Blackstar gets downright affordable!

[Katastrophe]

Cruising through MF and found a price for the new Venue series 40 watt combo from Blackstar. They also had a 20 watt head for $499, with a 1x12 cab for $199.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Blackstar-Venue-Series-HT-Club-40-40W-Tube-Guitar-Combo-Amp?sku=423768

As soon as I get a chance, I'm headed to GC in Houston to see if I can find this amph and a couple others to check out. Should be fun!

[marnold]

If I were someone interested in one of those amphs, I'd snap one up right away. I fear they'll do the same thing they did with the HT-5 series and start them off low and then crank the price up. That 40W combo is $699 which isn't a ton more than the $549 for their 5W mini-stack with two cabs. The new 20W combo is only $100 more than the 5W combo and the 20W comes with a 12" Celestion.

[Matt]

I have the 20W combo. It's amazing, although I am still in the honeymoon period. I've gigged it since though, and it's pretty damn loud. The best improvment over the HT-5 is the clean channel. On the HT-5, it was bland. On this however it sounds sweet. On the 40W and above models they have the voicing switch to switch between Blackstar clean and Fender clean which really does sound decent.

As for the drive channel, I can't stop praising it. It's very high gain though so perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, but with the master cranked as well it could give any Marshall a run for its money.