Since our emergence in 2007, Blackstar has been widely celebrated as one of the world’s most innovative guitar amp brands by some of the world’s greatest musicians and bands. These include: Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Richie Sambora, Albert Hammond Jr (The Strokes), Gus G (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne), Neal Schon (Journey) and many other world class artists.

Like many great British ideas, the idea for Blackstar was born in the pub. Four bandmates (Bruce Keir, Ian Robinson, Paul Hayhoe & Richard Frost), all amp specialists with over 50 years experience and senior positions at the already established Marshall, believed that there should be more to amplification. As a result, in 2004 after a desire to create something different, Blackstar began two and a half years of extensive technical research and development with the ultimate goal of allowing guitarists across the world to create the sound in their head.

Polished workshops of previous employers quickly became a thing of the past and were replaced for Ian’s garden shed in Northampton, a change of environment that became a crucial part in the creation of our patented innovations, ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) and DPR (Dynamic Power Reduction).

March 2007 marked the birth of Blackstar to the wider public and guitar communities at The Musikmesse Frankfurt trade show. From here, music industry press, A-list artists and guitarists alike all became interested and invested in Blackstar, it was clear that Ian’s shed was no longer big enough.