Fuchs Audio Technology BlackJack 21 Head

Pretty Basic. Not much to write home about here.

Great sound...! Articulate sound with plenty of harmonic bloom. This is a one trick pony, but what it does it does incredibly well.

Sounds like a cross between a Plexi and a Vibroluxe.

Incredible amp for Blues players. 21 watts is perfect.

Built like a tank.

No experience, but heard great things.

Like I said, this is a one trick pony. However, it does what it does VERY, VERY well.

Not much but if the amp is good enough that is all you need. Vol/Eq/input/ouput that's it really. 21 watts

I use a strat and a paul and this sounded good but a bit flabby for me. Loud enough for small gigs I would say but I never gigged with it. I decided to take it back within the 7 dya return time I was up against. I tried it against my Fender Tonemaster and to me there was no contest.
This amp didn't seem to like many pedals (dist/overdirve) in front of it. Not a bad amp just not a real "rocker" like I thought I wa getting. No sustain or natural compression.

N/A

emailed them and seemed nice. Quick response.

I little pricy (OK a LOT)for what you get, but these small companies must need to operate like that. I was expecting a lot more from this company's reputation. Not a rock amp, more like blues or jazz. Even at that you can find a better amp for way cheaper. I have a Peavy (yesy Peavey) classic 30 that kicks it's ass too. Not as articulate or in your face but overall a MUCH better value.

This is quite an amp!! Its based on a dual 12AX7 preamp stage and a push-pull dual 6V6 fixed bias output stage. It has four controls, including gain, bass, mid and treble. And that's all you need. It doesn't have reverb (you don't need it because the sound is just so rich and harmonically complex) nor an effects loop (keeps circuit simple and all about TONE). Fuchs couldn't have said it any better -- it goes from clean-to-mean with the twist of the guitar volume nob. It has an output for a 4 ohm or 8 ohm speaker cabinet. I use it with a Fuchs 1x12 closed-back cabinet loaded with the Fuchs/Eminence FAT-S1 speaker -- a perfect match (though I believe the speaker he uses in his new cabs, the Emimence Wizard, which does a great job of imitating the Celestion G12H-30, would be just as great... I think this amp begs for the g12H-30 type of speaker - "thick, syrupy tones with a deep, growling bottom end"). Simple feature set, but that keeps the amp just kicking out pure TONE.

I use a 90's Fender American Thinline (kinda rare and highly under-rated, beautiful guitars) loaded with Fralin Blues Specials, or either a Heritage 150 (Les Paul copy) or Heritage 535 (335 copy) loaded with SD '59's. In my effects chain: Electro-Harmonix Ring Modulator > Homebrew Dos Mos pre-amp > Homebrew PowerScreamer > Teese Wah > Homebrew CPR compressor > Fulltone Supe-Trem. I mention all of these because this amp takes effects WELL. I turn it to about 3 o'clock, which is just where dirt hits. It has more clean room than I would have thought (though I did first have the Fuchs Lucky 7, which didn't have quite enough clean headroom at the volume I wanted), which allows me to get great, fat, spanky sounds. I use the pre-amp as a slight clean boost to get a little more spank when needed, and the PowerScream to get real dirt (pump the second Dos Mos channel into the PowerScreamer and then I'm in Neil Young territory). This amp has girth & can grind very well. But it can also do great cleans. It can do the clean-to-mean with just the volume knob, but so can the PowerScreamer and I can get even more available dirt with this setup and and the amp volume set to just a slight amount of grit. I play a sound that ranges from fat, spanky clean jazz, to slightly dirty/spanky jazz/country/rock (Centro-matic meets Wayne Krantz), to outright overdriven, tube sag madness (just think Neil Young Weld-era)-- all in the same song. This amp can do this with these effects, and sounds great all the way! Its a perfect balance of Marshall (for grind) and Fender (for fat clean).

The build of this amp is clean and tight. Andy Fuchs used the best possible components. I don't tour with it, but I'm sure it could handle it. Fuchs runs a tight ship and I wouldn't worry about it too much. Plus, the circuit is kept simple for the sake of pure tone, so there isn't much to go wrong. But I've only had a couple months... time will tell.

