Hello there! I’m back again with another cool review of my favourite guitar practice amp, the Blackstar FLY 3! In this article, I will introduce the Blackstar company and also discuss the company’s FLY 3 product line.
Table of Contents
It’s been a full decade since I first met Blackstar amps and they always have a special place in my heart as I had to survive through pretty tough times back in İstanbul and FLY 3 was my only amp for a long time! 🙂
As always, let’s first start with an introduction to Blackstar Amplification.
About Blackstar
Blackstar Amplification is a relatively young but highly respected company in the world of guitar amplifiers. It is known for innovative products that blend British and American tonal characteristics. In 2004, it was founded in Northampton, UK, by a group of former Marshall engineers, including Bruce Keir, Ian Robinson, and Paul Hayhoe.
During the first years, the founders experimented with new approaches to gain structures, tonal control, and versatility. This period was marked by an emphasis on research and development, to offer a unique product that could stand out in a crowded amp market.
Blackstar officially launched its first product line in 2007. The HT Pedal series which was a valve distortion/preamp pedal gained a lot of attention on the market.
In 2008, they introduced the HT-5 amplifier, a small yet powerful amp packed with full-tube sounds in a compact format. The feature that helped stand out Blackstar was their unique ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) which allowed users to adjust the amp’s character by blending British and American guitar tones.
Around 2009, the company shifted their focus to the Artisan Series which featured a series of hand-wired, boutique-style amps aimed at pro musicians and serious tone freaks! The Artisan amps were designed to capture the sound and the feel of the classic British amplifiers. Best Tools For Guitars at Stewmac.com
By 2010, Blackstar gained huge recognition in the music industry and they were able to attract many big-name endorsers and their amps were seen on stages all around the world.
The Series One line was introduced around this same, featuring higher-wattage amplifiers with multiple channels and advanced features like DPR (Dynamic Power Reduction), which allowed users to adjust the amp’s power output without compromising tone.
In the mid-2010s, Blackstar kept on expanding its product line with ID series which was a great step into the digital amplifiers. The ID technology aimed to combine ISF technology with digital processing and became a popular choice among beginners and hobbyists due to being affordable and ease of use.
Blackstar also introduced the FLY 3 practice amps which became one of the most successful products of the company. In this article, we will go into further details on the FLY 3 Series!
From 2018 to this day, Blackstar has expanded its professional line with Silverline Series and Dept. 10 Series. The Silverline amps offered digital modelling with advanced DSP technology and high-quality speaker emulation for achieving the real amp feel in a lightweight and digital package.
The Dept. 10 Series combined tube technology with digital flexibility to allow players to integrate the sound and feel of a tube amp into modern recording and live settings. The company also introduced the Unity Bass Series to offer their flexible and smart amp designs to the bass players’ community.
Even though the guitar amp business has been really competitive and changing due to developments in guitar amp software and plugins, Blackstar has always been able to deliver the best value products with a competitive edge over its competitors. Check out the best guitar pickup company, Seymour Duncan here!
In this brief article, we will be looking at a Blackstar FLY 3 Mini Amp and also the varieties that Blackstar has come up with in recent years.
Blackstar FLY 3
When I was working in MI jobs, FLY 3 was pretty new and one of a kind in the Blackstar’s catalogue. However, when I had a look at the product line of the company before I published this article, I noticed that Blackstar released multiple varieties of FLY 3.
For instance, FLY 3 and Super FLY with Bluetooth as an extra feature, Bass amp version, Acoustic amp version, Bundle or Pack versions which feature FLY 3 guitar or bass amp with an extension cabinet and also the Super FLY version which has a dual cabinet!
Back in the day, I had the chance to play Blackstar FLY 3 (the initial release) as well as the limited edition stereo pack (in cream colour!). I also couldn’t resist getting one for myself and used my FLY 3 for over a year!
As you can from the table below, every FLY model features a 3-inch speaker(s) and dual-channel except the FLY 3 Acoustic Mini Amp. After the initial release of the FLY 3 guitar amp, they also released a newer version that features Bluetooth connectivity which enables you to connect your smartphones and play songs while you can jam over them!
Blackstar also released a Super Fly version that features dual speakers with microphone input as well as the bass version of FLY 3.
In this table beow, I have removed sales rank as Thomann categorises these amps differently so it causes some misleading information. So when you compare, let’s say the bass version with the guitar version to understand the number of sales and popularity, the bass amp would belong to a solid-state bass amp category while the guitar version would belong to a portable guitar amp category. I believe it’s not relevant so I removed them.
