hybrid

You can fiddle with pedals and pickups all day long, but you'll never get around how crucial your amp is in defining your tone. Knowing what you're getting on the tail end of your tone chain is critical to knowing what guitar and effects are right for a given situation. With Blackstar's programmable ID:Series amps, the company uses DSP technology to give as much tone-shaping control to the player as possible through well-designed controls, a super-wide range of tones, and computer interactivity. Obviously, DSP is not a new approach for achieving a more manageable, versatile amp. But with the ID series, of which our 60-watt, ID:60TVP 1X12 combo is a member, Blackstar prioritized tube-like dynamics, versatility, and ease-of-use in modern recording situations. The result is an amp that gives you a lot of control over the sound that hits the rehearsal room, your audience, and your recording interface. But what's best is that, first and foremost, it's a pretty great-sounding amp across a very wide range of styles.

The Whole Enchilada
An amp is an animal of many parts. Functions like equalization are common to almost every amp. But effects, tubes, speaker types, and cabinet size vary from amp to amp. Like most good DSP-based amps these days, the Blackstar ID:60 enables a player to explore most of these variables in a single unit with varying degrees of realism. But rather than try to emulate specific amp types perfectly, Blackstar bucks DSP and modeling trends by letting players tailor their own sounds from more open-ended sounds, based on Blackstar voices. You may not be able to dial up a Marshall Plexi or Vox AC30 by name, but you can get in the ballpark and shape the tone to suit your needs—arguably a much more creative proposition.