YeRedHouseOverYonder
New member
Buenos chicos,
Long story short, I made the leap of faith. I unloaded my old rig (boutique 18w blackface & lightning clone/2061cx 2x12 clone) and trimmed the fat from my spare parts to fund this. Both the cab and head are used, so I scored a killer deal on both. I actually got the 2x12 under $500. The head was about 2/3 the cost of a new one. The dude who I got it off is actually endorsed by Bogner.
So, the Barcelona is a 40/20w 12ax7/6ax7 head. I'd say it's a "one trick pony", but that's what it was essential made to be. Nothing, but clean headroom and it does it well! It's got a pretty simple tone stack, but the fat (I think this is an older version since some have a push-pull knob) and mid switch achieve various "voicings" of clean. The fat switch adds gain with emphasis in the low/high end. The mid switch gives you options to shape/add/cut the mids giving you a palette of sounds. Cutting them definitively gets you in the blackface ballpark. You can crank up the volume/gain without really breaking up unless you engage the fat switch. Using a dirt pedal (La Grange), I found that even if the clean tone isn't breaking up, it'll still transfer over once you engage the pedal. The gain knob has a ton of play in how the pedal will react. The sweet spot seems to be around 1-3 o' clock for me. It gets the job done as advertised. Great pedal platform with the stock tubes. Loves p90s/other singles/HBs. You can go from a neutral clean to fender ish and in-between. Dynamic and punchy to my ears. No matter how you voice the Barcelona it allows your pickups/guitar/pedal/playing shine through. Hard to hide behind this amp. I expect it to sound better with tube upgrades. I'm letting her cool down at the moment. First 12ax7 combo will be a RCA grayplate/tungsol. I have other used NOS tubes as well. Not sure if I'll go with EH 6ac7s or EL34s in the future, but for now the jj power tubes will stay.
The speakers in the 2x12 are new/lightly used. The guy who sold it to me said the v30s still needed some breaking in. I swapped one the v30s for a new G12H-75 creamback. I've set the head to the recommended settings that Celestion suggests to break their speakers with. I won't comment too much on how the v30/G12H-75 sound together since they're still not fully broken in. So far, it seems like a versatile mix for clean/crunchy tones.
Here's a picture of the happy family.
I'm pretty happy where I am with my gear at the moment. Now, I can focus on the most important part: playing.
Edit: No recording capabilities at the moment, but I'm building a pc when Black Friday rolls around. I'll probably dip my toes then.
Long story short, I made the leap of faith. I unloaded my old rig (boutique 18w blackface & lightning clone/2061cx 2x12 clone) and trimmed the fat from my spare parts to fund this. Both the cab and head are used, so I scored a killer deal on both. I actually got the 2x12 under $500. The head was about 2/3 the cost of a new one. The dude who I got it off is actually endorsed by Bogner.
So, the Barcelona is a 40/20w 12ax7/6ax7 head. I'd say it's a "one trick pony", but that's what it was essential made to be. Nothing, but clean headroom and it does it well! It's got a pretty simple tone stack, but the fat (I think this is an older version since some have a push-pull knob) and mid switch achieve various "voicings" of clean. The fat switch adds gain with emphasis in the low/high end. The mid switch gives you options to shape/add/cut the mids giving you a palette of sounds. Cutting them definitively gets you in the blackface ballpark. You can crank up the volume/gain without really breaking up unless you engage the fat switch. Using a dirt pedal (La Grange), I found that even if the clean tone isn't breaking up, it'll still transfer over once you engage the pedal. The gain knob has a ton of play in how the pedal will react. The sweet spot seems to be around 1-3 o' clock for me. It gets the job done as advertised. Great pedal platform with the stock tubes. Loves p90s/other singles/HBs. You can go from a neutral clean to fender ish and in-between. Dynamic and punchy to my ears. No matter how you voice the Barcelona it allows your pickups/guitar/pedal/playing shine through. Hard to hide behind this amp. I expect it to sound better with tube upgrades. I'm letting her cool down at the moment. First 12ax7 combo will be a RCA grayplate/tungsol. I have other used NOS tubes as well. Not sure if I'll go with EH 6ac7s or EL34s in the future, but for now the jj power tubes will stay.
The speakers in the 2x12 are new/lightly used. The guy who sold it to me said the v30s still needed some breaking in. I swapped one the v30s for a new G12H-75 creamback. I've set the head to the recommended settings that Celestion suggests to break their speakers with. I won't comment too much on how the v30/G12H-75 sound together since they're still not fully broken in. So far, it seems like a versatile mix for clean/crunchy tones.
Here's a picture of the happy family.
I'm pretty happy where I am with my gear at the moment. Now, I can focus on the most important part: playing.
Edit: No recording capabilities at the moment, but I'm building a pc when Black Friday rolls around. I'll probably dip my toes then.
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