Carr Amplifiers El Moto 212 Combo

This is the 80 watt version built in 2001, with effects loop.PTP wiring(you should look inside-the most complicated wiring I've ever seen, no wonder they discontinued it, probably too labor intensive)4xel34 tubes. I'll start off by saying I was looking for a replacement for a early jcm800 50 watt 2x12 combo that I sold a few years back and missed terribly. I wanted a similar amp, the ability for a little more gain, and needed more "life" than the mesa boogie offerings.I play a mix of styles. Mostly poorly. I haven't been playing much in the last few years, and wanted to get back on the horse. This is offered as a 2-channel, but it's really a three channel with the high/low gain switch for the lead channel. It has channel switching-I don't have a pedal to use, but there's a switch on the dashboard. I wouldn't mind a reverb for the clean channel, but they probably didn't have any roon in the chassis left! I primarily use this amp in my living room, sometimes take it to work and play it there(55x40 foot room). This amp has more power than I will ever need. I was actually looking for their 40 watt earlier version, but they only made 54 total, so you have to take what you can get. It is a very powerful amp, and no-one would ever be wanting for more power!

I own an older SRV strat with the texas specials single coils. I also borrowed my brothers tele plus with the red lace sensor humbucker in the bridge. I wanted a higher quality humbucker guitar to go with it, it's really a rock-n-roll amp. So, I'm modifying an old closet guitar with a set of PRS lower output pick-ups to go with the strat. I am playing harder rock, singing leads, VH, AC/DC, ZZ top, ETC. Fun rock and roll!!
It sometimes gets a little noisy, but not it's fault. If you have poorly shielded p-ups(ie texas specials) it will put out a horrible hum. Same with poorly grounded outlets(my whole house). If there's a weak link, this amp will find it! But, when you buy a really sensitive amp, that's what you will get. And you want an amp with a really clean signal path, like an old vox, or fender tweed, or marshall's. They really present your abilities(or lack there of)! But, if you hook up a really bad guitar, who cares, It will make it sound pretty good! You hook up a really good guitar to a bad amp, guess what? It's not going to sound good.
This amp has 2 channel, and the lead has a hig/low gain switch-so really three. As far as easy set-up, look elsewhere. When you have this much control over the sounds available, it's going to take a long time to get used to setting it up. But in a minute you can find a sweet spot to run with. But to really learn the range of this thing, it'll take a long time. I thought with such a simple lay-out....
I use the low gain as the clean channel. reminds me of my jcm800, but can get a nice tweed sound, the tone and volume controls really work, so you really can find a lot of sounds with it. I've never had an amp that you would turn the treble all the way off, and have a really nive sound. And using the volume dials, will really change the voice of the amp, not just make it louder.
The clean channel is pretty dirty. Reminds me of a blackfaced twin, or my old AC/50, a lot of crunch is their if you want it.
I don't use the high gain very much. It is very mesa rectifier/soldano slo, which is not my cup of tea. Read other reviews on how to use this. But when I do, I usually have it turned pretty far down, and that gives more of a jcm900 lead sound cranked. Higher, and it's thermo-nuclear. It's kind of like a fine sports car. You know it's there if you ever need it! Which is a nice option to go with the reast of it's abilitites. A lot of people would have to buy a separate high gain amp, and those arew awefully pricey. This is a master volume amp, in fact, it has 4 volume controls plus high gain switch. You could keep this in your bedroom! As far as total volume output for this amp. I don't know. I've never really tested it's high end, and that is a shame. But it is more than I'll ever need! I was looking at other higher gain amps, and couldn't find anything new that had the versatility and sound quality, and price. Boogie had versatility, but sound quality was weak, and price wasn't a bargain. Marshall just isn't what it used to be. Fender was cool, but not versatile. Star gain-star was the cats pajamas, maybe not as versatile-who cares, but couldn't get the dough together. Matchless, Budda, bumble, trainwreck, victoria, Bogner,Vox(JMI) not a great value anymore.

Not gigging, as far as depending on it, it seems pretty reliable. I think I have a little rub starting on one of the speakers, but not bad. I wouldn't mind trying out different speakers on it, I think that would be worth my time. Bought it with brand new JJ's in it, and haven't had it very long. So I'm pretty comfortable with it going for quite a while. The reliability issue is why I bought this and not another vintage piece. They seem to have a good rep for service and reliability, plus it's only a few years old. My old vox's would scrae me. Every funny noise they would make, I would imagine thousands of dallars literally going up in flames!

