Carvin Bass Amp opinions

[JohnS]

I just got the latest Carvin catalog in the mail and am intrigued by the micro bass amps. Small light and powerful is just what I want. I know these are not available yet, but does anyone have opinions on Carvin bass amps in general? Thanks.

[fenderslaper]

I have a Carvin preamp in my bass rig. They no longer sell it, and that's too bad, because it really is great. I bought my first Carvin amp in 1968 and it still works. I don't know anything about their new stuff, but if it's as good as my pre I would be happy with it.

[Tim Armstrong]

I've heard some complaints about one of their newer amps having some reliability issues. I'd probably go over to TalkBass and see what they're saying there...

edit: okay, I followed my own advice, and didn't see any grumbling about reliability, so either I remembered wrong or they've fixed whatever issue I was remembering. As for the amps, they aren't actually available just yet, so it's hard to say how they actually are. Certainly sound promising, though!

Tim

[JohnS]

Yeah, pity they are due out the end of the month. I'd love sound clips or reviews. Any ideas as to Carvin resale value?

[4mal]

about zip... looks at the GFS section at Talkbass to get an idea. Carvin and resale are mutually exclusive terms unless the price is extremely favorable.

I've been up close and personal with 2 of Carvin's recent amps. A BX500 & 1200 - I wouldn't want to rely on either. Maybe they just feel flimsy or maybe they really are. Either way - not for me ...

What I find darned strange is that their poweramps are seemingly well constructed. There are local sound companies and clubs that have a bunch of them and I've never heard of one failing. Why they don't carry that same level level of construciton over into the amps I find a little odd - it may be that they just can't get there at the price point.

For me the sweet spot price wise in micro amps is GK. I have a year old MB2-500 that I really like a lot. For the dough it was and is a real value. Based on experience I have no doubt that it will for years to come.

[Leon Grizzard]

Not a bass amp, but I have one of their acoustic guitar amps. It is a few years old and has developed an intermitent cutting out. It is useless now because it only goes out for a second or so; not long enough for the tech to track it down. I leave it on and turn it on and off to try to make it fail completely, but so far no luck. I guess a component can fail in any amp, and I generally regard Carvin's quality as quite high.

[Honga Man]

Originally Posted by 4mal

What I find darned strange is that their poweramps are seemingly well constructed. There are local sound companies and clubs that have a bunch of them and I've never heard of one failing. Why they don't carry that same level level of construciton over into the amps I find a little odd - it may be that they just can't get there at the price point.

I used to use a rackmount setup for my bass amp - a Yamaha bass preamp with a Carvin HT750 power amp (from the late '90s). It worked fine for a few years and then one side of the amp stopped working. The amp was no longer under warranty or in production and Carvin said they wouldn't / couldn't repair it since they "had no parts for it". That sounded a little fishy to me but I understand they're in business to sell new amps, not fix old ones.

They did offer me a nice trade-in allowance toward a new power amp, which I appreciated but I already had another amp so I didn't take them up on it. They also emailed me a schematic for the amp very quickly but I found no local amp techs would work on Carvin amps. Apparently their schematic specified Carvin part numbers for otherwise ordinary electronic stuff so it would be trial and error for a tech to find the right values for capacitors and whatever else is inside an amp.

I finally sold it to an older guy on craigslist who said he was retired and liked to tinker on electronics.

To be fair, I was in a gigging cover band at the time and hauled that amp around two or three nights a week. I never dropped it or anything but it got plenty of local travel. Perhaps it would have lasted longer in a permanent installation in a club, church, or wherever. One side of the amp still worked and was plenty of power for what I needed at the time but it bugged me that I couldn't run two cabinets and I didn't trust the amp with one side broken.

I have mixed feelings about Carvin electronics now. I love their bass cabinets - light and loud - but I think I might go with QSC or Crown next time based on reviews I've read. Or Peavey, if their amps are still MIA but I think they're mostly made in China now, aren't they? I'm not opposed to buying Chinese stuff in principle but it presents the same service problem as buying a Carvin.

[Louthunder]

Here's my Q from a guy that like guitars(basses) ya plug in. What do you do if your amp goes down? Who fixes them and where do you get parts? I've heard the parts they use tend to be on the cheap side. That's the only thing that has prevented me from getting a Carvin. I would love it if I was wrong!!?

[Timmus]

From a guy that owns Carvin bass guitars and used to fix amps for a living (and still does the part time thing repairing amps...)

The guitars are great, amps, myeh. They use cheap parts and their workmanship is not that great and they cut alot of corners in their manufacturing processes...I've had little problem getting support on the newer stuff but older stuff, you're kind of on your own...fortunately, most amp techs cans still fix most of the issues in these amps because they used alot of "off the shelf" parts.

I find it hard to believe that the guitars and amps come out of the same factory (or maybe they don't any longer).

[JohnS]

Wow. Thanks for info guys. I was kind of concerned and you have confirmed why. Thanks again.