Blackstar St. James 50-Watt EL34 Combo Amp

First, to produce a range of heads and combos that were the lightest available while still

retaining the essential elements of traditional valve (tube) amps  specifically using valves

in the preamp and the power amp as well as keeping the loose-coupling effect of a real

output transformer.

The EL34 models use a ‘classic’ valve/tube preamp topology for Channel II which is

based on a much loved British ‘class A’ amplifier of the early ’60s (Vox AC-30 Top

Boost). This is a low to medium gain preamp that can be used clean, warm or mildly

overdriven. Again, this is a very popular choice for a ‘pedal platform’ as well as for a

great responsive crunch tone. When this channel is selected the valve/tube power stage

is set as ‘open-loop’. This has a looser feel with a resonant bottom end and lively highs.

The footswitchable BOOST setting pushes the valve preamp harder with a +10dB clean

boost, to take it from ‘chimey’ to ‘creamy’ and beyond

Listening And Technical Research

At Blackstar we do not accept a ‘Black Art’ approach to the design of guitar amplifiers.

We believe it is imperative to have a thorough understanding of what makes traditional

guitar amplifiers sound the way they do; especially if we are to improve the performance

of those designs and offer players something new and exciting. That is why we place such

a great importance on technical research and the innovation that this research generates.

50W

This is the full power setting which will give the loudest clean headroom. This is likely to

be used for live, stage use

Mains Input

Unusually for valve/tube amplifiers, the St. James products are designed with a ‘universal

input power supply’. This means that the mains input range is rated at 100Vac to 240Vac

and capable of operating at 50Hz and 60Hz. We actually test them beyond these rated limits.

Speaker Ouputs

Unlike many other valve/tube amps, these have clever sensing and switching which

means that they can be used without being connected to a speaker load.

Cab Rig Emulated Output - Mono Balanced Xlr d.i.  Output Socket

This output is for using an industry standard 3 pin XLR cable for connection to a recording

device, stage box or mixing desk. This provides a low noise, low impedance.

Cab Rig Switch

This allows the user to switch between the three currently stored CAB RIG settings.

• Effects loop return socket
• Effects loop send socket
• Effects loop level switch