Carvin V3

[Fretburner]

Anyone try or own a Carvin V3? Looks like a real nice tube amp and the sound clips on the net sound pretty damn good! Good price for a tube Amp too!

Feedback ???

[1trussell]

I tried one at Carvin in San Diego. It is definitely not a low volume head. Not that I can say it really shines at higher volumes, as I didn't get a chance to turn it up. But at lower levels, I was fairly unimpressed. I've heard so many good things about it, that I would like to try one in better conditions.

That being said, I tried the V3, Legacy (stack and combo) and the Tone Navigator with the Carvin power amp. The Tone Navigator owned all the other amps. But that's just my opinion.

[markD]

i went through 3 of them and returned all of them because they had so many troubles. one blew up as soon as i turned it on. the other two smelled like burning cabbage and caused the speakers to vibrate/oscilate on their own with no sound. i was pretty bummed because it seemed like a cool amp, but after three heads all doing the same stuff, i gave up.

granted that was as soon as they came out and that stuff may be taken care of, but my experience was not good. carvin was very good about the returns. i spent a lot of time on the phone with their tech guys and the fellow that designed the amp. they were very upset and concerned that there were so many issues with these heads. the best they could come up with was they kept getting damaged in shipping. they were gonna have a 4th one flown to FL instead of shipping ground but by the i had enough. i would like to try it again but i have enough heads right now.

[Fretburner]

Wow..Thanks for the feedback guys. Too bad about the 3 heads you went through Mark. That would put a sour taste in my mouth for sure but like you said, it was when they first came out. I would hope they have all the bugs worked out, Especially the Cabbage smell! LOL

Harmony Central has some pretty good reviews. I may have to try one out. Do you know if Carvin has a return policy within a certain time frame?

[slayer]

i went through 3 of them and returned all of them because they had so many troubles. one blew up as soon as i turned it on. the other two smelled like burning cabbage and caused the speakers to vibrate/oscilate on their own with no sound. i was pretty bummed because it seemed like a cool amp, but after three heads all doing the same stuff, i gave up.

granted that was as soon as they came out and that stuff may be taken care of, but my experience was not good. carvin was very good about the returns. i spent a lot of time on the phone with their tech guys and the fellow that designed the amp. they were very upset and concerned that there were so many issues with these heads. the best they could come up with was they kept getting damaged in shipping. they were gonna have a 4th one flown to FL instead of shipping ground but by the i had enough. i would like to try it again but i have enough heads right now.

This is all true. Many guys on the Carvin Board had these problems early on and many more. It seams Carvin has worked the bugs out since then From what I hear the gain is good, the clean is good and the amp has it`s own mojo going on tone wise and it leans towards the mids and highs more than a Recto sound, so in retrospect does the suped up JCM 800 tone better thna a Mesa Rec tone, but not exactly the same as either. I want one also, but yes, always let them work the bugs out first. There actually shouldn`t be bugs, but Carvin rushed this head out there too quickly in my opinion. Jack.

[Thor Von Clemson]

I played on at the San Diego store. The tone is very unique. If you play super high gain death metal, it will obviously not work. It has a fair amount of gain and I would say it does pretty well in the mid and high ranges. There's some vids floating around youtube with good examples of the gain.

They have a 10 day return policy, great customer service, and great prices.

Hope that helps.

The clean channel was decent to my ears. I prefer the cleans on the legacy, but the v3 definately has a useable clean channel.


*Edit- Here are the vids from youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9YSZ...ch=carvin%20v3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGycf...ch=carvin%20v3

[slayer]

I played on at the San Diego store. The tone is very unique. If you play super high gain death metal, it will obviously not work. It has a fair amount of gain and I would say it does pretty well in the mid and high ranges. There's some vids floating around youtube with good examples of the gain.

They have a 10 day return policy, great customer service, and great prices.

Hope that helps.

The clean channel was decent to my ears. I prefer the cleans on the legacy, but the v3 definately has a useable clean channel.


*Edit- Here are the vids from youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9YSZ...ch=carvin%20v3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGycf...ch=carvin%20v3

Cool It has great tone and he wasn`t even playing it loud!! I think that amp can do Metallica-Testament and Slayer stuff fine. Did you guys catch the fact that he was running a BBE Sonic Maximizer thru the loop I only heard a little of the heavy rythym tone, but I imagine louder and with eq-ing it would even be more heavy. I may order one up and try it Jack.

[1trussell]

Did you guys catch that he was using a pair of Duncan Distortions in his Ibanez?

[toejam]

Did you guys catch the fact that he was running a BBE Sonic Maximizer thru the loop

I watched this clip last night, but I believe he said it was the EQX (eq expand switch) on the amp that made it seem like a Sonic Maximizer.

[1trussell]

I watched this clip last night, but I believe he said it was the EQX (eq expand switch) on the amp that made it seem like a Sonic Maximizer.

Whatever, he still wasn't using a Super Distortion or a Super 3 or some shit.

[toejam]

LOL Okay. One of these days I'll get me a Duncan Distortion.