Carr Amplifiers Hammerhead 210 Combo

THIS IS A BASIC AMP YET INCREDIBLE WITH ALL GOOD PLAYER NEEDS ON LIVE STAGE.
VOLUME, MASTER VOLUME. 4 POSITION GRIP KNOB FOR GAIN, 4 POSITION IMPACT KNOB FOR BRIGHTER, TWO CATHODE BIAS EL34 WHICH MEANS YOU WILL NEVER NEED TO BIAS YOUR POWER TUBES AND WILL GIVE THAT INCREDIBLE CLEAN OR OVERDRIVE TONES WITH 2 PREAMP 12AX7' TUBES ALL POINT TO POINT HAND WIRED. 60 WATT KING PIN SPEAKER MUCH LIKE A CELESTION V30. ONE INPUT AND TWO POSITION PHASE POWER SWITCH. ONE 8OHM SPEAKER INPUT.

THIS THE MOST INCREDIBLE SOUNDING CARR AMP, THE MOST OVERLOOKED AND REALLY KICKS ASS, I OWNED ALMOST ALL POINT TO POINT AMPS MADE TODAY MATCHLESS, MARSHALL, DRZ, TWO ROCK, VOX, FENDER, KENDRICK AND MANY OTHERS. IF LOOKING FOR A SMALL PACKAGE AMP THAT ROCK THIS AMP WILL KICK MATCHLESS AMPS HANDS DOWN. SOUNDS LIKE GREAT VOX OR INCREDIBLE OLD TWEED. GREAT ROCK/ROLL BLUES AMP. I JUST AD A EH HOLY GRAIL AND YOU GOT IT. INCREDIBLE RAW TONES THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. I AM SURPRISED WHY THIS AMP IS THE MOST SOLD AMP BY CARR AMPS. THE BEST KEPT SECRET. IF YOUR THING IS SILVERFACE FENDER FIND A FENDER. BUT THIS AMP WILL DO EVERYTING ELSE. IS THE KIND OF AMP YOU WANT TO PLAY AND PLAY AND PLAY....KILLER CHOICE. I TRIED A FANE BLUE AND MAN O MAN THIS AMP BRINGS TEARS TO MY EYES. SOUNDS KILLER WITH ANY GUITAR STRAT, TELE OR LES PAUL.

SO FAR SO GOOD...

NO NEED YET BUT I AM SURE I COULD GET SOME HELP FOR THE MAIN MAN.

THIS THE ONE BEST I COULD NOT LEAVE WITHOUT. IS A KEEPER. I OWN A TWO ROCK, KENDRICK, MATCHLESS AND FENDER BLACKFACE. BUT MY OPINION HAS CHANGED AND LOOKS I WILL HAVE SOME AMPS FOR SALE. THIS THE PERFECT AMP SWEET SOUNDING AT THE SAME TIME RAW TONES WITH A SOME CLEAN AND JUST ALLOTS OF INCREDIBLE OVERDRIVE AND DISTORTION TONES. LEAVE YOUR PEDALS AT HOME...YOU WILL NOT NEED THEM. ONLY A TOUCH OF REVERB OR DELAY AND I AM HAPPY MAN....LOVE THIS AMP.

I'll give it a 5 for features becasue there aren't that many, BUT for my taste, that's A-OK. I prefer the lack of bells & whistles.
1 volume, 1 MAster Volume, 1 grip (gain) 1 Impact (mid/highs).
Like the other person said, once in awhile I would like 1 tone kob, BUT by not having one, it does not diminish the sound of this amp. (but let me stress just 1 tone knob)
25 watts Class A. It sounds pretty damn big - and I have to keep up w/my gtr-players' BadCat!
Please rememebr though, by giving it a 5, that's not a bad thing, it just doesn't have a lot of stuff on it.

As far as sound, think Marshall plexi meets tweed. IT compresses very nicely - that class A thing.
Extremely quiet and a great overdriven sound, as well as a great clean tone. Crank it or play it soft, it sounds great. IT really does I swear!
Great with overdirve & distortion pedals and pretty much every other pedal I've used.

I've been gigging with mine now for almost a year and no problems whatsoever. (knock wood) I do carry spare tubes (there's only 4 though!) but when you pop the back of this thing off, you can clearly see it's been OVER built. They really did this one up right.
I gig w/out a backup all the time, but I do carry spare tubes/fuses just in case.

I did email them about an amp cover and Steve got back to me ASAP.
The way this thing is built, I doubt I will ever have to get in touch with them.

Overall, this amp rocks. I play r-n-r to alt-country and this amp can do everything.
I would buy it again if it got lost or stolen. My only gripe, and it's a small one, would be to have 1, I repeat just 1, overall tone knob in lieu of the Impact. That way I could dial more highs easier when using a humbucker equipped gtr on the neck pickup. But it's really a minor thing. The impact knob does it's job pretty damn well.

I love the Class A compression. Different than a Matchless/BadCat sound because it's more Marshall than VOX, but in the same ballpark.

One thing I might add to it would be an external speaker out. Would be nice if I ever wanted to add another 2x10 cab to it, but again, that's a minor thing.

One of the first 30 or so Hammerheads made by Steve Carr, this amp is a very straighforward amp perfect for thick plexi meets tweed sounds. Just offers Volume (Gain), Impact, Grip, and Master Volume for a tone slightly more true to your actual guitar. The impact pushes the highs and high mids, but it's affect on the tone diminishes as the gain increases. The grip pushes the preamp tubes more and more the further you turn it up. Both grip and Impact are a 4-way switch. Single channel amp, no effects loop or headphones jack. The lack of eq on it is nice becuase there is literally no way to make it sound bad, but i have found that at times I might want to use an eq pedal for a little bit more high end in there. Don't get me wrong, it is not muddy, but sometimes a little extra top end might be nice. 25 watts class a provides a good amount of punch for it's size. A light 37 pounds.

Any pickup configuration I have tried sounds wonderful with this amp. But like I said before, it works well for anything rock or blues based that you would want good, thick distortion for. Don't think blackface, think tweed meets plexi, but more on the plexi side. To me, it sounds like what a GOOD old plexi should sound like. It's also very quiet, even when run wide open. You can get anything from a light distortion with the gain down and the master volume cranked or a extremely big distorted sound with it run open. An incredible sounding amp if you want a good plexi sound at 25 watts instead of 50 or 100.

I haven't had any problems with it yet. It seems to be built very well. I would expect it to function well for a while becuase it's all point to point.

Steve has written me back personally for any questions I might have. That might change as Carr gets bigger, but so far they have been wonderful to work with.

I'll make it short and sweet - if you want an old marshall plexi sound at a lighter volume, this is your amp! It sounded incredible out of the box, but it just keeps getting better. 25 watts makes it very reasonable for smaller venues, but still packs a lot of punch. I did notice significant difference between the volume of this and say an AC30. But this is still loud. check out Carr's website www.carramps.com to hear samples. They aren't doctored up, it sounds just like that. Certainly an amp worth checking out.