Carr Amplifiers Rambler 112 Combo

This is a follow up to my previous review. I apologize for the typos on my initial review, "overall rating".
Two power settings (14watt/28watt), outstanding tremolo effect,
built like a tank..."LIFETIME WARRANTY" won me over a Fender '67 BF Deluxe Reverb.

The best I ever heard...in any era. Only my Carr Slant 6V sounds more 'open'. The Rambler sounds more 'focused' and clean. The tremolo shimmers and "pulsates" at the pentode (higher) power setting.

My amp technician does not like them...because he "loses me as a customer"...built like a tank...will probably last as long as one.
Lifetime warranty says it all.

Outstanding...Steve Carr (founder) actually returns emails, himself.

I love Carr Amps. Expensive... and damn well worth it.
I had to chose between the Rambler and a Slant 6...the Slant won by a nose. Both are a "10" in each category. I don't hand out 10's to often, let alone all categories. Had to sell the Rambler for economic reasons...now I am already looking for another!

Single channel amp with reverb, tremelo, and half power switch. 28 watts at full power, 14 at half. Mine is the 1x12. Amp uses 6L6 power tubes, which gives some pretty decent clean headroom. Has enough power for me. The major feature of this amp, in my opinion, is tone. I'd rather have a few small features and a really good tone anyways.

I use a Les Paul loaded with '57 classics through this amp mainly, but also use a tele. They both sound great, but I definitly prefer the LP. This amp has serious tone. I agree, the cleans are fantastic, and the overdrive is good too. I like that this amp has an "American" voicing, which is a good alternative to the MAZ 18, which I use side by side. More reverb than I would know what to do with, and the tremelo is by far the best I have ever heard. I play blues, and for that, this is the amp. I don't use any pedals, and amps like this make it known that they are not always neccesary. Really, really fine sounding amp.

Very well built. I wouldn't gig without a backup, though. Never had any problems (so far).

I haven't had to deal with Carr, but from what I hear they are easy to work with. Lifetime warranty.

I've been playing for about 8 years. Other gear includes Dr. Z amps, and a Martin. If stolen, I would buy it again in a heartbeat. I really like this amp a lot. I don't write these reviews much, but this one really deserves the recognition. Find a dealer and play one. Although these are expensive amps, they are really worth it.

Basic on paper...reverb tremolo, footswitch, one channel, 14/28 watt power selection, and selectable power switch for grounding purposes.
Does not have effects loop, headphone jack...but I dont use those anyhow.
What it has is AWESOME tube sound, and a pulsating tremolo that melts you down; plus the 'magic mojo' for playing blues and jazz. I suppose country, as Telecasters sound great thru this, as well as any Strats and ES-335 by Gibson.
No amp is perfect...but between the Carr Rambler and Slant V6, my search for the perfect sound is over

The best clean sound with anything I plug in. Strats, ES-335, and Teles all sound their best thru Carr.
I use this one around the house at half-power setting. Tremolo has a bit of a pulsating tap at the full poewer setting, but it comes and goes with the older electrical wiring in my house. Other than that...DEAD QUIET and pure sound.
More head room on this amp. I use a Fulltone 2 pedal when I want 'crunch'.

Built like a tank, pretty much 'bomb proof'...but always carry spare tubes, just in case.

The best! Steve Carr actually answers the phone and emails you back, immediately. Lifetime warranty is NOT transferrable, although I bought this Rambler 'used' (or should I say "pre-owned") from an authorized dealer, I was assured that since I bought my Slant 6 'new' that Steve would stand behind the used Rambler.
Steve Carr is Leo Fender reincarnated!

Playing for 40 years. I am a gear junkie, but I believe my searching and buying days are over. had it with Fender amps, and went all out on the Carr band-wagon.
These are the best I amps I have heard and ever hoed to own. Now that I own two, play part time (just to 'keep on groing')...the Rambler (and Carr amps) is/are the Holy Grail of quality tube sound.
Expensive? Absolutely...but its lke money in the bank and the rate of return is much better. If you can afford one used or new...but it!

