Carvin R1000 Bass Head

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

I think I bought it in 2002... or maybe early 2003.
This amp can do just about anything I ask of it... and then some. I play a variety of styles, from hard rock/punk to gospel. There is enpugh EQ control on this thing to confuse even the stoutest-hearted tone tweaker... but once you get it right, it is a very good sounding amp.
It's kind of deceptive, they call it a stereo amp, but its not, technically... there are two output channels, high freq and low freq... (along with mono/bridged) so, not exactly stereo. There are 2 inputs, passive and active.
I dont use the biamped feature much, but I have used it. It is good for smaller room settings and low volume work. The volume issues other reviewers are relating to may be because they are trying play biamped when they should be bridging... it does make a difference.
I have used this amp in the studio, on the road, in church, at home, outside on the lawn, you name it. Big houses, little houses, it will do them all if you think about what you are doing.
The tube emulator circuit is nice sometimes, to throw a little warmth into the mix, but it is another feature I dont use alot.

I use a Fender aerodyne jazz deluxe with a P-J setup... (an awesome bass) an older P-J copy... (not so awesome) and a Raven West RMB500 with soapbars (see my review under Raven Basses)
I play through an Avatar 4x10 and a Fender 18 (usually just the 4x10)
This amp sounds great with any of my basses, and other basses I've played through it (Carvin, Steinberger(i miss that one) etc.)
It sounds great through the 4x10, and add the 18, bridged it just flat rocks... biamped, through the 4x10 and 18, it sounds great as well, but the volume suffers, so I dont usually do this.
I havent noticed any undue noise from the amp itself... I have however noticed some slight buzzing when other equipment is connected... for instance a line mixer, processor, and wireless unit I have on my rig.But I have a feeling that there is another issue there. Its not the Amp's fault.
I have found that the gain and master volume pots get scratchy after non-use... but thats easy enough to fix.
A very versatile amp, clean and punchy, good for all kinds of musical styles.
The direct out is clean and true, and very controllable.

I havent had it fail on me yet. I have used it like I mentioned before, in the studio, on the road, in church etc.. indoors and outdoors, even once or twice in the rain... it has never let me down.
It has travelled halfway across the country a couple of times, in the dead of winter, in the back of a pickup truck, and still works fine. Its been dropped, endured high heat and humidity as well as extreme cold. I'd put it up against the best 'brand' names out there for dependability.

Carvin is excellent for customer support.I have not had to deal with returns or repairs like some of the other reviewers have, but I have dealt with Carvin enough to know that their customer service is second to none...

Ive been playing bass for about 9 years, guitar for considerably longer. I've owned many different rigs, currently I play my basses through this amp with only a Crybaby (not a bass crybaby) for effects.
If it were stolen or lost I would surely buy another carvin... but I think I would go for the new B1500... a true mono amp, which if they had offered when I bought the R1000, I would have bought instead. Dont get me wrong, I love this amp and I hope it never gets lost or stolen, but the new amp just looks like a better product to me.

Very versatile, you gotta work with it but you can get pretty much any sound out of it. The compressor is good if you want to turn up with out clipping although I haven't really found too much use with the gate. The buttons for bass, middle, and treble boost are the buttons that really matter. In my opinion, this head would maybe be half as loud without them which is crap considering the wattage. The switchable parametric EQ is cool because you can have two sounds out of the one amp. The biamp further allows you to ajust the tones. With all that and more, his baby will do most every sound for you.

I play in a heavy metal band, mostly power/thrash metal. I use a stock Charvel 3B neck-through bass w/ jackson active PUs and a stock esp/ltd C304 w/emg HZ-35 PUs. I run the amp through nothing accept two Hartke VX series cabinets: a 2x15 and a 4x10.
NOTE: THIS HEAD REQUIRES PATIENCE TO GET YOUR SOUND, IT TOOK ME ABOUT 6 MONTHS OF FIDDLING TO FINALLY ADJUST IT TO A TONE I REALLY LIKED. BUT ONCE YOU GET YOUR SOUND, YOU'LL LOVE IT. All these people saying that this amp sucks are probably really impatient, I highly suggest sitting with the thing and messing with for a couple of hours.
- The cool thing about this head is that the tone is trasparent enough to show the sound of he bass but it also is concrete enough so that the tone is very adjustable.
-With all the boost buttons pressed, Parametric EQ, with gain at +3, and tube circuit at 1/4. I get a solid, high fidelity,and loud tone.
-One problem that I have noticed is tha severe lack of volume when the boost buttons aren't pressed. Also, the volume knob is decieving because at three, it is pretty loud but comparatively, the difference between 3 and 5 is far less than the difference than 1 and 3.
-Also, depending on what you're running, this thing can start clipping not even past half! A definite problem, even though 3 with the cabs I use that are listed above, is pretty loud, like loud enough to keep up with two loud-ass guitarists and a heavy-hitting drummer in a metal band.
For that reason, I give the sound a 9 due to the decieving volume knob.

