Carvin R1000 Bass Head

I bought my amp used in 2006 and I just sold it. It has everything on it from direct out, speakon and 1/4" input speaker jacks, passive and active input, 9-band graphic EQ, parametric EQ, hi-mid-low boost, limiter, and many many more knobs. It has tons of power though with 1000W at bridged 4ohms, tube-emulation. This amp has way too many controls and unless you are willing to send hours and hours just moving knobs, you could get frustrated. I got rid of it for a naturally ballsy amp, AMPEG SVT-CL.

Despite all of the features, which in my opinion is toooooo many, the sound is just kind of lackluster. I find it to be alittle sterile and not enough "balls" for me. It is certainly a very versatile amp since you can get alot of sounds out of it, considering the amount of features. I played metal and pop punk with it and sometimes other various styles and for those styles i would not recommend it. I would recommend it for jazz or blues though since it can have a very smooth and nice warm sound. Like i said before due to the amount of control you have, you can get any sound you want, it just wont be the best, in my opinion. This could be a great amp if you want to really be a tone-nut and get a billion different tones, but its not for me. The amp creates many sounds but it just has a flat, sterile, thin sound alot of the times and doesnt really jump at you at all. But for the money it was great, hardly a better amp for the price. I know i just bashed it for ever but for the price, it is very versatile and a good amp overall.

This thing is built like a tank because it usually comes in this carpeted cover that is solid. I hear alot of people saying that this amp has mad problems but i owned it for 2.5 years and bought it used and only ever had one problem with it, that was a soldering joint needed to be resoldered on the input jack, but that happens on amps. I fixed it myself and I never had another problem. I would say this thing is pretty reliable, but that was just experience. its nice to have it built into a carpeted casing, but you can take it out and put it in a rack if you want too.

never did use, but I did get the manual online for free which was great.

Ive been playing bass for 6 years and this was my first head i bought and I played it through three different cabs GK Backline 410 then a Carvin RL410 and mostly through my Ampeg SVT 610 and through all of them it had the same type of sound. The great thing was that it had alot of power and

I have a late 90's series II model with a real tube preamp, not a emulator like the later series III. I purchased it new, and have had absolutely no problems with it. It is very versatile for different types of music. It can be dialed up in so many ways, you really have to spend some time finding your ideal tone and then tweeking it, but it is worth your while. Add the fx loop, dual preamp loops, biamp or bridged mode, and possibilities are endless.

I've used many basses through this rig; actives, passives, five strings, Bartolini. They all sound great, and this amp brings out the best in your bass. Tonally, I'd say this amp sounds somewhere in between SWR and SVT, but with less coloration. Also, the option of operating in bi-amp or full-range mode makes for more tonal choices. I've also run it in bridged mode (1000 watts) with two cabinets and it overpowers my cabinets! The direct out on the back is very clean; sound-guys love it.

I've had it for over eight years and have had no problems. It's even been dropped while unloading it from a trailer and it worked great for the rest of the tour.

I sent it back to Carvin after it was dropped. It worked fine, but the face-plate was slightly mangled from being dropped while in a rack. The customer service was great. They fixed it under warrantee and I got it back in less than a week.

I've been playing proffessionally for over ten years, and this has been my main amp onstage and in the studio. I love the tone and the flexibility of this amp. My complaints are the weight, and the mediocre cabinets that I purchased as part of a Carvin package. Other than that, this is a great amp, an outstanding value, and I would buy another Carvin any day.

I'm not going to write a detailed review. I own this head, the R1000, and I play it through the 4x10 red eye cab. I just want to clear some things up:
Those of you that are unhappy with this amp simply did not take the time to adjust your sound properly. The short manula has a quick start guide to properly set up the amp for playing right out of the box. From there there are many places you can take your sound. Most of you with technical problems or not getting enough wattage out of your amp are most likely not using the bi-amp feature correctly. Sit there and study the guide, then give it another shot, be sure you understand what is being explained to you. At 4 ohms bridged this amp actually DOES produce 1000 watts. You need to daisy chain two cabs together, connect them to the bridge channel and be sure the bridge switch is pressed.
I use this amp with all kinds of guitars around and I easily cut through the mix every time, with just a 4x10 cab!

The quality is excellent! I love this amp, I tried the full version, with th 1x18 in the store and fell in love. Since I was a broke kid then I had to buy it in pieces, first the 4x10 cab, then the R1000, i still need to buy the 1x18, but Im still broke.

I have had this amp for about 5 or 6 years now, its freakin awesome! Never broke down, no problems ever!!!!!

