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Blackstar Artisan 15 or 30

j45

Active member
Joined
Jun 14, 2002
Messages
9,081
Anyone here have one of these? Had literally hundreds of amps... this is the first amp in several years to really get my attention. Heard one as was pretty gassed. Just curious if anyone here is gigging with one and if so, any comments.
 

frazettafan

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
4,072
Hi Kerry, I briefly played a 30 at a recent jam night in UK and it sounded pretty fine. Incredibly loud too - very powerful and seemingly very versatile but to get a great tone I found it needed to be wound up pretty loud and it was blowing everything else off as the house band that night were fairly quiet (I almost got myself banned!). Good cleans and a nice singing lead tone were all there - very retro in a classic blues/rock way from what I could tell. I'd have liked to play around with it but there was no time. Looked stunning too. The guy who had it said it was turret-board wired.

But I'd have preferred a vintage AC30 given the choice!!

And how the hell are you these days - doing well I hope! :)
 
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koss59

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2005
Messages
199
They are pretty common here in the UK, my local shop sold them for a while and I knew a few guys with them.
They seemed to sound great but everybody I knew that had them had problems with them.
 

landminelenny

Les Paul Froum Member
Joined
May 11, 2010
Messages
3,204
I took one of the 15w 1x12 Artisans in a trade and i love it. Distinctly British sounding with a bit more head room than the Marshall 1974 reissue. Volume and tone controls only but that's all you need!
 

landminelenny

Les Paul Froum Member
Joined
May 11, 2010
Messages
3,204
So is the Artisan more Marshall or more Vox ?

It's both.

It has an EF86 channel for the Vox AC15 vibe and an ECC83 channel for the Marshall 1974 vibe.

It also has high and low inputs you can also link the channels.
 

frazettafan

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
4,072
:peace2 Well, I said it was versatile.

I guess my impression was more Marshall than anything but it was a jam-night thing and my focus was on other stuff. First note of the first solo shattered the optics at the back of the bar 25 yards away and it was only on @three....
 
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