Carvin Vintage 16 112 Combo

Enough people have covered the basics so I needn't be redundant. I've been playing for 40 years so when I see several reviews end with " what do you expect for under $400 " I grimace. This is a mass produced, uninspiring amp. The reason why I didn't buy this - and don't support Carvin - will be clear in the following categories. I gave it a " 1 " because compared to what keeps being released by the competition - this thing lags w-a-a-a-y behind what's available

If you start reading between the lines in terms of the reviews posted here over the last two years, what you're buying is a half completed amp. Hasserl mod , anyone ? I gave it a dull,basic, boring 3 because that's what it sounds like just out of the box - if it works.

Where is this made ? Look at the circuit board. Think it'll stand the heat ? Break ?? Sorry, but pro gear this ain't - but it will look great in your bedroom under that box of condoms you bought yourself for Christmas- just don't let mom & dad catch ya. A great amp for dreaming rock stars whose arena is the bedroom.

Here's where these guys really suck. When I was seriously thinking about buying this ampI called and asked if I could buy it without the stock speaker as I would immediately be replacing it. "NO " Can I buy it without the cheap tubes as I only use NOS stuff "NO ". It wasn't just that I'd be wasting money it was the RUDENESS I encountered that really turned me off to them as a company. I urge you to read other reviews here, especially from techs who do it for a living. Try and find one who likes dealing with Carvin

If these guys want to inherit the reputation Peavey had when they first started, fine with me, only Carvin wants you to believe they were there battling it out with Leo in the beginning. To recap, for $400 you get an amp where you immediately have to replace the speaker, throw away the stock tubes, has iffy innerds and have somebody mod the amp for you. Now your $400 wonder is $800-1,000 - and the resale value will make you throw up. Damn, doesn't Joe Walsh look clean in those ads , though ? Think he has one of these in HIS bedroom ??

Ordered with the custom Red Tolex. Solidly Built Little Brick. The features are exactly what I was looking for in a practice/studio rig. Very versatile right out of the box, o.k. tone and volume but closed sounding. Changed the stock speaker to a 15watt Alnico Black and Blue from Warehouse Guitar Speakers. That helped a great deal, the stock speaker is not that good. But I bought this amp purposefully to do the Hasserl mods

I play both a Strat and Les Paul and play everything from pop to rock to classic rock. The amp was very quiet and reacted well to both guitars. Here's the kicker...after about two months of getting familiar with the amp and it's abilities I gave it to my favorite tech with the print out of the hasserl mods http://www.geocities.com/rlhassebrock/V16mods.html?1103178665677
He is one of the best techs in the city and he took great care to follow the mods exactly. When it was ready he had a grin on his face fromm ear to ear. All I can say is OMG. This is now my main rig. The openess and responsiveness of the amp is unbelievable. I can now control attack, drive and tone on the guitar. If you are considering these mods do all of them and you will be very happy this little monster. Sorry for gushing...

I absolutely depend on this amp in a multitude of situations and it has never let me down. It gets played 3-6 hours daily. When it was undergoing the mods, my tech pointed out that it was a very solidly built unit and should be very reliable. It has been.

I haven't dealt with the company other than ordering the amp and for that they were both helpful and reliable. Since I have in fact voided any and all warranties I don't expect to be contacting them anytime soon.

I have been playing for 30 years and have a number of other amps (fenders, vox,...) now gathering dust. I am actually considering a second Carvin Vintage 16 duplicate, mods and all. There is nothing I dislike about this amp

I was specificly looking for a 15/20 watt amp with EL84s with Mega-tone without Mega volume.

If I wanted more features I would need to spend a serveral hunderd more.

I was looking for the sound I heard when they had the Celestion 30 Speaker. I wasn't happy with the Carvin stock speaker. Went the extra $$ and bought a Celestion Alinco Blue.. ALL I can saw is WOW. The combo of the Vintage 16 tubes with the ALnico makes all the difference. I basicly have a VOX 15CC for a few hunder dollars less.

Sound quality rating based on speaker:
Carvin stock: 4- very disappointnig
Celestion V30 7- Great sound
Celestion Alnico Blue 10 - Beyond awsome

Got amp when it was about a year old, still works

N/A havent had to use it

I been playing decades. It works well with all guitar I have plugged into it: Carvin CT-6, Gibson SG Showcase (dual humbuckers), Fender classic strat.

Gave it a 7 cause of the stock speakers otherwise would have been a 9. 10 if they offered and Alnico blue option.

Simple 5/15 watt triode/pentode configured tube amp. Just the basics but what basics it gives you. Mine has the celestion speaker and having a/b 'd it with another which possessed a carvin vintage, I think I got the better deal. Not that the carvin speaker sounded bad, the celestion really opens this amp up. Treble/Mid/Bass Reverb volume and gain controls.

