pandemic NAD

[john o]

(or, "less is more")

Dylan said it, "the times they are a changin'", not many places to go or things to do these days, especially if you are in California or New York, on ye olde lock down, but for a nature walk in the back yard, or indoor sports, like playing your favorite G&L through a fine amp! This one came along today, after some patient scrutiny on my part. I have wanted one for awhile, being a fan of carvin tube amps which have become extinct, a few of these are listed for about $400 online, this one slipped down to 350 for awhile, and on 3/17 with a bit of timely luck, the seller had a guinness and a shot of tullamore dew, and lowered the price to 296, i pounced.

This is really a treat, 1 channel, 16 watts (or option of triode at 5 watts), 3 preamp tunes (12ax7), 2 power tubes (EL84), and a spring reverb chamber that sounds delightful, 12 in Vintage VL-12 Carvin speaker rated at 70 watts. This amp debuted in 2002, and hasn't changed much since, though some have been offered with Celestion V30 speakers, and more recently they came with Carvin G12 100 watt speakers. It's had a DSP digital reverb since 2012 or so, mine is the earlier version spring/reverb tank, run by one of the 12ax7's.

What a great small tube amp! The gain (soak) control keeps the amp clean until > 6.5, at which it ramps up surprisingly into some grind, and this can be enhanced by the eq controls considerably. I love the crisp clean tone of this amp and the vintage vibe of the OD which is not muddy in any way but retains definition and an airy chimy nature. No need for mods on this one! I took the test run with my ASAT classic semi-hollow and they played well together.

The amp is in pristine condition and must be 10-15 years old. I can't find anything wrong with it, my 2016 Nomad has more wear on it from a few gigs than this one does. Luck of the Irish I suppose. I'm hoping to log some hours on this one as we are hunkering down at home. Could be recording time -
something that is rewarding but definitely time intensive, and there is always the re-learning curve.

I hope that everyone here stays healthy, wary, careful and lucky re: the challenges of this virus. It isn't the 1st and it won't be the last! Our health care system is still learning how to deal with it, and admittedly, our options are limited. Regards...

[john o]

a few pics...

[Danley]

Congrats on the new amp - Carvin has always been on my list of things to grab at some point. Two things that make me angry when I think about them: The lockdown, and Carvin Audio no longer making amps. At least they still make guitars under the Kiesel brand.

(Really, I've tuned out anything about the virus at this point. Sometimes knowing is half the battle, and sometimes knowing does nothing and only gets me more angry. I'm working from home right now - which I did about half the time anyway - and just pretending everything is normal for the sake of my sanity. I sort of miss the office though; at least when I was in the office, they had toilet paper. As it is, my wife is working at home too and each day the house feels about twenty square feet smaller. Test of a marriage, I suppose We can still go outside, and there is technically very little enforcement anyway but the weather outside is unusually terrible so I'm not eager to do that. I have been playing more guitar as a result, so taking advantage how I can.)

[Elwood]

Sounds like a keeper; light and versatile.



Be extra safe y'all, it's crazy how quick things escalate with this virus.

[Lacking Talent]

Was always intrigued by those (and it looks great, BTW)! How's the low power option sound?

[john o]

thx, lacking talent!
the low power (5w) option actually sounds better to me. the natural distortion/breakup from the gain setting > 7 sounds a little more distorted than at the normal (16w) setting. some have bragged about how great this sounds running it through a 2 x 12 cab at 5w. i haven't tried this yet.
I like the warm clean tone as well, and the tone stack is quite useful though a wide range of freq's. you can play jazz, blues or classic rock through this at low to moderate volume, and it does sound great with my Fulltone OD pedal out front. It's not just a practice amp, I think could be used in a club or small room, depending on who you're playing with.

I think the speaker matters too. this one came with a "vintage series" 70w 12 inch, which i am well pleased with. it has a nice bright but warm and transparent tone, with a slight hi fi nature. Someone bragged about the eminence cannabis rex in this, and i have one of those so i tried it and imo did not sound anywhere near as good as the carvin spkr, so i put it back in. By contrast, I have the carvin nomad, 50w, 1 x 12, and didn't like the 100w carvin g12 swpkr in that. I replaced it with a WGS ET65 spkr, which I can't say enough good things about, and really made a difference for the amp overall.

[john o]

Thx, Elwood, and Danley!
I've been enjoying this one with more time to play these days.

[Danley]

thx, lacking talent!
the low power (5w) option actually sounds better to me. the natural distortion/breakup from the gain setting > 7 sounds a little more distorted than at the normal (16w) setting. some have bragged about how great this sounds running it through a 2 x 12 cab at 5w. i haven't tried this yet.
I like the warm clean tone as well, and the tone stack is quite useful though a wide range of freq's. you can play jazz, blues or classic rock through this at low to moderate volume, and it does sound great with my Fulltone OD pedal out front. It's not just a practice amp, I think could be used in a club or small room, depending on who you're playing with.

I think the speaker matters too. this one came with a "vintage series" 70w 12 inch, which i am well pleased with. it has a nice bright but warm and transparent tone, with a slight hi fi nature. Someone bragged about the eminence cannabis rex in this, and i have one of those so i tried it and imo did not sound anywhere near as good as the carvin spkr, so i put it back in. By contrast, I have the carvin nomad, 50w, 1 x 12, and didn't like the 100w carvin g12 swpkr in that. I replaced it with a WGS ET65 spkr, which I can't say enough good things about, and really made a difference for the amp overall.

Which Fulltone? I love my Fulldrive 2 MOSFET, though it doesn't get much use through my Marshall (I'm fine with the master volume and channel switching.)

[y2kc]

Have heard nothing but good things about this amp. Perfect size, power and great tone. I have been wanting one for years but I am too poor.

I don't think you will find anything that compares for that price!

y2kc

[john o]

y2kc, true, worth waiting for. i think ~300 is a good sale price for that one, offer wise.

danley, i have a FD-3, the black one. it has 3 voicings for the overdrive side, one is the "'90's" Mosfet-like sound which is very nice, "symmetric" they say. The middle setting of the mini toggle is loud, in your face, but the one i like best is "wide asymmetric", not sure quite what that means but it sounds good, and although i like the mosfet, i think i like wide asymmetric just a little better. the boost side is just that, up to about 10 db boost, and then you can set the pedal for OD>>boost, or boost>>OD, the latter being more distorted and the former being louder. It's a very versatile pedal. I don't use it much at home, but i have used it playing out with my carvin nomad on the clean channel, very useful and great sounding pedal. some say it's a little dark but that's why they invented eq... i do love the way it interacts with the vintage 16

[Danley]

I think the FD2 MOSFET mode is symmetrical, and 'standard' mode is asymmetrical - I prefer the MOSFET mode, which is a bit edgier and more solid to my ears, but the standard mode is def. more creamy and smooth. It sounds like a lot of people who are a fan of the FD2 actually prefer the pre-MOSFET version.

There are also switches for mid cut/boost, but that seems somewhat subtle - more something you feel as a player than is audible to anyone in the audience. There's also a 'comp-cut' clean boost setting that has a TON of gain. Great pedal.

I also have a Fulldrive Distortion Pro - at times I feel like I can dial in a *decent* sound, but then it gets blown away by my stock DS1 or MXR Prime and I realize why the Fulldrive never really took off. It's got about ten knobs total including internal trimpots, and seems to be trying to do too much at once and keep everyone happy; very artificial sounding, but I'm not big on using distortion pedals anyway - would rather use amp gain, or an overdrive like the FD into a crunchy channel.