NAMM 2026: Blackstar Calls out "Walled Gardens" by Unveiling Practice Amp Powered by NAM, Tone3000

Who would have expected to see modelers (floor/pedal and amps) announced at NAMM 2026? While I'm sure many of them will end up being reliable, well-loved tools for their target buyers, most modelers currently available seem designed to lock you into a proprietary ecosystem. And in the case of the highest profile announcement, the new Quad Cortex Mini from Neural DSP, we still don't get access to all of their proprietary ecosystem. Support for their newest plugins, like Archetype John Mayer X (which I reviewed previously and enjoyed) is still a work-in-progress:

Opinions on the new Quad Cortex Mini have been all over the map, but it doesn't seem like it's winning too many new guitarists into the ecosystem who were previously skeptics. Some will have a genuine need for the form factor, but my reasons for not buying one are philosophical as well as economic. What happens to your library of captures/models if you want to switch brands or upgrade? What if you want to use something from TONE3000's massive community library?

With their upcoming Beam Mini amp, Blackstar has taken a stab at answering those kinds of questions, and I think it is the most compelling of all the recent product announcements. Not only will it let you run Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) captures natively, but it is also built on TONE3000!

"With TONE3000, anyone can create digital models of analog gear for free – from amps and pedals to outboard equipment and even entire signal chains. You can explore hundreds of thousands of models made by musicians around the world and use these NAM captures across a rapidly growing ecosystem of plugins, pedals, and amplifiers. Any tone you create or discover on TONE3000 works anywhere NAM is supported." - Stanley Vergilis, Co-Founder and CEO

Another quote provided by TONE3000 makes it clear how they are different from the closed platforms:

"While some companies lock players into closed ecosystems of expensive software and hardware, TONE3000 is built on Neural Amp Modeler (NAM), a free open-source standard. NAM isn’t a company, and it’s not owned by anyone. It’s code that lives on GitHub, maintained by a global community of developers who contribute out of their passion for open-source values: community, interoperability, and democratization." - Woodbury Shortridge, Co-Founder and CTO

I encourage you to read TONE3000's post announcing this partnership with Blackstar, which I will link to at the bottom, but now I'll dive into my thoughts about how this fits into our lives as guitarists and into the amp market. NAM-capable hardware is a really cool part of the guitar world these days.

"We believe guitarists should be free to take their tones anywhere." - Stanley Vergilis, Co-Founder and CEO

(image credit: Blackstar Amplification)

Why a small practice amp is a good form factor for Neural Amp Modeler

We practice to train our hands, ears, and brain to perform music.

Tone, especially in a practice situation, isn't just about how you sound. It's about feedback loops and the habits (or lack thereof) that they reinforce. To me, then, it seems obvious that NAM-capable modeling mini practice amps beat out competitors that only allow their proprietary models and modeling tech. Practice like you play, right?

Personally, I find it a chore to have to plug in my interface and fire up the DAW every time I want to practice with a modeled tone. The Beam Mini offers a solution here. Additionally, if you have the gear to capture your tube rig, you can take it on the go!

Finally, I think this kind of form factor is good because we don't really need the full size model. If you want to use NAM for studio-grade recording, maybe it's time to use it in your DAW.

There's a real need for this in the market

The Beam Mini will run the upcoming A2 model architecture natively at launch. I recently bought a Sonicake Ampcube that supports internally-converted NAM captures (after enjoying its cousin, the Pocket Master) and have been having heaps of fun with it despite some limitations. At a higher price point and with Blackstar's experience in amps, I think we can hope to see even fewer limitations in the Beam Mini when it comes out.

TONE3000 confirmed the following pricing information to Tubes & Code:

SSP £169.99      SSP € 189.99   MAP  $229.99

Direct integration with the TONE3000 API is huge. With the Ampcube, I do have to admit that there was some friction in having to download the models in a browser and unzip the files before loading them in Sonicake's app. Blackstar can cut this friction down by loading the models directly from TONE3000, but I also hope we can just import NAM files from our phones without using our TONE3000 accounts too.

Since A2 is designed to be slimmable, I don't think we know what running it natively will mean here in terms of model size. But even the converted, downsized models I've used on Sonicake's products are really impressive for the computing power available. I was kind of amazed by how well feedback behavior is retained! The slimmable nature of A2 does mean that proprietary model conversion processes (like the one Sonicake uses in the Ampcube and other products) won't be necessary for future products.

TONE3000's blog post about the Beam Mini also describes "immersive, room-filling sound," which is great because that is an area where it is possible to be disappointed by something like the Ampcube. I guess I will have to see how they compare (to each other and my tube amp) and report back to y'all.

With IP66 waterproofing, it seems like Blackstar is smartly leaning on this amp being a "lifestyle device," though I am concerned about what happens to your guitar if you're in a situation where your amp needs to be waterproof...

Overall, it sounds like the Beam Mini is ticking a lot of boxes to be a great experience for guitarists and potentially a big step up from what's available today.

Your tone isn't locked to one form factor anymore

The proliferation of hardware and software supporting NAM and now TONE3000 means that your tone as a musician can be totally portable. The same amp that you use to practice can be in your DAW, on your pedalboard, or in a mini practice amp you can take to a friend's house or backstage with minimal friction.

It seems like NAM is getting awfully hard for the amplification industry to ignore! And open-source ecosystems tend to do exceptionally well at attracting and developing talent in the long run.

TONE3000's growth has been impressive:

"Since launching nine months ago, TONE3000 has grown from zero to 250K Neural Amp Modeler captures, with over 4M downloads." - Woodbury Shortridge, Co-Founder and CTO

Frankly, this might be an instant buy for me just from the kind of language the key people from Blackstar and TONE3000 use in their article about open source, and being able to "take your tones everywhere." I am excited to see how Blackstar executes!

The Beam Mini will launch in March 2026. Thanks for reading!