Carvin Bel Air 212

I think my Bel Air is one of the 2007 models, but I am clueless. I bought it from a friend who bought it direct from Carvin and used it at a Contemporary Church service for a couple of months then found a good deal for a Boogie on eBay and never touched the Carvin after that. So it was about a year old when he sold it to me for a discount because I knew him personally. I got it for $350 and I love it. It has 2 12in Carvin speaker, Carvins take on the V-12. It is great for blues and old school stuff. It has an effects loop and a 2 button footswitch. I use it for that same Contemporary service and it is 50 watts which is too much so I have to keeep the volume low for mic'ing it. It uses 5 12AX7s and 4 EL84, it has a volume, bass, mid, treble for clean channel and a separate, volume, soak, bass, mid, treble for the soak channel. and an acoustic pres for channel 1 and a reverb knob.

I use an Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow and an Epiphone SG. I like alot blues and classic rock. I also play contemporary christian music at my church. It is great for all those. There is a slight very slight hum but thats probably just a tube thing. It sounds great the clean channel is amazing, everyone always knocks the "soak" channel but I love it it is great for alittle overdrive and then you can add on to it with effects, but by its self, you can get it pretty dirty too. The clean stays pretty clean through the volume it does get alttle dirty when it is turned up high. The reverb tank does rattle alittle bit, not much,with some of the high notes, you can mess with it for a temporary fix what I do is just put beanie babies on the tank and it muffles the rattle with out messing with the reverb, I think the tank covering is just alittle loose.

I feel like I can depend on it, it took a hard fall in the back the car the other day when we went up a hill on the way to a gig, it landed, all 50 pounds of it, on the back. The tubes were fine and I had no problems with it after that.

I havent had to do any repairs at all so I dont know, the warranty I also don't know about, since I bought the amp from my friend I think the warranty is void, but i havent had any need for a warranty yet.

Ive been playing it now for 2 months or so. If it were lost Id porbly buy another. or buy the head and a seprate cab, the same version as the combo just in a halfstack form. You can also buy a 212 cabinet that goes with the belair perfectly from Carvin which I plan on doing. I wish it had 2 inputs, as a guitar teacher that is very helpful.

I am 56, and have been playing guitar for over 40 years now. My first serious rig was a 69 Marshall 50w head with slant 4 celestion cabinet used in my 70's band. Since then, I have had several amps. I mostly use tube amps, no effects, just reverb. I play blues, classic rock, rockabilly, oldies.
I had a Fender Hot Rod Deville, nice amp, heavy as lead, and the tone variations weren't that great. I then went to Peavey amps, Classic 30 great little amp, Crate Vintage Club 50 1x12 a good amp also, then the Valveking 50 okay, but a little too bright, and then a 4x10 Classic 50 nice. the major drawbacks of the peavey classics is the pre and post adjustments. You can get many tones by varying them but while playing it is hard to keep adjusting them. Then someone told me about the Carvin Belair. I researched in and then went online. found one right away on ebay and got t for $350 with cover. It is fairly new and in excellent condition. I have had it for 2 months now.
Let me tell you in all my years of playing, this amp blew me away immdiately. I played it for about 6 hours the first day and was amazed at the sound. the 2x12's are great. I used both channels and the reverb. I couldn't find any reason not to love it. I play semi pro now, gigging when my band can, older dudes, so we have families, etc. I would definitely trust it on a job, but always would like a backup in any situation just from experience especially with tube amps.
I paid $700 for the Hot Rod Deville and over $400 for the peaveys and this was a steal.
My main guitars right now are a Mex strat special edition with flame top and texas specials, sperzel tuners and cts pots. I also have a tele 62 reissue custom w/humbucker at neck and texas special at bridge, strictly vintage, maple neck, vintage slotted tuners, seafoam green..I just got an Ibanez AR 300 double cutaway with dimarzios and now this combined with the Carvin are incredible..
I will keep this amp a long, long time only to add a Fender blues deluxe to my gear eventually as a second choice now.
I don't know what all the negative feedback is about? maybe the older models had issues, but the quality of this amp is very good indeed in all aspects.
I would recommend it to anyone, especially those on tight budgets like most of us these days..

Not a Marshall, or intended to be one. It is a vintage copy amp, period and it is true to it's claims as such..much nicer than any other tube amp in it's range. period. Only reissue 59 tweed bassmans and old twins or mesa boogies can rank with this one. even peavey classics which are good amps also fall short.
Blues, great sustain and tone. Classic rock with growl distortion, not AC/DC, or Metallica screaming wall of stack sound but what the old blues guys got out of their silvertone tubes and whatever they could find back then.
ZZ Top songs like LaGrange sound perfect. even get the squeak when tweeked right..Billy uses a variety of amps, lately Crate, and Blue Voodoo's etc, even old Champs and I can copy him well..
Doors, Clapton, Stevie Ray, Roy Buchannon, Lowell George, Stones, etc. can all be copied with the Belair..very versitale.

I haven't had it very long, but judging from the overall quality and features, I think with proper care, it should last a long time. maybe replacing tubes is about it.

I haven't had the opportunity to contact Carvin. I know people that have had various other Carvin amps and they all liked them and no one ever told me any negative things about the company, etc.

I started playing at 11 and I'm 56, do the math!
I would definitely replace it if lost or stolen.
I simply enjoy playing through it everyday for hours sometimes, all my guitars..Better than the other tube amps I've had
Love all the features, even found a 2x12 matching cabinet, empty and am going to get matching speakers soon, can't wait to hear this mini stack in action.

I have the earlier version with the Carvin speakers instead of the Vintage 30's. All the features have been listed previously so I won't really go into it.

I don't know why some people knock the overdrive in this amp. I believe the Carvin folks make a number of other amps(Legacy, MTS, V3 etc) that offer up much more gain if that is what you are after. This is a vintage style amp. The clean is god like. That ultra high impedance input stage is wonderful-lets you put pedals into the front end without a lot of signal loss. The issue people have with the gain channel is rediculous. Yes, the overdrive is muddy after about 3 on the preamp volume, but that is what is cool about this amp. Set the gain for just a touch of grunt and then if you need more hit it with a tube screamer. It rips!! Sustain, chord definition is there if you don't overdue it. By the way, I find that single coils sound a bit better through this amp just for the plain fact that it doesn't hit the drive channel so hard.

Don't know about reliability. This is an older one and had an occasional volume drop when it was played for a long period of time. I swapped out the first preamp tube and the problem went away, hopefully that was it. I opened it up to get a look around, well built unit with good quality components throughout. The only thing that makes me leary is the tubes are mounted directly onto the circuit boards. There was some discoloration/residue on the tube pins at that point, don't know if the heat buildup caused this or what. I would watch that even though the amp is class a/b instead of a and doesn't burn as hot as say an AC30 amp.

They are a big company and do better than most. I like the fact that they stay in the USA.

Seriously, consider buying one of these. I got this off of ebay for $150. That's right, I know it sounds unbelieveable. The guy said it had an issue with the amp humming but he had no reverb tank in it and the level for it was set high. Duh. There's your hum problem. You don't get reverb without a tank in line. I just spent about an hour this morning playing through it with my USA Strat. Very inspiring, and I have a huge stable of amps in my basement at my disposal. For what it does and the cost involved you can't beat these for the price. You could gig with this and with a few pedals cover just about anything musically with the exception of say Cannibal Corpse/Slayer/Coal Chamber. Those type of bands wouldn't be seen with a tweed amp onstage anyway. I really like this one, and am keeping it until it or I die.

Mine is an earlier model,before they started using Celestion Vintage 30's in them.I've had it about 7 years.It has 2 channels: clean,and distortion.It has channel switching,as well as effects (reverb) switching.These are great tube amps,IF you are intelligent enough to understand these three little words: "vintage tube amp".It has all the features I need,which have been thoroughly described previously.I use it at home,at church in a praise band,and out at public performances playing old and original rock n roll.I've never been able to take the volume past 3 1/2 reguardless of the size of the venue.

Ok, here is where I'm gonna love telling you about this amp.It sounded really good with the Carvin speakers.I use LOTS of different guitars,each of which has it's own nitch with this amp.I have Gibson Melody Makers,USA Washburns WM4,WM3 prototype,CTS (best sustaining guitar I have including some amazing vintage Gibsons.Read my review on it here)Vintage Hagstrom Swede's,yada,yada,yada, all with humbuckers,that sound good thru this amp.I have vintage and re-issue Fender Strats and Tele's,that sound really good also.Some home built Strats that have SD hot rails,59,and JB jr's,all of which sound good with my Carvin.The clean channel (as stated MANY times before) is as good as it gets.Stays clean till you hit 7 1/2 to 8 on the volume,then you can get some usable minor distortion.But I cant feasibly go past about 3 !/2 without blowing the windows out of ANY size building.This is a great,clean,shimmery,VERY Fender-y sound.Now for the distortion channel.You cant really appreciate the full spectrum of what this channel can sound like till you get to about 3 on the volume.Set the "soak" (gain) knob at about 3 to 4,and you've got some wonderful vintage sounding distortion.Above about 4 1/2 and it starts getting a little muddy.It gets muddier,the higher you go.I never get above 3 1/2 any more,so it's not an issue with me.In church,and small venues I can barely get above 1 on the volume,without blowing everyone else away,volume wise.NOW HERE THIS!!! I was seriously concidering doing the Hasserl Mods to this amp to 'Open it up,and let it breath".It would also eliminate the upper volume/gain muddiness.But I cant play that loud anyway.It's just TOO LOUD!Then one day I brought home a Les Paul Melody Maker re-issue,with the dog ear p90 in the bridge.That guitar and this amp were made for each other.I hit a power chord,volume at three,soak at 3 1/2 and DAMN NEAR **** IN MY PANTS!!!! LOOKED IN THE MIRROR,AND LESLIE WEST IS STANDING THERE!!! AMAZING SOUND,INCREDIBLE CHORD DEFINITION!!! Every string sounds fantastic!!Needless to say,I would cut anyone's **** off who tried to modify ANYTHING on this amp.
Now just one more note: you wont get 80's metal crunch with this amp.I have to laugh my *** off at the idiots who ***** about this "vintage tube amp" not sounding like it's made for metal.IT"S NOT SUPPOSED TO YOU ****** IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh yeah,just one more thing.I have had LOTS of other guitarists ask me how I'm getting that great sound.They will have a whole slew of pedals and effects processors,which have to constantly be re-adjusted,and try every new this or that.I really **** them off when I tell them that I dont use effects,and that if I needed effects to sound good,It means I cant really play guitar worth **** anyway.I also recently changed the speakers to Celestion Vintage Thirty's,and the amp sounds even better.Now,with that change,I can give it a 10

I've never had a problem with it.I just retubed it.It will get noisy if you leave the old tubes in too long.I always use it with no backup.I would never do that with a guitar.

I bought it used on Ebay for $375.00. I have bought other Carvin products direct.Whenever I needed support,Carvin has always been helpful.I will say that more than two or three amp repair shops have said that Carvins are built a little differently than other amps,and therefore,these shops are not familiar with the repair procedure.But any of the well known guys who have stellar reputations have said repairs would be no problem.

I cant play guitar.I've owned one for 35 years,but I still cant call myself a player.When I can play like Stevie,THEN I'll be a guitar player.Till then,I'll just be some guy who figured out how to create appealing sounds on a stringed instrument.If this amp were lost or stolen,I'd kill the ****** ,then set his dead body on fire.Then **** on what was left.Then I'd get another one,even if I had to buy it new.I'll never sell or trade it.I bought it before I ever saw any kind of reviews on it.I had a DC 127 guitar,and an AP11 loaded pickguard,both of which I thought were great quality.Thats why I bought this amp.

I purchased this amp in 2000, and have been using it exclusively for the past 8 years. I play a mixed bag of music, but mainly somewhere within the classic rock and/or alternative style. It has 2 channels (clean/crunch) with spring reverb and an effects loop. I play in a three piece band with drums and bass, so cutting through is definitely not a problem. I should mention however, that even if competing with multiple guitars in the mix, there is plenty of power and volume to spare. There is not an overabundance of features which lends itself well to its vintage appeal, and has a very straight forward layout. I don't use the effects loop nor do I use the crunch channel.

I use several different guitars including a Carvin SC90 with passive electronics, and humbuckers w/ coil splitters (neck/bridge). A Carvin DC150 with active electronics, again with humbuckers/splitters. And finally, a Gibson SG classic with P90's. This amp is equally adept at producing consistently warm and dynamic tones with any of the aforementioned guitars while allowing the individual tones of each of the instruments to be both heard and felt. The clean channel on this amp is simply fantastic. I have an array of effects and overdrives/distortions that I place in the signal chain in front of the amp which it seems to thrive on. My signal chain is as follows: Crybaby 535Q > guyatone ST-2 compressor > Pigtronix OFO disnortion > EH little big muff > EH Graphic fuzz > Rocktron nitro booster > Ernie ball passive volume pedal > guyatone NS-2 noise gate > EH small clone chorus > Akai headrush delay/looper. The amp has just enough clean headroom with a hint of breakup depending on how hard you hit the strings. If you desire more clean headroom, you can easily swap out the 1st of 5 preamp tubes in the "V1" socket with an ECC81 (in lieu of the 12AX7/ECC83 which I did experiment with for a while, but opted to go back to the original configuration to try and keep the volume down. I have changed out all of the tubes a couple of times over the course of the past 8 years which I purchased from Bob Pletka at Eurotubes...which made an outstanding sounding amp sound even better. (Kudos to Bob...thanks). The clean channel is clearly where this amp is "alive and breathing", which I feel is far superior to the crunch channel. I mentioned that I don't use the crunch channel on this amp. That is not to say that this channel doesn't sound good, but is probably better suited toward blues and I find this channel to be a little dark/muddy for my taste.I much prefer the sound of overdriving the clean channel over using the crunch channel. So much so, that I probably haven't even used the crunch channel in 5 or more years (the clean channel is that good). Also worth mentioning is the spring reverb which is very good, and unless you've got Dick Dale fever, should never leave you wanting for more.

As mentioned, I've been using this amp for 8+ years, and have never had a problem with it, and have never had a backup plan.

I've never had problems with any of the Carvin products I own, but have called with questions in the past and have found the staff to be very helpful and courteous.

I've been playing for about 25 years, and did much research prior to purchasing this amp. I haven't had the luxury of owning a multitude of amps over the years, so I can't provide comparisons in that way. But, I have consistently gotten positive feedback about my tone from other musicians, and I have certainly been pleased. If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely consider buying another, but after 8 years of use I'd probably be inclined to try something else (and would probably live to regret it). You'd be hard pressed to find any product better than those offered by Carvin...especially at the price they are offered at!! I have come to trust Carvin to produce high quality products at good price, and will continue to be an advocate for many years to come!!

Tube amp with stock tubes and two Carvin 100 watt V12 speakers. I have several guitars but usually play a Gibson ES-135 w/ P90 pick ups on it.

Rated 8 because: (1) Amp has a clean channel and a dirty channel with a toggle swith to go between the two. (2) One input jack for one guitar. Wish I had a foot switch to switch channels and it had one more guitar input.

It is a good looking amp. It is lighter in weight that I thought it would be. I use it for practice and have it sitting on top of a book case about ear level when sitting on a chair. Looks good in the room, kind of like an old radio (BIG old radio).

Rated 9: I heard more bad then good about the sound but I'm looking for a jazzy/bluesy kind of sound. I'm not planning on changing the tubes.

The amp sounds good with my ES-135 and P90s. Clean channel is very clean and the dirty channel is okay for me.

I don't crank it up. I did once just to see what would happen (it didn't blow up), it's friggin loud. Plenty good for a gig in a night club.

My opinion is it's not a amp for heavy metal types. It's great for the blues, southern rock, jazzy stuff.

Rated 10: Again I heard mixed results. It has to warm up and cool down properly. Hey, tubes are great!

Being a tube amp, don't recommend turning the thing off/on several times in a day. That would have to be a killer for sure at some point.

The cabinet is built well. The handle strap on mine is either pleather or leather, can't really tell. It's not a plastic strap/strip type thing though.

And, like everyone else, I recommend you carry this thing with two hands on the bottom. It's got TUBES in it! Of course, the tubes come out and are properly stored when transporting from gig to gig right! yeah ................ I know ............. good luck with that.

No opinion since nothing ha gone heywire yet!

Okay a 10 it is. This one has a permanent home with me.

As far as features are concerned on the plus side the amps clean channel is very clean and the soak channel has enough gain for general applications though not metal, etc. The extra speaker out is good for expanding the volume with a ext cab for larger venues or when you play with a drummer who just plays only loud, etc. I have the matching 212E exp cab from Carvin to play larger venues and or outdoors where the sound just goes out and falls off. I find this very usefull that I can use just the combo up to medium venues and can drive the amps volume up to 7 to really use the tubes, and when I need more I can then add the cab. (I've been frustrated in the past when I have had an amp that has enough power for the loudest venues, but can't turn it up past 3 or so for the average venue and can't drive the tubes enough for it's best tones) The adjustable ohms selection makes it easier to select from various ext cabinets. The line out is also good sounding to a PA system where the signal easy to work with. It also has a standard effects loop. On the negative side I do wish the amp had a 2nd input and the presence nob was on front with the other controls instead of the backside.

I am very eclectic with what I play. Blues, punk, country, folk rock, alt rock, gospel, so a good tone basic tone to build from was my main focus. The clean channel tone is in the Fender vintage camp though not quite as greasy. The drive on the soak channel is reminds me a lot of classic Who crunch. In short, the tones are quality and even a fellow guitarist listening will not notice it is not a real vintage Fender amp on the clean tones unless he or she really focuses. I am finding this amp to be a very good match for my Reverend Jetstream 390 guitar, a P90 3 pick up guitar. The tone controls on each channel have a wide sweep and are easy to work with. On the clean channel by adjusting the presence from 5 to 7 with the treble around 6 or 7, the mid around 3 and the bass around 4 I can get some Tele like twang. When I drop the presence down to 3 or so I can get more bell like Strat tones. Rolling off the presence to 0 gives the punchy P90 tone. From there when I roll up the bass contour on the guitar about 1/4 of the way and roll the tone nob on the guitar back off the treble a little, I can get a decent PAF immitation, (though a single coil guitar is never sound exactly like a humbucker or vise versa). The soak channel is about the same, though it has more of a Vox AC30 crunch than a Fender growl due the the choice of power tubes, EL84's. The reverb is effective but hides in the background more than most amps I've used, (been playing 25yrs or so, have owned Crate, Fender, Peavey, Marshall and Vox amps). I find this amp to be very versital sound wise without being complicated and find the sound tones of both channels to be quality vintage tube. The clean channel does start to break up when pushed on the volume at around 7 or 8 or so. Finely, it is relatively quiet hum wise, even with a single coil guitar.

The amp is very solid. No problems to report after using for practice and a few gigs. Too early to give it a rating in this catagory.

So far so good. Haven't spoken to Carvin yet about anything but their web site I find very user friendly. 1 year warranty.

I have been very pleased so far with everything about this amp and nothing has dissapointed. It has every thing I was looking for, quality vintage tones, solid construction, easy to use, flexability, volume levels that fit my uses, This is the first amp I can say if it were lost or stolen I would go get another one as soon as I had the money and wouldn't see it as an oportunity to look at others, etc.

Made in 2008,Great amp 4 rock and blues.clean channel and overdrive channel,effects loop,line out.Plenty loud for me to play with almost any band.

I plugged in a 335 copy,nothing special,and it sounds like what I was hoping for....A cheap guitar now sounds like an expensive guitar
very quiet amp even turned up half way I did not hear any hum or noise on the clean or overdrive channel

only pulled it out of the box today. Looks like it is a tank
so far so good

1 year warranty, shipped on time ,I ordered white covering it took 3 weeks to get to me

Ive owned a mesa boogie subway rocket<killer amp>line 6 <disposable>
fender 65 twin<great amp,very heavy> poly tone mini brute<plain jane
cool for jazz>
I love the bel air would replace if it were stolen

it was a bel air or a new gibson amp I was messin with at the music store I work at.The price of both was about the same I think I saved
50 bucks ,But most of all I got vintage 30 speakers and groove tubes
it sounds as good as the gibson or maybe a tad better.plus direct out
effects loop and a drive channel

2 channels, soak and clean, w/presence (excellent!) on the clean channel. Reverb on both channels, fx loop, ext cab out, etc. Plenty of features for me.

Ok, so this is where things got interesting...
For the first couple years I owned this amp I loved the clean channel but was not at all impressed by the soak channel...it was noisy, growly, overly distorted but not musical, and generally really muddy sounding. I play Gibsons as well as Fenders and they all sounded aweful on the soak channel. I picked up an Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n (great tube powered pedal) and this remedied that situation, but the reverb would still feedback at anything above 3. This was highly annoying and swapping out the tube (#4 12ax7) helped a bit, but not enough.
Then, after reading a bunch of reviews on various tubes, I swapped out all of my 12ax7's for Tung Sol 12ax7's (it had Ei's in it originally).
OMFG!!! What a difference!!! It is now a completely different amp. I no longer use the English Muff'n. The soak channel is now rich, creamy, thick, and beautiful.
I would stack it up against just about any other amp now. Even better since I also have a Carvin 212 ext cab in tweed that is loaded w/Eminence Governor and Private Jack speakers. I would have given it a 10, but for the crappy tubes that were in it before.

I've only had one problem, with the exception of those crappy pre amp tubes that were in it originally. The circuit board had a melt down once. It was not a major issue and my amp tech did a fine job (for not much $$) repairinf it. Other than that it has been a workhorse. BTW...it is very loud! Plenty for any gig that I'll have up to a good sized club.

Carvin has been very helpful every time I've contacted them. I bought the amp used w/o any paper work and they emailed me everything I needed (schematics, etc.)

I've been playing 30+ years and have owned quite a few amps, all of them tube with one exception (little practice amp). If it were lost or stolen I'd consider another one if I found a great deal, otherwise I'd look for a point-to-point handwired amp for the added reliability.
As for sound, I'm very, very pleased with this amp. The clean channel is bright, crisp, clean ala Fender, but if you crank the clean channel, you get a beautiful distortion, too.
Bang for the buck, I don't think you can beat this set up. It is a quality American-made product.

Very vesatile amp, two channel, footswitch for channel and reverb. Great sounding reverb. Plenty of power at 50 tube watts.

Sounds great. I absolutely love the cleans and the soak control allows very nice distortion after tweaking it for awhile. The reverb sounds excellent. I am using a MIM Fender Strat with a humbucker in the bridge. Sounds fantastic with the humbucker. Suits all kinds of country to classic rock. Not sure about jazz or new metal stuff. Great for classic music.

Amp seems very solid and high quality construction throughout.

Carvin is a great company. Amp is built solid...If ever a problem I am sure Carvin would take care of it.