Not sure what year it was made. I'm guessing witin the last 2 years. It is #134. This is an amp designed for one thing: Amazingly lush, full, pure, ringing clean tone. One channel, vol treble middle bass reverb and tremolo. 1 x 12 Kingpin 60 speaker. One input, no headphone jack, no effect loop. 17 Watts on triode mode, 38 on pentode . Great for playing at home, you'd need to mic it in a larger room. I rate it a 7 for versatility because it is not a channel switching clean/dirty/tweak it for days machine. Set your tone and go.

This amp has the best clean sound of any amp I've ever played. You can get it to sound slightly pushed/overdriven at higher volumes but it is designed to stay clean quite a ways up it's volume range. I'm impressed by how little bass breakup there is until you get to the highest volume settings. The reverb is great- really full and gets into that Fender surf territory when all the way up. The tremolo sounds great too. It'll make you want to find a way to get back to using tremolo more in your music. I'm playing an Anderson (Strat style) Classic with H-S-H pickups. I'd say the amp maybe slightly favors single coil sounds, but humbuckers sound full and rich too. I also have an el cheapo Squier Tele that I've loaded Anderson TN single coil pickups into. That actually sounds good through this amp too. To put some hair on the tone I use a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 which gives me a nice crunchy chording tone, can be set for a clean boost for clean soloing, and of course can also give you a sweet singing violin-sustain-forever Santana sound if you need it. The Fulldrive 2 is a good unit for helping keep more of the tonal qualities of the amp in the signal. Seems like a lot of pedals just give you one distortion sound no matter what you plug into it.

I have not had the amp long enough to comment. I did take the amp apart (see below) and the wiring job is a work of art. The components are of extremely high quality- see the website for details.

These amps come with a lifetime guarantee for the original owner. That sounds good, but I've never had to have any servicing done. I've emailed a few times and Steve Carr himself has replied each time.

These amps are not cheap, but try one, and I guarantee you will be blown away by the tone. What I love about this amp: Great back to basics sound, portability, looks cool, sensible volume range. An effects loop would be nice, but would go against the philosophy of the design (i.e keep the signal path as uncluttered as possible). Speaking of looks: I changed the color of this amp. I'd had my heart set on a black one, but found a great deal on this one, which was blonde. Now blonde is OK, but I wanted black. Re-tolexing would have been too expensive and time consuming and would have negated the good deal I got on the amp. What I did was disassemble the amp and spray the tolex with black SEM color coat, a vinyl dye/colorant used for years in the auto restoration industry. This stuff gets right into the tolex and is extremely durable. It took 3 cans and looks great. Keep it in mind if you want to make your amp a different or custom color.
One more thing. These amps are selling used for only a couple of hundred dollars less than a new one. Shell out a little more, buy one new and get the lifetime guarantee. I think Carrs are some of the best amps out there, and the Rambler itself is going to be considered a current and future classic.

OK. I had to do this. I usually don't get involved with these kind of "reviews". I figure every player has their own quest and destiny when it comes to finding the holy grail of tone, but my 25 year quest ended with a Carr Rambler. Pulsing tremolo that is almost sexual. Reverb from some other dimension and that unknown "thing". You know, "The Thing", that elusive presence that lingers over the crowd even after the guitar finishes. This amp has it. Period.

I use the amp with a '57 Strat armed with Rio Grande vintage tallboys playing mostly 5-7000 seat venues. I close mic with an SM-57 and A/B switch a Boogie Mark I for the alternate sound. Other than a Fulltone "Clyde" wah,that is the extent of my stage rig. The Carr is impressive in its ability to morph as you turn the guitar up. From a sweet crisp green sound to a fat woody sound dripping with honey. This amp is on the verge of being erotic. I don't know you, but I've gotta tell you that this instrument has simplified my life by making my rig easier to manage and still giving it up every show, every time.

Microphonic tubes and 60 cycle hum are necessary evils if you want to swim in the ocean of tone.

