Carvin Mental Hystrionics!

[yard dawg]

Im sure it will be reliable. Carvin designs the gear to handle more than its capable of. Make sense??? If its a 100 watt amp then all the pieces and parts are designed to work at lets say 120 watts. They do this for reliability.

[Cygnus X1]

The reissue is switchable 100, 50, and 25 watts.
I've only had one person state that Carvin amps are inferior,
maybe he has a beef. Everyone gets one bad apple.
Hopefully the bonus will come this week, then I'll see.

[straycat]

I'm glad the reissue is switchable thats what I like about mine.You can switch cabs and tweak the wattage to fit the cab.

[fr0sty]

I had a '88 version with 6l6's. It sounded great for hard rock and early metal. The eq was very versatile. Is sounded especially good with a bbe stinger pedal.

[Rupe]

A buddy of mine in the 80's played an X220 Koa through an X100B amp with a matching Carvin 4x12 (he bought them new at the same time in '84) and juiced it with a Boss DS-1 (he also had a board full of Boss effects). He had one of the best tones that I've heard to this day for classic metal.

The biggest knock on newer Carvin gear is component quality...my amp tech said they use some of the cheapest garbage that he has ever seen in an amp and that the wiring is poorly done. This was in reference to a Legacy head.

[skorb]

The biggest knock on newer Carvin gear is component quality...my amp tech said they use some of the cheapest garbage that he has ever seen in an amp and that the wiring is poorly done. This was in reference to a Legacy head.

that is the first such remark I've heard about Carvin gear.

but in these days of every company going for anything on the cheap they can get away with, I would not be too surprised with just about any revelation about quality or lack thereof.

at least they are made here in the USA. and I've been nothing but pleased with the Carvin V3 head I got a few months back. I know nothing about the guts but it's real poplar plywood construction and built heavy duty. so far so good.

[necrotechno]

The Legacy has gone through several phases of quality through its production. Read some of the reviews at H-C for funny stories (well, I don't own a Legacy so I think they're funny) of the time period where Legacies would randomly catch fire.

[skorb]

the time period where Legacies would randomly catch fire.

no no, that was a feature Vai designed into the amp to give it that hot boost

[Cygnus X1]

Well, after all the great support from all of you, guess what.
My mind has been changed.
Son #1 noted I'm already attenuating my 22 watt amp, why would I need something that's 10 times as loud? And son number 2 is ready (has earned), through a lot of great work, a new laptop to replace his old one. So, drumroll...
I decided I'm going to build what I want. I have so many unused amp parts laying around, and like doing it, so I might as well make my own tone monster.
How does four 6550's sound? Overdriven? Like 200 watts, for only about 200 dollars worth of parts. I already have the transformers, sockets, and many of the board components. Seriously, I'll probably just stick with a 6V6 dual, with switches for 6L6, KT88, etc. I love the way the 6V6 sings. More hystrionics...but the family gets the riches. And I get to play with another project.

BTW, fett's amp came out great.

[Kage]

I used to get guys come up to me at shows asking me where my rack was.

Did you ever tell them "Your girlfriends shirt"?

As for the Carvin, I have an MTS head that I'm warming up to slowly, now that it's set up for EL34's. I would love to hear what the new X100B sounds like.

[Cygnus X1]

I just got done ordering transformers and some oddball things I don't have from Weber.
Grand total, 178.00, which includes enough to rebuild the Deluxe Reverb.
I'll have enough supplies to build just about anything I want.
I, uh, understand there probably aren't very many amp builders here, but I'm thinking
of a gain drenched 6V6 setup, one channel, no reverb, with a standard Marshall tone stack. Push Pull, based on the Deluxe 5E3. Very basic, but with a gain stage or two.
Maybe one to push a preamp, and another one to push the power tubes. 5Y3 rectified.
(I wonder if I should go with a diode rectifier?)...Anyways, the PT is designed for anything from a 5V4 to a 5Y3, or a 5U4GB. Depends on what I want to design.

[atilla]

I 5Y3 rectified.
(I wonder if I should go with a diode rectifier?)

Yes, go with the diode rectifier. You won't have that spongy feel and sag. More reliable, too.

[Rupe]

I'm thinking of a gain drenched 6V6 setup

That can work but you have to carefully voice it for minimal lows as 6V6's tend get "flubby" in the bottom end at volume. When I gig with my old Deluxe Reverb, I run the bass on 3 and it can still get loose on me. High gain will just make things worse. A vintage Marshall tone stack may work as they tended to have weak lows while really pushing the upper mids.

[Kage]

I, uh, understand there probably aren't very many amp builders here, but I'm thinking of a gain drenched 6V6 setup, one channel, no reverb, with a standard Marshall tone stack.

Very cool, would love to hear how that turns out. Atilla and I have discussed many times how much he'd like to find something like that. I think it'd be great for playing heavy music at smaller clubs.

[Cygnus X1]

That can work but you have to carefully voice it for minimal lows as 6V6's tend get "flubby" in the bottom end at volume. When I gig with my old Deluxe Reverb, I run the bass on 3 and it can still get loose on me. High gain will just make things worse. A vintage Marshall tone stack may work as they tended to have weak lows while really pushing the upper mids.

The Deluxe Reverb is very forgiving in the power section, as far as tubes go.
(At least on the AA763 and AB763 true blackfaces).
I put a 5U4 GB in it, and it tightened up the bass/mid bass at lower volumes.
It's difficult to get a good GZ34, but I have a very old Telefunken I keep stashed. It sounds good at high volume on this amp. A lot of GZ34's are rebranded 5Y3's, which are flubbly for the 22 watts. Mucho-saggio.

As for SS recto, if I were to go that route, I'd probably go with a 6L6 setup...
The 6V6 is picky around the SS recto's. Something about spikes.

Funny, I hijacked my own thread.