Introducing St. James, the world’s lightest and most innovative 50 Watt valve amps

Answering calls from guitarists everywhere for a valve amplifier that is truly lightweight and portable, Blackstar delivers the most advanced, innovative and best-sounding 50 Watt valve amps in the world. We’re proud to introduce you to St. James.

Available in two formats, a classic EL34 design and a higher gain 6L6 model, these amps are simple to use but highly versatile. Developed after months of forensic examination of vintage valve amps, the intuitive two channel set-up deliver our best ever cleans and overdrives.

An inductive load is built into each St. James amp, this allows you to run the valves flat out without having a speaker connected. Normally you would have to pay over $1000 for an additional piece of equipment – St. James has it included. Add in Cab Rig, our next-generation DSP speaker simulator to capture incredible tones via USB / XLR D.I. out or headphones.

The Power Reduction switch allows you to select 50 Watts, 2 Watts or Sag to easily get the perfect balance of power and response for any situation from studio to stage.

The unique Celestion Zephyr lightweight ferrite speaker, candlenut plywood cabinet and universal power supply all go together to create 50 Watt valve amps that are less than half the weight of a traditional valve amp.

Key Features:

• Built-in inductive load
  St. James amps have a built-in reactive load allowing you to drive the valves without a speaker connected. The reactive load mimics the electrical response of a typical loudspeaker to deliver the authentic valve power-amp tones possible in the studio or at home.
• Power reduction
  Based on our patented Dynamic Power Reduction design you can easily switch from 50 Watts for the loudest clean headroom, down to 2 Watts for practicing, recording or smaller gigs, or a more overdriven power amp tone. The third option is Sag. This setting generates more power supply ‘sag’ to accentuate the all important amp compression, the ‘feel’ is softer and more ‘vintage’.
• Universal power supply
  Our universal power supply, is lightweight and can be used anywhere in the world from 90V to 264V 50/60Hz.
• Stunning boutique looks and a new illuminated logo
  Desirability is as essential as amazing sound, so we’re delighted to share a completely new look for St. James including an illuminated logo inspired by our original Artisan amps.

NEW Cab Rig simulator technology

Cab Rig is our next-generation DSP speaker simulator that reproduces the sound and feel of a mic’d up guitar cab in incredible detail. Cab Rig’s new advanced algorithm can simulate a speaker cabinet and room with effectively zero latency, no phase mismatch and much more flexibility than an IR snapshot. Deep-dive using the accompanying software to capture the incredible tones via USB / XLR out or headphones.

Pro connectivity

With more musicians recording at home St. James is perfect for the way we play today with USB audio connectivity for pro-recording and an XLR D.I. for professional live use, both using the built-in inductive load and Cab Rig speaker simulation.