I think this amp is just great. I have been looking for this sound for many years. I like Fenders and I think this is up there with the best.

mine was made in 2007, I bought it new from the Carvin location in San Diego. I was drawn to these amps for several reasons. the faux tweed is lacquered which gives it a more convincing vintage look. the controls are front mounted which i prefer to the top mounted ones since I like to tilt my amp back. and they are super cheap for an all tube amp made in USA. the Bel Air is 50 watt, 2x12, two channel amp with independent eq for each channel. it also has a tube driven, three spring tank reverb which is really warm and subtle, but can be dialed in pretty thick... but not fender twin thick. the cabinet is made of actual poplar plywood, not partical board which is a very nice feature. 4 EL84 power amp and 5 12AX7 pre amp groove tubes. there is an acoustic presence adjustment for the clean channel which enhances the highs. and , at 50 lbs, it's quite manageable to cart around to gigs. also has an external effects loop and a cabinet voiced direct out which is nice.

first and foremost, it's important to realize that this amp is designed around the idea of vintage type tones. those looking for a modern "scooped" sound will be very dissappointed. it's hard to believe that anyone would see the look of this amp and then buy it expecting heavily saturated metal tones. that is to say the look of this amp is NOT misleading.... it looks vintage, it sounds vintage. however, if you are of the classic rock / blues school of playing, you'll be in heaven. dial in Jimmy Page, Angus Young, Eric Clapton, Joe Perry, Billy Gibbons, Peter Green, alex lifeson ect. if these are the tones you're after, you will find them here. don't let all the reviews from users who expected to find modern distorted tones scare you off. anyone who bought one of these with those tones in mind should have done some research. again, with respect to the overdrive channel, if you are seeking tones simillar to the ones produced by the players i mentioned above, you will have no trouble finding your sound.the "soak" adjustment (basically the same as a gain adjustment) lets you go from a gently broken up, singing lead tone all the way to Angus and Malcolm approved crunchy open chord riffing. the clean channel is equally impressive. a couple of people here have metioned it sound like a cross between a Vox AC30 and a Fender Twin Reverb. I can certainly hear their point. it really has it's own warm, round tone though. from darker jazzy tones to fat blues with a bit of reverb, to sparkling country tones, it's all in there. the amp has plenty of juice to cut through the mix and the clean channel headroom keeps it clean until the very highest volume settings. for blues or classic rock, there is NO WAY you won't be able to find tones you'll love. I am granting this amp a 9 based on it's ability to produce vintage style tones as designed.

I have owned Carvin gear in the past without problem. this amp seems really well made and I can't imagine it falling apart on me. time will tell, but i have a good feeling about it.

Carvin is a direct sales manufacturer, but I live just a short drive from the San Diego location. I have found all the guys i've spoken with there to be super friendly and helpful. 1 year warranty.

these days there are a LOT of amp choices out there, many very reasonably priced. I think in selecting an amp, it's vital to know the sound you're after and make sure you're looking at amps designed to reproduce the sounds in your head. there are so many so called "modeling amps" out there that claim to sound like the vintage plexi, or the Mesa Triple recto, or the vintage Vox or Fender amp you can't afford. but, the truth is, no solid state or hybrid amp will sound and respond like an actual tube amplifier. the Bel Air is a great offering from Carvin that allows the average player to be able to create some really super, vintage type tones without breaking the bank. it got awesome vintage styling and awesome tone. and, made in USA!!! do yourself a favor and check one out if your a crusty old classic rocker like me.. or a young guy aspiring to become one!

Ok, much has been stated about the O/D side of the Bel Air, and it's obviously a love it or hate it sound. but here is the thing. this amp is designed to emulate "vintage" overdrive tones.... but, how were those vintage overdrive tones first made? one word... VOLUME!! we all know that when you crank a tube amp wide open, it will start to break up, right? but, how many of us actually PLAY in situations where we can open a 100 watt Marshall PLexi all the way up? I had a 50 watt plexi that I couldn't even turn up half way before the volume was deafening. this is why so many of the low wattage tube amps like the Fender Deluxe and the Vox AC30 are so popular. that nice, broken up tone can be had at more manageable volumes. but, even these amps have to be very loud to get them singing. I personally do not use the overdriven tones of this amp, however they are not bad at all and many players may be able to dial in an overdriven tone that they would be more than thrilled with. realize, however, that it's not going to give you any hint of a "rectified" distortion. It seems there are people who bought this amp expecting to get heavy Marshall or Mesa type sounds from it which is does not, and was not ment to do. I bought this amp because the clean channel is insanely good. especially when you consider the price ($599 brand new) and that it's made in the USA. the blackface reissue twins and Vox AC30 reissues I've played through don't sound any better. they may sound different, but not better. and considering that those blackface twins and VOX AC30's are twice the price makes the Carvin all the more worth looking at. but, don't dismiss the 2x12 Bel Air as a clone, because it's got a sweet voice all it's own. I saw here where on reviewer stated it was sort of a cross between a twin and an AC30, and I would agree that it does possess properties of both. I use a fulltone fulldrive in front of the amp to get the singing, overdrive tones i'm after, because I play venues (and with band members..) that don't accommodate 50 watts of cranked tube amp. I suspect there are a lot of players out there that are in the same boat. If you are looking for a great, warm, well rounded clean valve tone that you can add effects to, this is a great choice and worth serious consideration before throwing down $1200 or more on a blackface twin reissue or Vox AC30 reissue. It's got a really great vintage look and vibe, wonderfull tone and made in USA. if you're in the market for a vintage voiced 2x12 tube combo, make sure to put the Bel Air on your list of candidates.

Not Sure what year made. I think it's an older one, it's got Carvin speakers.
Two channel. I love the clean one.

Effects loop seems to work fine.

Reverb is nice and subtle- not overpowering like some spring reverbs on other amps. It sort of blends in and you dont notice it's on unless you turn it off. Not a traditional surf or country twang reverb.

The line out is noisy. Carvin said I might need to move the wire around in the chasis to find a better placement for it, but I have not tried yet.

LOUD in a good way.

Fairly portable for a 2x12. Slightly smaller and lighter than a Twin.

One of the best clean channels I've played. It's like a Twin, but smoother and easier on the ear. It's like an AC30, but not as much sag.

The "Soak" channel I havent used as much. I am always changing stuff around, but so far I feel I can get a better "soaked" tone from my Blue Tube and Tube Screamer.

I use single coil Stat and Tele.

It's great for my music- jangle pop.

So far not the slightest hint of a problem. I can tell it's built very well. I have a Carvin bass head thats seen many gigs and much abuse, is 20 years old and I suspect it will work forever. Hopefull the Belair is of the same caliber, and it appears to be.

Ok. I'm pretty sure no one has better customer support than Carvin.
Try them- email them a question. They wont even care if you own Carvin. Ask them how loud the BelAir is. Someone will personally email you back in a few hours- from America.

Awesome.

How long have you been playing?

20 years

What other gear do you own?

Fender tube amps, various tube amps and Fender guitars.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?

Not sure. I would want another one. I might try something else just for a change.


what do you love about it?

The clean channel

What do you hate?

Nothing really.

Did you compare it to other products?

Maybe old tube amps like Fender Vox etc.

Which ones? See above

Why did you choose this one?

Always liked other Carvin gear I had. Saw it used for a good price.

Anything you wish it had? A working line out.

Anything else you'd like to share? Chicken butt

If you are thinking about getting one of these you probably realise that you don't need a huge array of features. The bel air has all the features that you'll need to get nice warm tones and that fantastic vintage sound. Has everything I need!!!!

As most people would say the clean channel is great, and they aren't wrong the clean channel is faultless, the soak channel is somewhat under par compared to the clean....however I changed the tubes to JJ tesla tubes and it made a world of difference! Now I rarely use the clean channel as all the sound I need is achievable through the soak channel. If you are looking for that Pearl Jam, Chili Peppers sound you can get it with this amp! I play a Maton Mastersound and a Strat through it and both have great tones through this amp and can get that real Mike McCready sound without blowing the budget. The reverb isn't as good as I would like, I am currently trying different tubes to get a better reverb sound, that would be the only complaint that I have

Only had it for approx 8 months and no problems at all, I did get it second hand and they reported no problems with it too.

In all my 12 years of playing I have finally achieved my perfect guitar, amp, pedals mix. This amp matched with my Maton electric is the exact sound I have been trying to achieve. If my bel air was stolen, without a doubt I'd get another one!

For anyone interested, Eurotubes @ eurotubes.com makes customer matched tube upgrades for this amp (and other popular low-cost tubeys). For $60-100 you can upgrade the tubes in the Belair 212 according to the sound you desire or need.

2006 model. features are coverd here, I did get the foot switch. Effects loop is noisy, clean is amazing soak is lackluster.

I play mostly clean with effect through channel 1. Morley Wah, TS808 overdrive, Boss chorus, . I use a variety of guitars, from a 86 American stock strat to a 2000 Gene Baker B1, a 96 LP Stadard, ....The clean matches any Fender I have ever owned and the spng reverb is tight as well. They really need to fix the Soak chanell, but since I play clean the tone is great

Have owned 3 Carvin guitars never a problem and never encounterd a problem at all. The amp seems to be built like a tank, I have no problem gigging wit it

Carvin has great customer service, I have owned 3 Carvin guitar's and whe I had a slight problem they were nice and fast! Hard to find these days

Playing 34 years, through all kinds of tube amps , modeling amps, simple slid stater's. this clean is amazing I bought the extension cab so I'm pusing 4 12's. Do wish it had a better overdrie channel. This amp hold it's own wth some BIG Boys!

Read features below or carvin.com made in 02

It has it's own sound but the tube configuation is the same as AC30 not Fender or that other big name that gets compared all the time. Tone, it's subjective...I have several amp options that cost alot more and my choice is the Carvin. Love the clean, you can find useable OD if you take time with channel 2 tho with the right pedals you can get almost have any sound you need. My choice of tubes are Tung-Sol in V1&2 JJ's 3-5 and JJ power tubes.

Well lets see a band member managed to trip over it knocking it backwards on the pavement while it was right next to the truck after a show although he wasn't too drunk, at a recent show it was knocked from the back and came down face foward with the amp stand, a little dent on the fake tweed that's all!!! I really don't want to do a side fall test, no more crash tests!!! Thank you! Guess I really don't need the two of these that I have.

Talked to a few of the guys there two tech types were great, why would a salesman be a moron a-hole to a customer?

What you get for the price is amazing no doubt if you're here you see poor bastards paying 3x for junk BTW made in USA.

My amp was made in 2004. Has standard features of a 2 channel amp - separate master for each channel, spring rvb, all valve etc. Definately had enough power for any situation except a stadium where im miced up anyway - but I didnt find this a particularly "versatile" amp, but its good in its own right. I wish it came with a footswitch, and i wish the pre-gain knob wasnt called "soak" - what the hell does "soak" mean....
It also has an "acoustic presence" control, but for some stupid reason this is located on the back. i dont know if its just Presence in general, but it only effects the clean channel - and being on the back on the amp is a real pain.

This amp is a VINTAGE SOUNDING AMP. and thats exactly whats its marketed and designed as. The clean channel is wonderful - altho it breaks up a bit too easily. The distortion channel is a very 60's - 70's style distortion. people complain about it - and i did too for a while, but the truth is - as many have said - you cant really use this channel for modern sounding stuff - it just doesnt cut through enough particularly in a band situtation. Ive replaced it with a Fender Deville 4x10 and did extensive testing - reducing variables using A-B switches & a loop recorder - and the Deville was the amp i should have bought in the first place. I also put it up next to a Vox AC30 - and the Vox had the distortion sound similar to the Fender - clear cutting in your face screaming valvy goodness - whereas the Carvin will give you a thick, creamy kind of almost murky sound which i found frustrating after a while.
I got around it by using a pedal on the clean channel - but whats the point in having a second channel you cant trust? you shouldnt have to mod an amp to get the sound you want - buy the right amp. and no - EQ wont fix this - the EQ's are particularly useless on this amp. you get above 1 on any pot and it stays the same all the way through to 10.
its Vintage - thats all there is to it. For what it is - its fantastic i did a brief classic rock set and used the channel successfully for this - but for anything else - good luck.

never had any problems although i look after my gear extremely well - but its been pushed alot and NEVER let me down

never needed it

Been playing for 14 years, and this amp is good - as a vontage sounding amp only.
I love the look (although dont be fooled its NOT real tweed!) - its compact size - compare it to a AC30 which is much bigger for the same size/speaker setup.
I dont like the knob being on the back - what the hell were u thinking Carvin ? - its almost as bad as the AC30's controls being written upside down! and again - wheres the footswitch?
other than that - a pretty good amp overall - just not my cup of tea anymore. A word of advice. always try amps properly before you buy them (doh!)

I bought mine used but pretty new. All tube, two channels - clean and soak, reverb, fx-loop, line Out 2x12 Celestions. Pretty heavy. I give it 8 because the features are the standard. If you want a ten for features, take a look at Mesa Lone Star Special, which is also missing MIDI but this is a classical amp so the 8 in features doesn't mind this amp is bad - far from it! This is a great amp, see below.

It is an all tube amp, well known in the States but not that much used in Europe or Germany, where I live. So, for me it was an experiment buying it. But at the end and after about three months testing and working with it I'm very happy with the sound. The clean sound is just terrific. Simply perfect. The dynamic and headroom are awesome. Round, warm, mellow and crisp at the same time, three dimensional and very sonor. You can control the loudness with the attack and hitting it hard gets loud to blow you away. But the sound never looses it's precision, at any loudness. Fantastic! The Soak channel wasn't usable for me for a long time since we do pretty hard rock. But once I tried a few SRV riffs and thought: "wow, just like on the record!" So you can imagine where this channel goes. Driving it higher than 7 causes quite a hiss but is still usable. I'm about to use a booster or a tubescreamer with the soak channel but didn't find the right creamy sound I'm looking for (Richie Blackmore, Gary Moore). For that, I have the TubeFactor and Damage Control Womenizer which both sound great with BelAir. The reverb is also working very good. You notice it when you turn it off. It is very discreet but essential. It gives a another dimension to the sound. I give it a 9 here because sure there are better Amps, but they usually cost three or more times more (Victoria, Lone Star Special, Soldano, and other). So keep cool, and if you can test this amp you won't be dissapointed. It gave me the possibility to experience a high class sound for less money. Forget many other roundabout 500Euro cheap (but expensive) amps: Buy Carvin for almost the same money and heve the sound which ist far more than 1000Euro worth. You'll love it and you'll finally know, what a good sound is and how to get it. One more thing: Using Carvin I found out, which components of my Setup are bad. You notice it immediatelly when you plug in your guitar directly to the amp: Pure feeling and sound you've heard on thosands of records. As soon as you take a "cheap" guitar or a "cheap" component - it sounds "cheap". So I now use G&L guitars (Legacy and Classic), Haeussel pickups, good Sommer cables and different picks to get different sounds! It's that easy - get five sounds for five dollars: buy five different picks and playing Carvin you finally hear the difference. Now you play and form your sound with both hands. That's seldom, believe me.

No probs so far. I have it only three month, can't say.

No need so far...

Great amp for the money. Tons of sound for less. Buy it and end your search for good sound. I give it a ten here because for the money it is a fantastic values. Sure there may be better amps, but AFAIK not for the money.

2 channels - Clean & Soak!
My Amp has a mod to reshape the Gain channel.

Clean channel is almost Fender Twin Reverb Clean.
Very Nice Clean channel.

The Gain/Soak channel is why I bought this amp.
The mod that was done makes this amp sound like Marshall/Vox
Dream amp. It has a gain pot on the back of the amp that
boost the gain/volume output. Killer Smooth Gain. Tight,
Round & Fat Warm tone.

I have played through a stock Nomad (same guts as the Bel-Air) &
I really wasn't sold on the Soak channel. It did have its
own unique thing going on. Stock they don't sound bad, just
not as good as the

Great Amp!

Carvin has good customer service!

They always have.

I'm tired of hauling around 4x12 cabs so I got this combo.
I'm very glad I did. It has a great mod & 2 Celestion G12H-30's
that sound killer. I would buy another in a second. Even a stock one!

THESE AMPS ARE LOUD! It is as loud as my 100 watt Heads.
For Hard Rock, Punk Rock or Power Pop these combos can do it all.
I'm very happy with this Carvin product. I'm glad I gave this amp
a try. I have a feeling it will be around for a while.

2006 Carvin Bel Air,50 Watt, Vintage Wired, Tweed Covered, 2X12 Celestion G12 Vintage 30's, Two switchable Channels with Reverb and Effects Loop. You have to buy your footswitch and cover separately, mine were included by Carvin because I bought two guitars at the same time. The amplifier has more than enough power and I primarily use it to play out. I am not fond of Channel two's soak feature, but I am still fiddling with it, trying to figure out a sound I like.

I play blues, rockabilly, country, classic rock and sometimes hard rock. It fits my styles very well. The clean channel can go from surf style tones and Beatles style ringing tones to Memphis Sun Records style Rockabilly. The second Channel breaks up too easily past 2 1/2 on the soak knob. The amplifier sounds great at low practice volumes and has punch and shimmer at high volumes. The distortion could use a refit in my opinion. It is supposed to sound like a vintage amplifier so, it should not sound like a Hughes and Kettner Warp 7 with a cranked overdrive. Using pedals the possibilities are endless and it sounds great with every pedal that I have used through it.

So far It appears as though all of what I heard, and read, about Carvin is true. This amplifier is built well. I believe that it will last as long as I do with proper care and maintenance.

The sales and Technical Staff at Carvin where very friendly and I enjoyed my experience with them. I did not suffer the hurried rudeness from the folks I spoke with. They answered my questions and were patient with me. No repairs yet, Carvin Standard Warranty.

I have played guitar for 15 years an my equipment list is: Robin Savoy, Fender Mark Knopfler Strat, Fender Muddy Waters Strat, Jackson Soloist SL3, Carvin Bolt-T, Guild GAD-50, Budda Phatman Overdrive Pedal, Vox Wah Pedal, Vox Volume Pedal, Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, Mesa Boogie Mark 1, Carvin Bel Air. I use Planet Waves Custom Series Cables, Dunlop Ultex Picks, and Hercules Guitar Stands.

This amplifier is my primary gigging amplifier and I would replace this amplifier if it were lost or stolen. I am planning to buy a backup for gigging, probably a Carvin Vintage 16. I compared it to the Crate Vintage 5212, Peavy Classic 50 212, Fender Hotrod DeVille 212,and Laney VC 30 212. All of these Amplifiers are in the same Wattage-Speaker class. The Fender has 6L6 tubes and the Crate has EL-34s. All of the other amplifiers start at about $700.00 to $750.00 new. I feel that the Carvin is a good buy for the money and it is made out of quality materials, Birch Ply instead of Particle Board, and great Celestion Speakers. These other companies could learn a lesson from Carvin on this one. I would have bought any Fender amp because I prefer 6L6 tubes and I am not overly fond of EL-84s but Fender still makes just about all of thier amplifiers, even the vintage reissues (except the 59 Bassman LTD) that are fairly pricey, out of Particle Board. Good amp for the money spent. I don't regret butying it and would do so again.

50 watts, 2 channel (clean and soak), 2x12 carvin 100 watt speakers, you know the rest.

I play an 87 Gibson SG, 2001 Ibanez RG350, Epi Les Paul Custom, Fender Nashville Tele, and a cheap OLP double neck. I prefer Seymour Duncan JB's in the bridge and Jazz in the neck. I play for a modern church praise band. Hard rock/new wave for the kids, traditional/gospel for the old folks. This amp covers it ALL! Clean channel is comparable to a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Soak channel is old seventies/eighties overdrive. NOT distortion. I compared it to my Fender Hot Rod Deville, Line6 FlextoneIII. I also tried out the Peavey Classic 30, Fender Blues JR, Crate V32 Palamino, Vox 2x12 Valvetronics and lots of other tube amps. I SHOPPED AROUND!!!

I have owned other carvin gear and never had any problems. A friend of mine has one of these and it had a humming noise. He took it back and they replaced ALL the tubes free.

Like I said, I own other carvin gear and have had no problems. They helped out my friend and that was a factor in buying mine.

I'm 44, been playing guitar AND bass since the age of 13. I have two carvin basses but I didn't like thier bass amps.(I prefer SWR) I play bass in a top-40 band and play guitar in my church. I had a Fender Hot Rod Deville and a Line6 Flextone III. I sold them both when I got the Belair! I mainly use the clean channel with a Visual Sound Jeckel&Hyde, Boss Super Chorus CH-1, Boss Pitch Shifter/Delay PS-3,Boss Tuner TU-2. Sometimes I use the Soak channel. This amp has TUBE TONE!! I compared it side by side with my Fender. Even my wife and kids could hear the difference! I let my amp push the sound, my pedals do everything else. I will probably be checking out Carvins new line up of Bass amps allthough I am fond of my SWR rig. Overall, I feel these amps are underated and overlooked. The big chains dont carry them so the masses dont get to try them! I spent alot of time searching for MY sound and have found it! If I lost this amp or it was stolen I would buy another Belair or Nomad!

Bought new in 2005 ($599) and it came with the Celestian Vintage 30's. All other features are the same as described by previous reviews and Carvin Website. I also bought it with the matching 2X12 bottom cabinet. So my review is based on this expanded set up. Stock tubes that sound excellent right out of the box. Carvin even threw in the cable. I bought the matching covers (very nice quality covers) and footswitch.

Straight out of the box I plugged my Music Man Axis into this set up and the immediate response was pure tone heaven. Read the owners manual to this amp and Carvin fully explains the electronics set up and how it effects the tonal frequencies and what this amp will project. It meets and exceeds all that Carvin says it will. I hear and "feel" tonal ranges and frequencies that other amps cannot touch. I play everything from jazz, fusion, blues,classic rock and a bit-o-punk and I look for an amp that can give me a good mix of all those styles. This amp covers all the bases, but it has a warmth and sweetness to it. Clean channel is versitile from super clean to a nice crunchy-glassy top end. Distortion channel covers all the bases with a nice warm crunch to it. Looking for the "Brown Sound"? This baby has it and it is as sweet and warm as maple syrup. Top end of the distortion gives you plenty of gain, but warm gain full of tone and body. No thin or big thump harsh "Marshall" tone here. (Sorry Jim Marshall, you amps are great, just not my taste these days). Short of the Marshall, this amp gives you everything else. If you want big half stack thump, go try the Carvin Legacy or the new V3 (You cannot beat bang for the buck with Carvin)

I've only had this in the studio thus far for about 4 months. I have not set sail for a gig yet. However, this baby was in great shape right out the box from shipping, so Mr. UPS man did not manage to destroy it while tossing it about the Brown truck and the highways and biways. This thing is built like a tank, very solid, great materials and craftmanship. This baby will take a toss down a stairway I'm sure. I have full confidence in its gigging ability. Short of the live set up, I'd rate this higher.

