Is there any interest in seeing a "production" Blades Firebolt??
After this fat fuck tattoo artist gone amplifier and musical equipment supplier (lol) sucked information of off everyone and real technicians and vowed NOT to go in business, did so anyway, he recently posted selling his 100th Firebolt!! There are a lot of stupid people out there and whether or not he's sold even that many can not be authenticated, but his pricing, even for a 50-watter, has skyrocketed from $1200-1500, to currently $2500!!
I've seen many people offing his amps since purchasing them. Recently one went on Rig-Talk for $900-$975! -
http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewto...lades+firebolt I looked on Reverb the other day and a guy had a 2015 from NAMM he is sellling for $1500 (good luck with that). -
https://reverb.com/item/2664119-blad...015-snake-skin
I purchased one last week to evaluate it in-person. Below are my conclusions along with:
Attached is a full layout of the Blades Custom Amplification Firebolt 50 so anyone can build it themselves along with the full review and photos!
ASTHETICS
U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi!! Just like Billy's nothing short of horrible tattooing skills, his amps are just as hideous!
The cupholder is stupid and encourages liquid inside an amp...brillant..ly dumb. The carry-over cabinet handle...useless. A single-strap does just as good a job. Likewise, the handle is orientated NOT-ergonomically. Your wrist is rotated 90 degrees and although "balances", the union-boys would have a field day with this!! The chicken knobs...ugly and tacky.
How many times can you count the name "Billy Blades" on the fucking amp?!? I count FOUR!!! You know a psycologist told me about this one time...it's the Cliff Clavin syndrome. It's an introverted self-importance act...like a mailman in a bar that carrys a keychain with 100 keys on it. Must be good or important to have soo many keys, right?!? I had an old boss that did that. I'm sitting in his office in the 90's and I look around and I literally see 12-20 places within his cubicle with his name on it (business cards, office plaque, computer screen, etc)! Pretty disgusting. There should be NO MORE than TWO names on the amp and company, not your personal name!
The spray painted of whatever that is font and rear looks like someone made it in their garage after school (or tattoo parlor)!
The power and standby utilize "on" as DOWN!! Umm, that's what Marshall and they may do in the EU, but BB pawns this off as being American-made...um, in America, "on" is UP!!
DESIGN
A complete copy of the schematics out there on the internet and put together (guesses) from Mensur! The base is the complete Cameron Jose HG, but includes things like mid slope resistor shifting, gain level selection via changing the plate resistor values on the first triode.
Since the Blades has no real techinical skills nor his crew, it utilizes a passive serial loop (probably ripped off of Ceriatone! lol For some reason, he put in some sort of PPIMV, but not in the tyopical fashion with dual ganged pot, so it's funky and doesn't really appear to do anything past about 50%! The amp already has a master volume and everyone knows having a PPIMV can play on the NFB loop, so sort useless especially in this design/application!
Blades again stole the "Voicing" and "Depth" MODs from the schematics on the internet including the duplication of components (stupid). There are errors in the schematic and thus amp and are NOT to Jose/Cameron spec, which sound MUCH better than this (laughs) holy grail amp! lol
The amp is single-channel only, no dual master and so likewise is not suited for everyone and limited use.
There is no bias control and set and no tube selection. Likewise he just throws tubes in for that "grail tone". lol I measure the power tubes with a Amp-Head Dual Bias Tester with a variac set to 120.0VAC and one tube measured a fair 33.1mA which is about 33%, but the other tube measured 52.9mA (105%)! That is way off and I just did quick checks of the voltages and bias, but it was steady, so unless the battery in my meter was compromised or there was a loose connection in the amp, that's what I read and that sucks and in that....tone!!
CONSTRUCTION
Oh boy, this is worst part (even worse and compromised design)...the soldering and general layout is better than the abortion of Steve's #1 20-watt Firebolt, but there are a myriad of issues...The "custom" (laughs) chassis doesn't have sides and no structural integrity is compromised. As you can see in the photos, the nut tabs are bent in and are not even symmetry. There some tabs are bent inward to locate the holes appropriately! There are flying leads exposed, as well as bare wires for heaters!
TONE
The amp is fairly quiet as well as his "MODed" amps in the past. Pretty amazing really given the horrible construction, layout and lead dress. The tone...good, but NOT great. The clips on the net are heavily processed and with FX. He copied schematics as everyone thought and those designs were all compromised (wrong). There is not one or two things that could make this amp sound better but a myriad (maybe 20 things)!! It is FAR from "grail tone". The FX loop is the most remedial (probably copied from Ceriatone), so pretty much useless for any "profession" guitar player.
VALUE
Well, in the beginning it may have not been TOO bad and ~$1500 cost, but now that cost has crept us to $2500 today for a 50-watt Firebolt model!! From the price of this slightly used, but mint Oct 2015 model to actual sales I've seen online, they are selling for $900-1000, so anyone purchasing a new one is a sucker and will not be able to recoup their costs and eat a significan $1500!!
SUMMARY
The physical appearance is hideous, the design flawed, the construction sub-par, the cost WAY too expensive and lose money on, finally the tone is good, but not great and compromised do to a neophyte stealing compromised designs from the internet and thinking it is 100% accurate and that they can go in business with no real formal technical education or experience or engineering background. Blades Custom Amplification is FAR from "custom" and "grail tone" and do to the above should be passed up for more reputable amp designers and manufacturers that make the designs he's trying to clone. This until goes back to the store for a full refund today!
LAYOUT:
Attached is a link to a slideshow of the photos. Let me know your thoughts and comments:
SLIDESHOW:
POOR QUALITY:
Bare Heater Wires
Bent Chassis
Look at this quality thou!...at Blades Custom Amplification, Quality is Job NONE!!! :roll:
Let me/us know YOUR thoughts. The photos speak for themselves.
$1500. Or well... you can pay $2500 for a master-built Bladezzzzz. Building guitar amps is not that hard. Soldering isn't difficult. Anybody should be able to pick up an iron and build something like this as long as they have a little patience. All I did was copy Soldano though lol. Props to him for coming up with it. The layout really is beautiful.