Right out of the box--very lively. I primarily use a Parker P36 (super tele style) guitar with this little monster. Before I purchased this, I would use a Boss AC-3 acoustic pedal with the Parker to get that onstage acoustic sound, but with vintage 16 I just keep the gain below 8 and back off the magnetics--and bam a very pleasant acoustic tone.I basically just use my guitar volume controls to run the range of sounds I need for each show. I use a keeley style modded BD-2 to give me a little more oomph for my solos.

After 1 1/2 years of using this monster stock, I have committed the Hasse mods to the V16-- quite frankly what I thought was a great little amp has now become a giant killer. The mods really open up the hidden potential of this beast. I consistently get people walking up to me during the breaks and bugging me about my amp setup. I put off doing this until the 1 year warranty ran out. Once I did one, I went and bought a second one and did it also!!! Highly recommend these mods to everyone. My rating before the mods was 8.5 and 10 after the mods.

I have read about the reverb issues that other posters have had. At first I thought what could go wrong with this simple but robust little circuit. Sometimes quality control issues make there way through the production process. After tearing these units apart and putting them back together numerous times, my "A" unit's reverb finally failed. My problem turned out to be connectors issues on the reverb tanks. I work on my own stuff (I'm a Electrical Engineer at a research facility, so I never contacted Carvin about the issue. My first real amp was an X100b back in 1980 and that thing has never failed. Since I'm running a pair of these v16s I don't really worry about backup.

I have never had a warranty issue with Carvin equipment per se , but I have had numerous costly phone call conversations with reps who seemed to not have any clue about their own products. On 2 occassions within the last year, I had the same guy take an order by phone and 3-4 weeks later when I hadn't received the item, the same gentleman told me that there was no record of such order. They really need to get a grip on their customer service issues.

I have been playing for 30 years this June. I have worked in bands for my entire adult life so far. I have owned just about every type of amp, instrument, and effects units. Carvin has earned my loyalty with their amps, Boss/Roland with their pedals, and more recently Parker guitars have been a Godsend. My current band is a classic rock unit, but I bounce a round with power trios every couple of years. I currently own 2 v16 amps which are now in custom head cases, a Carvin nomad, and 2 X100b heads. If I lost any of these amps, I would go out an immediately find replacements. And mod the sh*t out of them when they arrive... I already have the parts to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carvin Vintage16 made in 2007...got it in the spring of 2007.

Gotta give this thing a 10...for $400.

I have the Celestion G12 Vintage30 speaker in mine.

I challenge anyone to tell all of us...about any amp...anywhere near this price point...that sounds better...or even as good. If there is...they deserve the recognition too.

Had it over 6 months with very heavy use...been great.

Been dealing with Carvin for years...I trust them.

Been playing ~$35 years...have a lot of stuff...and I bought this amp as a living room knock around. Haha...it knocked my socks off.

Again...you can buy very nice...very expensive amps...and they're great...we all know that. But for ~$400...!?!? Give me a break...hats off to Carvin.

The features are well documented so there's no need repeating. I've had the amp for a few years now and I think I bought it in 2004.

Never was crazy about the amp in it's stock form (especially the overdriven tone when using the "Soak" knob) so I had it modded per the instructions from that fellow who frequents the Carvin forums. Hasserl?? I think that's the name he goes by. I think the tech who did the mods did something wrong because it never sounded as good as the clips that I heard of the V16 after it was modded. But it was better, just not to the degree that I was hoping. But the added dial installed on the back of the amp did help with the way I now use the amp. More on that later.

My guitar is a Les Paul Standard. Seymour Duncan Custom Custom bridge pickup and the stock Burst Bucker Pro in the neck spot. I'm just an at home player and once I tried a few differant things the V16 has become my favorite "rock amp."

Long story short, instead of using the Carvin speaker in the amp, I disconnected that and am using an Avatar Hellatone 30 (a broken in Celestion G12H30) that's house in a 1X12 cabinet that I made. The cabinet is about the same size as my Peavey Classic 30. Using a larger, closed back 1X12 has really helped to make the tone sound overall fuller and more rounded.

For my overdriven tones I'm using 3 pedals for differant flavors. I've got a DigiTech Bad Monkey that seems to work very well on it's own providing me with a good all around rock tone. (The bass knob on that pedal is a HUGE plus). I've also got a ZVEX Box of Rock which is set for a very, very mild crunch tone. Think AC/DC. I've also got a Barber Direct Drive SS that I use as a "lead push" along with the Box of Rock.

