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NAMM 2022: Blackstar has released a 10-watt version of Bones UK guitarist Carmen Vandenberg’s signature tube amp combo.
Like the CV30, which was released in January 2021, the new CV10 is one smart looking guitar amp, finished in blue-green tweed Tolex with gold piping, a black control panel with gold art-deco design, gold Blackstar badge on the grille cloth. It offers a simplified take on its larger sibling that should similarly work gangbusters with pedals.
The CV10’s 10-watts drives a single 12” Celestion Seventy-80 speaker. The Seventy-80 has an expanded frequency range with a little more top-end response. The tasting notes from Celestion HQ promises a sound that’s “detailed and crisply defined with a tightly controlled low-end and punchy aggressive upper mid-range”.
That is just the thing for an amplifier like this, which offers players a vintage-voiced valve platform that’s idea for jazz, blues and rock ’n’ roll, and more than welcoming to a pedalboard.
Its operation is reassuringly simple. The CV10 is a single-channel amplifier. Besides hosting the 1/4” instrument input and power on/off and standby toggle switches, with a bright red jewel lamp glowing above Vandenberg’s signature in gold, there are black chickenhead dials for Gain, Tone, Reverb and Master.
A button switch activates a drive mode, but the footswitch, sold separately, might be a more convenient way of engaging the boost/drive.
The footswitch input is located on the rear of the CV10, where you’ll find a series effects loop, an external speaker output, and an emulated output for guitar amp headphones or sending to a desk. Compact, functional, and still pretty old-school, the CV10 looks like a superb candidate for the studio or home, and it is so photogenic you'll definitely want to show it off at a gig.
Check it out in the demo above. It’s available to order now, priced £679 / $799. See Blackstar for more details.
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