Carvin guitar amps?

[GuitarGeek]

Not sure if this is the place to ask, but I reckon the musicians are posting here, so maybe a couple of the guitarists who might be in the know will see this.

Anyone familiar with Carvin guitar amps? I know Frank Zappa and Craig Chaquico used them back in the 80's, but what are the ones they're making now like? I just got the print catalog in the mail today. Yeah, Carvin still puts out a print catalog, and I've been on the mailing list for 30 years, despite having not bought one single thing from them (well, I did buy something circa 1984 or 85, but I screwed up when calculating the shipping or something like that, and ordered it COD, and didn't have enough money to pay the postman when it came, so we had to send it back. Hey, I was 11 years old, what do you want?). Anyway, I was looking at the new catalog, and was thinking I need to get a good combo amp, and they're a lot cheaper than the Fenders that I'm usually pining after.

[NeonKnight]

I've had their SX 100 combo amp for something like 10 years. It is solid, have had very little issues. I also own one of their solid body custom guitars, which I really like.

Vai has a Carvin amp that he designed, he seems to be happy with it...

[Plasmatopia]

The guitar player in the band I just quit uses Carvin guitars and loves 'em. I bought one of those Vai amps from him. I thought it sounded great, but it was just too big and loud and I wasn't playing much guitar so I sold it. It did have an issue where I had to place a small patch cord between the preamp out and the power amp in else the volume might fade out (dirty contacts). Seemed quite solid otherwise. My buddy was using a Marshall 4x10 cabinet and got rid of that to get two Carvin 4x10 cabs. They sound every bit as good, but I have no idea why anyone needs to carry that much around these days.

[GuitarGeek]

Yeah, see that's the thing, I don't want something "big and loud", that's why I'm interested in the combo amps. And yeah, I agree, you really don't need a full 100 watt stack. That's overkill if you're playing any place smaller than say Radio City Music Hall, and even then, it's more for show than it is for tone (considering that Brian May used Vox AC-30's on every one of Queen's big arena and stadium tours, as one example of someone who didn't need a 100 watt stack).

[No Pride]

I played through one of the original Vai "Legacy" amps once (can't remember if it was at a recording studio or a rehearsal space) and was surprised by how bad it sounded, especially considering how great his tone is. But the Legacy is on version III now, perhaps it's improved. Or maybe the one I played was a lemon. It was very midrangey and lacked highs. That V3MC (30 watt combo version of their 3 channel amp) looks intriguing; I wouldn't mind trying one out. Of course with their only showrooms being in California, that'll be difficult. If you don't need 3 channels, their "Bel Air" combo has been around for ages; somebody must like it!

[Plasmatopia]

Yeah, see that's the thing, I don't want something "big and loud", that's why I'm interested in the combo amps. And yeah, I agree, you really don't need a full 100 watt stack. That's overkill if you're playing any place smaller than say Radio City Music Hall, and even then, it's more for show than it is for tone (considering that Brian May used Vox AC-30's on every one of Queen's big arena and stadium tours, as one example of someone who didn't need a 100 watt stack).

My favorite local guitarist uses a tiny little amp he modified. He thinks it's about 18-20 watts (hard to know with the mods). He has amazing tone!

[GuitarGeek]

If you don't need 3 channels, their "Bel Air" combo has been around for ages; somebody must like it!

Yeah, the Bel Air is probably pretty good. I was kinda thinking of buying one of the X-100 or X-60 combos from the 80's that come up on E-bay periodically.

[Mikhael]

I've played through their amps before. The "X-amp", with the graphic EQ on it, was kind of like a poor man's Boogie. The tone was good, control was decent. The Bel-Air reminds me strongly of the Peavey Classic amps, which are also pretty good. I'd like to hear the V3 series, but I'm not in the mood to replace my Pearce, so it's just idle curiosity. If they'd take these amps and create a standalone preamp (kind of like the one they used to make, although it doesn't need to have THAT many channels), I might be interested, though. I'm going DI on most live performances nowadays. No, my tone's not quite as good, but it's okay, and the audience hears a much more hi-fidelity overall sound.

But yeah, I'd try a Carvin. Vai gets great sounds out of them, but they were of course designed exactly to his specs. I thought very seriously about a 50-watt Bel Air, before I started going DI.

[Gruno]

I wouldn't mind trying one out. Of course with their only showrooms being in California, that'll be difficult.

I was told that the Hollywood location has recently closed. Sad, if true. I was there for their grand opening in January 1988. The Santa Ana store is also gone. I just checked their site and only the San Diego showroom remains open.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/locations/

[Mikhael]

Maybe the beancounters have finally got hold of Carvin. They're running everything else... (did I misspell "ruining"?)

