Blackstar TV-10A review – is this the Blues Junior-beater we’ve been waiting for?
£599/$649, blackstaramps.com
What does a Blackstar amp sound like? It’s a question that my colleague Cillian posed when reviewing the UK brand’s latest HT-20 head a little while back, and it’s one that’s been at the forefront of my mind recently. Because as they rightly pointed out in the HT-20 review, Blackstar’s USP for the last 17 years has been about you – the sound in your head – and its ability to create amplifiers that are sonic jack-of-all-trades upon which your personal stamp can be placed.
READ MORE: Blackstar HT-20RH MK III review: the gigging amp staple becomes a versatile recording tool
So what happens when Blackstar forgets about all that? Because the TV-10A you see at the top of this review is perhaps the most radical departure from Blackstar gospel the company has made to date, and might very well be the amp that wins over both Blackstar-sceptics and lays down a marker as one of the best combo amps at the affordable end of the market.
The TV-10A
Why is the TV-10A different from other Blackstar amps?
The key word here is ‘simplicity’. Pretty much every other Blackstar amp – whether that’s the hand-wired Artisan, all-digital ID:Core or the revolutionary valve-based St James – has put flexibility at its core. That’s been evident in features ranging from voice switches to power scaling, CabRig IR outputs and even the ubiquitous mid-shaping ISF control.
The TV-10A, on the other hand, is a 10-watt, Class A valve amp with a single 12-inch speaker, that not only dispenses with all that stuff in the previous paragraph, but goes further still. Forget ISF, this thing doesn’t even have a three-band EQ – all you get is a master volume, gain, reverb and a single tone control. You do get an emulated line-out – because it seems like Blackstar simply could not allow an amp to leave the factory without some sort of direct solution – but it’s notable that there’s no USB recording here, and none of Blackstar’s proprietary CabRig stuff.
Because that’s basically the entire vibe of the TV-10A – forget the sound in your head, we’re just going to make an amp that sounds good and you’re going to like it. For those who’ve paid attention to the Blackstar family tree, it bears a lot of similarities to the Studio 10 6L6 amp – but with the footswitchable boost swapped out for a proper drive channel, and updated visuals.
Blackstar is marketing this amp as a studio workhorse, but when we’re talking about affordable small valve combos, inevitably the spectre of Fender’s all-conquering Blues Junior. The TV-10A is only 10 watts to the Fender’s 15, but in this era of volume limiters, it’s not hard to imagine many guitarists auditioning both given the Blackstar’s American flavour and extra quality of life features.
The TV-10A
Is the Blackstar TV-10A easy to use?
Given that this amp is designed to be as straightforward as possible, it’s not a huge shock that getting it set up and cooking is an absolute doddle. As I unpack the TV-10A from its box however, I’m reminded that this has none of the fancy transformer tech of the St James range. There’s nothing like yanking a near-15kg valve amp out of a box to remind you that the cartilage in your shoulders isn’t what it used to be.
It’s not so heavy that load-ins are going to be a chore, but it does weigh about half a kilo more than a Blues Junior (which has a real spring reverb tank don’t forget), and a fair whack more than the Marshall Origin 20 or Orange Rocker 15 too so it’s worth noting. Rest assured however, it’s still dramatically more pleasant to lug up a flight of stairs than the disc-destroying Vox AC-15.
Upon freeing the TV-10A from its cardboard and polystyrene cage, I cannot help but take a minute to admire the thing – if the first strum really is with the eyes, then this is going to be a succulent Chinese-made meal. With its sumptuous cream tolex offset by upmarket tan handle and basketweave grille cloth, there’s a strong argument to be made that this is the best looking amp Blackstar has ever made. It pairs the handsome foundations laid by the similarly TV-fronted St James series with the subtle nameplate seen on the new HT series to create something that strikes just the right boutique chord without getting so weird that it’ll alienate fans of more traditional backline. In truth the pairing of the cream and the basketweave actually gives a Mesa-meets-Two-Rock vibe, which can’t be bad for an amp that costs $649, can it?
