“Super-compact, versatile, and lightweight practice amps”: Blackstar just made its best-value practice amp even better with one essential upgrade

Blackstar has added a new Bluetooth-bolstered 10-watt amplifier to its ID:Core V4 series. 

The Britsh amp builders revised its popular amp series at the start of the year, with this the second 10-watt amp to join the family. 

The fourth-generation amps have received some new features, with updated connectivity and improved amp voices two standouts. The series also sees Blackstar leaning further into the notion that, primarily, these amps are for guitarists at the start of their playing journey, with Bluetooth capabilities the headline here. 

That allows players to connect their phone to the amp via Bluetooth so they can effortlessly jam along to their favorite songs, or simply use the amp’s inbuilt wide stereo speakers – made up of two three-inch, five-watt speakers – for listening to music.

Like the rest of the range, it serves up six amp voices: Warm, Bright, Crunch, Super Crunch, and two Overdrive channels. These sit alongside 12 built-in effects: delay, reverb, phaser, chorus/flanger, envelope filter, and tremolo, with six slots available for saving patches. 

These presets can be edited and shared via Blackstar’s Architect app, which is available on Windows and Mac, but noticeably not phone devices. However, the app does allow a deeper dive into the tone and effects parameters than the amp itself. 

Extra tone-shaping comes via an in-built tap tempo feature, available for all but the reverb and envelope filter effects. 

Other features include power bank compatibility for plug-free jamming, Blackstar’s ISF feature for dialing a more British or American flavor to the amp, and the ability to drop the amp down to one-watt for low-volume, neighbor-friendly playing. 

There’s also a handy four-channel USB-C audio feature for low latency recording and re-amping. 

In fact, the only feature not extended to this 10-watt model is footswitch capability, a perk reserved for the 20- and 40-watt versions. 

“These super compact, versatile, lightweight practice amps are perfect for those just starting out or for those more experienced players looking for a high-quality practice and home studio recording amp,” says Blackstar.

No arguments here – we dubbed the original batch, “Ideal first amps, loaded with features for hours of fun and inspiration” in our review of the range.

The ID:Core V4 Bluetooth costs $199 – $40 more than the non-Bluetooth-equipped model.

Head to Blackstar for more information.