So far it has never broken down on me or had any problems except something I can't fully explain because I don't know what happened. I have seen some of the reviews refer to this phenomenon. What happened is I was playing with the amp at a high bolume level and it seemingly crapped out on me for about 3-5 seconds and then started working again. Thi only happened once and 5 don't know if it was the amp or something else so I can't really give an opinion. My best guess would be that If you were touring with it, you would want a backup.

Never had to deal with them. The people at the store knew their stuff though.

I have been playing for four years, I have scoured the market looking for values and pound for pound, this head is one of the best deals on the planet. The other two heads I would consider is the Kustom GrooveBass 1200 and the Carvin BRX 1500. All three of these heads are in the same ballpark in terms of price and they all have their advantages. In terms of brand-new price range, Ampeg and SWR fall very short of the line and in my opinion, a waste of money if you can handle not having the brand name stuff. My final rating is a 9 because of the clipping at half-way volume and that strange experiance where the amp cut out for a moment.

Gain, Nor/Warm Blend, low boost, mid shift, Hi boos, Low eq knob, 2 mid sweet knobs, high eq knob, Compressor threshold and ration, Filter gate, x-over fequency, biamp, 9 band eq, power amp controle for each amp, master volume, effects loop, and much more.

the amount of features is great, too bad none of them are any good.

I've played this amp for 2 years and havent gotten it loud enough and have always had a little bit of distortion even with the gain all the way down and the compressor all the way up. The amp hisses even when nothing is pluged into it. When i crank it the sound becomes so muddy and inaudible that i cant distinguish notes. The lows get to where you want them a low volumes and when you turn it up they go away. the highs get more piercing, and the mids just die. I'm currently running through 6 eq systems and once it hits the carvin it just craps out. Its a series III and its a serious piece of sh1t.

Never had it break down or anything, but i've only taken it to a gig once.

never had to deal with them, but i like like 30 mins away so if i did it woulnt be to bad i'm sure.

Over all I'd say Avoid at all costs. Go look at the Kustom Groovebas 1200 watt head.

Lots and lots of knobs and buttons. Built-in crossover, compressor, 9-band EQ, direct out, tuner out, boosts, etc.

I fiddled with this amp and it capabilities, and I was never particularly ecstatic about any of the tone i got with the R1000. It seemed as though whenever i got the lows the way i wanted them, the highs and mids would suffer. And every time i got the highs the way i wanted them, the lows and mids would suffer. I was never able to get the mids as punchy and clear as the lows and highs.

I owned this amp for 2+ years, and for 2 years, i never had any reliability issues. I used this amp A LOT. At least three times a week, for practice and gigging. But now it's not functioning correctly, and i didn't find it to be worthwhile to fix it.

I didn't send it to Carvin for repairs, basically because i use it so often, that i needed it repaired asap. Dumb idea. My repair man had my amp in his possession for 3 months, all due to Carvin never sending the parts he ordered. Apparently if they're not the ones fixing their amps, they don't want them fixed at all. And apparently they don't want their customers choosing Carvin again. I won't.

I would never buy anything from Carvin again, and will be sure to convince anyone considering a Carvin product to go elsewhere.

I read many reviews that said TOO MANY FEATURES and I didn't believe them. It turns out, for me, they were absolutely right, I didn't use a single feature except the very first bass boost, which practically every amp in the world has. While I'm sure you could dial in almost any sound you could want, most players I know have only one or two sounds they need from the head, everything else is from a pedal or pod. I did try all the dials, they all work smoothly and as expected, the documentation was great, but I just didn't need them at all.

