carvin

Until very recently, Lane the lead guitarist in my band played a 20 year old 65W Carvin tube amp, not sure of the exact model. But it is an excellent sounding amp with lots of power. He used it to drive a 4 X 12 cab with Peavey speakers.

I have heard that the Belair 2 X 12 50W all tube amp is a truly great amp, some claim it is the BEST bar none.

I have used Carvin gear. It is built solid and sounds great. They have a solid and well respected reputation. I don't think you can go wrong with any of their products.

Carvin gear is simply top notch. They have earned their reputation.

However, it is, in my mind, very much one-trick pony gear aimed at the rock/metal crowd. I would be very surprised to find a pit musician, a jazz guy, or country folk using a Carvin amp.

I like their over-drive a lot, but their clean channels just can't compete witha good fender twin.

*shrug* not for me, but if you're playing lots of heavier stuff and you want something besides the ubiquitous Marshall stack, you could do a lot worse.

I have a carvin pb200 bass amp, and the only problem that I ever had was the speaker getting a 2 inch rip right along the edge, and I only had the amp turned up halfway. I am sure this is not a normal problem, but it made me really mad because it happened AFTER the 90-day speaker warranty went out, so I have to buy a new speaker now, and am not buying from carvin again.

Love it. Sold off all the other stuff I had laying around. 8)

I own the 50W X 12" Vintage Nomad tube amp.

It has fantastic tone! I find it to be a perfect match for my BOSS GT-8 pedal.

It is my first tube amp. I will prolly never go solid state again... And, I believe I will always go Carvin for future amp purchases.

I have only played it at about 2 - 2.5 (volume) before I drown out our drummer. Soon we will mike our drummer through a mixer and PAs and hopefully I will get to hear the tubes really working at 4 or 5!

(:

-Rip

Had (and still wish I did) an X100-B head back in the 80s. The black Tolex one, not the fuzzy gray carpet version. Awesome JCM800 sound on one channel and ultra-clean Fenderish sound on the other channel. Could go from ZZTop cruch to crystal clean Cyndi Lauper stuff with a click of the switch.

Funny: I didn't even know it was a JCM800 sound until just a few years ago (long after I sold it), when I tried out the JCM800 model on a POD. I was thinking "Hey, I've heard that before somewhere..."

Doi ;)

i had the x100b head, also. incredibly powerful amp. really punchy, but didn't have a cutting tone, although that may have been due to me playing an lp through it. a very dark tone.

The other guitarist I played with had the exact same head; come to think of it, he was a bit 'in the background' sounding too. He liked Carvin and Gibson guitars, whereas I was playing a Strat with Hotstacks. I always thought of it as being the sound he liked; though now I'm thinking maybe you're right. He also used a compresser a lot, so I think that maybe had something to do with it. The Clean channel on it though--really a "Ka-Ching!" sort of clarity, and the graphic eq was nice. I only wished they had put it before the gain stage; it sounded a little harsh with even minor adjustments so I left it pretty much flat, and just used the knobs.

Depends on what you are looking for. They do tend to go after the heavy, saturated tone, hence Vai and whatnot being one of their edorsers. But they also have Holdsworth. I haven't played an amp, but their guitars are top notch. Very good quality, and you can't beet the prices on anything, since it is all direct.

However, their customer service is a dice roll. Probably 70% of the times I've called for various reasons I was greeted with an extremely rude person. But I wouldn't let that alone stop me from buying from them, they make excellent stuff