Blackstar Acoustic:Core 30 2x15-watt 2x5" Combo Amp Reviews

This amp. is fantastic great sound and flexibility I'm very happy with my purchase ! I like that it can be placed on a stand nice option!

As others have said this amp has a bunch of Great Features in a Small Package. I use the 2nd input for my Digitech Control Out for my drum/bass machine and run the guitar to the 1st channel. Perfect for what I am trying to do. Makes the guitar sound like what it supposed to be.... an Acoustic guitar. Very Pleased when this amp went on sale. The Line Out is Perfect for gigging out and sends an Excellent Signal to the board.
Waiting for the pole mount which will complete the package.
Fast, Free Shipping from Sweetwater. Thanks !
I might have to get one for each of the other band members when they go on sale again. Buy It !

First off... with this price point, it's hard to go wrong. But I'll tell you right now... it punches way above its belt. The sound mix quality with the vocals and instrument is out of this world. I wish I could buy a beefier version of this, I would do it without any hesitation so that I could use it in large venues. I still use it to run my own personal mix in small venues thanks to the d.i. output in the back... I run it through my board, but just use my board to control the line level volume into my speakers and you also probably would want to use some sort of personal monitor preamp just to makes things easy and simple. My only gripe is that no one keeps the accessory items made for this amp in stock in the US. I've got all of them on backorder, except I did receive the battery pack which works amazingly. I'm still waiting on the stand adapter and foot pedal. How awesome would it be to run this small setup including a couple of pedals without needing to plug into an outlet. So cool. The amp is really strong for just 30 watts. I am blown-away impressed by Blackstar's little amp here. The ability to connect it to your phone and livestream with the same quality sound it puts out is nothing short of amazing! There is nothing out there at this price point that comes close to this for an at-home amp. You will not regret it. Buy one for yourself and then go out and buy one for a friend... they'll love you for it!

I am 58 years old and have owned well over a dozen acoustic guitar amps including a few ridiculously priced ones. This little guy sounds good and has decent effects. Although 30 watts, it gets pretty darn loud. Base is a little weak but very small and compact speakers is an obvious blockade to solid and raw base. There almost seems to be some sort of minor compression. Vocals and most of my guitar pick ups sound pretty good. The di out is post EQ and pre master which is perfect for most players. Huge thumbs up to this total package. Very easy to use and works with several pick ups. Sweetwater always packs their stuff real well and Rock almost feels like family when I call him for another toy. But this amp if you want to have great fun.

This little beauty has what you need to quickly set up great sound without any hassles. Just plug it in, and you're good to go. The available sound sculpting is sweet and easy, with the most needed adjustments built in. While this is certainly loud enough for any quick practice session, it's also crankable, without breaking up, for a small venue. Got a bigger gig? It still performs strong with a D.I. out to a house mixing board, while functioning as a monitor. The headphones even function with or without sound from the speaker! This little amp is very well designed, solid but not bulky. It has only what you need and not a bunch of fluff that you don't. I primarily use it to tame my resonator guitar that has both mag and piezo pickups. It does so beautifully. If you want the many advantages of this amp, but want more grunge, just add your preferred mods and distortion with pedals! This thing does it all! Anti feedback is great, as is the other studio quality tweaks. I could not find any amp even close in this price range. I'm very happy with Sweetwater service and delivery. Lastly, a shout out to my main man Dave Hoffman, sales engineer!

Good Acoustic Amp for practice, small gigs and to use it as a good quality small speaker.
Need Bluetooth to play backing tracks ?
Just get a wireless 3.5mm aux Bluetooth audio Transmitter adapter Receiver, and you are good to go.

Amp is lightweight and has excellent acoustic tone—better than my two previous acoustic amps. Internal battery would be the only change I would suggest, but then amp would be heavier. Happy with purchase and attentive customer service as usual.

I'm extremely picky about acoustic guitars, I can't stand the sound of an acoustic just plugged into a PA, it sounds so lifeless and lacking in character. When I saw the online demos for this amp I was skeptical, I've used Blackstar a lot so I thought I'd give it a go. I was instantly able to dial in a really luscious sound that had all that 'sound hole bottom end' that's always lacking when you DI to a PA. There are effects & EQ on both the instrument and mic inputs making it easy to shape a good jam sound. I also like the 1/8" jack input for me to play backing tracks on my phone. What I'm eager to try is using this amp as my monitor and going straight from the amp's DI to a PA and seeing if the sound from this amp translates accurately to the big speakers. If it does that well then this amp is an absolute winner.

Love this amp and super happy I bought it. Plenty of deep, rich acoustic sound and a great volumes too; inside or out. Don't let the size fool you! Plenty of settings included right out of the box. The two reverb options are a nice touch too. The live streaming functionality works extremely well - definite plus for this acoustic amp. Very well thought out all around.

Plenty of power and tone for in home and small club playing. Limited effects, BUT the effects it has onboard are outstanding. Compact and lightweight it will faithfully recreate the natural tone of your acoustic electric.