Also, note that if you use Thomann‘s comparison function you may have different parameters showing with available or not available depending on which page you look at them. So this table has been prepared to give you the focused and correct information to compare them side by side. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
Blackstar FLY Series Guitar/Bass/Acoustic Practice Amps – Every Model Comparison!
| Blackstar | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | FLY 3 Acoustic Mini Amp | FLY 3 Bass Pack | FLY 3 Bass Amp | Super FLY Bluetooth Combo | Super FLY Pack Combo | FLY 3 Bluetooth Mini Amp Bundle | FLY 3 Pack | FLY 3 Mini Amp Bundle | FLY 3 Bluetooth Mini Amp | FLY 3 Mini Amp |
| Speaker Connector | 1x 3" | 2x 3" | 1x 3" | 2x 3" | 2x 3" | 1x 3" | 2x 3" | 1x 3" | 1x 3" | 1x 3" |
| Channels | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Bluetooth | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Echo/Delay/Reverb | Echo/Delay | Echo/Delay | Echo/Delay | Reverb | Reverb | Echo/Delay | Echo/Delay | Echo/Delay | Echo/Delay | Echo/Delay |
| Instrument/Line input | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microphone Input | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Headphone/Emulated Output | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Battery Operation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CD/MP3 Input | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
I have also included a row to indicate reverb/echo/delay. You may say there’s no reverb on these products. However, if you use the built-in echo/delay time pot and decrease the delay time by around 10ms, you will have a reverb effect.
But, the echo/delay is not the best feature of this amp and I found it a bit unuseful. I was using it as I described it here to widen the sound with very short delay times. The new Super FLY has a dedicated Reverb built-in, I think they have made an excellent step forward to remove the Echo/Delay and add a Reverb instead!
The built-in headphone/emulated-out works flawlessly as I had tried it with a pair of powered speakers. It sounded huge and very sweet! So If you are to buy a FLY 3 standard model, you should consider hooking it up with your speakers at home.
All the models can operate on batteries as well as the newly introduced rechargeable power bank (only applicable for the Super Fly model). On top of this, you can also buy an individual power supply (recommended).
When I had my Blackstar FLY 3, I also got myself the power supply. However, you can also buy rechargeable AA batteries and use your amp as it is supposed to be on the FLY!
Here’s a short and sweet video of me playing the Blackstar FLY 3 Pack Limited Edition Cream Colour practice amp!
This is the identical amp to the Blackstar FLY 3 Pack that you see in the table.
So to clear things up, if you see “Pack“, this means the package features an extension cabinet plus the power supply. But if you see “Bundle“, this means it comes with an extension cabinet, power supply not included!
In my opinion, it’s the best-sounding practice amp in a very portable format and design. When I was working in the industry, we would sell tons of practice amps, mostly the mini, portable products that other brands released. However, I have never seen any example by other brands that could come close to the Blackstar FLY series amp in terms of sound and playability. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
Most of the competitor’s products in this category sound like toys to me! But this is not true with the Blackstar FLY series. If you ever have a chance to play with it, I recommend you connect it to a set of powered speakers, and reference monitors and see how it sounds. It is going to get huge and you won’t believe how responsive this amp is!
Blackstar FLY 3 Stereo Pack Review & Sound Demo
Update: It’s been a long time since I posted this article (almost 4 years!). The Blackstar FLY 3 practice amp has always remained a nostalgic item for me, so I decided to get myself the Blackstar FLY 3 Pack which comes with the extension pack as well as the power supply.
I really wanted to revisit this amp and record a test video with my current setup. I used my FGN Boundary Odyssey guitar, Lewit LCT 140 AIR microphone, RME Babyface PRO FS and Genelec 8020 DPM monitors.
It was so much fun to spend time with the amp and play just random stuff. It is exactly like as I remember how good it was! I also realised that the Pack version is definitely superior in low-end response. Even at this size, it can seriously fill in your room with and feels great under the fingers as well.
In the video, I deliberately switched from mic sound to camera sound to give you a better idea of how this would sound in a room. In my opinion, you can easily record full-blown demos with this setup. Crazy, right?
You can even use FLY 3 as a direct recording tool by using its headphone out and plugging it directly into your audio interface. Micing it also gives you excellent amp sounds as you hear from the video.
The only thing I don’t like about the Blackstar FLY 3 series is that they force us to use a pretty specific power supply so they can also sell it separately. It is a 6.5A, positive centre PSU which I have never seen used in any other pedal or amp.
If they designed it to be used with a standard 9V, negative centre power supply, it would be so much better for the environment as most guitar players have access to standard guitar pedal/effect PSUs.
I definitely recommend anyone who is looking for a small, yet powerful practice amp that you can use in multiple situations. Blackstar FLY 3 has been always my favourite practice amp and seems like it will remain the same.
I hope this has been a helpful bit of information for you! Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
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