I did have a problem with the amp one day before I was leaving on tour. I called the shop in N.C. and actually spoke to Steve Carr himself. He was able to diagnose the problem over the phone and help arrived the very next day via fed-ex. You don't get that kind of attention from the big guys. I asked Steve to send me an autograph and I think as much of it as the national acts I've played with. I think this company is committed to the things that make us all want to be musicians in the first place. Love of music. It sure shines in the instruments Carr produces.

I'm a touring professional guitarist and mandolin player with a national act. I appreciate fine instruments and the people with the skills to make them. We, as musicians, should turn back from the mass produced junk the bigs try to make us believe in and keep the tone among ourselves. I'm glad Steve Carr is doing just that.

Made in 2002. I bought it to play psychedelic surf music--boy it does this. One channel with reverb and trem and a toggle switch between pentode and triode modes, 28 and 14 watts, respectively. 3 tone knobs. 6l6 based power tubes. Class A operation, cathode biased. Its just an awesome, insightful design

The tone is to die for. IMHO. It has the soulful grit of a tweed, and the bright clarity of a blackface. Its a weird hybrid. It reminds me sort of like a '64 DR with 6l6's instead of 6v6's. The cathode bias gives it some spongey compression when bearing down. It can go from blackface clear and clean to fat overdrive, to complex harmonics with a Blackstone mosfet overdrive pedal. It just covers the gamut of the tone spectrum. It reminds me of a sail boat that is yar, it just goes where you point it, effortlessly.

Attention to detail and quality of construction are second to none. Non pareil. Cathode biasing means no multimeter to switch tubes and no worry about matching power tubes either.

Best there is. Lifetime warranty. Can't imagine needing repair but if I did no worries mate. Steve Carr stands solidly behind his work. Hard to find such dedication these days.

Best play for 4 years after a 25 year hiatus. Sold off a Parker guitar and SWR amp to get this. Play through a modifying PRS and a Replex. I also play a Fuzzy Pedal frypan through the Rambler and it is mighty beautiful. Real old fashioned sounding. Oh so sweet. I love everything about this amp and hate nothing. Looked at Tone King, THD, TopHat, Matchless, Dr.Z, Allen,Victoria, Rivera. I liked the class A 6l6 concept, the old Gibson style trem, and Carr's workmanship. After close scrutiny, it was simply the best value and combination of features for the price. A real bargain for what it is.

I own a Fender Custom Shop 60 watt Vibro King that I like a lot, but the Fender is very heavy and powerful. I was looking for and have now found (the Rambler) an amp that is custom hand wired and has the same basic features as the vibro king (tube reverb and tremolo) but with less power and is more portable. The Fender Custom Shop currently produces no such animal but Steve Carr does. Features are great for what it is. A bluesy great sounding little amp. All tube 1x12 combo 28 watts class A pentode and 14 watts class A triode, switchable between the two, single channel with reverb and tremolo. A very quiet amp in idle. No doubt you have checked out Carr?s site for all the specifics. for what it is the features are fine.

I can only ditto the comments made on Carrs site and reviews. This amp is very amazing for the size. Clean, warm, and bluesy and the perfect amp at home or in the studio. The controls are very interactive and it works great with a fulltone fulldrive or voodoo lab sparkle drive, klon, or just crank it up. The amp never gets real distorted on its own, just a nice clean sound with a little pleasant grit, that is, with using a fender 60?s relic strat. It of course sounds great without any gimmicks. It can produce a lot of bass for its size and it can get loud. I like it with the bass almost off , and adding bass with the guitar knob. , mid on 12:00,treble on 1:00 ,volume on 2:00

I haven?t had it that long to give any real evaluation but it is very well built.

If I could rate this higher, I would. I bought this amp site unseen based on these Harmony reviews and others such as the 2002 Guitar Players Dream Machine magazine and the reviews mentioned at Carr?s website. I ordered it new from one of the listed dealers who had it in stock. When it arrived I noticed the control panel didn?t appear to fit quite right and I heard a slight buzz/rattle in the cabinet. Needless to I was a little bummed after spending $1,600 on a hand made custom amp. I emailed Carr and that same day got a response from Steve himself. I sent the amp back to Carr. They called and were quite honest about the problem, missing a spacer bolt or something to that affect. It wasn?t a big thing and they easily fixed it. They also offered/made a couple other upgrades to the amp at no charge. Steve said they strive to make every amp perfect before it leaves the factory. Odds are my problem was remote, nobodies perfect, and once in a while something might get by. Hey! That?s what a guarantee is for! Carr made great on their lifetime warranty! Face it, nobody wants to use the warranty, but if you do, Steve Carr?s there for you with no hassle!

