Blackstar BEAM Solo Headphone Amp for Electric, Bass and Acoustic Guitar
The BEAM Solo is a pocket headphone amp that covers electric, bass and acoustic guitar from a single unit. Core settings live on the device itself, and the free BEAM app for iOS and Android opens up the rest of the sound engine over Bluetooth.
- Three instruments: electric, bass and acoustic guitar, with an adjustable 1/4-inch jack.
- Six amp styles: drawn from Blackstar's amp catalogue, chosen from the app display.
- Six cabinets and six mics: CabRig DSP speaker simulation gives you the response of a miked cabinet.
- Over 35 effects: chorus, delay, reverb and more, layered on top of the amp voice.
- SpeedDial control: a rotary control with matching buttons on the side of the unit for presets, gain, volume and EQ without reaching for your phone.
- USB-C audio interface: plugs straight into a DAW to record guitar takes.
- TRRS headphone jack: the 1/8-inch jack is TRRS enabled, so a mic-equipped headset can record vocals too.
- Bluetooth playback: stream backing tracks or songs and play along.
- Tuner and metronome: both are built into the BEAM app.
- Preset sharing: join the Blackstar user community to share your own presets and download others.
The BEAM Solo takes the tones from Blackstar's amp range and puts them into a headphone amp small enough to live in a gig bag pocket. It handles electric, bass and acoustic guitar, and its adjustable 1/4-inch jack lets you set the angle so the unit sits comfortably against the instrument.
The BEAM app does the deep editing
Presets, gain, volume and EQ can all be set on the unit itself. Pair the BEAM Solo to a phone or tablet over Bluetooth and the free BEAM app for iOS and Android adds the rest: six amp styles, six cabinets and six microphone choices, all running through Blackstar's CabRig DSP speaker simulator so the result behaves like a properly miked cab rather than a flat DI. Over 35 effects are on hand, covering chorus, delay and reverb, and the app also carries a tuner and a metronome so you are not hunting for either one at practice.
SpeedDial keeps the phone in your pocket
Once a sound is dialled in, the SpeedDial rotary control and the buttons alongside it give quick access to core functions directly on the BEAM Solo. That matters when you are already playing and only want to nudge gain or step through presets.
Recording over USB-C
The USB-C port works as an audio interface, so the BEAM Solo connects to a computer and appears to your DAW without extra hardware. The 1/8-inch headphone jack is TRRS enabled, which means a headset with an attached microphone can capture vocals through the same unit. Songwriters, podcasters and streamers get a small recording front end that travels.
Presets you can share
Blackstar runs a user community for BEAM owners. You can upload the sounds you build and pull down presets other players have made, which is a quick way to find a starting point for an unfamiliar style.