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NCD: Blackstar U500


ped
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I'm heading to the studio next month and although 90% of the time I go straight to desk, we sometimes have an 'acoustic' jam through amplifiers which is good fun. I haven't actually had an amp for a while now (except the TC BH800 I have at home to power my floorboard/studio setup) so I decided it would be good to pick up a light-ish and decent powered combo.

I know I like 10" speakers and I wanted a compressor built in, plus something that would match a super clean Smith bass with rounds and a P bass with flats, which is quite a tonal range. I looked at a few options, and thought about using an external pre or my Roland VB99 to take care of the front end but really fancied something 'plug and play'. I tried the Fender Rumble series which I was impressed with but I saw this come up at a decent price which happened to be en route to my in-laws.

It's a 2x10 500w job which is a fairly easy one hand lift - I've got a dodgy back but even I can manage it fairly easily but would probably want help over long distances. 

I have only trialled it at home for a little while (I don't really like playing amps at home, stuff rattles, I don't like annoying people and people can hear me!) but my first impressions:

- The compressor seems to be EXCELLENT! I was worried about this as I'm quite picky with them but it's very pleasing; you can't hear any 'squashy' effect at all, just an overall limiting and evenness.

- Lots of tonal options. You can choose between three 'voicings' (Classic, Modern, Flat) and three 'responses' (Linear, 6L6, 6550). That gives plenty of options (9?). So far I like the modern voicing with linear response but I can tell that the 6550 setting sounds very close to my old Trace V4 combo which had those valves in - which I wasn't expecting. Very punchy and clackerty. Nice. To be honest it took me right back!

- It also has OD, Distortion, Fuzz, Chorus and Octaver. I'm unlikely to use those but they might be fun to mess with. The chorus sounded good, the octave might take some time to balance as I think it pushes the pre into overdrive at the moment

- Need to spend some proper volume time setting the input gain correctly; no indication light to show when it's breaking up and I can't crank it at home to learn how it reacts yet!

- Loud... you can see I had the master on 9 O'clock and although that's no indication I turned it up half way and touched a string and now my balls are in my bottom

So I'm very pleased with it so far - as I say I haven't really been up to date with amplifiers since leaving my last band, and the rigs I'm most familiar with are a Mesa 400+ and 1516BE cabinet, a Trace V4 1x15" combo and an SWR stack (see why I have a bad back!) and this gives me even better initial feels than those did, which is a good sign. Plus I can move it.

A few pics:

 

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28 minutes ago, ped said:

I wonder why Blackstar (British) chose to use the American valve names (6550 instead of KT88 for example)

Bigger market. For what its worth the KT88 is a monster and I don't like valves. Thanks for the mini review by the way. IT is a shame that some music shops stock the Blackstar guitar range but not the Bass range ( Absolute Music are you watching?).

Edited by Chienmortbb
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Just now, Chienmortbb said:

Bigger market. For what its worth the KT88 is a monster and I don't like valves.

Yeah I guess so. Yes I always lived the sound of KT88s. Tons of headroom and properly trouser flapping. I’ll be able to compare this to a Trace Hexa Valve which will be interesting but it definitely feels right so far. 

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I found this preferable to the 1x15 of the range, and reckoned it would be a good-value buy in the second hand market if a touch overpriced initially.

My review was tweaked to read more favourably as the mag I wrote for was keen to keep in with the advertisers. Which is why I don’t review for them any more... 😩

How much did you get it for, if it’s not a rude question?

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10 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

I found this preferable to the 1x15 of the range, and reckoned it would be a good-value buy in the second hand market if a touch overpriced initially.

My review was tweaked to read more favourably as the mag I wrote for was keen to keep in with the advertisers. Which is why I don’t review for them any more... 😩

How much did you get it for, if it’s not a rude question?

£350 in brand new condition which I thought was alright and no messing about with postage. Where’s your review, I’d be interested to read it 

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4 hours ago, ped said:

I wonder why Blackstar (British) chose to use the American valve names (6550 instead of KT88 for example)

They are not equivalent. You might well be able to plug them straight in and bias them up to work well, but they are not the same tube at all.

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13 minutes ago, Telebass said:

They are not equivalent. You might well be able to plug them straight in and bias them up to work well, but they are not the same tube at all.

Ah ok that answers that, thanks. 

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9 hours ago, Telebass said:

They are not equivalent. You might well be able to plug them straight in and bias them up to work well, but they are not the same tube at all.

I don’t  anyone was deliberately trying to mislead and that includes Blackstar, I they could have chosen EL34, KT66, KT77, KT88 6550 or 6L6. The 6550 is probably more we’ll lnowm that any of the others all over the world ye to American influence and immediately gives the end user in indication of  “valvey warmness”. 

I have not touched valves for years but from memory the KT88’s properly (or maybe improperly for hifi purists) biased could outperform all the rest but some preferred the way the 6550 sounded when pushed hard. 

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3 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I don’t  anyone was deliberately trying to mislead and that includes Blackstar, I they could have chosen EL34, KT66, KT77, KT88 6550 or 6L6. The 6550 is probably more we’ll lnowm that any of the others all over the world ye to American influence and immediately gives the end user in indication of  “valvey warmness”. 

I have not touched valves for years but from memory the KT88’s properly (or maybe improperly for hifi purists) biased could outperform all the rest but some preferred the way the 6550 sounded when pushed hard. 

Indeed, KT88s are big in high-end valve hifi, and I doubt 6550s would cut it in that scenario.

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