back to tubes

NAD! I scored a carvin V3m amp head from a last minute ebay auction last week. Was looking for a lighter amp that has better punch for solos and better quality distortion at higher volumes. Found it. Excellent condition, good deal - $100 off usual price.
3 channels: clean and 2 identical OD's. Master vol and a nice reverb. each channel w/ presence/vol/drive/treb/mid/bass and an eq expander switch and drive option switch (bright/nl/soak for clean, intense/nl/thick for OD's). Power is 50/22/7 w, 2 speaker outs into 16/8/4 ohms. 4 button footswitch for ch3/ch1-2/reverb/boost. Boost is 0-6 db, control on back. Footswitch cord is shorter than I'd like. Has an effects loop but no mix control for the loop. I picked up a carvin 2x12 cab, 200w at 8 ohm to go with it. Much easier to tote than my 4x12 which has become treacherous on the basement stairs. Has four 12ax7 preamp tubes and four EL84 power tubes.

Clean channel is nice and clean with the drive < 5. eq expander switch is nice with this. Get's respectable blues OD with the drive at 8-9 and "soak" switch on. I prefer steppin into my blues driver pedal from clean settings when needed for that sound.
OD channels have tons of power and punch, and really nice quality distortion and harmonics which doesn't degrade at higher volumes - just what i was looking for.

The legacy and asat special both sound great through this. It's not quite as transparent on the clean channel as my other amps. A little more in your face. The compressor/sustainer pedal helps with this, and i like it with single coils anyway. The asat sp sounds especially great on the OD channels. no need for humbuckers with this amp. The large coil mfd's overdrive beautifully and maintain adequate string separation, no mud. The speaker cab has carvin G12's which are excellent quality. has open and closed back option. I have used closed to enhance the bass response.

So far, quite pleased with the amp. Will need to try it out with the band soon. Fumble Fingers uses one of these. We have been discussing it for awhile now. I think i will replace my rack mount processor with delay, flange and chorus pedals to use in the loop.

John, welcome back to the tube world. Sounds like you are very happy with this rig. I use a Carvin RS1000 for gigging my bass. I am very happy with it. I do not like the effects on it but never use them. It is a solid state amp but does the job very well. Keep tweaking the dials and enjoy! -- Darwin

My amp has two dials. Your Carvin would overwhelm me. It certainly looks like it would be versatile though.

My amp has two dials. Your Carvin would overwhelm me. It certainly looks like it would be versatile though.

it's not as bad as it looks ..lol ..... you basically have three amps to set in one box , just adjust one channel at a time then your done ..... I do tweak them a bit more depending on wich guitar I'm using and there is a learning curve with it but it is pretty versatile little amp for 19 lbs that packs a good punch



congrats on your new amp !! ..... I'm way past the honey moon but still in love with this little thing , I bought one to replace a amp I use in our Metal band the Peavey 6505 that was too heavy to carry and a lame clean channel , the V3m delivers , dirty channels are just as dirty and no comparison on the clean channel , it was a win win in my book and easy on the pocket book too , it's the best money I've spent on a amp so far

Hey drjho7

Nice amp you have there. Tubes are the way to go imo.
I build my own amps from kits and run into the same problem you have. About 8,000 buttons on the beast.

I always thought the footswitch cord is short on purpose. To reduce signal interference. At least I think so.

What does this statement mean?

better quality distortion at higher volumes.

I am not sure what happens at higher volumes. Is the speaker degrading a higher volumes?
I'm not sure how distortion quality fades, could you please explain, I am interested in knowing about this phenomenon.

drjho7 congrats on the Carvin and getting some tubes back in your arsenal! Those V3's are sweet amps.

Look forward to your reviews.

Thanks gents!
I like fumble fingers' analogy of 3 amps in 1. Makes it easier for me to think about.
Something is to be said for one-knob "mxr phase 90" simplicity, though, glvourot.
Meowmix, i have been playing through a marshall avt 100 hybrid amp for awhile.
It has been a great amp with super clean channel, very interactive and responsive tone controls, and very nice marshall quality saturated distortion at low to mid volumes on the 2 overdrive channels, thanks to its one pre-amp ecc83 tube. What I haven't liked about it are some degradation in the distorted tone at higher performance volumes for the OD channels, and the fact that the OD2 channel was super-saturated, and was too muddy for solos. During gigs I would be somewhat disappointed.
The carvin appears to have solved those problems, although I will need to see how it performs with the band.