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MGR/Joe Pompeo « Carvin Bel Air 212 »
Published on 08/05/01 at 15:00Direct from Carvin. Read some good reviews. The amp had a very nice look. The Carvin catalogue is well done. I paid 559 plus about 25 for shipping. There is a ten day money back trial period so I thought it was worth a shot
First and formost is the look of the amp. Carvin has really got the look down right. If you take the name plate you would swear this was a 40 year old amp.The sound of the amp is very nice. There are two distinct channels. Channel one is the clean channel. It has treble,mid and bass controls that are very responsive to little tweaks. I have found more than one sweet spot on this amp just in the frst channel. There is also another treble control on the back of the amp that lets you brighten up the sound with out harshness. The amp has plenty of volume and the sustain on the clean channel is sweet. The overdrive channel also has a treble, mid and bass eq. There is a soak pot that lets you go from a little dirt to total staturation. You can definitely get woman tone out of this baby. I play a 98 Strat with Kinman pickups and let me tell you this is the sweetest sounding amp I have ever owned. I have owned Marshalls , Ampegs , Peavy and more than a few Fender amps. These amplifiers all served me well and certainly sounded great but none of them was ever exacly what I was looking for. There was always something missing. Fender came the closest for sound but I have never been happy with the lack of quality Fender seems to display in some key areas. The amps are usually noisy and they don't use the best pots. Carvin has adressed these problems and done it for a lot less. If Fender were producing this amp the would be charging around 800 at the store, their list would probably be 1100.THe sound ot the Carvin really nails what Fender is known for but with out the noise and with out sounding exacly like a Fender. If you love the Fender sound and you know what I mean about the noise and their pricing, try one of the Carvins. The bang for the buck ratio will put you way ahead of the game.
I only have two small comlpaints about the amplifier.The rectifier is not tube and the handle is rubber, not leather. I don't think that the sound the sound suffers too much by the lack of a tube rectifier and in fact thats probably a trade off for the extra volume. As far as the handle the catalogue shows a nice fat leather handle but what you get is brown rubber. I have written and e-mailed Carvin to complain about these two points but thwy have not replied.
I think this amplifier is extremely well made.The have used high quality electronics and very nice pots. The speakers are very responsive and even thought they don' use the best tubes, the tone of this ting is unbeleivable. This is by far and away the most well made and sweet sounding amplifier I have ever owned.
If you play bluse or classic rock, love the Fender sound but hate the prices and the noise try one of these amps. The range of tones and breadth of expression from theis amp rivals amps that cost three times as much.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
First and formost is the look of the amp. Carvin has really got the look down right. If you take the name plate you would swear this was a 40 year old amp.The sound of the amp is very nice. There are two distinct channels. Channel one is the clean channel. It has treble,mid and bass controls that are very responsive to little tweaks. I have found more than one sweet spot on this amp just in the frst channel. There is also another treble control on the back of the amp that lets you brighten up the sound with out harshness. The amp has plenty of volume and the sustain on the clean channel is sweet. The overdrive channel also has a treble, mid and bass eq. There is a soak pot that lets you go from a little dirt to total staturation. You can definitely get woman tone out of this baby. I play a 98 Strat with Kinman pickups and let me tell you this is the sweetest sounding amp I have ever owned. I have owned Marshalls , Ampegs , Peavy and more than a few Fender amps. These amplifiers all served me well and certainly sounded great but none of them was ever exacly what I was looking for. There was always something missing. Fender came the closest for sound but I have never been happy with the lack of quality Fender seems to display in some key areas. The amps are usually noisy and they don't use the best pots. Carvin has adressed these problems and done it for a lot less. If Fender were producing this amp the would be charging around 800 at the store, their list would probably be 1100.THe sound ot the Carvin really nails what Fender is known for but with out the noise and with out sounding exacly like a Fender. If you love the Fender sound and you know what I mean about the noise and their pricing, try one of the Carvins. The bang for the buck ratio will put you way ahead of the game.
I only have two small comlpaints about the amplifier.The rectifier is not tube and the handle is rubber, not leather. I don't think that the sound the sound suffers too much by the lack of a tube rectifier and in fact thats probably a trade off for the extra volume. As far as the handle the catalogue shows a nice fat leather handle but what you get is brown rubber. I have written and e-mailed Carvin to complain about these two points but thwy have not replied.
I think this amplifier is extremely well made.The have used high quality electronics and very nice pots. The speakers are very responsive and even thought they don' use the best tubes, the tone of this ting is unbeleivable. This is by far and away the most well made and sweet sounding amplifier I have ever owned.
If you play bluse or classic rock, love the Fender sound but hate the prices and the noise try one of these amps. The range of tones and breadth of expression from theis amp rivals amps that cost three times as much.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com