It's very misleading to call it the R1000, because that 1000 watt rating is only if monobridged and loaded down to 2 ohms. In the real world, 99% of people will probably be pulling 4 ohms in bi-amp, which is WAY less wattage, like a total of around 250 watts, and split that between two cabinets. I knew that from other reviews, but still hoped that'd be enough, so I ordered it.

It had very poor volume for a loud band. On stage it would be enough if you have decent house sound, but in our small practice space it could barely keep up with aggressive drumming. Worse still, when I turned the power amps to 70% each, and the master volume to 70% (so really about half the volume it should be able to produce), the peak meters lit, the head smoked white, and the sound cut out (protective measure). It cooled for about 30 seconds, did it again. For two weeks I tried to get as much volume out of it as it could handle without shutting down, and while it never smoked again, it always got hot and shut down at 70%/70%/70% with flat EQs and only a stage-1 boost. I even used the padded ACTIVE jack.

The footswitch made too much noise when changing in/out of EQ or Effects. That was a bummer. The headphone/tuner jack will not mute your cabinets, so it was of little use to me.

The tube-emulator was not bad. It did put in a decent squashed growl. I didn't care for too much of it myself, though, and mixed in about 10%, which sounded good.

I play a Carvin 5 string, so this amp seemed like a natural match. I play deep smooth lines in a hard rock band, nothing jazzy or bright or too terribly quick. The 1-15" cabinet that comes with it was decent (for what I play) but the 4x10" should have been much better. But the 4x10" buzzed a lot, first one speaker, then another. Not the head's fault, I guess, but it all came as a package deal. At low and medium volume (as in "hold a conversation" volume) it sounded very nice, very full and round, deep and resonate. At any setting beyond 5, it lacked real volume and then had cabinet problems anyway.

As I mentioned, it constantly shut down on me. It smoked, for crying out loud! If the dials go to 10, I should be able to turn them to 10 and the thing should play. I could not turn them past 7 without it shutting down, and that was without any serious boosts or EQ, on an Active input, with my guitar controls flat.

Based on this experience, I would say that I was VERY nervous about going to a gig with this. If I could play very low volume for just me and the drummer, and use house sound, it would be fine, but if I need to play loud or don't have a sound guy, I would have been screwed. It would have gotten hot and stopped working within 5 minutes.

I dealt with customer service quite a bit. They've been very good so far. They did not upsell me on anything, not even an extended warranty (which now seems funny). The first 4x10" they gave me arrived in pieces (courtesy of UPS), which Carvin replaced immediately. In fact, the broken one is still sitting downstairs waiting for UPS. They sent the new one FedEx 3-day at no charge, it arrived fine. For all I know, the head was damaged during shipping. The box looked fine. The head looked fine. You've read about it's technical problems above. Carvin reset my 10-day trial period to coincide with the arrival of the new 4x10, and after the 10 days of contuned problems, they offered to pay for the whole set to be sent back, a whole new set to be 3-day mailed to me, and we'd start again. It was a tempting offer but sending stuff back and forth to California is not a reliable way for me to work. UPS destroyed one box, FedEx was not a lot better but at least it was in one piece, and I don't want to keep trusting my equipment to them. When things don't work (like the head) I don't know whether to blame Carvin or the delivery company. Carvin agreed to give me my money back (last week, has not happened yet) with no arguments or guilt-trip. They emailed me pre-paid labels to mail it all back, and UPS is supposed to pick it all up on Monday. I'll give them a 9 instead of a 10 because they have not called UPS and cussed those idiots out, or stopped using them, and have not helped me get UPS to pick this crap up. Carvin and UPS are paying the shipping, yes, but it has not been easy to get it out of my house and into their hands.

I've been playing about 15 years, my old Crate stuff has always been unstoppable, but Carvin did not work out, and now I've decided to go with Mesa/Boogie. My Carvin 5 string has been great and I will buy my next bass from them again. But the amp, I'm afraid, gets a pretty low rating. If you're hoping to gamble that yours will arrive unharmed and will perform as expected, that's what I did, and I lost. I'm not out any money, but it was a major headache and embarrassment, and a month later the carcasses still sit in my house. I'm going to go pay twice as much for a Mesa, but it will be twice as powerful, is honest about its real-world power rating, have a better warranty, and can be serviced almost anywhere.