I emailed questions about their attenuator and got a reply within 24 hours. Couldn't ask for better service (although Joel at Homebrew Electronics get's back to me many times same day when I have questions about his effects -- I fully recommend his effects).

I replace a Blues Jr. with this amp. The Blues Jr. is a great, simple amp, but the tone improvement was LIGHT YEARS. I've been playing for about 10 years, and this setup I have now is my keeper.

For this type of amp (just 21 watts, so smaller clubs, recording, and practice, perfect for me) I personnaly haven't found anything better (and I've got great shops around here in Raleigh, NC and have tried a LOT of amps before settling on this, including Swart, Headstrong, Carr (though the Rambler is great, its just double the price), Dr. Z. NOTHING compares when it comes to price per ounce of tone!! (IMHO)

Wow, Andy Fuchs hit one out of the ballpark with this baby. The BlackJack 21 is a 21 watt, all tube 12ax7/6v6 one channel amp head. It has four control nobs, gain, bass, mid and treble. No reverb, no effects loop, no headphone jack, no indoor/outdoor thermometer. This is an amp you can turn up at most 60 to 100 seat club gigs and experience power amp overdrive/crunch at an appropriate volume to the venue. It has both 8 ohm and 4 ohm speaker jacks in order to accommodate one or two 8 ohm speaker cabinets. I use two 12 inch Celection Vintage 30 loaded speaker enclosures with the BlackJack 21 and a pedal board with a Dunlop Crybaby, Boss delay, Boss chorus, Boss blues driver, Boss noise suppressor, Boss harmonizer, Boss overdrive/distortion, Boss chromatic tuner and a Samson Airline wireless. Sounds great, no issues.

My 2001 teal with maple neck Fender American Deluxe Fat Strat with noiseless pickups sounds outstanding played through this rig. Prior to purchasing the BlackJack 21 a month ago, I was using two Roland transistor amps in stereo. This amp is a vast improvement over my previous road rig. I also have a 2003 liteburst Gibson Les Paul Classic and a walnut brown 1999 Gretsch 6122 Jr Country Classic. The Les Paul sings like never before, and the Gretsch sounds fantastic as well. I use the Les Paul on the hard rockers we cover like Led Zeppelin and Santana, the Strat on everything from Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower to Delbert McClinton and Rick Derringer tunes, and the Gretsch on the jazzier covers like George Benson clean, woody sound.

Andy Fuchs builds amplifiers with the best and therefor sometimes the most expensive componants available. We all know that when the big corporate manufacturers look at their financial bottom line, if they can substitute a $10.00 tube for a $12.00 tube on 20,000 units, that's a nice year end bonus for the bean counter who came up with the idea of this one finger salute to the customer. Andy goes the other way, if there is a better componant available, even if it's more expensive, it goes in the amp, period. Nothing is second rate about this amp. I trust the amp at gigs, but I always carry a backup amp just in case there is a problem, just like I have a spare tire in the trunk of my car, it's the smart thing to do.

Before I bought this amp from a dealer here in Florida a month ago, I e. mailed Andy Fuchs with a couple of questions about it not having a stand by switch and if I should turn it off between sets on a typical 4 hour gig and also about getting an amp cover. He e. mailed me back the next day and told me I could order the cover from him or the dealer and to have no concerns about leaving the amp turned on for the entire 4 hours. He even wrote he could put a stand by switch on it if I wanted one. Nice guy.

I'm 51 years old. Our band plays 50 to 75 gigs per year. I've been gigging since I was 12 years old. Christmas 1966 I was given a Fender Mustand guitar and Fender Deluxe Reverb amp by Santa Claus. About halfway through college, I traded the Mustang and Deluxe for a nice acoustic. Over the years I've owned Marshall and Crate and Roland and Yamaha amps. This amp reminds me of my first gig worthy rig Santa gave to me. It's been a long and winding road to get back to the sound that first tripped my trigger. I'd buy another BlackJack 21 if it ever went missing. And by the way, if you're wondering why I didn't just go buy a reissue Fender Deluxe Reverb, refer back to the reliability catagory of this review about corporate cost cutting. One final note. You never saw Clark Kent and Superman photographed together at the same time. Same thing with Andy Fuchs and Santa Claus. Hmmmmmmmmm????????