An in-depth review and analysis of the Barber Echelon Amplifier.

By Brian Conley

Editor's Note: This review is the most in-depth one of its kind that we have seen. Brian Conley is not an employee or connected with The Perfect Note, but is a highly skilled player with 100's of hours on the Echelon.

Features:

The Echelon was designed to be a masterfully versatile non master volume amplifier enabling the user to cover a wide range of guitar tones quickly and easily. Operation of the Echelon, while fairly straight forward, does require a certain investment of time by the user to grasp the full breadth of the amplifier's capabilities. The Echelon will cover an extensive range of clean, overdriven, and higher gain textures dependent upon control panel settings and tube selection.

The front panel features are, from left to right, a single input, volume control which is a push/pull switch to access the Fat setting, Sweet/Punchy EQ selector, Vintage/Modified gain selector, Treble, Midrange, Bass, Presence, pilot light, standby, and main power. The rear panel features are Pentode/Triode selector switch, bias test points for each power tube, and speaker outputs for 4 ohm, 8 ohm, and 16 ohm. The 4 ohm and 8 ohm selections offer two parallel jacks each. The AC jack and fuses are also on the rear panel.

Power rating depends on tube selection and the position of the Pentode/Triode switch. Barber Electronics defines a range of 11 to 50 watts. For instance, using 6L6GC power tubes in the Pentode setting will produce a full 50 watts. However, using 6V6GT power tubes in the Triode setting will drop the power to 11 watts. Note, using 6V6 power tubes requires a custom Weber Copper Cap rectifier available from Barber. Other possible power tube choices include EL34's, 6CA7's, 5881's, KT66's, and 6550's. The stock rectifier is a GZ34. The preamp uses three 12AX7's and various substitutions are encouraged (12AT7, 12AY7, 5751, etc.).

Tube swapping and rebiasing can be accomplished in a couple of minutes if the back panel is already removed. This makes taste testing power tubes very fun. With a digital volt meter plugged into the bias test points and the bias adjustment control unlocked it is very, very simple to bias the amp. I recommend a pile of tubes and an oven mitt for several hours of entertainment.

Certain aspects of the construction I'd like to point out... The Echelon is hand wired in true point to point fashion on a few terminal strips. All components are exact spec for consistency from amp to amp. The layout was designed to minimize the signal path as much as possible. This is evidenced by the proximity of the preamp tubes to the front panel controls. Almost every aspect of the Echelon is custom built from the chassis to the head shell. This is an incredibly well designed and perfectly executed product. According to David Barber, the Echelon was developed over a two year period and every element was scrutinized relentlessly right down to each bend of every component lead out. I've also been told that dozens of top quality boutique amps were purchased over the development period for direct comparison of the best of the best. It sounded like a painful process to me but the proof is in the pudding as they say.

Sound:

The Sweet/Punchy EQ switch, very basically, changes the EQ style from a Blackface style EQ (Sweet) to more of a tweed style EQ (Punchy). For instance, I'd use the Sweet setting for a Blackface clean while I'd use the Punchy setting if I were going for a tweed Bassman vibe or possibly a JTM-45 vibe (with KT66's!). The Punchy setting seems to have more lower midrange punch. The Sweet setting has comparatively less midrange giving it that leaner Blackface clarity.

The Vintage/Modified Switch allows the user to select the gain level of the amp. Very simply, either a vintage level of gain or a more modern level of gain is available. Vintage lends itself to more traditional tones from clean to power tube grind. Modified takes the amp into modern territory and is appropriate for all varieties of harder edged sounds. Vintage for SRV. Modified for EVH.

Also, the volume knob is a push/pull switch. Pull it out for the Fat setting. This thickens up the overall tone quite a bit. It is excellent for adding beef to cleans in conjunction with the Sweet setting. It can be a little too plump on the Modified settings though, especially at higher volume levels.

Around back, the Pentode/Triode switch allows the amp's power section to run in full output (Pentode) or into what can be looked at as sort of a half power setting (Triode). Pentode is more bold or punchy. Triode drops the output quite a bit and allows power tube breakup to occur at a lower level. The amp also seems to compress more readily in Triode mode.

Once I had a full grasp of each control function and had some experience with various power tubes and how they affected the character of the amp, the full range of its capabilities started to become more clear. I'll give a few detailed examples of various settings I have utilized and what style I've used them for.

Big Blackface clean! 6L6GC power tubes are an obvious choice here for my taste. Depending on the tubes and my ears, the bias should be from 32 ma to 36 ma. Selector switches to the following positions... Pull volume for Fat, Sweet EQ, Vintage gain structure, engage the Pentode setting around back. Volume should be around 12 o'clock. Treble from 12 o'clock to 2 o'clock. Bass around 11 o'clock. I'll keep the Midrange from all the way down to 9 o'clock because the Midrange control has a HUGE range that takes some getting used to. Presence around 10 o'clock.