The only people I dealt with at Carvin were salespeople. A month after I bought the head it went on sale for $50 cheaper than I paid for it, took in my receipt and they gladly gave me credit. Never dealt with them again.

Just awesome! And a great deal!

SOUNDS GREAT!!
with the graphic and the parametric EQ ... you cant go wrong
i usually run my G&L which is active but sometimes i use my ibanez. Either way it still sounds awesome. I play alot of different Genres of Music.. everything from Hip-Hop to Jazz to metal

i did have some problems with it...

Like the distortion or fuzzy sounding power loss ...

but with a little cleaning of the pots and some contacts... it sounds brand new!!

I did call Carvin and ive noticed that Ribbon Cables do go out so i ordered some new ones... the total was just under $16.00

Called up for help


and they did just that

HELP

been playing for 7 years


absolutly love it!

Somewhat versatile, active EQ, "Tube" preamp, 1000 bridged watts.

Dry and weak sounding. Pops and hisses. Can't crank the sucker up without it shutting down.

Total piece of crap. I would rather have a 1955 Buick run over my gonads than use this worthless pile of **** again. I bought the thing brand new thinking it was a great bang for the buck. Worked marginal at best for about 3 months then just bit the dust. Output jacks died, began to distort, blew fuses, and smoked. This is a brand new amp and I babied it, and look what happened. Bought a Trace Elliot and sold the R1000

Friendly but equally worthless. Don't plan on them fixing anything quick. I had to buy another amp because they were so slow.

I've been playing for 15 years and I feel sorry for anyone duped into buying this horrible excuse for an amp. I would laugh at the dumb bastard that decided to steal this amp. I couldn't play a single show without worrying about the amp catching fire or going out. Avoid at all costs, even if its free, because it will cost money for beer and pills later.

This is a series three... This amp is full of features... bridged and separate outputs etc etc... It is very versatile for different sounds you are looking for... I liked the "tube" control (being that there is no tube I don't consider it a tube really)... There are a lot of ways to adjust with the equalizer... But features don't mean everything... I used this amp(after multiple fixings) at hundreds of shows... This is not exaggerated... The power was very nice, especially bridged...

I play more of alternative rock style music... This suited... The amp can make nearly any sound you want it to... Very clear (when working) at high volumes... I played an electric guitar through it once and it even gave that nice tone... It lacks in lows a bit(which i will explain)...

PPPPPPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! I had the Series 2 R600 before this amp... It was tortured by the previous owner and still much more reliable... The R1000 I had needed to be sent back twice for repair in less than two years... They told me the first time (the day it came to me!!!!!) that there was a bad solder joint and ribbon cables inside(straight from the factory????)...

So they fixed it sent it back and I used it for a couple months and then an atrocious noise came from it like something had completely shorted out (a crackling buzzing humming screeching) so I complained and they gave me a one time warranty repair...

Guess what it was.... Ribbon cables... Again... To make a long story short it happened again AFTER they fixed it(broken down time number 3).... The same exact thing... So I called and they told me they could not help me unless I paid to have it done... Instead they said to crack it open and stick a pencil on stuff and listen for the noise and buy that part(which again was the ribbon cables and that poorly constructed tube emulator)... No thanks... I don't want to buy a part that I will just have to replace again and again and again etc.......

I have had nothing but problems with this amp... I would highly suggest staying away... Maybe i had a "bad apple" but I think there is no excuse for that... Never again will I buy a Carvin bass amplifier...

I will give Carvin customer support props... They were very nice and, until the third time breaking, did all they could to help out... The warranty was decent.

Downside is that there is no authorized service center locally so I had to mail it across the country... That's a lot of shipping time...

Sometimes phone calls are hard to get a hold of them... But that is business I suppose...

I have been playing for a long time, through many people's amps, and have never been as disappointed as I was with this amp...

I wrote this review to warn people... That is all....

I bought a Genz Benz 750... The tone is 100x better than that of the Carvin... The lows boom, the mids are warm and adjustable, and the highs are crisp and clean...

Right now the R1000 is sitting in a closet in case one day i have a manic episode and decide to fix it for a backup... Which is something it is not even worthy of...

I would like to share that you would be wise to stay away... I was nervous before every gig for fear that my amp would explode... because it did... many times...

I would like to be nice and rate it better, but I do not want to even hint that people should get this... because they should not...

