Boss Katana MKII vs Blackstar Silverline – A Blindfold Amp Shootout!

[GnLguy]

What thinkest thou? Which be your choice

[sunjamr]

Hmmm….I think hearing them over my speakers is much different from hearing them in person. I see him tweaking a knob, but my ears can’t tell much change. I shall withhold my final verdict until I hear them in my local guitar shop, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Blackstar.

Sunjamr Steve

[GnLguy]

sunjamr wrote:

Hmmm….I think hearing them over my speakers is much different from hearing them in person. I see him tweaking a knob, but my ears can’t tell much change. I shall withhold my final verdict until I hear them in my local guitar shop, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Blackstar.

Steve

I agree some of the changes that were made in this video seemed to cause very little change – may have been different if we’d heard it in person.
Consider Blackstar’s ISF control – when I first started using it, I could tell very little change of tone until I started using it in conjunction with the tone controls. Then I heard an overall change & difference – I started finding a set of tools that I didn’t realize that I had. A compressor pedal is similar, it takes time to sculpt our tone all that we have to work with.

I share your appreciation of Blackstar. Since I recently started practicing again after shoulder surgery, I’ve brought my Blackstar ID Core 20 Gen 1 out of retirement and it again amazed me with its solid tone, considering its size & what some would perceive to be it’s limitations. its not a tube amp nor is it like its big brothers from the ID Series amps and/or Silverline amps. Yet for a small portable practice amp, it is a very solid choice for practice

[Richard G]

I’m afraid my ears are not that finely tuned these days but if I had to choose on what I think I heard …..I’d pick the Blackstar Silverline. Irrespective of the EQ tweaking I thought the Blackstar had slightly more ‘body’ to the tones.

Richard

[Vorocnan]

Appears there is a way to get a bit more body into the Katana but it going to cost a lot, personally I would go Yamaha thr30 nice and light not a back breaker, and gets you the tones at low volume.
But Rabea from Anderson’s is a tube amp man.

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[San Luis Rey]

Hey Keith,
My Katana is either on the clean or acoustic channel and I think that is where they shine. If I want more gain I can add it with the knob or a pedal. I like how the Blackstar sounded in the demo but you would know more about them.
Mike

Mike

[GnLguy]

San Luis Rey wrote:

Hey Keith,
My Katana is either on the clean or acoustic channel and I think that is where they shine. If I want more gain I can add it with the knob or a pedal. I like how the Blackstar sounded in the demo but you would know more about them.
Mike

Mike

I have to speak about Blackstar from the Silverline’s predecessor, the ID Series amps. I have an ID Series 260, which is 2 separate 60 watt amps in true stereo into 2-12″ Celestion speakers.
The concept with the ID Series amp and the Silverline amps is the same: 6 preamp channels with 4 types of delays, 4 types of reverb and 4 type of modulation effects. The biggest difference in the 2 amp lines is the updated SHARC audio processor and the interface software was updated. Likely the SHARC processor chip used in the earlier model went obsolete necessitating the changes

Blackstar amps differs from modeling amps in that instead of emulating various amps as does the Peavey Vypyr, Marshall Code, Fender Mustang etc, Blackstar studied the characteristic of 6 of the most popular output tubes – 6L6, 6v6, EL84, EL34, KT88 & the KT66 – and provided enough power that amps would react as actual tube amp.
Having said all of that, my ID:260 has a Volume, Gain and Master Volume controls and Resonance and Presence controls. Usually pretty easy to get enough gain but if you don’t have enough gain on Clean Warm or Clean Bright, you can switch to Crunch or Super Crunch; I’ve never played on the OD I or OD II channels because that is for metal players

Blackstar’s advertising slogan is Loud As Valve and depending on what tube that you choose, you can get plenty of gain. For example, the KT66, which we don’t see much these days but was used in several early model Brit amps, that tube can get really raunchy in it output

I had a ID:30 amp for a while, wished I hadn’t sold it b/c it was a screamer for sure. I could get such a great Blackface tone with that little amp and for a 30 watt solid state amp, it was LOUD!

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