When you call Carvin you talk to a person not a machine. I've called their tech support on some recommended set up with the extension cabinet and they are very helpful. The sales staff was informative and they communicate well. So far, so good and I will do business with them again. I've not crossed the road of a breakdown with the amp. Some people complain about getting them fixed and the shipping involved and so forth. With my other amps I've always taken them to an amp tech, there was never a situation where it was shipped out to the manufactuer. Carvin does a great job shipping or replacing parts and walking you through any trouble.

I've been playing for 25 years. Best amp I've ever owned. Every other amp lacked something or did not have the full-spectrum of what I needed it to sound like. This amp gives me the sound and "feel" that I love. The EL 84 tubes, do in fact, respond to the softest touch. This amp interacts with you. If you like to be connected to your equipment and have it respond to what you are feeling as an artist or musician and allow you to express yourself, this is the most connected amp I've ever played. Blows those expensive Mesa-Boogies out of the water! So tube and tone freaks this is one for the record books.

Purchased new in 2005,I play Jazz and Blues also compose for several different theater companies.It is loud enough for me,I bought it because I did not want to use my 1980 Mesa Boogie live anymore.

Prs custom 22,Prs archtop,Carvin Strat style.This amp sounds good when the clean channel is employeed.I use a minimal amount of distorion,I is fine for a slightly broken up sound.

no problems so far

Played for 40 years,Been on national TV,Records,Toured.This amp reminds me of a Gretsch amp I used in the 1960s or an old Ampeg sans vibrato.I like modern gear it is easier to keep up with,That is why I switched to PRS guitars.I have simple needs when it comes to equipment most of the sounds come from our hands

Bought secondhand two years ago so it's probably around four years old. All valve twin channel, one clean (unless you really crank it) and the other with pre and post gain to give you as much drive as you want. Separate and effective EQ on both with a presence pot on the back for the clean channel. Plenty loud enough for pub gigs and would be perfect if the effects loop was switchable in/out.

I use a selection of guitars including Les Paul, 335 and a Melancon Strat for blues with a bit of rock and jazz. This amp has continued to exceed my expectations is all departments and sounds really good no matter what you throw at it.

100% reliable - what more can I say!

Never used them so can't really say.

I've been playing for 40 years and have owned plenty of gear. After I retired my beloved Boogie I bought the Carvin as a stop-gap while I decided which high end, boutique tone monster I would purchase...because at my age I can afford to indulge myself. I can offer no higher praise for this little combo than to say that it has seen off potential replacements costing five or six times as much because, when it came to the crunch (good pun, eh?), most were no better and some were definitely inferior to the Bel Air.

Some honest advice - if you are in the market for a solidly built, reliable, all-valve combo that punches well above its weight then look no further than the Carvin Bel Air 212.

Mine is a 2003 model, with the Carvin GT-12 speakers Carvin now sells this with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. Other features have been well documented at this point. All the good basic stuff has been included on this amp.

I'm playing several guitars with a variety of humbuckers and single coils, some are hot, others are more traditional pickups. I've played blues-rock and late 70's style hard rock/punk rock with this amp. From the start, I loved the clean channel. I've always thought of the clean channel as somewhere btw a non-master volume Marshall and a Fender, with a bit more of the Fender sound coming through. There is a bit of breakup in the clean channel at some point above 5 or 6, but this amp is loud, and I've used my Bel Air (so far) in small rooms, so I haven't cranked it much about 5 so far. The soak channel (overdrive) took more work. I found that going above 4 on the soak volume resulted in a generally muddy, fuzzy, and mostly unusable sound. I wasn't expecting a "Marshall sound" BTW, I already own one of those! I did find some very useful sounds up to 4 on the soak volume. Some ok sounds for blues-rock, and with a hot humbucker, I could do some sounds that recall late 70's British punk bands like the Buzzcocks. And a decent overdrive pedal (Maxon 808 reissue in my case) sounded great through the clean channels for the syles I've mentioned. Then I made a change to the amp. Just the other day I threw in a pair of Celestion Vin 30s (which Carvin has begun selling these amps with). Not much change on the clean side, which was just fine anyway, but the soak channel improved radically! Almost the entire range of the soak channel's volume is very usable, and the the drive is much smoother, and at the same time, more aggresive. It still does the blues-rock thing woderfully, but now covers some more aggresive hard rock styles also! I realize now what I did not like about the soak channel before the Vin 30 speakers went in: The stock GT-12 speakers made the soak channel sound buzzy and boxy. With the Vin 30's I am really digging the sounds that I am getting! With the GT-12 speakers, I would rate this amp lower than I did.

I had a couple of caps fry after about a year. These things happen. No problems otherwise. I never carry a backup if I'm gigging in town, because I can just run home and grab another amp. Out of town, I always carry a spare amp, no matter what my primary amp is.

Carvin phone support has always been helpful and friendly. My cap repair was not done under warranty, my local tech did the work. Warranty was 90 days for tubes, and one year for other problems, I think.

I've been playing over 20 years. I also currently own a Marshall JCM 900, a 1978 50 watt Hiwatt, and a 1968 Fender bassman. Guitars by Fender, Hamer, and Gibson. Various cabs, and one "effect" pedal, a Maxon 808 overdrive (reissue). This was an OK amp before I changed out the speakers, and now it is great! Very versatile! I don't know why Carvin put in the GT-12s in the first place. They are now selling them with the Vin 30s, which, imho, sound so much better. Others have had equally good results with other aftermarket speakers also. I do realize that some people have not had issues with the GT-12s. I should also say that I really like the fact that it has seperate tone controls for each channel. That is something that is becoming more common, but, imho, should have been an industry wide feature years ago! I would get another if this was stolen, the tone/price ratio is right!

I purchased the Belair three years ago. Other's have listed the features so I wont go into it here.

I play blues and this amp has the clean sound of a vintage Fender. As for the "soak" chanel there was nothing vintage about it...useless for blues but good in it's own right.

I bought this amp 3 years ago and have dropped about $450 in repairs into it and never beacuse of bad tubes. If I had shipped the amp to Carvin whenevr it went down my shippingf costs would have been enormous.

If you'r in California I would imagine customer support would be a concern but if you're on the east coast forget it. I never contacted Carvin for the repairs, I couldn't aford the shipping costs.

I've been playing off and on for 30 years and curently gig 2-3 times a month. If this amp were stolen I would buy a six pack and get over it very quickly.
The clean chanel on this amp is a high spot and the amp's saving grace (that and the tube reverb). I would compare the clean channel to a fender twin with less overhead, very sweet.
The "soak" channel was of only moderate use for me as it was unable to produce a convincing blues tone.
At the time I bought the Belair I wanted to get a vintage amp that wasn't a Fender as I though Fender was overpriced. I had to get rid of the amp, I found myself relying more on my backup Ampeg Jet II (not near the clean, warm sound of the Carvin's clean chanel). Too bad really, I was rather fond of Carvin products.

Sadly, if you gig a lot you should consider looking. If you're looking for a vintage sound look at a Fender Deluxe Reverb or a Vibroluxe, they're overpriced but they are workhorses. If you purchase the Belair I wish you good luck, I would like to think that maybe mine was just a lemon.

It has everything you may need if you want a blues/rock amp. Separated tone controls, volume and drive controls and a very clean reverb.

To get an awesome sound there is a lot of changes to do in this amp. Some are very easy to do and some are not. Basicaly, you?ll have to change all of the stock tubes. They sounds like shit. I replaced the EL 84 power tubes with tesla?s tubes. The pre-amp tubes are the worst thing about the entire amp. Here is how the things work:
Every pre-amp tube has two triodes and every triode is used to amplify something. Knowing what triode amplifies each stage, you will find a better way to change the things you dont like about the amp. The pre-amp is configured this way:
V1 - First stage of clean chanel - First stage of soak chanel
V2 - Second and third stage of soak chanel
V3 - Second stage of clean chanel and efects loop recovery
V4 - Reverb
V5 - Phase inverter

Making changes in this five tubes you will find million of possibilities. I would change the first tube(V1) to a 5751 or a 12at7. That makes the amp less buzzy and the sound becomes cleaner. The second tube may be replaced with a good 12ax7 tube or a tube with lower gain (5751, 12at7, 12ay7). The third tube doesnt need to be changed, only if you want a better tube (other brand). The fourth tube (reverb) is very personal. If you change for a lower gain tube, you will have a better sound coming out of the reverb tank. The best inverter tube ( the fifth tube ) is the classic 12at7.
Changing all the tubes you will notice a real improvement, but it is not all. There is a lot of modificatios that you can do in the circuit the will coast less money and will result in drastic modificatios in the amp soud. The main modification I made was removing the clipping diodes found in the pre-amp. It is used to clip the sound wave and add a little distortion. Removing this diodes is the only way to get rid of the buzzy sound of the amp completely. One thing that is important is to know wath you are doing. If you don?t, please keep away from the circuit. It can kill you before you experience the sound of the mods.
Another change that I did was replace the speakers with alnico speakers.
Here is how a rate this amp.
Before the mods - 5
After the mods - 9

The only problem I found was that the rebverb tank contacts are very bad.

never deal with them

Change everything you can and you will realize that it?s almost a real vintage amp.

Bought this new in '04, as I changed from a grunge band to a classic rock/blues band.
You know what its got. Only thing it didn't have that I wanted was a channel light, but I've fitted one, so now I know whats cookin'.
This amp more than holds it's own in a small-mid sized venue.
I'm giving it and 8, would be a 10 if it had a light.

I use a stock Gibson SG special for work and a '73 SG Standard some times when jammin'. I can get any sound I want with this amp and my Line6 crunchtone pedal except a "sparkling" clean, but I play rock/blues so no problem.
To those reviewers below who don't like the o/d channel sound, one question. Why the hell did you buy a Vintage Tube amp? And perhaps you should have a look at your choice of axe.
Did you know your axe has volume and tone controls? Use them.
This is a excellent sounding Vintage amp.

1 yrs service in a hard working pub band, ( Thats bar band to you guy's in the U.S. ), no problems thus far.

Never had to contact them.

I've been playing 12yrs, the last 10 gigging, and I love this amp.
I don't think it's suitable for bedroom warriors, as it doesn't sing until about 4 on the dial, and thats almost gig volume!
I think it takes about 2yrs to really get to know an amp, and the longer I have this, the more I like it.
My last amp was the opposite.
If it was stolen or broken, I'd buy another one without hesitating.
I looked for a year at all sorts before buying this, and this won because of it's tonal qualities, and I liked the fact it doesn't pretend to be something it's not.
It has a character of it's own, it's not a wannabe.

This amp has the basic standard features, including clean channel, "soak" channel, footswitch, and reverb. All the stuff you need and nothing you don't!

This amp sounds AWSOME!!! I use it at home because it sounds great at low volumes as well as high volumes. The sound is crystal clear. Carvin is famous for their sound.

I don't really know, I haven't ever dropped it or anything.

dunno

Great amp. I would have paid 400 dollars for it, if I knew what it was like. At 350 dollars, I got a great deal! Awsome amp. Great for blues too.

Amp is an '04 model. Two great channels although not as versatile as a Marshall. Effects loop. Optional footswitch.
Plenty of poke bedroom use small gigs and practices.

Clean sounds awesome with my '04 mex strat especialy vintage bluesy with touch of 'verb and bridge p/up. I play vintage blues,srv, gallagher Buddy Guy classic rock, bach, mozart, punk, and prog rock. the amp handels all with ease. i try to do some Vai or Satriani type runs but this amp is not for metal or shreddidge so don't think it is for that get a Marshall. Not too much hiss or hum even with standard single coils! Drive settings 8-10 will cause a fair din to be unleashed though. Sweet clean with brilliant harmonics, awesome reverb. Drive or soak channell is a bit dissapointing but hey nothing a decent drive pedal will not sort.
Clean channell break up is CRAP but doesn't occur too early, probably because i have been used to marshalls before. If you want a decent break up employ a TS9!

Would use without back up if i had to but i will always try to take my Marshall to gigs as well!

N/A reasonable web site. www.carvin.com

Playing two and a bit years. (still crap!) Marshall AVT 150 and Mex Strat Boss wah ts9 big muff marshall compressor, boss sd1. LOve clean channel and reverb soak channel is lacking in deffinition though not very tight either. Buy it again because cheaper than marshall or fender! (STUDENT!!!) Compared to Fender Deluxe marshall DSL etc. I might shove some celestion units in it soon.
Jimmy Page and Les Paul's are both VERY overated

Purchased New from Carvin factory in October 2004. 2 channel 50 watt combo amp. Loaded with 2 Carvin GS-12-75 16ohm speakers, wired in parallel. Pre amp section has 5 12AX7 tubes. Power amp section has 4 EL84 tubes. Has external speaker out; impeadence switchable for 4,8, or 16 ohms; cabinet voiced line out; effects loop; Accutronics reverb (Nice). Channel 1 has a Presence control. Covered in simulated tweed - looks cool, and is much easier to keep clean than real tweed.

I use this amp at home and to gig with. It's a LOUD 50 watts. Any venue that is too large for this baby to handle will surely have a P.A. that you can mic it through.

Footwitch was $20 extra, but the shipping was free, so I can't complain about that.

Amp has almost everything I need, but I wish that the Soak channel had a Presence control as well, so I'll give it a 9.

This amp sounds fantastic. I play mostly Rock and Roll and Blues, and this amp nails those sounds. I play a 1982 Les Paul and a 1996 '62 Vintage Re-Issue Fender Stratocaster through this amp. The Bel Air lets the individual personalities of these guitars really shine through. I own or have owned Fender, Peavy, Randall, Yamaha, and Crate amps, and the Bel Air can stomp all of them. Against my buddy's Marshall it would be close: Bel Air has a superior Clean channel, Marshall has more powerful distortion channel. (I personally prefer the Bel Air, YMMV).

The Clean channel on this amp is great and could probably handle Jazz duty as well. Quite possibly one of the best Clean channels available on a Combo amp. It starts to break up if you have to push it, but an extension cabinet should give enough headroom for almost any gig. Cleans are very articulate and very warm. Just about any setting of the tone controls gives a useable tone. Fender amps are known for their Clean sounds, but I like the Carvin better than any of the Fenders I've owned. The reverb is not as "big" as a Fender's, but it has a warmer sound. I like just a splash of reverb so that's not really an issue for me. However, there is more than enough reverb for just about any application, even Surf music.

The Soak channel is the perfect type of distortion for me. You can dial in from mild grit to full on "in your face distortion". The Soak channel can get a little noisy, especially with single coil PUP's - but show me an amp that doesn't. I really don't understand where the complaints about the Soak channel are coming from. This is a VINTAGE style amplifier and that is exactly the type of distortion it delivers. I can make the Bel Air sound like Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Stones, Cream, SRV. All of those sounds are in there if you spend some time getting to know the amplifier. I can even get it to sound like Hendrix sometimes (not that I can play like him, but you get the idea). One thing this amp won't do is extreme Heavy Metal, but it wasn't really designed for that type of thing. If that's the type of sound you're looking for I'd suggest looking at a Marshall or a Mesa Boogie (I've heard some other Carvin amps that do Metal well). However, with the right distortion box added to the front end it might be able to do Metal, too.

I think that people who didn't like the Soak channel either play Metal, or did not open the amp up enough. This is a Vintage style TUBE amp. It won't sound very good at home in your bedroom set at 0.5 or 1. You've got to get this thing up in the 3 to 5 range for it to be able to do it's thing. If you live in an apartment or with your parents, the Bel Air probably won't be able to give you the sounds it's capable of - not without a Hotplate or something similar.

This amp is by far the best amp I've ever owned. I love the sound. Others obviously disagree with me, but I have to give it a 10.

I haven't had this particular amp long enough to make this call. It had to be serviced, but that wasn't Carvin's fault (see below). It's a tube amp, so if you're gigging with it you'd be foolish to not bring a backup - or at least a quad of power tubes, a few pre's, and some fuses.

However, I have owned a Carvin Valve Master, and played in bands that owned Carvin P.A. systems. Their stuff is built to last. My Valve Master saw more than it's fair share of Road abuse and always performed.

Based on past performance of other Carvin products I'm going to give it a 9.

Carvin's staff is top notch. I called and asked a bunch of questions when I was researching my amp purchase. They are friendly and knowledgeable.

UPS kind of man handled the amp when it was first delivered to me. The box was a little beat up, but I accepted delivery anyway. I had a couple of tubes fail within the first couple of days of operation. When I called Carvin to request some replacement tubes, they said they would like to check out the amp to make sure everything was up to spec. They sent a call tag, which arrived the next day. It only took a little over a week for my amp to make the round trip from Nashville, out to San Diego, and back to Nashville again. Since then the amp has worked flawlessly.

The warranty on these amps is for a year. SAVE the box the send it to you in. It's the perfect box to pack it in if it has to go back for service.

I've been playing guitar for over 20 years. I've played through and owned a fair share of amps, good and bad, and I put the Bel Air right up there at the top of the heap. The only other amp I've liked as much was my other Carvin (which is what led me to purchasing this one). If it were stolen I'd DEFINITELY buy another one.

If you've got doubts about purchasing a Bel Air, then set them aside (unless you play Metal). Carvin makes a great amp, and you're probably not going to be able to find this much amp at the price they sell them for from any other manufacturer. I'm hooked. I may very well buy one of their other models, too. Like guitars and potato chips, one is never enough.

I am not sure what year it was made in. It has the older VL12 speakers. This thing is pretty versitile. I play stuff like Willie Nelson to Black Sabbath. It has two channels and an effects loop. I wish it had a headphone jack. I use this amp for home use and jamming with the guys. It has plenty of power, very loud at 50 watts. Obviously this is a tube amp combo. I have 4 JJ/Tesla EL84's and 5 Sovtek 12AX7-W's.

I play a Gibson Les Paul Studio and a Fender Standard Strat through it. Both sound great, but obviously the Les Paul sounds more full. The Fender is a little thin sounding. I love humbuckers. This amp fits my music styles perfectly. The clean channel is soooooo nice. Much better than my Ampeg tube amp. The cleans are so sparkly, but without being harsh, with plenty of bottom end as well. It's right up there with the clean Fender tube amp sound. The overdrive channel is great. It has a lot more distortion than I thought it would. Some of the reviews say you can't use this thing for metal, but it gets plenty of distortion for just about anything. However, it really won't do "numetal" (Damage Plan) without a Metal Zone or something. The distortion is a fuzzy distortion, great for stonerrock (Clutch, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Black Sabbath etc.) Very heavy sounding. I love the soak knob turned up all the way. It getys a little noise when you have the soak knob turned up past "7". But not any more noisy than any other tube amp's overdrive channel. It is relatively quiet. Quieter than my Ampeg. This amp sounds awesome! I would rate it a perfect "10" but I have not heard every tube amp out there. It is one of the best I have ever heard.

It has not failed me yet. I would certainly use it at a show with no backup. No problems.

I have been playing for 18 years. I own a Gibson Les Paul Studio, a Fender Standart Strat, an Alvarez acoustic, an Ampeg SJ-12R, a Jordan 40 Watt practice amp, a Danelectro Coolcat chorus pedal, a Boss Mt-2 Metal Zone, and a Digitech RP50 processor. The Bel Air is a great amp that would suit just about anyone. If it were stolen I would definitely look for another one. I compared it to a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and this Carvin has a comparable clean channel but the distortion is way better on this Bel Air. Plus it was less expensive because you are not paying for the name!!

I bought this amp about five years ago. I like the sound versatility for early r&r, blues, country rock. nice natural overdrive on clean channel - good vintage feel. Distortion gets kind of muddy when overdone. Best to keep the soak at a low level and turn the volume up a bit. I like the reverb a lot - it may be the best feature of this amp. I don't use effects, I like vintage sound and this amp was good for that before it crapped out on me. I would like an amp of this style to have an intensity control like the old Fenders, but then maybe I should have bought an old Fender.

I have used a Fender Strat and Tele with this amp. It is well suited for the music styles that I play(early r&r,blues, country rock, rockabily), I usually have to readjust the setting for each gig to suit the room. The amp is loud enough for outdoor gigs as well as big indoor halls. The effect loop used with a stage tuner will bleed through on the lower strings, I don't know if this is the tuner or the amps fault.

I live in Ohio. I had to return this amp for repair within the one year warranty period-pain in the ass. They fixed it. I used this amp to gig with frequently(two to four times a month)I would always put it on stanby when on break. I hardly ever used this amp to practice with. This amp crapped out on me. The clean channel went out completely, then the distortion started to sound very shitty. The amp is now taking up valuable space in my closet and I can't use it. I would say that if you plan to gig freqently and don't live in California, don't buy it. It's hard to find some one to fix it.

They try I guess. They fixed it on warranty(one year), but I paid sixty bucks to ship it. I won't pay to ship it and fix the damn thing again. This amp isn't worth it. I bought a solid state Peavey Bandit 1x12 trans tube off of ebay for less than what it would cost to fix the Carvin. Solid state I trust without a backup. BTW, I like the Peavey a lot, good vintage sound for a solid state amp.

I've been playing for twenty four years. I've been giging for about fourteen years. I have played a Fender Strat and Telecaster through this amp. I bought this amp for the vintage sound. The sound is fine, but the negatives outweigh the positives for me. I wouldn't recommend this amp unless you know someone that can fix it that is near you. I would like to get rid of it, but I suppose I'll have to have it fixed first. Either that or I'll try to trade it broken. For my needs, the Peavey Bandit does the trick. It's cheaper, has more versatility and will be a lot more reliable to gig out with.

Brand new, purchased in August 2004 from Carvin via website. Two channels with seperate eq's, tube-driven reverb, serial effects loop, "acoustic presence" control, line out, "soak" (preamp drive) on channel two, plywood cab (YAY!), sharp looking "tweed" vinyl covering, extension speaker out, footswitch jack. Extremely pretty amp. BTW--mine shipped with Celestion V-30's. I don't know why, but I'm NOT complaining!

My rating is heavily influenced by what this amp costs--which isn't a lot in today's music gear field. First off--I play a lot of blues, whatever jazz I can do some justice to, and some rootsier style rock, ala Gatton. I usually play Fenders--Strats, and a Fat Tele. I just copped a great Ibanez 335-clone, which I'm bonding with. This amplifier is an EL84 based, faux-vintage style amp with a mind of it's own--and that's a good thing. I have rarely heard such a nice clean channel--warm/bright, with an airy woodiness and chime that brings the sound of the guitars out. I can't find anything to really complain about here--it has great string definition and articulation, as well as mucho punch and PLENTY of power. Loves Strats, works great in the "notch" positions. I would consider this amp worth the money just for this channel, which sits somewhere between Fender and Vox, and kicks it great with a dirt box in front. (I use Visual Sound--Jeckyll and Hyde, Rt.66) Reverb is musical, and nice--but older Fenders (I have one) still own that. The dirty channel needs to be "worked" a little--but it certainly doesn't suck as hard as a lot of these reviews would have you believe. I had a pretty damn nice semi-clean-to scream thing going in about 15 minutes with the Strat---gain at 6/7 or less depending on how high you can run the channel volume. It sounds better loud, just like every other tube amp IN THE WORLD. The tone controls on this amp work--you can get a lot of different timbres happening on both channels, from dark and jazzy to bright and cutting. I actually consider the second channel something of a bonus, and will probably use it as more of a dirty "clean" channel from smokier jazz and fusion sounds. "Brutal" distortion would be a foolish thing to seek from this amplifier. Buy a modern SS Peavey if that's what you're after--now that's brutal! Sorry. This Carvin performs as advertised, in my opinion, and I've been able to quickly dial in some inspiring, pro-sounding tones with it quickly. BTW--I haven't had any trouble with noise or hiss at all, including the effects loop, which I always use for my delay/chorus. Again--V/S--H2O--a great box. I have not found the need to change anything-stock tubes sound ok to me. I'm not a huge fan of JJ's anyway, which everyone seems to have gone all drooly over lately. I leave it alone for now. That's it--the amp sounds pretty awesome!

