Blackstar Dept. 10 AMPED 3 100-watt Guitar Amplifier Pedal Reviews
The Blackstar Dept. 10 AMPED 3 is a gig-worthy 100-watt guitar amp head that fits easily on your pedalboard. This floorboard amplifier faithfully re-creates the tone and feel of a traditional tube amp, with three distinct channels — with two selectable voices per channel — that range from high-headroom clean to saturated distortion. There’s plenty of sound shaping onboard, including a 3-band EQ, Presence, and Blackstar’s trademark ISF control. Three distinctively different power amp responses ensure an authentic amp-like feel to match the AMPED 3’s killer tone. You also get footswitchable Boost and Reverb, plus a high-quality effects loop, MIDI control, and 9-volt pedal power outputs. To top it off, this guitar amplifier pedal includes Blackstar’s next-gen Cab Rig DSP speaker simulation. Best of all, when you find a sound and setup you like, you can store your settings as an easily recallable patch. You can connect the Blackstar Dept. 10 AMPED 3 to an 8- or 16-ohm speaker cabinet, or route a studio-quality miked-cab tone straight to your DAW via USB-C.
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As low as $25/month
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Highest Rated Reviews
this is an amazing product with exeptional tone
don't buy a tube amp, get this instead, best sounding floor amp i have ever played, amazing tone!!!
Great Product! Simple, Simple, Simple!
If you want a truly simple, easy to use, 3-channel amp with good old fashioned knobs, this is a great product. I don't have time or patience to tweak my tones for hours at a time, so for me this was the perfect solution.
15 minutes after unboxing, you'll probably have the "earning curve" figured out and all 3 of your sounds dialed in. 3 truly distinct tones and a boost for each! This is more than enough for most gigging musicians.
The best part for me was the fact that I don't have to chage all the parameters every time I change guitars.
Use your current stomp boxes just as you use them with your big amp.
This TRULY is a GAME CHANGER!
Since getting this Pedalboard I haven't plugged any of amp heads into any of my cabs. I am a huge ambassador for real tube amps but I'm sorry this unit makes a compelling argument as to why I would gig with all that junk! I have a bad spine and it's become increasingly harder to bring all of my stuff out to rehearsals or gigs, and now that I am also doing worship service it's paramount that I have a clean, versatile and reliable set up. Which btw, tried this with my acoustic/electric as well and I was surprised to hear how awesome it sounds! Y'all don't sleep on these AMPED pedals from Blackstar!
Great Tone!
So many tone options and so easy to operate.
This my first amp like this!
I have not tried any of powered amps out there, so I have nothing to compare it to, I have only use mostly combo amps, I purchased this amp, after a lot of research and YOU TUBE videos, I hooked it into a HB 212 cab with Ventage 30 speakers rated at 120w, I have only used the clean and crunch channels at this point, being an old school rocker late 70's 80's style of music I 'am more than happy with the sound and tone I get for this combo, and I also play a lot of blues type of music, I'm more than happy with this, I can dial in what I want without pedals! I have tone shaping pedals if I want to create a different sound, I'm not a big pedal guy, like the ACDC type sounds and I get it, from this!
I love this thing
Being part of both the rock and pdub world's, I bought this in hopes that it would give me at least decent sound and 3 channels (my Marshall DSL40CR only has two, and it can be very limiting). Thus pedal fat surpassed all my expectations. Not only does it sound great - even going direct into my recording software - it also sounds great when run into the return of my Marshall. It's basically replaced all the limitations the Marshall presented and had become my go to for almost all my playing needs.
Amped 3 Kicks Butt
Amped 3 is everything you would want from Blackstar products. No matter where I play, I take my Amped 3
with me and it never lets me down.
Blackstar is the best in my mind period!
Best pedal board solution
Love this amp. It is small and easy to operate. It takes all pedals digital / analog like a charm including CB Automatone, UA effects pedals, Klon, Bogner Ecstasy etc. This is an excellent back up amp for any traveling musician. Now for the tone. On its own with no pedals it sounds as good as it gets. It's a win win it's a three channels and presets. Plenty of marshall esque gain, crystal clean fenderish cleans, and multiple tube emulations for various tonal changes. The three channels eq is powerful and easy. You cannot go wrong at this price. Blackstar hit this one out of the park.
