said that clean channel on this is much thinner, but I really prefer the simplicity of Debut over usb/editor and other stuff… Please! :)
Sounds pretty good to me! Id choose this over the the Katana 50 BUT not the artist.... The katana Artist sounds really damn nice. I liked the Crush 60 also, do you think it sounds as good as that? Maybe brighter and more modern sounding? A head version of this would be awesome, speakers change everything.
I feel its the speaker choice, 70/80 in most of them sound god awful, but hooked up to anything else (or in my 2x12 ht 60 et65 / g12 65 clones) they sound damn amazing and sparkly sexy.
@@MetalHippie83 I did that with my HT60 Soloist, I pulled the 70/80 speaker and swapped in a Celestion Cream back 65 and it sounds amazing now!! Speakers matter more than the tubes in my experience.
@@n97223 yup I agree, creambacks are amazing on their own, I just don't see any love for 70/80 they are thin and bright but scooped and muddy undefined tone, and the high wattage doesnt help it either. A and B with any other speaker they just sound awful.
Hey Dave 👋 Not even comparable. I love the Debut 50 and the katana. But it's apples and oranges. I think the Katana and Debut are totally different for different applications 👍 Great review 👍
At least from this video, I prefer the sounds you got compared to your boss katana tones. Cleans seem more Vox AC 30-ish. Gain a bit more visceral somehow, as hard as it is to say without an A-B comparison. I had the 100 watt MKII katana combo and eventually sold it as I was not playing it enough. Felt somewhat uninspiring to me, especially the cleans -- too dull out of the box.
I know you prefer the Katana but to my ears the tones you are getting from the Blackstar here rivals all the Katana tones I've ever heard on your demos and from any other Katana's on YT for that matter! To my ears the Blackstar just sounds tons better! AND I like the bar bones lack of bells & whistles in an amplifier!
I have heard some negativity toward Blackstar online. I bought a first run HT club 40 this winter, old and scuffed up. It sounds great. Maybe it is hard to have them serviced? I dont know. They made a killer amp as far as the club 40 is concerned.
Love the colour on this amp really cool but Blackstar never have call my attention like other brands . It sounds great but what amp wouldn't sound great with Dave playing it? I just got the Orange PPC212 2x12 CB cabinet to pair with my Orange Micro Terror and to play with TC Electronic Plethora X5 and Boss ds1
I like the clean. It has a vintage vibe that I think will go well with my telecaster and the only 3 pedals I use (boss tuner, SD1 and Metal Core). I’m also considering the Roland JC 22 but I almost find it too clean
Nice one, Dave. Thanks a lot. I have this amp, in this colour and I love it. I'm so crap, though, always looking for help and advice re: settings. Thanks, dude. Peace
I have 2 Blackstar all tube heads and although they sound good the recording part leaves a lot to be desired. First one didn't record at all and had to be sent away and fixed and when I got it back it worked but recording volume was really low and it kept crashing my daw. Second amp head crashed daw too but not as much and also had very low recording volume. The emulated line out is better than some Marshalls I will say. So in my case, and it's only in my case I can talk about- They sound good and work great if your just playing through them or micing a cab up, but the line out and recording over usb was a pain in the ass. No jokes today! Unless you count me cutting my pinky earlier when I accidentally stuck it forceably into a tub of margarine and saw it was cut despite to my knowledge margarine being soft. I mean you have to laugh - I didn't, I cried like a baby!
Dave...Just read your tribute to your buddy....I've got two very close friends. I might not see them for a year or more but it doesn't affect our closeness...So I feel for you. You need to invest some love into that guitar 🎸 ❤ Your channel is one of the best out there
Great video Dave, thx. Blackstar is "better" to just came to home, take guitar, plug in and "make some noise". Katana brings you a world of sounds and posibility. Just choose one (or buy both!)
I have the 15 watt in the same colour and it is ok, but the delay volume dropped dramatically a day or two after I got it! don't know what happened, anyway it is a sexy looking little amp though!
It's a shame you never did the katana comparison. Would have been really good to see and hear as I think alot of people are in the same boat as me trying to figure out if I want the katana with all the bells and whistles or a simple 2 channel amp to run so pedals through. If you do read this, would you say it's loud enough to do pub gigs with? Cheers mate.
Goodbye Dave. 😂 I liked it but would like to hear the Katana beside it. Also I'd have gone for the cream and oxblood for purely retro aesthetic reasons but it is pretty! I had looked at the smaller ones on line as a practice amp and I do like Blackstar stuff. And nice sounds from you on this vid.