Never talked to them. Warranty is not transferrable through used sales. Oh well, there's a highly talented tech only a couple of clocks away from my house.

I've been playing off and on for about 20 something years. I've previously owned many amps(boogie, vox, marshall,fender, etc), never bought one new? I have a swr bass combo that I use (or used) a modelling pedal through-worked pretty good, but needed the real thing again! If it was lost or stolen, I would really miss it, but I would probably buy something else. I have a habit of doing that. Would definitely look for the lower wattage version(it's a waste for me to have this much power), or an imperial-I'm impressed with their quality and versatility. In comparison, I can't really compare it to something else. Isn't that a sign of a good amp? Can you compare an AC/30 to anything else? Boogie tried to make amps this versatile before(heartbreaker, nomad, maverick), but they had major reliability issues, and know have gone back to simpler designs, and I think Carr has also. I wish it had reverb for the low gain mode sometimes. The only thing that I would like to say is that I haven't used it in a band situation yet. To see if it can fit into a mix, or test it's volume. But from my experience so far, it shouldn't have any problem. This is really a great sounding amp with a lot of range, and was obviously built to be used thoroughly. How can anyone miss with an amp like this!

Many features here. Two channels; clean and overdrive. The clean channel controls are volume, treble and bass. The overdrive channel controls are volume, master ( just for this channel ), treble, middle, bass and a toggle to go form vintage, virtually clean, overdrive to over the top overdrive. Lastly the standby switch, a toggle for channel switching without the footswitch and the master volume knob complete the compliment. The power switch is under the chassis. My particular El Moto is a 2x12 with 2 ? Carr Kingpin 60 speakers. Mine also has the Fx loop with a push/pull control to switch between parallel and series and knobs for send and return levels. The main speaker output is switchable between 4, 8 & 16 ohm loads and has a second output jack for running and additional cabinet. There is a ?? jack for the channel footswitch. This particular amp has an external knob for setting the power tube bias!! Gotta love that! This makes is possible to experiment with virtually any octal based power tubes to really model your tone to your taste. The power section has 4 ? power tubes ( EL-34?s in mine ), a 12AU7WA phase inverter and 4 ? 12AX7?s in the preamp section.

This is where this amp really shines. The range of tones is truly amazing. The clean channel alone can sound super clean, spanky and sparkling for killer strat tones or plug you Les Paul into the same channel and hear the most amazing chunky clean to slightly overdriven tones you?ve ever heard. And if you have the room to crank the channel volume and let the power amp breathe above 2 O?clock then prepare to be taken to a whole other realm of awesome. This channel alone justifies the amp!! And with the truly all valve responsive, dynamic character this amp has it makes that one channel incredibly versatile on it?s own. BUT!! It doesn?t stop there!! Hold on to your hat we?re shifting into overdrive baby! In the overdrive channel with the overdrive switch set to clean this channel itself can sound amazingly clean and killer with a Strat or LP type guitar. Real sweet vintage Fender to Marshall tones. Just killer low gain pure tube tone. Then flip the switch into the super overdrive mode and dear god this thing whales!! Thick violin like soaring solos. Thick fluty tubiness to every single note yet amazingly articulate and focused. El Moto has a killer midrange bark which really makes her cut through the mix in a band situation and makes chords just growl. But again, and I can?t stress this enough with this amp, this baby is all about VINTAGE TUBE TONE and FEEL. This is NOT a thrash metal super overdrive. This is the hottest VINTAGE overdrive you have ever heard. Even at it?s hottest it still stays responsive, dynamic and articulate. This amp is for the true ?player? who feels every note no matter how fast or slow the progression. The player who really phrases and wants to use the amp to make his guitar really talk, scream, soar or cry. It makes you want to hang onto every last note for as long as you can because they sound that good?..

Simply, there is NO other amp in the world better built than the Carr amps. Literally every component in this box is the best made. You can push your Carr wide open indefinitely and she'll NEVER let you down.

Super bunch of people. Just give them a call. They are friendly, open and always willing to take the time to answer your questions.

