Carvin AG100D 112 Combo

Lot's of little extras that you only appreciate after operating the amp. Built in digital effects are a plus, especially the chorus.

I purchased this for use with an acoustic guitar and was very pleased because you can customize the sound it produces. I have also used it for a bass guitar in a small venue setting and it has a nice bass sound that can be tweeked.

I've never had a failure or problem of any kind in almost ten years.

Never need customer support

I've been playing bass guitar and guitar for over 30 years. I shopped around for acoustic guitar amps and chose this one and have never regreted it. It had more power than most of the compeition and with 3 channels it is versatile. I love the green color of the exterior. Do yourself a favor and invest in a Carvin cover for it. It has kept the amp in new condition.

I bought two to use in acoustic/electric live band.

Did what advertised.

Same as the rest of you poor suckers. Both are unreliable and cut out at most unoppertune times. (LIVE in front of a crowd!)

Terrible as stated, They'll sell you a new head. sell sell sell.

One is a doorstop, one is an amp stand for another amp. I would give it to an enemy, but bad Karma stops me.

Bought new 2004
very versatile with 3 channels I thought for bass & acsoutic
i play jazz bass at coffee houses etc.

each channel is ok but not much power for a 100watts. muct be 100watts divided by 3 channels.
can't really get an good acoustic sound.
bass not bad though,
keyboard channel good
no distortion at max volumes

Here's the problem, I mostly used this at home off and on but mostly it just set around collecting dusk up until about 9 months ago, when i started playing gigs as a jazz bass player. About 4 monthes ago all the symptoms started happening as others have stated. popping, crackling in the speakers, then started cutting out and clicking no sound. I tuned if off then came back one then cutting our again on and off. I only have one amp for my bass or acoustic and cannot depend on this thing. i'll be shopping for a new amp soon in the middle of our busy season gigging every weekend at small venues. Carvin has lost all my future buisness. I can't afford to buy more gear that doesn't purchased work though the mail all the way across the US. I might Look for a amp head i can use with the speaker 8 ohm. the AG100D supoose to have a 300watt speaker now I wonder about that too..
the advertisement for this amp was said to be so great, i wonder how much they paid them for lying about it. would be great amp if you could actually use it.

Didn't waste mty time calling carvin after reqding other reviews.
They got the money I got the shaft...
no more mail order purchases.

build well, solid, good speaker.
power amp worthless, unreliable.
don't buy this thing unless you have money flush.

This is a follow-up to my review in Jan. 2006. I ordered my AG100D, new, about four years ago. I run a Roland GR33 guitar synth through channel 1, my piezo-acoustic through channel 2, and, sometimes, vocals through channel 3. I do not play out, regularly, but I use this amp for small to medium indoor gigs and for practice. So far the features and power have been ideal.

I use a Brian Moore guitar with humbuckers and piezo-acoustic pickups, which also feed into the 13-pin synth output. I also use an Alvarez electric acoustic. I play a variety of styles of music: electric, acoustic, rock, and Motown or Atlantic soul from the 60's onward. The Carvin is great for tone shaping, since each channel has independent EQ. There is also a 5-band master EQ and a tweeter level pot. You could not ask for more capability in one small package.

After very little light use at home and a few gigs, my AG100D started cutting out at random. I was not willing to pay high shipping and repair costs for an intermittent problem, so I took it to a local amp wizard. He fixed a cold solder joint, but the cut-outs continued so I took it back. He kept it for 4 weeks, unable to recreate the cutouts. Finally he observed the problem and installed a larger heat sink; I just got it back. I am running the amp for hours at a time and testing it when I can, and it seems OK, but I am afraid to rely on it without back-up.
NEW INFO: The amp started to cut out again, and badly, I finally broke down and called/e-mailed Carvin. The service was great,and like other reviewers have said, Carvin obviously knew the problem that I was having. It cost me about $160.00 total for shipping and repair, and I have felt fairly confident that the amp was fixed, HOWEVER, I have begun to practice while running a vocal mike and my electric acoustic, and the amp now cuts out when I hit certain notes on the first or second string of the guitar. The sound will come back after a half-second, but if you strum a chord such as a bar chord on the 3rd fret and above, the amp totally shuts down until you stop strumming. Carvin has ignored my e-mails for the past week. They also deny that the AG100D has had problems, although about 40% of all the reviews I have found point out a poor reliability rating. I dropped off the amp with my local tech, this morning, and I hope he will fix it, After that I am done, and will probably not buy from Carvin, again.

Carvin helped me to get the amp to them for repair, and sent it back promptly. I just can not keep paying shippig and repair bills for an amp that was never reliable, should be working fine, and obvously has design problems. They should not ignore a "valued customer" after all of this. I have other amps-Fender, Peavey, and Music Man that have worked fine for 5 years up to 40 years with no repairs needed other than routine tube replacement or cleaning.

I have been playing guitar for 42 years. I have several electrics and acoustics, and a variety of guitar amps. I also have a big Peavey KBA300 keyboard amp. I love the Carvin's capability and sound flexibility, but the lack of reliability makes it unacceptable.

It's all been said above.

Sounds very clean. I play a Carvin Cobalt C450TS acoustic bass out of it. Sounds awesome.

Carvin rocks. This amp stopped working on me the night before Easter. I had a big gig on Easter and was really worried. I noticed a little cap above the power. Long story short - opened her up. Comes with an extra fuse right inside. Changed it out and we're good to go.

Great design Carvin!

Really good. I work down the street from a Carvin store and they are really good.

Really good amp. Very versatile. I can plug in my acoustic bass, my son's acoustic guitar and my other son's electric piano. We are all in the living room having a great time. Sounds really clean too. It's like a mini PA.

Great Amp.

great features, everything you need, however speakers aren't great; see below

tried every configuration with the onboard EQ and couldn't get a decent sound. then I tried a LR BAGGS Paracoustic DI and the sound was better, but still nothing great. after reading ricky shroeder above, I thought the problem might be with the speakers so I replaced the 12" with a JBL as recommended by a local amp genius. got lotsa bass but the highs sucked. then I talked to a local PA genius and he said try a regular guitar speaker. did that and the guitar sounded better but the mic sucked. I was about ready to sell it on EBAY when I remembered I had an ancient AR ACOUSTIC amp that had 2 8" coaxial speakers. the AR ACOUSTIC is an old company that makes amps sort of like bastard grandads of ULTRASOUND. I plugged the amp into the speakers and IT SOUNDED LIKE SOMETHING I"VE BEEN TRYING TO GET OUT OF AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR AMP FOR YEARS: lotsa volume, "grind" on the top end (not distortion) body...everything I was looking for.

so the problem then was how to get the two amps combined. I took the modular head out of the Carvin (easy, four screws) and took a sabre saw to the AR ACOUSTIC (similar, if not the same chassis as an Ultrasound) and with a fair amount of serious modification to the box, was able to mount the head of the CARVIN on the AR ACOUSTIC box. plugged it in and it sounds unreal; and is lighter than the AG100D.

what does this mean to you? if you are a fingerstylist you might want to find 2 8" coaxial speakers (meaning with tweeter) like an ultrasound or marshall use (I believe) and make your own cabinet or hotrod a twin 8" cab and install the modular head unit from the Carvin.

the difference is amazing. I do some vocals live and the AG100D was better by itself for a mic/vocal sound. but since I mainly play fingerstyle, now the feature is on the guitar sound which was less than adequate before I hooked up these speakers. now its the best I've heard from an amp--especially considering the price.

if you've had problems, have your local tech resolder AC input board and main power supply board rather than ship it to Carvin. this worked for the previous owner of this amp when it was cutting out.

not great, from what I've read here.

