Blackstar Artisan 30 HW vs Blackstar St. James 50 6L6 Combo

The Blackstar Artisan 30 HW and the Blackstar St. James 50 6L6 Combo are both amplifiers sharing full, transparent, compressed. The Blackstar Artisan 30 HW leans crunchy. The Blackstar St. James 50 6L6 Combo leans aggressive and high gain.

Similarity
citedBlended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.

33% — somewhat different

Shared tone character
citedDerived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.
  • full
  • transparent
  • compressed
Citation fame
citedCitation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.
0%
0%
Price

$2499.99via Reverb

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Description

The Blackstar Artisan 30 HW is the hand-wired head version of Blackstar's boutique Artisan 30 amplifier, delivering 30 watts of Class A tube power through a point-to-point hand-wired circuit. Two channels — featuring an EF86 pentode on Channel 1 for fat, warm, compression-rich clean character — span dynamic blues and country clean tones through ISF-voiced crunch and drive on Channel 2. Power is switchable between 30-watt pentode and 10-watt triode modes. The hand-wired head format provides the same boutique-quality tonal complexity as the combo version with the flexibility to pair with the player's choice of cabinet.

The Blackstar St. James 50 6L6 Combo is a 50-watt all-tube guitar combo amplifier powered by 6L6 output tubes, weighing only 28 pounds — unusually light for an all-tube 50-watt design. Two channels cover a high-headroom American-voiced clean with warm, breathy low-end and a high-gain overdrive channel featuring Blackstar's most aggressive gain circuit at time of release. A voice switch on the overdrive channel reshapes midrange from full-throated vocal lead tone to a scooped rhythm voice with extra high-end extension. Power scaling switches between 50W, 2W, and a SAG mode that changes compression characteristics to respond more like a vintage amp. The St. James targets gigging players who need real tube tone without sacrificing portability.

Genres
citedGenres this gear is documented as being used in.
  • Blues
  • Rock
  • Country
  • metal
  • alternative
  • rock
Tonal lean
  • crunchy
  • aggressive
  • high gain
Good for
citedOccasions this gear suits — judged per model, or derived from its wattage, connectivity and category.
  • Live
  • Studio
  • Worship
  • Live
  • Studio
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