My new (old) Carvin amp

David Higginbotham · From: Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA

I'm a sucker for Carvin tube amps and couldn't resist this one. Years ago I had a 1-12 and 2-12 version except they were stock EL-34's and had gray carpet instead of black tolex. The 1-12 I converted to a 1-15 installing a JBL K-130 and the 2-12 I had to build another cabinet as trying to remove the baffle resulted in total destruction. I moved onto other things and foolishly sold both.

Carvin offered these with the black tolex and 6L6's stock and you don't see many of them around but they sound great with steel. The stock 12 inch Carvin speaker sounds remarkably well but I plugged my open back Webb cabinet with a K-130 and totally blown away! These old Carvin amps were basically Mesa Boogie clones. With all of the boutique tube amps available these days, although they're great amps, still fail to get my preference over Carvin tube amps. I also have a Carvin TS-100 that I'm using with a blackface Walker preamp and it's the best tone I've ever had. Go Carvin!!!
Dave

Scott Duckworth · From: Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies

Now if you had a Carvin D-8 console to go with it, you'd be "pickin' in high cotton"!
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Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

That looks pretty sweet!

ajm · From: Los Angeles

I think that the one that I have is exactly like it.

Bought new in 1984 or so.
6L6 x 4, EVM 12 inch speaker.
Note: For a while early on they made some that only had the EQ BMTP controls working on the rhythm channel. The lead channel only had the graphic EQ for control. I have seen a 100 watt head this way. Mine has the BMTP on both channels, and the GEQ selectable to either. It looks like yours may be this way.

It looks like your amp has casters. A big "duh". These amps are HEAVY. If you look up the word "heavy" in the dictionary there are no words, and they have a picture of this amp instead.

These amps are also LOUD. And the clean channel stays clean.

The reverb is very good. That is one of the things that sold me on this amp.

I have owned this amp since new in 1984 or so. I have gigged very little with it, but FWIW it has never needed a repair. I've used it with a power attenuator and a DI box and speaker load for recording for the past 15 years or so.

Since mine is so old, I've used it as basically a "science project" platform for amp mods. I have done several things over the years that I think have improved or fixed some things.

One thing that I found with this amp, that probably applies to most amps, is that you need to turn it up to make it really come alive. I remember when I bought mine, I played it at my apartment for a week or so with the volume barely cracked. Not impressed, and I was going to take it back for a refund. As a last ditch effort I took it to a friends house for a jam session. As I was hauling it in I remember telling the guys that "I don't even know why I'm doing this, this amp is a dud and it's going back. Sorry for wasting your time." Turning the lead channel up to 3-4, they looked at me like I was nuts. This thing was a completely different beast.

Some of the mods that I have tried and the results.

1) Several resistor and capacitor changes to the lead channel to reshape the EQ and give it more "air" and probably less gain.

2) Swapped the op amps (4558) with a mix of OPA2604 and OPA2227 (thanks to prowling this forum for the idea). Note: I originally years ago first tried all OPA2604s and it was dull and sounded like there was a blanket over the amp. I then mixed in a couple of OPA2227s and it got it to a better area. However, I have since learned that the OPA2604s might need better decoupling on their power supply connections right at the chip. I have not gone back and tried this to see if that is a fix. For you guys doing mods to your N400s or whatever, you may want to consider this.

3) The 100/50/25 power reduction never worked right on the 25 setting. It sounded like the amp was broke when you slammed a chord or note hard. I tried several fixes for this over the years and none of them worked. I eventually rewired this section to change the negative feedback to different selectable values. I for several years have used a power attenuator for that function.

4) The line out jack never sounded right to me. I tried several fixes and eventually abandoned those experiments.

5) The effects loop: This IMO really needs to be fixed if you're using pedals in the loop. At the lowest level setting (-10 ??) the impedances are screwed up. In addition, the loop signal levels when you turn the amp up can overdrive any pedals in the loop. Since your loop pedals are probably chorus/flange/trem/reverb/delay, this is something that you probably don't want. By replacing a half dozen resistors in the loop send/return area this problem is fixed.

6) Changed the bright switch on the rhythm channel so it's a little smoother and not as piercing at lower volumes.

7) As mentioned, casters/wheels were added.

People always say that these were Mesa clones, but IMO not really. They did have an earlier version that had drive and master controls on both channels. I have never seen a schematic for one of these versions. I heard that they were sued by Mesa over that one, and maybe that lead to these later versions with a single volume control on the rhythm channel.

FWIW I have not seen an X amp schematic with diodes used for clipping. Some other Carvins, yes, but not an X amp.

The end.

Jerry Malvern · From: Menifee, California, USA

Great amps! I have an almost mint Carvin D-6 that I could probably be talked out of.

Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

Almost looks like a Mesa Boogie from the 90s. Those are heavy amps too. I remember carrying a 1x12 Boogie combo from my pal's apartment in Chicago to a pub just a couple blocks away. Had to take turns carrying it.

Howard Steinberg · From: St. Petersburg, Florida , USA

I had an xv-115, which looks to be this amp with a JBL K-130. Carvin marketed this amp for pedal steel. It was the best sounding steel I've ever had. I used it for steel and guitar from 1981 through around 2006. I sold it as I couldn't deal with the weight. I think the new price was around $700. Class D amps came along at just the right time for me.
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