Public perception of Blackstar and the gear you use.

For those who gig/play in public, how have you found the reactions to your Blackstar amp, if any?

I've received a lot of comments so far - some are "wow that actually sounds really great" but most have been "Blackstar, never seen or heard of them before". Then I have to explain for the next 10 minutes that they're a new company founded by ex Marshall.... you know the story, that they are top quality amps and not some new no-name fly by night rip off brand out of Tiawan/China! (no offence to any of our Asian friends who are reading this).

I've often found that the gear I use can effect the reaction of the crowd and whether they take me seriously or not - especially if I've never played in front of them before. Even I would have to admit, if I walked up to a stage and saw the guitarist pick up an Ashton (cheap Aust. brand) guitar and plugged it into a Behringer amp, I wouldn't have much expectation that it will sound any good... but then if the same guy picks up a Gibson/Gretch/Fender/[insert your high end guitar of choice] plugging into a Marshall DSL/JVM/Peavey 5105/[insert your choice of high end amp] then you're going to stop and listen cause the guitarist has some serious gear and takes his playing seriously. LOL! But then if he plays less then decently then one would assume he's just a poser!

I guess in time as more Blackstar users get out there and some big name artists start baring the name on stages they will take on their place in the general publics perception of what is good gear.

yes i agree,the blackstar amp's could well and truly,give the big buy's ...eg marshall etc a run for their money as time goes bye

Here in France, it's simple : the biggest music dealer here decided to give up the blackstar dealing about 1 year ago
People were not very open to this new brand...
And now it's becoming one of the best and affordable boutique style brand on the market...
But guitarists here still prefere to buy some crapy chinese Vox product because of the name on it instead of looking at BS, Cornell, Matamp and other very good manufacturers...

I must say the new HT Venue range is really changing the situation

yes i think the new ht series is going to open a lot of guy's eye's,i was on the marshall forum about 1 hr ago and was reading there that some of those marshall boy's had played the new ht amp's and were pretty pleased with what they heard,give it time!blackstar will storm up the amp charts ,i reckon

Yeah I'm excited to have brought one while the brand is in it's infancy... the sound really does speak for itself in the end and those who don't appreciate it are just gear snobs! I've always been one to go against the flow and be different anyway!

Just think in years to come if/when they become popular with the mainstream market we can all sit back and say we've been playing them all along!!!

I think the fact they're made in Korea will turn off a lot of people... especially the 'purists' who will only play with something made in England or the US. But cause they're made in Korea, I can afford one so no complaints from me, so long as they're up to quality. I'm sure if they were made in England they'd be at least 150% dearer.

The Marshall Haze is built in a new factory in India and I've read of numerous issues with them, in fact the one I nearly brought wouldn't even turn on on the show room floor! Certainly tarnished the Marshall brand in my mind.

I notice Marshall like to do a lot of product placements... Shudder the thought of actually ever watching a full episode, but I caught a scene of Glee the other month and they had a whole stage full of Marshall cabs - then on another advert the other day I noticed 3 Marshall full stacks sitting on the stage while they made some hideous KISS impersonations! LOL! Also had a laugh to myself when I saw a 'live' band on Hey Hey it's Saturday the other week (a SNL type show) where they had a couple Marshall half stacks setup as if they were playing through them but they weren't even turned on or had anything plugged into them.

yeh,a lot of amp's are getting made in asia,korea etc,but really does it matter,as how i see it when guy's play blackstar they won't care where there made,and yes some purist's wont like it,but i bet a lot of wanna be marshall buyer's will end up with blackstar,you watch!why....tone,quality,and price compared to other hand wired amp manufacturer's will win out at the end of the day!

aussie2009 wrote:yeh,a lot of amp's are getting made in asia,korea etc,but really does it matter,as how i see it when guy's play blackstar they won't care where there made,and yes some purist's wont like it,but i bet a lot of wanna be marshall buyer's will end up with blackstar,you watch!why....tone,quality,and price compared to other hand wired amp manufacturer's will win out at the end of the day!

*$ù&@ ... i've lost my post on this but this is pretty what you are saying...a company and a factory can do the best products everywhere in the world...it just depend on how they want their product to be made...
A prefere my Korean blackstar than many other amps made in USA (but mexicans ??) or in UK....
It's just a question of specifications asked by the brand. The country only permit to have lower labor costs !

And Korea is far in advance on many occidental countries...we would have to learn so much from Korea in web, digital arts, electronics, telephony, heavy industry.............

Yes I agree, Korea is up there with Japan with their manufacturing in my mind... the guitars I've seen come out of Korea have been impeccable.

China on the other hand is a bit of a mixed bag... The Ibanez's which have passed through my hands have been excellent but some of the gear from Behringer on the other hand have left a sour taste in my mouth along with most of the cheap electronics and half the other stuff you can buy from Hong Kong on eBay. With Behringer I think they were designed to be made as cheap as possible and the QC is questionable.

Blackstar appear to have an excellent design, haven't cut corners using the cheapest possible components and, to my understanding, ship the amps back to UK to be QC'ed before selling them.

edit: This is actually my second reply... the first one got a little too D&M and would have come across a little too deep and up front so I deleted it, my apologies if any of you were quick enough to have read it!! LOL! I touched on the subject of western world manufacturing vs Pacific Rim manufacturing and the effects it's having in the western world economy. But being a new forum I think we should leave that one for discussion later on!!

Anyway, my Blackstar amp rocks, and so long as it's still rocking in 10 years time and hasn't failed then that's all that matters to me!!!

Amen.

My first post was in that way too... lol...

I went to another shop today, Blackstar are definitely back in France...we can find them in every shop !
I'll try a little combo to make a friend to my (too big) Artisan !!

I swore that i was going to buy a fender hotrod or a blues deluxe or even a princeton,when i found out about blackstar i laughed i thought it was going to be a terrible fly by company... i couldn't have been any more wrong!! I fell in love with it almost instantly! i have a friend with a blues deluxe and is less than happy with it when he played my HT20 studio he was so upset that he bought a run of the mill fender! I love showing it off and talking to people about them because honestly I don't have to do that much talking it really speaks for its self

It would seem that your audiences are much more knowledgeable than mine. I occasionally receive a comment about my guitar, but this is usually along the lines of, "I like your PRS", which is a bit of an insult in itself as I play a Patrick Eggle; they look a little like a PRS, but anyone who knows one brand or the other would recognise the difference, especially the headstock.

I use my Blackstar Artisan 15 for small gigs (usually through the PA to achieve better sound distribution). Almost by definition, these are "intimate" gigs, which means the crowd is up close and they have every chance of getting a good look at the gear, but no one has commented so far.

My amp for larger gigs is a Matamp 1224 head through a 212 cab (a name mentioned in an earlier posting). This has been seen more because I use it most often and I've had it longer. During this time, it has attracted a few comments, but nothing very much.

Most of our audiences only really care about the music and don't have much interest in the equipment. So much so that I would bet that most of our average crowd would not even recognise the difference between a bass and a guitar and so the subtleties of amp makes and models would pass them by completely .