If my experience at high volume had been the same as my experince at low volume, I'd like this head. Sure, it'd have tons of crap I don't use, but it sounded good at low volume and was a decent price for 250 watts. Instead, after my experience, I can't trust it at all. If Carvin had a store in town, or even authorized repairs in town, I would certainly try them again, but this mailing back and forth to California, even at their expense, is no way for a working musician to live. I guess the volume might be more suited to something like a church band or something relatively quiet, but calling it a 1000 does not make it any louder, and for any loud rock music, it barely gets heard.

I think the features are great on this amp. Biamp, Full range, and bridge mode allow for a few different setups. Plenty of EQ (if needed).

I keep everything flat, as I prefer a more natural tone. Even with everything flat, it's still just a little too "processed" sounding. But, dialing in the 'Tube Emulator' knob makes it sound pretty darn good. Overall, I think the amp sounds pretty descent...plenty of power available, so there's plenty of headroom.

I've gone through THREE RL1000 heads. Yes, on three separate occasions this amp has failed me, and our band. The amp was purchased by our bands guitar player, and was used by the bands previous bass player. It failed him twice, and me once (new bass player in the band). I have the full RL1018 stack (RL1000 head, RL410T 4x10 cabinet, and RL118 18" sub). The amp is set up in 'biamp' mode, again with controls set to 'flat'. Input gain @ 12 o'clock. Output gain @ 12 O'clock.....you get the point. There is no reason the amp should be failing, as there is no "mis-use" or extreme settings.

Well....this is where a company (who's product is in need of repair, for the third time) is SUPPOSED to win the customers hearts and faith back. In fact, they made it worse. Sure, the guys seem nice enough on the phone and via email....but they don't follow through. First of all, it took one solid week of emails and phone calls to even get return authorization. What a pain in the ass. This should take one email, and MAYBE a phone call. Secondly, I was promised the amp to be repaired and on it's way back to me within 5 business days (I explained that I'm in a working band, and was told to put a 'rush' note on the amp...which I did). "OK" so far....
The amp was received by Carvin on a Thursday, first thing in the am. After not receiving a response to an email I had sent regarding the status of the amp repair, I called Carvin service the following Thursday....after having the amp 6 solid days. They told me the amp had already been repaired, and was already boxed up and was shipping out that day. A tracking # was not available yet, so they told me to call back the next day (Friday, if you're losing track). I did just that. Tracking # was STILL not available, for some reason. So, they told me to call back later in the day.....which I could not do. BUT, they again assured me that the amp IN FACT shipped on Thursday, putting it in my hands on Tuesday or Wednesday. Plenty of time to test the amp for the weekend gigs. So, I called on the following Monday morning, figuring the tracking # would surely be in their system by this point. Well, it was. But the amp had NOT been shipped until Friday evening!! What?!? So, now I'm getting the amp on Thursday.....leaving me virtually no time to test the amp (and make last minute rentals if necessary). So, they took their sweet time on repairing the amp (which SHOULD have been REPLACED outright, since the amp was still under warranty...and it was the THIRD defective amp we've had), and I was basically lied to by 2 Carvin service reps.

Bottom line: the amp is descent, especially for the money (and when purchased as the RL1018 complete system). But,I will never be able to put my full trust into this amp. And especially, I just can't get past the lack of customer service for a fellow (working) musician.

anything you can imagine...as said in the above reviews...

You can dial in just about anything....

Well put it this way, I have the series III R1000, bought USED, from a music store. The thing looked brand new. I've had it for almost 3 years now, and just recently got back from touring across the United States. The thing is still kicking like a monster!!...I run it mono bridged, why wouldnt you?....and it's never cut out, the only problem I have had has been blowing my speakers, not the amp.....but a new Ampeg SVT810E is on the way to fix that problem. All I can say is do your homework on the proper connection of this head to your speakers, keep dialing in those knobs, run it mono, and stand back.....

never had to call em...

I started playing the Bass when I was 13, I'm 27 now. I've played punk rock ,Industrial, Metal the whole 14 years...as of right now I'm using a Yamaha RBX765a Active 5 String, B.C. Rich Beast Active 4 string, Boss Bass Overdrive, Boss Metal Zone, Dunlop Bass Crybaby...two Hartke XL 4/10's..soon to be replaced by an Ampeg SVT810E....