So far so good. No noise, excess heat, etc. I trust it--but after 30 years, you learn to cover your ass out there, especially if you're getting paid. Bring a backup--for everything.

Can't really give an opinion here--obviously they were pretty nice when I gave them the CC number! I hope I don't need them, unless I want to buy something else. However, I understand that they're very good.

Playing guitar and drums for close to 30 years, pro, semi pro, and all other permutations, including not at all. Hitting it pretty hard in the last 10 years. Things I love: the looks, the excellent cabinet work, the weight--not heavy at all for a 212 combo--the setup of the amp--and finally the great sound. I really don't hate anything about it, but the "cab voiced" line out--let's just say I'll be keeping my direct box. I wish it had a rich, dumb blond attatched to it. Oh well. Bottom line--great amp for the jing--I love playing it. Adios, Amigos!

dual-channels switchable by footswitch 4 12ax7's 2 el84's Big sound lots of headroom great clean channel and if dialed in the 2nd channel can have some pretty wicked tones. I like how the soak knob eats up the power so it overdrives the amp without overdriving the speakers. Also, if your worried about volume because it only has 50 watts dont worry because it will push pretty hard. and If your playin a gig big enough where it wouldnt be loud enough you should be micking the amp anyway.

on the clean channel i like using a humbucker in the neck position but for the soak channel i love the sound of a bridge humbucker. I've been playing my new electra through it and it sounds great and just because its not a big name brand doesnt mean its not a great sounding guitar. The clean channel is so quiet you can't even tell its on.

I have just recently bought it so im not sure but it seems like a solid amp.

n/a

This amp , when dialed in gives me chills these are the tones ive been looking for. i cant wait to take the line out and run it to my dads 2x10 Music man amp and see how that sounds.

I purchased this amp about 9 years ago from Carvin. I play a variety of rock and blues, now mostly rockabilly and roots rock (whiskeytown, the Rev, steve earle, supersuckers, etc..) You can read about the features on any other reviews. I have done lots of club gigs, and recorded with this amp. Very light weight for a tube amp.

I owned a Les Paul standard at the time I purchased this amp and loved both channels with the humbuckers. It was very rich and warm. The reverb is a lot tighter than the boingy fender reverbs, but still sounds strong. I have since purchased numerous guitars (6120 gretsch, 2 american ash bodied strats, a teisco del ray, 1976 Ibanez destroyer and a couple of Danos) and sold the Paul. I love the gretsch through the clean channel but not as defined on channel 2. I got rid of both strats because I couldn't get a good tone out of either of them through either channel and sold them. I should probably retube the amp before I buy anymore guitars since I haven't been having the 'magic' lately with it that I had with the les paul. Channel 1 still sounds great, but I use a fulltone fulldrive 2 for overdrive and don't use channel 2 much. It is a very quiet amp, with the overdrive being just that, not real heavy, just a nice overdriven tube sound. Not brutal by any means.

I had to have it sent back about a month after purchasing because it lost volume. Carvin fixed it and have had no problems since. It could have happened during shipping and just took a while for the cap to come loose.

Unfortunately, I needed to have the warrenty work done at Carvin, so it needed to be shipped to San Diego (from Seattle area). Carvin has always been helpful when dealing with them.

I have been playing well over 30 years and I have owned tons of gear and still have numerous guitars, basses and amps. I have a rehearsal studio on my property and am a gear junkie (I just received a Fulltone TTE today and can't wait to leave work, get home and try it out). I think Carvin puts out some great products ( I haven't tried their guitars yet, but will have to get one and see), I have the bel air, a 600 watt carvin bass amp and just purchased a carvin powered mixer (with the 4-300 watt powers amps). This is a great amp and for the money a phenomenal deal. I will soon have it gone thru, retubed and will purchase the extention cab and update everyone. I think every amp and guitar I've owned has been beneficial to my playing and I believe in taking the time to play different set ups (especially if they are not conducive to your playing style) because diffent tones bring out different aspects of your playing. I think anyone could benefit from this nice product and give it my personal EDITORS PICK AWARD!

has everything you need on a nice 212 combo amp. clean channel with seperate eq, overdrive, or "soak", channel with seperated eq, reverb, precence in the back pannel, effects loop, and it comes with a footswitch. It's like Carvin's version of a twin i guess.

By the looks of the ratings i have put down, it may not seem like i am that happy with this amp. thats not true. I LOVE THIS AMP, BUT I JUST CAN'T STAND THE SOAK CHANNEL!! the clean channel is fantastic, and in my opinion is just as good, or better than a twin. Sparkling clean, with a dark side as well, great for jazz, or any clean sound. the soak channel on the other hand, is attrocious, it just has this weird tone coming through that i cant stand, and i have the jj tubes in there as well. that is why i run an additional marshall jmp-1 preamp throught the signal, just so i can get good distortion sounds coming through the amp. if anyone knows how to get a good distortion sound from this amp, let me know. guitarfrenzy88@aol.com

my tubes started goin recently, but its no biggy. its a tough design, just dont hold it only by the handle, cause it will rip out of the amp eventually, because the amp is so heavy.

i think this amp is great for many occasions. i traded my full stack marshall setup for it, because i think it is more versatile. also it is only 50 watts, but don't worry because, this comes as no surprise with carvin amps, this amp is sooooooo looouuuuuddd. you can have it at 1, and have ur neighbors hear it sometimes. if lost or damaged. i would possibly get another one, but i might wanna check out a mesa boogie nomad as well, cause they also have great cleans. bottom line, even if you know how to tweek amps very well, dont get this amp for distortion, get it for its clean.

This 2-12 model was maunfactured and purchased by my brother in 2004. I heavily demoed this amp in the store and in the studio with a varirty of guitars including a Carvin C-66, DC-127, HF-2 fatboy, G&L Tele, and Ibanez Semi Hollowbody outiftted with TV Jones Pickups and Bigsby type trem set up. I play rock, jazz blues, roots music, whatever since Christimas '75. I'm a recovering tone-freak addict, having owned, played and enjoyed many great tube circuits over the years including Marshalls (Plexi Super Lead 100 watt and various tube and solid state combos) Fender Tweed ('59 Deluxe) and Blackface ('64 Vibroverb, '66 Super Reverb, '64 Deluxe Reverb, Princeton Reverb, Blues Deluxe 1-12) Mesa Boogie (Original '76 Mark I 100 watt, various Mark IIIs) and too much other stuff. I've played many great sounding hand-wired and PC Board Circuits (e.g., Carr, Matchless, Bad Cat, Dr. Z, Harry Joyce, Victoria and on and on... Bottom line, I'm always open and on the look out for anything that sounds good, and to discern what sounds like shit. Anyway, this "Vintage" amp has great basic features 3-Spring reverb, clean and SOAK channel, presence control for clean channel, and seperate eq for each channel. Nothing extravagant but all you need to get clean and overdriven sounds with proper tweaking. Has Effects loop but I never got to it. I enjoyed this amp plenty without any outboard efx. Bottom line, the seperate controls provide enough flex to get any sound you might look for in this Vox-like amp.

Played with both single coil G&L Tele, and Carvin Hums, and TV Jones semi-hollowbody with great results. Great detail in both clean and SOAK channel. I play everything from finger picked clean sparkle to jazzy fusion, to heavy thick driving attack. With minimum tweaking the clean channel easily handled a sparkling, bright sound or darker mellow tone that was very touch responsive with a defined upper mid hump ala AC-30. I even noticed this when I hear someone else play the amp (I didn't even know which amp it was 'til I walked up and looked at it) before trying the amp myself. I could seriously hear the guitar, the pickups and the amp with great clarity, detail and with very little noise. When pushed, the clean channel gets a nice little pushed sound with just a touch of grit, nice. The SOAK channel: HINT - trying to blast away like a 100 watt Marshall is a mistake. Remember this a tamer circuit with EL-84 which do what they do very nicely, which is emphsis of the upper mids with a more subtle and less defined bottom as a EL-34 circuit. Doesn't have the huge bottom end thump of a Marshall , but it's not supposed to. Likewise, the SOAK does best when used in moderate settings. Too much is not needed. This amp definitely has the Vox DNA amp makes a very credible run at that tone, regardless of its modest price. I know I'm very picky when it comes to tone, but for the life of me I can't understand some of the negative reviews this amp has gotten. I dared this amp to give me a shitty sound. Although some sounds are better than others on this amp, overall it has great, highly useable, enjoyable tone that, to its credit (and the circuit designers)doesn't sound like every other Fender/Marshall in its price range. IMHO the Belair 2-12 has much more character and just better tone than a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (I have studio demos of them side-by-side no contest). For a medium-heavy warm rock overdrive the SOAK channel is sweeter than most when you use your own dynamics couretesy of your own two hands.

I don't own. Have demoed it for a period of hours without complaint. I hear no bad reports on this from my brother who owns this amp.

Don't know really. This amp blew a couple fuse. Carvin dealer was nore than happy to replace.

I've been playing for several years. I have lots of amps as stated above and Play a Les Paul Custom and Strat mainly both vintage set ups. I don't own one of these amps but I definitely can recommend it, and I think it would be a perfectly cool amp if you could only have one (deserted island). I think this amp holds its own quite nicely and I think its one of the cooler sounding production amps I've heard in a long time. I'm gonna buy one swap out the stock tubes (which are okay) for something nicer, throw some Weber Bulldog copy speakers in place of the factory speakers (which are okay) and forget about it. Play it into the ground. For $500 it's hard to beat.

2004 Bel-Air by Carvin 50watts, 2x12

I play a 1984 American Standard Strat w/Dimarzio HS-3 in bridge and Virtual Vintage in Neck. The amp is stock and sounds kind of like a Vox AC30 (early Blackmore, Brian May), or an overdriven SRV type sound. No big Marshall sound, but this amp has serious juice. The soak channel can be super muddy at 10 (no need). I keep soak at 5 and crank the volume. Nice and dirty, crisp distortion w/out paint-peeling mids. I also run a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 for boost. Wow.

For the price, you can do alot with this amp. But, if you want the marshall sound, get a marshall. If you want a GOOD tube amp for half the price of a Marshall/Mesa, get the Bel-Air.

N/A - yet to gig with it.

I've had Marshall, Peavey 5150, fender, Roland, and now this. It's really sounding good and I'm pretty darn satisfied. Good for practice and will more than handle a gig. I researched and played alot of tube amps and didn't have a lot of $$ to spend. Decided on the Bel-Air and I love it. Still getting used to it, but so far, so good

Hi Kids! I have been playing the guitar for many many years and have owned ton of gear! Carvin guitars are my choose these days! I use a Fender Prosonic 2x10 and a Matchless Lighting 2x10 as my main amps. I started reading about the Bel-Air 2x12 and could'nt understand way there were so many negitive comments about it! I called Carvin and ordered a Bel-Air from them. When the amp came in I fired it up right out of the box, after about thirty minutes on channel one, I was very pleased. This amp would stand up to any in my studio! Lots of power for fifty watts!

Okay! We talked about the clean channel of the Bel-Air 2x12......Now lets go to channel two, this is where all the negitive comments are coming from and for good reason! The drive channel on this amp was one of the worst I have ever heard! I retubed the amp with JJ's like everyone raves about! It made a differance but nothing to jump up and down about. I called Carvin and spoke with Joah, he knows Carvin amps in side and out! After thirty minutes on the phone I took the amp back to the stock tubes and replaced the V-1 preamp tube from a 12ax7 to a 12au7........That's all it took!!! The amp purrs like a kitten in the drive channel! One thing to remember here is that this amp is a Vintage Tone Amp! Also in reading comments I see players giving the amp a thirty minute triout then boxing it up and sending it back! Not everything sounds great right out of the box! Just like buying a new guitar, you have to set it up for your playing style and tone! Im going to keep this amp! I like it so much that I am using it in place of my $1100.00 Prosonic for Blues and even Jazz styles! Don't sell this amp short! Take the time to learn and understand what the amp was made to do............For those of you who gave up after just a few minutes, you missed an awesome experience!

I would take it anywhere without a backup!

The staff at Carvin are wonderful! They will spend as much time as needed on the phone..........And will allow returns with no problems! They stand behind what they sell!

For the money...............You simply can not beat Carvin! I would even buy Carvin gear at retail prices!

50-watt, two-channel, all tube amplifier with reverb, effects loop and master reverb. Footswitch available ($29.99) for channel switching. Separate passive bass, middle and treble controls for each channel. Acoustic presence control for the clean channel only. Great looking too, with bone-white chicken-head control knobs and vintage tweed cloth covering.

Agile LP-2000 Flame Top > 12' patch cord > Carvin Bel Air 212. Very disappointing. Passable middle and lower end, but amplifier is almost totally lacking in the treble range. This is rather surprising to me, since in the owner's manual Carvin details a number of steps taken to preserve the high frequencies. The ceramic humbuckers on my Agile guitar put out a TON of high end, but you'd never know it from this amp. Even with the bass and middle set to zero and the treble and acoustic presence controls maxxed out, this amp had no zip to it at all. Now I know why they call one of the channels "SOAK." This amp sounded like it was under water. Clean channel is useless for anything but be-bop jazz, and the overdrive channel was noisy and dull.

I have no opinion on this. Within ninety minutes of receiving this amplifier, I was on the phone with Carvin, asking for my money back.

Carvin's customer service rep was terrific on the phone. Took the amp back with no questions asked.

Totally disappointed with this product. I didn't think an all-tube amplifier could sound this bad. I've got a pair of little Marshall transistor amps that sound better than this.

Purchased the amp in 2000 and kept it for 2 years. Like so many other reviewers, the 2 channels are great as well as the versatility of the rear controls. I know its not cool but I still wish manufacturers gave you more than one input on the front.It seems that when you get an effects loop in the back, they feel they gave it to you. By the way, the effects loop is not a strong point with this amp. Used the amp for some Band Reunions I did in 2001 and 2002. Loved the looks of the amp and the solid wood construction.

Ok, I have played real Fender Strats and Carvin SC 90 through this amp. The clean channel is awesome. Great tone via reverb etc. My only complaint as you have heard is that the Soak or overdrive channel is weak. Hell, I can get great overdrive through most Fender Amps and today's rendition of Fender is pretty bad. However, This baby doesn't cut it. In my book that makes it less than versatile and was the reason that I sold it over a year ago. I like all kinds of music and have played for over 25 years off and on. I know what a Marshall sounds like and I know that I didn't buy this thinking it was a Marshall. But hell, Marshalls and Boogies give you more flexability than this puppy. One bright spot folks, this conbo turned me onto the Carvin Speakers VL 12's. These are made by Eminence and I have them in a guitar cabinet that I got cheap when MARS Music bit the dust. They really handle the load and frankly are better than the Celestion speakers being put into most Marshall's today. The upper end Marshall's still use the better Celestions, but the lower end products use low end Celestions. You might try the Carvin speakers. They made a believer out of me.

The unit never went out, but I always had an upper frequency hiss when using any effects that boosted the Pre-Amp. Another reason I think the amp is weak on Soak/Overdrive functions.

Hell, who gives support these days. Frankly, they are no better or worse than any of the manufacturers out there today. Did call them about the hiss and received little help even when it was under warranty.

Look, when I got back into things a few years ago, I went back to what I knew Manufacturer wise. Marshall, Fender etc. The Bel Air was a disappointment for me. I wound up buying a custom rig and using an old Marshall 800 50 watt head. With the new advances in Rack Pre Amp design, I can finally control the volume and still get great tube tone. But alas, it would be nice to go simple. The Bel Air was not the answer.

Made in 1995-1996. Got it used for a good price. Go to Carvin.com for features.
Soak channel - 10/10
Clean channel - 10/10
EQ for each channel - 10/10
Carvin VL12 speakers - 9/10 (always thinking to try Celestion, but so far so good for my needs).
Power - enough to keep the tone great your neighbours angry :o)
Other features that are usless for me: effects loop, voiced out, speaker out.

Ibanez RG 1550: bridge,neck-DiMarzio Evolution, middle-DiMarzio HS-2.
Fender Strat Deluxe: original configuration.
Very sensitive to articulation and picking at any setting, shows every nuance - very rewarding.

Soak channel provides very usefull and versatile overdrive:
- lead tone soloing at Soak (drive) pot settings at 5-8: clean, not too sensitive to reveal pick/string interaction noise, sustained long enough to keep notes solid and full until you mute. Settings above 8 give endless sustain and sensitivity that needed playing legato passages without picking or when using tapping.
- rythm crunching or overdriven chords playing Soak pot at 3-7: firm, full and again sensitive to your articulation: everything you need when in the rythm session supporting a lead player, bluezzy at lower values and good rock sound at highs.
- country style, fast picking arrpegios using bridge position set Soak between 1-4 and see your audience WOWing!
Overal about soak channel: useful and reach overdrive sound, no external overdrives needed to keep me happy.


Clean channel is "a must have!" for anyone:
- deep reach and melodic sound of humbucker in neck position when playing chords, intervals or melody - great jazzy sound;
- sharp and briliant sound of 2nd and 4th position of strat guitars.
Overal about the clean channel - clean, warm and sensitive.

Spring reverb: great for gigs, for recordings avoided to give room for engineers' toys.

Effects loop: noisy, never used.

Voiced out: 4 out of 10 if compared to the sound that comes from speakers.

JJ tubes are selected over the time of the ownership for preamp and amp group.

Played every day a few hours. Never thought of a backup.
Since 1996 it was bumped a few times when loading in a track - nothing happened still works. Tubes are replaced several times.

Had no reason to deal with.

Owned it since 1996. Have bought/sold a lot of amps since than, had Crate, Vox, Fenders, Marshalls (not tubes). This one still stays, mostly for its sonic individuality. Last few years it's been played almost daily 1-2 hours, still turns me on. Also used in recording sessions and gigs.
Good value.

- Made '04 I think
- 2 channel, clean and dirty, reverb, seperate EQs, Presence (clean only).
- In theory, this amp has all you'd need.

- Nice clean sound, I thought that it broke up too early though.
- Overdrive sounds like a wasp in a jam jar, fizzy and thin; like the sound you get when you run your guitar through a 'metal zone'and then into your Hi-Fi.
- EQs are about as unresponsive as they come.
- for me there were no GREAT sounds, just an O.K clean channel.
- Pedals made no difference at all.

I took it back after three days of frustration trying to find a useable overdrive sound, so I can't comment on reliabillity. But it seemed to be built O.K.

Carvin deal through a company called NEVADA MUSIC in the U.K, so I never had dealings with Carvin themselves. NEVADA are great though, nothing was too much trouble for them they did everything they could to help me out, that meant a full refund - consequently, I bought my Hot Rod DeVille from them later.

That said, apparently NEVADA recieved a whole batch of these (mine included) and Carvin had not bothered putting the logo on the front of any of them. In addition, mine came set to the wrong speaker impedance - well done Carvin, good job I checked first!

- I'm sure no-one cares how long i've been playing, but I've been playing long enough.
- I've owned a couple of valve amps, JCM800, 900 and I used a fender deluxe everyday for about 2 years (even though it wasn't mine!). All of these amps were better than the Belair.
- My advice to anyone thinking about this amp? shell out the extra ###s for a Peavey Classic 50, Messa F30 (if you can afford it), Laney LC50 or my personal choice the Hot Rod DeVille - simply because they are way better. The DeVille was only #100 extra, it came with a footswitch and a cover, AND IT HAS SOUL.

I WOULDN'T ADVISE ANYONE IN ENGLAND TO GO FOR THIS AMP, BECAUSE THERE IS ONLY ONE DEALER, AND IT STILL COSTS ALOT OF CASH - IF WE GOT IT AT U.S PRICES IT WOULDN'T BE SUCH A BAD DEAL.

This Carvin is a 2001 model I believe. Two channels and most regular features of a combo.The accoustics presence control works well on the clean channel.Very nice with a strat.Wish it could be applied to the gain channel or the gain channel had a presence control.A very versitile amp for all styles, plus it looks great. I get lots of comments when gigging with it,not only about the tone but the appearence of it.

Very warm tone and an excellent clean channel. I really didn't like the gain channel at first because it had no presence control. I found it a little too mid or bassey.After working with the tone knobs a while I started to really like the tone on this channel.Crank the treble,it's calibrated different than most [same goes for other tone knobs on this amp], a little higher on the Mid as well. You have to remember this is a VINTAGE TONE AMP, not a Marshall or other high gain amp.It does have a unique tone. I tried a Fender Bassman reissue amp [which i would compare this to], and I like the Carvin over the Fender. If you want a more gain/crunch tone don't worry,the clean channel works very well with effects. Just try any pedals;Metal Zone,DS1,Blues Driver,etc..they all sound great through this channel.Then,if you choose, you can bypass these and use the vintage,grunge sound of channel 2. You get the best of all worlds.

Very reliable so far. Easy to cart around to gigs [nice and lite],but still packs a punch sound and volume wise.

Good so far...

A very nice amp.Good tone and very versitile.Looks great!! Spend time on channel 2,don't give up and you will find the tone you like.If you want more high end on this channel,try the old reliable Boss GE7 EQ to add some.That works!Remember,VINTAGE AMP/VITAGE TONE.A 2x12 ext cab sounds great.

Not really sure what year this was made...bought it used...based on reviews and Carvin ads...The amp now is very vesatile...notice I said now.I think all the feature have been covered in other reviews.I have Parker Nitefly and with the acoustic presence...it don't sound bad.I do wish it had a light on the footswitch or on amp to tell what channel you were in...

I have use Parker Nitefly, Hamer Sunburst early model with Dimarzios and an old '71 Tele. I really feel this amp does it blues, classic rock, light jazzy feel....Amp is not noisy, clean channel is wonderful and the lead channel is blues and warm...

I have had this amp two years no problems...mostly used for church gigs.It has not been roughed up..

Never had a dealings with them....

