Blackstar ID:X 50

JRgtar

I’ve had this amp about a month now and thought it worth sharing some thoughts from a user’s perspective. I know online reviews have been mixed (though mostly positive, bar Andertons).

Background: I’ve been playing for 35yrs (though always still learning!), play mostly at home. Previous amp was a 15 watt Fender Mustang: loved the cleans and mild break-up presets, but was frustrated with not really being able to shape the sound beyond the presets much.

What appealed about the Blackstar?

• Everything configurable on the amp without need to plug-in to laptop: I know I get lazy and never plug in.
• Power attenuation (1w, 10w, 50w) for a variety of uses: I sometimes jam with friends, but other times play in our flat with neighbours nearby.
• The ‘manual’ mode means you can use it like a regular amp and retain full tone control.
• I really liked the basic tones I got out of it whilst in the shop (GuitarGuitar).

What’s it been like in-use for the past month?

• Really easy to use and set-up tones. I love that it gives me total flexibility: I can get Gilmour to Hendrix to Knopfler. The overdrives and effects are great (at least) for my home usage.
• Of the basic ‘voices’, I use Clean Warm and Crunch the most: these have formed the basis of any presets I’ve saved.
• If I was being critical, I’d say I’m not totally convinced by the reverbs, but the jury is still out.
• I can get my Fender(ish) tones from it with ease. In all honesty, I think the presets I’ve saved are recreations of the tones I enjoyed on the Fender Mustang, but the added massive advantage is the ease with which I can now deviate from these base tones. 
• Love being able to plug my looper pedal into the effects loop, then vary a lead sound over the loop. The only limitation is that you really need to use the same base ‘voice’ when doing this or the volume etc varies a bit between loop and lead.

Overall, it’s encouraging me to play more and I’m really pleased with the sounds I get out of it. Fundamentally I think there are some base tones which form ‘my sound’ almost regardless of amp, but it is the ease with which I can modify and deviate from these that appeals in the Blackstar. It’s an amp that allows me to create the sounds in my head! 

boogieman

I’ve been looking at reviews, it looks a decent amp but none of them seem to mention the effects much. Can you have several on at once? Say OD, modulation, reverb and delay. Are you just limited to one effect from each group? Most importantly how do they sound? 

DiscoStu

I'm keen to try the ID:X Floor 3. It looks really use friendly to play around with rather than software and menu deep-dives.

JRgtar

boogieman said:

I’ve been looking at reviews, it looks a decent amp but none of them seem to mention the effects much. Can you have several on at once? Say OD, modulation, reverb and delay. Are you just limited to one effect from each group? Most importantly how do they sound? 

Hi, you can certainly have several effects at once - OD, modulation, delay, reverb, but only one of each of these. For my usage, that works fine, but I imagine some may see that as limiting. 

I think the OD options have the most variations. You get an array of options that emulate well known OD and distortion pedals. Whether they are all accurate, I couldn’t say, but they definitely help me get a broad range of sounds/styles. 

Overall, it’s still encouraging me to play more and to embrace some heavier sounds than my usual blues!