Carlsbro Fatboy 112 Combo

You've all seen these before, single channel with switchable boost and Fat (to beef up single coils). It's designed to be simple leaving you to concentrate on the playing again!. Much more versatile sonically than the Laney VC30 it replaced and no problems with odd EL84 valves being used (the Laney in it's factory state can only use one kind of EL84 due to the valve socket wiring). Has external speaker jacks and FX loop at the rear plus long spring Accutronics Reverb tank inside.

Lovely, with the V30 supplied. Reasonably clean headroom and a great blues/rock tone - that's what this was designed for. I have tried other speakers too and might try and an old G12-65 I have. The closed back helps the bass frequencies, yet to try it without the back. It likes true bypass pedals in the chain (I sometimes use a line driver so don't suffer with cable losses, they are Klotz LaGrange so loss not normally a problem) but I don't use the FX loop at all. Lush long spring Accutronics Reverb tank inside.

No problems yet but slight concerns over limited ventilation given the problems other amps have where the PCB sockets are mounted on the PCB. The closed back doesn't allow for any airflow but it's not caused any issues at all though so far - keep them in the house or somewhere where the temperature is constant, damp garages are not good!

The forums are excellent, the website needs a bit of work but the forums are regularly updated by people from the factory. An excellent source of help and data (schematics and manuals - just ask!)

Playing many years, lots of other gear and amps to choose from. Carlsbro were not renowned for building great sounding amps in the 80's (all solid state - BUT they sounded OK if you worked with them and very reliable) having built a reputation in the early 70's based on the high headroom and brutally loud "50 Top" valve heads and similar 100 watt heads but this is a great return to form and a constant surprise when other players hear and see the amp. It's pretty heavy though and sometimes the single handle is a struggle.

Blues box. Bit quiet for 30 watts - cant use it for rehearsal or gig but sound should be good to record with...bit of a downer but got it cheap so...
features enough for single channel class a but looks are a bit on the cheap side & the switches & knobs are weak compared to other makes..

One trick pony but reasonable enough. I'd ignore the other the top responses by other reviewers as this amp is tonally nowhere near the leading brands in comparison.
Bit scratchy sounding & lite on tone...no real whack like a twin, vox, orange or marshall etc...tried it with loads of different guitars, fenders, gibsons, gretch, prs, tokai, burns, rickenbacker...seemed better with humbuckers contrary to other reviews...
This is a 'home' volume amp really. gonna take it into the studio in a few days to see how it records. If it doesnt record well, I'll probably give it away.

I couldnt use this amp on a gig - its way too quiet... plus for some stupid reason, Carlsbro only put an 8ohm speaker out?! like what was the point in that? why not 16 so users could at least get a 1x12 external speaker so this bloomy 'thin'boy could be heard! Who the hell want to lug about a 4x12???

switches look & feel weak.
I wouldnt trust this amp

Dealt with them some time back & they seemed fine. However, see now that theyve radically reduced their operation & I heard from a mate who runs a shop that its all going downhill fast.

Ive been playing for 31 years - own/have owned far too much gear to mention. If this were to vanish, I wouldnt give a stuff. I dont 'love' anything about this amp but its alright, just it has a fair number of downsides. Didnt compare this amp with anything until I bought it. I bought it because I thought it was a very good price for a class a valve amp & I read all these reviews with great interest....shame, what a let down.

This amp was probably made in 2004 - One channel - Automatic biasing (In other words, you can change the valves and you don't need to go to a tech - BIG PLUS). Marshall type sound and a closed back with a celestion Vintage 30 speaker (Personally I prefer closed backs - much better bass response). You can get distortion (and it's good) if you want it, by useing the gain boost, but this amp sounds best when cranked (if you want a disrorted sound). Absolutely great class A amp, and you can get these cheap on ebay if you're lucky. The reverb is fine and the tone controls work (so much better than the ENGL classic combo I once owned).

Great detailed sound - Excellent electric guitar amp

So far so good. I've used carlsbro before and they last.