Im a simple guitar player. I like Telecasters and Les Paul style guitars to cover my tonal spectrum - no tremolo, easy controls. I like Strats too, but there’s part of me that doesn’t like the faff of the trem, the middle switch positions etc… I’m the same when it comes to amps. My brain just goes into shutdown when it comes to setting up patches, apps and all the rest of it. I also worry how future proof such things are. I like this amp because it’s very simple, no frills, and provides a great inexpensive platform that allows you to home record and have an effects loop with a pedalboard setup. I was considering the Katana and even the Spark 40, but something just tells me I won’t like them
Yes, the Les Paul Junior really rocked, but the "piéce de résistance" was when you put the Tele through the amp. It was just subliminal. A simple Tele going into a simple but robust analogue amp in the hands of a magician; what more could one ever sonically want?
This one ping'd my personal gear radar initially when Blackstar announced it. My opinion? It's fully analog... Thus for the price? You could split two of these in stereo without any worry about DSP round trip latency/phase issues, which the Katana line of amps requires their proprietary stereo slave back panel outputs to accomplish. A fully analog Mosfet input choice allows for that. A BOSS Katana 50 MKII combo for example, can't run stereo with a splitter in phase. These Debut 50 combos can. That's a big plus IMO, but it's completely subjective depending on one's needs honestly. Fantastic demo BTW Dave! Keep being awesome! Cheers!
Got too good many pedals for a BOSS Katana. Tooooo munch fiddly blipps-blopps-computer-settings-apps-bling-bling on BOSS-Katana. Dont need those stuff. TREMENDOUSLY GOOD REVIEW!!!! LOVED IT! Blackstar for the old old guitarist here. NO doubt. :P
Hey Dave is there a reason you didn’t end up doing a comparison between the katana 50? Im tossing up the two amps for my first home use to eventually jam with and not sure where to go. I work in the film industry and spend a lot of time on computers tweaking settings and sliders etc so when im playing guitar I want to disconnect from that world entirely and not have to deal with any external software or apps. For my case would you recommend the debut over the katana? Or something else all together that can play quietly and sound great but also crank up a bit when needed. Love the videos you do mate, cheers from New Zealand!
How would you say this sounds compared to the Orange Crush 35 RT? It seems from the video a little brighter and maybe less fizzy with more ability to just clean up with the guitar volume on the dirt channel compared to the 35, but nobody has them locally to be able to tell. Thanks!
Man blackstar should be listening to you.. Make is slightly bigger, with a little more power, and a larger heftier speaker,, fix the damn line out so with a switch you could cut in or out the speaker. so you could use the amp live while sending a speaker emulated line out to the mixing board. and a price of say 300-350 pounds.
Suggest people go to a Store and try one, compare against a Katana, dont be swayed by sales guys, they are there to shift stock, might be a couple of quid one moe in a shop for whatever you choose, but keeps them going and give you the option to try gear, keeps money out of Amazons tax dodging hands. I have various Amps, Marshall, Vox and Katana 100 twin, all these amps will break windows and more than I need, the Katana is the default weapon, I can use it at quiet open mic's for the acoustic setting etc, and large stage gigs where I can compete with full stacks, plus I can carry it with one hand. Blackstar dont have a great reputation for build quality and reliability, but they are British and the simplicity of this amp might be ideal for some people.
Hi Dave gotta say i've had katana head and combo absolutly hated both so gonna try this with pedals thanks for another great honest review and Amazing playing as always , keep on informing us gear nerds in an unpatronising way as we look at sub 10 billion dollar john mayer etc cloned stuff
Does it work just as a power amp and speaker? I can imagine plugging the output of pedal based modeller into the return of the effects loop, bypassing the bulk of the preamp/colour. Would it be safe to use that way? If that worked it would be useful dual purpose tool: used conventionally for those times when you want to play with a simple palette, while also being a simple way to get the modeller loud without needing a frfr amp+speaker. Maybe not perfect but good enough for a lot of uses.
I think it sounds great, but the issue I see for it is the price. That price point is super competitive, and once you throw in the used market... I mean you can get a used HT 20 for less than this thing, and the HT 20 is a tube amp that has more features. Just seems like that is a tough price for what it is. If they could get it under 200 USD, it would be a hit.