[Gruno]

Maybe the beancounters have finally got hold of Carvin. They're running everything else... (did I misspell "ruining"?)

define "beancounters"

[Plasmatopia]

Accountants?

[Mikhael]

I thought about it after I wrote it - that "beancounter" might be offensive to some people on here.

So be it. That line of reasoning has produced flawed products, layoffs, declining corporate structure, age discrimination...

Anyway, yes, accountants. Generally it refers to ones who look only to next quarter's profits, without consideration of the long-term health of a company or the effects upon the corporate reputation, or employee confidence/morale. As in any field, there are good ones with a balanced viewpoint. But not many in my personal experience.

Anyway, Carvin: Their products are well-made, but their price advantage, at least on guitars, has evaporated over the years. Amps and PA gear, they're still fairly competitive (excluding mixers). But the "custom shop"? Well, don't get me started on why a maple cap would cost $300, or why "custom shop" doesn't include neck width. I do like a lot of their stuff, but I think they're making some mistakes which will cost them in the marketplace.

[KirksNoseHair]

I have a Carvin MTS3200 purchased around 2003(ish). I recorded all of the rhythm guitars on my band's debut album with it. Quite a versatile amplifier. Nice warm clean tones and some of the best tube sound you can get in a combo.

[Mikhael]

I have a Carvin MTS3200 purchased around 2003(ish). I recorded all of the rhythm guitars on my band's debut album with it. Quite a versatile amplifier. Nice warm clean tones and some of the best tube sound you can get in a combo.

So, what other amp did you use for leads?

[rynnce]

Hello, new here.

Regarding the original Legacy - if you play live to larger audiences, or if you have an isolated space to record the amp turned up then this amp might make sense. It does sound good! But for playing small places or home recording this is probably going to be unusable due to the extreme loudness. The amp doesn't start to come alive until the volume is pushed to 3.5-4 and by that time your ears are getting pounded. I know the newer version has a master volume so maybe this decreases the volume issue somewhat.

[nosebone]

The SX 100 was a great sounding & affordable amp for its time.

Like Ernie, I didn't like the Vai amp either.

Too big, heavy & midrangy.

Really though, 15 - 40 watt amps will do the trick anywhere these days, unless your touring with Metallica.

[Mikhael]

I was always curious about that SX series. With one band, I use a Pearce G2r; a solid-state amp that rivals the best of the boutique amps. I just love that thing. But with my copy band, I run direct, and I'm still perusing preamps that would work there. Right now I'm using a BBE 381 preamp; oddly enough, the distortion sound is good (I play on the edge of distortion, not full-blown mongo-distorto), but the clean sound is being difficult. I've having a hard time getting the tones and "body" to sound right. It's either ear-splittingly tinny, or booming bass. I can't seem to get a tonal balance correct on it. So how's the SX? I still see the preamps being sold around on eBay and such.

[No Pride]

with my copy band, I run direct, and I'm still perusing preamps that would work there.

That's a difficult way to go. In the wedding/corporate party band I work with, we're all using in-ear monitors and the leader decided he didn't want amps on stage anymore. I've always considered a guitar player's "instrument" to be in two parts; the guitar and the amplifier. The amplifier does much more than amplify and shape the tones; ideally you want it's speaker(s) to interact with the guitar. With that out of the equation, I've found it to be a struggle. I'm using a Line 6 Pod HD500, a modeling preamp/multi-effects unit with tons of tweakability and it has taken over a year to become somewhat satisfied with my sound. After every gig, I take mental notes and go back to the "drawing board" and re-tweak. A decent clean tone wasn't hard to find, but a distorted lead tone took forever. After trying all of the high gain amp models with various speaker simulations, I was on the verge of giving up. Then on a fluke, I tried a model of the ProCo Rat stompbox (which has a filter that sweeps through various midrange frequencies) in front of a clean amp model and finally got a fat enough tone that (at least almost) has the right amount of high frequency slice. In the "real world," I'd never choose stomp box generated distortion over an amp's preamp distortion, but in the digital modeling world it worked better, on that unit anyway. Still, I have to use more gain than I ever would with a real amp with speakers to get sufficient sustain, because... you guessed it; there's no real speaker to interact with. I still go back to the drawing board after gigs, but at least I feel like I'm somewhat in the ballpark.

I do enjoy walking into a gig with just a guitar in one hand and a pedalboard in the other. No more loading docks and sharing freight elevators with garbage bins filled with rotting food, and I can finally pack up and leave faster than the horn players! But if I had my druthers, I'd gladly go back to schlepping a real amplifier around; a preamp direct is a pretty poor substitute.

[Plasmatopia]

I've recently ended up playing guitar and using a Legacy at band practice. I'm planning to buy something nicer (and much smaller) in a couple months. It's a weird amp at the volumes we're using. Can't turn the bass knob up at all or it turns to mud.

