To save on the total laziness of having to lean towards my Blackstar ID260 (which I have to add is a truly stunning sounding amp for the money) and reach out to press the buttons on the front panel, I decided to buy the Blackstar foot controller.
It is very well built and feels like it will take a beating. I like the different modes of operation, 12 bank of saved settings which can be accessed from the front panel, the effect selection or the large saved banks (accessed by the Blackstar software) to cover the full bank of 128 patches.
It does it's job, it does it very well, it sits nicely in front of my pedal board buy I get tired of Blackstar having everything as an extra. It would have been nice to raise the amp price a few euro and include the pedal controller as a package option. They do the same with the propitiatory power supply for the FLY3 amp where that is also separate, I just find it petty and annoying, especially when it is for these superb amps.
The cable length (using a standard jack plug) is sufficient for normal use i.e. walking up to the amp, but I have not tried a jack cable extender to see if it can be controlled from a greater distance without experiencing signal loss to and from the amp.
All in all, if you have one of these amps, it is a really useful accompaniment to have to quickly control the patches of the amp, without looking a complete nerd taking your laptop everywhere with you to change the patches (if people actually do that?), since you can only control the first 12 from the front panel.
Bit pricey, but no other options to plugging in your laptop or twiddling the knobs each song, so if you want the functionality your 'hands are tied' (which is why it is good it is a foot controller I suppose).