Very good as usual Big Dave 😊😊. Just purchased a Michael Kelly Tele guitar ( 53db tigers eye) guiitar and Boss Katana Artist amp. Got guitar yesterday, Love it man worth every dollar my Boss katana Artist amp will arrive next week sometime. Looking forward to its arrival. Like the control knobs facing me instead of on top of amp like other ones 👍💯✌️✌️🎸🎸. That Strat sounds great Buddy 👍👌💯
Thanks again Dave an open honest no frills great playing review, i looked at one of these today watched a few vids and liked what i saw , you have just sold it to me , keep on rocking Mr Dave Simpson
Always subjective Dave, I have a studio 10 valve combo that I love, not tried the solid state, perhaps thats another video for another day? Ps. Great tone and tunes as always........Pps. The slide was killer.......
That separation of line out and headphones would be good. The katana 100 has a separate 1/4 inch line out. More ins and outs would be good. Thanks great video. Looking forward to the next. The Boss amp head is on my list. And someday then a combo. And I do like blackstar.
I love dave and his videos and playing and everything, but I have come to the conclusion that you can give him any amp, any guitar, any pedals, he will always make them sound the exact same haha
Hello Dave, Excellent video as always. That Blackstar sounds good, but the Katana certainly is more feature laden...and I would pick it as well. I’m kind of surprised that you prefer the Katana over the Nextone Special though. I get that the Katana has more features/sounds, but to me the Nextone Special is the best sounding SS amp that I’ve ever heard for pure tones. I pair mine with a Line 6 HX Effects in the 4 Channel method, use a few expression pedals, and I’m absolutely in heaven. There is a bit of a learning curve to the Nextone though - but once I understood how the high and lo pass filters worked in conjunction with the power amp section, it became the “best” amp I’ve ever used.
Hi Dave! Sorry to ask, but could you recommend a mic to record my combo into my track dock and cubasis? In fact I need two as I run two 5 watt Combos. I don’t want the absolute best but something better than the cheapest to capture the sound in the room into cubasis. Direct out and / or IPhone don’t capture the sound I hear in the room. 😩
I’m the guy that doesn’t want a million different preset tones built into the amp. I have enough pedals for that. The more stuff in the amp.. the more endless possibilities for trouble. I like the simplicity of the BLACKSTAR . THERE’S still plenty of adjustability right there that’s fine for me. Cheers
Sir, you're showing us again that each and every one of us can sound great, soulful, touching, profound as long as we put our heart and soul in it. That's the only ingredient that matters after all. Without tons of expensive gear, without decades of studying harmonic substitutions or perfecting somebody else's licks, we can all sound great if we do it with conviction. We should respect the instrument. We shouldn't take music for granted. But we can all move audiences. It's within our reach. Thank you, Sir, for all these gigabytes of pure gold you've been sharing with us! And all the best from Poland!
I currently own a Katana 50 Mk2 and just acquired the Blackstar Debut 50 after picking up the Fly 3. I got the Fly to take on vacation so I could play a cheap electric and was pretty stunned by how much fun I had with it and how great I think the tone sounds. I just got the Debut 50 and my Katana will be sold. I just prefer the tonal character of the Blackstar. I'm also impressed with how well it takes pedals in the front, haven't even tried the effects loop yet. I don't find any harshness with the Blackstar like I did with the Katana, and so many of the onboard Katana effects I abandoned using because I didn't like how adjusting them worked. It was like a constant bait and switch, you have reverb and delay and effects and knobs to control them on the fly but it always seem to put things out of balance adjusting them that way so I felt forced to dig into the software. I also don't feel that out of the box the Katana sounds as good as the Blackstar until you dive into the EQ settings. I spent weeks experimenting with the tone shaping and resonance and presence controls just to land on using the global EQ to cut all frequencies to my liking. While I eventually got my Katana to a spot where I thought it sounded "organic" it was hours of work. I'd rather just fiddle with knobs at the end of the day rather than manage a portfolio of presets - however - sound to sound - the Blackstar sounds amazing for its price. I cannot say I've heard the Katana sound amazing, I think you buy it for everything else it can do but I would probably steer towards a Line 6 product or Positive Grid unit for that sort of all-in-one solution.
Are the blackstar 50r and katana 50 same in size?
@@neophyte_6665 more or less, I think the Katana is smidge heavier and maybe a smidge smaller.
@@dasninjastix thank you! Im looking for an amp for bedroom practice that takes pedals well.
