I also love the Ibanez TS amps. Awesome tone. Plus, the look of the head and cab is awesome.

I can't say much for the Blackstar though.

Different kinds of amps - the Blackstar amps are generally rockier, while the Ibanez are blusier.

funkadelic wrote: Overdrive will be generated by pedals.

Unless you really like high gain, that will all change when you get a proper valve amp.

The dynamics of a clean boost pedal into a dirty valve amp VS. overdrive pedals into a clean amp just cannot be replicated IMO. If you like using picking dynamics and doing things like changing between your pick and your fingers to get different sounds, you may find that the overdrive you get from the amp itself far surpasses the overdrive you may get from pedals.

Spend some time with the following very complicated setup:

GUITAR > CABLE > AMP

You will start to see how a valve amp can give you very good overdrive tones. You may even sell some pedals.

As for choosing between the amps, I found that the blackstar HT series amps have far too much gain - I guess they tried to cater for all types of people - and this left me wanting when it came to light overdrive sounds. These modern amps rely far too much on preamp distortion to get their sound and you end up losing a lot of dynamics that would usually come from the power amp tubes. If you are drawn to the ISF function of the blackstar amps to get UK or US sounds, you would be much better off learning more about properly setting your EQ.

You mentioned playing mostly clean, which I assume means that you do not play high gain stuff. In that case I would rather get a simplistic amp (ie the one with the fewest marketing crud and the most clean headroom) and shape your tone using pedals. Just remember that clean headroom usually means you will only get amp overdrive at very high volumes - just ask the fender guys. In that case you will probably be stuck with using pedals...

Aah! So maybe that's why I liked the Ibanez TSA so much. I absolutely love the blues - Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robben Ford (favourite blues guitarists) but also love smooth jazz George Benson, Norman Brown, Chuck Loeb (favourite smooth jazz guitarists).

I currently have a Roland JC 120 and can pretty much nail the smooth jazz sound any day with my Ibanez AS53. I have also managed to get some nice overdrive tones out of it with some pedals I have acquired - MI Audio Blue Boy Deluxe, Vox Ice 9, etc (with the help of Guitar Forum advice). I use a modded (18v) Scehcter with EMG pickups for the latter. I still have to test my setup through the Ibanez TSA. Basically I want the best of both worlds.

funkadelic wrote: Aah! So maybe that's why I liked the Ibanez TSA so much. I absolutely love the blues - Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robben Ford (favourite blues guitarists) but also love smooth jazz George Benson, Norman Brown, Chuck Loeb (favourite smooth jazz guitarists).

I currently have a Roland JC 120 and can pretty much nail the smooth jazz sound any day with my Ibanez AS53. I have also managed to get some nice overdrive tones out of it with some pedals I have acquired - MI Audio Blue Boy Deluxe, Vox Ice 9, etc (with the help of Guitar Forum advice). I use a modded (18v) Scehcter with EMG pickups for the latter. I still have to test my setup through the Ibanez TSA. Basically I want the best of both worlds.

If you already have a bunch of pedals, it's a good idea to try and take them with to test the amps. I've found pedals to behave quite differently with different amps, particularly valve amps. This might sway your decision one way or another.

I'd have to agree if you're not into High Gain the Blackstar won't do you much good.

Blackstar will give you a great modern/hard rock sound, but gotta agree that it sounds like the TSA30 will suit you far better. Did you try any Fender amps?

i have owned a TS (TS15head an cab) and currently own a HT (HT1R)...for you needs i reckon of the 2 the Ibanez is the winner ...by a long way..

Thanks for all the replies. I have done some further reading on the Ibanez TSA30 combo. I had my mind set on buying it but on forums there seem to be a reliability issue with these amps? I'm not technically inclined so won't be able to fix it myself and the technicians I know only know solid state technology. Right now I'm confused.

The Laney VC30-212 seems like a good alternative (on paper). Still reading up on reliability though. Anyone have any experience of the reliability of these amps? Else I should probably wait a bit and buy a Fender? Cheapest Fender is over R10 000 though. Then I suppose I will be send back to the drawing board and look at all the amps in that price range.

PS: Cleric which Fender are you suggesting? And no I haven't tried any Fenders. Didn't want to waste the store people's time.

I have a tsa 15 and have no issue with reliability. If I were you I'd buy the tsa30 combo over the head and cab, and I'd do it without thinking twice hahaha
The thing about fault reports on the internet is that they make an issue appear far more prevalent than it may actually be.

A thread discussing a certain problem is likely to make it seem that EVERYONE has this problem, because everyone contributing to the thread does have the problem.
But there's no thread for the guys who never had any issues.
So whilst 10 guys talking about the same problem on a thread seems a lot, if 10000 amps are sold, that is only 1 in 1000, really.
Added to that, google efficiency(or rather effectiveness) has allowed people from all over the world to find these forums and contribute, increasing the apparent prevalence of the problem.

Ibanez are brought in by Toms, and have strong contingents in Paul Bothners as well. I dont expect you'd have any issue at all getting these amps repaired, or replaced.

Shibbibilybob wrote: I have a tsa 15 and have no issue with reliability. If I were you I'd buy the tsa30 combo over the head and cab, and I'd do it without thinking twice hahaha
The thing about fault reports on the internet is that they make an issue appear far more prevalent than it may actually be.

A thread discussing a certain problem is likely to make it seem that EVERYONE has this problem, because everyone contributing to the thread does have the problem.
But there's no thread for the guys who never had any issues.
So whilst 10 guys talking about the same problem on a thread seems a lot, if 10000 amps are sold, that is only 1 in 1000, really.
Added to that, google efficiency(or rather effectiveness) has allowed people from all over the world to find these forums and contribute, increasing the apparent prevalence of the problem.

Ibanez are brought in by Toms, and have strong contingents in Paul Bothners as well. I dont expect you'd have any issue at all getting these amps repaired, or replaced.

i think this is correct...as a matter of interest myself and Tr3bl3 had the same issues with the the TSA15 head an cab units which we took back to TOMS who repaired them in a week or so..TOMS also kindly offered me a replacement amp while mine was being fixed as well so all was good.

never had a problem again an neither did Tr3bl3....

So I finally made the purchase this weekend. Settled on the Ibanez TSA30 combo. Placed a Boss DD-3 delay pedal in the effects loop and I was in blues tone heaven!! I didn't even had to use my Vox Ice 9. The built-in tubescreamer and the Ice 9 sounded so similar it's unbelievable. For slightly more gain I used a Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive red channel. Still experimenting but so far the amp is exactly what I wanted.

Also, the amp was fitted with 6V6 power tubes. Not sure how it compares with the normal 6L6 tubes but hey...this is my first valve amp and I'm loving it so far. Played a Schecter Omen Extreme 6 with EMG81/85 active (18v mod).

Glad you're loving it buddy ? very nice amps.

I think the choice of combo over head and cab is a good one too, though that is merely my preference ?

Enjoy it dude.