Carr Amplifiers Mercury 112 Combo

No FX loop, no easily accessible speaker out. No footswitchable channel or reverb. No tone controls on ch. 2 or 3.

This is a killer sounding amp. I'd give it a 10, except the clean channel doesn't have the sparkle of many other boutique amps. On the other hand, the clean channel handles pedals wonderfully, and can actually be driven pretty hard. Channel 3 is where it's at though. It's got sustain and character for days. The power scaling works well too. Better than a HotPlate. Even 1/2 watt setting doesn't kill the character of the amp.

I've had the amp for maybe 5 years now. I've not gigged with it, but have halled it out to many a practice or a jam session.

This is a great little recording amp, and will even keep up with a drummer for practice (I put it on a stand at ear level). Doesn't do modern metal, but will do everything else: blues, rock, 70s/80's metal, and shred. I've got some other really nice amps: Bogner Shiva, Tone King Metropolitan, THD Flexi and Univalve, Fargen modified Deluxe Reverb Reissue. This amps stands up to all of them, with the exception of the Tone King's clean channel, which is just other worldly, but partly because it's 40 watts and has the headroom. As sparse as it is featurwise, I really wouldn't change a thing, and yes, if it were stolen, I'd buy it again, because it has tone and character that is all it's own.

manufactured in approx 2007 ( i think ) - the EL34 version with the red white and blue patriot speaker.

I absolutely could not resist buying one of these. I love tele bridge PUs and my favorite amps previously ( still have them ) are a Gibson GA15 goldtone and a Vox. I learned the magic of the triode 7.5 watt setting TURNED UP in small - medium size clubs ( also small-medium size dives if you know what I mean. ) The 8 watt mercury was calling to me and the reverb quality reputation of the Carr amps is strong. Here is where I went wrong - I realize that what I love is EL84 class A high end sweet trebles, chime, etc. I am lucky enough to also own a mint 1965 AC 10. I had no business buying an EL34 amp - I tried everything and Steve Carr really tried to help. I went to a lower bias ( 42 ) and tried 5-6 other tubes - I even picked up a $100 Sylvania NOS 6L6GC. No matter what I did the tone was brutal and 'flashlight like' with no sweetness in the trebles. I gigged with it once and it certainly is loud enough on 8 Watts but I quickly went back to my EL84 amp after the first set. I was disappointed with it with my tele, ric 360 , strat and Casino. It might not be fair to criticize it because you can't compare apples to oranges - but I also don't think it competes with any of the small blackfaces - DR, princeton , etc. One thing for sure tho- The reverb is absolutely stunning on the Mercury. It is also one of the quietest amps I have owned ( has a ground switch that is really useful ).

The workmanship is some of the finest I have seen.

I am really impressed with this company. Extremely helpful - I think they would have done almost anything to help.

I have played 40 years and owned hundreds of guitars, amps and toys over the years ( like any gear addict ). May favorite sounds are single coil bridge PUs into the right EL84 amp - cover band for past 8 years playing all the campy stuff people dance to. My heaviest addiction is that bridge tele PU into a treble booster then straight to that 45 year old AC twin 10 into the EF86 preamp channel cranked. punk , The Who, Kinks, AC/DC etc - but the goldtone is pretty good also. I bought my Carr six months after I hit on the magic of this 12 Watt Vox and the Mercury really never had chance - also can't come close to my Goldtone. Maybe a lower wattage speaker would help. Maybe for a different style player this would be the right amp - also maybe for humbuckers ( I don't know - humbuckers are not in my world )
I had heard that this amp is the ultimate small blackface tone - but I also disagree here - my old DR is sweeter in the highs and not so harsh. However, I'm sure many people love this amp and like I said - the reverb is astonishing.

By now everyone should know the features of this amp so not gonna list them. Mine is a 2006 model. For what I use it for I give it a 10

Well my amp is a El34 model but swapped it out for a KT66. Major improvment in tone! I also added a Celestion Blue and now this amp sings. I still wonder why it doesn't come with this speaker stock. I work second shift so by the time I get home the wife and kiddies are in bed. That's where this amp comes in perefectly. I can play with good tone and not wake anyone up! The Mercury has a very good clean sound and the reverb sounds great too. I used to use alot of different overdrive pedals but don't need them anymore with the exception of my Analogman BC108 Sunface. I don't play in clubs so couldn't justify having a 40/50 watt amp anymore. Glad someone out there is looking out for us hobby players.