@@neophyte_6665 both are great, the biggest difference to me is if you really want to get into the potential of the Katana you need to use software. Between the global EQ and tone shaping options you can really dial in what you like, it just takes time and has a learning curve. The Blackstar really just has the ISF control and if you're going to use pedals (like me) then you don't really need all those EQ layers. I'm not saying one is better or worse, they're both affordable, they both seem durable and it's easy to control the volume on either one. But the Blackstar is easier to use and it's quicker to get to a solid tone, whether clean, med gain, or high gain.
A bend of a string...the shift of an emotion and the story behind it. Thats why i switched from drums 27 years finally to guitar. Then 2018/19 and found your channel on the journey to find we live in the same realm. Kudos and hats off my fantasical friend. ❤
Yes. We all know its not a Katana. I had one and got fed up with pressing buttons to go from red/green and whatever the other colour was on all the effects . This is so very simple to use compared to the Katana. I shall go with the Blackstar and add my pedals.
After many years of watching Dave make things sound fabulous only for them to sound rubbish in my hands I think I have sussed out what is happening 🙂. (and no they are not deliberately sending Dave the good ones !). Same with Jimi , Greeny etc. Oh well, lol.
ha ha ha ha ha Love this!!
Personally I prefer the Blackstar over the Katana, and I've owned a Katana. The reason is mainly due to simplicity. The Katana is overwhelming, and their Tone Studio software sucks. I just want something to plug into and rock. The tones of the Debut also sound much better to my ears. The effects loop on the Debut is a plus too. This is just my opinion.
10 minutes after my first comment.. my amp arrived 🤪🤣 love it. Dang it’s loud! Clean channel is awesome. Nice and light , small footprint. Great for tight spaces ( gigs). Happy so far. Cheers
I've had this very amp for a couple of months now and it is flippin' awesome (I'm an old-school pedal user)
A good amp with little or no 'faff', just what the doctor ordered. Cheap enough to run a pair of them (wet/dry?). On my shortlist for sure. Never played a Katana but its full of stuff I'll never use. I'd rather just add a couple of pedals as required. As you say, horses for courses.
I bought my Katana 100 Mk1 because of Dave's Katana review before he found fame and fortune. Even better now with sneaky amps and Xsonic.
sneaky amps really arent all they are cracked up to be. essentially they are just presets dialed in from old settings because the amp is based on the old COSM tech platform of the gt floor series. really with the name "sneaky" wasnt attached to them, people seem to think there are hidden amps inside the amp
@@KenithCopeland The sneaky amps are not optimised for the Katana and are a bit of faff to use via Tone Studio but with the right software do give easy access to nearly 30 amps. Additionally sneaky amps give pedal combinations that are not possible using Tone Studio. My main Katana amps are Clean Twin, VO Drive & MS1959 I+II. As far as I am aware the five official amps live in the same electronics as the 20+ unofficial amps.
@@sometimesdimneverthin Fx floorboard, katana librarian, those two third party apps also let you configure pedals in ways tone studio doesnt allow, doesnt make them magical. if sneaky amps give you a "different amp" then how come when you select one it still uses one of the 5 base amp tones of the katana as its basis. they are nothing more then eq variations. actually just like the variations the mk2 katanas have, they are just eq'd differently, its not a new "amp".
in the main facebook group with close to 40k members, this comes up a lot, its just not as magical as people want to make it out to be and there's a reason boss updates have rendered these "sneaky" amps unusable
@@KenithCopeland To be pedantic there is one amp and some electronics from an old FX unit that manipulate the sound. The amp knobs and Tone Studio provide easy access to five software amp variations. Third party software gives easy access to nearly 30 amp variations plus other pedal combinations. The sneaky amps are not tweaks of the five standard each one is borne as its own thing from the COSM brain. None of the variants will be perfect but they are all a lot cheaper and more practical than the real thing. Some to my ears are good and others are awful but beauty is in the ear of the beholder so my opinion of each one is worthless.
I think I paid about £250. If the sneaky amps were real they would have cost over £30,000 plus I would need a couple more rooms added to my house.
There is a Custom setting which I have never looked at which might be how the likes of Juca Nery come up with even more amps.
@@sometimesdimneverthin if you watch jucas older videos you can see all he is doing is creating IR's and mimicking eq's of other amps, there are a lot of videos on how to do this with a convolution reverb plug in. they arent coming up with new amps its just a preset eq tone shape.
dave has a bunch of videos where he takes a orange cr120 and gets various guitarists tones out of it, none of those players play a orange amp, he's not creating a new amp in that cr120, its eq shaping
the katanas firmware is based on cosm tech like the older gt series floorbaords, that doesnt mean it is an old unit, its like a 2020 intel macbook is based on the same tech and firmware as a 2010 macbook, just updated.