I have been playing well over 30 years. I have a ridiculous array of guitars in my collection and an absurd collection of hand wired boutique amps from Bad Cat to Cornford as well as Mesa?s to Soldano SLO?s and everything in between. I have extremely eclectic tastes in music so I play many, many different styles. Not only does the Carr El Moto have some of the best tone you will ever hear, it also give the eclectic player an extremely wide pallet of tones to use when playing what ever style he desires. And the most beautiful thing about the El Moto is all that versatility and always uncompromising tone!! This amp will NEVER leave my collection

It was brand new and had some controls on the top which I found to be very uninspiring. Channel switching provided solid-state type distortion. YUCK! Maybe I just didn't give it enough time but really an amp that goes for about $2500, my mom should be able to dial in a good tone.

I used a Heritage 150CM with HRW pickups and an ultra top to play through this thing. I found the amp to sound very "mechanical" almost solid-state like in performance. This guitar was plugged into a Victoria Bassman and a Dr. Z Maz 18 before, for reference and it sounded great, as soon as I plugged into the Carr the tone was dead and non-existent. This was true with every Carr amp in the room, another man that was playing a strat through one of the Rambler's was also struggling to find a decent tone. Horrible sounds for something so expensive.

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I've been playing for a while now and own some pretty cool gear, JTM 45 with KT66's and a Fender Bassman reissue with RCA blackplates, so I think I know a little bit about tone. I have always used Les Pauls or Les Paul style guitars so I know how to get good tones out of the instrument. I think one of the biggest problems I had was the salesman who was trashing Fender tweed Bassman's and also Marshall Plexi's and saying how Fender hasn't ever had a decent amp. Then he went on to say that the El Moto was ten times better and more versatile than any Marshall he's ever heard. I think this contributed to my opinion a little, but really it was more about the lack of tone in this amp and the price tag. I give it a 3 because of the fact it is a tube amp and somewhat interesting looking.

Great selection of control panel features (only a few, but nice for a two channel amp). No pull-switches, but it has a little mini-switch on the hi-gain channel to select between lo-gain and hi-gain sounds, and a global 3-way switch (knob) that selects between three different gain structures that affect the entire amp. I keep the gain channel switch in high gain mode, as it sounds a bit thin and listless (IMO) in lo-gain mode, but it does get a funky kind of sound that makes me want to go back and check it out again. In most amps with this kind of feature, the hi-gain mode is usually buzzy, fizzy, and out of control sounding, like it's added on, but in this case it's definitely the better of the two. I also like the keep the overall gain structure switch set to "3", which is all the way open (I just back off the gain controls a little more, but it really sounds better this way, to my ears).

However, most ship with no loop as standard. (?) When I went to the website, I couldn't believe my eyes! Is the effects loop really a $300 option?!?!?!?! Boy, it better be able to tell me what I'm using in my loop and adjust levels to compensate automatically for that kind of price. Man, I wonder how much he'd charge to install reverb - yikes!

There's really not even a power selector, or anything, other than what's mentioned above (my amp doesn't have the $300 gold-plated, diamond studded loop, so I can't comment on it's Herculean sound). Can't really even give it a seven like I did my THD Plexi, even though that's a one-sound non-master amp (though it did come stock with a nice tube buffered fx loop with Send and Return controls).

Many tubes, 88 watts, 4xEL34 power stage. Other than the gain stage switching, it's a pretty standard control layout for a 2-channel amp. Clean (or really, Rhythm) channel has Volume, Treble, and Bass. Gain channel has Volume, Master, Treble, Middle, and Bass controls (mini-switch to control gain type between Volume and Master). Global knobs are an overall Master and the 3-way gain structure selector. Underside has speaker jacks, impedence selector, and footswitch jack. And, well, that's pretty much it.

Oh yeah. A pretty unique take on the modern, Marshall influenced 2-channel ripper-shredder amps. Believe it or not, this is a "loaner" because one of my main amps was damaged in a car wreck, so I don't Own this amp - but I've had it for over a month now, and had it at various rehearsals and gigs, so I figured I'd venture comment.

The clean channel doesn't really get very clean, and it's maybe a tad dark. On the plus side, it gets the greatest crunchy rhythm sound I've heard from a two channel hi gainer. It's got that rough, raw, and ragged sound - and I mean that in a good way. Reminds me a lot of a combination Deep Purple, Trapeze, Pat Travers, and several other kinds of 70's dudes, but it does it in a good way. As jagged as the grind is, it's still got this uniform quality that somehow doesn't sound synthetic, it sounds big, round, and ultra-gnarly. Sounds like a slightly more organized old Marshall pushed a bit - and only the slightest bit of compression, just enough to get things sustaining good. Doesn't really "sing" in a Boogie or Dumble sense, but it does sustain nonetheless. Well, it sings, but with a toothy snarl - it's more Glenn Hughes than Don Henley.