With the added dial on the back of the amp turned up to about 7(which gives you a bit more gain, snarl and bite), with my Les Paul and with the pedals I use I have learned to get some great rock tones going that sound very full, very clear and best of all....it's all at a volume that won't leave your ears ringing. AC/DC, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen.....it's all there! Of course it's not AS big, AS full and AS loud as a 50 watt going thru a 4X12 (and how could it?), but for what it is this little setup still has me going..."damn, not bad at ALL!!" Again, it sounds big and full but at a very tolerable volume. If used in a band it would definatley have to be mic'd up, as a loud drummer would probably bury it. But if you have a good PA, good monitors and a good soundman I'd bet it would come thru great for the small club gigs. And no, with the pedals it doen't sound JUST LIKE a Marshall, but the tones are more than good enough to handle songs that require that kind of a tone.

I also have a Marshall DSL 50 with a 4X12, a Fender DRRI and a Peavery Classic 30. This little Carvin setup is my absolute favorite over all of them for my rock tones. The DSL is great but WAY to loud, the C30 doesn't have enough presence, and while I use and love my DRRI with my Tele for clean tones I HATE the way OD pedals with my LP sound thru it.

I love it. I can go in my basement, put some jam along CD's in my stereo, fire up the little Carvin, can play without going deaf and can be very happy with the sounds I'm getting.

The clean tone without the pedals sounds pretty good as well. Using both pickups combined or just the neck pickup alone it sounds great for things by the Stray Cats, the Beatles, CCR...things of that nature. Not a ton of clean headroom but then you're only going to get so much with a low watted amp.

Seems well built and I haven't had any problems.

Never dealt with Carvin other than ordering so I can't comment on thier support. I've heard good and bad, though.

Now that I've got the amp "seasoned to taste" I love it for what it is and for what I use it for. The thing I love most about it now is how full it sounds. So many low watted small amps sound....well, too small. Yeah they can get loud alright but there's no real depth. Seriously missing in the "umph" factor. Again, it's not as big and full of a sound compared to some amps but for my needs and wants I'm now very happy with the results I'm getting.

Made some time this year, as it did not come with the Celestion Vintage 30 speaker installed (that's a guess though)

One channel, SOAK knob (gain), volume (master volume), bass, mid, treble, and reverb. Lots of things to tweak for something this small/inexpensive.

Switchable power levels.

NOTE: My amp came with a Carvin Vintage 70 speaker, I promptly replaced the speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30, and have enjoyed the amp much more.

3 x 12AX7, 2 x EL84

No FX loop, no presence knob, no hi and low input (I might have liked one or more of these options, but not worries).

Another interesting point: THIS AMP HAS ALL TUBE CIRCUITRY. There are NO ICs, NO Op-amps, and NO transistors, I looked at it when I was swapping the speakers, and it's as "pure" in that sense as it could ever be. Pretty cool for something this cheap.

Before I switched the speaker from the carvin speaker to the celestion one, the amp was really treble-heavey, and yes, I realize it was a new speaker, but even after a few really heavy sessions of playing and breaking it in, it still was a bit "top heavy". I replaced it with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, and I have loved it ever since.

This amp has some wonderful options. There is a lot of space for knobs to be tweaked, it makes a great low-level bedroom amp, as you can get some very nice tones and not have to crank it up much.

The gain knob is fairly tame till you get to about 7 and on up, then it becomes much more crunchy, and at these levels, I turn down the master (I don't want to annoy the neighbors...for now :).

The clean is great, very nice and round, I find that it gets me a very lovely slightly fender tone. Turning up the gain knob (soak knob), I can get some very nice Vox like OD sounds, very nice with open chords or anything that needs some sparkle and jangle.

I love the reverb. I thought at first it was lame, because it's not very in-your-face, but the more I play with it, the more I realize that I wouldn't ever use reverb that your sound just gets lost in, that's just too much, so while it seems to have "less" reverb than some Fender amps, it's got useable sounds from 1 to 10 on the knob, which to me means more ability to tweak things.

I play rock, blues, some "indie/alternative" (but doesn't that just describe to most people what's been on the radio for the past 10 years....? :P ). I use this thing with some pedals, a MXR Micro Amp, a Digitech Bad Monkey, and a Line 6 Echo Park, all of which sound great into this pedal. They sound different, but they all sound great, this amp seems to take pedals well.

I can't judge this, because I have only had the amp about a week or so. I would say that when I swapped the speakers, I looked very carefully at the build quality of the cabinet and the actual amp PCB "guts", and they look really nice, very well built, very well assembled, I don't expect to have problems with this amp.

Carvin is good about things. I called them up, disappointed, because I thought I had ordered the Vintage 30 speaker in the amp. When they helped me realize that I had missed that "batch" of amps, they worked out a deal that allowed me to swap speakers and send them back the Carvin speaker, so I could get some credit back on that one, and in the end, the Celestion speaker only cost me about $30-$40 more, not bad.

I'd return and look at Carvin's offers any time, they're smart people on the phone. I think they could be better, some of the people I talked to seemed less than ecstatic to help me place an order, but it could have just been me, and even these people were helpful in answering my questions.