I bought this amp 6 months ago mainly because I've owned Carvin equipment in the past and was happy with it but also because I wanted the versatility that an ALL-IN-ONE amp could provide...meaning I could plug my guitar into it plus a mic and my porchboard bass. One amp for all 3 purposes. This amp has 3 channels and each is nicely configured with a good selection of options, features and tonal capabilities. I've been very happy with it.

My acoustic sings through it and I even use an electric guitar with it after passing the signal through a Seymour Duncan twin Tube preamp pedal. It strengthens the signal and warms it up a bit so the electric sounds good. I have also used modeling pedals with it and they sound great as well. This is essentialy a PA...no colored sound here so it works great with modelers. The mic / vocals channel is great as well and sounds fantastic with my harmonizer.

I've had it for 6 months and have had no issues at all. At times i push it to its limits and its never, ever faltered. If there were problems with this amp they have evidently fixed them in the latest ones...like I said...mine is fairly new, about 6 months old.

I only called carvin once about hooking up an extension spesaker and they were great!

Since the amp does everything they claim it does, and it sounds great no matter what I use it with, and since its held up for 6 months of steady use without a problem and since tech support was great I'd rate it a 10 overall. By the way I also own a Roland KC-550 which has 4 channels vs the carvin at 3 channels. I also love the Roland KC-550 but at 65lbs vs the Carvin at 35lbs the Carvin is also a lot easier to haul around. Unless I think I'll need the Rolands 180 watts vs the Carvins 100 watts I'll take the Carvin with me!!!!!

Not bad.

I did not buy this amp for large venues, but I must say it noticeably lacks headroom in the volume department, even for solo gigs at the local restaurant. For that reason I haven't used it much even though it has many more features than my little Crate PA head.

I bought my AG100D in 2001 and for personal reasons did not use it for over a year while it sat in my studio with my other gear. The first time I started using it regularly, it had just gone out of warranty and the external speaker jack was dead. Carvin customer service said sorry buddy but you're SOL. I licked my wounds and went on using the amp without extension speaker as a band practice monitor. Never really used the amp much because we did our gigs with other equipment. Then in early 2006 I began using the amp again as a practice monitor and after two months I started getting snaps and pops whenever the amp was on. I don't think I've powered up this unit more than 75 times in 6 years and so I must be honest... I think this amp is made with junk. And I don't think I'm being too harsh because I'm comparing it to my little Crate PA head which has been used regularly for 15 years and is still running strong.

In frustration I wrote a nasty email to Carvin who then offered free repair to the unit if I shipped to to them. This is the first time that Carvin has behaved in a magnanimous way and I have to give them credit for changing their ways... at least this one time. My prior dealing with them has not been productive so I'm going to average my rating with a 4. They've still got my amp (third week)so I can't report whether the unit is fixed or reliable. But after reading the other reviews, I'd like to believe that they have admitted to themselves that they built a piece of junk and cannot afford to operate a business and not stand behind their product.

Unfortunately, I cannot in good conscience recommend their product nor their company, because there are plenty of other manufacturers willing to do whatever it takes to make things right.

If a year or two from now, I'm happy with the repaired amp, I'll write a more positive review... if I think of it.

I've been performing for 40 years but not much as a soloist. So I haven't owned a lot of sound reinforcement gear over the years. I bought the AG100D as the perfect versatile unit to last me for a long time. Boy !!! was that a mistake. Carvin has a reputation for nice custom designs and top quality, but I think their reputation went to their head and they stumbled into the gutter. I'll go elsewhere for future purchases.

I bought the amp in the new Sacramento Carvin store about a month or so ago. So it's the new version. I bought it because I happened to have my 77 sigma in my car, brought it in and plugged it into the amp, was blown away--that guitar had never sounded so good! (running a fishman rare earth humbucker in it).

I've used the amp at one show so far and really liked it. I was able to dial in a very nice subtle reverb over my vocals, and the amp did will for my guitar also. At this show I used a PRS custom 24 through Line 6 verbzilla, line 6 delay, keeley-modded tube screamer, keely compressor, and Digitech Jam Man (in that order). I also used the amp's onboard delay. It was a lot of fun to layer the amp's delay under the Line 6 stompbox.

In the third channel, for a couple of pieces I ran some backing tracks straight out of a Korg Pandora. I was able to adjust the eq quite nicely, and had a good sound mix going between guitar, vocals, and backing track.

For me the most telling part of how good the gear is, is do I feel comfortable, relaxed, and confident as an artist while using it? If the sound or feel puts me off, my whole performance is affected. I felt very "on" with this amp.

Don't know yet. I did use it without backup, but I hadn't read about all the reliability issues....

I've been playing 30+ years. My rating for this amp is in comparison to running through the board into a PA, which of course is great IF you don't have to lug the whole PA around and set it up yourself. For just quickly setting up a nice system, this thing is great.

I ordered my AG100D, new, about two years ago. I run a Roland GR33 guitar synth through channel 1, my piezo-acoustic through channel 2, and, sometimes, vocals through channel 3. I do not play out, regularly, but I use this amp for small to medium indoor gigs and for practice. So far the features and power have been ideal.

I use a Brian Moore guitar with humbuckers and piezo-acoustic pickups, which also feed into the 13-pin synth output. I play a variety of styles of music: electric, acoustic, rock, and Motown or Atlantic soul from the 60's onward. The Carvin is great for tone shaping, since each channel has independent EQ. There is also a 5-band master EQ and a tweeter level pot. You could not ask for more capability in one small package.

After very little light use at home and a few gigs, my AG100D started cutting out at random. I was not willing to pay high shipping and repair costs for an intermittent problem, so I took it to a local amp wizard. He fixed a cold solder joint, but the cut-outs continued so I took it back. He kept it for 4 weeks, unable to recreate the cutouts. Finally he observed the problem and installed a larger heat sink; I just got it back. I am running the amp for hours at a time and testing it when I can, and it seems OK, but I am afraid to rely on it without back-up.

