Carvin AG100D 112 Combo

It's pretty easy to twiddle the knobs, but sometimes on stage when you need to quick turn up or turn down a channel, it takes a moment to find the channel gain, as all the knobs look alike. The manual is fine and easy to read.

I've used the AG100D with acoustic guitar, bass guitar, lap dulcimer, mandolin and vocals (usually an SM58). It sound fine to me, no problems with the sound. I turned down the tweeter control a bit, as it is too trebly at the max setting. As to the effects, I usually only use a little reverb, and the choices available are fine. It's like a mini-PA and I often wind up lending a channel to another player.

I've had the amp for two years. I play out about once a month, plus practice use. I've had no problems of any kind.

I have not had to call customer support.

I've been playing about thirty-five years, mostly acoustic. I wanted one good amp that could do it all and this one fits the bill. The fact that it has three channels including an XLR input for vocals is great. I often play where there should be a PA but isn't and this box does a pretty good job of filling the gap. I'm happy with it and other folks I know have also bought them and been happy with them.

Very easy to use. Simple to dial in a great, natural acoustic sound.

Very authentic acoustic sound. I play primarily acoustic, and have a very keen ear for true acoustic sound -- this amp passes my tests with flying colors. I have used this amp for the last couple of years, and I have done both acoustic (ch1) and electric (ch2) for many gigs. While the unmodified electric tone is not desirable, I have fed the output of multi-effects pedals or single pedals with acceptable results. The built in effects are not the cleanest I have heard, but I do not use them.

I have beat this thing up, and it has not flinched once. Solid construction.

I have called Carvin on occasion with a problem or question on other matters (not this amp), and they have been very helpful and prompt.

I play a great mix of styles -- from mellow folk, to pop to rock. This amp can keep up with my needs in all these areas. I have been playing about 28 years (wow....thats scary!). I own a couple of acoustics - Takamine and Tacoma, and electrics - Carvin and Ibanez.

If this were stolen, I would need to get another as I use it every week. When I was shopping for an acoustic amp, I shopped around a fair bit, played most of the majors - SWR, Fender, Marshall, etc. The sound of this unit competes with all of these, and priced about half the cost!

I got this amp about two months ago and so far I'm very pleased. I play mostly contempory CSNY-influenced rock in my band and at my church. It has three channels. Channel 1 is great for acoustic guitar because of its mid-cut/treble-boost buttons and extensive mid control knob. Channel 2 has a bass boost button and sounds great. Chanel three has a balanced XLR and a line input. I has an effects loop which I have only used once, but it worked fine. It has a balanced line out also. It has two effects controls(digital echo, flanger, reverb, and chorus...they're all great) which can be assigned to any channel. It came with a footswitch to turn the effects on and off, but I drug it accross the room and it broke. It was my fault so I don't hold it against the quality of the switch. It has 100 watts and a 12 in. speaker with a tweeder(and a tweeder control knob which is very handy).

This amp sounds great. I've used it with acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and vocals all at the same time and I still got a pretty balanced tone. It is nice and loud and it never distorts.

It seems to be very well-built. I've never had any problems.

never had to deal with them

I'm really pleased with this amp. Compared to other amps with comparable features, it is equally toneful and it only cost me about 2/3 as much.

This is what sold me on the unit, it looked great on paper.....when will i learn, unfortunately most of us can't hear these unless you're in cal., and the 10 day thing is a joke, most do 30 days now.

Here is where the problem is, if you have an acoustic, a drum unit, and a vocal going at the same time like they advertise, to get a decent sound, you have to play at living room volume, if you try to crank it up....just don't, it gets to thick sounding unless you buy the second cabinet. If you mike it or have a nice PA, keep the volume down and you should be ok.

Dont ask, i'll let you know when something goes right for me.

