Carr Amplifiers Slant 6V 212 Combo

2003 Carr Slant 6V 212 in coco tolex. Bought it new from Willcutt music in late 2007. If you are interested in the amp most of the features should be know to you,but I'll try to cover the basics. All tube, 2 channel, 2x12 combo. Mine has no effects loop,no foot switchable boost on second channel, and reverb only on channel one.I don't miss the reverb on channel two or the effects loop, but wish it had the boost so thats why I gave it a 9. The best feature of this amp is it unique power section. A knob on the back lets you select from 40watts(full power), 1/2 power fixed bias or 1/2 cathode.

By far the most versatile, best sounding amp I've ever owned IMO. You should always try things out for yourself before you buy(especially at over 3 grand new),but if you bought this amp sight unseen I think you'd still be happy. Unless ofcourse you want that "brutal" drive sound. Most every other sound you can think of is in there. I play blues,rock and some jazz and can get all the sounds i need. My favorite thing about this amp's sound is that it is like having two apms in one. The two channels sound very diffrent to me and I use them like two seprate amps. Channel one= a non master vol. with reverb like an old fender and channel 2= master vol. non-verb o.d. machine like an old Marshall head.I love it!!

Owned it for over a year and no issues!!

sent them an email when I first got this amp and received quick reply from Steve Carr. i was unaware when i bought this amp that it was 4 yrs. old at time of purchase and was worried about my warranty. Issue was resolved quickly. They stand behind their products!!

like I said earlier, Best amp I've ever owned. every so often i get a bad case of GAS an think about selling it but as soon as i plugg in i know why I never will. Imo if you can afford a Slant 6 buy one. i only give it a 9 overall because of the cost. New they go for about 3300 dollars. While i think this amp sounds great, i also think most tube amps cost way to much. If it got stolen or caught on fire or something I'd surely break down and cry then try to get a loan for a new one.

Just an addendum;
Ive had the amp for two years now and it only gets sounding better.
I now have a 5751 in the clean channel and really like it!!!

Its really unfair to compare this amp to anything. When I was looking I tried:
Every dr z and was hoping the prescription es would be awesome. It even had celestion blues. The prescription gave me the runs.

two Rock-no camparo

matchless dc-30-el harsho

Old fender super reverb-great amp but still no carr

Bruno underground 30- Carr was much nicer

Bogner shiva-Nice amp 2nd fave

also owned Fuchs overdrive supreme

gibson goldtone

vox

bad cat hotcat.

For me there is no better amp and Im still digging the clipped cap for less highs.

Killer cranked clean sound in studio sounds like full on throaty class a amp.

Best Jazz amp Ive owned

Best country amp Ive owned

I played with the philharmonic orchestra tonight with this amp and even at those low volumes and on clean it is nothing short of amazing.

I really doubt I'll own another amp unless I buy a mercury for the studio but crank a slant 6 and you're there .

Just opened for keith urban on tour and imagine my surprise when Keith wonders how I get MY tone!!! He's a guy with three Bat Cats, A bassman and a bogner shiva ran by a bradshaw rig with all his fulltone pedals and rackmount delays wired in a massive system.

I plugged my guitar into a keeley comp, time machine boost a Tim and a line 6 delay. Four pedals all tone. I couldnt be happier

try one then buy it. Steve deserves success because he's the best.

toured my but off with it.
Btw: The tubes he uses stock are great. There is no need to spend $$$$ on nos tubes. Thgis amp is designed right. Ive tried mullards, rca's telfunkins and nothing sounds better than steves choice. I did decide on a 5751 for the clean v1 cause I get a little more headroom for my jazz.

Think Steve would build a time consuming work of art for $3200 and put crappy tubes in it???? Think again

solid answers, quick and friendly. Any B can build an amp from a schematic but no one can innovate and please the customer like this.
When is the last time you heard of a PTP amp with 4 6v6's 2 class a 2 class ab?? Never
Guys with this talent and vision are usually B's (dumble, Drz)etc...
Steve answered the phone, has called me back and solved my slight issue.
Why is he not considered the new leo fender/jim marshall!!!

I asked my friend Robert Keeley (who without a doubt makes the best pedals) who makes the Best amp now I mean an amp designer who shares your vision on satisfying the customer yet has artistic vision and does not rest on the laurles of the past.

Robert replied "Steve Carr"
DONE

I do not like metal tone but I do like:
Foo fighters-in there
pat metheny-in there
zz top- in there hard
sarah maclachlan-in there
eric johnson-in there
70's rock 80's rock 90's rock its there
try it you wont be disappointed if you play any of the styles above. just dont get it to play system of a down and find that the scooped mid death tone proves elusive

This is an addendum to the review below:

I forgot to mention that I subbed a 5u4gb rectifier tube and I like it much better than the stock gar4/gz34. The amp breaks up a little bit nicer and faster. It is a must for more voxy textures.