I've been playing off and on over thirty years bought my '71 Tele for $180 in 1972...Glad I kept that one! I have an Ovation Legend Larry Coryell Model Cutaway..it sound good through the Carvin. If lost or stolen I'd have to have another one. I really love the warm tones I get...Now for the bad news.....I had to work to get the sound I wanted...Years ago I had a Plexi that burned up with an Altair..
But that was in my younger days when power and portability didn't matter.I have used a Fender Bandmaster but had to constantly drive it with a blues setting distortion unit..So the Carvin try..Very disappointed when I got it! I swear my Vox practice amp sounded better fatter in the distortion setting...The clean channel on the Carvin was great as noted in all reviews but the amp besides being wy Loud and I me LOUD,The SOAK Channel was just too gritty, like an old FUZZ Box and it would get there quick! Frist I pulled tubes to cut the power. That help with loudness a tad...then I changed to different tubes, sounds crazy but I bought some at a Flea market and just started swapping. I end up finding sound Telefunken 12ax7.
Well to make a longer story longer...In the preamp section from left to right Position 1 & 2 GE 12au7, 3 & 4 Telefunken 12ax7 and Last 5751
I also ended up with Vintage 30 speakers,,,I've never really like sound of the Celestion sound...but these two with the Carvin really cook...My son has a Peavey slant cab with G-12 which I hook up for fun.
Overall I'd agree sounds like a lota bull...But guitarists dabble...thats what we do tinker and play with our sound! Any Questions feel free to write...

Beautiful 2x12 Tweed combo. I bought this amp used, after researching the Carvin catalog for about 6 months. I love the layout of the front panel, and the on/off and stand-by switch on the back dont bother me at all. I've never had a problem reaching them, just reach over the amp and there they are! It isnt like they move around.

I play U.S.A Strats, and a Les Paul, and they ALL sound good through this amp. Here is a little secret for some of the people who have left a review for this amp. If you use crappy guitars with crappy pick-ups, you will most likely have crappy tone, no matter what amp you use. Imagine that. I play Blues and Rock, and this is one of the best amps I have found. I just sat here and played a Fender Blues Deluxe, a very well respected Marshall all tube 1/2 stack, and the Bel Air. Guess what??? The Carvin won. The clean channel on the Bel Air has so much breath, so much air. On the neck pick-up on a good Strat it is nice and open and bubbly and smooth!!!!! The reverb is simply very musical, adding to the tone of the amp without coloring it. Beautiful. The "soak" channel does just that. If you have ever used a vintage amp through a power soak, then you know what I mean. Full, round, warm, clarity, harmonics, aahhh!!!!! Put this amp through a Marshall 4x12 and stop searching. This is also a very quiet amp. Some people just dont understand that a little noise, hiss, hum, is inevitable whenever you use any type of overdriven sound. Make it work for you!!! Ever heard of Hendrix??

I use this amp almost every day, and have never had a problem. As with any amp, it is man made and eventually some things may need replaced. Also, to those of you who dont know, an amp must be run at the proper ohm load. I suspect some of you will throw it on any old extension cabinet and never change the ohm switch, which Carvin very thoughtfully included on the back of this amp. It is there for a reason!!

I have called Carvin a few times, and I agree it depends who you talk to as to the quality of advice you will get. However, I have had this happen at other amp manufacturers, also. If you have a trusted amp guy, stick with them. As I stated earlier, I bought this amp used, so there is no warranty. I have a feeling that as long as I use the amp in the manner for which it was designed, my problems should remain minimal.

I have been playing guitar for 30 years. Of those 30 years, I have been paying attention to things like TONE for over 20 of them. It isnt complicated. Trust your ears. Listen to other amps and guitar combinations, listen to other players. The key is to LISTEN. I love the warmth and life of this amp. It adds to the music, not detracting from it. It is MUSICAL. If it were lost or stolen, I would get another one

This is a pretty straight forward tube amp. It has 2 12in speakers and runs 50 watts. This amp has 2 channels as well as a knob on the back for presence. It also has a knob for dialing in reverb.

The clean channel is totally awesome!!!! Good crisp clean tone with plenty of warmth. The overdrive channel sucked wind for lack of a better word. To me the distortion was WAY too harsh and downright gritty. I play a Carvin dc127 with a zoom 9002 processor. When I bought this amp I was expecting the warm overdrive that a tube amp usually has but couldnt get that out of this amp. The reverb was pretty decent and the presence gave it a nice shimmer, so that is definately a nice plus for this amp.

I have only owned this amp for about 8 months now but havent had any problems whatsoever from it. Would probably use on a gig without a backup.

Havent had to deal with customer support.

I have been playing for 22 years now and play mainly neoclassical and classic rock. It can cover classic rock but lacks a really warm sweet tone that I want for neoclassical. If it were lost or stolen I wouldnt replace it. I plan on pulling the tubes and changing them from EL34s to 6L6's and rebiasing it to warmer. I'm giving it an 8 overall because with a good processor and/or pedals this could be an awesome amp. One thing for sure is it is LOUD!!!

This is a follow up to the review below mine. Please ignore everything I wrote, I really don't know what I was thinking or why I had the sentiment I did. I love this amp, period. For its price, I think the only amp comparable is the Peavey Classic series. The clean on this amp is beautiful (despite what I said below), and it's great for all types of music, space/indie/post rock included. The drive channel I still dislike, but with a tubescreamer it really sounds great. It's just a totally great amp, especially for the price and features. Sorry Carvin about the lame review I gave below!

I bought this Bel-Air used, I think it was made either in late 2001 or 2002. It has two channels, with a shared reverb. Pretty basic two-channel one clean one dirty amplifier, details have been covered in previous reviews.

I'm using an ESP Strat with humbuckers and a Guild Bluesbird with Duncan '59s through the Bel-Air. I am also running it through a Carvin Legacy 2x12 cabinet with one Greenback and one V30. The music style I play is mostly post/space rock and I like to throw in a pedal and play hardcore/grindcore once in a while. The amp honestly doesn't really suit either of those styles very well. The clean sound is very nice! But the EL84 is a bit too thin-sounding for me, I prefer the bigger, rounder tone of 6L6. I think that is just a characteristic of EL84s, but I like the sound of an AC30, and an AC30 this amp is not. Neither channel "breathed" like my Carvin Legacy head that I sold this for. I also have an Ampeg V-4 head that I feel is much more touch-sensitive and responsive, and just sounds a lot bigger. The fact that the Bel-Air is an open-back 2x12 and not closed-back makes a big difference here. I really don't like the stock speakers it came with either, the amp just sounds a lot better when running through the extension cab. The GT12s sound very BOXY and cardboard like to my ears, and this is accentuated mostly on the soak channel. Also, something I realized is that this amp REALLY favors the sound of single-coil pickups! If you are a blues/rock player that enjoys using single-coils, then this amp is a 10. If you play other styles (indie rock, hardcore/metal) then this amp probably isn't for you. The distortion isn't very brutal at all. I honestly don't like the sound of the soak channel one bit, so I keep the gain very low and run a boost pedal through it and like those tones much better. The volume on both channels is very workable, unlike my Legacy head which was either way too loud or way too soft. Not an expert on reverb, but it sounds nice. The clean channel will begin to break up if you crank it, but it does have a great amount of headroom, and even moreso when you have hot pickups.

However, I hear that if you change the tubes to JJ EL84s, it will make this amp sound worlds better. This reviews how the Bel-Air is stock, though.

I bought this amp used and have been lugging it to band practices for the last year. It hasn't let me down yet!

Carvin is very friendly. I went down there and told them I needed a power cord because I lost mine, and they gave me a new one no questions asked!

I've been playing roughly five years, and have been through a few different amps (Carvin Legacy, Marshall Valvestate, Yamaha/Soldano T-50, Ampeg V-4). The real reason I bought the Bel-Air was because I needed an amp with a great sounding clean channel in a 2x12 combo form, and the Bel-Air appealed to me. It is a great amp, especially for the money, but I've decided that it just doesn't suit my styles completely. Again, if you play blues with single coils this amp just sounds incredible. Me, I am looking for a bigger, more organic sounding clean tone that is more *3D*. And the soak channel sounds terrible for any other style than blues to rock, honestly. I think that with a good tube change and speaker change, this amp could definitely see some improvement, but all in all the sound just doesn't suit me. It's a good amp for what it is, and I probably should have considered other options before buying it. That said, anyone looking to buy a used Bel-Air?

Features have been well documented below. IMO the featues are perfect. It has separate EQ for each channel, presence for the clean channel and very thoughtful placement of the controls. One suggestion to Carvin would be a light to indicate which channel you're using. It looks great if you're after a retro/vintage look and is fairly lightweight compared to other amps in the same class.

I have three electric guitars... a Carvin Bolt, a Carvin SC90s and a MIJ Fender Strat. When I bought this amp I was looking mostly for a good blues amp. Something that can get a great clean to a SRV bluesy crunch and beyond.

The clean on this amp is great... excellent... as good if not better than any Fender I've ever heard. It's got a really good vintage tone all of it's own. It is extremely loud and has a ton of headroom. I bought it used and immediately replaced the tubes with JJ's recommended by Bob at Eurotubes. The tubes perked it up a bit but the Clean channel was already pretty good. I bought them mainly to bring the lead channel to life.

It didn't work. I am still amazed that an amp that has such a good clean tone has such an awful, crappy, muddy, sterile, unusable lead channel. I have tried & tried to get a lead sound I like. I've turned the knobs left and I've turned them right. I've tried different guitars and tried using a pedal in front of it but I just cannot get a sound I like. I'm a pretty big Carvin fan but I really don't know how anyone can justify the money on this amp unless you only want a Clean sound. There is plenty of talk of modifying the amp on the Carvin BBS but IMHO you shouldn't have to modify an amp out of the box except for maybe tubes. I'm giving it a 4 because I can't get the tone I was looking for. I'd give it a 1 except the Clean sound is great.

Two weeks after I bought the amp I took it to an audition. About 45 minutues into the audition I noticed an ungodly hum coming from my amp. I looked in the back and two of the four EL84s were in nuclear meltdown mode. The bass player lent me an amp to finish the audition with. It cost me $50 to get it fixed. It was a capacitor for the power tube section. About three weeks later the reverb disappeared. I took it back to the amp technician. He said it was the same (type) of capacitor. The amp uses approx 8 of these capacitors so we replaced them all. I haven't had any problems since. Carvin was very good about emailing me a schematic which probably saved me some money in repair costs.

Other than the schematic I haven't dealt with the customer service deptartment in regard to the amp. Beware though when you're ordering from them you may get someone that rode the short bus to school on the other end of the phone.

Overall I'd say I'm disappointed with the amp. Based on some of the other reviews here and all the ranting & raving about it on the Carvin BBS you'd think this was the best amp in the world. It isn't. I also own a Peavey Delta Blues 210. It is worth every cent I paid for it and the lead sounds I can get out of it blow the BelAir away. But hey, to each his own. To those interested in trying this amp I'd recommend buying it new from Carvin because of the return policy they have. If you buy it used you'll have a hard time getting your money back out of it. If you DO want a used one... let me know. If someone stole it I'd replace it with a Peavey Classic 50 2121BT.

Amp purchased new in fall 2000. Same as all other Carvin Belair 212's

Amp was OK until you change the tubes from GT Sovteks. I use mainly single coil guitars. Changing tubes to JJ from
Bob at www.eurotubes.com will turn this into a "new" amp. Totally woke up both clean and drive channels to the "sound" I liked. Amp was way to bright stock, much mor useable tone controls with JJ's. While no Super Reverb, this amp is great and I like it alot. For a smaller combo with 12's it's right up there.

Been Ok

Got a schematic from them no problem.

I've been playing 35 years and owned lots of amps, this is right up there as long as you go to NOS or good tubes like JJ's.

Standard features. Its a vintage tube amp, nothing unique about it.

I use a MIM Strat and a Carvin AE-185. I play Jazz, Blues, Rock - jam band like. The amp did have a rattle in it which bothered me. The Clean channel was good, I could get some great tones out of it with the Carvin, but I couldn't get the classic clean SRV strat sound out of it. I played it pretty loudly (around 5) and it didn't break up, but I have a feeling it wasn't loud enough for me.

The worst part is the distortion. At VERY low amounts of gain it was useable, but if you went much past 4 the gain or 'soak' was horrid. On the upper register of the neck the notes came through like fart, I can't explain it but it was just horrible. It was the same way when I plugged in my tubescreamer.

If you want CLEAN ONLY this amp will work, I rate the clean at about a 7 or 8. If you want any distortion at all, even with pedals don't look at this amp. I give the 'soak' channel a 2 or 3 in tone.

I know a lot of people love this amp, but thats especially after changing to JJs and doing mods. I want something that sounds good out of the box.

It had a slight rattle. But was overall quite well built. I have a feeling it could stand some damage

Carvin is helpful and friedly. My guitar shipped with a burt out 12AX7 and Carvin shipped tubes as fast as possible. It took a week unfortunatly because its cross country, but they were helpful.

WARNING: I'm not going to experiment much more with Carvin because I can't afford the $70 return shipping. I was convinced that the Bel-Air was the amp for me, but it didn't work out.

I've played 6 years, and I'm just getting into Tube amps. I fiddled around guitar stores for a few days and I ended up with the Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10. The Gain isn't top notch, but with my tubescreamer it sounds really good. The Clean is just as good, and it gets better Strat tones if you ask me. I'm having trouble getting a good clean on my Carvin though. I think the Carvin PUs might need to be changed out for something better.

Basic features, somthing I wanted in an amp, tubes, gain, reverb, and volume. I like to keep things simple and this amp fits that requirement. It does have two channels, clean and lead/drive. effects loop, foot pedal for channel switch and reverb on/off. I use this amp for studio and gigs. Has plenty of power, loud 50watts. Played it next to my 50watt ampeg reverberocket head with 4-12's the carvin kept up nicely, I was impressed. This is the Bel Air with the older vintage speakers not the GT's. Overall the looks of the amp are very nice vintage style, nicely done tweed tolex.

I use a variety of guitars and pick-up combos. I have a gibson sg with two humbuckers(stock) and coil taps, a Les Paul with two humbuckers(stock), a telecaster with Lindy Fralin blues specials, and a Epiphone Sheraton II with stock humbuckers. The amp fits my style nicely, I like to play a variety of music from blues to country to jazz to rock, sometimes too many varieties of music. I feel this amp can work well in any of those styles.

The amp only seems to make noise when the guitars are around the computer other than that nothing noticable.

The clean chanel stays real clean for me even at higher volumes. I did however change out the tubes with JJ's sound on the drive channel was not as muddy at the lower volumes and a bit more defined than the sovtek's(I believe that is what was in it, I know some of them had the GT stamp over the sovtek stamp).

The distortion is basic head on tube crunch, it can vary from mild country with a bit of grit to bluesy cream then up the soak a bit higher a get some solid rock tone.

I feel I can depend on it, but it is a tube amp so take your chances if you may. I have not had any problems with it for the 8 months I have used it.

I have been playing about 17 years. I have the Bel Air, a Fender Twin Reverb, an Ampeg 4-12 reverbrocket and a small peavey(transtube). The Bel Air sounds very nice compared to the other amps and when hooked up to four speakers, open or closed back cab, it sounds extra nice. I feel the Bel Air is possibly the best amp I own. I have played a lot of amps through the years and haven't palyed any that outshine this one, they may sound as good/same as the Bel Air but hard to say any sound better. Good amp to purchase, if your reverved about ordering through the mail don't be, it took me a year to finally decide to order it, I am glad i did.

Purchased new from Carvin mail order in July 2002.
Nice vintage 50W 2x12 combo, and is loud.
Original tubes sounded terrible with my setup, and I almost returned it.
The effects loop did not work well with my setup for some reason (see below).
I did a lot of research, and wanted to try this amp to get a bigger, deeper, clean tone when needed, and a warmer, thicker, tube tone than my smaller 1x12 MusicMan.

2 channels are good, foot switch is okay but could use an LED as many others have suggested.
Dual inputs would be a nice addition also.
The plastic handle does not seem strong enough for the weight (catalog shows a thick leather handle), and it could use detachable casters like a Fender.
The chicken-head knobs are neat, but could be too easy to move the wrong knob when moving with fat fingers if the "points" are adjacent.
Otherwise excellent features and value for the $$. (SEE COMMENTS ABOUT TUBES!)

I play Strats with single coil pickups: DiMarzzio Fat Strats and SD Hot Rails in one Strat, stock pickups and a DiMarzzio Fat Strat in another. I play a wide variety of cover and original music, but enjoy 60's 70's harder rock and Hendrix, SRV, Trower blues rock styles.
Effects include an early '80's Tube Screamer, Cry Baby Wah, and a newer Zoom GFX-4.

BEFORE CHANGING TUBES: Rating 4
This amp was initially way too loud to get the blues/rock tone I wanted by pushing the power and pre-amp tubes.
I had to keep the clean and gain channel volumes on 1.5 max.

I was disappointed with the tone and drive of the gain (2nd) channel.
The soak preamp volume adds scratchy, gritty distortion, and I ended up putting the Treble control to 0 just to get rid of the high-end
raspy/buzziness from the gain channel. I was very close to returning the amp since I could not get a good sound at all.

AFTER CHANGING TUBES: Rating 10!

I talked to Carvin, and they said "that's how it sounds with single-coils".
I did a little more research, and worked with Bob from Eurotubes (http://www.eurotubes.com/). He gave excellent recommendations, and I ordered a complete set of replacement tubes from him for $75 (I figured it was worth a try, since I'd lose $80 in shipping if I returned the amp anyway). Bob was very accomodating, and sent them quickly since I had a gig a few days later.
NOW all of the raspy harsh crap tone from the original tubes is gone.
VERY nice and creamy overdrive from the Soak channel, and VERY clear, distinguished, defined tone from the Clean channel without brittleness. I can NOW get anywhere from a chicken-pluckin' "Hot Rod Lincoln" tone to "Sunshine of your Love" sustain, and use my effects to get Marshall crunch when needed.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND REPLACING THE STOCK SOVTEK TUBES!!!!!

I used it for the first time at a 6 hour outdoor picnic gig in the hot sun, with no problems.
I've used it 3 or 4 times since, in addition to basement practice.

No problems with anything so far.

Very good when helping track the UPS shipment.
No damage when shipped, as some users have reported.

Other users indicated that Support would work with you regarding tube and speaker issues, but the guy I talked to just went and plugged in a Strat in the back room to test the sound, and said "that's how it sounds, not much we can do". Very friendly, but not much help with my tone problems.
I would have sent it back if I hadn't found the Eurotubes website.
Carvin would get Zero returns on these amps if they invested a little more in better tubes, or else give customers better tips on how to improve the sound for use with single-coil pickups.

I have been playing Classic Rock and other styles in working bands for 25 years. I am partial to tube amps, and I just don't care for the digital stuff.
I've been using a small miked-up 50w 1x12 MusicMan tube combo for the last 15 years, but finally wanted something with more meat and volume without breaking up.
I tried the Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2x12, but found it to be too loud, have poor tone, and mushy overdrive. Not worth the $780, for sure.

OVERALL-
AFTER CHANGING TUBES, I LOVE how this amp sounds!!
SEE www.eurotubes.com for great advice from Bob:
The vintage look is uniquely great, and it appears to be a strong workhorse that can produce almost any tones for most styles of music.
You will still need an effects box for Marshall crunch tones, but otherwise you can get EVERYTHING else out of this amp!
I would definitely buy another if I lost it!
I'd never spend $1000+ for a Fender or other amp.
I never tried a MesaBoogie, but I bet this is as close as you'll ever get for less than $600!!

Bought in 1998.
The features are already documented.
I was using a Fender Vibrolux, which I loved, but which was not as
versatile as I'd like -- esp in the areas of overdrive and channel
switching. I didn't want to mod it, so I was looking for something similar, but with more features. I also wanted something with 2x12's,
instead of the Vibrolux's 2x10's, which tended to fart a bit when hit
hard.
The Bel Air was a foot-switchable 2x12, with an overdrive channel,
so it seemed like a good place to start.

I was pretty excited when I got the box delivered to work -- could not
believe how little it weighed compared to any Fender I'd owned. It
looked good, too.
I got it home, and plugged in one of my stock '70's strats. Everything
fired up as it should have done. Turn it on, and...
Ugh. Very squishy at the low end, very spitty at the high end. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the mids out, or the bass or treble to focus -- all honk and fur.
The clean channel wouldn't clean up, and I found it impossible to get
any low-E "clang" (that nice, tight, metallic clang of a clean Fender
when you whack the low E.)
Having said all of this, I want to quickly point out that I had no
previous experience using EL84-equipped amps. Carvin may not use the
best tubes, but the "problems" I was having are just characteristics
of the EL84. After playing through 4 or 5 other amps in the same price
range, I came to the conclusion that I just don't like the EL84 sound.
So, though the amp's sound was disappointing to me, I don't want to
scare anybody off.
I would probably really like this amp if it used 6v6 output tubes,
which are a little more focused-sounding, while still breaking up
nicely when pushed.
I did really like the sound of the reverb -- it was pretty understated
and smooth.
For me, it's a 5. For someone else???

It worked fine out of the box. I sent it back, though, so I'm going
to pass on this.

I've generally heard good things about Carvin's service, but let
me throw this story out, just as something to consider:
My guitar tech showed me a schematic Carvin had sent him so that he
could repair one of their amps. It was a completely illegible
photocopy, creased and half-destroyed before he even got it. So
hang on to the schematic you get with the amp -- otherwise you may
not exactly get a cooperative attitude from these guys when you
attempt to get your amp field-serviced. If you buy one used, ask
the previous owner if he still has the paperwork.
The documentation supplied with the amp is quite decent --
just keep it dry in the back of the amp for when you need it.
I personally have had no direct service dealings with Carvin, so
I'm offering no numerical opinion.

I've been playing 25 years. I have 4 Fender amps (Hot Rod DeVille,
Princeton Reverb, Quad Reverb, and 83 Concert. Many single-coil
guitars (mainly '70's Strats and Teles.)
The DeVille ended up being the amp I bought and kept after I'd
returned the Carvin. It has its shortcomings (wish it had Carvin's
reverb, for instance) but it gives me the low-end and high-end
definition I need (6L6 tubes.)
All in all, I just don't like the EL84 sound for my own playing.
Since that's the Bel Air output tube of choice, well...

This amp was built in 2002 and carries the richer celestion-like speakers rather than the VL12s from last year. Since I play mostly clean or with a small amount of gritty distortion, I have found the Belair to be perfect for my taste. The first channel sounds a lot like my '64 Twin Reverb, very clean, but has a slight more break in it. The second channel has the "soak" feature that overdrives the preamp tubes. This channel is great for "bluesy" leads. Since I use external effects only and do not add overdrive, I am quite happy what is on the amp. Since I mostly jam at home, and my gigs are at small clubs, the 50 watts are more than adequate.

