Blackstar FLY 3 Pack BK Reviews

Cute, tiny little amp

It's great and surprisingly loud actually, if you tweak the settings a little you can get an epic overdriven tone.

The audio quality isn't amazing or anything, but for the price it's pretty good.

Great sounding mini amp

Something is rattling inside the amp when it is shaken or when doing vibrato on guitar. It is not very loud, but still isn't supposed to be there in the first place.

Em. out sounds lifeless and really not pleasant - goodbye practice in headphones.

Aux cable is not included.

Extension cab won't give you stereo for guitar, only for aux in.

The amp won't sound really good quiet, which beats the purpose of using it in e.g. hotel room for quite practice. If you want it to sound good, you'll have to let your neighbors hear you.

Other than that, great mini amp. The amp's reaction is similar to tube amp - it responds to dynamic playing and cleans up with guitar volume dialed back. Sound is really nice in both clean and OD settings.

Great mini amp

I use this amp as a go to amp and I am really happy with the sound, even though they are tiny, the sound is super loud and clean. I definitely recommend it.

MUCH better than the boss katana mini

I thought the katana mini would be an upgrade. I sold this, bought that. Then after a bit, sold the katana mini and bought another fly 3. really loud for what is is, excellent build quality, unbeatable

Great sound for such a small size

It reproduces sounds with a blues tone very well. The speakers are not guitar and do not distort the sound of the backing track from the line input. The second speaker gives stereo sound for a backing track and a little higher volume. If you do not need it, then feel free to take the version with one speaker. There is a buzz from the network, with batteries it is not.

Nice portable amp

Good portable amplifier. It sounds great on a clean sound, especially with delay. The distortion not so hot. Very loud.

I recommend for those who need a small, portable amplifier.

Wait,,, What?!!!

Even with the understanding the FLY is a mobile practice amp, it really suprised me.

It sounds suprisingly full and punchy. It's no 12 inch, but holy sh... it rocks!

For late night practice, look no further.

The best small amp for your desk (or a camping trip)

I tried many small amps (from the Boss Katana Mini to the Orange Micro Crush). The Blackstar is by far the best. In terms of tone and the speaker even when pushed doesn?t create any distortion like the competition. With the additional speaker is just a great little amp.

You won't buy another one

Get this pack and go on the streets so everyone can enjoy your music.

Okay for home practice, great for travel

In terms of convenience (decent tone at low volume, transportability) this amp is a life-saver. In terms of sound, however, it is not very good. In terms of its features (EQ, overdrive, delay, headphones/EM out), it is okay.

I use this as a practice amp in an apartment building with thin walls & ceilings, and for that purpose it is great. At low volumes, I can get a decent and consistent enough tone to be able to experiment with my pedalboard. It is small enough to travel with easily, which is great as I occasionally spend time abroad.

However, the tone gets muddy and inconsistent at higher volumes, especially in the bass frequencies. And don't expect high volumes from these speakers either, they are certainly not loud enough for any live situation. Though you can probably use the EM output to run it into a mixer or PA, I would not recommend purchasing this amp for that purpose.

The single mid scoop EQ knob will allow you to dial in some different, though limited, tones, and there is also an overdrive switch which I don't much care for, as I have pedals for that (though again, at higher volumes neither will sound very good). The built in delay is a nice feature, as you can control both delay time and intensity, though honestly I would have preferred reverb.

You CAN use these as computer, smartphone etc. speakers as advertised, but they do not sound very good, nor very loud. All dedicated computer speakers I have owned in a similar price range sound vastly better (and louder) than these Blackstars. Also, the volume control on the amp will obviously not affect mp3 input, which, again, makes them inconvenient as computer speakers.

All in all, I somewhat regret not having saved up a bit more money to buy a Roland Micro Cube Bass amp or something similar, which you can also use live. On the other hand, I'm spending 5 months abroad next year, most likely in a student dorm, and this is probably the best sounding amp I could easily and reliably bring with me, so it really depends on your needs!

The best mini amp out there

I needed a small amp to put on my desk, but all the mini amps I knew of had a very bad sound. This one is different. The sound it produces with such a small speaker is stunning and impressively loud. I highly recommend that you get this bundle with the second speaker. It brings the sound quality to another lever.

It has two channels and both sound very nice. The clean channel is balanced an full and the distortion channel can produce very nice rock and lead tones.

This amp has a one knob tone control called ISF that controls the mid scoop (make is sound more British or American) instead of the usual TONE knob that cuts treble or bass one at the time. This is in my opinion more useful and you can have great and distinct tones all through the knob range.