I bought mine used and have had it for only a few months so I can't really comment on it. I have opened it up and it looks solid. Nice handwiring!

Never had to contact C.S and don't think I ever will.

I would give this a 10 overall because it is the answer to my prayers.I can play at home at anytime and not wake up the family or bother neigbors. Don't get me wrong at 8 watts this amp is loud enough to do both of those but using the attenuator takes care of that nicely!

This model is the El34 model. P.Ad, this amp will gig easily. You cant switch between the three channels or the reverb from the floor. All the pushed power amp tones produced by this amp are available at lounge-room volume, allowing you to play over top of the TV if you want. It is surprisingly light and compact, making it very easy to cart around.

The stock valves sounded great, but I swapped them out for NOS valves, resulting in a little less focused, more open sound.

The amp comes with an Eminence Patriot, Red White and blues speaker, rated at 120W.
I found that this speaker was too bitey, tight and twangy for my taste, so I changed it out for a celestion blue that I had on hand ??? a big improvement tonally. HOWEVER, the Eminance speaker was brand new and totally unbroken in - so I really cannot comment on how the stock Eminance speaker would have sounded down the track. With the stock speaker, I???d give the amp a 7 ??? a 10 with the Celestion Blue.

Another thing though???I was a more than a little disappointed that they???re cutting corners, putting a so-so cheap speaker in a high end amp. What???s more, this Eminance ???Red White and Blues??? speaker is rated at 120 watts, where the amp produces only 8 watts - so how is the speaker supposed to break up and ???work??? with the amp? Steve Carr should have a long, hard think about this, as the Mercury is not an amp for the tone deaf or people chasing a cheap amp ??? it???s for tone-nuts chasing great tone at low volumes who don???t mind paying for it. This amp is let down by this crap speaker! My tip, stick in a great quality, low wattage speaker such as the Celestion blue [rated at 15W] and experience the huge tonal improvement of the speaker working with the amp.

In summary, 3 points off for a crap speaker, and 1 off for the lack of foot-switchability.

I am reviewing this amp with the Celestion Blue Speaker mods, and the NOS valves mod. Without these mods, I???d rate the sound at a 7 out of 10 ??? still very good, but not exceptional. With these mods, the amps tone has certainly been improved.

I play a Tom Anderson Atom though this with little/no effects. I play a range of styles from rock, country, folk, jazz to 80???s metal. For a do-everything amp, the mercury covers all of these styles exceptionally well.

Channel 1: Classic Fender tones. The clean tone is wonderful. With humbuckers it breaks up beautifully from about 10 o???clock. It does get quite flabby from 2 o???clock onwards with humbuckers, but lovers of fuzz distortion will love the effect. Treble and bass controls are very effective in tailoring a wide range of sounds. The sound is thick enough for single note leads, and lovely for chords. The reverb is beautiful and fendery on channel 1, and gets cut back when you change into the gain channels. Surf sounds are easy to achieve with this reverb. I am achieving the best bitey-clean and break-up tones I have ever heard at this volume level.

Channel 2:
Volume low: Rolling Stones edge of breakup,
Volume middle: ACDC ???ish, Led Zep, rocking blues.
Volume high: 80s hair metal.
Broadly speaking it I???d liken this channel to a Marshall JCM 800. There is no eq on channels 2 and 3, but I haven???t missed having them at all. As with channel 1, I have never heard tones to rival this amp at this volume.

Channel 3: More compressed and more gain than channel 2. Cranked it???s similar to a Hot Rodded Marshall/ 80s Mesa [not 90???s] sound. Middle volume it does the Van Halen thing wonderfully, and fully cranked with a high output bridge humbucker, Metallica???ish sounds can be achieved. It does not get to the rectified-mesa sound.