Amp was bought used. 2 channels, 1000 watts total powered when bridged. This thing rocks, even with only an 8 ohm cab. Has a built in gate and compressor. None of my other bass amps have them.

The sound that comes from this amp could drop an elephant. All sound problems you might have that stem from your bass guitar or your cab can easily be fixed by fiddling with this amps special features.

Haven't had it that long, but it has endured a single, full 7 hours worth of hard rocking with Stellar Kin, Calico Jack, and Pedro the Lion. Thumped out watt after watt consistently, and only needed the volume turned to 6 (using only an 8 ohm 4-10 cab, only pushing around 200 watts max of it's 1000 watts) to fill a 150 x 200 foot ball room with floor shaking bass power. It certainly held up for that.

Haven't had to call them yet. Hope I never do.

For the price I paid and the features this amp carries, I most definetly would say that it was an amazing value. I play through a peavey nitrobass 450 and also a 4004 bass amp, neither can come close to the Carvin Redline 1000

Lots of features. Tons of EQ to shape your sound. THe tube emulator has no use to me. The compressor works well when set all the way to limit to get a good tight punchy sound. The noise gate was handy when i played an Epiphone P-Bass, but now that a quieter bass is played it is much less usefull. Lots of patching options make rack mounted processers very easy to route into your signal.

I use a schecter stilleto elite 5-str. i can get a good sound even with the crappy HZ pickups. The separate EQ's (parametris and graphic) make quick eq adjustments easy. Sough to find the sound your looking for at times dues to the millions of knobs, but once you find it, it stays. This amp has a lot of power, but you really have to read the instrutions manual in order to push it the right way. In bi-amp mode you can really get a very full sound through 4 10"s and a subwoofer. I've shaken pictures off of the upstairs tv with out pushing the volume past 6. An active bass is easier to get a clean sound because you dont have to push the amp's gain too much. I had a little bit of a muddy low end at first which was solved by a BBE sonic maximizer in my pre-amp chain.

I am surprised to hear about all the problems people have been having. ive beaten the thing up pretty bad and thrown it around in a cheap skb rack and never had any issue with reliability. The only thing that isnt reliable is the settings. If a knob gets turned on you, it could take a while for you to figure out why your sound sucks.

Bought it. havent talked to them since.

For the price i paid i must say that this is an extremely good value. The amp has never let me down. its flexible sound allowed me to perform many types of music and mever have a tonal issue. Whats more important than that?

Series III 2003. With the two stages of EQ and 3 different modes to run the power (full range mono, stereo bi-amp, full range bridged) it really gives you a lot of tonal options. You have to take the time to get to know the settings and how they work together but it's time well spent. The tube emulator doesn't really impress me but I can live with out it as I rely on a Boss ODB-3 for my over drive. I play in a cover band that plays everything from Hendix to Greenday to Modern English and it covers all the bases nicely.

Again, I'm not real impressed with the tube emulator in this thing. It just kinda thins out the sound and makes your speakers sound like they're a little blown. I was previously playing my Sting Ray 4 through an SWR Super Red Head with a Goliath III 4x10 ext cab and it just wasn't punchy enough. Once the tube heated up in the Red Head the tone really mellowed out which was NOT what I was after. I'm still using the Goliath cab but with this head I get not only serious punch but a cool growl as well. Most of all, heat doesn't affect the tone. Once you dial it in, it stays. I couldn't say that for my Red Head.

I play on it HARD at least twice a week. Had it a month, so far so good.

I called with a couple of technical questions when I first bought it and they seemed pretty cool. They were able to answer all my questions with no problems.

I started life as a guitar player in the 80's, switched to bass about 5 years ago. In that time I've had a '79 Jazz Bass, 2 Tobias Growlers and a MM Sting Ray 4. All of which I played though my SWR Super Red Head. It was a great little combo but just couldn't compete against two guitar players in a hard rock band. I played a buddies Cyclops (based on the R600 head) and really dug it. I decided to go for the R1000 because it was cheap horsepower that I could use with my existing cabs. I've only had it a month but I know this, it has freed my mind from worry while I'm playing. Because I was pushing the SWR so hard I was always listening for signs of strain (which I often heard in the forms of clicks and cracks) instead of concentrating on getting into the pocket. Also, I mentioned previously that as it heated up the SWR would lose it's punch and I'd have to spend all night dialing things in according to temperature. The R1000 has freed me from all of this and it's made me a better player already.