Lovely amp super intro cheers Mr S!🙂
Agreed. Those Blackstar Debuts are GREAT! I'd have to say I do prefer the Debut over the Kitana. Just sayin. Cheers from Los Angeles.
If you ever need a crash pad in L.A. You can stay with us ; ) We have classic rock duo. Had 3, 4, 5 piece bands too. ; )
I think Blackstar are onto somethimg with the 50...
I must admit, I clicked because I wanted to hear your magic again! Always a privilege to hear you play! Blessings to you, friend!
Just bought one of these today. It sounds amazing and is really good for its price
I've owned and played two boss Katana 50s and sold them and I just bought this exact same amp color and all .on its way now!! 😀..I'm 54 and I tried the Katanas Twice and just way to many features a fool around time for me ..I ended up playing with the amp more than playing my guitar..I wanted a more bar bones down to it amplifier that I could still play through my interface and the part I also like it the 12" speaker mutes when you run it through the interface for recording as far as I've saw on other reviews on UA-cam..hope I'll be satisfied..Guess we will see or on to the next one lol..Thanks Dave Great review..I think it's a great sounding amplifier for the type and style of music I play 👍 !!! Got the Amplifier from Sweetwater right after posting this and I Love it so far ! Been playing almost everyday!!!pretty awesome Amp for the price👍😁
I really like my Debut 50. I use the "distortion" channel, with the volume turned way up and almost no drive on it. That gets a great clean tone, and I'm using pedals in front of it for a drive sound. My favorite overdrive is a Nocturne Atomic Brain, which is just great into this amp. (Well, it's great into all my amps.)
Going back and hearing your latest Katana video and this, this seems to have a more jangley clean/edge of breakup. More Voxy. While the Katana seems more dull and round like a Fender the highs tamed back.
You make them both sound glorious. But this one has a sweetness the Katana seems to lack. At least in the recording.
Blackstar’s gain structure is definitely unique. To my ears it sounds a bit darker and thicker than a Marshall, but still brighter and a bit punchier than an Orange. It sounds great tbh. I’m just not wild about the color-scheme of the amp itself (as shallow as that is). Are they available in a Black/Silver configuration?
Try searching google and looking at the amps at any online music store…… answer your own questions
You can also get them in black with a tan grille! That’s the version I want to get
I was quite impressed by the clean tones when you were plugged in directly, with all guitars, that sounded pretty convincing. I suspect the Katana will do a better job on the dirty side of the spectrum. Can't wait for the shoot-out video.
It really seemed to let the character of each different guitar come through.
I absolutely loved the Jeff Buckley Hallelujah-esque tribute. Your playing is so good.
I wouldn't say Katana killer. But most definitely Bandit killer. First no-nonsense dirty cheap solidstate amp since Orange CR (and maybe Laney LX)
i love your mind with music brother,I started playing guitar because many times,you touched my soul with your music , I'm grateful to be able to listen to you
Oh my dave that clean tone mr white sounds beautiful what an awsome amp and your magical fingers
a bit limited compared to the Katana , But this one seems to be the acces to all we need directly in the very good way !
I’m still waiting for a video comparison between this and Katana 50, very curious! Someone’s said that clean channel on this is much thinner, but I really prefer the simplicity of Debut over usb/editor and other stuff…
Please! :)
Sounds pretty good to me! Id choose this over the the Katana 50 BUT not the artist.... The katana Artist sounds really damn nice. I liked the Crush 60 also, do you think it sounds as good as that? Maybe brighter and more modern sounding? A head version of this would be awesome, speakers change everything.
Wait, I thought the Silverline was supposed to be their Katana killer.
I think both of them are there to compete.
Yeah, the Silverline is closer to the katana in functionality... just not in price.
Hot Dawg, that doesn't sound clinical like a typical modelling amp. Rather warm and punchy
I'm not the biggest fan of blackstar amps, but its always a pleasure to hear you playing :)
I feel its the speaker choice, 70/80 in most of them sound god awful, but hooked up to anything else (or in my 2x12 ht 60 et65 / g12 65 clones) they sound damn amazing and sparkly sexy.
@@MetalHippie83 I did that with my HT60 Soloist, I pulled the 70/80 speaker and swapped in a Celestion Cream back 65 and it sounds amazing now!! Speakers matter more than the tubes in my experience.
@@n97223 yup I agree, creambacks are amazing on their own, I just don't see any love for 70/80 they are thin and bright but scooped and muddy undefined tone, and the high wattage doesnt help it either. A and B with any other speaker they just sound awful.