This amp coupled with the Anderson Atom guitar covers a huge range of sounds and styles exceptionally well. All sounds from clean, gritty to dirty are of exceptional quality, and never leave you wanting something else. I used to have a range of great overdrive/distortion pedals [Hotcake, Barber TonePump, Tonebone], but I have sold them as this amp has made them obsolete.

Hint: Experiment with the amps bias to hot via the knob at the back. Altering this makes a huge difference to the overall character, tone and attack of the amp. Hotting up the bias will give you a more sparkly and snappy clean tone, a more punchy rhythm tone and a cranking filthy high gain tone. If you are demoing this amp, be sure to alter the bias control.

Built like a tank. When I swapped out the speaker I was amazed at just how much work and detail had gone into the box. Even the bits you???ll never look at are impeccably finished. Steve Carr and the guys are real perfectionists. Lucky I???m in Australia, because if they knew I???d taken a drill to their handywork in installing a larger speaker, I???m sure they???d want to kill me.

With the speaker mod, it???s the best amp I???ve ever had. At bedroom volume, the best clean tones I have ever heard, the best gritty tones I have ever heard and the best dirty tones I have ever heard. Very versatile, with a great reverb, that won???t damage your hearing. If you play mostly at home and/or at small venues, and you never get your amp above 4 [or lets face it 2!], then this sell it and buy this one and run it on 10 all of the time! I have owned many amps and this one is the only one that I have had no issues with. So do yourself a favour and buy one, but change out the speaker!!!

Read the other reviews for features. Not feature heavy but it has what it counts.

Here's the story - I had a Mercury years ago when they first came out and I raved about it (one of the first reviewers on HC for this amp). Financial reasons made me sell the amp and I regretted it ever since. I just got one off of Ebay (a nice Forrest Green model) and I'm in love all over again. This amp has the most beautiful clean sounds and with the right tube in the power section, the amp really sings. I'm not a high gain freak but more of a cranked blues type of sound. With a JJ KT66 (the best to my ears for this amp)in the output stage the sound is strong, smooth, and punchy. I generally don't use the boost settings. I keep the bass low (around 9oclock) and the treble high (3oclock)and punch up the volume to get my overdrive sound. This keeps the tone stack in place, the mids dropped a little, and I get a great smooth Fender / tweed type of grind. Very touch sensitive, organic, "crumbly", and just plain fun. For my clean sounds. I keep the tone controls around 12oclock w/ bass slightly lower. This is just a great all around amp for touch sensitive players. Not for the thrashers but for those who appreciate what a really good amp can do.
The amp takes pedals VERY well. I use a Indyguitarist Pinnacle2 distortion and a Barber BurnUnit when I want outboard drive.

TRY THE JJ KT66. IT SOUNDS REALLY GOOD IN THIS AMP. NOT AS MIDRANGEY AS THE EL34 IN THE BOOSTED MODES. BETTER LOW END AND SMOOTH TOP END.

If your looking for a low powered amp, are not a metal head / thrasher, and have been playing long enough to know a good amp and tone...this amp is for you. At 8 watts, its plenty loud for practice. You can always mic up the amp...which you should do anyway if you play gigs. Its great to get true power amp cranked tones at various volume levels. I wish the jump in volume from 1/10 watt to 1/2 wasn't so drastic. It really could use something in between. Any thoughts Mr. Carr?

Overall a really fun amp. Expensive, but once you play it and really explore what it can do...you'll agree .

Most people reading these reviews already know the specs. Single channel amp with variable wattage, 3-way boost, high-cut on/off, volume (no master), bass, treble, and reverb. No foot switches, tremolo, effects loop, or aux speaker jack. I, like others, would like to see some of those features, especially a foot switch for the boost. Since this is mainly a home or studio amp I suppose the idea was that foot switches are superfluous. I tested a new Merc at a local shop and fell in love with the amp but not with the $2200 price tag. I bought mine used on eBay and am unsure of the year. Doesn't matter because it's in pristine condition. It is the perfect amp for home use. I used to have a Fender Princeton Recording Amp which has an attenuator built in, but after playing the Mercury I could never go back to the Fender so I sold it.