I would say this amp is awesome, and know it's an understatement. As I found, with the right speaker, you can get a great amp that is gig worthy and studio friendly for under $450.

I've been playing guitar and bass guitar for almost 10 years now. My main amp is an Orange Rocker 30, and I love that amp, but I wanted to get another amp to play in stereo and also use for smaller gigs where I didn't have to drag my Orange around (really great amp, but really heavy too).

I really enjoy this amp. Pedal friendly (with my pedals at least), and very responsive to knob tweaks in just the right way: not too sensitive, but it still has a lot of "wiggle room" when it comes to changing the tone.

I play a custom made tele through this amp, and I love it. I think if you're looking on getting into tube amps, and don't want to buy something you'll never use, then get this amp. I love it it's PLENTY LOUD, and it sounds great too. Carvin has done a great job.

E-mail me for more info on the amp, and my little web page on it... :)

Purchased Sept 2004, mine is stock, for '04 - has a carvin GT12 100watt 8ohm speaker. A nice little one channel amp for practice/jams. Soak/volume, pentode (16watt), and triod(5watt) controls allow you to dial in nice break-up at low sonic levels. Looks good.

Works fine at practice volume - rock, blues, c/w, folk, jazz - but still workable at a blues jam. Not much bottom, but with bass at 10, enough. I like the triod 5watt mode - perhaps a bit spongier. I use several guitars, but my carvin ct3m with Lollar neck pu seems happy plugged in. Sounds fine with my overdrive pedal, and runs quiet.

Since carvin sent me free new tubes, no problems.

had some microphonics initially - called CS and they sent new tubes, plus backups - nice.

I would recommend this for the purposes described above. If I didn't have a Reverend 40/60 112 (sweeeeet), I would be checking into the carvin Nomad. Have purchased 3 guitars, 1 amp from carvin - no problems.

See any number of previous reviews.

I submitted a very favorable review of this amp in November 2006. Since that, I have noticed that reviewers either love or hate this amp. Of course, reviewing is quite subjective and that alone may account for the extreme divergence in opinion, but I think that something else could explain why people have such widely different takes on this amp.
Amps are like guitars in that there can be a wide difference in tonal characteristics between examples of the same model and year. Whenever someone buys an amp or guitar in a brick and mortar store, they usually try all the models in stock in an effort to get the one they perceive to be the best.
Because of a problem I had with the reverb when I received mine after a cross country UPS ride, I actually had 3 different amps before I was able to get the reverb to work on # 3. The first one I had sounded pretty sweet to me right out of the box but I ended up sending it back. The second one was much different, I would describe it as another reviewer did - "lifeless and bland". I could not believe the difference. In a way, I was lucky that the reverb did not work because Carvin took it back. Amp # 3 clearly had been in and out of the shipping carton several times and it took some doing, but I finally was able to get the reverb to work. It sounded much better than # 2 , but I felt is was not quite as sweet as # 1 had been. However, with time it seemed to sound better and now it really can produce chimy clean tones with strong mids and harmonically complex grind when I cut the wattage back to 5. There may be something to what some the old reviews said about breaking in the speaker ??
If you buy online or over the phone, you take a risk that you avoid if you buy in person and can demo the product.

I did a poor job of explaing why I think so many have reverb problems with this amp. This is my opinion but I feel that the magnet on the speaker is quite large relative to the size of the box. The reverb tank and springs are relatively short. It could be that the magnet is pulling the springs up to the top of the tank and screwing things up. If yours is not working, turn it off, remove the tank while leaving it connected and set it outside the cabinet and see if it works outside the cabinet, I bet it does.
At any rate, Carvin set me a replacement tank in addition to the 3 amps and I finally was able to consistently get reverb

Already posted.

Already posted

listed many times over by now

the clean on this thing absolutely sucks ass! it SOUNDS like a 400 dollar amp...maybe less. the closest this thing comes to sounding o.k. is with the dirty sounds. not even the (chinese made!) celestion vintage 30 speaker can help this thing.

it's built like a 400 dollar amp too. took out the chasis to check out the construction. this baby was made as cheaply as they could get away with. also, carvin shouldn't claim "all" plywood construction as the rear panel that protects the tubes is particle board. tubes mount directly to pc board. why don't they just get it over with and start manufacturing in china or mexico? heard these things have reverb problems, not mine. don't know how long it'll last because i sold it.

sometimes they're dicks, sometimes they're nice...roll the dice.

people, save your money for something better even if it takes a while. this thing was a disappointment. how stupid of me to think i could get more amp than i paid for based on hype and advertising. i sold this to help pay for a REAL amp- a Carr Mercury. yes, it cost more, but i got what i paid for and my search is now over for a low watt amp.