It is cheaper to deal with local repair service. I never intended to send anything across the US for repairs.

I have been playing guitar for 42 years. I have several electrics and acoustics, and a variety of guitar amps. I also have a big Peavey KBA300 keyboard amp. I love the Carvin's capability and sound flexibility, but the lack of reliability makes it unacceptable.

The features on this amp are well documented so I won't bother repeating them. It's designed to be a basic full frequency amp or small pa, and to that end it does pretty well.

As I just said, it does what it was intended to do pretty well.

The big issue with most every one is...CAN YOU DEPEND ON IT? It seems that most of the users writting reviews here would say NO WAY! Well, I gotta tell ya, I've owned mine now for about three years, using it at almost all my gigs. It has NEVER let me down! I play for a living as a solo guitarist, doing mostly corporate dinner events. I don't play the bar scene so maybe my equipment doesn't get as much abuse as some do. However, I do hump the thing around all over the place and consequently it has it's share of road wear; but so far (knock on wood) it just keeps on going. There is so much negative talk about the reliability of this amp though that, in spite of my own positive experience with it, I still bring a back up...more gear to lug around, great.

I'll never forget the one time I did talk to a Carvin rep about a question I had about the amp. The guy I spoke to was a straight smart-$%#! I've not had a happy encounter with anyone from Carvin.

Regardless of the unpleasent encounter with the rep, I have to say that (at least so far) the little Carvin AG100D has turned out to be a really useful amp for me. It's not the loudest thing around, but for the venues I play, I don't need to be really loud. That may be why mine has lasted so long with no problems; I don't really push it hard as far as cranking up the volume too much. I use channel one with either a PODxt or a Roland GR-30. Channel two I use to play cd's (of me) while I'm on breaks. I 'sometimes' (not often) use that channel for a drum machine, if it's the type situation where I need it. Channel three has been used (again, not very often) for a mic with no problems. I spend most of my time playing dinner music; light jazz, pop and classical arrangments.

I guess I should update this now that I?ve sent the amp in for repair. Not long after I wrote my review, I decided to bite the bullet and send the amp in to see what Carvin could do about repairing it. I first called them to let them know I was sending it, so they could set up a work order. The guy I talked to was nice, but was hard to understand (not sure if English was his first language). He transferred me to the work shop, where I spoke to a tech, who seemed to know exactly what the problem was as soon as I mentioned the amp?s model number. The tech said to ship the amp with a letter that stated that we?d spoken on the phone, what the problem was, and a return address. He also said it?d be about 3 weeks until the amp would be done and back in my hands. After two weeks, I got a call from a guy named Dana (nice guy, had that ?California surfer guy? way of talking :)), who said the amp was repaired and outlined exactly what had been done to it. They basically took the old guts out and put in the 2005 revised components, which cleared everything right up. I got the amp back about 5 days after that, packed in a new box and back to a 100% performance rating, and it?s been fine since then (knock on wood). Net cost to me was in the neighborhood of $160, including shipping. Not exactly cheap! But, all the service guys were nice and professional, and the amp came back pretty much on time and (more importantly) repaired. So, I?ll go with an 8.

This is an almost brand new (last Christmas), full featured personal PA. Features are as noted in the other reviews. My only additional comment is this system could be louder at 100 watts. But what it does, it does very well--when it works. A great system, except reliability is a joke. And if you can't depend on it, what good is it?

Acoustic Guitar sounded great. Vocals were OK (good enough). I never tried playing bass through it, and never played a CD through it--stictly acoustic guitar and vocals. I also used it as a powered monitor during a gig, and it performed well. When it worked, it worked well, altho it isn't particularly loud. It had good sound, and the effects sounded good.

This thing stopped working without warning during a gig last weekend, after only about 20 hours of gentle previous use. That is unforgivable--I should have listened to these reviews before buying this thing. Fortunately I had backup equipment to take its place, so the night was not a total disaster.

I haven't had time to send this thing in to be repaired, but I'm sure they'll fix it up under warranty, and then I'll sell it ASAP on E-bay before it screws me again.

I've been playing for many years and have a ton of gear, altho this was my first acoustic amp and PA. So I'm more than a little bummed that it's built like crap. I've never seen any piece of gear fail so fast. And it sounds like I'm not the only person with this problem. It's a good system idea, but poorly engineered. It's too bad.

You?ve read about all the features: 3 channels, one for acoustic guitar, one for bass/electric guitar, one for vocals or other equipment. The controls for all channels are similar, but there are some differences, i.e. - notch eq. on channel 2, and so on. There?s also a master volume and master slide EQ. The built-in effects leave a lot to be desired. I haven?t used the Echo at all, and the Flanger sounds more like a crazy watery ring modulator than the ?jet-airplane? sounds of ye olde Van Halen. I laughed out loud when I first heard what they think a flanger is. The Chorus is okay, but I don?t use it for electric guitar, and I have a chorus on my Boss AD-3 for acoustics anyway, so I don?t need it. Same goes for Reverb; you get reverb naturally from the room! Don?t need to simulate it unless you?re doing a Dick Dale cover. So, it?s two amps and a PA in one box, but with the useless effects, it rates a solid 7.

I?m always wary of things that claim to be two or more things in one, such as the Chevy Avalanche. I?m of the mind that nothing can be all things to everyone in one package. Something ultimately suffers. The sound quality of the AG100D brings this theory to a crushing defeat. All three of the applications sound great. I?ve gotten great acoustic and electric tones out of this thing, and vocals sound great, albeit a bit ?vanilla? through the third channel. Actually, ?vanilla? isn?t a bad descriptor for channel 2 either; you?ll definitely need some stompboxes if you plan on using it for a dedicated electric guitar amp. I?ve also gotten good bass sounds out of this as well; I just kick in the ?low? notch button, and away I go. This thing puts out a nice amount of volume as well. You wouldn?t be heard in Shea Stadium w/o micing it, but seriously, how often are you going to be asked to play in a place like that? All three channels pump out a sound that?s great, if a bit ordinary. You do have to do some knob-twiddling, but that?s actually fun, right? I took a couple points off for lack of character of the sound, although it?s still quite good, and b/c nothing?s perfect (see why below).