Overall Rating: 10
I own or have owned some the following amps. Fender Vibro King, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender Pro Junior, Fender Prosonic, Marshall JCM 800, Peavey Backstage 30, Fender 65 twin reverb reissue, and a top hat portly cadet. The rambler is now my overall favorite. At first I looked for a used one, but they were going for only a couple hundred less than a new one. I figured a lifetime warranty was worth that! Since that?s how long I?ll keep it. Steve may be the Leo Fender of this Century! Sell off some of the junk you don?t use and order a Rambler today! You need one for stable mental health and overall well being!

I own or have owned some the following amps. Fender Vibro King, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender Pro Junior, Fender Prosonic, Marshall JCM 800, Peavey Backstage 30, Fender 65 twin reverb reissue, and a top hat portly cadet. The rambler is now my overall favorite. At first I looked for a used one, but they were going for only a couple hundred less than a new one. I figured a lifetime warranty was worth that! Since that?s how long I?ll keep it. Steve may be the Leo Fender of this Century! Sell off some of the junk you don?t use and order a Rambler today! You need one for stable mental health and overall well being!

A pretty straight forward rig. Class A cathode biased single channel amp. 12AX7 preamp tubes, 12AT7 Reverb driver and Svetlana 6L6 power tubes with solid state rectifier, point to point wired in an aluminum chasis. Has treble, midrange and bass controlls each with a very graduated effect along with a pentode/triode switch for 28/14 watt power output.

The difference here is that the quality of every component is first rate and combined with the aluminum chasis, it makes a huge difference in this amp's tone quality. More on that below. 9 for versatility and overall features.

My spin on this is a little different. I have equipped the amp with Telefunken 12AX7's and a Mullard 4024 as the reverb dirver. I haven't changed the 6L6's. After playing the amp for a couple months with the stock Kingpin 60 (ceramic magnet made for Carr by Emminence)I installed a Brown Soun Tone Tubby Hemp Cone speaker. So figure another $500 for all of the above.

The tone of this amp is magical. With either single coil (Suhr V60LP's and Gibson P90) or humbuckers (Mcinturff) its a way more articulate, pick sensitive, fatter sounding amp than my '64 Deluxe. A much bigger overall sound with a smoother break up and much tighter bottom end. In the pentode mode (better tone definition) its got a very thick, creamy distortion that is ideal for blues, country and rock. This isn't a high gain flavored amp, though it overdrives very well with a peddle in front of it. It sounds very nice in stock fashion, but is really amazing with the upgraded pre-amp tubes and Tone Tubby. The Mullard gives the reverb an otherworldly quality that can be dialed up or off to taste. The alnico speaker is smoother on top, has a tighter bottom end and slightly more prominent midrange than the stock Kingpin. It really works well with single coils and is a ready to boogie blues machine with humbuckers. Not quite as big sounding as the Z28 with 4 10's, but a smoother breakup and a thicker, creamier tone with the power tubes saturated. In the triode mode you get there at very low volumes, ideal for practice or apartment living.

Tone is obviously a personal thing. My tastes run toward American flavored distortion (Rambler, Fender BF Deluxe, Dr. Z Z-28). This amp does it extremely well (so well that I just sold the '64 Deluxe!).

I bought this amp used. It looks brand new and the first owner had no problems I've had no problems to date. It a very sturdy, well made amp with superb attention to detail.

No occasion to seek support.

This is a great little amp. If you want a high quality great sounding amplifier to play anything and everything short of heavy metal (you could probably get there with the right pedal) this is it. I bought mine used and fiddled with it a little, but its a great value and sounds wonderful brand new out of the box. Highly recommended.

