Blackstar Fly 3 - Compact Bass Amp Stereo Pack w/ FLY3 Bass & FLY103

This just arrived today, so these are my first impressions. This is the smallest and lightest bass amp imaginable. It comes with three pieces: a main speaker (which also contains the amp and controls), an extension speaker, and a power supply. The main speaker weighs an astounding 1 pound, 10 ounces (1.55 pounds) and fits on your hand. You can use it by itself, but to do that you either need to put 6 AA batteries in it, or plug it in to the power supply, which weighs 8 ounces (less than half a pound). Or you can add the extension speaker. It weighs slightly less than the main speaker, and doubles the power of the amp from 3 watts to 6 watts. A nice feature is that the cord that connects it to the main speaker winds up on the back of the speaker itself. There are no controls on the extension speaker and it uses the amp in the main speaker. The big question is, how does it sound? I can't say it sounds fantastic, but it sounds way way better than it deserves to for its size and weight. It is also louder than you will imagine, but the sound gets more distorted as you turn it up more. Obviously, using both speakers gives better and louder sound than just using the main speaker. I play the UBass and mostly play at ukulele jam sessions. The main speaker alone will be fine for playing with small jams, and with both speakers I can imagine playing for jam sessions with ten to thirty players, but I have yet to try that. The sweet spot for this amp is that it is so small and light that I can take it traveling, and join in on a jam session when I come upon one. I have two other semi-portable bass amps: a Roland Micro Cube RX, which has four, four-inch speakers and weighs about 18 pounds. It is loud enough to play with up to 50 or more people, and I've played it in large rooms with no problems. It costs a bit more than twice as much as the Blackstar. I also have a Phil Jones Bass (PJB) Double Four, which weighs only 8 pounds, but puts out an amazing 70 watts. It does not take batteries, but lots of people (including me) have rigged it up to lithium laptop batteries, which will power it for a few hours. It is the best sounding of the three amps (it actually sounds really good), and the loudest, but costs twice as much as the Roland (especially if you add on the battery). You know the old saying about cameras, that the best camera is the one you actually have with you. Well, that applies to this bass amp. I can imagine taking it with me more often when going to places where there might be opportunities to play music with other people. It will be great for practicing, even with up to a dozen people. But I would never think of performing with it (usually, when performing, there is a mixing board with speakers to plug into, anyway). So this fits a good niche. The speakers are made of plastic, and fairly lightweight plastic at that to keep the weight down, but I think they will be relatively durable. The box it comes in will be handy for storing and transporting it. I would definitely buy this package over just buying the main amp alone. For only $40 more, you get the extension speaker plus the power supply, which is a good deal. They charge $20 for just the power supply. Oh, and the power supply does operate on anything from 100 to 240 volts, so you can use it anywhere in the world. It does have a 3-prong (grounded) plug (as does the PJB, but the Roland only needs a two-prong outlet). Bottom line -- it is surprisingly good, but not great, and it is cheap, and very portable. What's not to love? UPDATE: Played at a jam session tonight with 15 ukulele players in a big room (ballroom sized) and it was plenty loud and actually sounded very good. I raised the rating to 5 stars. People made comments about how much sound was coming out of those small boxes and they couldn't believe how lightweight they are. One person who was there just ordered a set for themselves. I think it helped that there was a wood floor (rather than carpeting) and I put the two speakers directly on the floor for good bass coupling. The group was playing in a circle away from the room walls, or else I would have put them on the floor right next to a wall, which would made them even louder. Even so, I didn't have to turn them up all the way (just over half way worked fine). Highly recommended. ONE LAST THING: I figured out why it sounded so much better when playing in the jam session than when I first tried it out at home. At the jam session, I had batteries in it. Tonight I pulled it out at home and it sounded more distorted again. I finally deduced that it was the plastic cover for the batteries. When there are no batteries, the battery cover rattles and makes it sound worse. You can either put batteries in it (even if you are using it with the power supply), or just remove the battery cover and it sounds much better. Or I might cut out a piece of foam to put in the battery compartment to keep the cover from rattling when there are no batteries.

I have or have had just about every portable, battery operated Bass guitar amp and guitar amp. Most of my bass playing is the UBass with ukulele jam groups (like the other reviewer). Usually I use a Phil Jones Double 4 with a laptop battery. However, sometimes I go to smaller jams or smaller rooms and even the Phil Jones is more than I need to carry. The Blackstar Fly 3 will definitely do the job in a largish room with 15 or so players. It actually sounds terrific. Not as loud, but a bit more punch that the Double Four. Sometimes there are ukulele players who are very sensitive who like the bass very much in the background but still present. These little Fly3 boxes do the trick. The key is to use both the amp and cabinet. I really would not recommend the single combo. The single combo to me seems pretty much like every other baby combo amp, (Orange, Vox) that runs on AA batteries. The sound breaks up pretty quickly. Add on the second cab and you get both more volume and more depth, a fuller bass sound.