I bought my R1000 in August 2001. Mine is the series II, I believe, and it has foot switchable graphic EQ and FX loops. Bulit in crossover and noise gate. Everyone else has gone over the features of this amp, so I'll skip repeating them. But, the features it does have are kinda worthless. The noise gate is retarded, and the power amps seem to clip VERY easily. But, you get what you pay for.

I play a Hohner b bass V, which has active electronics. I can get a decent range of sounds, none of which are anything amazing. This amp is good at producing good average tones. Nothing that will amaze and astound, but nothing that will cause you to be made fun of.

I have had a couple of problems, although some of which were my fault. In the past, it has just decided that it didn't feel like working, and just sat there and macked my pain. I have since bought a cheaper peavey mark IV to play gigs with. The Carvin sounds better, but I don't trust it. Any Peavey could be dropped of a moving truck, and sound just as good(or bad) as it did before. The Carvin has a "made of glass" feel to it. I have never dropped it or anything, but when picked up, things can be heard rattling around inside it. What they are, I have no idea.

The next Carvin catalog that came out after I bought my amp had the newer version of the R1000 in it. I tried several times to contact Carvin and see if I trade up, or something. I never heard back. Also, when I had the issues with the amp just sitting there after being turned on, They just told me to make sure I had it hooked up right.

Like I said, you get what you pay for. Overall it is a good amp, and if it were not for the reliablity issues, I would be satisfied. But that, combined with the lack of customer support, I would never suggest that someone buy Carvin.

This is a Series 2 model 1000 watt head. Lots of great features that would be wonderul if they were worth anything. The compressor sucks and so does the noise gate. Having a headphone jack is great along with all the effect loops but the overall product is kinda poorly made. I can't even play it at rehearsals anymore since it has started to die out completely now. Their amps always seem to have a short life. I only give it a 3 because it actually has features, although they're worthless.

I use many different basses with it and it doesn't sound too bad, although it can be a bit muddy/clicky. You seem to be stuck with either one or the other. The old PB300 I had from them was much better sounding. There's a blend between the tube and solid state that is pretty useless. There's hardly any difference in tone between the two sides.

No offense to Carvin, but this amp sucks. It's darn near dead. They apparently made improvements with the third series of this amp but I know for a fact that those get returned even more than this series did. It works great until you try and actually push it a little. If I play it with a band it cruds out since I try to put the volume past 3. The power amps on it clip out too easily. It's the lowest powered 1000 watts I have ever heard.

They're not exactly the friendliest bunch. The salesmen that do care don't seem to last too long there. Heaven forbid that you should go out of your way to help a customer and send them home happy. I think the heads of the company have become so apathetic towards their customers because they complain so much about the poor quality of the products. There are some nice people there but their hands seem to be kinda tied due to the insensitivity of the higher-ups. Expect to get charged a fortune for repairs and shipping back and forth. You pay for it all if the warranty is even a day over. Most other companies even have a longer warranty period.

I wouldn't purchase their amps if I were you. Lord knows I won't ever again. I'm going for broke and replacing my whole Carvin set-up with a Mesa/Boogie one. Sure it's a lot more money but you get what you pay for. There's a reason that Carvin's products are so inexpensive and it's not just because they're factory direct. The guitars and basses actually aren't bad but they seem to really lack with the amps. The sad thing is that the really old ones sound and work great. What happened along the way, Carvin? Maybe they should concentrate more on what they were known for as opposed to DJ and lighting gear. Too many irons in the fire has caused their product quality to sink.

Maybe too many features but it can be dialed in with work with almost any application. Make notes of the settings for the sound you like as you may never find it again.

Compressor varies widely between the series I & II. The gate is useless on both Series I & II. Good tone however across the board.

Hundreds of gigs and it's toast. It was never pushed hard and was well maintained. I don't trust their products any longer. Not my first Carvin problem.

WORTHLESS! TAKE THE SALES PEOPLE OUT OF THE LOOP! THEY DON'T CARE! I COMPLAINED TO THE VP OF SALES AT NAMM ABOUT THEIR POOR SERVICE AND THEY DID NOTHING BUT LOOSE ONE MORE CUSTOMER.

