“The ultimate weapon for metal guitarists who demand the ultimate amplifier”: Blackstar unveils the Series One MK II, a four-channel 100W fire-breathing tube amp with “world-class” tone | MusicRadar

Oct 23, 2024

After more than 30 updates to the circuit and channel voicings, Blackstar's flagship high-gain amp is here, and it's equipped with power scaling, MIDI connectivity, effects loop, and more zero "unwanted fizz"

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Blackstar has unveiled the Series One MK II, applying more than 30 modifications to its flag-ship high-gain guitar amp and promising a “world-class” performance from the four-channel monster.

This update has been a long time coming but then the Series One has been a huge success for the British amp brand since its launch in 2007.

It has been the go-to tube amp for metal players such as Ishahn, with even Neal Schon (one of the few occasions to imagine a shared universe between Emperor and Journey) declaring himself a fan of the amp.

But then if it’s not broken… right? Well, there’s always something that can be improved upon and Blackstar has done a lot here, comprehensively tweaking the circuit and the voicing of the channels. Aesthetically, too, this is a big update, with a smaller Blackstar logo sitting on a metal badge, the honeycomb patterned metal grille showing off the tubes within.

The idea is that the Series One MK II has everything you need for metal guitar, with more gain than you could want and, crucially, “best-in-class” note definition so that your downtuned chugs don’t turn to mush. “This amplifier delivers crushingly tight rhythm tones and thick, saturated leads without the unwanted fizz often found in other high-gain designs,” says Blackstar.

There is the power, 100-watts, provided by a quartet of 6L6 power tubes, with a set of four 4 ECC83s and a single ECC82 in the preamp. There are the channels with six modes: Clean Warm, Clean Bright, Super Crunch and OD1, OD2. The amp is MIDI-enabled, with an effects loop that has its own level control.

And there is an accompanying 4x12 PRO 412B MK II guitar speaker cabinet to match it with, featuring a “road-worthy” finger-jointed birch-ply construction and four Celestion Vintage 30 speakers for “a perfectly balanced midrange response with superior articulation and power”.

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Signature Blackstar details remain. There is the brand’s patented ISF feature allowing you to give the overdrive channels a more US or more British flavour, or somewhere in between. Once more there are Resonance and Presence controls sitting alongside the master volume. Overdriven and clean channels are served by their own 3-band EQ.

This amp is of course designed to push a lot of air about the room but it is housetrained by Blackstar’s patented DPR (Dynamic Power Reduction), a power scaling feature that allows players to dial the volume down and get face-ripping metal tones at 10-watts. A speaker emulated output extends your options when playing live or in the studio.

The Series One MKII head and cabinet are available now, priced £1,999 for the head, £999 for the cabinet. For more details head over to Blackstar Amplification.

Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.

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