Switching to the gain channel takes us into hyperspace, which everyone knows "ain't like dusting crops, kid". This channel sounds to me like a combination of Bogner, VHT, Soldano SLO, and an almost Dual Rectifier kind of quality. Like a modern take on a classic gained out Marshall. There are many of this kind of amp going around, but I think this is an especially noteworthy flavor. There is a slight bit of that "cardboard gain" sound here (mainly in the highs), but not to anywhere near the degree it is in most amps (even the VHTs). It sounds really natural somehow, even though this channel can generate HUGE amounts of gain. Sounds like your notes are catapulted right out from underneath your fingers, at a high velocity. The only amps I've played that rival this amount of gain, in fact, are the SLO (and 5150, which is SLO based), Dual Rec, VHT Ultralead, and maybe the Bogner Uberschall. At lower gain settings it will get some really good early VH tones (though, it doesn't "nail" them, but you might like these better depending on your viewpoint), and higher up it's downright thermonuclear, yet very controllable. It sounds almost like "Marshall goes Nu-Metal" (because it gets a tight percussive bottom and the mids "do this thang"), except no out-of-control top end fizz, and with a tone-obscessed audiophile tech head building them.

This is one of the few amps I've heard that will simultaneously cut through a band mix and get you heard, yet, even sometimes when you might be overpowering things just a hair, it still blends REALLY well, so you don't stick out like a sore thumb. It sounds contradictory, I realize. But, it's like, with this amp you can blast your own hole through the mix, and hang there. Interesting. Also, I know everyone on Harmony Central claims this about their hi gain amps, but take it from a guy who like those perverted altered chords - I've played some pretty dissonant voicings on this channel with it rippin pretty hard, and can hear EVERY tone ringing through. 7ths, 9ths, and 13ths hang in there, and the ever-infamous flatted 5th didn't cause the "nails on chalkboard" reaction it does even on some clean amps (but it does make you wanna jump off of it in a hurry). Passes all my "tests".

What do you say about a quality, handmade amp that boasts, among other things, hospital-grade power cables? I don't expect that whoever buys this amp will have any problems with it, even during a world tour. Carr's build quality may be even better than the sound (or is reported to be, by people more qualified than me to make that assessment). It should hold up.

From those that have talked to him, Steve Carr is the best. I was interested in the Slant 6V at one point, but I expressed to Steve my desire for the reverb to be on BOTH channels, which, for a small fee, he would have made that mod (which is why I was so surprised at the high cost of the loop). Very polite and willing to listen. That's getting pretty rare these days.

All in all, I have to say, I'd probably own this amp if I played really heavy music often enough to warrant a whole amp dedicated to it. This is about as musical and complex sounding as a metal-inspired gain channel gets. It doesn't really get any better, just different. There are a few great sounding gain amps on the market, the Two-Rocks being among my favorite (though they don't get real "heavy"), and also the Bad Cat Hot Cat (you'd be surprised at the gain), a couple of Bogners, the Diezel, etc. (I haven't played the Zwengel, but it sounds like a cool amp too).

If they'd just get real on the loop situation, this amp would be a fantastic buy. Still, all told, I have no desire to try and trade my THD in an attempt to buy this. Sure, I have to crank up the THD to get my "clean crunch", but the fact of the matter is, this amp is a tube amp, as well, and needs to be cranked up to at least halfway to achieve its full potential. It sounds really good turned down, too, so don't get me wrong. It's just that, to get it to sound its best (and its best has spoiled me), this amp has to be cranked up as well. So, if I'm gonna be crankin amps up, I might as well stick with my THD, as I have a couple of pedals that, in their different ways, push this amp into high gain harmonic soup. Still, I wish Steve Carr would stick thay gain channel voice into a stompbox style preamp pedal. I would not want for anything, then. I'll have my classic, modern, and metal voicings always at my disposal.

All things considered, if you need to take over the world with your guitar, this is the amp to do it through. If you're looking for beauty and expressiveness, harmonic balance and pure sustain, this amp has it, but you'd probably be a lot happier with a K&M Custom or something along those lines. Looking for a "modern blues" amp? Maybe, but it'll be more Pat Travers and Gary Moore than it will B.B. or Freddie (maybe a single channel Bad Cat or Victoria would work for that better). If you need those "complex harmonic" qualities, but with the aggression of a 20 megaton bomb, then THIS is where you need to look, people!