The Guitar Magazine – September 2019

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Rivera Venus Deux Recording £1,490, Marshall Studio Classic

SC20C £948, Mesa/Boogie Express 5:25 Plus £1,699

Elegant cleans, classy crunch and all

8 /10 points in between, with extra features

bright clean tones but prefer darker crunch.
So, it’s fortunate that Fuchs has devised a
clever workaround.
The dirty channel has two additional
controls – a master volume, as you might
expect, plus a tone control. The tone
control is actually a treble roll-off,
which allows you to dial any harshness
or shrillness out of the treble when the
tone-control settings have been optimised
for the clean channel.
Again, Fuchs has judged things just right,
because the dirty channel has such a wide
gain range. With its gain control set almost
fully counterclockwise and its tone control
set just below halfway, you can set the
master volume so the two channels sound
identical when you switch back and forth.
This means at the lower end of the
gain spectrum, the overdrive channel
can be activated to provide a transparent
boost with no noticeable change in tone.
Alternatively, you can dial in more gain
and level, which makes switching to the
dirty channel more like activating a pretty
superb valve overdrive pedal. Here, the tone
control really comes into play because the
MKII becomes brighter as the overdrive
gain control is turned up.
The dirty channel is capable of
considerable crunch, but as you might
expect from an amp designed by Andy
Fuchs, it’s more of a refined and creamy
Dumble-esque drive than a snarling
modern-metal distortion. The Blackjack
MKII always retains a sweetly airy treble,
precise definition and clear note separation

• even at high gain levels.
  It’s clearly very grown-up stuff and
  experiments indicate that most of the drive
  is coming from the front end rather than
  the power stage.
  For practical purposes, we find it best
  to run the overdrive gain control at around
  11 o’clock with single coils. This gives
  sufficient overdrive for powerchords and
  bluesy soloing and it leaves some headroom
  for the impressive boost feature. The
  amount of boost can be adjusted via an
  internal trim pot on the main PCB, but
  proceed with caution – it’s not the most
  straightforward combo to disassemble.
  Besides which, we find the factory-set
  boost level just right for switching
  between rhythm and lead. The fizziness
  and oddly beating harmonics that
  frequently accompany boosting in
  high-gain amps are totally absent here.

The only feature that doesn’t entirely

convince us is the digital reverb. There’s a

lot of love out there for Fuchs’ pedals, but

to our ears, the tails sound a tad murky and

the reverb level control has a hair-trigger

quality that makes it tricky to dial in just a

hint of ambience.

The Blackjack 21 MKII an extremely

enjoyable and versatile amp. Chords ring

with a clarity and balance that you only get

with very well-engineered valve amplifiers.

Similarly, the Fuchs allows notes to sustain

and bloom, with a decay that’s so smooth

and even, every guitar feels more responsive

and easier to play.

With its tonal range, volume levels and

a sonic scale that belies its 21-watt rating,

the Blackjack MKII is a safe bet.

At the rear is a TRS

footswitch socket, an

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