Here?s where you run into trouble. The reviewer below said that there?s been a revision of the amp within a couple years, and I could see that; my amp (which was bought used) has different knobs then the one in the present-day Carvin catalog. That might not mean anything more than they decided to use different knobs, however, so heed my warnings! I?ve had this amp for over two months now, and it?s performed solidly in use (I use it three times a week, a few hours at a time). However, in the past couple weeks, I?ve had issues with the cutting-in and out syndrome as described by other reviewers below. It sounds like a maniac is standing next to your amp, flicking the on/off switch rapidly back and forth. The first few days it did this, the trouble would cease after a minute and the amp would work as per usual, no other problems. However, this week, after it did its dance, it went out and never came back on. I turned the amp off, waited a bit, then clicked it back on, only to have it repeat the problem 5 minutes down the road. Frustrated beyond reason, I took the open palm of my hand and gave the cabinet a good firm ?whack!? This brought the amp right back online and it didn?t fail again until I shut it off. This leads me to believe that something is intermittent inside of the amp, and that is a quite irritating problem to have, especially for a piece of equipment that would be indispensable for gigs with my band. To be fair, my amp is two years old (I asked the guy I bought it from), so the problem could be cleared up by now in new production models. I don?t relish the idea of sending this thing back to California for repair (I did keep the box), so hopefully banging it keeps it in line. I?d hate for this to go out during a gig, however. I?ve got some gigs coming up; we?ll see how it does. My final grade is a 4 as the amp worked perfectly for two months, and still works well when it wants to, but there?s no trick to figuring out what?s wrong with it for future reference, so for that, it gets knocked down a few notches. Although I guess that?s what I get for buying used, even though my Marshall is used, and over twenty years old, and still going strong. Caveat, people!

Haven?t used it (yet!), we?ll see how it goes if I ever feel like sending the amp in for repair.

If you?re like me and happen to play in a band that requires a dedicated acoustic amp, electric amp, and vocal capabilities, then the Carvin AG100D is really the cat?s p.j.?s. This amp is perfect for my situation; I don?t have to haul tons of gear to gigs, I?m not taking up too space on stage or in the band?s PA (I used to take two channels, one for acoustic guitar, one for vocals; not good when there?s only six inputs!), and I can even use it as an electric guitar/bass amp. However, the problem of the amp cutting out at random times gives one a moment of hesitation; I?m still not convinced they?ve fixed the problem, so be careful if you purchase it. I?m happy that I can get the thing to work; although a slap to the side isn?t technical, hopefully it will be enough of a ?band-aid? to get me through until I can get the resources to send this thing to freaking CA and pay for repairs. If this problem didn?t exist, then the amp gets a solid 8 or even 9 out of me (nothing?s perfect). Until it gets permanently fixed and the problem is removed by Carvin, my rating stays as is.

Think of it as a 3 channel, mono, 100 watt PA in a 34 lb. box. Each channel is uniquely configured, 1 for acoustic guitar, 2 for bass, and 3 is somewhat generic but it does sport a phantom powered XLR mic input in addition to the 1/4" input. Each channel has it's own eq and fx control to use EITHER fx setting 1 OR 2 and then a volume/blend control for the fx signal. What this means is you can dial up some kind of chorus for your guitar and some kind of reverb/delay for your vox and that's it. The fx are not as flexable as they read in the listings, but they get it done. I have the footswitch but have yet to use it; the 2 buttons control the 2 fx channels, on/off.

This is, to me, really an amp a guitar player shouldn't be w/o. I mean when I have friends come over to jam, THREE of us can use this amp, 2 guitars and a bass, or 1 guitar, 1 bass, and 1 mic. Slap a good pedal, I use the Tech 21 Tri-AC, in front of the 3rd channel and it's not a bad solid state electric guitar amp either! There's SO MUCH this amp can do, that if push came to shove, and I could only have one amp, this would be it.

I use it for solo acoustic gigs w/guitar and a mic and I've used it as a small bass combo amp in a church band.

The amp also features a universal 5 band graphic eq and the cabinet has a speaker stand/pole mount on it to place that high if needed. While the amp has a headphone jack, that doesn't kill the speaker. In lieu of that, it doesn't have a line out other than the headphone jack.

Most versatile amp one could own.

I'm very pleased w/the sounds I get from it. Like I said, you have to use a pedal to make it an electric guitar amp, but it responds well.

I know past incarnations of this amp have been very hit and miss. I do think that Carvin has addressed those issues. If you go their site and download/look at the manuals, you'll see a revision of this amp w/in the past couple of years. That seems to have solved the problems. Mine has been rock solid.

Not dealt w/them for this amp but I have for other things and they were fine. I know some have horror stories; chalk it up to the luck of the draw I guess.

Love this amp. Like I said, every player should have one they're that good.

Just wanted to post after having the amp for about four years. I must say that I am very surprised by the number of reliability problems reported here. I have drug this thing in and out of bars, thrown it in and out of the back of my car, run bass, synth, acoustic guitar, drum machines, mics, and every other conceivable unit through this amp since it was new. I currently use a Vox Tonelab and a Roland GR33 through it for rehearsal and live gigs, and it gets used almost every day. Never one hiccup, ever. This unit has been a rock.

It is important for me to note that I am not a Carvin freak. In fact, I went through THREE latest-generation SX100 combos and all of them developed noise problems or failed. Pieces of absolute junk. But I have to give credit where credit is due, and this AGl00D has been stupidly reliable.

has 3 channels with seperate master eq and volumes. perfect for acoustic guitar or an excellent electric guitar amp for clean pure tone which brings out the best in your electric.All you need is your favorite distorion pedal or overdrive and its an incredable tight low end with all the mid and highs your ears could stand .Vocals are awesome . use for any pa type application or as a powered monitor 3channels 35 lbs very powerful 100 watts at 8 ohms add another cabinet ( 4,8,or 16 ohms )such as a monitor with the extra speaker jack and your output is greatly increased. Line outjack to the PA also

I have no clue why their is anyone who would give this amp under a 10 unless they dont care about versitillity portability and tone .A+++++ works well in any application and sounds fantastic for its size and only 35 LBS to boot !!!!!!!!!!. I like my solidbody electric pluged into the acoustic channel and the sound is so good you will sell your current guitar amps I dont care what you have wait and see tone purest beware its addictive.Vocals are awesome . I use a peavey kosmos on mine and it really brings out the tone and power of this unit I would highly recomend it .I have several new taylors and a custom built manship electric solidbody and it proformes like no other. I get so many more sounds out of my solidbody guitar now I actually had to go back through my effect proccessor and repick my new favorites .It actually made my guitar settings sound much more distinct .Ive been playing for about 15 years in the same band and everyone whos heard my setup that plays loves it and most have bought one for their self one of them bought 2 . I loan out this amp all the time to let people try it out and they fall in love with its sound and versitillity . I would challange anyone who has shopped the market to find a better more versital better built amp .3/4 inch Poplar plywood aluminum chassis 200 watt rms rated carvin 12 inch speaker with a massive magnet compare the competition I double dog dare you !!!!!!!!!!!!!

