New amp coming soon...

I have been looking around for a new amp for the last few weeks.  I just haven't been happy with my current amp and software plugins I have been using.  I normally play through either my Peavey studio 112 or my IK StealthPedal via headphones and software on my laptop.  I have become more and more frustrated with the range of options and manipulation you have to do on a software setup just to get a good sound going so I have just been playing direct with my combo,  the range of sounds I can get is nowhere near as good as what I used to get with a 4x12 and decent head.

I used to have a Marshall Valvestate 8200 stereo chorus head, it didn't have any fancy digital stuff just a nice analogue chorus and reverb, the chorus was one of the best I have come across so I decided to have a look around on ebay to see if there was anything going.

Marshall Valvestate MkI series

  Unfortunately there were only a few battered old 8100 and they were over priced too.  After checking out about a million web sites I decided go down to my local music shop Steven James Guitars to see what they had in stock. I decided I liked the look of the Blackstar range amps that they had.  I noticed that they have been getting good reviews lately so I though I would give them a try.  I was going to try out the mini stack but its quite small and there wasn't a lot of weight behind it.  I imagined that our naughty cats sitting on top of it fighting causing it to topple over so I discounted the mini stack and moved on to try out the combos.

Blackstar HT5-S mini stack

First I tried out a HT Studio 20 which is 20w and has two 12AX7's and two EL84s with two channels, two voicings per channel, reverb, and a serial fx loop.  Although the sound was good its wasn't miles away from my transistor combo.

Blackstar Studio 20

Next I trued out the Club 40 which is 40w and also has two 12AX7's and two EL84, two channels, two voices per channel and two reverb voicing's(dark /bright), and a serial fx loop.  The sound was noticibly better more defined more crunchy more bass an altogether better sound!  My wife even commented on how much better it sounded compared to the 20.  Although I could of walked out of the store with the amp there and then I though I would sleep on it and see how I felt the next day.

Blackstar Club 40

 Before it even got to the next day I knew I wanted it, but it was Sunday and the store was closed.  When I got back home I had a quick jam on my amp and that confirmed everything for me.  Anyway this has turned out to be a longer post than I anticipated,  I'm off to the store on Saturday to pick one up, I cant get down there during the week because by the time I finish work and get home the store is closed :(

Needless to say Ill have some posts ready once I've had a play around with it a bit...