It doesn?t have an effects loop so you may not get the best results when using modulation or time based effects but, it has a built in delay with two parameters (Time and Level) which is great and a big improvement over one parameter delays that you can find in some much expensive and powerful amps.

You can use it to listen to music by connecting a MP3 player to the Line In jack or use it to play along with your favorite band. You can also record or connect it to a mixing table to gig on bigger venues.

Can be powered with the included power adapter or with batteries, however they don?t last many hours, as expected.

The box is plastic, but it doesn?t feel too cheap. The aux speaker output is not standard so, you can only connect a speaker other than the bundled one if you know some basic electronics and build a custom cable yourself.

Bottom line, this is the best mini amp that I know of.

Nice amp

Pros : sounds good even this small speaker. works fine with pedals. headphones sounds good. for home practice it?s nice!

Cons : for this price? propl none?

Good sounds but...

I ordered this pack in order to use it as a practice and late night jam amp. The first impression was "wow"... Very good sounds you wouldn't expect from an amp this size. The tape style delay is a very good add on, I mainly use it to add a pseudo reverb, but it can also be used as a short delay for lead sound. The line in is great for the main reason I bought it, practice, you can use your phone to play backing tracks or lessons (or use it as portable speaker). The emulated out is "good enough" for a few quick recordings, but I like the speaker sound more.

That said, I noticed a little hiss/digital noise on my amp. I contacted Blackstar and sent them a sound clip, and they said that it sounds as there is something wrong so I sent it back and got a replacement, which had the same issue. It's not a problem that makes the amp useless, especially if you use high gain sounds, but you can notice it on the trails of "cleanish" sounds, and disappointed me a bit, but not enough to return it.

Quality sound in a tiny package

Well after reading such good reviews on the Blackstar Fly I thought I'd purchase and I was more than pleased!I wanted a small amp for downstairs for learning and practicing guitar parts that was going to sound great as well as being handy.The Fly has done that job brilliantly,it is permenantly set up in my living room and is just so incredibly handy and hassle free,especially battery powered as you can put it anywhere without worrying about power.Convienience aside,the thing that most surprises is the sound,it's just hard to believe something so small produces such a fantastic "real" amp tone.I've had tiny practice amps before and they sounded just like that,tiny and frankly rubbish but the Fly sounds great,like a real amp,so much so that it has me thinking about getting a higher watt pro gigging Blackstar amp! Clean and dirty,the amp sounds beautiful with a very nice delay and all in a package that fits in my hand,amazing!Battery life seems very very good too,still haven't changed batteries.A word of advice,I would highly recommend getting the pack as the extension cab makes such a huge difference,the amp didn't sound near as good without it and I was very glad that I opted for the pack rather than the amp on it's own,plus you get the power supply.The mp3 connectivity feature is very good too for playing along with tracks.All in all highly recommended.

What a little beast!

This is such a good bit of kit. Small, light and with a big sound for a small box and price. My only criticism is I would prefer reverb or chorus to the digital delay feature - it's not good enough to play U2..... not that I do.....

Great little amp

This was the 1st time buying blackstar and little amp. I have view the demo of all little amp, marshall, orange, Fender and Blackstar. Blackstar is coming out strong. Every other little amp all sound thin and in terrible high gain sound. Fly 3 is the most expensive one but it has the most feature out of it. It is a two channel amp and one dealy feature. The overdrive channel is outstanding and its very loud it is louder then you expect a 3 watts amp. To me the extension cab isnt necessary. You can only connect to this fly 3 amp and you wont need this for you bedroom use.

I think the only drawback is its entirely make of plastic yeah so I rate the quility as 4.

awesome!!!

I was already a fan of blackstar, way before they got into these bedroom rockers. I really can not believe the tone you get out of these tiny speakers! they stepped up to the plate here to try and compete with the rest of the micro amp crew. everyone knows the roland micro cube is the industry standard now for micro amps so you gotta beat that if you want to make some cash - this is very close.

the micro cube is packed with features - the blackstar has only volume, gain, isf, and delay (plus a clean and dirty channel). the problem with the micro is that you get bad clipping when your volume starts hitting above 9 - sure the blackstar is more quiet with smaller speakers but you can crank that bee-otch and it sounds superb! plus, at less than half the size and weight of the cube, way easier to transport. all depends what youre looking for but I think blackstar has filled the gap between "toy" and "bedroom amp". once again, a happy blackstar customer!