Blackstar St James 50 EL34 Combo Valve Amp Fawn

What we say:

At A Glance:

The outstanding St James 50 EL34 Combo Valve Amp from Blackstar delivers stunning tone and rocking power in a wonderfully lightweight package!

When designing the St James series, Blackstar had 2 main aims; produce a range of proper valve amps that were as lightweight as possible without compromising the true elements of a valve amp sound, and to provide everything you need to send a 'hard driven mic'd up amp' sound straight out to your stagebox or recording device.

The result here is the St James 50 EL34 Combo, sporting 2x ECC83 preamp valves and 2x EL34 power amp tubes for the classic high volume, low gain valve amp sound that's a dream for pedal users, with a +10dB clean boost to take it from 'chimey' to 'creamy' and beyond. It's also rigged with the superb Celestion Zephyr lightweight 12" speaker for stunning sounds, and also features a switchable power mode, going from full 50 watts, to Sag mode, to 2 watts for low volume with full valve tone.

Features We Love:

Lightweight

Traditionally, valve amps haven't exactly been transport friendly - or back friendly! Therefore, one of the main design factors for the St James series was to make a valve amp as light as possible without compromising tone or performance, and they've achieved this in spades, with the 50 EL34 1x12" combo weighing in at only 12.8kg! This lightweight is achieved without any compromise on performance or tone, with the 50 still running a pair of tubes in both amp stages for legit valve sound.

Classic Valve Tone

The St James 50 is rigged with a pair of ECC83 preamp tubes and two EL34 Power Amp tubes to deliver classic low gain, high volume amp tones!

Modern Performance

The St James 50 6L6's cool appointments continue with the built in reactive load and Cab Rig simulator technology. Blackstar's Cab Rig technology takes your real signal following both preamp AND power amp stages, and applies their advanced digital processing to deliver mind-blowingly natural feeling cab tones, letting you run them straight out to your stagebox, recording device, or headphones, giving you a true valve amp sound with true silent running. Perfect for practice, studio sessions or silent-stage live setups.

Tonal Versatility

The 50 EL34's +10dB Clean Boost adds an extra level of clean headroom to your sound, turning it into a stunningly creamy clean amp that's perfect as a pedal platform, while the 'Sag' control can be used to impart that all-important amp-compression, giving your sound a 'softer', more vintage feel.

Who Is It For?

This amp would be perfect for anyone looking for a true, uncompromising amp tone that's friendly on the back, and delivers full, rich valve sound in silent running.

Highlights:

• Lightweight without compromising on true valve sound
• Full on old-school vintage all-valve tone
• +10dB and Sag controls make it hugely versatile tonally
• Fantastic cab sim circuitry
• Allows for full-valve circuit utilisation with silent running