Hey Dave 👋 Not even comparable. I love the Debut 50 and the katana. But it's apples and oranges. I think the Katana and Debut are totally different for different applications 👍 Great review 👍
At least from this video, I prefer the sounds you got compared to your boss katana tones. Cleans seem more Vox AC 30-ish. Gain a bit more visceral somehow, as hard as it is to say without an A-B comparison. I had the 100 watt MKII katana combo and eventually sold it as I was not playing it enough. Felt somewhat uninspiring to me, especially the cleans -- too dull out of the box.
Great playing as always good to see blackstar getting some attention got a ht5 .overdrive channel a ryra as a boost and an happy 😊
I’ve got a Blackstar with probably the same reverb…. My Cloudburst arrived earlier this week 😊
I know you prefer the Katana but to my ears the tones you are getting from the Blackstar here rivals all the Katana tones I've ever heard on your demos and from any other Katana's on YT for that matter! To my ears the Blackstar just sounds tons better! AND I like the bar bones lack of bells & whistles in an amplifier!
I have heard some negativity toward Blackstar online. I bought a first run HT club 40 this winter, old and scuffed up.
It sounds great.
Maybe it is hard to have them serviced? I dont know. They made a killer amp as far as the club 40 is concerned.
Love the colour on this amp really cool but Blackstar never have call my attention like other brands . It sounds great but what amp wouldn't sound great with Dave playing it?
I just got the Orange PPC212 2x12 CB cabinet to pair with my Orange Micro Terror and to play with TC Electronic Plethora X5 and Boss ds1
I like the clean. It has a vintage vibe that I think will go well with my telecaster and the only 3 pedals I use (boss tuner, SD1 and Metal Core). I’m also considering the Roland JC 22 but I almost find it too clean
I have the Positive Grid Spark 40 and looking for a new amp for my apartment preferably
Nice playing Dave. I'm surprise how good that little amp sound but on the other hand you can make anything sound good. Keep on Rocking
I wonder how it sound if we replace the Speaker with Celestion.❤
I sold Fender Mustang and bought Debut 50. Usage modelling amps are uncomfortable for me... Debut is great.
Nice one, Dave. Thanks a lot. I have this amp, in this colour and I love it. I'm so crap, though, always looking for help and advice re: settings. Thanks, dude. Peace
I have 2 Blackstar all tube heads and although they sound good the recording part leaves a lot to be desired. First one didn't record at all and had to be sent away and fixed and when I got it back it worked but recording volume was really low and it kept crashing my daw. Second amp head crashed daw too but not as much and also had very low recording volume. The emulated line out is better than some Marshalls I will say. So in my case, and it's only in my case I can talk about- They sound good and work great if your just playing through them or micing a cab up, but the line out and recording over usb was a pain in the ass. No jokes today! Unless you count me cutting my pinky earlier when I accidentally stuck it forceably into a tub of margarine and saw it was cut despite to my knowledge margarine being soft. I mean you have to laugh - I didn't, I cried like a baby!
Dave, podrías hacer bandas sonoras para películas y no parar nunca! Es paralizante tu musica.
Great, really in depth review, answered some questions, I havent seen answered elsewhere. Do you remember which headphones you used with it?
9:21 gave me goosebumps
In my humble opinion dave in your hands this amp sounds f awsòme beautiful playing as allways
Dave...Just read your tribute to your buddy....I've got two very close friends. I might not see them for a year or more but it doesn't affect our closeness...So I feel for you. You need to invest some love into that guitar 🎸 ❤ Your channel is one of the best out there
Very noice amp.👍👍👍🙏❤🌹
Couldn't be better reviewed. So amazingly played and sound/ tone is impeccable
I own a few blackstar amps and I really enjoy them I have not had a chance to play out of a Boss katana but I do hope to buy a katana one day.
How does this not have more likes? Awesome.
Great playing!!!
What pedals are you using?
But... but it's a Blackstar...
Great video Dave, thx.
Blackstar is "better" to just came to home, take guitar, plug in and "make some noise".
Katana brings you a world of sounds and posibility.
Just choose one (or buy both!)
Ha ha!
I love my Blackstar btw
I have the 15 watt in the same colour and it is ok, but the delay volume dropped dramatically a day or two after I got it! don't know what happened, anyway it is a sexy looking little amp though!