I play a new american tele and a '70 strat (no humbuckers), and the sound is great both clean and with overdrive. I flat pick and finger pick, and the twang with the pads of my fingertips and the back of my nails is very natural and surprisingly bright through the clean channel. If you turn up the clean channel, you can give it a Deluxe Reverb-like punch and warmth. Granted, the Belair is not a Mesa Boogie, but you don't buy it because you're into metal or grunge. It's more like a vintage Fender (deluxe or super).

I've only had the amp for 2 months, but I've had no problems with it. I've gigged only twice with it, and without trouble.

I haven't had to use customer support yet, but when I bought the amp through one of their retail outlets, they didn't have the pedal, but told me they'd send it out as soon as it came. I received it express mail 5 days later.

I've been playing for 34 years, but have alternated between acoustic and electric. I own a '64 Twin Reverb, and a Line 6 Flextone II (which I plan on selling. I have found that one amp sound quality is good enough for me with modulation. Amp modeling is flat and artificial. If the amp were stolen, I would definitely replace it. For the price and the reputed reliability, it's the best I've ever had, and I've had a Marshall 100W, Hiwatt 50W, '64 Twin, '67 Twin.

Separate channels with different settings easy to operate and can change with footswitch or toggle switch on front of amp. Most features are spelled out below.

I play a early edition Charvel and switched the neck pickup to a single coil and kept the humbucker on the bridge. I was pleased with the amp and its performance for clean and blues leads and particulary impressed with the Keith Richards drive you could achieve on rhythm with the soak on 3. After 6 months or so I wanted to get a much heavier distortion and the amp didn't produce. I tried a Big Muff and for me it just killed the effects of the tubes. I went and bought a Mesa Boogie Solo Recto-Verb Combo for $1,300 and it is a beast. All the sounds are in there but it can be extremely overpowering. After another 6 months it became a little grating and uncontrollable unless I was really on top of my sound (which doesn't happen as much as I would like).
I went back to the Carvin and really enjoyed it. I researched tubes which I knew nothing about. Loaded in about $150 of tubes (main tube in V1 preamp is a Mullard)and the sound is remarkable. Everything I want in an amp including creamy distortion.
My favorite sound on the amp is still there, which existed with the stock tubes. Volume on guitar down (so I push the tubes more with the amp's volume), Channel 2 with soak on 5 and humbucker and picking ever so gently I get a beautiful chime with wonderful harmonics coloring the sound. Adn then I can add bite with pick attack.
Anybody want to buy a Mesa Boogie? Only kidding, it may be good to fall back on one day.

Never a problem.

Asked them a number of questions regarding tubes and they were very helpful.

Great amp. Can't wait to play it everyday.

2 footswitchable channels (clean and "soak"), separate EQ (bass, mid, treble) for each channel, master reverb (footswitchable), basic FX loop (no controls)--> based on tribal knowledge/common wisdom and my experience with this amp, any type of modulation or delay effect should be run thru the loop, as the front-end of the amp is somewhat sensitive about what you plug into it --> will take a wah and an overdrive pedal readily (I use Budda products in that regard), but is real "picky" about compressors (I tried a Boss, Aphex, and a Presonus - in standard guitar configuration, all three generated excessive noise, the Presonus being the least noisy); a "presence" knob that only applies to the clean channel --> brings out the really top-end freq's --> this would've been more useful applied to the "soak" channel, as the clean channel is already quite bright sounding (see "Sounds", below); pre-amp out, ext. speaker out, 4-8-16 ohm switch, 2x12" Carvin "Vintage" series speakers, 5x12AX7, 4xEL84 -- this amp is very responsive to different tube brands.

My set-up: Fender Lonestar Strat --> Budda BudWah --> Budda Phatman --> Carvin BelAir --> fx loop --- Guyatone VT-X tremolo --> Roland GP-8 (primarily for delay/chorus only - controlled w/a Rolls Midi-Buddy). Clean channel has its own thing going -- bright and chimey, let's the Strat sound like a Strat -- the EL84's really "hunker down" with the guitar volume up, so much so that I go without a compressor. "Soak" channel can be dialed into some nice overdrive, but is not suitable for my single coils -- too "dark" sounding, even with the amp and guitar treble up -- too much amp (past 7) treble, and this channel gets overly hissy. With a humbucker (in my case, a Duncan Pearly Gates) and the guitar's treble adjusted to taste, the soak channel is much more appealing, but it still has a "rolled-off" sound, akin to Jennifer Turner on Natalie Merchant's "Tiger Lily" CD. I've found it to be of limited use, but the clean channel with the Phatman more than makes up the difference. Both channels articulately reproduce the freq's they showcase - no flabby bass tones here -- however the clean channel can be "ice-picky" if you don't pay attention to the guitar's treble setting. That's one thing that I really like about this amp, though -- it let's me work the tone from the guitar very nicely. The reverb isn't what I'd call "surf" quality (doesn't have that warm, over-the-top Fender attribute), but is otherwise pleasing and plays well with delays. Volume-wise, I've yet to have to mic it, and that includes playing some good-sized halls -- highest volume setting I've played is 7. Other amps that I'm comparing it to (i.e., my point-of-reference): '65 Fender Pro-Reverb, re-issue Fender Super Reverb, Budda Verbmaster 2x10 (a spankin' amp!) and 1x12, Marshall 9001 rackmount tube pre-amp, and a Dr. Z 18 watt 1x12. It's hard to beat the value of the Carvin.

The footswitch broke early on; the reverb tank does not come in an enclosure nor is it secured to the amp -- it soon developed an annoying rattle due to the sonic beating it was exposed to -- I cannibalized a bag from another amp and screwed it down to the box and now it's fine. One of the power tube retainers (not the socket) vibrates against the tube and I keep having to re-tension it. I've had it for two years now, haul it around in and out of my car's trunk to weekly rehearsals and gigs and it has otherwise held up nicely. Nice weight and size for gigging.

Usually accessible and very easy to work with -- sent me a new footswitch w/in 2 days, no questions asked.

I started playing 30 years ago, started gigging 26 years ago, backed off it from 1980-1995, went back to the "woodshed" in 1995, and started gigging again about 5 years ago. The one thing I've learned (and this just my opinion)is that it doesn't matter how technically competent you are musically if your sound is not appealling to listeners, and there's more to sound than just technology (Uh, I guess that's 2 things I've learned ... cool). The Bel Air does a nice job of translating my style and limited technique into something that's pleasing to the ear, and it's tough to beat the price. Other amps may sound better, but (imho) not a $1000 better.

AMP WAS MADE IN 2001. I BOUGHT IT NEW SOUND UNHEARD. THE AMP WAS A VERY PLEASANT SURPRISE AND IS MORE THAN VERSATILE ENOUGH FOR MY PLAYING STYLES. I PLAY A BLUES JAZZ ROCK KINDA SOUND. ONE FEATURE WHICH WOULD BE NICE IS A MASTER VOLUME OTHER THAN THAT IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO TWEAK YOUR VOLUME KNOBS. I PLAY IN A BAND AND YES IT HAS MORE THAN ENOUGH POWER, IT IS A VERY LOUD 50W.

I USE A NUMBER NUMBER OF DIFFERENT GUITARS; GIBSON ES-335, GIBSON SG(W/HUMBUCKER@BRIDGE AND TWO SINGLE COILS), A CUSTOM MADE SEMI-HOLOW WITH ONE BRIDGE POSITION HUMBUCKER, AND A MARTIN ACOUTIC ELECTRIC-YES I PLAY AN ACOUSTIC THROUGH THIS AMP AND IT SOUNDS GOOD, NOT THE MOST IDEAL AMP FOR ACOUSTIC BUT IT SOUNDS GOOD ENOUGH I DON'T FEEL THE NEED TO RUN OUT AND SPEND 500-600 ON AN ACOUSTIC AMP RIGHT NOW. tHE AMP OVERALL SOUNDS VERY GOOD, THE CLEAN CHANNEL IS STUNNING AND SMOOTH. THE OVERDRIVE CHANNEL HAS GOOD BITE YET DOESN'T BECOME UNCLEAR. I ACTUALLY REPLACED THE TUBES WITH SOME THAT DON'T BREAK-UP AS SOON IN THE OVERDRIVE CHANNEL AS THE ORIGINALS , THE CLEAN CHANNEL HAS PLENTY OF OVERHEAD. YOU CAN GET GREAT BLUES, JAZZ, COUNTRY, CLASSIC ROCK, ROCK SOUNDS OUT OF THIS AMP. OVERALL THE AMP STAYS PRETTY QUITE, NO HUMMING OR BUZZING.i PLAY MY PRCTICE AMP )NOT A CARVIN) AT HOME AND SOMETIMES BEGIN TO DISLIKE WHAT I HEAR THEN I PLAY THROUGH THE CARVIN AND JUST LOVE THE SOUND

I HAVE NOT HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE AMP SO FAR, I HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE AMP BUT IT IS A TUBE AMP SO I ALWAYS HAVE AN EXTRA SET OF TUBES WITH ME. I HAD A VINTAGE FENDER QUAD REVERB FOR A FEW YEARS THAT ONLY GAVE ME TROUBLE WHEN THE TUBES WERE READY TO BE REPLACED SO I WOULD EXPECT THE SAME FROM THIS AMP. SEEMS TO BE CONSTRUCTED RATHER WELL. SOME AMPS I LOOKED AT BEFORE I PURCHASED THIS ONE HAD PARTICLE BOARD CABINETS, NOT FOR ME. THE CARVIN IS MADE OF BIRCH PLYWOOD.

I ONLY HAVE TALKED TO CUSTOMER SUPPORT FOR QUESTIONS I HAD BEFORE I PURCHASED THE AMP AND WHILE I WAS WAITING FOR IT TO BE DELIVERED. THEY WERE ALL FRIENDLY AND HELFUL.

I HAVE BEEN PLAYING GUITAR FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS. I CURRENTLY DON'T OWN MUCH FOR OTHER AMPS BUT I HAVE OWNED A FENDER QUAAD REVERB, A FENDER TWIN REVERB AND A ROLAND(DON'T REMEMBER THE MODEL). IF IT WERE LOST OR STOLEN I WOULD BUY IT AGAIN. WHAT I HATE ABOUT IT IS I DON'T GET TO PLAY THROUGH IT MORE. i DID COMPARE THE CARVIN TO OTHER AMPS SUCH AS; VOX AC30, FENDER DEVILLE 212, MARSHALL BLUESBREAKER 212, ALL GOOD AMPS WHICH I LIKED. tHE CARVIN RANKS WITH ALL THE AMPS I MENTIONED,THEY ALL HAVE THEIR OWN SOUND, I WOULD BE HAPPY WITH ANY OF THEM, THE CARVIN COMPARES EVENLY WITH ANY OF THESE AMPS IN SOUND IF NOT SOMTIMES BETTER AND FOR THE PRICE!!! OVERALL THIS IS A VERY GOOD AMP.

This is a follow up review, I purchased a Bel-Air back in Feb.2002. It was shipped UPS from SanDiego,to NewHaven CT. about as far as you could go. Although it arrived on schedule,in good physical appearance,there was an annoying glassy rattle coming through the speakers. Spoke to Carvin on and tried everything to correct the problem. Tubes,speakers,reverb ect..ect. Carvins Greg Holland was wonderful through the whole ordeal. Finally Greg said ship it back and I'll ship you a brand new one. What more could you ask for? Though the original amp sounded good. I didn't think it sounded as good as a few Fenders I have been playing through for years. But I still felt it was a exeptional value. I also felt the reviews were over exaggerated. Well my NEW CARVIN BEL-AIR arrived. Before I sent in this review I played through it for a few days,just about non-stop morning through night. I new within the first hour of plugging in,this was a different beast THIS BEL-AIR SOUNDS FUCKING UNREAL! I am blown away by this amp. Carvin upgraded the speakers from VL-12s to GT-12s and of course this amp isn't defective. It went from being a decent tube amp, to sceaming like a raped ape. My old lady had to physically come take me by the hand to get me to come to dinner. Then beg me to turn it down at 11pm that night.Incredable fucking incredable. Thats all I can say.

Incredable just fucking incredable

Hopefully the problems are all behind us. This amp sounds so good,Im not sure I would ship it across country for repairs if needed. I'd rather pay to have it done here. CARVIN IS TOPS! You will not find a better service dept,/customer relations in this world. Honest to God they were fantastic. And trust me I could be a pain in the ass.

The best. You will be hard pressed to find a better company to deal with.

I have played through every amp. out there. MARSHALL, FENDER, AMPEG, SOLANDO, REVEREND, VOX, GIBSON, PIGNOSE all tube, PEAVEY. I currently own a 65Twin, 410Bassman, 410DeVille Reverend Hellhound, Princton, and a Line6 modeling amp. I have been playing since 66, and on stage since 68.w/ a Gretch Astro-Jet through a 412 100watt Bandmaster, Trust me you will be hard pressed to find a better sounding amp. for ANY PRICE! Equipment will come and go, but my BEL-AIR will always be here. THANKS CARVIN and GREG HOLLAND for building an amp with such a great tone, And thanks for being patient till we got it right with the UPS problems. You'll be hearing from me soon

This amp has become my fave amp and main workhorse. I play in a variety band that covers oldies, funk, classic rock, blues, new rock, country...you name it. This amp never ceases to amaze me. Whenever I have friends sit in, they always comment on how much they love the tone & response, and I shake my head at the back of the room at how great it sounds (with a big smile of course). My Marshall JCM800 2X12 and my Fender Bandmaster 4X10 now sit retired at home (boy were they big and heavy to carry around for so long!). They used to be the comparison that I used for all other amps I played...and the Carvin was the first to get close enough to both that I've been happy ever since. The only feature I could think to add, would be seperate fx loops for the clean and crunch channels. I also changed out the speakers to Celestion G12M-65's and it changed the whole amp. I thought it sounded too "honky" before. Now it's very articulate, and big, bold and powerful.

I'm using a Fender Floyd Rose strat that has a double-coil Dimarzio in the bridge (that changes to single coil when you pull up the tone knob) and two Dimarzio HS stacked single coils. I still smile at how beautiful and LOUD the clean channel is. What does it excel at? Think Santo & Johnny...the Ventures...Dwight Yoakam...Stray Cats...SRV playing "Tin Pan Alley"..."Sultans of Swing"...you got it. The crunch channel REALLY improved with the new speakers. I agree that the crunch isn't Metallica...but we cover Green Day, Blink 182 & AC-DC with NO PROBLEM. Plenty of gain. I recently bought a BOSS GT-6 and found 2 configurations I love. Hard to decide between them. In the first config...I use the GT-6 in the fx loop. It's only purpose is for fx (reverb, delay, chorus, compressor, etc.)...no crunch or pre-amp. This sounds absolutely ass-kicking and the amp's clean and crunch channels really shine. With the second setup I plug the GT-6 into the Bel-Air clean channel and use the GT-6's crunch a la tube screamer. Also very cool. Plus it gives me a little more versatility in the distortion when Metallica covers roll around. I've owned a Marshall TSL602, a Mesa Boogie Dual and Triple Rectifier, a Fender Silver-face Twin...the list goes on...and this Bel-Air is the best bang-for-the-buck I've seen. It's so responsive, bell-like & articulate I love the damn thing.

Never had a problem. It just works & works. 3+ years of my abuse and it's still kicking ass.

Always been VERY helpful and friendly when I've called.

If (God forbid) anything happened to this thing, I would buy another one in an instant. Nothing else I've EVER played gives you this much value & tone for the money. And no, I'm not getting paid to say all this stuff...I'm just a "weekend warrior" and a former professional (that got sick of being broke all the time....hahaha) that LOVES my amp.

The features are well known on this amp. If you want to know more, look at the reviews below. Thanks.

All I can say about this amplifier is it sounded airy. The sound sounded like it was coming more out the back of the open cabinet than the front.
I unhooked the speakers and ran the amp into my 2-12 EVM speaker cabinet. LOOK OUT! A WHOLE DIFFERENT ANIMAL!!!! The amp almost doubled in volume and it just screamed! The stock speakers were the vintage series type.

The construction of a Carvin amp is just FLAWLESS! Clean clean clean.
A beautiful amp indeed.
I do not know how reliable this particular Bel-Aire is, but my Carvin 100 X head is still ticking with no problems.

Carvin gives excellent support.

I have been playing for 34 years.
Amps I own: a 1970 silver face Fender Super Reverb, 1968 SF Fender Vibro Champ, Marshall Valvestate 100, Musicman HD 150 and a Rogue 30R practice amp.

Guitars I own : 77 Gibson LP Standard, LP Special, Fender tex mex Strat, Fender 90's tele deluxe, Carvin DC-127, Carvin C-550 acoustic, Electra X410 Jazz Strad and a custom made electric guitar.

I tried my LP and fender strat through the amp. Sounds were excellent with the EV speakers.

The fact I bought this amp was for portability to go to jams, as my other gear is heavy.

I sent the amp back to Carvin and lost 70+ dollars on shipping.

I hated the stock speakers.

Features are well coverred below.

I replaced the stock speakers with Vintage Jensens (not sure the model numbers, but they are top of line, most expensive speaker, possibly pm concert series with Anlic magnets). Retubed with JJ's. The amp sounded good before these upgrades, especially when considering the price. The original set up sound was an excellant clean channel, which appears to the concensus of previous reviews. I agree with some of the reviews which were somewhat with the overdriven channel. However, I find that too many reviewers opinions are shaped by comparison to marshall and fender sound. If the amp deviates from these, it is considered to be negative. The overdrive on the Carvin sounds in my opion, ratty, muddy, and definately different, sound of it's own. However, I like the sound, especially with the overdrive tweeked just a bit, a good classic tube distortion. I have some excellant recordings I've done of STones songs with a slight dirt on the overdrive channel, with a bit of Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Punch. Many have commented what a great tone my Strat has on these songs. With the speaker/tube upgrade the sound is amazingly improved. The muddiness on the overdrive channel is cleaned up substantially, with improved individual note definition. The clean channel is also improved in terms of clarity and tone, especially broadening the bass. I favor using this channel with pedals, my favorite being Reverend Drivetrain, Boss DS 1, and a Hot Cake. The Hot Cake clean channel combo is the best, emmulating an excellent Neil Young Sound. To my ear, I cannot hear a jump in quality in much more expensive boutique amps.

No Problems.

Haven't needed it.

Even with the upgrades, I still have an excellent amp under $1000. I also use a single 12 Ampeg ReverboRocket, also an excellent and underrated amp. However, I favor the Carvin.

OK So I read all the reviews read the Carvin catalog. And order myself a brand new 212. Mind you I ordered this amp before the brother below me put in a review. Can anyone tell me why out of all these fucking reviews NOBODY mentioned its not TWEED. ITS NOT TWEED> ITS NOT TWEED> ITS NOT TWEED> ITS NOT TWEED> ITS NOT TWEED> ITS NOT TWEED> ITS NOT TWEED. Not for nothing the purpose of these reviews is to give an honest eval. NOT ANOTHER FUCKING SALES PITCH. To get sucked into buying something you thought would be well similar to a AC-30 VOX. I must have been drinking. And reading these reviews only enhanced that aberative thinking. I must have been out of my fucking mind buying a mail order Amp. To top it off I have it sent to Conn. from Calif. Not a good move Oh and it shows up in a box barely supported by BROKEN foam corners. Like Carvin was trying to save $$$$ on foam. But let me stop. This is a review of the BEL-AIR. Which all the features are well covered below

Ive played a wide variety of guitars through this amp. And have been very critical of it. It arrived with a rattle coming from the speakers. Of course it took me a week of taking it apart, checking the electronics, putting it together, taking it apart checking tubes and replacing. CARVIN IS GOOD WITH CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Putting it together and rechecking. Through the process the glassy, rattle was finally located in a speaker. Although not a blown speaker. Anyway I'll replace the speakers probly with Vin,30s. Also the second channel is virtualy worthless, You can tweak it and get a OD sound thats a little more saturated than Chan.1 But in reality whos fooling who. Better off with a pedal on channel one. The reverb is garbage also. And I use very little usually two on my Fenders. Five on the Carvin. The problem is not being a long tail reverb. The problem is cutting corners to save $$$$. Just think Carvin could have iced the reverb iced channell two, Put those dollars into real tweed. and refining channel one.

Aside from the rattle the 212 showed up with it appears to be sturdy, Its under warr. anyway. And I'm gonna work it out every day for that whole year.

Carvin seems ok. Sent me new power tubes, When I replace speakers Ill send back faulty one. Im sure they'll replace. Ill use for back ups.

I really do like channell one. And it is a very good sounding EL-84. But I bent a not on the sevententh registar on the D string, That reverb makes some weird sounds. I came home that night and tried that same note out a few times. Same weird sound every time. Can't use Carvins reverb. IMHO re-bias with Groove TUBES or better. If warrentied leave alone uve the sovtechs. CHANGE THE SPEAKERS. AND USE A DECENT REVERB UNIT. Then you'll be good to go. As iI said I do like the amp and channell one. I just expected so much more between Carvin and HARMONY CENTRAL reviews. Once reality set in and I got down to business, I realized aside from a few minor flaws this is a great sounding amp. The KEY here is PRICE PER PRODUCT. For the 584. these are going for brand new. Its hard to beat for the money. So the question is, Is this a good value? Its pretty hard to beat for the dollars. I don't see anything close, Fender Deluxe? Its a 112 with 6L6s not the el-84 sound. Bottom line is you cannot beat for the money and as you upgrade it will become a tone monster.

Late '90's; 4 EL84 50 watter; 2 ch. (clean/drive) switchable with solid faceplate toggle (footswitch optional and extra $); 3 band eq. (both channels); Separate control for drive on ch. 2; Reverb; Effects loop; Line out; Different impedance outs (4/8/16) all mono; Presence control in rear; Power and standby in rear (modern style rocker switches); NOT TWEED! This amp is covered with vinyl printed with a tweed pattern; 2 high quality and high power (100w each)12" Carvin (probably Eminence) speakers

Used with Gibson Les Paul Custom (with stock 498 and 490 pickups)and ES-335 (with stock '57's) this amp screams. As other reviewers have noted, the clean channel on this amplifier is satiny, bell-like, punchy, liquid, and clear. At high volumes, this channel breaks up beautifully, and its otherwise smooth delivery turns into a penetrating and gritty bark. And it is LOUD. The drive channel is touchy. Pushing the gain really can limit your articulation, and past 2 o'clock (7, I think, on the dial), the pre-amp load doesn't change noticeably. Getting a tone similar to the clean channel on the drive channel is possible, but not easy. This amp. has a great rotund crack when the drive pot. is at about 11 o'clock. You will have no trouble pounding out some bell-bottom rock or blues. Do NOT buy this amp intending to use it for heavy metal straight out of the box. Get a Big Muff, if you need real fuzz, or a Maxon or MXR distortion box. This amp is an attempt at classicly clear club conquering tones with some round muscle.
I used the Bel Air to play hard pop, rock, and folky jazz, and it generated appropriate tones in every genre. I could have used more gain and a more pervasive tone in general when playing crunchy stuff, but I did not expect this amp. to possess those kinds of characteristics. The is really no mass-produced combo that can top this thing on tone for the price. A Mesa Road King, Top Hat Ambassador, or even Budda Twinmaster 18w could kill this thing with a whisper, but then you'd be talking about spending over a g. I have to be conservative on my tone judgement, however, and not just rate this thing relative to the price. The twinmaster, incidentally, would nail a 10.

