PRODUCT REVIEW
Series One 100
BlackSTar
By GERRy GAnADEn
www.premierguitar.com
Blackstar Amplification’s motto, “The sound in your
head,” signifies the nature of their mission: to help
guitarists achieve the tones they’re striving for. Born
in Northampton, England in 2004, Blackstar was
the brainchild of four ex-Marshall employees—Ian
Robinson, Bruce Keir, Paul Hayhoe and Richard
Frost—so it was clear from the start the company
would become a major player on the world amp
stage. In 2007, the company was formally launched
at the Frankfurt Musikmesse, took on two more
former Marshall employees, Keith Dudley and Joel
Richardson, and entered the market with their HT
series pedals—with the intent to graduate to full-on
amplification by 2008.
There are three basics to Blackstar’s method, as
Hayhoe explains: “First, whether it’s a low-end practice
amp or a high-end boutique product, we always want
to make sure we’ve got something on there that no
one else is offering. Second, it absolutely has to sound
the best on the market. [And] the last part is to make
sure that it’s affordable, and an extremely good value
for the money.”
Following on the successes achieved by the bou-tique-oriented Artisan series, Blackstar now brings
forth the Series One range of amplifiers to the
market, and is poised for even more growth with
the recent launch of Blackstar USA, Inc., which is
designed to supplement existing distribution with
independent retailers. The company’s Series One
line is an all-tube driven design with more than
enough flexibility in tone to make “the sound in
your head” a reality.
The Design
Blackstar’s design team is on to something with this
four-mode, 100-watt, dual-channel head. Featured in the
Series One amps are two controls that are unique to the
Blackstar brand: the ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) and DPR