I haven't called them with this one yet, but have had problems before with another amp just out of warranty, that was fixed....for a price

They tried to give us more with dual effects, eq, etc., but it still comes up short. I don't think i'll ever play out with this the amp, it either needs a 15" speaker or 2-12s, or like i said before, you have to buy the second cabinet. It just doesn't cut it for ME,with all those channels being used at once, and after all, that's why i bought it in the first place. Do yourself a favor, if you buy one and are planning to use all three channels, also plan on getting the other cabinet.

Great features. DSP, EQ, etc. Three channesl -- mic, electric or acoustic guitar, keyboard, and even bass. A footswitch for the DSP might be nice but would add to the cost. 100W is plenty of power for me, except maybe for bass in some venues.

Sounds great with my S&P acoustic, Epiphpone electric, bass and vocal. I play blues bass and acoustic folk-rock. Clean sound. If you're an electric player who needs overdrive you'll have to use a pedal for that. This amp was designed for clean sound.

Great for two years (one year warranty) then channel one went out. Makes terrible speaker-splitting noises when you play through it. Channels 2 & 3 are still ok. Carvin says they'll fix it for a mere $95 plus shipping. Two years before a major failure! I will never buy another Carvin product after this.

E-mail answered promptly. The Carvin people are not the problem.

I can't recommend an amp that fails after only two years of very light use. I'm extremely disappointed that Carvin quality is not what I'd hoped.

Purchased 8/25/98. Very versatile amp. Excellent acoustic guitar sound. Fine bass amp but 100W is a bit low power.

Acoustic folk-rock, blues, country. Bass blues. My amp has had very very light use. Only been out 6-8 times. Idles quiet. Does sometimes pick up radio but that happens in lots of transistor amps.

After just over two years, channel one failed. Very disappointing. I really thought Carvin quality was a bit better than average. I guess not. I would neither buy another Carvin product nor recommend Carvin to any one now. Of course they'll fix it for $95 plus shipping! Mean Time Between Failure = 2 years. Pathetic.

E-mail support was very prompt. Too bad Carvin is not quality product.

My advice - DON'T BUY THIS AMP OR ANY OTHER CARVIN PRODCUT. Sorry, Carvin, you have your policies and I have mine. I am damned tired of electronic equipment that breaks after only two years.

This is the newest acoustic amp from Carvin. This amp should have been called the Versatile 100D. I needed an acoustic amp that would sound as good as any acoustic amp out there, but I also needed something that had a couple inputs for vocals and a channel left over for another instrument would be a plus. This amp is 100 solid-state watts and has 4 channels total. Channel one is set up specifically for acoustic guitar. Channel 2 is all-purpose or has a pre-set EQ option that makes it a great channel for bass. Channel 3 has a mic input with phantom power and another 1/4 inch input which can be used at the same time. You can dial in the amount of digital effects (reverb, chorus, delay or flange) you want (if any) on each seperate channel. There is a line out, ext. speaker out, effects loop and a headphone jack on the back of the amp and another nice feature is the ability to adjust the tweeter level or just shut it off completely. I mainly use this amp in church. Sometimes it is a monitor, sometimes amp for my electric, and sometimes it has to be a complete PA when there is not a PA available. It works great as a PA because you can just grab another speaker from somewhere and you have a pretty good PA in a hurry.

