BLACKSTAR Debut 10E 2 x 3" 10 Watt Guitar Combo Amplifier Beige Finsh

Let me preface this review by saying that my hobby is building valve guitar amps. The trouble is that even the tiny ones need to be very loud before sounding their best. Also, it seems a waste of energy to have a glowing radiator on every time I want to play. So, I wanted to get a little practice amp that sounded decent overdriven at low volume.After a thorough YouTube investigation, I chanced upon a demo/review of this amp and didn't believe that an amp this small could sound so good. I ended up ordering both this and the bigger model, the 15e. Well, I first tried the 15e and was deflated: it sounded like any other practice amp (harsh, shrill, flat). Not expecting much now, I powered up the 10e and that sound I was hoping for was there in spades: it sounds like a big amp up loud, just quieter. Weirdly, the low end isn't obviously lacking. Somehow, a miracle has occurred in the interaction between the twin 3" speakers and the enclosure. Both cleans and the fixed heavy overdrive sound BIG.I got equally great results from a Strat, Tele, and Les Paul: the 'ESF' tone control sounds good on everything at about 10 o'clock, but going 'earlier' scoops low mids and suits humbuckers, with 'late' positions sounding great for single-coil leads. Seriously great. Like, Joe Bonamassa kind of great.The echo effect is simple but very effective: depth/feedback can't be changed, so the control just changes the timing of the effect. However, it's a useable setting for most applications and it sounds, yes, excellent.Downsides: well, the overdrive level is fixed, so to get crunch sounds you gotta use your volume control... just like some pros still do today (Trainwreck Express users, for example). This is the weak point, because the 'in-between' sounds aren't very nice, breaking up in a way that will displease those used to nice valve amps. They're not terrible, but just not stellar.So, in sum, I genuinely think that you could track with the filthy and clean sounds on this amp (a ribbon mic would work well in this dinky amp) alongside a 'serious' amp without it sounding out of place. The fact that the crunch sounds are so-so just highlights how good the other sounds are.

Fabulous piece of equipment but decided to go for an acoustic amp

Review after 3 months.The amp is well built. Physically, it's sturdy and the top bottom and sides is some material with a leathery feel. The switches and knobs are pretty good too, no complaints.That's pretty much where the pros end. The sound quality is pretty bad. The 10W rating is just a measure of its loudness. But if you buy it expecting the quality of a regular 10W speaker, you are going to be very dissappointed. The sound quality, be it from the guitar or from an AUX input, both are pretty bad, I would even say terrible. Even the low E string has only a tone to it, and no base. It's more like a very flat and trebly sound throughout, no amount of bass almost.In my unit I also have the problem of distortion (not the effect distortion) and noise. The distortion problem was not there initially, but after I played for some time with the distortion effect, even the clean sounds started showing distortion. As the volume increases it gets worser and worser and soon gets as bad as the bad quality tweeters we had in our Maruti 800 back in 2003.The distortion and delay effects are pretty good, no complaints. Well may be the speaker's own distortion adds to the effect.This was my first purchase and I am very dissappointed with it. The customer service has asked me to contact the company (blackstar) which in this pandemic seemed like a bad choice.Only if I could turn back time, I wouldn't have bought this costly 'tweeters' but would have gone for 'Zoom G1 four processor' and connected it to another speaker or headphone, or went for the fender amp.

This amp is amazing for home practice. I jam a lot of jam tracks and this amp works really well for me. Earlier I had to use a mixer plus a processor to connect to my laptop and then jam but with this one I just plug in a phone output using an aux cable into the amp and play. Since it has a built in delay I don't need to use my processor under normal circumstances. I also take the headphone out like an aux out and connect it to my smartphone and record my jam directly into it including video if I want. As you can see from the pic it fits snugly on my study/work desk also.

I bought this amp primarily because it offers delay. That being the main requirement, in this price range the amps usually don't feature this function. The amp looks both aesthetic and retro and the build quality is good too. However, it comes with a three point wired plug but an adaptor which in itself isn't a concern unless you'd come across a weak plug point (something which has an earthing problem) where if it's plugged in it might give out a very slight humming sound (amp and guitar volume up but you're not playing the guitar) when only just plugged in. It won't matter when you're playing the guitar anyway because of the guitar sound and I'm saying this because I plugged this amp at one such point (not at my set-up at home) where it does make that humming sound and my other adaptor based amp (on the same socket) does not. However, it's only at that one particular socket where I've faced that problem and it doesn't make that humming sound otherwise (at home) when I plug it in. I'd still say it's a good buy if you're looking for just gain plus delay in your amp. It's also portable (due to its size) and good for practising and even performing in a small area because it's pretty loud as well. The only negative here would be that it isn't battery powered so it's not 100 % portable!