Another KILLER thing to try is a 5y3 rectifier but the amp must be used on half power settings only. It could fry the amp if used on full. When set on half power with the 5y3, the amp is incredibly chimey and lush on the clean channel like a great vox ac15. On the lead channel there is infininite sustain!!! I absolutley love this setting!!! Its like getting a entirely new amp for $15-$20!!!

Steve Carr said it is safe to do but again, keep it on half power.

I bought the 2/12 version with a gain boost switch on the gain channel. Its real cool because the two preamp sections dont share circuitry (i.e it has two seperate preamps for ultimate tone). Thats the kind of idea that carr amps is dedicated to. The only reason Im giving it a 9 instead of 10 is because the reverb is only on the clean channel. You can get it on both channels but is an option. Steve talked me out of it because he dont like dirty channel reverb and he said it gets muddy. He also said he dont like to share a single reverb on two channels because it compromises tone. Thats why it is an option cause he adds circuitry.

This is not a metal amp. It can rock out (zep, petty any blues stuff, maybe old metal when they played modded marshalls. No pantera here.
I play lead for a famous country artist and The amp is perfect for that. I also love jazz and it cuts that with ease. I have use it in the studio all with outstanding results. Recently a top studio engineer told me this is one of the top few amps he has ever heard. That is saying a lot comong from this guy!

Now for the bad: When I recieved the amp I like the tone but over time I noticed that I was always turning the tone on my guitar down. When I ran every guitar I own thru it and had the tone set open it was too bright for me. This is just something that slowly dawned on me. I was really unsatisfied with the tone so I called weber speakers and he said the carr uses very bright speakers. I ordered 2 weber 1265 speakers as recommended and noticed a nicer sound. Over the next few weeks of gigs I became unsatisfied again and considered selling.
I called Steve Carr and told him my problem he said he has permanantly wired a bright cap in the circuitry like a old fender but it is not switchable. He told me how to find it in the amp and suggested snipping an end. He said the cap was in there to accomadate a variety of guitars and players.

I snipped it and voila problem solved. Now the treble knob on the amp is way usable from very dark to very bright! The way I like it!! before the treble was always off to about 3, now it can be ran low for dark jazz and around 12 oclock for most stuff above 3 oclock is still very bright. Everyone likes the amp much better. I wish steve would remove it or make it switchable. Now everywhere I go people comment on the tone. Btw, this prob was only with the clean channel. The distortion is another story: creamy, rich and varied from a cranked fender to a rocking marshall.The clean can go from Jazz clean to country fender and crank it up for vox or old tweed like textures. I love this amp now. I tried the original speakers again and They sound great in there as well though I do like the webers better. No the amp is a 10.

No probs and gigged heavily on tour for a year

Steve is the best!!!!

This is my main amp now and will be for a long time. I am perfectly happy now. I absolutly would buy this same amp again if stolen.

2004 Carr, Slant 6V, 40 watt, 2x12 Kingpin, creme tolex. Tube chart: 4x6V6, 4x12AX7, 2x12AT7, 5AR4/GZ-34. 2xchannel w/additional high gain switch accessed via panel or footswitch, CH 1=VOL/TREB/MID/BASS/RVB, CH 2=VOL/MASTERVOL/TREB/MID/BASS; FX loop, send/return/bypass. Extremely versatile, high gain switch is a little much - I won't use it, but for all you thrashers, you may find it handy. Reverb is expansive and boomy; could be a bit more lush (maybe like a Holland) -- still nice!

The only boutique I've heard to rival this bad boy is an orig. Matchless DC-30. Steve Carr may be the new Leo Fender. Buy one, keep it mint, and she'll prob. be worth a fortune in 20 years -- just in time to use the $$$ for your kid's college tuition; in fact, buy 2. I'm a roots player, but so what, this amp is juicy playing in any style. But... I'm a vintage Fender/Gretsch axe-slinger; you know, '50s Jets and pre-CBS Fenders (although I love my custom shop Danny Gatton CS Tele that chimes thru this amp). Absolutely quiet, not sure how it handles outboard FX, but recommend true bypass in any unit. CH-1 is vintage Fender, CH-2 is vintage AC-30/early JTM and w/ the high gain switch engaged more like a pushed contemporary Marshall/Boogie. Actually, it's its own thing - you'll see.

P to P wiring with the best components avail., solid cab construction, not sure if hand punched chassis (maybe); seems to be built like a DC-30 (tank) with early-Fender inspiration; mine is 1 wk. old - we'll see, but I'm quite confident she'll be around long after me.