This amp is primarily a distortion amp. With the boost off, it is dead quiet. With the boost on you do hear some slight background hum, but it's minimal and no worse than a premium distortion pedal. I find myself using the 2W setting the majority of the time. If you want loud clean tone, I'd suggest the Rambler (which I also have). It's about the same price. As with many of Steve Carr's amps, the Mercury loves single coils. I have an American Strat w/ stock single coils, a PRS Customm 22 Artist with tapped Dragon II humbuckers, and a vintage Gibson LP Custom. Humbuckers sound a bit dark, but if you tweak the controls you can lighten it up. Would be nice to see a lower impedance input for humbuckers though. With the volume at 10:00 and below, you can get sparkling clean tones. Above 10:00 the amp starts to break up nicely. For distortion, I usually leave the boost control off and use a Fulltone OCD. It's just a matter of taste...there's absolutely nothing wrong with the boost circuit. I gravitate more toward clean tone and use pedals for tone shaping. I also run an Analogman analog chorus and a HBE Mimic analog delay through the Merc. The amp takes pedals quite well.

Seems to be built like a tank. Biasing the single EL34 power tube is easy and the procedure is clearly explained in the manual. The test ports & bias pot are readily accessible. Steve Carr uses top of the line caps and resistors so it's built to last. Based on that, I'll give it a 9.

I emailed Carr Amps customer service once with a question and received a nice reply the next day. I feel that they stand behind their products.

I've been playing for about 30 years but don't play professionally. I was looking for a top quality boutique amp that I could use around the house for practice and I think it would be difficult to find a better amp for that purpose than the Mercury. If someone stole it I would definitely get another.

2007 Carr Mercury.Very versatile.One channel.I use it for recording

I use a PRS Hollowbody Spruce.It is not noisy and don't use overdrive very often

I love this amplifier.I can get a wonderful,almost piano like sound from my guitars with Carr Mercury.

I've played for 41 years.I own Breedlove,Martin Aand other PRS guitars.I've played with several artists that are Iconic figuers in Modern Music.

Not sure of the year of manufacture. It's got the EL84 tube and the Red White and Blues Speaker. The rest of the specs are covered by other reviews and at the Carr website.

I can't believe I'm writing one of these reviews....

I agree with the wish that it had a footswitch for the reverb and gain stages. The built-in attenuator is magic. Reverb is excellent. The boost/gain stages work really well. The cut switch does actually make a nice difference when you want to mellow the tone a bit.

I haven't used the amp in a band setting with a drummer, so I don't know how well it cuts through a full mix. I use it at home and with friends, jamming at relatively low volumes.

The sound is mostly transparent, you really get to hear what your guitar sounds like, but there's also a nice, classic Fender sound in the mix.

Perfect amp for anyone looking for natural tube distortion at reasonable volumes. It can very nicely hover on the cusp of clean to distorted, or it can be kicked into pure overdrive.

I play blues and blues-based music pretty much exclusively, and in surroundings requiring a relatively low volume. For my purposes, the Mercury is an absolute gift from the amp gods.

No issues so far. Build quality appears to be excellent.

I hear good things about Carr's customer service ethic, but I have not first hand experience.

An amp that sounds like a wet dream at low volumes is exactly what I needed and with the Mercury, it's exactly what I got. The amp can also get really loud for an 8 watt rating, but I'm a bit skeptical that it would cut through the mix of a full band with a drummer. If I ever find out, I'll update the post.

points deducted here because there is no option for footswitchable reverb, overdrive, etc. i realize that these were design choices, and i'm comfortable w/that or i wouldn't have bought this amp in the first place. i just couldn't rightly give a 10 for features on a simple design like this...i had to deduct SOMETHING. the amp does gain alot of points for other features such as the selectable output wattage, versatility in the fact that you can experiment w/different tubes, (which you can bias yourself w/out taking it apart) and it's cool looks.