I play a Martin DCM with a Martin thin-line pickup and a Fishman Pro-EQ preamp. I also play an Alvarez thin-line acoustic with their system 500 electronics. I play mostly worship music and the style I play would be classified mainly as rock/acoustic rock. Like I said earlier, it was absolutely mandatory that the amp I chose had to have a great acoustic sound because that is mainly what I play and I can't live with bad acoustic tone. I tried a lot of the acoustic amps out there before finally getting to try this one. Most everything out there (Fender, Marshall, Crate) sounded weak - very weak after playing something with a 12 inch speaker. The SWR California Blonde will match the sound and some will say it is better, it is really just what your ear likes. I personally think the SWR sounds a little too sharp (harsh). This amp does make a little noise if you really set the EQ high but besides that it is very quiet. And, you probably will want to turn down the tweeter at high volumes (over 5 or 6) and that is fairly normal. I like the fact that the Carvin can be a crisp and clear as you want but you can dial in a really nice warm tone. It will also give some really good bass if you don't have a bass amp around (channel 2 can be pre-shaped for bass guitar). I like using it with my electric too because you just haul one amp and you can dial in the tone you want for your acoustic on channel 1 and then dial in the sound you want for the electric on channel 2 and right in the middle of your set you can just switch guitars in seconds. I also have a Peavy Express amp that I just end up leaving at home because I can get a great clean sound out of the Carvin and then I use a processor and pedals for my electric effects. Vocals get a very good sound too, because you have high and low knobs on channel 3, then there is the 5 band master EQ and you can then add the leve of digital reverb that you want. I actually bought a Roland KC-500 (8 channels, 150 watts) keyboard amp and sent it back after comparing it with the Carvin because the sound and flexibility of the Carvin was too good to pass up. And, acoustically, there are not many acoustic amps that are going beat the sound of this one.

After reading some of the reviews for the amp, I did have some concerns about reliability but after getting the amp I am convinced it is solid. I would take it to a gig without a back up. I plan to get the extended warranty and I have emailed a number of people who said they have had no trouble with the amp after a few years of use.

Custome support so far has been great. I have never had to get it repaired. It comes with a 1 year warranty (I thought this could have been a little longer considering some others I looked at were up to 5 years) and I plan on getting the extended warranty which is another 2 years for about $50 just to be sure.

I've been playing for about 5 years. Along with the two acoustics I have a Fender Strat and a Peavey Express 65 watt electric amp. I play these through a Boss ME-30 for effects and an Ibanez TS-7 (great pedal for $45). If it were stolen I would have to go with this amp again. I did try most of the popular acoustic amps out there and the SWR was a really nice amp but it just didn't have the flexibility I needed - the others were weak in power, bass response and sound compared to this one. I also tried a few keyboard amps and even bought the Roland (great amp - mucho power and clean sound but cannot get that perfect acoustic tone that I am fairly compulsive about having) but sent it back after hearing my acoustics through this amp. I love the fact that you have some EQ control and effects control for each individual channel. I also love the acoustic channel - top of the line. There really isn't anything that I hate about this amp except that I had to actually buy it to try it (10 day trial period) but it was well worth it and the Roland is back to where I got it from.

Really easy to figure out and get used to, clusters of controls on three channels and effects/EQ area are logically laid out, some controls may be even unnecessary, like bass, mid and hi boosts in the first two channels - just make shure you read further about my serous dissapointment with this thing, OH just can't get over it.

I tried it with my acoustic Tacoma DR8CE4, and Memphis bass. The sound is just awesome - BUT JUST READ WHAT I HAVE TO SAY RIGHT BELOW!!
WHAT A MAJOR DISSAPOINTMENT, AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!

OH HOW SAD!! I got it exchanged once and am returning a second one they sent me again!!! IT PICKS UP RADIO LOUDER THAN MY REGULAR STEREO DOES!! Both amps I tried first of all produced major hum as you increaced total effects level, and as soon as I'd plug in my acoustic especially into the first channel, it'd turn my cord, never mind it was well shielded, into an antenna and would yell some local radio station like crazy! I was thoroughly dissapointed, you bet especially the second time, after going through trouble of returning it by UPS. At least they agreed to refund my shipping. What really rubs salt in the wounds, is if it worked as intended it would've been absolutely perfect. This acoustic/electric/bass/keys/vocal combo, a mini PA system of a 100W could not've been more perfect for me! Just sad...

Depending on who you talk to it varies from 3 to 10. Them Carvin people are all differend. It's pretty good overall

Overall, IF it worked it would'be been a 9 to 10. As both amps came I'm giving it a 1 to 3 simply because I was buying a great amp, not a heavy "fixed-station humming radio receiver." Just sad...

