How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

TimmyPage

TimmyPage

New member
So I was playing a gig the other night at a bar I play pretty often. Normally, they've had a really nice old JCM900 that apparently kicked the bucket in the last few weeks, and they have instead replaced it with a Blackstar Series One 100 amp through the old Marshal cab. Now, I'm not opposed to the brand at all, I've heard some decent tones in clips but last night I just.. couldn't find any useable settings at all. From soundcheck on I knew I was going to be fighting with this amp all night, not playing it, all I seemed to get all gig was a buzzy, thin mess for lead lines. The cleans were actually pretty passable, and I ended up using clean tones on some songs that I'd usually use a light OD, but every time I went to take a solo or play a lead line it came out with that.. disappointment.

So I came home and looked at some clips of the amp online, and actually found that there were some people getting pretty decent tones out of it, so I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing here, either in the controls or just in general. Keep in mind my band is mostly about soul music with a bit of funk and blues, really not what the amp was designed for (but hey, neither was the JCM900).
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

Could be that the cab does not suit the Series One at all.

Maybe a dedicated Series One cab, or that current cab with Reaper 55's in it, will make it sing.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

Lemme guess... Marshall 1960 standard cab?
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

IMO the only thing g12t-75's are good for is those silly YouTube videos where people try to blow up speakers by feeding them far more bass and volume than they can handle.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

Do you know which version of the 100W it was? Also did you set the D.P.R (Dynamic Power Reduction/attenuator) low or high? The Series One line is some awesome stuff so i'm sure you just needed time to tweak the amp.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

Rockstar216 said:
Do you know which version of the 100W it was? Also did you set the D.P.R (Dynamic Power Reduction/attenuator) low or high? The Series One line is some awesome stuff so i'm sure you just needed time to tweak the amp.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, I figured my poor tone was coming from that or from the infinite tone shaping knob. I really don't know how to use either, or really what the latter does, though I had the attenuator set relatively low, around 20 watts I think as that seemed a little more effective than the master volume. Any insights on how to set it for a better, singing crunch tone?

Any yeah, a standard 1960 cab insofar as I know, at least it looks like one although I haven't looked inside to see if it's stock or not. Again, it's not my setup, just what they provide me, but I play there often enough that I'd like to know how to sound better if I'm going to have to use it.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

Give some of the suggested settings a shot. I think you ought to be able to get something halfway decent. And the Series One is definitely not of the HT series. And it definitely has ISF, like you said.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

How does the amp head select for differing loudspeaker impedance ratings? Rotary selector (like an old Marshall) or by providing a bunch of output jack sockets, each labelled in tiny writing?
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

I saw the thread title and thought "Oh please." I don't intend to be mean but if there's not something wrong with your gear and you can't get the Series One 100 to sound good then you might want to just get a solid state amp or something. Soul & some funk and blues sounds like you use a lot of cleanish tones which the Series One pumps out in spades. You want bluesy grunt, it's all there. The Series One can get fairly gainy but it's not really an amp for modern metal. It can do any tone from pristine clean all the way up to metal, but it falls a bit short of what an Engl Powerball can do for example. You seem to describe the best tones you heard from it as being merely decent so if it's so disappointing compared to whatever you are used to then why are you playing one? What do you consider good tone and what rig have you used that produces it?
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

misterwhizzy said:
Give some of the suggested settings a shot. I think you ought to be able to get something halfway decent. And the Series One is definitely not of the HT series. And it definitely has ISF, like you said.
Click to expand...

Only problem I've found with those suggested settings is they don't compensate for the actual tone of the guitar and pickups. They are great starting points though.

I find that I try to get my clean tone and vol set up right then match the dirt channel to the clean so the dirt is slightly louder then the clean. Also I push the gain enough right before it starts to feed back then back it off a bit.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

youngthrasher9 said:
I must reiterate, only the HT series and IIRC the Artisan series have the Infinite Shape Feature which Timmy has mentioned.

Therefore, Timmy didn't play a Series One.
Click to expand...

All Series One models have the I.S.F feature but their are three versions of the series one 100 watt head.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

youngthrasher9 said:
I must reiterate, only the HT series and IIRC the Artisan series have the Infinite Shape Feature which Timmy has mentioned.

Therefore, Timmy didn't play a Series One.
Click to expand...

The Series One models do feature the ISF control.

Rockstar216 said:
All Series One models have the I.S.F feature but their are three versions of the series one 100 watt head.
Click to expand...

There is only 1 version of the Series One 100. The Series One 50 is a head version of the Series One 45 (a combo amp), and the Series One 104 is a 4 channel head that has an EL34 and a 6L6 version. The Series One 50 or 45 has some different components like transformers, etc... but it essentially a 50w version of the 100.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

UberMetalDood said:
I saw the thread title and thought "Oh please." I don't intend to be mean but if there's not something wrong with your gear and you can't get the Series One 100 to sound good then you might want to just get a solid state amp or something. Soul & some funk and blues sounds like you use a lot of cleanish tones which the Series One pumps out in spades. You want bluesy grunt, it's all there. The Series One can get fairly gainy but it's not really an amp for modern metal. It can do any tone from pristine clean all the way up to metal, but it falls a bit short of what an Engl Powerball can do for example. You seem to describe the best tones you heard from it as being merely decent so if it's so disappointing compared to whatever you are used to then why are you playing one? What do you consider good tone and what rig have you used that produces it?
Click to expand...

Isn't Ozzy's new guitar player a Series One user ?
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to spread misinformation.

I could have sworn Blackstar replaced the ISF on the series one amps with something similar but with a different name.

Back on topic, yeah that's weird you can't get a good tone out of it. I don't think I've heard a clip of it were it sounded bad.
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

So what I'm taking away from this thread is that Gus G is using a bad sounding amp. ......I hope Ozzy sets him straight soon and buys him a Marshall full stack.:scratchch
 
Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?

Our other guitarist plays Series One 200 and that thing just sounds godly through Series One 412.
 
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