A++++++++++ I've had mine 5 or 6 years and I own allot of carvin equiptment and none has failed at anytime . I dont understand everones gripe about carvin since you get better equiptment than the compettion at half the price !!!!!!!!!!! all the experiance Ive had on ordering and calling in on technical questions on PA setup applications has been fantastic !!!!! have you all tryed calling peavey or roland or fender or crate or genz benz etc lately . You get through to carvin almost immediatly and most of the other manufactures dont advertise there phone # they want you to E-mail . Besides their products are built in the USA BABY support our jobs in the US .

THE BEST IN THE BUISNESS . but beware they are mail order so if you need repair you will have to pay to ship but you save so much on the equiptment and its better built and a much better value for your dollar . and honestly I have never had a problem one out of my carvin stuff . Been using and dealing with Carvin for about 10 years

THE BEST AMP ON THE MARKET TO DO EVERYTHING WELL AND SERVE AS A PORTABLE PA TO BOOT .I AM A SOUND FANATIC THATS WHY I BUY TAYLOR ACOUSTICS AND I WONT SACRIFICE MY SOUND TO SAVE MONEY. HONESTLY YOU NEED TO SHOP EVERY AMP ON THE MARKET LIKE I DID COMPARE SPECS FOR MONTHS GO TRY OUT THE AMPS AND COMPARE THEM SIDE BY SIDE IF POSSIBLE LOOK AT THE SPECS ON OTHER MANUFACTURES AMPS AND CHECK OUT THE BUILD MATERIAL AND FIND OUT WHAT SPECIFIC SPEAKER IS IN THEIR AMPS AND HOW MUCH THERE CABINETS WEIGHT AND THE WATTAGE RATTING AT (KEEP IN MIND IF YOU ADD AN EXTENSION CABINET TO THE CARVIN AG 100 YOU INCREASE THE WATTAGE )AND COMPARE THE OPTIONS ON THE CARVIN . COMPARE THEIR SOUND AND THEN ORDER THE CARVIN AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE 10 DAY TRIAL YOU WONT BE DISSAPOINTED .I WOULD BUY ANOTHER IN A HEARTBEAT IF IT WERE LOST OR STOLEN . THE ONLY AMPS I LIKED OTHER THAN THE CARVIN WERE THE GENZ BENZ SHANADOAH 200 BUT ITS TO BULKY AND HEAVEY TO PACK AROUND AND HAS ONLY 2 CHANNELS AND AN ELECTRIC GUITAR OR BASS DOSENT SOUND GOOD AT ALL IN THIS AMP , AND THE FISHMAN LOUDBOX WHICH IS A VERY NICE SOUNDING ACOUSTIC AMP WITH A TRIAMPED 3 WAY CABINET BUT ITS HEAVEY AND HAS ALMOST NO OPTIONS AND THE AMP IS NOT FOR USE WITH AND ELECTRIC SOLIDBODY OR MUCH LESS A BASS GUITAR BUT IT MIGHT WORK FOR ACOUSTIC BASS I also liked the roland ac 60 but the same problems as listed for other amps on the use of electric guitar or bass is a negetive but its a cool amp for portabuility and acoustic tone and effects. HOPE THIS HELPED I ONLY WROTE THIS REVIEW BECAUSE I DID NOT APPRICIATE ALL THE OTHER REVIEWERS NEGETIVITY ON SUCH A WONDERFULL AMP . COMPARE FOR YOURSELF LIKE I DID

This seems to be a prefect setup on paper, lots of input, light weight, just the thing for the "minstrel in the corener" setup I was looking for. Effects are a bit dry though, but what do you expect from digital? Of the three inputs the guitar is the best for diling in a sound. SO for features it receves a high number

I used (that's right past tense) this amp with several Takemine, Guild, Martin and other guitars the short time it was in operation. It seemed to take the glassy edge off any guitar no mater what the pickup configuration. Bass reponse was flabby. Definitely for low volume use ast the sound quality greatly decreased with volume increase.

Her's the rub. It died on it's first gig. No sounds at all. I quickly used alternative methods and got out with the skin on my teeth and a highly embarassed colleague. We used his Crate amp and it did not sound too bad considering the options. later at home I traced the problem to the speaker jack with the tweeter adjustment. No signal got through there, but another speaker cab or both speakers were fine. When I contacted aCarvin about sending another they had a terrible time figuring out what the part was, even when I read them the number off the unit. The fourth person on the phone said he knew what that was and they shipped me a single potentiometer for the whopping price of $36.00, adn then wanted to charge me to return that!

More dust gathering furniture in my rehearsal room!!

I fixed it myself, but what a bunch of crap!

see above

Stay away from the big "C". If you need a small PA cheap, go with the Peavey 6 channel or even better a Mackie 8. You will save in the long run!

This is a fantastically made amp with some really great EQ possibilities.... this turns out to be a double-edged sword - I've literally spent DAYS tweaking the sound.. but it's great that you have so many possibilities

The Greatest Amp Ever. Period.
The Flanges are kinda watery... but hey... it's a flange.
There is no overdrive effect, just to let you know, but WHO CARES - I've got a ts-9, and that's all you need, dude.

It's rock solid! It's awesome! It's green! Woot!
Seriously though, it's a great amp. I thought I blew it out once when I used it as a PA once, but turns out the main volume fader was at zero. Stupid, stupid me. I am definitely the weak link in this chain.

Never spoken to Carvin regarding this product, but I have called and asked for several things, and they are pretty fantastic, though I've heard stories that some of them can be somewhat incompetent.

It's probably my favorite piece in my rig - we'll see after I get a les paul. I LOVE it. It's great. It's awesome to do it a little different from everyone else, with a solid-state amp with no OD. It makes things unique... and, uh.. you can use your tubescreamers.

This is around a Y2K model, before the dual effects channels. The feature set is incredible, more than I need or use. Features are a strong point, as is versatility. I have used it as a bass practice amp, I'm now using it as the PA/keyboard amp for my garage band, also give it some use with acoustic guitar. Handles it all nicely. Bear in mind that I'm using it WITH the Carvin 1x12 extension speaker.

The sound is good but not stunning, but that's probably a price you pay for the versatility. Lacks raw punch for bass guitar, but sounds pretty strong on vocals, keys and acoustic guitar. Plenty enough volume for everything I do with it. Effects sound cheap to my ear, but it's a bonus that they're even included.

Weak point here. I notice that a high number of the other postings mention intermittent cutout problems, and I've had the same issue. For me, the problem mysteriously cleared up on its own after two years. But hey, Carvin...you have some real QC bugs with this unit! I hope they read this! That's been my only reliability issue, but it makes me afraid to count on it without backup.

Haven't dealt with them.

