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MGR/Jonny T. « Carvin Quad X-Amp »
Published on 03/07/03 at 15:00I bought this preamp off ebay for $399 US.
This preamp is very very versatile. The cleans are very Fendery, maybe a little bit too bright at times, but you can always turn down the treble! Channel one and two are clean, channel 3 and 4 are dirty. They all sound great. I like all of them equally, for their own reasons. A lot of people say they don't like Channel 3, but I use it for my solo sound and I think it is very smooth. (depends a lot on the tubes you are using though.) I have just been using it with the stock tubes and it sounds great, so new EH or groove tubes would probably make it sound fantatstic! The tone controls are active, so you can take any eq possibility to the extreme, and, more importantly anywhere in between. The thing I like the best about this is it's degree of control. There is an eq for 1, 2&3 share,and 4, and an assignable 5 band graphic eq. There are effects loops on each channel (always on) plus two master effects loops (a serial AND a parallel) that you can turn on and off via the footswitch. Full stereo capability on these effects loops. Many more features I like, read the manual at www.carvin.com/manuals/quadx.pdf
I use this for prog rock with fairly complex chord inversions, and the distortion lets every not come out clearly. Try playing a Bbmaj9b5 with your distortion sound and see how clear it sounds. The quad-x makes it clear. I use the gain on channel four at about 3.5 or 4 and it is a perfect sound for me.
The only thing I don't really like about this is that the reverb has some 60 cycle hum when you turn it up, but I use an external reverb when I need it. The midi capability is there, but you can only change channels, and the midi patches are preset in the unit; you have like four options in how to lay it out. But I still think that it's usable. The distortion could probably be a little bit tighter at times, but that would probably change with tube selection.
This thing is built pretty well from what I can tell. In mine, the circuit the tube sockets are on is a little loose, but I don't think that is a problem in any way, I've changed some tubes just to experiment a couple of times, no problems. It looks and feels like a quality piece of gear.
This thing sounds great and gives you a lot of control over all it's aspects.
You can get almost any sound I can think of with this thing. I have gotten good distortion tones from blues to scooped mid metal distortions (which, in my opinion, are kinda dumb anyways) and it does it all well, not excellent, mind you, but very good. If you want one particular tone to be excellent get a specialized amp, but if you want a flexible, versatile unit that sounds really good, get this. It is a really good value for the money, comparable to the mesa quad, but the mesa obviously has some advantages (again I reference price)If this were a value for the dollar rating, I would give it a 5, but this is an overall rating. I give it four. Very good unit! If you want any questions answered that you can't find elsewhere, feel free to email me!
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
This preamp is very very versatile. The cleans are very Fendery, maybe a little bit too bright at times, but you can always turn down the treble! Channel one and two are clean, channel 3 and 4 are dirty. They all sound great. I like all of them equally, for their own reasons. A lot of people say they don't like Channel 3, but I use it for my solo sound and I think it is very smooth. (depends a lot on the tubes you are using though.) I have just been using it with the stock tubes and it sounds great, so new EH or groove tubes would probably make it sound fantatstic! The tone controls are active, so you can take any eq possibility to the extreme, and, more importantly anywhere in between. The thing I like the best about this is it's degree of control. There is an eq for 1, 2&3 share,and 4, and an assignable 5 band graphic eq. There are effects loops on each channel (always on) plus two master effects loops (a serial AND a parallel) that you can turn on and off via the footswitch. Full stereo capability on these effects loops. Many more features I like, read the manual at www.carvin.com/manuals/quadx.pdf
I use this for prog rock with fairly complex chord inversions, and the distortion lets every not come out clearly. Try playing a Bbmaj9b5 with your distortion sound and see how clear it sounds. The quad-x makes it clear. I use the gain on channel four at about 3.5 or 4 and it is a perfect sound for me.
The only thing I don't really like about this is that the reverb has some 60 cycle hum when you turn it up, but I use an external reverb when I need it. The midi capability is there, but you can only change channels, and the midi patches are preset in the unit; you have like four options in how to lay it out. But I still think that it's usable. The distortion could probably be a little bit tighter at times, but that would probably change with tube selection.
This thing is built pretty well from what I can tell. In mine, the circuit the tube sockets are on is a little loose, but I don't think that is a problem in any way, I've changed some tubes just to experiment a couple of times, no problems. It looks and feels like a quality piece of gear.
This thing sounds great and gives you a lot of control over all it's aspects.
You can get almost any sound I can think of with this thing. I have gotten good distortion tones from blues to scooped mid metal distortions (which, in my opinion, are kinda dumb anyways) and it does it all well, not excellent, mind you, but very good. If you want one particular tone to be excellent get a specialized amp, but if you want a flexible, versatile unit that sounds really good, get this. It is a really good value for the money, comparable to the mesa quad, but the mesa obviously has some advantages (again I reference price)If this were a value for the dollar rating, I would give it a 5, but this is an overall rating. I give it four. Very good unit! If you want any questions answered that you can't find elsewhere, feel free to email me!
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com