Review : Blackstar Club 40 Mark II

Blackstar Club 40 Mk II in Blonde

Talk about being late to get content out. I’ve owned this Blackstar for over a year and never done a write up on it. When it comes to tube amps, I think that Blackstar products are under appreciated. I recently reviewed the new St. James, which gave me cause to revisit my setup for the Club 40 and to discover what a fool that I can be, I really wasn’t leveraging it the way that I should. Partly I had listened to some advice and actually knew better and partly because the amp is somewhat hidden by guitars parked in front of it. More dumbass me.

Overview

The Blackstar Club 40 Mark II is a two channel club sized amplifier that is all tube driven. Each channel has two potential voices, American or British. Mine is finished in a lovely aged cream covering. I had a Blackstar HT5 and traded it for the Club 40 because I needed a bit more volume. I really liked the compact size of the HT5, but I confess that despite the larger size and greater weight, I prefer the overall tonality of the Club 40.

For a “simple” amplifier, there is a lot of flexibility here.

Club 40 Mk II Blue and Black

There are multiple versions of the Club 40 Mk II. They come with different names and different coloured Tolex. My blonde unit has a 12” Celestion Seventy 80 speaker and 2 ECC83 tubes (valves) in the preamp and 2 EL34 tubes in the power amp stage. This is the same internal configuration as the original Club 40 which comes in a black tolex. The Blue and Black uses a pair of 6L6 tubes in the power amp section with a 12” Celestion Vintage 30 covered in light blue tolex. The Kentucky Special is covered in a deep red tolex and has a pair of 6L6 tubes in the power amp section but has an Eminence 12” Screamin’ Eagle speaker. I wonder how Harley Davidson feels about the use of one of their trademarks :D

Club 40 Mk II Kentucky Special

Front Panel

Each channel has its own volume and tone stack. The Clean channel offers bass and treble and the two voices, American and British. Think Fender and VOX. The Overdrive channel offers two different overdrives, and while you can push the button on the front, the 5 button footswitch allows you to select either one or the clean channel quickly. The Overdrive channel also has two voices and you can select which one you prefer for a particular song. The Overdrive tone stack adds a midrange control and the ISF (Infinite Space Feature) that offers American style OD amp and British style OD amp as you turn the knob from stop to stop. You can also choose any position in between. It might seem like a “whatever” feature but if you start using it you will like it.

Next up is a pretty decent digital reverb. While I might prefer a spring tank, the digital reverb offers a choice via a rear panel switch of dark which is like a room reverb and light which is more like a plate reverb. Then there is the overriding Master Volume control. The final button is the power output selector which gives you full 40 watts or a 4 watt output option.

Rear Panel

The rear has a send / return FX loop. There is also an XLR out to run into an interface or mixing board, and you can have the amp not make a sound while driving signal out the XLR port. There is a TRS jack to use if the XLR port is not your choice. The TRS jack can be used for headphone out. There is also a USB out to allow you to connect the amp direct to your computer for recording and provides four distinct channels, dry, preamp out, and stereo emulation out. When you choose an emulated out, you have a switch to choose whether you are adding cabinet emulation for a 4x12 closed back cabinet or a 1x12 open back cabinet. These are not standard IR loaders, they are Blackstar unique. You can also run external cabinets if you wish with the outputs provided and Blackstar has a useful impedance chart to help with this.

The USB connection is recording out only as noted. There is no firmware in the amplifier itself that needs maintenance as is found in the newer St. James family which if you’ve read my review offers more options in terms of speaker emulations and microphone choices. That’s not necessarily bad, just different as the Club 40 Venue family has been around a lot longer.

Footswitches

FS-14 Footswitch (optional)

The amplifier comes with a two button footswitch for channel switching, but as mentioned earlier, I strongly advocate purchasing the optional 5 button footswitch to give you more remote control in gigging situations. It allows for channel switching (clean, OD1 and OD2), voice switching in the channel, reverb on / off, and built in clean boost. While it is an extra cost, my personal experience is that it is worth the purchase price.

The amplifier can also be controlled with an external switcher using a TRS type cable if you want to go that route. The TRS settings are documented in the product handbook. The handbook is clear, albeit sparse. I suspect that Blackstar understands that most users never look at a manual, which is sad because the amplifier has so much functionality.

There is even one of those Kensington lock slots so you can use one of those laptop style locks to avoid having your amp go on walkabout during a break in a gig while you head to the washroom or get a beverage.

Final Thoughts

I like the Club 40 Mk II very much. I chose the EL34 version over the 6L6 version because I have a few 6L6 combos already and when I go that route, none of my Fender tube amps have ever disappointed me. You should choose what you like best. Given the increasingly ridiculous pricing of amplifiers lately, the Blackstar family continue to deliver high quality at more affordable pricing. As you may know, many of the original Blackstar team came from Marshall, so there is a lot of amplifier history and knowledge in the company. There are some really fine amplifiers coming out of the UK and you should consider putting Blackstar on your “check it out” list, particularly if you are predisposed to tube/valve driven amplifiers.

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