Carvin AG100

This is THE "Working AMP". 100W solid state, it can be used for anything, a one man band amp, a bass amp, a PA, a back-up, a monitor and (oh yea) an acoustic guitar amp. I play contemporary gospel, R&B and some original stuff. It comes loaded with alllll the necessary stuff 3 channels (no switching), effects loops, line out, external speaker, headphones, selectable tweeter/horn, selectable piezo pick-up compatability and a 5 band "master" graphic EQ. This amp is quiet, and powerful. Channel 1 shapes acoutic sounds very well with sweepable midrange and a very tight, punchy and controllable bass tone(best I've ever heard). Channel 2 pretty basic, I use this for my personal monitor from the main PA. Channel 3 is XLR in only, a great vocal channel or mixer input if used as a portable PA. I use every feature on this amp and I use it everywhere, church, home recording, on the road, etc. I do wish it had a better reverb. I usually use a processor (Digitech Studio Quad V2) for digital reverb and other effects, but it would be nice if the stock verb was deeper.

My mainstay guitars are Ovation Custom Legend w/ OP24 pickup and a G&L ASAT "tele" w/ soapbar single coils. The amp sounds pretty straight forward. This is a replicating solid state amp. It does not flavor the sound of your instruments, you need effects for that. It definitly suits my style which is 80% clean. I have never turned this rascal up all the way, and probably never will since it is loud enough under 4, I honestly think this amp exceeds 100W. Either that or the speaker is running cleaner than 8 ohms, it is very loud. It maintains clean sound all the way too. The Horn/tweeter, adds clarity too arpeggio styles of picking and twang to the single coils. Can't complain about the sound, except it is a liitle dry without a good on board reverb.

I have used it every where for shy of 3 years, without a backup. It still performs flawlessly. I do take care of my stuff though. I feel the dura tuff stays "new" looking longer than any other amp material I've ever owned. Since its solid state, I feel very confident with this amp.

Friendly and knowledgable folks at Carvin, I did return a tube amp to them once after I used it for a couple of weeks, no questions asked, except to see if the amp was malfuntioning, I told them "no it just wasn't what I was looking for"... no problem! No repairs needed yet and the warranty was 1 year (expired). Mail order does have some distinct advantages, 1- no taxes makes up for the shipping, 2- you can get the product in your home for a couple of weeks and really check it out, which is hard to do in a store. Its very difficult (impossible?) to bring back a store bought amp after 3-4 weeks. That piece of mind is definitly worth the $25 return shipping, think of it as a 3-4 week cheap rental!

I have been playing about 25 years. besides the equipment already mentioned I own a 1980 Yari Acoutic (nice), a Proco Rat, old Ibanez CS-9 stereo chorus, Tascam 564, Peavy mixer and PVM mic, Carvin CM68 mic, Cerwin Vega PA, MusicMan 112/65 tube amp. I would replace this amp, no doubt. I am planning on buying another one anyway since I would like to get a Mackie VLZ 1402 or the Carvin SM162 and will use them as powered speakers for a mini PA system. I owned a 1983 Peavy Nashville acoustic guitar amp which died on me about 3 times in its last 2 years, but it was getting old. So far, this amp performs better and is much cleaner/louder and lighter. I bought it for the price and Carvin quality and kept it for the form and functionality it gives. I just wish it had a better reverb!

Three jacks (acoustic guitar, bass/keyboards/etc, and mike), reverb, effects loop, more power than you'll want probably. No built in chorus or other effects -- Carvin now has an AG100 model with built in effects, buy this one if you prefer to run through effects pedals.

I use this amp with a Martin D-1E and a Takamine G series, with a Boss super chorus pedal. There's a lot of versatility in the settings, you can get a very true acoustic sound. The vocals sound terrific through this amp, which is basically a mini pa system.

I've had it for a year, no problems except you've gotta use top quality cords or it'll pop and crackle like hell.

If you're a soloist, it's probably too heavy to gig with easily. Also the covering is like perfect cat scratch post material so my cats have scratched the hell out of the thing and I have to shave the fizz balls off of it. The AG100 with built in effects that Carvin now has come out with has a vinyl cover, thank god.

