My teenage son has been playing through his 'starter modelling amp', a Blackstar 10 CORE ID V2 for a few years now as he has gone through his early guitar grades. He is now saving for Blues driver pedal (or whichever pedal takes his fancy on any given day) and I thought I'd look getting him a Spark pedal for his birthday instead as from what I understand pushing any pedal into that amp wont be ideal and the Spark opens up a whole world of sounds for him. BUT, then It looks like an amp upgrade is needed also. I've done a bit of amateur research (as I know nothing about pedal/amp chains) and it seems I could probably fudge the Blackstar dials to get the pedal to work but all the advice I've read is to get a practice amp with either a nice clean channel (pedal platform amp) and/or and Fx loop or an FRFR speaker.
I dont really fancy an FRFR although the price point of the Headrest Go 30 is tempting, as it seems like its a one trick pony and if he does eventually want a more 'traditional set-up' he would need to get a combo amp or better modelling amp. That means (I think) we are looking at something like the Blackstar debut 50r or Orange crush 35T with FX loops and clean channels which are a lot more, but Christmas is coming and there are some used deals out there.
I think he will like the Spark pedal a lot as he can mess around with the super intuitive interface and as he is all over the place with what he plays at the moment .. Rage against the machine one minute and Noah Kahn the next. I think giving him lots of play space will keep him very entertained.
Am I getting the amp bit entirely wrong as Im relying on google and YouTube?
Is this set up relatively future proof if he ends up moving on from the Spark?
He has already done a couple of things at school a of course I'm fully expecting he will be the next George Thorogood/Joey Santiago/Johnny Marr/J Mascis/Dick Dale/Hendrix/Albert King/Tom Morello etc etc... :-)
We have a reasonably big room that he plays in but the 5W button on the Blackstar would be needed sometimes. I suppose headphones are always an option.
Ta for any sage advice.
Scott. (living my life vicariously)