No problemo

Excellent buy - If you can get one, you won't be sorry - I searched ebay for 6 months before finding one!!!

I bought this new in 12/05, though the amp was discontinued recently, so I'm not sure of the year. Probably about two years old. One channel, class A amp--straight kinda deal. Nice how it waits to activate the tubes instead of having a standby switch. Idiot-proof, and I need that. Scoop and fat switches. Gain, volume controls with three band EQ. Effects loop, too. This amp is great for all styles, but it specializes in very clean, detailed playing. It's sound is expansive and bright, but not in any sort of brash way. It's very warm, and responsive--when you dig in, the amp swells beautifully and gives you more than you'd expect. Very organic, in a way. Awesome for rock, country, reggae, american or British sounds.

I mostly use an Ibanez Artcore Am73 with this thing and it sounds like I'm playing a $1000 rig. I also have a strat-type Frankenstein guitar with Mighty Mite pups, and it sounds snappy as hell through the Fatboy--in a very good way. I run though a crapload of pedals, with the modulation and delay-oriented ones in the loop. The amp is clean, clean, clean. It hones in on you nuaces, and it actually makes me realize that I'm a better electric guitar player than I thought. Now being a Class A this amp is not the loudest on the block, but if you crank the gain and volume and ease back on you guitar or volume pedal, you have a lot of headroom for sure, so I guess its'a different kind of loudness than I'm used too, having been a solid state boy up till now. Like I said, if you lean into the strings a bit, this thing finds a new loudness level that you wouldn'y think was there. It's beautiful. Really. The sound is big. It's, I don't know, more complete--more THERE. Not an ear splitter, but an ear caresser. I play with a keyboardist, bassist, and drummer, and we get loud, and I have not prob being heard. this amp is wonderful. If you can find one, I recommend jumping on it.

I see no reason why this bad boy wouldn't last, though I'm still i the honeymoon period. It's solid and straightforward. I'll give Carlsbro the benifit of the doubt here (minus one for any unforseen contingencies).

Can't say, but they do have good people working for them it seems. The guy I bought it from is a cool guy who works with them.

This thing is the only amp I see ever needing. Kick-ass.

I got this amp off ebay for ?250.00. This a 30 watt A Class valve amp with 4 x EL34 and 3 x ECC83.
It is a one channel amp with a gain boost which you have to be careful where you put the gain as the volume can be different when switching from clean to the gain boost.From left to right it as two inputs a fat switch which thicken the sound like a mid boost,Gain then gain boost (Which is foot switchable) Active bass - middle - treble, Swoop switch this boosts the bass and treble and cuts the middle, master volume and last is the reverb.On the back there is a speaker out and an effect loop. It as a built in stand by switch which kicks in after 90 seconds to full power its a good idea and will stop people burning there valves to bits. I wish the fat and swoop switch were foot switchable this would of been the iceing on the cake.
The cab is a closed back so you have a lovely bottom end with this amp.I would have gave this amp a 10 if you had the switchable (fat & swoop)

I use a Eric Clapton strat and a custom Tele with Fralin blues special pickups.Play main country/blues and classic rock, i only use a Robert Keeley compressor and a Robert Keeley boss blues driver. Well this is where this amp makes up for the lack of features it just sounds so damm good i like to start with a good clean sound and boy this is good i mean F.....G awesome as all the trade marks of a class A amp, pick soft and it's sweat and warm just like a Vox AC30 pick hard and it comes alive with the attack that only these little valves can do.I am so pleased with this amp it sounds great with single coil guitars a lovely bottom end and sweat highs the EQ is active so if you move the say the bass just a little it make a big difference unlike say a Marshall where you can turn the knobs on or off and it still sounds shit.It also sound good at low volume which is good for jamming at home or recording, the vintage 30 celestion speaker is a perfect match. After owning mesa boogies and shit loads different amps i have found an amp that as the tone and you just plug in and let rip.

With most valve amps there not high tech so i cann't see a problem also it's build to last and the cab is very well made and the controls feel very good quality.

