Sunday, November 27, 2011

Blackstar v.s. Vox

 Blackstar, or Vox. This sentence fragment has been my mindless debate for about a day now, and I think I have finally come to a conclusion.  In case you have been wondering, Blackstar and Vox are two different kinds of guitar amplifiers (the speakers that the guitar is plugged into), but in the business, we call them amps. I had been playing my guitar through a Line 6 amp, but judging by its deteriorating cheap sound, it was time to move on. After a couple of days of searching for a new amp, I found the Vox in guitar center. It sounded great and I was all ready to settle for it (despite its high price) when my dad found a Blackstar. They both sounded great, yet both had their flaws. Before I delve into their pros and cons, I should first explain the scale I used to weigh them. I figured that as far as the guitar sounds I play go, they could be divided into four categories. Those categories were Clean, Blues, Rock, and Metal. The Vox seemed like the better amp, it had an amazing, chime-like, dominating, perfect clean sound. With a distortion pedal it could make an amazing blues sound. For playing clean and bluesy music, the Vox would be wonderful, amazing, and even perfect. The problem came when I turned up the distortion. Adding distortion is generally how I get a more rocking sound. Sadly, the Vox just couldn't handle it. Blues was as rocking as this amp could get. Then I switched my guitar to the Blackstar. This amp had a great clean and a great blues sound, but those were no contest to the wonderful vibrations of the Vox. Then I turned up the distortion...
The waves of rocking chords emitting from the amp almost knocked me down! This amp definitely could rock, jam, and blast me away with metal. So the Vox dominated the lower levels, but the Blackstar dominated heavier sounds. I thought a bit...
I play more of the heavier sounds, plain and simple, so Blackstar wins there. Also, the Blackstar's clean and Blues sounds were fine, while the Vox's rock and metal sounds were terrible, so Blackstar wins there. The list goes on. Blackstar is lighter, cheaper, and doesn't need petals like the Vox does. It looks like the debate is over. I will now be playing guitar through a Blackstar amp!

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