Ltd. lifetime warranty - Steve backs this product; haven't needed to make a phone call yet - XX.

Been pickin' most of my life. Other boutique is a DC-30 and my other fave is a vintage '63 Fender Vibroverb -- these 3 amps IMHO are the best roots music tone monsters crafted by man's genius. Oh, just sample one and you'll be hooked - trust me! Try Carr's other boutiques while your at it.

This is a 2x12 combo made in late 2001 with the footswitch for channel selection. Features are as folows:

Front Panel: On the far left is the input jack for the guitar. On the far right is the stanby switch and amp on/off indicator light. Channel 1 is for clean tones and has vol-treb-mid-bass-reverb controls. Channel 2 is for gain tones and has gain-master-treb-mid-bass controls. There is also a two position toggle switch between the gain and master volumes for channel 2 which changes the gain structure, up for less, down for more. Between the channel 1 and channel 2 controls there is a two position toggle switch which selects the channel. It's function is defeated when the footswitch is plugged into the jack on the back panel. On non-channel switching Slant 6V models, the channel selector switch is replaced by an input jack for the gain channel, and the input jack on the far left is for the clean channel.

Back Panel: on/off/on three-way toggle switch, footswitch jack, two speaker out jacks, 4/8/16 Ohm speaker out selector knob, three-position selector knob for full power, 1/2 power (cathode bias), and 1/2 power (fixed bias). There is an optional effects loop which my amp does not have. The footswitch box comes with a long cable (about 20 feet, I'd guess) and there is no detectable popping noise when I use the footswitch to change channels.

Two 16 Ohm Kingpin 12" speakers (ceramic magnets, rated for 60 watts each, made by Eminence to Steve Carr's specs), floating baffle board (the baffle is connected to the cabinet at each corner instead of being connected all the way around), solid pine cabinet.

Channel 1 uses three preamp tubes (one 12AX7 for gain, one 12AX7 and one 12AT7 for the reverb) and channel 2 uses two preamp tubes (two 12AX7's for gain). The phase inverter is a 12AT7.

The poweramp uses two pairs of 6V6: the inner pair is fixed bias for clean headroom and punch, the outer pair is cathode biased for more compression and earlier distortion. The poweramp can be setup to run either pair alone (22W fixed bias, or 18W cathode biased), or both pairs together (40W). My amp came with Electroharmonix 12AX7's and 6V6GT's, and NOS Philips 12AT7's.

The layout of components on the aluminum chassis is very logical (preamp tubes for channel 1 are right behind the channel 1 front panel knobs, ditto preamp tubes for channel 2) and everything is spread out for efficient cooling. The bias trim pot for the inner pair of fixed bias 6V6's is mounted on the exterior of the chassis for easy access when changing power tubes. The inside of the chassis is very neatly wired and uses all hand-wired, point-to-point construction using high quality components. Cool looking fitler capacitors from our friends in France, too!

This amp is very versatile for producing a variety of classic rock tones.

This is a fantastic amp for producing a variety of classic rock tones! I've been using this amp extensively with my four pice rock band and it just just plain awesome! Clean channel is BF Fender sound with mids set low and the poweramp set for the fixed bias pair of 6V6's, a little more "tweed like" with the mids boosted and the poweramp set for the cathode-biased 6V6 pair. The reverb on the clean channel is HUGE!! The gain channel is also quite versatile. I prefer the sound of the gain channel with the amp set on the fixed bias 6V6 pair (or both pairs of 6V6's) because this produces a tighter sounding distortion. With a humbucker guitar and just a little gain dialed in, I can easily approach the tone of Robben Ford's Dumble on "Talk to Your Daughter". Add more gain and a wah and you've got instant Marshally rock tones from the 70's.

This amp sounds great with my Strats and P90 & humbucker Les Pauls. Add a few pedals up front for some sonic variety (delay, chorus, tremolo, wah, OD) and you've got yourself tones from just about every major food group from the classic rock era! No real Vox tones, but Fender and Marshall till the cows come home!

I've only had the amp for a couple of months, so I can't comment meaningfully on long term reliability. I've had the chassis out, and everything looks to be very well constructed using high quality components, so I have high expectations in the reliability category.

I've spoken with Steve Carr on the phone and emailed him a number of times. He seems like a great guy.

I've been playing electric guitar in bands for over 30 years and have owned many fine amps along the way (Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Soldano, TopHat, etc). The Slant 6V certainly ranks very high on my list. The clean channel delivers great Fender BF sounds and Tweed-like tones, the gain channel sings from Dumble-esque to hot-rodded plexi Marshall. This is one fine amp no matter how you slice it. Keep up the good work Steve!!