Blackstar Series One S1-200 200W 4 Channel Valve Head

More details:

The S1-200 sees the distillation of decades of guitar amplifier design experience into the ultimate 200W valve head. Every control has been honed for maximum sonic benefit through hundreds of hours of listening.

The S1-200 Clean Channel sets the precedent for no-compromise design, by featuring the unique Bright / Warm switch. This modestly named control actually reconfigures the pre-amplifier voicing and power amplifier damping to reproduce either ringing Class A performance in the Bright mode, or crunchy Class AB tones in the Warm setting.

Careful attention was paid to the levels of overdrive available when designing the S1-200 Crunch Channel. We thought it important to cover the widest range of crunch gain levels from just on the edge clean break-up, to crushing modern rhythm tones. To this end the Crunch / Super Crunch switch alters both gain levels and tonal shaping for maximum crunch flexibility.

The overdrive channels are characterised by a tone which is high in gain, but lacks any of the detached top-end often found in many similar designs. This is a result of unique preamplifier and power amplifier shaping techniques, which also benefit the player in the way the overdrives clean up beautifully as the guitar volume is reduced. Even at the most extreme settings, the overdrive channels remain natural sounding.

The Patent-Applied-For ISF control is unique to Blackstar Amplification and represents a major step forward in tone shaping flexibility. The ISF control shifts the response of the three control tone stack between at one end a US response and at the other a UK response. Importantly, an infinite number of alternative tone choices lies in between that would be otherwise unavailable.

Completing the tonal feature set is another unique Patent-Applied-For Blackstar innovation - the DPR (Dynamic Power Reduction) system. DPR reduces the power of the output stage from full power (200W) down to 10% (20W) and any power output in between. This means that the full tonal depth of the KT88 power amplifier can be enjoyed at any volume, making the S1-200 ideal for recording, smaller gigs and even home practice use. Working in conjunction with the power amplifier voltages, this method of power reduction suffers none of the loss in tone of other power reduction systems.

The tonal flexibility of the S1-200 is augmented by full MIDI implementation of the main channel switching functions. Used in conjunction with outboard gear such as multi-effects units, MIDI allows a whole new level of creative performance to be explored.

Features/Specifications:

• 200 Watt head with built-in DPR power reduction
• 4 x ECC83, 1 x ECC82, 4 x KT88 valves
• 4 footswitchable channels
• Clean channel with Warm (Plexi) and Bright (Class A) type modes
• Crunch channel with Crunch and Super Crunch modes
• Two overdrive channels with high and low output damping
• Two ISF equipped tone control sections
• Presence and Resonance controls
• Master Volume
• Series effects loop
• MIDI switching
• Speaker emulated output

Further Specs:

• Power (RMS): 200 Watts
• Valves: 4 x KT88, 4 x ECC83, 1 x ECC82
• Weight (kg): 27.2
• Dimensions: 705mm x 285mm x 278.5mm
• Footswitch: FS-3 supplied