This amp promised everything I was looking for in an acoustic guitar amp, and delivered. I didn't want too many "bells & whistles" -- I'd rather use effects pedals for chorus, reverb, etc.

The vocals were great (I used a Shure SM-58 plugged into the XLR input). Unfortunately, I had to send the amp back because I got a persistent, deep hum whenever I plugged my acoustic guitar into the 1st or 2nd guitar inputs. (I play a Martin HD-28 with a Martin Thinline Plus piezo pickup.) However, whenever I plugged my rig directly into a sound system, there was no hum whatsoever. The problem, in my opinion, was in the amp, not in the rig.

I can't say because I had to return it. Carvin's service people told me that the amp worked perfectly in their shop. I can only suppose that there was some kind of incompatibility between the Carvin AG-100 and my guitar rig.

Carvin treated me well enough, although I was annoyed that I had to make all the phone calls to find out the status of the amp after I sent it back. Also, it was a pain in the neck to pay two-way postage on an amp that just didn't work out. It makes me very cautious about buying mail-order again.

I took a chance on the Carvin, relying on positive news I gathered on the Internet. But I've learned an important lesson: take your rig to the music store and listen to it played through an amp before purchasing.

Three channels: one with sweepable parametric EQ for acoustic guitar, one for bass or keys or drum machine or nose flute or what have ye, and one with XLR lo-impedance input for microphone.
Other controls include reverb and 5-band graphic EQ.
It's plenty loud. 100W rating, solid state.
One 12" speaker and one tweeter, which is switch-defeatable.

I bought this not for acoustic guitar but for Chapman Stick. It is, in essence, a mono PA with pretty broad frequency response. In that capacity I would say it was merely adequate. With my acoustic guitar (a Yamaha 12-string) however, it sounds GREAT--the parametric EQ is brilliant for getting rid of the "boomy" sound of a miked acoustic guitar, and for improving the acoustic qualities of an acoustic guitar with a mag pickup.
There is no distortion. It also sounds like crap with a distortion box. Maybe a SansAmp or processor like the GX-700/GP-100 or Digitech 2112 would give you that, but I haven't tried it. This amp is optimized for clean playing, even more than, say, a Polytone Mini-Brute.

I would never use any gear on a gig without a backup, and this is no exception. It's never broken down, and I've had it over a year. The only damage this has sustained was at the hands, er, paws of my cat who frizzed-up the Duratuff (tm) covering so it looks like a bad 'fro.

I've always had great relations with Carvin--I've heard other people with horror stories, but I take those stories with a grain of salt. Carvin has always delivered the goods for me, including spending time on the phone (on their nickel) discussing different options and features..

I would buy it again if I needed an acoustic guitar amp, which I basically don't. The new ones have vinyl instead of Duratuff (tm) which is a great idea. The poplar plywood makes it much lighter than comparably-sized amps.

Don't know where to begin...It has three channels. One for guitar ( acoustic or electric ) one for Bass ( or keys, another guitar, drum machine, etc, and another for vocals. All have indipedent reverb controls and EQ. There is a master 5 band EQ. The guitar channel also has a notch filter to fine tune the mid range. In the back you can run a line out, add another speaker, effets loop, turn off tweeter, and use a headphone jack. The amp is a 100 watts, solid state, and runs to a 1X12 plus a tweeter.

The acoustic sounds very, very nice. I'm running a Ovation with a Fishman Matrix pick up. There is a lot of controls to work on the tone. I wasn't expecting to be able to use my electric but it sounds great. A few days ago I did a gig in a big club with about 250 people useing a 335 and vocals to do a solo jazz thing and the amp did great. Volume is not a problem. I wasn't expecting that many people other wise I would've brought more gear but in the end I didn't need anymore. I had some one sit in on guitar so I had all three channels going and it still put out. Just for fun at home I ran Tele into a RAT distortion into it and it was very cool. For my full band we're useing it as a PA with another speaker for smaller clubs. It's got a lot of great sounds and many uses.

So far so good. It's solid state so I expect it should stay in good shape for a long time to come.

Carvin only works via mail and telephone and they've got it down.

It's a sick deal. I've got so many friends that are buying them now after checking out mine. If your doing a solo act you'd be crazy not to have one.