Great value but poor reliability and even worse service. What's the point?

My R1000 is a Series II with the real tube. I bought it new in 1999, promptly removed it from its case and put it in my SKB rack (what can I say, I'm a child of the 80's... I gotta have a rack).

This amp has loads and loads of power. I've run it in bi-amp and full range configurations and it's been a real trooper.

The versatility of the effect loop configurations is pretty good but I would have liked to have the split frequency preamp sends switchable as well (only the mono loop is swichable).

This thing has three versions of EQ on it: low, mid, and high boost; parametric; and foot switchable graphic. I never use the boost buttons so they are wasted on me. I set the parametrice (which is very good by the way) to tune to whatever room I'm in, and I set the graphic in a swoosh shape for lead boost. Very much a set it and forget it operation. I probably haven't moved an EQ setting in two years.

The crossover is great if you bi-amp (which I do) and that really highlights the need for two separate power amp controls (which it has) so you can match your cabinet volumes. Good call.

The direct out is fine. It's the only one I have experience with, but I've recorded direct to digital with no problem. The new Series III's have theoretically upgraded this section.

The compressor is very high quality, but I never use it. The noise gate is not good though. It cuts abruptly and is slow to disengage when you try to pump a signal through it. I have a widely dynamic style so I have to leave it off all the time just to get all my notes through.

Bottom line: this is a versatile amp, but I don't use half of what it does. However, if you simply must bi-amp and run split frequency effects, I don't know of another amp that will do it.

I play a wide range of music styles by may approach is all fingerstyle and I handle all my dynamics by touch rather than effect. I've also experimented with different tubes and found that I like a 12AX7WB best. I have never had a complaint about the sound of this amp, but I like a very clean (unless I specifically choose otherwise) type of tone.

It went funky on my about six months ago. There is something in the pre-amp section that is creating a buzz when you hook an instrument cable to it. I've tried a lot to debug it and it's still a mystery. Unfortunately, it's bad enough that I've removed it from my rig and am using my 1966 Kustom head.

Until this buzz appeared, it was a tank. Do note however that the tube pre-amp is not 100% consistent. Sometimes it sounds divine, other times less so. That appears to just be a fact of life when dealing with valve technology.

Carvin will do repairs for a set fee, which is expensive, and you pay freight both ways. Or you can trade in your Series II for a brand new in the box Series III for about $100 more than repair cost. This sounds like a great deal until you realize that you are essentially paying for the same amp twice. I'm seriously considering doing this trade-in upgrade though, to get away from the tube inconsistency and to get a new warranty in place. The amp was wonderful when it worked.

They've been stellar. I'm an engineer, and I've talked directly to their bench techs a number of times in trying to debug my noise problem... essentially to the point of receiving about an hour and a half of FREE detailed tech support over the phone. They were there when I was trying to initially set up my effects loop configurations, and have always answered my questions. I don't have a single bad word to say about them.

I've been playing bass for eight years and have had the same (though progressively modified) Washburn 5-string the whole time. The only thing original on it now is the wood. I ran the R1000 off a Furman PL8 conditioner with an Aphex Aural Exciter Type 102 (not the "Big Bottom" version) in the split frequency effects loops to give it a bit more sheen and enliven the harmonics.

The R1000 is the best amp I've found for my unique needs, up to and including Ampeg, Trace Elliot, GK, Eden, SWR, and Peavey. I am disappointed that it developed a problem after only a couple of years of service when I treated it very carefully. It's a good design and a good company.

This thing is packed with features! Got EQ options for days and the amp can be either used mono or stereo, full range or biamp, and can even have the 2 internal power amps bridged so you can get the full 1000 watts out of it. Also has a built in compressor and noise gate. To summarize the EQ options it has 3 preshape buttons (bass boost, mid shift, and high boost), a parametric EQ with low, mid gain, mid frequency, and high knobs, as well as a 9 band graphic EQ. It also has a tube emulator control (I have the Series III model) which dials in a sort of overdrive tone. The head accepts standard 1/4" speaker cables and Twistlok speaker cables, and also has a tuner/headphones out, effects loop, and direct out (XLR) with pre/post switch as well as a ground lift switch. The head also comes with a footswitch to turn the graphic EQ on and off as well as turning the effects loop on and off.
This amp is pretty much feature packed! Check out Carvin's official site for more details. www.carvin.com

