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It arrived yesterday. Black tolex covered, FS36 footswitch,2 channel, footswitchable channels, reverb and effects loop, bright switch for clean channel, hot rod switch which adds mucho gain for the lead channel, 5 band channel assignable EQ,reverb,active controls (like Mesa Boogie) mine is running a fresh set of 4 EL34's and 3 12ax7a's, 25w, 50w, 100w switch on the back, switchable speaker impedance, direct out and built like a friggin tank.
How does is sound??
Clean channel- exactly what the reviews state. This amp has an excellent clean channel with headroom for days. Crystal clear with nice definition and excellent reverb. It starts to break up around 7 which is entirely too loud for most humans anyway.
Lead channel- with the hot rod switch not activated it sounds like a cross between a Mesa Mark IV and a JCM800. Actually, with the 5 band EQ assigned to the lead channel it sounds very much like a JCM800 with a Boss GE-7 in the effects loop. Activating the hot rod switch bumps the gain up way too much and almost sounds like fuzz until the master volume is over 5. At 5 it sounds killer but still way to much gain for me. I like it in normal mode with the gain dimed out but if you roll the gain down it gets a great Hiwatt/Marshall Plexi blues or vintage rock tone. You can instantly tell that Carvin was going after the big 3 with this amp. Fender for the clean, Marshall for the midrange tone, and Mesa for the bottom end chunk. Active EQ is a great feature that all amps should have. This amp is extremely powerful and very loud. It also sounds fantastic at whisper quiet bedroom levels. Bottom line, the X100B is a great value and really well made. All of the excellent reviews it gets are accurate. I can't comment on how the 6L6 versions with the hot rod factory mods sound (they are usually the gray carpeted models) but I will say that if you have the chance to pick up a X100B running EL34's you should jump on it. I am using mine live with my Boss GT6. Frank Zappa swore by them, Steve Vai used them for many years and some claim that he still does in the backline of his live rig, and many recording studio's still have them as part of their inventory. You can usually pick one up on Ebay for around $300.00 which is a hell of a bargain.
How does is sound??
Clean channel- exactly what the reviews state. This amp has an excellent clean channel with headroom for days. Crystal clear with nice definition and excellent reverb. It starts to break up around 7 which is entirely too loud for most humans anyway.
Lead channel- with the hot rod switch not activated it sounds like a cross between a Mesa Mark IV and a JCM800. Actually, with the 5 band EQ assigned to the lead channel it sounds very much like a JCM800 with a Boss GE-7 in the effects loop. Activating the hot rod switch bumps the gain up way too much and almost sounds like fuzz until the master volume is over 5. At 5 it sounds killer but still way to much gain for me. I like it in normal mode with the gain dimed out but if you roll the gain down it gets a great Hiwatt/Marshall Plexi blues or vintage rock tone. You can instantly tell that Carvin was going after the big 3 with this amp. Fender for the clean, Marshall for the midrange tone, and Mesa for the bottom end chunk. Active EQ is a great feature that all amps should have. This amp is extremely powerful and very loud. It also sounds fantastic at whisper quiet bedroom levels. Bottom line, the X100B is a great value and really well made. All of the excellent reviews it gets are accurate. I can't comment on how the 6L6 versions with the hot rod factory mods sound (they are usually the gray carpeted models) but I will say that if you have the chance to pick up a X100B running EL34's you should jump on it. I am using mine live with my Boss GT6. Frank Zappa swore by them, Steve Vai used them for many years and some claim that he still does in the backline of his live rig, and many recording studio's still have them as part of their inventory. You can usually pick one up on Ebay for around $300.00 which is a hell of a bargain.
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