Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

L

lewisstorer89

New member
Hi guys!. Serious GAS for this amp right now and Im lining it up very soon, Just wondering who has one, who has tried one etc and good and bad stories welcomed :)

Would be great hearing opinions and getting an insight into what I might expect

\m/..\m/

EDIT : - Currently for every show Im using a 120 watt Line 6 Spider combo and although its loud its got to the stage now where (apart from cleans because they sound great) it sucks. I want reliability and obv Valve amps dont have that either with tubes going un expectantly. Im a tinkerer with settings so having LOTS appeals to me AND Im a recording junkie so that also ticks ALOT of boxes.

Im not an amateur guitarist, but I need the next best thing to a reliable and great sounding Valve amp and this seems that product. I also dont know where that Blackstar quality issue came from?. Ive never heard or seen/read anyone saying how un-reliable their amps are?.

I was even thinking about getting this ID100 and then considering partnering it with the Blackstar HT Boost valve pedal to really get that Valve push. The amp itself obviously gets REAL close from stock but adding a valve Pedal infront for a clean boost would Im sure work wonders.. I would rather rely on a valve pedal, so if the tube blows during a show, I still have the amp working perfectly fine to get through without one.

Seems perfect for me
 
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Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

Check out the Blackstar forum. I'd give them a year before touching one given Blackstar's propensity for falling apart.
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

sixstringsamurai333 said:
Hey lewisstorer - I did a fairly indepth review of its bigger brother, the ID260TVP, recently. Lots of tone clips and descriptions. Check it out here, hope it helps: http://sixstringsamurai.co.nz/2013/04/28/6ss-year-one-blackstar-id-series-louder-than-valve/
Click to expand...

wow man thats great....and those emulated out clips are very impressive. Really seems like the next logical step up for me in gear. Currently for every show Im using a 120 watt Line 6 Spider combo :( and although its loud its got to the stage now where (apart from cleans because they sound great) it sucks. I want reliability and obv Valve amps dont have that either with tubes going un expectantly. Im a tinkerer with settings so having LOTS appeals to me AND Im a recording junkie so that also ticks ALOT of boxes.

Im not an amateur guitarist, but I need the next best thing to a reliable and great sounding Valve amp and this seems that product. I also dont know where that Blackstar quality issue came from?. Ive never heard or seen/read anyone saying how un-reliable their amps are?.

I was even thinking about getting this ID100 and then considering partnering it with the Blackstar HT Boost valve pedal to really get that Valve push. The amp itself obviously gets REAL close from stock but adding a valve Pedal infront for a clean boost would Im sure work wonders.. I would rather rely on a valve pedal, so if the tube blows during a show, I still have the amp working perfectly fine to get through without one.

Seems perfect for me
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

richard parker said:
Check out the Blackstar forum. I'd give them a year before touching one given Blackstar's propensity for falling apart.
Click to expand...

That's a load of crap. I've got a HT-5 head I've been using for nearly 4 years now. No issues at all with it. There was a batch of HT-5s that had some crappy resistors, but they generally get taken care of under warranty.
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

I tried an ID100 head for an hour at Sam Ash, and have to say it's about the best solid state amp I've ever played through. I wouldn't mind having one....either the ID60 or ID100 head.

One thing with amps in general is that the speaker cab creates almost half the sound, so solid state and modeling amps sound a lot closer to good tube amps when the cabs are high end. I'd be inclined to use these heads with Blackstar's V30 cabs made for their tube amps.
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

LonePhantom said:
That's a load of crap. I've got a HT-5 head I've been using for nearly 4 years now. No issues at all with it. There was a batch of HT-5s that had some crappy resistors, but they generally get taken care of under warranty.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this mate. Ive never heard anything bad about them either
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

Gearjoneser said:
I tried an ID100 head for an hour at Sam Ash, and have to say it's about the best solid state amp I've ever played through. I wouldn't mind having one....either the ID60 or ID100 head.

One thing with amps in general is that the speaker cab creates almost half the sound, so solid state and modeling amps sound a lot closer to good tube amps when the cabs are high end. I'd be inclined to use these heads with Blackstar's V30 cabs made for their tube amps.
Click to expand...