I use the R1000 with a Carvin RL410 cab. Now with this many EQ options it's obvious to say that there's probably no sound this thing can't get. I haven't really sat down to see what kind of sounds it can get but I'm sure it can tackle many many styles of music. I've spent most of my time tweaking it, tweaking it, and tweaking it some more to find "my" sound. And I must say after about the month I've had this thing I've finally come up with a good sound. I will say I really don't care for the tube emulator sound too much but since it can be turned off I'm still giving it a 10. I would love to hear what the Series II sound like with the real tube. But honestly, to me, the R1000 sounds warm enough without the tube emulator (with the help of some lows and low mids that is =) ). The noise gate works well to eliminate hum from my Steinberger pickups and the compressor can really squash the sound for you.

No problems yet. I normally do tests with the amp to see if it can take the abuse. Usually my tests involves playing straight for about 15-20 min. The amp kept on trucking. No shut offs or anything. Construction on the amp appears to be pretty solid.

All Carvin products have a 1 year warranty. Overall I've only talked to the people at Carvin when I ordered this thing. They seemed really nice, friendly, and very helpful.

Ever since I've gotten Carvin magazines in the mail I've been thinking about giving their gear a try. So this was my 1st attempt at it and I'm very satisfied. This is by far the biggest rig (in terms of power I mean) I've ever played through since I've mainly used combo amps most of my bass playing life...and let me tell you, this thing is LOUD!!! I have played through a few brands (SWR, Crate, Peavey, and a few small Ampeg combos at local music stores) and I am very happy with the Carvin's sound...and power! As for any complaints in regards to the head I've got a couple small ones: 1st one of course is the tube emulator sound 2nd is an improvement on the instruction manual (make it more detailed and maybe even throw in some suggested settings or something in terms of EQ...as the EQ is about as powerful as the power amps in this thing!) In closing, I'd like to suggest to anyone considering this head to take it slow with the EQ options...to keep it simple let's just say it's amazing how good it sounds when you DON'T try to turn all the knobs =) Other than that it's a fabulous amp.

Bought new in April of 2001..has all kinds of sounds..i play in a cover band, we do blue-eyed soul to funk, to country to rock. The active/passive inputs are handy, i play a bunch of basses. The footswitch lets you control the EQ and Effect loop, and it has lots of patching options on the back. I use the on-board compressor, some, and the noise gate most of the time, both are "ok"..Amp has lots of power, when it works, and has cool bi-amp features, and is very light weight.

I have 4 and 5 sting Fender Jazz basses, Washburn 5 strings, a couple of Ibenaz 5 strings and an Acoustic/Electric, and the amp does a good job for them all..(i also play Guitar/Midi/and Acoustic guitar thruit with good results) After having it, it is loud, but will bottom out on the 5 string "B" if you are not careful with how the EQ is set. Has HI, LOW & MID shift, which can get you into trouble with the added EQ and normal tone controls.

When I bought the amp, I sold or gave away all my old gear, because all the reviews said it was reliable. But it is not. Mine "shit the bed" within 9 months, i had to go out and buy another amp (bought a used Peavy, which i will keep forever now) and will NEVER trust the Carvin again. Now you have to box up the amp, send it back and wait. Plus by the time I get it back, it's outta warranty, so now I'm fighting over what will happen the next time it quits. Carvin won't ship you any circuit boards, you have to ship the entire amp. I'm on the east coast, cost me $50.00 shipping by the time it was over. My R-1000 was in the Carvin case, never dropped, never got wet, and treated like it was glass. If a real roadie would have handeled it, it would have probably fell to pieces.

Carvin Sales answers the phone on the first ring, and is happy to sell you something, but will become very rude very quick when they realize you are not buying awything. Then after you call back, and stay on hold forever, if you don't get put into voice-mail (I left 11 messages and no one has ever called me back), you may get someone to tell you "bummer dude" and give you the address to send it. Took me 12 requests to get a schematic, even though sales promised it when i bought the amp.And i was blow away when i was told they don't have spare modules to swap. Why build a modular amp and brag about it if parts are not inter-changable.

I got my first Sears guitar when i was 7, pla