This amp is loud enough for solo performances, it's all you may ask to stream and record videos singing and playing thanks to the audio input that offers stunning high audio quality for recording purposes, sound quialitt is excellent, portability is matchless, channel for vocals is amazing , you can use it also as an audio interface it and you can also plug a battery bank separate that will allow you to use it unplugged for 5 hours or more , I think this amp gives you so much for less that you can go wrong with this , I'm so happy with my Bkackstar acoustic core 30.

awesome small acoustic amp for small area use. great chorus and reverb and clear clean true acoustic sound. best acoustic amp i've owned. highly recommend. as always, outstanding sweet water service.

Ordered this amp for the live streaming and recording features. The sound coming out of this little amp is an amazing added bonus! Great practice amp with great sounding reverb. Like the fact that I can hook up a mic and acoustic and get a great sound in my room with on stage options! Great amp!

A buddy of mine ordered this from Sweetwater and presented it to me as a gift. I plugged in my acoustic electric dreadnought and was very impressed. After adjusting the EQ some, my jaw hit the floor. This thing does not produce a quacky sound. It is rich, full, pure and clear. It reproduces and amplifies your unplugged sound perfectly without altering it. It is loud too!!! 5 stars. The reverb is the best I've heard on an acoustic amp.

I had the Roland AC-33, but this one outdoes it for less than 1/2 the price. The feed to iPhone is great, the xlr out sends the effects! I've made 2 videos with it, here's one...So far I really like it!

Brice

I bought this amp maybe a couple of weeks ago and really glad I did now. I am not much of an acoustic guitar player I play electric guitar and 16 years bass for my Church. But I turn 72 May and told my wife I wanted to start playing my acoustic more. I have a Eppy 2008 Masterbilt Me500 something it has 2 pickups an acoustic and one on top at the bottom of the neck you can play it stereo it's cool. Anyway back to the little Blackstar Core 30. I have a big screen in porch and me and a couple of buddies like to get together in the evening little wine and play now. They use little Fender acoustic amps and this little amp works out great for me. Works with a Mic great also my buddies like it real well one of them is having trouble with his amp and is looking at my amp . He said he has been having trouble with his Fender amp on and off quite a while now. But anyway check them out you might be surprised.

This is my first guitar amp after decades of playing bass and I have to say, there is a lot to this small package. It has enough power to keep up with larger amplifiers so I use it pretty much for our neighborhood jam sessions. The effects are simple and to the point and my EJ 200 sounds perfect through this little gem. I've yet to use the mic channel (because dogs howl when I sing), but I'll be testing my guitar through it a soon as I get the correct connective gear. If you're going to just jam with friends, gig out, do a little busking, or live stream (my tech crazy friend checked that part out an d loved it), this is a perfect amp for the money. I'd been using one that is around double the price of the Blackstar and to be honest, there's not much of a sonic difference at all.

I play in coffee houses at my friend's church hall. This amp has plenty of power for my needs. The built in effects are fine, but I use my pedalboard effects which it takes very well. It's very lightweight and portable with the built in handle.

It has nice features. About the same as my Fishman. But exactly how do you use the micro usb? It would be nice to know exactly what they're plugging into!
Do you plug in and hope for the best? That's my only issue really. Use it for playing my Core PRS P22 and Core Hollow Body II in my guitar chair of my bedroom studio. Perfect.

This is good for small venues like coffee houses or streetside. Works good as a di box for large systems like a PA. Super light unit easy to carry. Price is fair.

Its is ok but i wasn't happy with its sound at all. Thats just me and my opinion those of you who are looking for a small practice amp perfect.
I went with the Acoustic Fender 100 watt acoustic amp LOVE IT.... Make your own choice and check out your options. This for me was a fast purchase....

The Amp has no handle and you can not carry this for portability it is servery lacking. Color is rather odd, not very good for cafe or coffee house.

I first got this amp and was excited about it because I thought it would meet my needs. I got a TRRS cable and was looking forward to use it for recording and live streaming. There was so much buzz and interference and the recording volume was low. I thought it was possibly the cable. I had an old TRS cable still lying around that I used to use an aux cord. I plugged it in and it seemed to work fine, although I later realized that the effects were not coming through as "wet" in the recording. I emailed Blackstar and they said a TRS would not work. So, I was in the pursuit of another TRRS cable just to make sure I could get all the functionality of it. Three TRRS cables later I still had the same issues. Again, I was going back and forth with Blackstar about this and reached out to my Sales Engineer. So, I thought in order to use all the functionality I would look into using the USB port and a Lightning to USB 3 camera adapter. I thought it would sound good and recorded 12 songs to my iPhone 11. I had again, a low volume level in the recording and a weird buzz every couple of minutes in the song. Some discussion on Facebook determined a couple other folks having similar issues and using a bunch of workarounds. I didn't want to mess with this anymore so I'm returning it.

Although I'm giving this amp 2 stars, I give my Sales Engineer Ikes FIVE stars. He has always been helpful and is able and willing to meet my needs. I am so grateful he has been my Sales Engineer for many, many years now.