Personally, I would never even consider owning a Blades product. Shit, I wouldn't take one for free. After seeing the gut shots and reading his drivel on forums across the net, I see no reason to ever even think of him as a builder. I don't understand why anyone would support that guy considering how easy it is to find his posts online.
If you're not getting any use out of the FX8, you could sell it quick online. The Fractal units sell very well, even in the current market. They keep their value as well, if not even gain value due to long wait lists when Fractal gets backed up. There are plenty of people out there looking for Fractal units. On the other end, you'd be lucky if you get even half of what you've been told the Blades is worth, if it even works at all.
Getting the Blades serviced (which it will most certainly need sooner than later) will be a real problem. I would never send it back to Blades for work, and I highly doubt you would be able to find someone else who will work on it. Even if you find someone who isn't aware of Blade's reputation, the chances of a tech working on it are still slim. He/she will open it up, take one good look at, either laugh or be dumbfounded, and turn you away.
Sell the FX8 online (Reverb, here, the Fractal forums, other forums) and buy yourself an amp you really want, from a builder you can trust. I know it seems like a good deal, but it's not worth it. On paper it seems good, sure...but the used value is nowhere near as high as you'd think, and the hassle of dealing with the whole thing is just a waste. What happens when you try and flip it, and not only lose money on the deal, but it gets damaged due to shipping (and terrible build quality)? You'll be on the hook for that, and lose even more money on the deal.
I've heard clips of the Blades stuff that sounded good to me. I would never say his amps don't sound good. To me, they don't sound great, but that's a personal/subjective thing. But...you know what else sounds good? A Bogner, or a Diezel, or a Mesa, Friedman, Fortin, Bray, etc... Those builders also put out good (if not stellar) sounding amps, with superior build quality, and positive reputations among us gear nerds. You can trust those builders. Can you trust Blades? It won't take much reading online to find it's a tough call. There are plenty of guys out there doing Marshall mods and complete modded Marshall-esque amps that sound great, and don't require even thinking about these kinds of issues.
On second thought, I'd take one for free just to gut it for parts. Make sure someone else doesn't waste their money, and risk burning their house down.