I wanted a manual and got it with in a day (Shit website)

I've been playing for 18 years and this is the best amp i have played through i'm keeping my eye out for another one to come up at a good price. Carlsbro are knowed for make crap PA's but this is a real treat to see them make something worth pluging in to and i mean that. I've have had boogies - soldanos - VHT - Ampeg VL503 - Fenders if you cann't afford a Bat Cat or a Matchless then check one of these out and save your self a shit load of money

The main features are, single channel with footswitchable gain boost, excellant accutronics spring reverb, bass/mid/treble/reverb/gain/ volume controls, plus gain boost pushbutton, FAT pushbutton, mid scoop button, power on, two inputs. No standby but instead a neat timer arrangement which switches you on after the valves have warmed .. very clever.

At the rear is a send/return loop, 8 ohm speaker output, footswitch and detachable power lead. Interesting point here is that the combo is closed backed which enhances the bass response really nicely. There are ventilation slots in the rear metal plate to let the heat from the valves vent.

The valve arrangement is three ECC83 and four EL84, mine came with JJ's. Despite what one reviewer said below, access to the valves is very easy. You just unscrew the wooden closed back ie 6 no screws and hey presto there are the valves - hanging upside-down like every other amp. The power tubes have retainers, and pre-amp tubes have screen cannisters. Transformers are teroidal. Inside it is PCB, as you might expect for the money, but a quality job all the same.

The speaker is a 12" celestion V30 and is perfect for this combo.
The cab construction is first class and the whole combo has a quality solid feel and it even has reinforcing gussets inside, which you can only see when you remove the back. The covering is top quality and looks like it will withstand knocks quite well. Corners are metal and its finished with a good quality leather handle. Mine has the black rill cloth which I think looks good. It is substantial in weight but not too heavy. Only drawback is that the combo V30 is defeated if you plug an extension cab in... bit daft if you ask me.

Overall, whilst not crammed with features it does the job for me and it didnt cost me an arm and a leg, and do you really need any more?? So it gets full marks from me.

It sounds great!! I have been playing for 30 plus years and have tried everything. I had just sold my Cornford Hurricane and was looking for a cheaper replacement to use at home or in studio. This is it. Where do I start to describe the sounds available?

I have played my Strat, Tele, PRS McCarty, Single-cut and Custom 22 through it and they all sound great, and the beauty is that they all sound individual, in other words you can hear the guitar, even with the gain up high. I tend to use the amp with the gain booost engaged and just control things from the guitar, and this amp responds well to this. However you can set it up clean if you wish and then hit the gain boost on the footswitch and you have a wonderful harmonically rich overdriven sustain.

At home I set the gain at about quarter and set the volume at half and you get this kind of clean overdriven sustain which I love, but you can crank the gain a bit more for pinched harmonics. It has a good bass reponse and the all the controls are sensitive and you can hear the result of a slight adjustment.

You can get a good all round cross-section of sounds from AC30 ish clean, to Marshall crunch, to Cornford style smooth overdrive. You can even do the scooped metal thing if thats your bag ...just hit the scooped button.

So where is the FAT in Fatboy then? Well when you plug your Strat in and you want a bit more body, you hit the FAT button and it gives you a humbucker type mid boost, which really works well. Do it with the a humbucker guitar and you get even more drive te he he!!

Best thing is .. it does it all at both bedroom level and at full whack gig level too. I would say its loud enough to gig with at club or pub sized venues providing the tub-thumper is not too loud.

Dont know .. not had it long enough, but it looks robust enough so shouldn't be too many problems here. I think it will prove to be reliable.

No experience with them so far but I understand from talking to others that they are pretty good at responding to queries etc. Dont know about anything else.

Their rep/demonstrator was really helpful and knowledgable.

Overall I would buy this again, and I am thinking of looking at the twin channel 50 TOP head as well. I must admit to being a bit reluctant towards buying a Carlsbro as they appear to be more into the PA and entry level guitar stuff, or at least thats the perception I had. But I thought I'll give it a try, and I gotta say I'm impressed enough to bother to write this review.