I have used this amp. without a back-up. I strongly advise against it. Twice within the span 4 months (five shows, maybe) this thing crapped out on me. The first time, I merely had a total loss of volume. I sent it back to Carvin and the promptly repaired the defect. I was a little worried when it came back, because rattling around in the back was a resistor. It looked brand new (unsoldered), and so I didn't worry too much. I called Carvin about this, just to inform them that they had included some extra parts, and they said I shouldn't have a problem. Just when I thought I couldn't have another problem, a transformer blows. It melted the paint on the exterior! I know, I know, you think it could have been an impedance mis-match, but I never touched the speaker outs. I played it the way I got it (other than eq. and vol. changes). You tell me... I sent it back again, and when the returned it, it got trashed by the men in brown. Carvin could have put more than some cardboard corners in the box to protect the amp., but... I sent it back again and they rebuilt the cabinet. Geez!

Every time I had a problem they took care of me--few questions asked. They paid for freight and everything, so I don't know about those other guys who had to pay for shipping. I even bought a Legacy cabinet which came damaged, and they took care of me. They are fantastic at customer support!

Great amp.--especially for the money. I'd get another one, sure.
If anybody touches my gear, I will go Viking.

Straightforward two channel tweed amp as described elsewhere on this site. Also bought the amp cover which was nice. The amp came with the footswitch included.

I Tried it with a 1959 Les Paul & a Schecter/Fender Stratocaster. I found it to have a disappointing amount of 60 cycle hum in a room with no flourescent lights and the TV turned off. I liked the clean channel. It had the Fender style sound I wanted. The distorted channel? See below.

Ten minutes in to its initial trial at home the lead channel failed. I was trying to get a distorted sound at relatively low volume. With the "soak" on 6 or 7 and the volume on 2 or 3, the lead channel shut down. Repeatedly. When I would click over to the clean channel & back to the lead channel,it would work briefly and shut down again.

Carvin said they would send new preamp tubes. I am leery of keeping the amp. Carvin was trying to be nice about it. I may have been a bit short with them. With no dealers, the amps have to be sent back to California. This is done at buyer's expense.

I usually play a 1960 or so brown Fender Deluxe. It is no longer reliable. I wanted an amp I could drag to the bars for years without problems. I'll try the new preamp tubes but probably return it anyway.

Amp is about a year old.... picked it up secondhand for $500 (Australian $). Great little blues/jazz/rock outfit! Brilliant clean sounds and knarly classic distortion... 2 Channels with switching.... neat amp and not too heavey!!

I use a JEM77FP, JS1, RG550 and AM70 (semi-acoustic) Ibanez's! I combine this amp with a 50w Marshall JCM900 ans the two work brilliantly together... A/B between the two and their channels. Great blues/Jazz sounds!!!!

No trouble so far! The Marshall seems more "rugard"....

Not required yet!

An honest amp with great sounds! Very useful musical tool! Been playing 25 years... I would buy another one if it was stolen... it lloks cool and sounds cool! Didn't compare it with other amps... saw it, played it, liked it, bought it :-)

I have had my Carvin 50-watt Bel Air combo for over a year. You know the features of this amp from the other reviews here. This amp is the absolute Holy Grail of all amps for my personal tastes and needs. The only feature I would like changed on it is for the Power and Standby switches to be on the front panel ... but that violates the "vintage vibe". I have been playing since the early 60's and ten years back then as a professional. I have owned and/or played virtually every tube amp worth mentioning, and if I had to settle on ONLY ONE AMP the Carvin Bel Air would be my hands-down amp of choice. I have the matching 2X12 cabinet, and this amp plain CRANKS ... it will hold it's own with my 100 watt Lee Jackson with a 4 X12 ... or my Carvin Legacy and it's 4 X12. I run one or the other of them in tandem with my Bel Air. No EL34 tube amp will ever sound like a EL84 amp and no EL84 amp will ever sund like a EL34 amp. I like qualities of both so I run both in tandem. The tone that way is awesome. The Bel Air alone is plenty powerful to cover any venue the typical bar-gigging guitar wanker is ever going to encounter. Add the extension cabinet and stand waaaay back because it will rattle your shorts. This is one extremely LOUD amp for 50 watts!

I wish more players used COMMON SENSE when evaluating amps for all-around use. I play primarily blues and classic rock. When I judge an amp, the first thing I look for is an outstanding CLEAN channel. If it isn't there, the amp is worthless to me. There are a million ways to make a clean amp scream and distort, but there is NO WAY to make a crappy high-gain amp shine for the clean stuff (COMMON SENSE). To me, "high gain" and "crappy" are synonomous. In over 35 years of playing I have yet to find a high-gain amp with a clean channel worth shit. Now ... we are talking about an EL84 amp here, so FORGET ABOUT COMPARING IT TO ANY OTHER TUBE TYPE amp. And this is BY FAR the best sounding EL84 amp I have ever heard including vintage Vox AC30 ... the real ones not the reissues. The bottom is tight and punchy and clear and the highs are smooth with plenty of bite but not ice pick in the ears "glassy". String definition is just plain outstanding. And the clean channel stays that way all the way to max. This is an EXTREMELY "airy" and "articulate" amp and it has outstanding harmonics. The tone controls are very responsive with a very wide range of USEABLE sounds, whether using a Strat or Les Paul (I use both). The overdrive channel does what it was designed to do EXTREMELY WELL. This amp was not designed to be a heavy metal paint peeler, so it is not fair to judge it from that perspective. When it comes to delivering what it was designed to do it rates a "10". I would prefer the reverb to be a bit more like a fender, but that is the ONE AND ONLY area where Fender has the upper hand ... in all other respects this amp makes Fenders go hide in the corner. The soak control is capable of some very nice gnarly growl, and if you want to push this amp over the edge with your favorite screaming ball-basher overdrive pedal it will handle that VERY WELL and RETAIN DEFINITION while doing it! I have a Tech-21 Trademark 10 (GT2 pedal) and when that is plugged direct into my Bel Air I get the most convincing Marshall and Mesa Boogie sounds anyone could hope for. (But those amps CAN NOT duplicate the clean qualities of THIS amp!). This amp does have a bit of high hum, but not enough to be any kind of problem for a live stage gigging amp and it is not noticeable at all while playing it. I can't honestly compare this amp to an equivalent fender because equivalent Fenders use 6L6 tubes. An equivalent Marshall uses EL34 tubes. Different species entirely. Suffice to say that I have been playing all of them for 35 years and my amp of choice is the Carvin Bel Air. I have other amps but if I had to have only one, the Bel Air would be the keeper. And ya know what? It costs a hell of a lot LESS than the others to boot.

I have had my Bel Air over a year and have played the bejesus out of it with nary a hiccup. Yes, I would gig with it without a backup. And most of the hours on the amp have been with significant overdrive from my outboard effects. Once I went on vacation and came home to discover I had left my amps on (full power, not just standby) for five days. No problem.

The company has always been very helpful and friendly. I have never had any problem with any of their products including power amps, rack gear, rack preamps, guitars or guitar amps. I have had them build two custom guitars for me and they have always bent over backwards to satisfy.

As I said, I have been playing over 35 years and have owned almost every amp / guitar of note. I currently have a Carvin Bel Air, a Carvin Legacy and a Lee Jackson LS1000 tweed combo and the wee Tech21 Trademark 10. I have owned a full rack setup and am now back to super-simple. My sigal enters a Morely Bad Horsie and into a Zoom 505II pedal,into a 2nd Zoom 505II pedal and straight to the amp. The second Zoom box has an expression pedal and all of the patches on that box have the pedal set as a volume pedal. All I use the 2nd Zoom box for is overall volume and reverb / delay / chorus patches. The first Zoom box has my different "amp type / distortion" patches. So I can use any patch from Zoom2 with any patch from Zoom1. This is what I use for live gigs. My main guitar is a super custom "Strat" built on a hollow Warmoth body and neck with a custom set of Kinman noiseless Strat pickups. To the inside the neck Kinman is a Dimarzio Pro Track so it looks like a strange "big humbucker" and those are on a 3-way toggle for either pickup or both in series. At the bridge there is a Dimarzio Fast Track 2 mated with the Kinman Strat pickup set up the same way. A 3rd toggle of my own design bypasses the 5-way selector entirely and gives me the bridge and neck IN SERIES. There are two Chandler Little Red Boosters (16db full-range boosters) on pull-up knobs (Volume and bottom tone control). Middle tone control is a TBX and the entire guitar runs through that (single tone control). All the bottom tone knob does is turn on a booster. This guitar will do everyting a Strat will do, everything a Gibson type will do, and a few things NO other guitar can do. That I have gone to that kind of extreme to satisfy my search for "tone on tap with no hassles" and that I choose the Bel Air as my amp of choice ought to tell you something. That little sucker handles the 32 screaming mind-warping decibels of boost from this custom guitar and STILL MANAGES TO MAINTAIN STRING DEFINITION! Those boosters kick the little shit into an overdrive that puts any Marshall or Mesa I have ever heard to SHAME. The same thing turns my Lee Jackson amp to MUD. I also play a ho-hum Les Paul and a ho-hum double fat Telecaster.

2 channels, one clean, one dirty, all tube, 2x12 50 watt combo amp. Separate 3 band EQ's for each channel. Reverb of course. Effects loop. Footswitch for swithing channels and reverb. Acoustic presence knob for clean channel - adds high frequency - I don't use it much. Voiced cabinet line out - a useful feature for recording. Extra speaker outlet and impedance switch. That's about it. A third channel and/or a volume boost would be nice, but it's not a Mesa. I am not into amp effects and modeling bullshit (that's what floor effeects are for).

Let me tell you, a '64 Jazzmaster straight into the clean channel sounds awesome! For blues and jazz, this amp is perfect. The clean channel is awesome, very warm and not too brittle if set up right (it is tube, after all!). The dirty channel provides some very nice blues overdrive sounds with the soak (gain) knob from 4 to 7. Descent sustain, too. If you crank it to 10 you will get (surprisingly) a lot more gain, suitable for heavier 70's rock. However, the dirty channel gets very muddy at this point. I mean it sounds ok for leads and single notes, but if you play chords you're in trouble. This amp has a lot of bass (which I like). When I'm playing blues/jazz, I plug straight into the amp, and with a footswitch I all set. When I'm playing modern rock, I use pedals for effects and distortion into the clean channel, as well as the amp distortion (mostly for leads). If you do this live, you definitely want to have an effects unit that allows different EQ's and volumes for different presets. Using this, I can get some nice sounds out of this amp, including some pretty killer distortion (with the mids cut on the pedal EQ). By the way, the amp EQ itself is pretty weak. The bottom line is, if you're a blues/jazz player, or if you're obsessed with pretty clean tones, like me, this amp is for you. With pedals, this amp can be used for other styles of music, too, but its not really designed for it.

I've had it for 1/2 a year, so far so good. The footswitch broke but that's no biggy. It does hum pretty loud with the reverb on, and it does pick up radio stations sometimes, but a lot of amps do that. The tubes are still good.

When the footswitch broke, I called up Carvin and they sent a new one out right away, no questions asked. Pretty good.

I bought this amp in my jazz/blues phase. My Peavey Bravo 112 (not a good jazz amp) was breaking down and not providing enough volume to play with a drummer anyway. This amp provided plenty of volume for this purpose (even though I jammmed with a loud ass drummer in a small basement). Since then, I joined an alternative rock band and actually started gigging. Needless to say, the amp alone could not suffice for an alternative sound, so I use plenty of floor effects and distortion with it. However, this amp has definitely gotten the job done even in pretty large clubs, though it doesn't have the presence of 200 watt head into a 4x10 cabinet (but its a lot easier to carry!). I am glad I bought it, but if I had to do it again adn had mroe money, I would probably get something more powerful and with better distortion. For the money I paid and for its size - its great, and until I get rich this will be my amp.

After years of unsatisfied results with other amps I spent almost a year researching until i finally boaght this baby. I was looking for a RIVERA combo but they can be hard to find in Australia, but along comes this and It's perfect for me (No efx, i just soak the humbuckers for a OD ramones sound)

I use switching hum's in an explorer. Surf & Punk rock sound.
The reverb on the amp doesnt thrill me, but that's a personal thing...

Nothing has gone wrong, but I imagine that this amp could be fragile going by the components.. Probably not one to drop off a truck...

I bought it from Melbourne's only authorised guitar shop to officially give authenticity receipts on girbson/fender etc. They only deal with the best equip and have decided to probably stock these from now on aftyer being very happy with their overall quality.

How many amps have a real valve soaking OD? I haven't seen zip. This is just like a real 50's amp only with the ability to soak the valves without playing loud (Great for apartments).

It is a late 2000 or early 2001 model. This amp has nice features. Could use a ground switch though. Has enough power to keep things clean at a high volume. If you like clean sounds it will definatly hold it's own for gigs. Very bright sounding.

I play Strats through it and a Les Paul with single coils so I have no idea how it sounds with humbuckers. I do like the clean sound and find it to be bright and clean at high volumes. I usually set it 5 when I am not using a mic. Treble turned down a bit. Guitar wide open for leads and let my hands do the rest. Like I said - Clean and loud. On occasion when I have played it wide open on the clean channel it had a nice smooth and warm distortion. Now and then I screw around with the drive channel and found it to be easy to work with.

No problems so far. Takes a lot of bouncing around in the back of my van. That is usally where it sleeps.

They did forget to send the free footswitch- one phone call and it was on the way. I use a Carvin PA as well. No problems with that either.

I use it a couple of times a week for about 6 months now. It did take a few months for it to break in. Seemed to smooth out a bit. Lots of compliments on it. Set it up at a benefit and 4 or five other guitarist used it. They all loved it. Would order another if I lost this one. When you consider the price it is an even better value.

Amp arrived DOA. After waiting 10 days to come across country (it seems UPS misrouted it), volume fluctuating wildly and very noisy. Put it right back into the box for return.

Customer service very polite and offered to sen a brand new one. This one was brand new and it didn't work, so why should the next one. This amp should have never been shipped and if it couldn't take the trip it shouldn't be sold mailorder. They should have offered me the replacement express.

This is a 2000 Carvin Bel Air 2x12. I just traded a Carvin MTS 3200 100 watt head for this amp. I had one before, sent it back and got the MTS, then decided I didn't care for the MTS distortion as much as I thought I would. I play anything from oldies rock to blues to 70's/ classic metal and this amp works fine. If I wanted to play more modern metal I would use a distortion pedal. This is your basic 2 channel tube amp, but it sure is sweet for $550 bucks new. It'll compete with amps twice it's price in sound quality. I play on the weekends and I have yet to need more power with it. This is a really loud 50 watts, and when I hook up an extension 2x12 cab, it really shakes the walls if I need it to. I only rate the features a 7 because it is a basic amp, and thats how it was designed.

I use a Mexi-Teli, an Ibanez Destroyer (lawsuit model) Seymour JB in bridge, Fender Jap Strat, Vox Mark XII 12 string and an Ibanez Les Paul copy with it, Dimarzio Super Dist in bridge. Nice sounds from all, but the Tele and the Vox 12 string really stand out on the clean channel. WOW! I hate playing Fenders because of my small hands, but you just can't beat 'em tonewise for shimmering cleans. The humbucker guitars are not quite as bright as I would like to get them on the soak channel, but I like 'em really bright, so it may be just fine for most people. But remember that when you really crank this little doggie, it really starts to shine. I do the exact opposite of most people to get my distortion sound. Instead of setting the soak (peramp) distortion first, try turning the preamp down to 1 or so. The crank the volume up nearly all the way, and then bring your preamp up as needed for volume and distortion level. This way you really get the power tubes working and she is a whole new ballgame then! Here is where you really hear what a tube amp is all about.

Well, it's been great so far. I keep an extra set of power tubes handy just in case. Can't see any real problems cropping up with it.

Carvin is great. They will take care of ya.

Great first tube amp for most people. It's not a Matchless, but it ain't all that bad either! Try one out!

My Belaire is a 96, all tube amp. I play mostly blues, and classic rock, and it is the best amp that I have ever used for these styles of music, overall, in a giggin situation. The amp is very versatile for these styles of music. It has two channels, clean, and overdrive. The overdrive, which is called soak, goes from a blues tone to a Hendrix tone. The only thing I don't like about the soak channel is it gets quite dirty, just on 1 of the dial. I think with a dial going from 1 to 10, it should have been more drawn out, from clean to dirty.
I wish Carvin made a handwired version of the Belaire. The amp is a nightmare to get into, and work on. I have had no problems whatsoever, with this amp in the last year and a half of gigging with it, except for changing one pre-amp tube. It has 50 watts, and has plenty of power.
The reverb is not as lush as a Fenders, but is plenty for me. The tone may not be the best in the world to a lot of people, but the amp works for me, and I have gigged with a Fender Deluxe Rev., and a Deluxe Rev.ll amp, and a 59 reissue bassman, and the Carvin is the one I would choose over the others.

At times I have heard this amp pick up radio waives. Oh well. You can get some feedback with this amp, thats because it has such a large gain. I can't imagine anyone needing anymore gain, than what this amp has. It has a good gain on the clean channel when cranked also. The amp has a way of getting good harmonics, like no other that I have tried before. Just an overall excellent amp for the money.

So far, I have had no real problems with this amp in the two years I have owned it, and I bought it used, and in mint condition. I have used it without backup, but I have had tubes with me, in case. I usally carry another amp in case, though.

I really have never had to deal with Carvin in any serious matters, so I am not sure.

For my style of music, (blues, classic rock), and my experience with this amp, in the past two years, for reliability, and tone, I really have to rank it high. I would , and will always own one of these amps. It just plain works for me, and with me. The only thing about the amp that scared me, is if I ever do have to get inside of it. This amp can be bought new for $550. I would pay more, for this amp, if I could get a handwired version. I may have to suggest this to Carvin. I play a G&L 84 F-100, through this amp for the gigs, and its been my fav. set-up, of guitar/amp, that I have ever had.

Got it a few weeks ago, probably a 2000 or 2001 model...i play all kinds of stuff from U2, The Police to old school metal.
2 channel, switching, effects loop, spring reverb, tubes - 5 12AX7's and 4 EL84's, two 12 inch Carvin speakers etc.
ive been playing in the basement and jamming with friends lately and it seems to be plenty loud for me :) i like it

main guitar is a fender telecaster (mex) with SC duncan alnico pickups
second is a stock Ibanez rg270, HSH configuration...

AWESOME clean sound, better than expected, clear as a bell even at high volumes...the power of the EQ knobs wasnt as broad as i expected, but ive been playing peaveys for a long time and their EQ knobs are nuts...i like it though, its more on the treble side but you can dial up many things

with a distortion pedal...ive tried it with alot...with a boss SD-1 super overdrive and that is pretty good, with a tubescreamer (TS-7) it is great! with a boss ds-2 turbo overdrive is is very good as well, ive even tried it with a marshall jackhammer and its good!

my main thing is U2/Police/Oasis/Smiths/The Jam/Radiohead and it suits it beautifully, but i like old school metal, and with a decent pedal it can do it, but id rather have a JCM800 or something...im not picky though

the SOAK channel, i havent got a good sound out of yet, even with the tubescreamer...it was pretty much what i expected...muddy and just boring...

seems sturdy
had it sent ground mail to michigan and it was fine
only had it for a while though

ive been playing 4 years, second tube amp, first one was a poorly designed Peavey VTM 120...i like this one much better
if it were stolen id be pissed off! and probably buy another someday
cant say enough about the clean tone, good value for the money!
highly suggested...rock on

Two channels (one dirty...the other clean), master volume on the dirty channel, tank reverb, presence control.

I by-pass the two 12 inch speakers (unplug them) and run a line to a Marshall 4X10 closed back cabinet. Running a strat or telecaster through the amp in this way is Tone-Heaven. The amp is a bit bright if playing single coil guitars but the Marshall Cabinet coupled with turning down the treble control create a great blues amp.

I replaced the first pre-amp tube (12AX7) with a 12AY7 (only 10 bucks!) and the amp drastically changed from an almost unusable high gain amp to a great blues rig. I highly recommend changing to a 12AY7 tube.

Breakdowns seem typical for a tube amp. Just recently, the Carvin started blowing fuses. The problem was a partially burned circuit board trace ($55 to fix). Other than replacing the power tubes once or so a year it has been a reliable amp. Although my 1972 Fender bassman head never breaks down!

Carvin's San Diego factory show room has been a great disapointment with regard to Service.

I like the amp a lot but if I had to replace it I would go with a Fender Tonemaster head or Matchless head with more power and hopefully better reliability.

I've had the Bel Air since '97 I think. Great amp, still gets me to smilin' when I play. The whole thing really breathes when set up right. I haven't thought of many things I would change about this amp - though it would be interesting to see Carvin do something similar in a single channel amp someday. The one feature I found I don't use very often is the presence knob - sometimes it sounds brittle to me, sometimes I forget it's there (it's located on the back panel). I'm impressed with the sound of the speakers, though this is one area I'd like to tinker with and see if Weber has anything that's a good fit. I'm not sure what's so vintage about this thing except for the tweed covering. Effects loops are not a vintage feature last time I checked.

Right now I'm playing in a soul/funk/blues outfit with 8 pieces, sometimes nine. We can get LOUD. Too loud usually. The 50 watts are plenty to cut through the band. I play either a early 90's tele or a early 80's Ibanez Artist, Vox wah, HEil talk box and TC Electronics chorus/flanger. A couple of years ago I tried playing a RP-7 and more recently a Boss ME-5 through the amp but I could never get consistently good sounds dialed in. To me the amp works better with simple analog stomp boxes. The clean channel is great and you can dial in a variety of sounds with the EQ, from dark and jazzy to spanky country-ish sounds. I would not say the clean sounds fendery, but maybe a mix of fender and vox clean tones. The distortion is very versatile. With the Artist I leave the soak knob at 3.5 or 4 and it gets a real nice overdrive sound - very full and fat. For the tele it can creap up to 5 on the soak for usable sounds. I don't usually need the distortion sounds between 5 and 10. To my ears, the amp loses a little note and string pluck definition in that range, though the sounds are still warm and tubey. I tried taking two EL-84's out for a blues gig recently and that was very cool. The clean channel gives it up very nice with only 2 tubes. Volume is still plenty loud with that config. Another good mod for this amp is putting a 7025 in the driver tube position of the pre-amp - it gives a boost of clean headroom for the power stage, also adds a little high end glisten. Once in a while I will use my TS5 tubescreamer for added overdrive, but I have found the best distortion and overdrive comes from the amp itself. I am trying out a Fulltone FD2 on this amp, which sounds awesome. Robben Ford country easily. I might have to buy that pedal. I give this amp an 8 here because I haven't ever heard a ten and very best amps I have heard are 9's. Still, I get complements on this guy all the time - and from Fender Deluxe, Super, Dr. Z, boutique types.

