Blackstar St. James 50 EL34H Fawn

Saint James - The world’s lightest and most innovative 50W valve amps.

Answering calls from guitarists everywhere for a valve amplifier that is truly lightweight and portable, Blackstar delivers the most advanced, innovative and best-sounding 50 Watt valve amps in the world. Available in a classic EL34 design and a higher gain 6L6 model, these amps are simple to use, but highly versatile. Developed after months of forensic examination of vintage valve amps, the intuitive two channel set-up delivers our best ever cleans and overdrives without compromise.

FEATURES

• Ultra-lightweight 50 Watt head

• 2 x ECC83, 2 x EL34

• Two footswitchable channels

• Footswitchable Channel II Boost (‘top boost’)

• 50W / 2W / Sag power reduction

• Master Volume

• Digital Reverb

• Effects loop with effects level switch

• USB audio output

• XLR D.I. output

• Cab Rig advanced DSP cabinet simulator

• Footcontroller included

• Stunning boutique look including illuminated logo

Let There Be Light
When it comes to tone and that all-important ‘feel’ factor, great valve amps rightfully remain the ‘gold standard’. The trouble is that great ones capable of delivering 50 Watts or more are all back-breakingly heavy. Until now… enter St. James Series – the lightest 50 Watt valve guitar amps on earth.

Uncompromising Sound
Hundreds of hours of critical listening against the most revered amplifier references mean St. James raises the sonic benchmark again. In addition to the obvious tonal differences between EL34 and 6L6 power valves, both of the St. James designs are honed to their own particular use case. The St. James EL34 is the amp for Classic tones combining world-class British Crunch and jaw-dropping, very US-sounding Cleans. The 6L6 version has the same clean headroom, but this is coupled with Blackstar’s highest gain Overdrive circuit to date.

Studio Ready
St. James amps are packed with cutting-edge features to deliver class-leading recording performance. From 50W, 2W and SAG switchable power modes, to an inbuilt reactive load that routes the post-power valve output signal to the amp’s three direct recording outputs (XLR, Stereo Line-Out and USB) for truly authentic ‘amp-in-a-room’ feel. This is then passed through our state-of-the-art and fully customisable Cab Rig™️ DSP speaker simulator.

What Do They Sound Like?
Channel I is inspired by those clean, dynamic American amps of the mid ’60s.  St. James brings these circuits right up-to-date, producing a whole new level of clean headroom and dynamic compression to deliver inspired musical-mids and tight-lows. This channel is a perfect pedal platform.

In addition to the obvious tonal differences between EL34 and 6L6 power valves, both of the St. James designs are honed to their own particular use case. The St. James EL34 is the amp for Classic tones combining world-class British Crunch and jaw-dropping US cleans. The 6L6 version has the same clean headroom, but this is coupled with Blackstar’s highest gain overdrive circuit to date.

Completely separate EQ circuits are used for each channel. This is achieved by switching dual-ganged potentiometers, which means there is no compromise in tone between the two channels even with the shared EQ controls.

Channel II of the EL34 powered St. James is very vintage in nature. The brand-new preamp design delivers the raucous crunch you’d expect from an EL34 amp but with stunning clarity and chime. All this is topped off with a footswitchable +10dB front-end boost.

Flexible Power Reduction
All models feature a 3-way Power switch to give the user options on how their valve output stage is run. Based on our patented Dynamic Power Reduction design, you can easily switch from 50 Watts for the loudest clean headroom, down to 2 Watts for practicing, recording or smaller gigs, or a more overdriven power amp tone. The third option is Sag. This setting generates more power supply ‘sag’ to accentuate the all-important amp compression, the ‘feel’ is softer and more ‘vintage’.

Pro Connectivity
With more musicians recording at home, or playing on silent stages, St. James is perfect for the way we play today, with USB audio connectivity for pro-recording and an XLR D.I. for professional live use, both using the inbuilt reactive load and Cab Rig DSP speaker simulation.

Lightweight With No Compromise
Candlenut plywood is used for strength and lightness and its beneficial acoustic proprieties, creating a roadworthy cabinet that sounds great and won’t let you down.

Universal Voltage
The St. James range uses highly efficient, lightweight power transformers designed around modern SMPS (Switched-Mode Power Supply) technology. More than 3 years of intense R&D have delivered all the benefits of SMPS, namely lightweight and universal voltage compatibility, whilst retaining the sound and feel of a traditional iron-core transformer. The resulting revolutionary transformer technology is patent pending.

SPECIFICATIONS

Power: 50W
Valves: 2 x ECC83, 2 x EL34
Channels: 2
Voice/Boost: Boost
EQ: Bass, Middle, Treble
Power Reduction: 50W, Sag, 2W
Reverb: Y
Built-in Reactive Load: Y
Cab Rig DSP: Y
USB Audio: Y
XLR Cab Rig Output: Y
Series Effects Loop: Y (with level switch)
Footswitchable: Y (Included 2-Way footswitch)
Speaker: -
Tolex: Fawn
Fret: Black Basketweave
Voltage: 90V to 264V 50/60Hz
Weight (kg): 6.7
Dimensions (mm): 402 x 222 x 214
Channel I: Inspired by classic American amps of the mid ’60s. Very clean and bright, but with a solid low-end and controlled mids. Valve power stage is tight and relatively clean across the frequency range.
Channel II: ‘Classic’ valve preamp based on a much-loved British ‘Class A’ amplifier of the early ’60s. A low to medium gain preamp that can be used
clean, warm or mildly overdriven. Popular choice for a ‘pedal platform’ or as a responsive crunch tone. The valve power stage is set as ‘open-loop’, which has a looser feel with a resonant bottom end and lively highs.
Boost/Voice: Boost: Pushes the valve preamp harder with a +10dB clean boost, to take it from ‘chimey’ to ‘creamy’ and beyond.

For more information, click here to visit the manufacturers website.