It's pretty straight-forward. The manual doesn't really explain much, but if you know what you're doing and finished elementary school, you should be okay.

Excellent sound - comes through nice and clear and does a great job of replicating a good, acoustic sound through the combination of the 12 and the tweeter. The effects cover most of the bases you'd want to cover for an acoustic setup and it's a great all-in-one amp. A little expected hiss when you turn up the effects, but nothing major.

Here's where the trouble hits - at least in my experience. I've had the amp about 2 years and have not put it through much at all. Sometimes it just didn't want to power-up, but eventually would after a few minutes. I never put it through much stress and treated it like a baby and a few weeks ago, for no apparent reason it started buzzing and then just totally fried. I replaced the fuse and it just blew right away again. ...To be continued under the 'Customer Support' section...

(continued from the 'reliability' part. I told Carvin about it and they said $100 would fix it, but I'd have to pay for shipping both ways, too. I sent it to them and they fixed it - I put my local address both on the box and in a letter inside the box I shipped the amp head in and they sent the repaired amp head to the address I lived at when I ordered the thing - real intelligent. I call Carvin to tell them and they act like I'm the idiot and call UPS to get the package picked up from where they mistakenly had it delivered, so hope that if you buy this amp, you don't have to get it fixed - I think my amp may be somewhere in Europe by now... (In all fairness, one time I called I got ahold of a guy in the service/repair dept. that was VERY courteous and helpful, but only once)

I play a lot of acoustic fingerpicking and strumming. Occaisonally hook up the electric with an effects pedal. The amp sounds great and I'd recommend it for anyone wanting a great all-purpose amp, EXCEPT you may have to get it repaired and you really don't want to go through that. Otherwise, it's goo

It has a bunch of knobs that you should be able to get the sound you want. I'm usually satisfied. The manual is basically two pages that tell what each knob is for, that's about it.

I usa an Ovation Celebrity with this amp. It is very clean. I only detect a hum when I have one of the effects on. There are three effects onboard, Echo, Reverb, Flange, and Chorus. Each has a few choices i.e. There are 4 reverbs, etc. The effects sound fine and clear. They have a switch for the level of effect and it sounds good the whole way up. Each of the three channels also has their own effects level, volume, mid and high settings. Ch. 1 has its own freq. and gain knobs. Ch. 1 is for acoustic guitar, ch. 2 is for bass, I use an Acoustic Galveston Bass on it. Ch. 3 is for microphone, keyboard, etc. It has two inputs, 1/4 in. and low-z. The back has many things. Two speaker outputs, effects loop, headphones. You can disconnect the cabinet from the amp by pulling the plug. This is the only way to get the headphones to be the only sound. Otherwise you get sound out of the speakers and the headphones at the same time. The speakers have a tweeter pad in the back by the 1/4 inch input. The cabinet has a sub a tweeter and a 12 inch speaker.

I don't know much about the reliability. Right now I would have to go without a backup. I have not had any problems with it. I give it a five because I haven't had enough time with it to say one way or the other. I figure 5 to be a good mean.

I had to deal with support immediately upon receiving the unit. I ended up getting a replacement. My first amp, which I received directly from Carvin, was dead. It didn't even turn on. I called and they sent UPS to come pick it up. I asked them what they could do to make this worth the trouble. Reluctantly they gave me free shipping for everything back and forth. In the end I had to call twice and was forwarded to an answering machine that I didn't know I was being forwarded to. In the end I got up a few levels in the heiarchy and it was all settled. The lower people were uninterested and uncooperative. The next guy up was better.

All this stuff seems to be pretty good. The quality and all is great. Clean sound and about everything I need in an amp. I play worship music most of the time. Occasionally I do a bit of almost anything that looks like fun at the time. Most of what I do is rhythm, but it is also great for soloing. I have just started to solo.