The R1000 red eye series III is a little different than the previous versions. The big difference is the lack of a real tube preamp. Which is no big deal if you are not expecting one. I actually prefer solid state for bass and never use the fake tube anyway. It has three basic equalizer groups. Three push buttons, a low boost, a mid scoop, and a high boost. Next, the typical knob eq, low, semi parametric mid, high. Thirdly, the 9- band graphic eq. I've found that I get a great tone just using the mid scoop button, leaving the knobs flat (12 o'clock) and keeping the graphic in reserve for slap tones. It IS 1000 watts, no matter what you may have read elsewhere. It will be loud enough if you use all 1000 watts. That means running at 4ohms in bridge mode. To get that I run two carvn 4x10 cabinets. Its plenty loud. It has two inputs: active and passive. And incorporates two output stages that are only used in the Bi-amp mode. READ THE MANUAL... please, its the only way you will get a descent sound, actually understand the control systems, and limit the risk of harming the amp. I rated a 9 not a 10, because there are almost too many controls. I keep the manual with my gig bag just in case the knobs get shuffled around.

I have a fender marcus miller jazz bass (rewired without active electronics), a tobias killer b 5 string (active w/bartolinis), and a warwick fortress mm 5 string. All these basses sound very differentt, and all of them sound great with the same settings on the amp. I get the feeling I am hearing the true sound of the bass through this amp. I play many styles of music from metal to funk, Jazz to country. As far as bass goes, I don't feel a need to drastically change my settings to achieve a good sound for any of these styles. It comes from the hands. I don't know about the versatility of the amp because I don't rely on it to change my sound. Its an "amplifier". To amplify means to make bigger, or louder. The job of an amplifier is to do just that not to color the natural sound of a bass. You can't polish a turd. If you have a bass with a crappy sound, no amp is going to make it sound like anything other than that. There is, however, no hissing, squealing, or distortion. A very deserved 10.

I've found it very reliable. Never had to have it repaired. It has always run at peak performance. I've owned it for 5 or 6 years, I think if something was going to fall apart on it, it would have by now. I bought the amp because I was on a budget and a friend of mine highly recommended carvin equipment. I have no backup amp, so I would, and have, gigged without one. A friend of mine did purchase the exact same head and a carvin 4x10. He bought it used and has had problems with the compressor on his. I believe like all equipment, there are lemons from every company. Some just have more than others. You are more likely to tell someone about how bad a company was than how good. On that note there must have been many more good ones you never heard about than bad ones. a 10 on my personal experience, but I do believe the people who have said they have had problems.

Never dealt with their customer service. I don't believe I've ever had any contact with an actual person from Carvin. I even ordered it online.

I've been playing for 11 years. I've owned ampeg, hartke, and acoustic amps. Both solid state and tube. The carvin is the best match to my personal style that I've come across. I don't use effects, and i use monster cables for the instruments and the speakers. I believe in simplicity. The less in the signal chain, the less to check when something invariably goes wrong. Carry spare everything. Cables, strings, batteries, and the right tools to do any repair you might have to on a gig. The carvin r1000 is a great amp for a great price. It's clean sounding and solidly constructed.

2003. insanely versatile, it would be a pain to explain all of them if that tells you anything. I would say this amp is made for those guys that play basses made of exotic woods and crazy active/eq'd electronics. I'm not one of those guys, but I happened upon this thing by chance. knobs, switches, sliders galore and a few worthless ones mixed in there. it works well for aggressive rock and possibly just about anything else. solid state head with what I'm assuming is some kind of FET pre-amp which gives you an insane overdrive/distortion when saturated. switchable graphic EQ and effect loop. it's got a compressor/limiter, noise gate and biamp crossover. the noise gate isn't great, I really think they just wanted another knob on the amp to make it look more symetrical. buy a noiseless bass if your that concerned.

I use a ric and an 80's kramer aluminum neck with an ampeg 4x10/1x15 cab along with another 2x15 cab. when I parrallel both cabs together to 4 ohms and I bridge the power amps, I get the full 1000 watts out of it, I don't need that much juice but it's fun to do sometimes. Put the gain knob to about 3 or 4, with the blend all they way on tube, the volume at 5 with AMP1 and AMP2 at around 8 and I get this huge, punchy, growling distortion out of it, very nice. although if you turn the gain up any higher it starts to break up so much it cuts out. I use this for down tuned metal/stoner metal and it does a tremendous job. I've had this for about 4 years and it's taken me that long to find what I want out of it, I've spent alot of time tweaking. unfortunatley it gets kind of hissy, kinda poppy when I turn the highs up or turn the blend to tube or use the noise gate, my only gripe. I like to use the footswitchable eq as a signal boost for a nastier sound for different dynamics on parts of songs. It has some pretty decent sub frequencies and plenty of punch, it has some nice clean tones at higher volumes as well. I'm sure this amp can do lots of other things, I've just never looked for them or tried getting them out of it. I used to hate this thing, but now I love it.