Portable with Power! Blackstar Dept.10 3
This is an impressive Amp in a box! 3 channels, very flexible and user friendly controls! Punchy to hi gain distortion! The best part is it connects to anything! Direct to a PA, headphones, PC or speaker cab. This CAN replace your rig if you choose to. Cheers!
Wow
I wasn't sure what to expect when I bought the Amped 3 but was trying to downsize my rig. I plugged the amp into a Bluguitar 1X12 cabinet and plugged in my guitar. I was blown away. The amp sounded great with fantastic clean tones, wonderful overdrive with great sustain, and remarkably good reverb. The amp sounded great even without pedals. I usually play through an Orange amp with two 10 inch speakers and I felt that this amp sounded at least as good. I have now attached a Headrush Prime board to the amp and can get any tones that I like and will gig with this rig this weekend. The tone options on the Amped 3 are remarkable and I couldn't be happier.
Absolutely Incredible!
I originally wanted analog. I really thought I wanted the pedal amp with a tube preamp that cost a few hundred more and I was fairly dead-set on it. I had tried a different solid state analog pedal amp but I wasn't happy at all. The EQing was odd and the DI out sounded completely lifeless. I couldn't "feel" it whether or I was plugged into a cabinet or mixer. My search continued, I was able to find the Blackstar line of amps at a local shop so I ABC'd the 1,2,3 (pun intended). I anticipated going with the Amped 2, but I wasn't excited about the fx straight out of the box I plugged into the Amped 1, and after playing 2, felt like it was sort of lacking. It didn't seem to have the same depth 2 has. Don't get me wrong, it sounded good, but after playing the A-2, It didn't sound good enough.
My live pedalboard has 3 gain stages into a clean fender amp. Clean/edge of breakup, Crunch, and a heavy OD. I get all of those out of 2 sometimes 3 dirt pedals. From the Amped 3, those gain stages don't sound like pedals, they also don't just sound like digital emulations, they sound like 3 different amplifiers. In about 2 days of ownership, I've put numerous hours into this amp. I've played it through an all original Marshall 1965a 4x10 and it's… musical. It's harmonic. It's powerful. And it's still so pure if that makes sense. It doesn't sound digital in the least bit. I played it plugged into the PA this morning in church and still… just supreme tone. I didn't get a chance to play with the cab sims much but there wasn't a single one I didn't like. I've also got an open back Fender 1x12 I need to play it through but I can only imagine it's going to be awesome either way.
I've had a Blackstar Club amp in the past and it was pretty good. This one though… what I thought would make a great backup or jam rig, will most likely become my main rig and using my tube amp as a backup. Never thought I'd be saying that in my lifetime.
Really like this AMPED 3 pedal
I was invited into a friends music project recently and had my first jam session with the drummer which involved breaking out my 70lb amp head and hauling it around. Although my tube amp is amazing, it was time to look at something I could throw into a backpack with a few other pedals and just get on with life.
I've really wanted to try a Blackstar amp for a long time. I knew of a few people who used them like Kimberly Freeman of OED, etc. The only Blackstar product up until now that I've owned is the Ap2-Fly-G which honestly I hate in every way. I'm a metal guy and that doesn't even get into the ball park. So part of me was kind of on the fence, do I get the AMPED 3 or the Seymour Duncan Powerstage.
In the end there was just a lot more going for the Blackstar, I've heard demo's using it and although it doesn't quit get to the level of "chug" I'm looking for, it gets realllllly close and to be fair, my tube amp doesn't get their either and i always end up with a pedal. This gets so close it that this pedal became a no brainer to buy, and i'll throw an OD on there or play around some more maybe I just don't have it dialed in yet.
I've been playing it through a 2x10 with V30's in it and I have to say that impressed me. I am not a big fan of V30's anymore but going through those speakers with this unit was pretty sick.
Amp-in-a-box!
Everything you want in a powerful, portable amp (minus the speaker.) Set on the floor the Amped 3 is like an amp and foot controller all in one unit.
You can run it into passive speakers, powered speakers, direct to a PA or computer, or straight into an amplifier. It's as simple to use as any amplifier, but with enough extras and features to accommodate any hookup.
My setup:
Amped 3 through the effects loop of my Line 6 Helix and inserted into the effects chain on the Helix. Using this method I can use the Amped 3 with pre and post effects in Helix. MIDI connectivity allows the Helix to control the Amped 3, which is an added bonus. I then run direct into the Line 6 Powercab.
Great amp. Great tone!