I'd think twice about buying this again unless I had absolute certainty that Carvin has improved on the quality issues. I love the versatility, and it's a brilliant piece for that reason. I'm especially pleased with how it's "plug n play" as a PA. Stick a Shure SM58 in it, run the EQ totally flat and it's just right, with no feedback until you get to ludicrous volume. Have to take at least 3 points off for quality, though, because that's such a huge and important issue.

The AG100D is really a portable PA with 3 preamp channels. Each channel has its own tone controls, and channels 1 and 2 have contour switches that are optimized for, respectively, guitar and bass. Channels 2 and 3 can also be used for line level inputs. There's also a 5-band master eq and master volume, as well as the digital effects (flange, reverb, chrous, and echo). Some users have complained about the fact that you can only use one effect at a time on each channel. I personally don't have an issue with that; I only use the effects occassionally. The amp also has jacks for an external effects loop and headphones/line out, as well as a level control for the tweeter. The AG100D is very versatile, and my only complaints in terms of features have to do with using the amp with line level signals, and its power rating. It would be nice to have the ability to switch out some of the gain in channels 2 and/or 3 when you're using them with line level devices, such as a cd player or whatever. As for the power rating, I don't remember seeing this before, but lately Carvin has shown this amp as having a power rating of 100 watts at 8 ohms, but with 1% distortion at 50% power; in other words, 50 watts. I can only guess what the distortion is at 100 watts out, but I'm betting that it's pretty nasty. To me this means that this is for all pratical purposes a 50 watt amp.

I bought this amp partly because I needed a bass amp for practice, and partly because I was curious to see what other uses I could get out of it. In addition to the bass (solid body, not acoustic) I've used the amp with acoustic guitars (steel and nylon string), an electric guitar, cd and tape players, and a microphone. Generally it has performed well with everything. What really surprised me was how good I was able to get my Telecaster to sound with this amp. With the steel string acoustic, I would describe it's sound as typical (I've never been crazy about the pickup systems that are available for acoustic guitars). However, the nylon string guitar sounded great. I think alot of this amp's ability to produce a decent tone comes from being able to cut the level going to the tweeter; for most instruments, I leave the tweeter level control at minimum. With an electric bass I'm able to get a good tone, but this is where the 100 watt versus 50 watt rating really comes into play. This amp works well with bass in a practice setting, but thats about it. It just doesn't have enough power for jamming or live performances. And I suspect the same would be true if you were using a keyboard, although I haven't tried it. With guitars or a microphone you're probably okay, but definitely not with a bass.

There is where I had a problem. When I first received the amp it worked fine. After a few months, however, it developed a problem where, after a few minutes of playing, the amp would cut out. Then it would cut in and out several more times, and finally it would cut out for good. I'd turn it off and let it sit for a while, and then it would power up fine, only to repeat the problem again. I really wasn't thrilled about the prospect of having to send the amp back to Carvin (especially considering that I hadn't kept the shipping box; probably not a bright thing to do, but frankly it never occurred to me that I might have to send it back). Also, I'm an electronics technician, and once I got the schematics from Carvin (see below) I figured I would be able to fix it myself. Well, it turns out that it wasn't really broken. When I removed the amplifier chassis and shook it out, the problem went away. It was probably just a loose piece of wire or solder that never got cleaned off of the circuit board. Since then the amp has worked fine. However, based on my experience, as well as the trouble other people apparently have had, I'm inclined to question the level of quality control at Carvin.

I ordered the AG100D through Carvin's web site. I figured that was a safe bet since I was ordering a stock amp with no options or anything. I've dealt with their telephone sales people before, and mostly it's gone okay, although there was one time I ordered a bunch of guitar parts that didn't amount to very much money. I was definitely getting some attitude from the sales guy. However, this time when I called the service department looking for schematics, the guy I spoke to was very helpful. He sent them out by email right away. (Actually, I called and requested the schematics before the amp developed a problem. I'm just nosey when it comes to technical stuff.)

As I said before, I think this amp has a high level of versatility, but I also think its published power rating is misleading. And whereas I don't plan to play out with it, if I were I'd be very concerned about its reliability. However, for right now, for what I need, it's fine. If something happened to it, I doubt I'd by another one, especially if, as now, my primary need was for a bass amp.

Just a quick follow up on this point...I submitted an earlier review of this amp and had no comment about customer support. Well, I contacted cutomer support (via e-mail) about the effects processor. The responce I got back was, to say the least, unsatisfactory. It would be nearer to the truth to say that the responce I got back from Carvin was insultling. I will never, I repeat NEVER, do business with Carvin ever again. I most earnestly advise others not to either due to the poor customer support when you encounter trouble, which you assuredly will sooner or later, with the AG100D....

I have been playing 32 years, alot of it professionally. I own a large collection of equipment, including several pa's. I would recommend saving your money and go out and get the Fender acoustisonic amp. It has an overall more impressive sound and all the features that the AG100D has and more. It does cost more, but it is also more reliable and the people who work at Fender are PROFESSIONAL in the demenor toward thier customers. In fairness, the AG100D is a decent sounding little acoustic guitar amp. There are others out there however that sound just as good, are more relieable, have better customer support and actually cost less on top of it!!! I wouldn't get another if it got stolen. I'd replace it with either a Fender or a Marshall acoustic amp.

The amp features the capability to function as both an acoustic guitar amp and mini pa. It has three channels set up to this end, each of which has it's own seperate eq and effects processor sends. An over all well concieved layout for either a solo or small combo performance in a small venue.
The limitation of one effect per channel is annoying. Annoying enough that I may be forced to have to use the included effects loop to process my acoustic guitar sound.

The basic sound of channel one for the acoustic guitar is decent. I own several larger pa systems the carvin's sound quality is equal to them in most respects. I play a Taylor NS32ce nylon string, an Ovation custom Elite and a Gibson ES-165 through it. I use channel three occasionally to sing, using a Shure SM58, or more often, I'll mike the acoustic guitars in addition to running straight into channel one, using an Audio Technica P650R condenser mike. This combination cost me the use of two of my available three channels, but the acoustic guitar sound it affords me is outstanding...and by the way, it also makes it possible to use more than one effect on a single sound. In fact, I also own a Godin LGX-sa, the one with the built in Fishman bridge pickup system as well as Seymore Duncan jazz pickups. Now, if I were to plug the fishman pickups into channel one, and the magnetic pickups into channel two, I could still have channel three as a vocal channel!!!

Mines brand new and seems to work fine, but time will tell...

Haven't used any, yet...

It seems like a pretty good deal for the money, which is why I bought it instead of the Fender acoustiasonic system.