It's a shame you never did the katana comparison. Would have been really good to see and hear as I think alot of people are in the same boat as me trying to figure out if I want the katana with all the bells and whistles or a simple 2 channel amp to run so pedals through. If you do read this, would you say it's loud enough to do pub gigs with?
Cheers mate.
Just get both. what I did, and I switch back and forth as mood strikes. Along with a couple other amps, though I have GAS lol
@@tobiusmanning7336 How would you compare the two?
Awesome attuitidude Dave! Great playing as always!
Goodbye Dave. 😂 I liked it but would like to hear the Katana beside it. Also I'd have gone for the cream and oxblood for purely retro aesthetic reasons but it is pretty! I had looked at the smaller ones on line as a practice amp and I do like Blackstar stuff. And nice sounds from you on this vid.
Im a simple guitar player. I like Telecasters and Les Paul style guitars to cover my tonal spectrum - no tremolo, easy controls. I like Strats too, but there’s part of me that doesn’t like the faff of the trem, the middle switch positions etc… I’m the same when it comes to amps. My brain just goes into shutdown when it comes to setting up patches, apps and all the rest of it. I also worry how future proof such things are. I like this amp because it’s very simple, no frills, and provides a great inexpensive platform that allows you to home record and have an effects loop with a pedalboard setup. I was considering the Katana and even the Spark 40, but something just tells me I won’t like them
Yes, the Les Paul Junior really rocked, but the "piéce de résistance" was when you put the Tele through the amp. It was just subliminal. A simple Tele going into a simple but robust analogue amp in the hands of a magician; what more could one ever sonically want?
Truly epic playing..all best from a geordie guitar freak.
I love my kat, everything I need right there
This one ping'd my personal gear radar initially when Blackstar announced it. My opinion?
It's fully analog...
Thus for the price? You could split two of these in stereo without any worry about DSP round trip latency/phase issues, which the Katana line of amps requires their proprietary stereo slave back panel outputs to accomplish.
A fully analog Mosfet input choice allows for that.
A BOSS Katana 50 MKII combo for example, can't run stereo with a splitter in phase.
These Debut 50 combos can.
That's a big plus IMO, but it's completely subjective depending on one's needs honestly.
Fantastic demo BTW Dave!
Keep being awesome!
Cheers!
Got too good many pedals for a BOSS Katana. Tooooo munch fiddly blipps-blopps-computer-settings-apps-bling-bling on BOSS-Katana. Dont need those stuff. TREMENDOUSLY GOOD REVIEW!!!! LOVED IT! Blackstar for the old old guitarist here.
NO doubt. :P
Hey Dave is there a reason you didn’t end up doing a comparison between the katana 50? Im tossing up the two amps for my first home use to eventually jam with and not sure where to go. I work in the film industry and spend a lot of time on computers tweaking settings and sliders etc so when im playing guitar I want to disconnect from that world entirely and not have to deal with any external software or apps. For my case would you recommend the debut over the katana? Or something else all together that can play quietly and sound great but also crank up a bit when needed. Love the videos you do mate, cheers from New Zealand!
I stupidily sold the debut before i did the video. Not a clever moment. Haha. I would always recomend the kat though.
That intro gave me a ton of Andrew Latimer vibes - great tones, Dave.
Beautifully executed intro Dave😃👍👍
😎✌👍❤🖖
that amp really suits mr white tbh
How would you say this sounds compared to the Orange Crush 35 RT? It seems from the video a little brighter and maybe less fizzy with more ability to just clean up with the guitar volume on the dirt channel compared to the 35, but nobody has them locally to be able to tell. Thanks!
Man blackstar should be listening to you..
Make is slightly bigger, with a little more power, and a larger heftier speaker,, fix the damn line out so with a switch you could cut in or out the speaker. so you could use the amp live while sending a speaker emulated line out to the mixing board. and a price of say 300-350 pounds.
Vox ac30 vr or katana mk 1 100
Katana.
blackstar debut50r VS Bugera V22...Which one is better clean tone ?
I’ve never tried the bugera so i don’t know. Sorry.
@@thedavesimpson Thank you.
Suggest people go to a Store and try one, compare against a Katana, dont be swayed by sales guys, they are there to shift stock, might be a couple of quid one moe in a shop for whatever you choose, but keeps them going and give you the option to try gear, keeps money out of Amazons tax dodging hands. I have various Amps, Marshall, Vox and Katana 100 twin, all these amps will break windows and more than I need, the Katana is the default weapon, I can use it at quiet open mic's for the acoustic setting etc, and large stage gigs where I can compete with full stacks, plus I can carry it with one hand. Blackstar dont have a great reputation for build quality and reliability, but they are British and the simplicity of this amp might be ideal for some people.
