I’m rather impressed with this little practice amp. I needed something portable because my regular tube amp is a bit of a hassle to lug around and sometimes I want to practice while watching TV or in the other room. This makes it easy and convenient. It has a fantastic tone in both clean and overdrive. I even connect it to larger speakers for more power but even on its own it has a solid full sound. Well with the money. I only wish it came with the power adapter which I did order separately. Best practice amp I’ve heard by far. The delay sounds good if that’s what you like, and it has an input to play along with music. It’s solidly built too, doesn’t feel like a flimsy cheap toy like most practice amps, so hopefully it lasts a long time.
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This item: Blackstar Electric Guitar Mini Amplifier, Black (FLY3)
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Great home amplifier.
This amplifier sounds great for it's size. Due of it's size it will have limitations, and if you do too much gain or volume it will suffer. Also active basses will push it to it's limits. Works better with passive basses, if you plug a Precision bass or a Jazz bass here, you will get P or J tones. Also have a mild overdrive, compression and gain control, so the sound versatility is greater than most practice amps. This is the go-to option if you have noise limitations, like in leased apartments or quiet condos.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2016Model: FLY3BASSPAKVerified Purchase
A lot to love in a very small and light packageThis just arrived today, so these are my first impressions.
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2016
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.
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2018Model: FLY3BLUEVerified Purchase
Bluetooth model review. Small and sounds pretty good! Here are the measurements.Note: this is a review for the BLUETOOTH model, as some people will want that. I’ve attached a photo of the Blackstar beside my Roland MicroCube, which is about 9x9” height and width and can also run on batteries. The Roland is a much better amp, of course, but the Blackstar is great for traveling or practicing in a living room. The question here is whether it will meet your minimum requirements. I play swing and gypsy swing, so I want a good clean line where I can increase thickness of the sound by turning up the gain while turning down the volume knob a bit. I need a passable acoustic guitar sound for gypsy jazz, but also adequate tone for jazz soloing. I have a little Washburn Rover travel guitar that has a very nice neck and is very playable, but the acoustic sound is very quiet. I’ve installed in it both a piezo pickup and a Kent Armstrong jazz pickup, and they work either separately or together. I spend a couple weeks a year st a resort in Mexico where I sit in the shade on the beach near the crashing waves and play while my band—on my iPad—backs me up. The guitar by itself is not loud enough. I usually use a little round Altec speaker with Bluetooth with the iPad, and that is loud enough for my practicing with a mandolin. But not with this guitar. I wanted a tiny amp that will play Bluetooth from my iPad while also amplifying my guitar.
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2018
The Blackstar is tiny, though much bigger than the Altec speaker. It weighs just under two pounds, and it is small enough to fit easily in my suitcase. Note: for Bluetooth, read the instructions and note the different meanings for single blinks and double blinks when setting it up with a new device. It’s easy, but there’s an unexpected step. So read it. Also, to get sound, turn up all the knobs. You might think it’s broken, otherwise.
It’s very quiet—no annoying hums by itself. The EQ knob works well but is more cold to warm than treble to bass—very nice. It sounds good at all levels, but it changes to different sounds. Remember to match the Gain and the Volume knobs to get the tone you want, too. For an acoustic sound with a piezo pickup, turn down the Gain a lot and turn up the Volume. For a clean jazz solo with more thickness, turn up the Gain about halfway, then set the Volume to your likes. Both sound quite good, and without extra noise or distortion. (I hate distortion—if you want that, use the distortion button. I didn’t test it.) Again, the tone is not as compelling as my Roland MicroCube, which is less compelling than my AER which costs a lot more, but it’s acceptable. Volume: I used a decibel amp on myniPad to measure the volume from about two feet away, just asmImdomwoth instruments. I find that I can get a good acoustic strumming sound at about 85 to 90 decibels from a travel guitar I can barely hear. Using the jazz pickup and more gain, I can get about 95 to 98 decibels. The amp will go louder, but it then starts distorting a little. So how loud is that? Most acoustic guitars see, to provide about 85 decibels max, so the acoustic strumming volume is a significant bit louder. However, I have a couple unusually good luthier-made gypsy jazz guitars that easily cruise at 92 decibels and max out at 95. That’s very loud indeed for an acoustic guitar, and matches my Collings mandolin. (I do have a shrill travel mandolin that will hit 99 decibels.) Thus, the Blackstar is somewhat louder when clean than any acoustic guitar I’ve ever played. It’s just fine for the beach, or for using your solid-body while jamming with acoustic guitars. It’s great for your hotel room or the porch. You won't want this for your main amp if your band mates have big amps. If your band is playing at 110 decibels or, worse, 120 or 130, this won’t cut it.
If you play jazz guitar in an unamplified big band with horns and brass and you can’t hear yourself, but your fellow band members don’t want you to use an amp and blast them out, this is barely noticeable and would give you enough volume to be heard a bit better without having to play as hard. You can use the batteries. By the way, I also bought the Hosa five foot cord, which seems very well made. I’m going to put two inch wide black Velcro around the sides and bottom of this amp (the rough part) and use a longer piece of the soft part of the Velcro to make a strap, so I can toss the amp over my shoulder or hook it to my belt and walk as I play.
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Top reviews from other countries
- SandersReviewed in Canada on April 4, 2024
Awesome little amp, honestly don't even bother with any of the other less expensive ones.
Model: FLY3Verified Purchase -
numaReviewed in France on December 22, 2024
j ai pris la stereo merci
Model: FLY3BASSVerified Purchase -
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O.S.Reviewed in France on November 20, 2024
Petit mais quel son !
Model: FLY3BTCHARGEVerified Purchase -