I thought you needed large speakers to move enough sound to hear a bass. But with this little double-header, my u-bass punches through the din of my ukulele club just fine. Place these speakers on the floor, near a wall, for extra oomph. Battery life is good. You may want to remove a battery when you place this unit in a gig bag. Otherwise, the amp could be switched on by a little jostling, draining the power. I'm also wondering how the phone-style cord that connects the two speakers will hold up. Phone jacks are pretty flimsy. Anyway, so far I am pleased with this purchase. I am learning bass, and am much more inclined to bring my instrument on my travels thanks to this really portable amp.

I've been playing electric bass since 1983. Playing acoustic bass guitar just stinks! Even the most expensive acoustic basses cannot project and fit within an acoustic guitar jam. Amps smaller than head and 2X12 cab just seemed be my only choice. Little portable amps just stink...until...this little Black Star Fly 3 Bass Pak. I read and watched the positive reviews on YouTube and figured what the heck, whats the worse thing that could happen? Return the thing? So I pulled the trigger. I took it to Prospect Park and met with a few guitarists to jam. It sounded great! Not as great as my Eden 800 WT coming out of a 15" Celestian but it had good bottom and was clear. The distortion channel sounded nice and gritty with some decent bottom. I was pleased! What made it even cooler was I was able to hook my Korg VolcaBeat drum machine to it and that sounded really good too! I am happy! The batteries lasted longer than the 3 hours of jamming which is really awesome. My only contentions would be, for all that plastic I feel it could be a less expensive. And I wish there was a second line input so I could use it with the VolcaBeats and a Koassilator. If you are an electric bass player and want to jam with acoustic guitars or even electric guitars with mini amps this little pair is perfect.

The speakers definitely are only meant to play alone and in a quiet enclosed room. I had them turned to full volume and my PRS at full volume and my wife drowned me out totally with her acoustic guitar. They try but with only 3 watts per speaker, don't get your hopes up.

i can say the bass amp has a perma fuzz thinggoing on and the gain acts more like a prevolume with everything a little gainy ... my soultion occured bc i happed to own both guitar and bass versions of this amp cab set ... for my specific range i used the blackstar fly 3 guitar amp into the blackstar fly 3 bass cabinet i got sounds rainging from punchy clean sounds to distortion suitable for "rose of sharyn"-k.s.e. which is a thrash posthardcore sound fairly quiet to fairly loud not going to compete with a drum set tho maybe a pat box or bongo tho hope i remembered to address everything hopefully this info is useful for bass ukes as well my lowest string is an open e at 42hertz i think it works fine perhaps a truss adjustment before a final decision

I wanted this for practice away from home because it's portability is perfect for me in that aspect, But I Keep getting a Buzz sound in which I exchanged for another and this time I'm getting the buzz along with a sudden Distorted burst on certain notes that throws me off and Distracts my playing as it's a much louder bursting, distorted tone for some reason that makes using this useless to play with as a musician.. I wish I had kept the first one with just the buzzing as I could had dealt with just that if I had known this would happen.

This little amp really surprised me. It does a great job helping my acoustic/electric bass punch compete with several acoustic guitars around the campfire. The sound from the two speakers is more than twice as good as from one. I don’t recommend this for electric bass playing rock sessions, but for acoustic/electric, this setup is awesome!

This wee beauty is the best practice amp you can get, in my opinion - I have a bigger amp (Orange Crush), but this lovely device is often used in place of it. It doesn't quite have the range of sounds you can get from the bigger amp, or possible as much low end, but it sounds really good, the compressor works nicely, the boost gives you a bit of edge, and the bass booster nicely tames the slightly snarly/twangy sound of my Soundgear bass. The two piece kit gives you the PSU and satellite making a natty little stereo amp you can plug a music player into. On batteries it seems to last about 6 hours, and is surprisingly loud for 6W. As a sneaky bonus, the satellite speaker and psu seem to be universal, so if you get hte top bit of the other Fly amps (guitar and acoustic), you can use the one satellite/PSU on all three. If you buy this as a small practice amp I really do not think you will regret it for a second,

It's great. I knew I ordered bass fly 3 pack but didn't realise it also included the second speaker! Great product. Works well with my new kala nomad u-bass.

Excellent pour jouer en déplacement. Le son n'est pas aussi propre qu'avec un ampli standard mais c'est largement suffisant pour s'amuser. Niveau encombrement, ça rentre dans n'importe quel sac à dos sans aucun problème !

Français: Bon service offert par Yachew LTD UK. La seule chose à faire attention est de s'assurer que Yachew LTD fournisse une compatibilité d'alimentation électrique pour l'amérique du Nord (USA/Canada - 110v - fil à 3 pins). English: Good service offered by Yachew LTD UK. The only thing to be careful is to make sure that Yachew LTD provides power supply compatibility for North America (USA / Canada - 110v - 3 pin lead).

Un mini ampli per basso che funziona benissimo. Piccolo, leggero, pratico e collocabile ovunque. Vale la pena acquistarlo. Ottimo acquisto.