General
Valve-driven vintage cleans to modern overdrives stacked up in classic design and set up with contemporary features - and it all weighs just 6 kilos. This is the Blackstar St. James 50/6L6H amp head.
Classic & Ultra-Light
The Blackstar St. James Series includes two 50 Watt touring amps: the more vintage-flavoured, EL34 valve-driven edition, and this more modern-sounding 6L6-driven edition. Despite the peak output and valve-based design, the specially developed housing of both amps keeps the weight ultra-low while compromising absolutely zero on sound quality. On top of that, a lightweight Universal Power Supply has been fitted and is able to adapt to 90-to-264 Volt mains power points at 50/60Hz, so this amp can literally be taken all over the world.
Vintage American & Modern High-Gain
Two radically different channels are on offer, each with their own distinct characters. So, on Channel 1 you get the sparklingly clean tone and tight bass reproduction of a vintage sixties American amp - providing the perfect place to start when coupling up a small army of stompboxes. Channel 2, on the other hand, transforms this neat combo into a fully modernised monster of tone that delivers more than enough gain to back up electric blues and enough raw crunch to support rhythms. Of course, you can always hook up the included footswitch to trigger the overdrive and give solo work a more saturated and gain-heavy, loose sound.
Variable Power Modes & Inductive Load
To accommodate any gig, no matter the stage-size, Blackstar have loaded in a three-mode attenuator that can be switched from full power at 50 Watts all the way down to 5 Watts, reducing the volume while retaining the pure sound of overdriven valves. The third Sag setting gives the output a more vintage, tasty and worn feel that's well worth the investment in itself. From the vintage to the modern, this combo even features Inductive Load, meaning that it can be directly hooked up to an audio interface via USB or XLR, or you can even plug in a set of headphones. A feature that you just don't get with most valve amplifiers.
Cab Rig
The Inductive Load can also be teamed up with Cab Rig: Blackstar's own in-house developed DSP technology which accurately emulates the power of external speakers. So, when recording or rehearsing on your own, you're backed up by the force of a virtual speaker cabinet while keeping the noise as low as humanly possible.
Full Control
The control panel of the St. James 50/6L6H amp lines up a master volume pot and a three-band EQ section, while around the back, ports for setting up an effects loop are provided. A reverb circuit already comes built in and can be toggled hands-free using the included footswitch, which can also be used to flip between the two channels and the Channel 2 two-way gain structure as needed.