I just bought this in November, 2002. I also have the 123AG extension speaker and it really makes for a full sound (though you won't need it for small gigs). It is the dual DSP model. You know the rest of the features. I am really impressed with the combination of acoustic, voice, and spare (bass) channel. The ability to dial a different effect into each channel is really handy. The 5-band master EQ is really handy and quite sensitve. The DSP is whisper quiet and you only hear a very faint hiss when the treble is turned up high (way to high).

I play a Yamaha APX-20 acoustic and a Takamine CP-132SC classical nylon string. WOW! For the first time I actually hear what my acoustic instruments sound like. I had a Line 6 Flextone (also a SUPER GREAT AMP!) and an old Peavey PA system (PA-4, I think). My acoustic guitars sounded really bad with the Flextone (yes, I know it is not intended for that) and the sound was only marginal through the PA system.

I'm also using a Carvin CM-68 mic - really great vocal reproduction. The amp handles the microphone quietly and efficiently.

This amp is loud and the sound is extremely clean. It is more than enough power and low-end response to do a coffee shop gig (maybe 100 people) and the extension speaker gives you even more coverage. Bonus is the amp and xtension spkr has build in stand adapters. It reproduces my instruments so well. My test of good acoustic reproduction is to listen to someone else play acoustically and then through the amp - if the only difference is amplification, then I'd say you have good acoustic sound reproduction. This amp does exactly that.

I think the horn tweeter is better sounding (a bit softer perhaps?) than what you would get in a 4x10 horn most common in a PA speaker). The amp and the extension speaker also has a handy L-pad to step down the tweater volume - it really works (the benefit is that you don't have to change your EQ - you just step down the volume on your overall highs).

Like I said, I have the extension speaker and it really helps spread your sound around.

The DSP works extremely well and everything is integrated so you don't get any noise from connecting cables, power supplies, etc. (This is also a great feature of the Line 6 Flextone).

I listened to Peavey Ecoustic (good sound but no effects) and the Crate with 12" speaker (for the model number). The Crate seemed a bit thin on sound.

It took a lot of guts for me to buy this amp mail order. I was doing a lot of research and the Carvin folks spent a lot of time with me. Also, you get 10 days free trial period.

I'm an electronics engineer and my expert opinion is that the amp is well designed and well built. The box is solid and the electronics are very quiet. Heat dissipation seems good, but perhaps a bigger heat sink for 100 watt amp would be better. I give it a 9 for the puny heat sink.

See above.

I've been playing guitar for 18 years. I have recently converted entirely to acoustic and classical with some vocals (no amp will ever fix my bad singing!). This is definetely one of the best amplifier purchases I have ever made. This Carvin product scores really high in value for the dollar - where else can you get a 3-channel, dual DSP, 100W amp with dual 12" speakers for $650?

I also like the green color - it is different!

If it were stolen today, I would replace it immediately without trying out other amplifiers. Great amp, great value, great acoustic sound. Good luck!

3 channels (guitar, bass, mike); digital effects w/ mix control on all channels; line out, speaker out; 12" speaker w/ tweeter; 100W of power; efx loop.

Used with acoustic guitars for church worship music and some times an electric fiddle. Being a solid state amp the sound is real CLEAN. The sounds of the guitars come through well w/o distortions even at high volumes.

Okay, this is where the horror story begins. Because it used at church, the amp is only used about 15 minutes each sunday. The rest of the week it is carefully stored in the audio/visual storage room. Approximately after one year (when the warranty expired, of course!), the amp began to make these "crackling" noises like a bad A.M. radio that has bad reception! AND volume on the amp suddenly drops! It's done this on a number of occasions to the point where we don't use it anymore! Now we just use an old second-hand Crate keyboard amp which has been more reliable than our brand new Carvin Amp.

From the posts below it seems like I'm not the only one who has had trouble with this amp. I won't slam all Carvin products since we also have a Carvin bass amp that seems to be reliable. I guess Carvin just did a shoddy job only on the AG-100D. But it's going to cost my church $125 for Carvin to service the amp. Lucky we're in L.A. so I can just drive the amp to the carvin store.

Their staff is friendly and informed about the products they sell.

The amp is very versatile and light weight. It has enough power to compete with other instruments in the band. The sound is pure and clean. It's a good buy for the price but the quality is not good. I'd wish I bought another amp instead!

Bought in 2001. Solid state amp w/ loads of features. For Acoustic guitar, bass, and PA. On board effects and six-band eq. Very sensitive tone controls on the guitar channel. This amp is incredibly versatile for the price. Also it's small and light, yet more than loud enough.

Reverb is decent, as is chorus, but don't really use them. Has flange (!) and delay too.

Sounds great for acoustic guitar, it's primary purpose. I play a Alvarez-Yairi classical through it. Also use it on gigs with my Heritage hollowbody, and sound good. Have played some semi-acoustic type gigs using this as a bass amp and it sounded nice.

It gives the clean sound of your guitar, pretty much. Like a typical solid-state amp, it doesn't have a lot of warmth or the kind of response you'd get from a tube amp.

A great amp for acoustic guitar. Some feel it's an alternative to Polytones for jazz guitar (it is easier to dial in different tones and adjust to different guitars -- but it lacks the response that Polytones have). Works well with multi-effects/modeling processors.

So far so good, although some earlier reviewers had some bad experiences. I'm guessing that Polytone revamped its 100w bass combo to compete with the California Blonde type acoustic amps, and it took them a while to get it right.

My only backup is a Digitech multi-effects/modeling processor, which I would put through the PA if I had to. No problems with the Carvin so far. Although it always takes a couple seconds for the power light to go on, providing drama.

High marks for versatility. High marks for clean sound and good tone/eq control. I give bonus points for portability (small combo with one 12" plus small horn, weighs 35 lbs.). A lot of value for the money.

Some kind of holder, hook or compartment for the power cable would've been nice.

This is a solid state amp with a 12" speaker and a Tweeter with seperate volume adjustment for the Tweeter. Effects are delay, Reverb, Chorus and flanger that can seperately be assigned to any of the three channels. Has seperate main EQ section, but each subchannel has it's own EQ, with the acoustic guitar channel has a mid range cut or add section by frequency range. At first try, you have to work at it to get used to all the possible controls and possibilities. The sound you want is in there, once you figure it all out. The guitar channel also has two push buttons for controlling tone range.

I am using it with a Larrivee and a Taylor with B-Band pickup and pre-amp, various guitars with hmbucker pickups and telecaster with single coil and humbuckers.
No detectable background noise.
The big speaker allows for good low end sounds and I think once I get used to all the possible eq choices, I will get max benefit out of it.
So far so good with my acoustic guitars. I can get a pretty good sound with plenty of bass and crisp highs. I need to go try it in a big room now. My humbbucker guitars seem to sound best in channel-two.