[Mikhael]

I do enjoy walking into a gig with just a guitar in one hand and a pedalboard in the other. No more loading docks and sharing freight elevators with garbage bins filled with rotting food, and I can finally pack up and leave faster than the horn players! But if I had my druthers, I'd gladly go back to schlepping a real amplifier around; a preamp direct is a pretty poor substitute.

I understand your reluctance. In my case it's a bit different. Our singer refuses to use IEMs (why, I have NO idea), so I have monitors to feed from. Plus, I've set things up so that the lead sounds are produced with the help of an unobtrusive compressor. This makes up for lack of speaker/guitar interactiion.

No, your sound won't be exactly what you want. But the audience hears a MUCH higher fidelity sound this way, so I actually prefer it. But not when I record; I fire up the Pearce through Celestions for that.

[Plasmatopia]

I'm looking to buy a guitar amp in December. I've been looking at some Mesa/Boogie amps. The Express 5:25 Plus looks pretty amazing. It seems to cover quite a range of sounds and does them well. I was also looking at the Mini Rectifier and Transatlantic heads, but they don't see quite as versatile (while still sounding pretty nice). The Express is more refined somehow.

I won't really know until I plug my guitar into some different amps and try them out, but anyone have any recommendations? My thought was to get a nice head and pair it with a 2x12 cabinet.

The nicest amp I ever owned was a Fender Blues DeVille. I did not find it to be very versatile at all and at 60 Watts was way more power than I needed (it was just as loud as my friends 100W Marshall half-stack). The Mesa/Boogies are more expensive, but seem to be capable of many more sounds.

[Mikhael]

As far as M/B go, I would stay away from the Nomad series. Although versatile, they have a really mushy bottom end; I don't care for that. That seems to be a problem with some M/Bs, at least for me. I tried the Rectifier Recording preamp through a SS amp, and I liked it a lot, but that wasn't what you were looking for. Veratile, though.

[No Pride]

I'm looking to buy a guitar amp in December. I've been looking at some Mesa/Boogie amps. The Express 5:25 Plus looks pretty amazing. It seems to cover quite a range of sounds and does them well. I was also looking at the Mini Rectifier and Transatlantic heads, but they don't see quite as versatile (while still sounding pretty nice). The Express is more refined somehow.

I won't really know until I plug my guitar into some different amps and try them out, but anyone have any recommendations? My thought was to get a nice head and pair it with a 2x12 cabinet.

The nicest amp I ever owned was a Fender Blues DeVille. I did not find it to be very versatile at all and at 60 Watts was way more power than I needed (it was just as loud as my friends 100W Marshall half-stack). The Mesa/Boogies are more expensive, but seem to be capable of many more sounds.

IMHO the best Mesa/Boogie amp (at least among the ones they still make) is the Mark V. Unfortunately, I think it's their most expensive too. I got to spend an hour with one in a store and was knocked out! Part of the preamp is designed after their old chestnut, the Mark IIc, an amp that I had for years and could kick myself for selling. But there's tons of tones in there. I use a rented Triple Rectifier when I go out with the band I tour with. I love it's clean sound, but the lead channel's midrange is kind of harsh and ugly sounding to my ears; I have to put a Tube Screamer in front of it to smooth it out. You can dial up a great midrange tone on the lead sound selections on the Mark V. It's worth the money if you have it. I don't.

[Plasmatopia]

You know, as a bass player I think I was more easily satisfied. I am happy to have more or less one bass sound, most of the variation in tone being due to how hard I dig in with my right hand.

But guitar is so different. Maybe I'm trying too hard to find an amp that does it all since this could end up being the last/most expensive guitar amp I ever buy. Then there is the possibility (or maybe it's very likely?) that I'll find two or three sounds and stick with 'em. In which case a somewhat less versatile amp might work fine.

The band I'll use this in most plays classic rock from the '70s and '80s. I'm mostly playing rhythm guitar, but I hope to play some harmony leads with our lead guitarist. I'm not big into a lot of effects - I have a compressor/sustainer, chorus (barely ever use it), and wah. I'm mainly interested in the guitar/amp getting nice crisp sounds first and foremost. My main guitar at this point is a MIM Strat that I have replaced the pickups in. They are all humbuckers now. It doesn't really sound too much like a Strat sometimes as a result. I also have an old Guild S300-A-D which may end up more as a backup guitar. It's a very different beast though.

At home I have a little Marshall Valvestate VS65R that I think sounds pretty decent with my guitar. I suppose I could mike it up, but I was thinking something more like a 2x12 would fill things out a bit better. Our lead guitarist suggested a Marshall DSL series. I'd have to try it out. It would probably be fine for this band, but would it really be the amp I want to have long term?

This guitar thing is too complicated.