this is way too subjective so i'll try to keep it short. all i'll say here is that up until buying the mercury, my current and favorite amp was my zinky designed fender prosonic. the only problem is that it needs to be turned up a bit in order to sound good, just like all tube amps. enter the mercury. i A/B'd the two amps and was amazed to find that the mercury made the prosonic seem almost sterile sounding in a transistor-ish way. (on the clean sounds) what also surprised me was that even though the mercury doesn't use a tube rectifier like the prosonic, it had a more "bouncy" feel to it than the prosonic. if it had more clean headroom at gig volumes, it'd be perfect. the overdrive sounds are incredible as well. my previous "small" amp was a carvin vintage 16. when i first got the mercury, i was a little nervous to compare it to the 400 dollar carvin which i was relatively happy with at the time. what if this $2K amp doesn't sound like it costs $1600 more than the carvin?!?! man, i'd be pissed cuz i'd feel like a sucker! well, i A/B'd the merc and the carvin and i literally laughed out loud when i plugged into the carvin after playing the merc. the carvin sounded like it was made of cardboard. you really DO get what you pay for. BTW- the carvin went on ebay a few days later. anyway, i realize i haven't really described tone too much here. again, only because it's too subjuctive a topic and you really need to HEAR an amp to know for yourself. this is the first 10 i've given an amp in a review here on HC.

built like to last a life time. steve carr used nothing but the best components. for example, the french made capacitors in this amp are designed to last for up to 150 years, and are used by the european space agency for their satellites. i would have no concerns bringing this as my only amp to a gig. of course, i WOULD bring backup tubes. the inside of this amp is like a piece of art. all point to point. i took a few digital pics, so if anyone is interested in seeing what makes one of these tick, shoot me an email and i'll send some your way.

i love the fact that i can call, or ask a question via email and get friendly a reply from steve carr himself. while i wish steve continued success, for my own selfish reasons i hope he never gets TOO big. customer support like this just doesn't happen at the corporate level.

there is no perfect amp out there. everything is a sacrifice. to me, this amp would be perfect if: it had more clean headroom at gig levels, it had some foot-switchable functions, and an effects loop would be nice. the thing is, if it had an effects loop it would likely sound different. if it had more clean headroom at higher volumes, then it would need more wattage. these things would then make this a DIFFERENT amp so.... see what i mean. in closing, i'm very happy w/this amp and can't see myself ever parting w/it.

My amp was made in 2006. It is extremely versatile, with all the features I need. As a Blues Player who doesn't like pedals, I need to be able to get a great tone at any volume with the perfect amount of 'hair' on it. With the Mercury, this can be achieved very easily by switching between four different output levels & gain settings. The reverb is also great.

The amp is quiet enough for studio use. The tone is amazing with a surprising amount of clean headroom at 8 watts. Clean to Marshall-like crunch can be dialed in at each volume setting. The individual characteristics of each guitar are not lost in the signal. I'm using it with 2 Strats - one with Seymour Duncans, one with Fender custom wound pickups by Abigail Ybarra, a Tele and a semi-hollow custom made guitar with Seymour Duncan humbuckers (not sure exactly which model as they are a prototype set for a new pickup design). I play mostly Blues, plus Rock and Jazz styles. This amp works in all situations. One thing that I was very pleased with was how great it sounded for a brand new amp straight out of the box.

This amp is built like a tank. I have owned it for less than a year so I have no idea how reliable it will be, however I expect it to be very good based on the build quality.

I have heard that Steve Carr's support & customer service is excellent but have never used it.

I have been playing for over 25 years during which time I have owned many amps icluding an original Marshall JTM45, Bad Cats, Victoria Victorilux, Deluxe, Twin, Champ, Tone King Meteor 2, Mesa Boogie Lone Star Special, Fender Deluxe Reverb, Blues Junior, Dr.Z Maz Jr. Divided By 13 9/15 & FTR 37. This amp is definately a keeper. I'd buy one again if lost or stolen. (The amps I know I'd never sell are the Divided By 13's and this one). The price is quite steep for a low powered amp but I believe it's worth it if you want an amp of this quality. The build quality is awesome. Each amp is built by hand with the best components. I chose this amp for it's awesome tone at low volume. The only thing I wish it had was an 18 watt power setting so I would only need one amp! Besides that, the amp has everything I need for lower volume applications.