Despite its seemingly simple design, the 50R features a range of vital functions for controlling the tone you put through its custom-designed 12" Blackstar speaker, including patented ISF tone control for going from American to British tone in an instant, built-in plate- and hall-style reverb effects, 3-band tone control, and two footswitchable channels, clean and overdrive, with gain control on the overdrive channel, and volume control on both. You also get plenty of connectivity options that modern guitarists will greatly appreciate, such as a series effects loop, 3.5mm line input for jamming to your favorite tunes, and an emulated speaker output that's perfect for silent practice, recording, or reamplification. This combo amp includes an AC power cord.
Blackstar's Northampton-based design team have gone beyond the typical MOSFET implementation to deliver a preamp design that is natural sounding and virtually indistinguishable from the chosen tube references. Play with the ISF tone control and overdrive channels to see how crunchy and warm you can get your tone.
A 3.5mm input can accept audio from most sources, allowing you to play along with your preferred tracks, and the emulated speaker output is a great option for recording or hearing the full character of your amp in headphones. Finally, the series effects loop is ideal for players who lean on their pedalboards, letting you plug your effects into the preamp, shape your tone, and then send the result back after distortion, allowing the power amp to drive the final result. This helps to avoid the muddy tone that often comes from running effects, such as delays and modulation, before distortion.
3-band tone control lets you adjust the lows, mids, and highs for easy tone sculpting, and the master volume knob makes it simple to dial in overall loudness. And of course, like most Blackstar amps, there is an ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) control knob that lets you dramatically alter the response of your amp to fit that of your preferred style. This shifts the whole tonestack response to match everything from an American (counterclockwise) to a British (clockwise) amp character, and is fully reactive with the 3-band EQ, providing an intuitive and flexible method of tone selection that packs the sound of numerous amps into one.