“Whatever your ability, don’t settle for less than a professional sound”: Blackstar adds a 30-watt combo to its practice amp range as the Debut 30E makes its… debut – and it has onboard tape emulation too

It was only last month that Blackstar Amplification expanded its Debut series with a 100-watt twin-channel guitar amp that promised tones to rival tube amps from its solid-state MOSFET-driven design, and now we have a 30-watt version, the Debut 30E.

But there’s a difference. The clue is in the “E” of the Debut 30E designation. What could this stand for? That got us for a minute. On an acoustic guitar, that might be electronics, a pickup and preamp system to ready it for the stage. 

A solid-state practice amp? To our surprise it is echo, a tape echo emulation that is controlled by a single Delay dial and offers a neat retro alternative to reverb. Why of course it is, and if 30-watts is too much power, the Debut 15E 2x3" combo would be worth looking into. 

At lower settings, the onboard tape echo emulation could perform a similar function to the more commonly found reverb, adding a bit of depth to your electric guitar tone, getting it away from that all-to-direct dry tone that can make practice a little uninspiring. 

Debut 30E | No Talking, Just Tones | Blackstar - YouTube

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Turn it up and you can get some Echoplex-inspired repeats that will definitely resonate with the Brian May, Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen fan looking for a compact, affordable and easy-to-use practice solution.

Elsewhere, we’ve got much the same amplifier design as the others in the Debut series, which means it has plug-in-and-play levels of simplicity, and a high-end aesthetic, with a choice of cream vinyl with oxblood oxblood grille cloth or black vinyl with ‘biscuit’ basketweave grill. Both look neat.

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The Debut 30E is a two-channel affair, with each channel served by the same Bass, Middle and Treble controls, plus Blackstar’s patented ISF feature, allowing you to dial in a US or British amp sound, or something in between. 

These channels and the onboard tape delay effect are footswitchable, and you’ll find the 1/4” footswitch input around the back of the combo. 

Everything else you will find on the control panel. As before, we have cream chickenhead control knobs. There’s Gain, Volume, four EQ knobs plus Delay, with buttons to toggle the channels and to turn the tape echo on and off. There is also a mini-jack audio line in and a speaker emulated headphones/line output for silent practice and recording.

When you play external audio through the line in and listen to it with guitar amp headphones, that audio is rendered in stereo. 

Those 30-watts of Class D power drive a single Blackstar 10” speaker. There is plenty of gain to be had on these little amps, and tape delay seems like an inspired feature. Available now, the Debut 30E is priced £179. US RRP TBC. See Blackstar Amplification for more details.