For my clean blues, jazz, and funk playing this is a great set up. This is not a boxy sounding rendition of vintage Fender clean. It's the REAL DEAL! This is also a great foundation for using a pedal to get the dirty sounds. The Barber Direct Drive SS really comes to life here. Coincidence? Final outcome depends largely on speaker selection also!

Bluesbreaker! I use Valve Arts KT66 power tubes to capture this tone. The Valve Arts seem to like it hot so I bias them around 40 ma. They also smell great! Anyways, selector switches to the following positions... Volume pushed in, Punchy EQ, Vintage gain structure, Pentode setting around back. Volume should be at least 2 o'clock to really get the vibe. Treble up around 2 o'clock. Bass around 9 o'clock. Midrange around 10 o'clock. Presence around 12 o'clock.

This is a big, juicy, old school rock and roll tone. The KT66 power tubes have a fat tone and a great feel. Again, speaker selection determines the final outcome!

Low wattage tweed! Any 6V6 type power tubes with the custom Weber Copper Cap rectifier supplied by Barber. Bias should be around 20 ma to 25 ma depending on how the tubes behave. As a side note, the JJ 6V6 tubes seem to be able to handle the full voltage of the stock GZ34. I like the tones but Barber doesn't recommend it! Selector switch positions... Volume pulled out for Fat, Punchy, Vintage, Triode. Volume wide open! Treble around 1 o'clock. Bass around 9 o'clock to off depending on the guitar. Midrange around 10 o'clock. Presence around 10 o'clock.

This is getting into tweed Deluxe territory although the amp is not cathode biased, etc. This is what I might use at a local club blues jam. An alnico 12 would be an excellent choice also, perhaps a Weber of some sort or an Eminence Red Fang.

Hard rock! A nice pair of EL34 power tubes biased around 30 ma is my preference here. Selector switch positions... Volume pushed in, Sweet, Modified, Pentode. Volume at 1 o'clock to cranked if I can get away with it. Treble around 3 o'clock. Bass needs to be way down in the Modified gain structure setting. Midrange about 12 o'clock. Presence around 1 o'clock.

The Modified settings are over the top! The gain comes way up and the amp gets way louder. This puts the amp into the hard rock range of tones and the Echelon is very, very capable here. A nice tight 2x12 or 4x12 cabinet would be optimum. A quality attenuator would be handy but I don't have one just yet.

The Echelon has a wide range of tones available. The range seems to depend on how much time a player is willing to invest in exploring the amp. I've only covered a few basic set ups here just to give an idea of the versatility! I'd also like to add that, in my experience, there are no compromises in terms of the tonal quality between the many variations of clean and overdriven textures.

Reliability:

As for reliability, my Echelon has been left on nearly all day, every day for around four months now. Once I've settled on a tone, I just leave the amp in stand by when not in use so I can just grab the guitar and go. Aside from a preamp tube going bad, the Echelon has been absolutely solid. From talking with David Barber, the Echelon was designed to be virtually maintenance free. The filter capacitors are not much smaller than a Pepsi can and will apparently outlast me and possibly my children.

Customer Support:

I purchased the Echelon through The Perfect Note in MA. Bob , who basically IS The Perfect Note, led me through one of the most impressive demo sessions I've ever been offered. We spent several hours going over every detail of the Echelon. He is much more of a tone consultant than a salesman and his services are well worth the money. Bob kept me updated regularly during the ordering, building, and shipping processes. Besides all that, Bob and his wife invited me out for dinner and a few drinks after I first tried the amp! They're great people and I truly enjoyed visiting them in Massachusetts.

David Barber was very accessible during the ordering, building, and shipping processes as well. We spoke at length about the Echelon several times by phone. David was very attentive to my needs and concerns as a customer. His expertise in electronics and guitar gear in general far exceeds most in my experience with the world of boutique gear. Not only is he gifted in the technical aspects but he's one hell of a guitar player as well. Check those clips on his website! Dave is a rare breed!

I still discuss the amp with with Bob and Dave on a regular basis.

Overall:

The Barber Echelon is interesting in that, while not a channel switching amp, it is the realization of an amp so many have attempted to build. I have bought amp after amp over the years on the pitch and promise of incredible versatility without compromising tone only to be disappointed time and time again. The Echelon delivers with confidence. Each tonal variation on its own is on par with or surpasses the best of the best in the realm of high end boutique gear, most of which are capable of only a limited range of tones, one trick ponies if you will. The Echelon has given an end to a long, expensive journey through the boutique market of guitar amplification. The only downside is that it has created another obsession... speaker cabinets! But Barber has a few more tricks up his sleeve and I hope to soon have a couple of speaker cabinets that will give me access to about... twenty(!) different speaker combinations. In the end though, it should all be about playing the guitar and making music. And interestingly enough, the Echelon has taken me to a place where the tone inspires and frees me to play without a thought to the gear. The only difference is that I can get there with a different tone every time I pick up the guitar if I want!

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