Bought a Carvin Belair!

[Seraphial]

First impressions - Sturdily built, tho had a bit of a rattle as I carried it up my stairs. Looks great, tweeds very striking. Am a little concerned about how close the knobs are to each other, especially when gigging. Would have liked the Footswitch plug to have been in the front, but that's personal preference. Came with a Proel LED footswitch which channel changes and turns the reverb on and off - much preferred than the LED-less Carvin standard footswitch.

Sounds - really nice cleans. Playing through my strat the tone was obviously Fender-ish, with great presence and nice quack in the 4th position. Doesn't break up too early whihc is nice as well. 2nd channel with Soak has lotsa midrange, a lil flabby (in comparison to the 5150 & Marshall I've had, but that's to be expected) in the bass, but had enough built-in gain to pinch harmonic, which is great.

Haven't plugged in any pedals yet but will see in the weekend. At NZ$725, which ain't a bad price over here, I'm stoked.

 

[Bones]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

I am happy for you dude, I really dig the carvin stuff man. Most of it is top notch. Enjoy!

 

[tone4days]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

congrats - enjoy and play in good health

getcha retro on!

cheers
t4d

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

I've always thought that the Belaire and the Legacy were the two best amps Carvin ever released. Some of the flabbiness in the lows could be fixed by retubing with JJ power tubes and GT12AX7C pre tubes. Also, swapping the speakers for Celestion
vin 30 and G12H30. Nice score!

 

[JeffB]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

I've had fairly moderate GAS for a BelAir after hearing the soundclips on the Carvin site. A little flubby in the low end, but jes a way cool tone to the amp. A TS-9 or Boss SOD would prolly do the trick for getting the bottom end to tighten up a bit.


Congrats!

 

[Curly]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

good score!

it is good to satisfy your need for tweed!

 

[Seraphial]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

Some of the flabbiness in the lows could be fixed by retubing with JJ power tubes and GT12AX7C pre tubes. Also, swapping the speakers for Celestion vin 30 and G12H30. Nice score!

Thnaks for the tips Joneser! I've heard about a number of tips concerning mods - I remember stumbling on a website that showed off quite a few mods (from speakers and tubes to resoldering to keep the heat down). Anyone know the page?

 

[Jeffrec]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

I've always thought that the Belaire and the Legacy were the two best amps Carvin ever released. Some of the flabbiness in the lows could be fixed by retubing with JJ power tubes and GT12AX7C pre tubes. Also, swapping the speakers for Celestion
vin 30 and G12H30. Nice score!

I would definitely re-tube.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

Ah, the one on tradeflea. Good score! -I've only played the 1x12s, but I thought they were pretty nice amps.

 

[Seraphial]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

Ah, the one on tradeflea. Good score! -I've only played the 1x12s, but I thought they were pretty nice amps.

Yeah, nearly got sniped at the last minute too :dance: I was looking to pick one up at trade prices (around $1400 new) from Jansens, but this one came along in good condition and I reckon I could sell it for the same price if I sell it.

 

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Bought a Carvin Belair!

I've got a Vintage 33 (out of prod now) with a pile of mods that make the Carvin sound like a real amp. I run the 1x12 with a 4x10 ext cab. The "hasserl" mods (found on the carvin forum) along a set of JJ tubes and a speaker change will blow you away. The mods basically get rid of the diode clipping circuit on the lead channel (which stock act like a cheesy distortion box) and change the tone stack to be just like the clean channel which is really great! The JJ tubes I got from Eurotubes are graded at 37 which are just bordering on brown sound tone.