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Blackstar St. James 50-watt Tube Head with 6L6 Tubes Demo

50-watt, 2-channel Tube Amplifier Head with 6L6 Power Tubes, Cab Rig Output, and Power Reduction Switch

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Blackstar St. James 50-watt Tube Head with 6L6 Tubes
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One Holy Head to Serve Them All

Everyone from jazz box architects to 8-string sweepers will find a lot to love in the Blackstar St. James 50-watt Tube Head. As Blackstar's lightest and most innovative head available, the St. James is tailor-made for studio and stage musicians seeking an all-in-one amp to handle everything from DI recording to live performance and beyond. St. James heads are constructed from candlenut plywood, reducing the weight significantly while maintaining the look and feel of a boutique amplifier. Its two channels are perfect for guitarists seeking crystal cleans and overdriven tones, with onboard toggles and an included external footswitch to meet your switching preferences. Best of all, the St. James comes stock with onboard cabinet simulation and power reduction — adding features like this to your rig often comes with a substantial price tag, but that's not the case here! Incredible sound for any situation is yours for the taking with Blackstar's St. James 50-watt Tube Head.

Two channels of wide-ranging tone

When Blackstar set out to make the St. James series their most versatile and portable amps to date, they didn't cut any corners with regard to delectable tone. Two channels take you from glassy cleans to vintage crunch and even gut-punching grind, with channel and voicing selector switches around the front for easy toggling and a footswitch input around the back to swap channels with the included external pedal. The 6L6-equipped model brings additional heat to handle today's most aggressive genres while staying sonically balanced.

Cab sim and power reduction switch lets you leave the extra gear at home

Rather than force you to spend potentially thousands more on an accompanying cab and an attenuator, Blackstar loaded their St. James heads with top-notch cabinet simulation and power reduction. Dubbed their Cab Rig Output, the St. James' cab sim technology arms you with three different cab sim options and your choice of balanced XLR or line out/phones output to run your tone straight to an interface or mixer as well as USB for running to a computer — no cab required! Sweetwater guitarists always appreciate built-in power reduction, with options for 50-watt, 2-watt, and Sag (softer, more vintage sound) operation delivering plenty of volume for the stage while keeping the roommates happy at home.

Blackstar St. James 50-watt Tube Head Features:

  • 2-channel all-tube head constructed from lightweight candlenut plywood for easy transportation
  • Go from chimey cleans to gain-drenched grind in the same head
  • Built-in Cab Rig Output with cabinet simulation runs studio-quality sound to a PA or mixer via balanced XLR or line out/phones outputs
  • USB with cabinet simulation lets you record directly to a computer
  • Power reduction switch with 50-watt, 2-watt, and Sag operation for stage- and bedroom-appropriate volume levels
  • Channel select and voicing switches on the front with an external footswitch input around back (footswitch included)
  • 6L6 model delivers additional gain for today's metal-leaning genres

What is Demo Gear?

At Sweetwater, we're so picky that what we call a "demo" is actually better than what most music retailers sell as "new" gear! Our gear hasn't endured hundreds of people a week plunking away at all the keyboards, fumbling through Stairway to Heaven on every guitar or playing with every fader and knob on a mixer or control surface.

What demo means to us is that we've had it out of the box, or maybe it was in a customer's hands for a few days and isn't "factory fresh" as a result. Every demo item we sell has Sweetwater's 2-year Total Confidence Coverage™ warranty, and has been tested and verified up to "new" specs by our factory-authorized technicians to make sure it's in perfect working order before we ship it to you.

When you buy a Demo item at Sweetwater, you get:
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Click HERE to browse our current inventory of Demo equipment. Purchasing demo gear from Sweetwater is a smart and safe way to save!

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Warranty Info

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Tube
  • Number of Channels: 2
  • Total Power: 50W (2W/sag settings)
  • Preamp Tubes: 2 x ECC83
  • Power Tubes: 2 x 6L6
  • Reverb: Yes
  • EQ: 3-band EQ
  • Amp Modeling: Yes
  • Number of Models: 3
  • Inputs: 1 x 1/4"
  • Outputs: 2 x 1/4" (16 ohm), 1 x 1/4" (8 ohm), 1 x 1/4" (cab rig out/phones), 1 x XLR (cab rig out)
  • Effects Loop: Yes
  • USB: 1 x Type B
  • Footswitch I/O: 1 x 1/4" (channel, voicing)
  • Footswitch Included: Yes, 2-button footswitch
  • Computer Connectivity: USB
  • Bias Type: Adjustable Fixed
  • Construction Material: Candlenut Plywood with Black Tolex
  • Power Source: Standard IEC AC cable
  • Height: 8.74"
  • Width: 15.82"
  • Depth: 8.42"
  • Weight: 13.2 lbs.
  • Manufacturer Part Number: STJ506L6H

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 4/5

From the bedroom to the stage

Spend like a year searching for an amp that would check all my boxes. Which included: 2 channel amp that I could play at home (in an apartment), as well keep up with a heavy handed drummer. Also, the usable headphone output was an extra plus as my wife works nights, so I cannot uses my speaker cab. I'm not usually a big fan of connecting an amp through a computer to adjust settings, but their cab sim is super easy to use, and I only had to do it once since I got it. All the headphone cabs are dialed in. I also love the balanced xlr out. It makes recording demos super easy plugging straight into my Scarlett focusrite 2i2.

My main genre I play is rooted in pop punk, so I did not need extreme gain. But it's nice to have it on tap. I like it at the low gain channel with the gain set to about 1 o'clock. It certainly gets me those warm thick power chords that I'm used to with my other amps. The clean channel does what I need it to do, be clean! The reverb built in fine, but I prefer the sound of spring reverb, so, a reverb pedal might be necessary if you want that sound. Glad there's an effects loop!

All in all, this amp works for the modern day musician. Sounds great, versatile and light.
Music background: 15 years of the chicago music scene
Rated 5/5

Fantastic amp

What attracted me most to the amp was it's blend of the old (tubes) with the new (all the great Cab Rig and recording capabilities). Of course, it has to sound good and this amp has that in spades! The clean channel is a great platform for pedals and the gain channel is perfect for heavy music where you need the crunch and the scream of some feedback. Much is made about the weight of this amp, and having picked up some very heavy heads and combos in the past, this thing is a joy to move around if you need to. Very excited to play through this every day and recording from it.
Music background: I play guitar because I am compelled to!
Rated 5/5

Wow!

I believe that the engineers at BLACKSTAR are old farts like me! They got it down with this one. Tone, headroom, great clean and extremely useful and lush Lead channel AND easy to carry. No grunting necessary! Aces BLACKSTAR!
Music background: Whatever pays.
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