Blackstar ST. James 100 Head vs Rivera Bonehead

The Blackstar ST. James 100 Head and the Rivera Bonehead are both amplifiers sharing crunchy, transparent, bright. The Blackstar ST. James 100 Head leans tight and dynamic. The Rivera Bonehead leans high gain and sustaining.

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.

74% — moderately similar

Shared genres
citedGenres both listings are associated with.
  • Alternative Rock
  • Classic Rock
Shared tone character
citedDerived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.
  • crunchy
  • transparent
  • bright
  • saturated
Citation fame
citedCitation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.
0%
0%
Price

$1777.83via Reverb

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Description

The Blackstar St. James 100 is a two-channel EL34-powered tube guitar amplifier head combining American-voiced clean tones with British-voiced overdrive, designed as a lightweight handcrafted valve head with features including a sag control, effects loop, and reverb. Channel 1 delivers big, open clean tone with clear black-panel-influenced headroom; Channel 2 produces British crunch that leans toward Vox chime and articulation rather than Marshall darkness, making it unsuitable for saturated high gain but excellent for chimey, cutting rock and blues. Reviewers describe the EL34 version as combining world-class British crunch with US-sounding clean tones in a design notably lighter than comparable valve heads.

The Rivera Bonehead is a 100-watt three-channel tube amplifier head switchable to 50/25/12W via rear-mounted High/Low power and Vintage/Modern switches. The amp features 6x 12AX7 preamp tubes and 4x EL34 power tubes with independent controls on each channel and footswitchable boost on every channel. Controls include Presence, Focus, Loslobottom, Master, Treble, Middle, Bass, and Volume. The tone is thick and full with three distinct characters: a very compressed high-gain lead channel, a JCM800-inspired mid-crunch channel, and a British Hiwatt-ish clean channel. The overdrive channels feature vintage Marshall with bright-cap-clipped character combined with substantial gain on tap.

Genres
citedGenres this gear is documented as being used in.
  • Rock
  • Jazz
  • Funk
  • Blues
  • Metal
Tonal lean
  • tight
  • dynamic
  • high gain
  • sustaining
Good for
citedOccasions this gear suits — judged per model, or derived from its wattage, connectivity and category.
  • Live
  • Live
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Blackstar ST. James 100 Head vs Rivera Bonehead — Shared Character & Differences — NodeTone