For the money I paid I dont think you will match it for quality, tone and its valve as well.

So my Marshall JCM800 can go on ebay now, and I think this Fatlad will give my Engl live rig a run for its money too. Email me if you want to know any more info.

one channel, with a gain boost, mid boost, and mid scoop switches. the gain boost is footswitchable, but unless you set up the gain and volume controls in a specific way the volume drop is huge when you boost the gain. and the other voicing switches aren't footswitchable, so despite these extra buttons, its no more versatile than any other single channel amp with no footswitch. so if your thinking of buying one, just think of it as a single channel amp with gain, bass, mid, trebble, master volume, and reverb. for me thats all i need, and if its not what you need, then you're probably not gonna buy it!, so hence a 9.

mmmmmm :o)
delicious. bit of a one trick pony, but its damn good at doing what it does. i have the gain cranked on the clean channel, and the mids quite scooped out, tho not using the scoop switch. fat switch not on either. this gives a gorgeous blues breakup sound, which suits my les paul perfectly. in the neck position in gives a warm cleanish blues sound, then flick to bridge pickup and boost it a bit with my tubescreamer, and it gives that still quite clean, but loads of sustain and grunt. lovely. it does also do high gain sounds, but you have to reset al the controls. so for live switching between clean and high gain i stick to footswitches. the distortion is quite fuzzy. not at al a tight marshall crunch, so there's not much clarity for heavy rythm unfortunately. i haven't experimented with higher gain settings as much yet, tho i did manage quite a good santana sound with the gain maxxed, plus my tubescreamer to add a bit of compression and sustain, and the scoop switch engaged.
also, i cranked it on the clean "channel" before i bought it. it sounded gorgeous. i cant wait to gig it so i can do that again. so dynamic.

HAVEN'T HAD IT LONG, BUT I WOULDN'T WANT TO CHANGE THE PREAMP TUBES. THEY SEEM TO BE INSIDE THE METAL TRAY WITH THE ELECTRONICS IN, RATHER THAN HANGING DOWN FROM IT. MOST ODD. IT ALSO GETS VERY HOT, WHICH IS WORRYING CONSIDERING THE LACK OF VENTILLATION.

NO BUSINESS WITH THEM YET

FOR THE BARGAIN PRICE I GOT IT FOR I DONT THINK THERE'S ANYTHING BETTER AVAILABLE. FOR THE FULL RETAIL PRICE? HMMMM. POSSIBLY. ID HAVE TO SHOP AROUND FOR A LONG TIME. VERY HEAVY THO. BUT HEY, I LOVE IT!!

GREAT FEATURES BUT COULD HAVE BEEN FOOTSWITCHABLE.

THIS AMPS MAKES ME LAUGH.I TRIED IT UP AGAINST A MESA BOOGIE DUAL REC TREMOVERB.ALTHOUGH IT WAS 100W AGAINST MY 30W THE CARLSBRO MADE ME FEEL PROUD TO BE BRITISH,IT WAS GREAT. TONS OF SUSTAIN,HARD TO GET A GARBAGE TONE JUST PLUG IN AND PLAY.CLEAN OR DIRTY THIS AMP COOKS!

I'VE NOT HAD IT TO LONG BUT SO FAR SO GOOD.ON VERY HIGH GAIN THE VALVES RUMBLED VERY QUIETLY OCCASIONALLY.

RANG CARLSBRO TO GET INFO SO AS TO MOD GAIN IE PUT A POST GAIN POT IN.THEY WERE HELPFUL AND EASY TO GET HOLD OF.

I PREVIOUSLY OWNED A PEAVEY CLASSIC 30 BUT ALTHOUGH A NICE AMP IT DID NOT MAKE ME SMILE LIKE THE CARLSBRO.