Hi Dave gotta say i've had katana head and combo absolutly hated both so gonna try this with pedals thanks for another great honest review and Amazing playing as always , keep on informing us gear nerds in an unpatronising way as we look at sub 10 billion dollar john mayer etc cloned stuff
Does it work just as a power amp and speaker? I can imagine plugging the output of pedal based modeller into the return of the effects loop, bypassing the bulk of the preamp/colour. Would it be safe to use that way? If that worked it would be useful dual purpose tool: used conventionally for those times when you want to play with a simple palette, while also being a simple way to get the modeller loud without needing a frfr amp+speaker. Maybe not perfect but good enough for a lot of uses.
I think it sounds great, but the issue I see for it is the price. That price point is super competitive, and once you throw in the used market... I mean you can get a used HT 20 for less than this thing, and the HT 20 is a tube amp that has more features. Just seems like that is a tough price for what it is. If they could get it under 200 USD, it would be a hit.
#9 is good
I'm Frusciante fan myself and I'm watching you for couple of years now, and man, in some regards I consider you better guitarist than John himself
I feel like the core sound of this sounds much more tube like and full compared to the Katana. The Boss still sounds plasticky to my ear.
I really love both my katana and blackstar ID’s, but the best part of any of Dave’s videos is his buttery smooth, emotion filled playing.
Very good as usual Big Dave 😊😊. Just purchased a Michael Kelly Tele guitar ( 53db tigers eye) guiitar and Boss Katana Artist amp. Got guitar yesterday, Love it man worth every dollar my Boss katana Artist amp will arrive next week sometime. Looking forward to its arrival. Like the control knobs facing me instead of on top of amp like other ones 👍💯✌️✌️🎸🎸. That Strat sounds great Buddy 👍👌💯
How loud is the 5 watt mode? Is the 5W mode quiet enough for home use?
It is yes.
Thanks again Dave an open honest no frills great playing review, i looked at one of these today watched a few vids and liked what i saw , you have just sold it to me , keep on rocking Mr Dave Simpson
Hi 😊👋
Always subjective Dave, I have a studio 10 valve combo that I love, not tried the solid state, perhaps thats another video for another day? Ps. Great tone and tunes as always........Pps. The slide was killer.......
That separation of line out and headphones would be good. The katana 100 has a separate 1/4 inch line out. More ins and outs would be good. Thanks great video. Looking forward to the next. The Boss amp head is on my list. And someday then a combo. And I do like blackstar.
I love dave and his videos and playing and everything, but I have come to the conclusion that you can give him any amp, any guitar, any pedals, he will always make them sound the exact same haha
Don't need another amplifier, but listening to you play it makes it hard to say NO!
The best stuff starts at 22:40 ‼️👍❤️😍🎸
Hello Dave,
Excellent video as always.
That Blackstar sounds good, but the Katana certainly is more feature laden...and I would pick it as well.
I’m kind of surprised that you prefer the Katana over the Nextone Special though. I get that the Katana has more features/sounds, but to me the Nextone Special is the best sounding SS amp that I’ve ever heard for pure tones. I pair mine with a Line 6 HX Effects in the 4 Channel method, use a few expression pedals, and I’m absolutely in heaven. There is a bit of a learning curve to the Nextone though - but once I understood how the high and lo pass filters worked in conjunction with the power amp section, it became the “best” amp I’ve ever used.
If only it had more head room on the clean channel.
Only thing stopping me buying it.
You could connect a tap on the speaker line and many companies make them! $50 and then you can run the speaker and run a line to the board.
I always want to buy what you are presenting, but I probably should buy your skills. 😊
What were those chords at 23 minutes into the video ? Anazing , Dave. ❤
Amin, fmaj, cmaj, gmaj
Thank you young man. The best guitarist ive heard. ❤@thedavesimpson
Right from the start, that is one "smooth tone". what providing the synthy suff, thats nice as well.
Awesome attuitidude Dave! Great playing as always!
Hi Dave! Sorry to ask, but could you recommend a mic to record my combo into my track dock and cubasis? In fact I need two as I run two 5 watt Combos. I don’t want the absolute best but something better than the cheapest to capture the sound in the room into cubasis. Direct out and / or IPhone don’t capture the sound I hear in the room. 😩
Shure sm57.
Where is the fan? Ibanez Jem's come with a fan..