After admiring its looks for a few seconds, it’s simply a matter of plugging in and flipping the standby switch and we’re away. In usual open-back combo style all of the various ins and outs – power, speaker outs, effects loop, emulated out and footswitch are located at the bottom of the chassis itself. This protects them from being inadvertently knocked or damaged, though the abundance of plugs here does make it quite a fiddly one to set up blind the front at first. You get a sturdy single-button footswitch included, which allows you to change channels in a stomp, though if you spend the extra 50 bucks on Blackstar’s two-button jobby, you can also turn the reverb on and off at will.
The Blackstar logo on the TV-10A
Does the Blackstar TV-10A sound good?
If this amp is Blackstar turning away from the ‘the sound in your head’ in favour of one basic sound, it better be a good one – and it most certainly is. With everything set at noon on the clean channel you get a nice punchy cooking Fender amp tone. There’s perhaps a little more shrill-ness in the highs than you’d like, though I think that’s just a symptom of Fender-style 6L6 small valve combos – the Blues Junior is similarly piercing at times.
What you do get, however, is a girth to the midrange that is really enjoyable as you turn up the master volume and drive controls. Despite this being the ‘clean’ channel, like a good American amp it’ll get quite raunchy as you push the knobs further to the right – all while retaining a good body and punchiness.
I mentioned turning things all the way up and rest assured, while this is still a 10-watt valve amp, it’s loud for it. Okay, it might not be able to shout over the top of a loud drummer on a big stage, but especially with the emulated line out, it could provide plenty of stage volume when paired with a venue PA or work well on its own with a small band provided your drummer isn’t Keith Moon.
The dirty channel starts out with a ‘just breaking up’ tone and gradually builds to a crunch that’s just on the edge of full distortion – and tips over if you’re using a guitar with hot humbuckers. Broadly speaking it’s just a more usable gain tone than you’d find on a Blues Junior, with that extra channel offering more dirt tones at more reasonable volumes.
As a studio amp it also ticks a lot of boxes – it sounds very good even without the knobs dimed, and there’s very little hum or noise as you get louder, making it well suited to mic’d up recording.
Given its American-inflected character, you’d expect the TV-10A to make a good pedal platform, and so it is. The addition of a J Rockett Archer pushes and fattens things up really nicely, while it retains clarity while getting scuzzy when I step on my Bigfoot King Fuzz.
The Celestion Seventy-80 speaker copes well with things as you turn the volume up and stack the pedals onto things. Impressively for a cabinet this small, it doesn’t get too mushy on the low end either.
The emulated out is… fine? It sounds a lot better than a lot of emulated outs and line-outs do, and does a very solid job of representing the sound, especially with the dirtier tones. It’s probably best to see this more as a useful extra to call on should you need to run the amp into a PA than something you’d want to record with on the reg. If you want to have more control of your direct output sound, well the St James and pretty much every other Blackstar amp has CabRig and a huge scope over the parameters on that side of things.
The TV-10A
Is the Blackstar TV-10A a Blues Junior killer?
While the success and growth of Blackstar over the last 17 years has been one of the biggest success stories in the guitar industry over that period, a lot of that has been driven by digital amps and the heavier end of the market.
The TV-10A is a reminder that Blackstar is far more than that, and when it wants to, it can put out a streamlined and ‘classic’ valve amp that can easily go toe-to-toe with the biggest names on the market. If you’ve been put off Blackstar amps in the past, this might be the one that convinces you that the sound in their head is the sound in yours too.
Blackstar TV-10A alternatives
There’s a lot of competition in the mid-priced small valve combo market, but most of them tend to be their own thing – such as Marshall’s Origin 20 or Orange’s Rocker 15. In truth, such is the ubiquity of Fender’s Blues Junior IV at this price point, there aren’t that many overtly Fender-vibed offerings in this market now that Peavey has discontinued the Valve King range, but Supro’s Delta King 12 should definitely be on your must-try list.
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