Ordered A Carvin V3 Head Today

[T@rgetDrone]

Ordered the V3 head today. They tossed in both the 2 and 4 switch foot pedals and I bought the cover. Only played the head for about an hour or so some time ago. Impressive, especially for the price. But it's not like me to buy an amp w/o putting a lot of time on one first. However, I did get sidetracked on my rack rig when I got the bad news about my previous surgery. I found a Mesa Boogie Stereo 2:Fifty for a decent price, new, and jumped on it. Still like it a lot. Though it's no VHT 2/50/2 or 2/90/2. Didn't cost nearly as much either.


Buying the Carin V3 set me back on stride to get my rack together as intended. I was going to go w/a SS power amp in the rack w/all it's goodies and augment w/a tube head. So I pulled the MB and put it on the Bay to help offset the cost. I'll miss it. Hopefully the Carvin will patch my wound. Problem is I have two 2x12 cabs, each wired for both mono/stereo. Each has a pair of 8 ohm speakers. So w/o rewiring it's a 2 ohm load. fine for the SS rack deal but no go for the tubie. So I also ordered 4 16 ohm WGS V30 clones to slap in. If all works as planned I'll be a happy camper once I get the SS power amp racked. It'll have to wait. I blew up the budget today, quick, fast, and in a hurry.

I'm not complaining. Though the wife might have a cow. I got off for a tad over $1100 for all, shipped to the door. All should arrive sometime next week. I'll follow up w/the V3 and the V30 Clones after I put them through their paces, post honeymoon. But I pretty much already know what to expect. I've put at least some time w/both. G.A.S. inoculation complete...... For Now!

[jgcable]

Congratz. You are going to love the amp. My bandmate has one and its really nice.

[ezbprimerib]

After you've played it for a bit, please let us know your thoughts on it...especially if you're going to use it in a band situation. I'm interested in this amp, however, checking out is difficult.

[T@rgetDrone]

Will do. I'll likely have plenty of time to break it in (or break it) before I play out again. Since my last surgery I play out even less than I did before. Twice, maybe three times a year. Next possibility is mid-late February. Another as late as early May. Also, I prefer to fight the urge to rant on about gear, good or bad, when it's fresh on-hand. Can't speak for others, but for me, if it sounds or plays respectable, I tend to over rate it a bit during the honeymoon phase.

I plan on noodling around on it for several days before I try to peel the paint job off my walls. Going to work on breaking in the speakers correctly. Ones I demoed were newish, a bit short of broken in. But they sounded very convincing as V30's to me.... Minus the mid spike issue. Maybe a tad smoother over all. Guess I'm discovering that I'm more concerned about the speaker to cab match than I am worried about if the V3 head is going to be a keeper or not. It's a LOT of hard work for a gimp in my condition to change out all the speakers. Insult to injury if they don't get my groove on.
I'd be more worried if they were Celestion V30's though. Maybe it's just my ears but they seem to have a mid spike issue and are very "sensitive" (for lack of a better word) to volume, pressure, something, not real sure. I've heard them in some "good" rigs that sounded like ass to me. But again, maybe it's just my ears. I'm certainly no authority.