callous_frigid_chill
New member
As some of you folks may know, I ordered a Carvin Vintage 16 recently. It came down to a choice between the Carvin, the Fender Blues Junior, and the Crate V16 Palomino. I decided to get the Carvin because it comes stock with a Celestion Vintage 30. There was a screw up during the order, but the customer service dude responded quickly and was helpful.
It arrived yesterday. I inspected it for damage and there was none. I turned it on and left it for a few minutes to let it warm up. It had the basic features like most amps, such as a gain control, etc. When I finally plugged in, I thought the clean sounded great! I don't have any experience with Fenders, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it sounds awesome. It has a nice high end shimmer that was very pleasing. I thought it sounded good plain, but with the reverb, it is amazing. It is an Accutronics spring reverb tank. I do admit it's a bit noisy past about 2, but I have no need for that much reverb.
Now, onto the distortion. Like a lot of amps, the distortion is lacking at low volumes. But once I got the power tubes cooking, any dread about bad distorted tone left me. The sweet spot seems to be with the preamp gain around 8 and the master volume also at eight. With the gain any higher, it lost some definition and got slightly congested.
Playing with the knobs on the guitar allowed me to obtain a variety of classic tones, from Jimmy Page's crunchy sound on "Whole Lotta Love," to Eric Clapton's smooth and creamy tone with cream. Rolling down the volume cleaned up the sound nicely, as did simply playing softer.
I also got some great tone with my Tele. The bridge pickup was a little too bright, so I was required to roll the tone back. This allowed me to switch between my LP and Tele without adjusting the amp's settings. Anyway, rolling the tone off produced a thick, crunchy tone. Classic stratty sounds were also easy to obtain using the neck and middle positions. Of course, there's none of the "quack" associated with Strats, but that's not what you by a Telecaster for.
Rolling the volume down produced some of the best clean tones I've heard from an amp. The reverb really added depth and dimension to the sound that I love.
The amp also has a thing to switch between 5 and 15 watts. I don't really have much use for this. I tried it, and the difference in volume at the point of breakup was negligible, so I just keep it on 15 for more headroom.
All in all, it's a great amp if you're looking for a low wattage amp to give great classic tones at an affordable price.
It arrived yesterday. I inspected it for damage and there was none. I turned it on and left it for a few minutes to let it warm up. It had the basic features like most amps, such as a gain control, etc. When I finally plugged in, I thought the clean sounded great! I don't have any experience with Fenders, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it sounds awesome. It has a nice high end shimmer that was very pleasing. I thought it sounded good plain, but with the reverb, it is amazing. It is an Accutronics spring reverb tank. I do admit it's a bit noisy past about 2, but I have no need for that much reverb.
Now, onto the distortion. Like a lot of amps, the distortion is lacking at low volumes. But once I got the power tubes cooking, any dread about bad distorted tone left me. The sweet spot seems to be with the preamp gain around 8 and the master volume also at eight. With the gain any higher, it lost some definition and got slightly congested.
Playing with the knobs on the guitar allowed me to obtain a variety of classic tones, from Jimmy Page's crunchy sound on "Whole Lotta Love," to Eric Clapton's smooth and creamy tone with cream. Rolling down the volume cleaned up the sound nicely, as did simply playing softer.
I also got some great tone with my Tele. The bridge pickup was a little too bright, so I was required to roll the tone back. This allowed me to switch between my LP and Tele without adjusting the amp's settings. Anyway, rolling the tone off produced a thick, crunchy tone. Classic stratty sounds were also easy to obtain using the neck and middle positions. Of course, there's none of the "quack" associated with Strats, but that's not what you by a Telecaster for.
Rolling the volume down produced some of the best clean tones I've heard from an amp. The reverb really added depth and dimension to the sound that I love.
The amp also has a thing to switch between 5 and 15 watts. I don't really have much use for this. I tried it, and the difference in volume at the point of breakup was negligible, so I just keep it on 15 for more headroom.
All in all, it's a great amp if you're looking for a low wattage amp to give great classic tones at an affordable price.