I'm mean to it and it's still alive. Carvin has lead me to believe this thing will take a bullet, and it's more than road worthy... I hope they're telling the truth.

nope.

I've been doing medium size gigs for about 10 years and I switch this thing on at least a few times a week to practice or play, it's a workhorse with alot of knobs. honestly, if something were to happen to this I would buy something else but very similar in features and power, most likely a solid state ampeg SVT of some kind. if you're looking to save bucks and need a huge sounding head this will be perfect for you. the end.

good features. Wish the comp was switchable via floor. Tons of EQ. Itd be nice if the gain knob could get a nice tube growl, its not great. Get a stompbox anyways.
Biamp sounds way better, but lacks real power that way. Id like the crossover lower maybe 100hz.

Great. No distortion or hissing. With good speakers and a good bass its amazing.
Im running a hohner 6string with actives. Driving a JBL 18 in a carvin box and a sonic 410. I have another carvin poweramp driving the 10s. Because of all the output options and the 2 volume <high low> before the master it works perfect. I can balance the 10s to the 18 and use a single master to control the whole mix. I use the natural curves of the speakers to make my sound. Mono the r1000 puts down about 700w at 8ohms, drives my 18 well. That thing takes a ton of power to push. Id never buy an amp that doesnt have biamp capabilites. Really lightens the load of the 10s and lets them do what they were designed for, punch. Biamp means no speaker distortion on my 10s. GOOD JOB Carvin. Preamp is good. Dont like menus so I sayd away from a POD, but even then the eqs make it handy and versatile. The switchable graphic means you can scoop or boost for slap parts. go from smooth and fat to the korn rumble with one amp.

fine. I drive it really hard at some gigs. Let other bassist use it. a couple hours under heavy load and the fan is pumping out heat.

Carvin is fine. I live in Hawaii, shipping sucks, guys complaing about shipping in the states are babies. I like this enough to send it to get fixed. It only takes a few days in the mail. They are probally alot more efficient with repairs than anyone locally, so Id rather send it to the manfufacture.

Great amp, nothing close for the money. Id never spend what swr wants. Most people, except bassist even can tell the difference between these kinda amps. I just want a smooth nice round sound. Ive always been more concerned with power than the "perfect" tone. If you dont have the power or ya gotta drive the crap outa the amp to get heard it aint worth it. I loan my gear to a lot of other guys becuse they have nice gear, but you can never hear them.

I bought my R1000 Series III bass head in 2004. As you've probably read in the other reviews, there are tons of knobs and features. You can visit the Carvin website if you want to see everyting it offers (my fingers would get tired typing it all out).

http://www.carvin.com/products/single.php?ItemNumber=R1000&CID=BA

I use just about all of the features available, and it is truly a blessing to have the versatility. I primarily use my amp for contemporary church services, but also use it at large, small and outside events.

I primarily use a Tobias Toby Pro 5. I can get just about any sound out of this amp. I run it through an Avatar 1x15 bottom and an Avatar 2x10 top, using SpeakOn speaker cables (highly recommended). I've never experienced any distortion at any level of output. I have experimented with bi-amping both of my speakers, but still fall back to the bridged connection and sound. The tube emulators are helpful as well, it seems to really warm up the sound. I tend to back off of the extreme lows and extreme highs on the 9-band graphic EQ, since the lowest lows are very muddy, and the highest highs are not audible on a bass guitar, it just adds hiss. I primarily work with the mids, set a comfortable stage volume, and either D.I. or Mic the 2x10 cabinet and let the FOH engineer get the house sound.

I have never had any issues with this amp, it has served me extremely well. I took it out of its stock carpeted casing and put into a portable rolling rack system, along with an ART SP4x4 power conditioner (highly recommended), a Sabine RT7000 Rack Tuner, and a Rack Wireless System. I get exactly what I need out of it. (Unlike the piece of junk Carvin PB200-15 Combo system I used to use that petered out on me from day one. Don't buy that thing! It sucks and the speaker is not rated properly with the amp.)

I've never had to deal with them.

I've been playing for 25 years and this has been, by far, the best amp I've owned to date. Used through my two Avatar speakers, this thing rocks! (Of course, it helps to have good speakers that can pull plenty from an amp that can deliver the power.) If it were stolen, I'd file an insurance claim and buy another one. For the money, I feel I made a great decision. I looked at SWR, Ampeg, Hartke, and a few others, but I didn't have the money to spend on a good, Pro amp that would last and give me the sound I needed. Carvin was priced right, had the features I needed, and I have no regrets at all, I'm totally and completely satisfied... until it blows up, then I'll be back to amend this review. LOL