And thats what I was hoping! :) thats great to know. And about the Cab. I do want to get a cab with V30's in, problem I have is the head outputs 4ohms and all the high end cabs have 16ohm v30 speakers in. But I agree with that, I am only targetting a cab with V30's for this amp
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

Beer$ said:
Are you kidding? I have about 8 valve amps and I've never so much as lost a tube.
Click to expand...


Thats just pure luck. For the most part they can just blow like a lightbulb does, aswell as wear down over time and start to sound ****. Saying you have that many amps but have never needed to replace the tubes in any of them means they must all sound like **** tbh
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

I've been using valve amps for the last 16 years and have only ever had 1 valve blow on me.

I'm assuming Beers changes the valves when they sound bad, just that he's never had 1 blow or break.

As for the Blackstar amps mentioned: I've used the ID60 head and the ID260 2x12 combo for a few hours each in my friends shop and I'll honestly say they're the best sounding solidstate/modelling amps I've ever used. I really liked the cleans, the higher gain tones were pretty good after some tweaking, but where these let themselves down imo is with the lower gain and crunch tones, just like every other modelling/solidstate amp I've used. They're still lacking a bit in 'feel' in my opinion, but still alot better than others I've tried.

I'm thinking of getting 1 purely for the emulated line out for using on demos at home for when I can't be bothered to drag out a cab and some mics. I haven't used 1 at a gig though and that's the test of an amp for me.

Would I get 1 for home/gig/recording use or as a backup amp: Yes
Would I sell my other amps and replace them with 1 of these for fulltime use: No
 
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Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

I got some quality time with an ID60 last weekend. It's a very good sounding amp with a buch of nice tones in it. It's very punchy and gets pretty loud. It doesn't feel quite like a tube amp (lacks sag) but it does a great gob of cleaning up with playing dynamics and rolling off the volume.

I was impressed enough that I'll probably get one next month. It won't displace my AxeFx (duh!) but it would make a great option when bringing a rack/MIDI floorboard would seem like overkill as well as filling the "have a friend over" amp role. I've been looking to get rid of my remaining tubes & tube amps and this is just what I was looking for to displace my Hot Rod Deluxe.
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of an FX loop. I'd love to run a tube preamp into the back and then use the TVP power amp emulator. There's also times when you want to have a noise gate or EQ in the loop.

Otherwise, I have the 60w head and it's a killer amp.
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

dominus said:
The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of an FX loop. I'd love to run a tube preamp into the back and then use the TVP power amp emulator. There's also times when you want to have a noise gate or EQ in the loop.

Otherwise, I have the 60w head and it's a killer amp.
Click to expand...


Dude Blackstar released a firmware update for this amp which only takes 2 minutes via usb that actually makes the Headphones input and direct out on the back double as an effects loop. Its the only reason I want one now. No effects loop was lame...hence why they made one via Firmware updates. GREAT bit of customer service by Blackstar there to code juggle
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

richard parker said:
http://www.blackstaramps.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=52

Have a look - there are people reporting issues with this amp. Read EVERYTHING. Latency issues, switching problems. If these things don't bother you, fine, but you may as well be aware before you part with your cash.
Click to expand...

I have read all the posts before you posted the link. ALl people are saying is that there is a 2 second latency between channel switching. Which Blackstar will more than likely sort out in their newest Firmware update like they did with adding an Effects Loop. And that the tuner on the footswitch isnt great, thats it. Hardly a reason to condemn them imo. Especially when most players have a tuner pedal anyway and considering all else it does for the price.
 
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Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

Personally a 2 second latency in switching would render the amp useless to me no matter how good it sounded. Totally unacceptable. Firmware ain't gonna fix it.
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

dominus said:
The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of an FX loop. I'd love to run a tube preamp into the back and then use the TVP power amp emulator. There's also times when you want to have a noise gate or EQ in the loop.
Click to expand...
When I was trying out the ID60, it seemed that the OD modes had a built-in noise gate at work. It was pretty noticeable but seemed to have good settings for threshold and release.
 
Re: Blackstar ID 100 opinions ?

richard parker said:
Personally a 2 second latency in switching would render the amp useless to me no matter how good it sounded. Totally unacceptable. Firmware ain't gonna fix it.
Click to expand...

how is it not going to?. Did you or anyone else think it would be possible for a 2 minute firmware update to add an effects loop?. Surely if that can be done, then speeding up channel switching would be easier
 
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