Carvin Bel Air

[fatboywhitney]

I'm curios about the tone of the Carvin Bell Air 50w Dual 12" Vintage Amp.

I'm using a Fender HRDx now that I'm not that happy with and I'm shopping on a budget. At $700 it's in my price range but have to mail order it unless I drive to San Diego to try it. (1000 miles from me)

- five 12AX7's
- four EL84's
- two 12" Celestion Vintage 30's

Anyone like it for blues and rock?

--Mike

 

[coachc55]

Re: Carvin Bel Air

I haven't tried one. But I've heard good and bad. I've heard the clean channel is very good. Has a nice Fender Twin sound to it. I think you can also get them used on ebay for a real good price. Some say that these amps are underrated. They are defintely reasonably priced with Celestion Vintage 30's and EL 84's. They do have sound clips on their site, but they are limited.

CoachC

 

[Chaos]

Re: Carvin Bel Air

Clean channel is nice.
'Soak" channel is kind of muddy from the factory, however there are some simple mods that greatly improve the amp.

See: http://www.geocities.com/rlhassebrock/nomad.html
(note: Nomad and Belair are the same amp in 1x12" and 2x12" configurations)

 

[fatboywhitney]

Re: Carvin Bel Air

Thanks for the responses. I check into the mods or maybe just save for a Twin Reverb.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Carvin Bel Air

Played through a used one once. Didn't like it. Like Chaos said, Soak channel was muddy/buzzy, and the clean didn't do anything for me either.

 

[stangme01]

Re: Carvin Bel Air

get a PV classic if you want an el84 amp

 

[frpax]

Re: Carvin Bel Air

I've heard very good things about the Bel Air.

Unfortunately, I just can't go play one. I have to buy it, then in a short amount of time, decide whether I like it or not. If I don't like it, I have to pay to ship it back. I do not know anyone that has one tha I can try out.

I HAD a Hot Rod Deluxe, and didn't care for it. Sold it.

I HAVE a Blues DeVille 2x12 and like it a lot, but 65 watts is too much for what I need right now. Keeping it for when I make it BIG. (LOL!)

I just pulled the trigger to have a buddy build me a Low Powered Tweed Twin clone (a clone of the Fender '57 Twin). My buddy makes AWESOME tweed clones. Better than Victoria... (so I have heard from 2 people who have both)

 

[thucydides]

Re: Carvin Bel Air

I have a Bel Air. The clean channel is excellent. The soak channel is limited. The Vin 30s, which they now ship them with, help quite a bit. The Carvin spkrs that used to come in them until a couple yrs ago, were very limited on the soak channel. W/the Vin 30s, you can use the gain to a point which is nice for blues and blues rock, and some classic rock. With the right hot humbucker, you can get some decent old school punk tones (think: late 70s English punk). However, once you get past 11 o clock, or noon, on the soak, it does get muddy and buzzy.

The mods are supposed to really make the soak channel of the amp shine, but I have not heard a modded Bel Air myself. It does take pedals well, if you wanted to go the OD/distorsion box route.

Someone on the gtr amp section of the discussion board at carvin.com can direct you re the mods. A guy named Richard Hasserl came up w/a set of mods that he can do for you, or he can provide a kit for you or your amp tech.

I used to own a Peavey Classic 50. I thought the OD channel was much better than the Carvin, but I liked the Carvin's clean a bit better. The only thing that really bugged me about the Classic 50 was that the two channels shared an EQ. The Carvin has seperate EQing for each channel.

Having said all of that, if your 60 watt Fender is too much, then the Belair will be too much. Try a Peavey Classic 30.

Hope this helps...Good luck!