Too early to tell, but the knobs are recessed and protected and it seems to be built very well.

DOn't know yet and hope I don't need them, but initital calls for info and sales went very well.

I think this will be my main amp, and I will take a backup of course, but I am selling two other ones because I can play the bass through this one also. If lost, I would probably buy another one.

this amp is the best value piece of gear I own. 100 watts. 3 channels. One for acoustic guitar. One for electric guitar/bass. One PA channel for vocals. It powers my whole acoustic "chill" band. The possibilities are endless. If you want to, it is possible to run many mics into this thing by using the other channels and the second input on the PA. Each effect has its own tone and volume controls (Mid cut and Hi boost for acoustic channel) (Lo and Mid Boost for Bass/electric channel. there is a 5 band eq that controls the entire output tone of the amp. I start by plugging in an acoustic and shaping the sound with the eq. I then add mics and other stuff and compensate for the eq with the tone controls on each channel. In essence, the Eq is therefore assignable. Oh, not to mention the digital effects - two adjustable effects panels which can be assigned to all three channels.

They say that there is no amp that can do everything really well. This is a lie. I'm selling my Fender Stage 100 amp and replacing it with a high quality distortion pedal (so I can run it through this amp). My bassist runs his bass through the amp and the lead vocalist and I have our mics running through the amp and it all sounds so incredibly clear and natural. (No blending of sound common to multi-channel systems)

I dropped it out of the back of my SUV and it bounced off the solid concrete floor and rolled down a hill while I watched in horror. I picked it up, dusted it off and played a gig with it. It was unfased, the only damage was to the metal guards in the carners (but that's what they are there for).

great, they gave me a lot of help. I was nervous about mail order and buying an amp I had never played, but I'm so glad I took their advice.

I've been playing for 3 years and own a fender cyclone, a les paul junior, a Martin DM and a Kramer Condor (solidbody acoustic electric. All of these guitars sound amazing through the Ag100. With the additional speaker and some stands, this would be the best system ever. This is the most positive review I've written (Honestly, I'm usually critical) BUY THIS AMP!!!!!

Best value in a feature-packed gig-worthy acoustic amp, bar none. Manufactured in 2001, 3 channels, 100 Watts RMS, 12" woofer, 2" tweeter with adjustable volume. Digital effects (reverb, chorus, flange). Each channel has its own volume control, rotary tone controls, and effects send. Seperate (i.e., dual) effects for channels 1 and 2. Master volume and 5-band EQ. Effects loop, line out/headphone (post EQ), speaker out, footswitch jack (Carvin FS-22 footswitch included). Only 35 pounds!

I use this amp for acoustic guitar and vocals. I have also used as a keyboard amp. Very clean sound with little distortion, even at high volumes with all three channels going at once. This amp sounds great, and really lets an acoustic tone come through. Adequate volume for a 100 watt amp. The effects are easy to use - you can dial in a pleasing tone in just a few minutes. I particularly like the capability to have separate effects on different channels simultaneously. I most commonly use a combined chorus/reverb for the guitar, and reverb for vocals. The master 5-band EQ is very responsive.

This amp is brand new so I can't really comment.

I compared this amp with the Crate 125D and SWR California Blond. All have good tone, but the Carvin is a substantially better value. Having three channels is really nice for me on the homefront, and can come in handy when gigging. This amp is packed with features and sounds great. Very clean, very quiet. Reasonable power. Adequate on-board effects for the acoustical performer, particularly if you also run vocals into it. Best value in a 3-channel acoustic amp. All this, and it only weighs 35 pounds.

I purchased this amp in 1999. It is essentially a 3 channel powered mixer combined with a 12" woofer and piezo tweeter in a single cabinet. The first channel is designed for acoustic guitar with three bands of EQ (sweepable mid frequency), mid cut and high boost switches, volume and effect amount. Channel two is for bass, keyboard, or CD/tape input with two bands of EQ, bass boost and mid cut switches, volume and effect amount. Channel three is intended for a microphone with both XLR and 1/4 input, two bands of EQ, volume and effect amount. There is a five band graphic EQ that applies to all three channels and one digital effect available to all three channels. Note: the newer version of this amp includes dual digital effects (one or the other available to each of the three channels) and a master volume control.

The amp is advertised primarily as an acoustic guitar amp and secondarily as a mini-PA. I would rate the overall sound quality of the amp as poor for acoustic guitar, very poor for a vocal mic, and fair for bass. In my opinion, the amp head is quite good for the money: most of the features are genuinely useful and effective. The only exception to this is the built in effects: they range from barely adequate to totally useless, primarily due to the lack of effect parameter control. They are also quite noisy.

The main problem with the amp is the cabinet/speaker combination: the tweeter is totally inadequate to provide true full-range sound. As a result, there are mid-range frequency peaks that even the extensive EQ capabilities of the head cannot overcome.

I have used this amp with a variety of guitars (Guild, Larrivee, Taylor) and a variety of pick-up styles (EMG ACS magnetic, Fishman Rare Earth magnetic, LR Baggs ribbon transducer). I have also tried several mics (SM58, Electro-voice ND 757) and several basses (Steinberger, no-name).

My playing styles range from solo voice/acoustic guitar to small combo: voice, acoustic guitar, bass, drums. The "mini-PA" concept is very attractive in concept: using the included stand mount and (optionally) the extension speaker output, it is possible to use the Carvin to construct a small and portable three channel PA system. Unfortunately, the sound quality for voice and acoustic guitar is inadequate.

Immediately upon receiving the amp I plugged in an acoustic guitar with an active pick-up system and the amp blew-out. Since I am an electrical engineer and comfortable with repairing electronic equipment, Carvin sent a replacement power amp IC. This one blew out also. They then sent a replacement power amp IC and a replacement mica insulator. I installed these and the amp has worked fine ever since.

Carvin was helpful in the above situation. The absence of a local repair shop (shipping an amp back to California is expensive) is a reason for pause.

I would not rate this unit very highly, even for the reasonable cost. I purchased an Ibanez acoustic guitar amp for less money that does a much better job with voice and acoustic guitar. I would also investigate products from Fender and Marshall if my main interest was voice and acoustic guitar.

An interesting aside: I constructed a separate cabinet using the head from the Carvin AG100D (it is modular in design and adapts very well to another cabinet) and a pair of 6 1/2" Cerwin-Vega car stereo speakers. The result is half the size and weight of the Carvin and sounds much better than the Carvin cabinet for voice and acoustic guitar (though totally inadequate for bass). This confirms that the problem is the Carvin cabinet and not the amp head.

In my opinion the price is reasonable, the construction is durable, and the features are good. However, the sound quality is inadequate and I would not buy another one (unless it was to remove the head and install it in another home-made cabinet as described above).

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.