Lots of lovely useable features incluiding time delay stanby, Fat Switch, Scoop Switch, Reverb, Boost Switch, In line Effects loop, if you need channel switching from clean to crunch it is hard to strike a balance on this amp but there are other ways to do this anyway, I use my Boss Bluesdriver for a suble boost or roll back the guitar volume to clean up the boost. I use a TC M300 in the effects line which works beautifully clean or dirty

I use a G&L strat and a Tokai les Paul through this amp with a Boss BluesDriver up front and the M300 in the efx loop for echo and flanger, I have been playing for nearly forty years and I can't remember hearing anything this good anywhere live; not on stage or in a shop or a recording studio. Furthermore, if you improvise a lot like I do, it doesn't seem to matter how you set the controls and switches, you can go from sweet mellow vintage clean sounds on a Strat with no noise, to full blown scooped out pinched harmonics on the bridge pickup of your Les Paul - and everywhere inbetween. there is probably more tone variation than most people would want with a full deep bass and detailed presence at around 3/4 on the dials. This amp sounds great at any volume, but when you get it up to gigging volume it'll take a couple of days to wipe the smile off your face, it has a fantastic 3d sound, anything from Knopfler, VanHalen, SRV, Hendrix - the lot.

let's face it, you don't buy a valve amp at any price and not expect a hitch from time to time. I have changed the preamp tubes because one of the orginals was noisy, and I have spare valves as well, just in case. You need a backup with this amp because you have to unscrew the back to get at the valves, apart from the fact that you should not touch the amp until it cools down anyway. But it is very well made with nice brass corners and a chunky solid leather handle. Time will tell

I like Carlsbro, they a good old british company that like to do their own thing, but I got this used and I've never spoken to them

I tried one of these in a music shop and thought it was fantastic but the reverb was broken and they wanted #540 for it but i got this one on Ebay for well less than half that and havent stopped laughing yet. I like the way it looks too, with the quirky yellow & blue colour scheme and the basket weave cloth

If your looking up the reviews you should know the spec's so i wont go into detail.
Its a single channel Class A valve amp with gain boost, reverb and a rich true sound. FAT switch to make single coils sound like humbuckers and a mid scoop button to go all nu metal on your ass. Great 12" Celestion vintage 30. Oh and this thing is loud!

I get the impression this amp was designed for players who really like to play (and not sit fiddling knobs) and lets your tone,playing style and technique shine through. If your looking for sugar coated over produced fake sounding guitar noise choose another amp , this is just organic and real 100%

I agree with one of the other reveiwers it'd have been nice to get the reverb and mid scoop buttons to be footswitchable.

Im using this with loads of guitars (i own around 11 at the last count) and its sounds just great with any of them. Clean has a richness and smoothness ive never heard from another amp, personaly i prefere this amps clean sound over fender's any day. When you want to dirty up the sound thatswhen this amp becomes a real joy to play , you have so much gain avaliable but not just gain tone! Really this thing can sound great and vintage one moment or push that scoop switch and you got the sound of focused warm and powerful hard rock Marshall aint got nothing on this amp for rich harmonic distortion . Id not reccomend this amp if you are a true metal head but for someone who occasionaly dabbles into the realm it does just fin for me. THIS AMP LOVES THE BLUES!!!

the cliche time will tell is all i can say, seems well built.
Has a time delay before powering on to check itself which im sure is a good idea just seems to take forever t ocome on when inspiration strikes (but i guess thats what accoustics are for!)

well top marks for customer support! their web site may be the worst website i've ever seen but they sure do make great amps! I got mine at a local music store closing sale for silly money and i needed a footswitch for the gain boost (marshalls wont work!). Most guitar shops said they could order me one but it would be around #60!due to the fact it's a "special" kind. I phoned Carlsbro they sent me one for #18!!!!! plus a copy of the manual within days hows that for customer service!

I really love this amp and im gonna keep it!
For 30 watts it sure is loud, my drummer is a hard hitter and this thing drowned him out no problems. Just wish the scoop and reverb buttons were footswitchable then it'd be perfect.