We're pleased to offer official Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) captures in partnership with TONE3000.
The Blackstar Artisan 30H is a hand-wired, all-valve British amp head that has earned its place on stages and in studios with some of the most tone-obsessed players in rock.
James Williamson of Iggy and The Stooges, the guitarist behind the searing tones of Raw Power, switched to the Artisan 30H for live use, calling it "fantastic" from the moment he fired it up. Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top, Gaz Coombes of Supergrass, James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers, Steve Cradock (Paul Weller's longtime guitarist), Boz Boorer (Morrissey), Andy Gill of Gang of Four, and Adam Zindani of Stereophonics have all relied on the Artisan 30 platform, a testament to how well this amp spans genres from proto-punk to Britpop to blues rock.
Designed by Blackstar's founders, a team of former Marshall engineers, the Artisan line was designed to chase one thing: uncompromised tone with zero frills. The Artisan 30H runs four EL84 power tubes in Class A configuration, delivering 30 watts in pentode mode or 10 watts in triode for studio-friendly saturation at lower volumes.
The two channels each have their own tonal identity. Channel 1 is built around an EF86 pentode preamp tube: fat, warm, and dripping with smooth compression. It's the kind of tone that responds to your pick attack like a living thing. Channel 2 runs an ECC83 (12AX7) dual triode, delivering dynamic cleans that break up into rich, harmonically complex crunch as you push the gain. A 5-way Bass Shape switch on Channel 1 and a Bright/Warm voice switch on Channel 2 give you a surprising range of voicings from an amp that keeps its controls deceptively simple.
The tonal character sits somewhere between a Vox AC30 and a vintage Marshall Plexi: chimey, bell-like cleans that give way to thick, warm British overdrive with loads of harmonic richness. In pentode mode, you get that ringing top end and punchy, dynamic response that EL84s are famous for. Drop into triode mode and the amp sags and compresses beautifully, with a spongier, more saturated feel that's ideal for recording.
Point-to-point hand-wired construction on turret boards, a welded steel chassis, and that unmistakable vintage red Tolex make this an amp built to last a lifetime. No effects loop, no reverb, no digital anything, just pure signal path from input to output. It's a phenomenal pedal platform and an incredibly responsive canvas for capturing the true voice of your guitar.