1x12" all tube combo amp. Triode and pentode modes (full power and 1/2 power) Single channel, 28 watts! Reverb / tremolo! Volume, mid, bass! Stand by and on / off switch! All I need!!

I play nothing but strats and this amp is awsome sounding with strats!! Very clean and warm tones from this amp, no harshness here!! It stays pretty clean when cranked! A ton of headroom for a little amp!! Very Fender black face deluxish! I play mostly "in your face" style blues and this amp is great!! I have tried everything such as, Marshall, soldano, matchless, DrZ, vht, and many fenders.. This little amp is my ticket!! Awsome reverb and tremolo too!! This amp and my 1965 super reverb should do it for me!

I never gig without a back up.. No problems so far.. I have a great amp / guitar tech to keep things running too!! My amp tech said that this amp is "the BOMB"!! Thant means he likes it very much!! (:

Never needed anything from the Carr people yet!

I have been playing for 22 years and have played through many many amps! This amp really is the ultimate strat / blues amp! I am going to buy another one soon! Maybe try the Imperial, for larger venues!?!? Like I stated before, I have been searching for the right amp for a long time! This little "big sounding" amp is the ticket for me!!! These Carr amps are priced right too! The Rambler is one of the best amps I have ever heard, and the price is awsome too!!

28 watts of pentode power and 14 watts of triode power. Tremolo, Reverb and that's it. plug in and go. mine's in lubberly Emerald Green with tweed-ish grill cloth. quite a looker but i kinda wish i got it in the wine color steve does too. very slick looking. and its light! about 35 lbs. and great for when you're on the go. kinda wish it came in a head version cause i've got a great a Jenkin's cab that would sound killer with it, but hey i could always use a good combo. and i also wish it had a speaker out to run it with my bigger cab, but alas...

I love this amp. its the amp that makes me wanna buy whatever else Steve Carr does.

At first, when i got it, the tone was very tight and sterile. Thinking the speakers hadnt opened up, i just kept playing around with it, even after the 48 hour evaluation policy of the store. and thank goodness i did. after about a few days, the speaker's finally opened up, and it was glorious. The tones were very vibey and fun to play. not really fat in that clean voxy way perse, but more clear and bell like. very Fender Blackface with only a hint of Matchless chime ontop. It sounded equally at home playing with my PRS McCarty w/Tom Holmes pu's and Fender relic strat. I especially love playing my hollowbody PRSi with it which sound juicy and spongy.

EQ controls are very interactive and can add lots of highs, mids, or bass in whatever amounts you need. Its mainly a clean amp with lots of headroom that for this amp is pretty high no matter what setting. breaks up at about 8-9. but that's what also sold me: the overdriven tones. even tho, it is mainly a clean amp, diming it out to about 8 or 9 will yield the sweetest 6L6 drive. its not a crunchy grind or bloated rumble. more like a fat punch of raunchy drive. Or like a refined Neil Young overdrive ala Rust. (if you could ever imagine a tone.) sometimes, i'll use it for my dirt and my voxy Dr. Z Maz 18 jr. for clean. pull back on my volume knob and it cleans up rather well.

The reverb's pretty surfy, but it might not be wet enough for some. the Trem's vibey and organic, but not as fast as an AC30. more like a throb than a helicopter. but they're both still great sounding.

Nothing bad yet, and its built like a freakin tank. Steve stands behind all his amps and will bend over backwards to make the dang thing kick out stellar tones. i'm not worried.

Steve's known for his great customer support and enthusaism for his product and the customer. he'll do whatever to answer your emails, and he loves talking about whatever it is to get your tone. i know if i do run into a problem, he'll be there.

I love this amp. its a classic in the making and would be MAD pissed if anything happened to it. I was GAS'ed for a while, but with this amp and my Dr. Z Maz 18 jr. head, i've found the amps of MY sound. Nothing else i play makes me as happy as those two guys. Sure, the trem isnt as fast as i'd like it, wish it came in a head form, and wish it had a speaker out to slave it, but other than that, it's the amp i will grow old with.