This thing seems very sturdy and I've always heard that Carvin makes quality stuff. This is not a PTP wired amp, so if anything were to go seriously wrong, it might be a headache. Has had beer spilled on it, left in the trunk of the car for days, knocked around - no problems yet. Solid craftsmanship. I don't have a backup to take to gigs, but I don't even worry about it. I carry backup tubes, though.

Haven't dealt with them except to order the amp.

I think this amp does what most $1500 amps could do - for less than half the cost. It is the best bang for your buck out there. I'm curious to hear the Reverend Hellhound because that too seems to be a too-good-to-be-true bargain. But they're out there. It seems everytime I start suffering from severe gear lust, I'll turn this amp on and I smile like a proud papa. One of the reasons I bought this thing was because everyone in my area has either Fenders, Peaveys or shit and I wanted something that would give me my own sound and voice. Someday I'll get weak and blow serious dough on a well-reviewed amp, but I hope not at the expense of this cool little amp.

ok I'm here to go off on the guy who put in a review just under mine. actually I'm just here to clear up two things that he said. First he said that the effects loop is footswitchable. Nope... the footswitch is for channel and reverb. The effects loop is constant feed if you have something plugged in. also he was talking about removing two power tubes. Now I've done this too. It's really nice. although many think it reduces volume by half. It barely touches volume levels. But what it does do is make the clean channel break up sooner which is really really nice. So if you have one of these amps pull two power tubes out. Just make sure you pull either the two inner tubes or the two outter tubes since they run push pull. Also don't switch the impedence switch to 8 ohms!!!! I contacted carvin on this and dr sound assured me that you still run the amp at 4 ohms!! OK just had to clear that up for the readers. Oh by the way, I love this amp!

This amp is brand new from Carvin so I'd have to assume it's made in 2000 or 2001. This amp is labeled as Vintage because it has no bells and whistles and tries to mimic amps from "long ago." No bells and whistles to me is a good thing. An all tube amp doesn't need effects to hide behind, it has its own sound. It seems like Carvin was going for an American Vintage sound (think Fender) and I think they nailed it right on the head. It's two channels and I got a free footswitch with it. Also, it has an effects loop which can be turned on/off with the footswitch. An important feature is that the reverb is switched on/off via the input to the reverb tank, not the output. This means that anything already reverberating will be allowed to decay naturally when you turn off the reverb and not suddenly. The amp has 4 EL84's in the power section and 5 12AX7's in the pre-amp. All of the power tubes are Sovteks as are 3 of the 12AX7's. The other 2 12AX7's are Groove Tubes. I plan on putting Ei 12AX7's at least the main pre-amp socket. Most likely, I'll be putting Tesla's in the power-amp section. I really don't recommend Groove Tubes because they buy the cheapest tubes and slap their name on them. But I digress. The amp is extremely loud- A lot louder than any 50 watt amp I've ever played before. The amp is so loud that I removed the outer two power tubes to get 25 watts (make sure you put the impedance switch on 8 if you do so).

I use it mainly with two guitars. An Epiphone Les Paul Custom ('61 SG style reissue) with 3 stock pickups (which will be going bye-bye soon) as well as an Epiphone Les Paul Standard with a stock neck pickup and a Gibson '57 Classic in the bridge. When I had been playing these guitars through my old amp (Fender Roc Pro 1000- solid state), distortion would turn to mud and it annoyed both me and my band mates. It was almost impossible to avoid the mud. Now that I've moved to the Carvin, even the stock pickups sound amazing. No more mud. The '57 Classic is beyond words. In other words, this amp will make any guitar sound at least a little better. It's not noisy. Straight to 10 with no distortion on the clean channel. The distortion channel is very versatile but you won't be getting any death violence heavy metal or whatever that crap is. In other words, if any of you Korn and Limp Bizkit players want to impress your friends by buying a super-rad tube amp, go away. My band and I try not to get our volume too loud, but it's difficult. In any event, it was almost too loud on the clean channel, which I like to put around 5, to play in a small basement. Now that I've removed the outer two tubes I now get the lovliest distortion around 4 or 5. For reference, I play jam-band music and some other classic rock, jazz and blues. (think: The Grateful Dead, Phish, The Allman Brothers, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Gov't Mule, Led Zeppelin, etc.)

This amp is very rugged and would probably be hard to break (except for tubes). I would use it without a backup, I trust it that much. It hasn't broken down and I don't believe it will. However, it will always behoove you to carry around a full set of power tubes and at least 2 pre-amp tubes. It fell over the other day going around a turn in the car (my mistake, should have laid it down) and my heart was in my throat. Theres was no visible damage when I immediately checked it and as soon as I got home I checked it but it was perfectly ok.

I ordered online so I didn't talk to anyone then. I called the next day (I ordered at 1:30 AM or so) to get my tracking number and the guy I talked to was kind and helpful. I've called Carvin before about other stuff and I always either get someone knowledgeable or am directed to someone who is.

I've been playing for close to three years now, and I have gone through a bit of gear. I've had a Marshall Valvestate (piece of crap, don't ever buy one) that cost as much as my Carvin but I was naive at the time. I sold that, Got all of about 40% of my original purchase. I own right now a Fender Roc Pro 1000 head which is getting sold soon. I also own a JCM 900 4x12 1960B cab which I love. If it were stolen or lost or whatever circumstance resulted in me not having it anymore, I'd either buy another one of these or a pair of 112 Nomad (same exact electronics) only because I hate lugging this thing around sometimes and because two speakers is so loud on it. But I'm not regretful.

2 channel, reverb, 2 12" speakers

I have a Brian Moore DC-1, Terry McInturff Taurus, 71 Les Paul Deluxe, etc... The clean channel was nice sounding, the reverb was exceptional for an amp in this price range. The BAD news is the distortion channel, very muddy and flat. If you are looking for a good sounding overdriven tone, AVOID this amp at all costs. If your into blues or jazz, or just want a clean sounding amp at a reasonable price, than this is a good choice

I returned it in a week, can't comment here.

no opinion

If you want a clean sounding amp, good amp for the money. If you want good sounding distortion, AVOID this amp at all costs!

I bought this used, I think it was made mid 90's. It is a wonderful amp! I play all styles in a church minisistry band, I usually use a Line Six Pod in the effects loop for performing, but I love to just plug in and play with this amp as well. I paid 250.00 for it.

I use 2 mid 80's Japanese Fender Strats, one is completely stock, the other has 3 Seymour Duncan JB Jr's in it (that is my main guitar) I also use a Fender 12 string acoustic with a Fishman pickup. I run all of them into a Line Six Pod and mike the whole thing with a Shure 57. The amp sounds excellent alone, I think the pod/carvin combo sounds WAY better than the Line 6 combos.

Always dependable, changed the tubes once to Groove tubes, haven't blown a fuse yet and have been using it every week for almost 2 years now.

Have not needed support

I have played for 15 years, I would not hesitate to buy another one. I compared it to the Line Six combos and just about every other digital modeling amp out there. I wish it had tilt back legs and a cup holder.

This amp is brand new, so I assume it was made in 2001. It's pretty straight forward two channel tube amp with reverb. I wish it had a switch to cut the power in half, but that can be done by removing the two outer tubes and changing the speaker load to 8 ohms. I use this amp in my home studio and for playing out and with friends, it's plenty loud for 50 watts. I decided to purchase this amp after looking at about every tube combo on the market under $1000. The bel air came to my house for under $600. I'll give it an 8 for features, but really, aside from the power switch I dont need anything else in an amp.

Curently I'm using a Les Paul and a Yamaha Pacifica through this amp. I've only had it a few days now so I'm still tweaking. It seems to prefer single coils, but both sound pretty good. The clean channel is very good, I'm still not sure about the lead channel. The tone controls on the amp are very cool, they dont seem to change the color of the tone. If this amp only had the clean channel I would be content.

I really havent had it long enough to say.

People at Carvin have been pretty cool, IMO. I've had good experiances with Sean and James.

I've been playing for about 10 years. I own a Les Paul, a strat, a takamine acoustic, an Ibanez bass, a 100 watt Laney master volume amp, tons of pedals, a couple of Casio keyboards, alesis DR16, lots of shure mics, and various recording software. I bought this amp because I didnt want to spend over $1000 on a Mesa Boogie, Rivera, Blues Pearl (which I'm still gonna get one of these days) or Budda. I played some Fenders and Peaveys in this price point and I feel I've made a good choice. I've read lots of reviews that say you should replace the tubes, which I'm gonna do soon. I assume the amp will be better with some nicer tubes so hopefully I will be more impressed in the future.

Purchased this amp in Fall of 2000. It has 2 channels: Clean/Dirty. The effects loop,I found, wasn't compatible with the gain structure of my Roland GP-100. The result was some serious feedback (the undesirable type). It has a cabinet-voiced out jack which sounds similiar to a direct box. An excellent feature is the accessible speaker outs with 4,8,or 16 ohm selections. This thing is real loud; the open back gives the two 12 inchers some maneuvering room. I tried too bypass the preamp and hit those four EL-84 power tubes with the GP-100 directly but the effects loop apparently returns to a preamp stage. The tone controls are very effective and there is a presence pot on the back panel.

I play blues, rock, jazz fusion through a Carvin DC-127 with selectable single or double coil pickups. I use the clean channel exclusively. The dirty side distortion just doesn't have the tone for me. Through the neck double pickup the bass response is big. The amp sings better though to the single coil pickups. It has a very articulate response to pick attack with just a hint of coloration. For effects the Roland GP-100 is well suited to this amp. It's numerous digitally modeled preamps are given life by the Belair's tube circuitry. In order to record without shaking my house down I built an isolation cabinet with a shure SM-57. After months of tweeking, I feel I have achieved a satisfactorily recordable tube driven blues sound comparable to SRV's signature tone. For jazz fusion style the amp really shines. The reverb has a natural openess while those tubes impart a horn like quality to your playing. Playing sanseffect and crankin' her to 9 brings up a mean midrange boosted growl; great for rock rhythm playing. Of course you'd have to isolate your amp or speaker system since the db's would be overwhelming. For tube soaked lead playing there is a sweet spot between lower wattage settings and an audible high freq distortion(occuring at higher gain settings). The complicated part is determing how hard to hit the preamp without distorting it.

The amp has had no problems so far.

Carvin is an extremely reputable company making, in my opinion, the best value oriented guitar/amp products today.

For tube tone under $600 this one can't be beat. I would definitely replace it with another Belair. It produces a shimmering tone fathfully reproducing your playing dynamics. I just wish I could patch in directly to the power tubes section, but maybe the electrical engineering involved prohibits this.

Since this is an update on a previous review I wanted to add that I am now the proud owner of a Fender 40th Anniversary Stratocaster. Playing my '90 Sg Standard or '85 Kramer Focus thru the Carvin was great but now it's more fun than ever! The Strat really cooks with this amp! The cleans are clean and the "soak" works pretty good too, although I was never very impressed with it before. Its sounds better with the Fender than it does with the Gibson. I do run the guitars thru a Boss Blues Driver pedal for my crunchy stuff though. I also have a Digitech RP-7 that I use mostly for other effects but not reverb. The Carvin reverb is fantastic! In my previous review I said I wish it was 100 watts but not any more! This baby has more than enough power for me now! Funny how one's opinion can change after using an amp for a couple years instead of a couple days/weeks! I think I will change the tubes soon. They are original so.... I also thought about a speaker change but that's just a thought. As is, this little 50 watter is a pretty fine piece. Maybe I'll just leave well enough alone.

Never a problem in the few years I've had it. Been to a few jams and back in my truck. Real wood, not particle board, built like a rock, it seems.

After my second e-mail they were great. Sent me a manual that I didn't get when I bought it used. Free!

Overall, I think I might just keep it for another twenty years or so! Ha HA! No kiddin'! It's not going anywhere without me!

Uh guys, Neil Young was playing in Buffalo Springfield in 1966...35 years ago...and I'm sure he has been playing much longer than that. It usually takes quite a few years of practice to get to the point he was at even in 1966. The guy below is just someone messin with you. Beleive it if you want. I've been playing for 38 years and I was just a snot nosed brat when I was seeing him play with Buffalo Springfield on TV. Don't beleive everything you read. Check it out for yourself.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Bx8eodevxgxtt
Jimmy Page

I have had my 2nd Bel Air for about a year, probably a 1999. The first one I got right when they came out, I think about 7 or 8 years ago. Both amps sound and behaved exactly the same.
Why did I sell the first one? A friend of one of my sons wanted to buy it.
Why did I buy another one? Because nothing else I looked at was as good or sounded as good. This amp is not a metal amp on its own but with a pedal you can have it do that.
I play all styles, or rather my own style..but this amp rises to the occasion every time.
My first Bel Air I used gigged every weekend for 6 years. It sounded the same as the day I got it. Probably would not have if I were pushing the tubes harder.
This is not 100 watt amp, it is a 50 watt channel switching, and for the previous two posters, it takes twice as much power to have 3db more sound, so it stands to reason that 100 watt amp would be only 3db louder. No dig intended.
The amp has an effects loop that I have not used, and a quarter inch plug for a line out that I have not used because the amp should be miked anyway (if you want to get the good tones it has).
It has an output for an extended speaker cabinet and a switch for selecting 4,8 or 16 ohms.
I no longer gig except at church or playing with my three sons who all play. The living room is our jam room with PA, drums and an array of amps, guitars and basses.
One more opinion on choosing a 100 watt amp or this amp. I currently have tinnintus (sp. ringing in my ears). I don't know if I got it from my 100 watt Marshall when I was 16 (happened to be in '68) or shooting guns with my Dad. Do yourself a favor and try to save your hearing while you can. Nothing is more fun than blasting away with your buds at over 120db, but do yourself a favor and turn down a bit. So at least you can hear everyones parts, sounds mucho mejor.

I use a tele-style with a b and g sting bender, have a PRS over at the house, a Carvin DC127...
The amp is vey quiet on the clean channel, and unless the overdrive channel is up real high, it is quiet also.
The clean channel is very clean even at high volumes and has the best tone of any amp I have played.
Some listers have recommended re-tubing the amp to make it come alive. I have only replaced the 12AX7s with higher gain tubes, and it completely changed the character of the amp to the negative. So, in my opinion, the tubes that are in the amp are just fine. Re-tubing will change the amp and not necessarily for the better. OK?
The reverb is da Cats. Very good spring reverb..."boinga boinga" One of the best I have heard.

Like I said before. My first Bel Air I gigged with every weekend for about 6 years. Never had a problem. Never serviced the tubes or the amp because nothing broke and nothing changed on it.

Very friendly and helpful group of folks. For other Carvin stuff they have helped tremendously.

As I said before. After I sold my first Bel Air I bought another because I could not find anything that I liked as much. If i were on a budget I would get one on Ebay for $350 before folks find out what a great little amp they are.
In the latest Carvin catalog I see WB6ACU is putting in a plug for the amp. Good deal. What took so long? Hey, FB on the Extra. Before or after 20wpm? hi,hi.
Look a couple of posts down. Neil Young is jumping in there, unsolicited, he is. He will probably admit "Cinamon Girl" never sounded so good with the Soak on abt 4 and the gain...in the practice room.. about 2.5 to 4, drop D of course. "Pa send me money now..I need a new Bel Air amp". Don't tell him "Heart of Gold" is your favorite song either.

Mine is a 2000 model. I don't think it would matter though, I don't think they change anything on it over the years. Its 50 watts and has a really nice tweed covering.
Here's something important.... this doesn't matter what brand of amp you buy, a 100 watt amp is only 3 decibels louder than a 50 Watt amp (3 decibels is about ________ that much), and everybody says this thing is REALLY LOUD for a 50 watt amp so it may very well be louder than say, a marshall 100 watt head. I have the 2x12" extension cabinet so it makes out to be a 50 watt halfstack. A 50 watt amp is not half as loud as a 100 watt amp.

I play everything from Blues to Rock to Metal, this bad boy does it all really well. I don't play stuff like Pantera though so.... just Metallica lead stuff. This does the intro solo to Fade to Black perfectly.
It has all the basic features... bass, mid, treble, and volume on each channel with gain (called soak on this amp)on the OD/Distortion channel. It also has a Presence knob for the clean channel on the back of the amp. This knob affects the real highs up to 20kHz or 20 whatever. I don't usually use it but you might find it useful if you play a Gibson to give it more clear high end (Side Note: I Hate Gibsons).
For TUBES: it has 4 EL 34's and 5 12AX7's. Quit an array!
It has a master reverb that affects both channels (hence: Master) And the normal FX loop, ohm switch, footswitch jack, extension speaker, direct out stuff on the back.
It's got everything you'd want unless your name is Robert Fripp.

THE CLEAN CHANNEL: The clean channel absolutely rocks. This amp has the perfect fender clean sound but not as processed (yeah, its that good). Just natural, HOW A CLEAN AMP SHOULD SOUND I use a Parker P-38 (s/s/h pickups) through it and it sounds perfect. It sounds exactly like Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam or Lenny by SRV or Little Wing. My friend leaves his Marshall all tube at my house and I like my Carvin quite a bit better. I actually played a Fender Twin Reverb and didn't like the clean sound as much, it wasn't as "real". It was like the difference between a tube and solid state amp just not as drastic.

THE OVERDRIVE/DISTORTION CHANNEL: This side rocks too. It's not a Metal distortion (Just buy a stompbox. Not a Boss Metal Zone). With my Parker (Great guitar but not really a beastly Les Paul, more of stealty fat strat jet. It's named after the great WWII P-38 Lightning fighter. Think of the jet sound flying over head. Woooosh. Growl. A les Paul is more of a fat man jumping off a diving board into a pool of mud. They're a little too muddy. Well, alot too muddy. Ok, I'm rambling) Anyway, with my parker I get a very girthy, growly, thumping, punchy, colassal sound when I set it kinda inbetween OD and Distortion (think big muff but more punch and maybe a little more growl). With gain below & it is a sweet "huge" overdrive. It bigger and more seperated than a tube screamer (great pedal, get a Reverend Drivetrain Overdrive. It's pricy but abolutely woops the TS-9's butt). It (the amp) sounds like Jimi with his fuzz face on and his volume knob down a bit (which equals the "OOoooohh, that's nice!" reaction). With the gain up at 7 or higher it gets the fattest (spell it Phat if you'd like) dostortion sound ever. It is identical to the Weezer distortion if you set the treble right or with the crunch of Guns & Roses (Slash rocks). It probably favors Humbuckers more to get a popular sound but I use my single-coils to get a unique sound. Not bad, just different. I think a Tele would sound absolutely killer through this thing, both channels of course. All together, it covers everything beatifully except for Pantera (I do Metallica all the time) I'd also like to add that it can get a sound like the MXR distortion that Randy Rhoads used on "Crazy Train" which isn't really a metal distortion. Its more of a fuzz.

It has 7-Ply Plywood for all of the wooden thngs on it, and the rest is metal. From my experiences metal is pretty darn strong. When you pick it up and set it down there aren't any clicky vibrating noises inside. My friends Marshall has something loose inside and you can hear it through the speakers.
This amp is really solid.

I think it has a 5-year warranty on the amp and 90 days on tubes. I got the amp last July and called them in December and I got free tubes. They either can't count to 90 or are really generous. I'm guessing they are really nice. I actually asked for 2 replacement tubes and they sent me the wrong kind so I called back and they sent me 4 of the right ones. The first ones they sent me fit in my friends marshall so I told them that and they let me keep 'em. They are really Nice!! I'm actually glad those two tubes pooped out in the first place. It's not their fault, they don't make the tubes. Any other amp with the same tubes would have done the same thing. Anyway, they're really cool.

I would buy this same thing if It were stolen. Actually I'd go insane f it were stolen. After comparing it with one of the most classic clean amps ever made (Fender Twin Reverb) and another "great" amp (British-made Marshall 60 watt combo), I totally realize how awesome this amp is. I'd sum this amp up as a perfect sounding clean amp with a Dirty channel with the range of a slightly overdriven Marshall to a Big Muff to a Rat to a Fuzz Face but better sounding. Since it is tube. You can't get a better clean/blues/Hendrix/classic rock/hard rock amp for.... I don't know. It's probably top 5.
By the way, did any one see the review under this one? Neil Young? Hmmmm. Sure sounds like THE Neil Young. I'm not sure though. Didn't think he would like that kind of music. Wierd.

It's got basic features, you really don't need anything else. You can switch from a mellow tone to a bright tone in about 2 seconds, unlike those crazy thangs with 4-channels and all those doo dads.

Been playing for 34 years. I play blues to rock & roll to metal. This covers it all. Just get a decent stombox to play metal. I have an original '57 Strat(yes, it was made back in 1957) a whole bunch of old Gretch's (I love all of em), an original '55 tele, an old old jazzmaster and a bunch of old gibsons LP's and SG's, along with some more modern PRS's and an ESP (Kirk Hammett Model, pretty nasty litle axe). Clean sound on this amp totally beats anything I've ever played. Beats JC-120, any Marshall I've ever played (and I have played them all), Fender Bassman, Deville. I'd say it is tied with the AC30 if not better. I had three AC30's all from different periods (I kept the one Brian May gave me) and sold them to some nice folks, they go crazy when they get an old Vox AC30 for 1000 bucks, makes me happy to do it. I decided after playing through the Carvin that the Voxs arent worth 1500 bucks. Aren't worth 1000 come to think of it.

Works well.

Call 'em if you want anything. They can't figure out the whole E-ail thing.

This amp will cover any music you want, (just get a good stompbox for metal). The OD channel is very much like a big muff/fuzz face when cranked or exactly like Weezer at about 7. You have to get the OD channel up pretty loud to get the tone to cut through in a band situation. If you only have money for one amp, get this one. And another thing to clear this up, 100 watt amps are much more popular than 50 watt amps. Guys play 100 watt amps then expect 50 watt amps to be half as loud. Wrong. A 100 WATT AMP IS ONLY 3 DECIBELS LOUDER THAN A 50 WATT AMP be it marshall, mesa, peavey, fender, randall, whatever.
I may be old but I keep up on music, the best music ever (in my opinion) came out of the 90's (ever heard of Pearl Jam?). I dig The Stones, Hendrix up to Satch, Metallica, and Pearl Jam. This amp does it all. I saw Hendrix burn his guitar at Monterey, saw him at Woodstock (well, I heard him at Woodstock) been to hundreds, probably thousands of concerts (the kids at the Metallica concerts look at me funny but....) I am the godfather of making out of tune guitars sound good (or so they say) I know what good tone is. If you play gigs, you'll love this amp. If you play by yourself at home you'll love this amp.

I have two. One made in '97, the other made in '98. My original was bought at the Carvin store in Hollywood. I went back a week later and bought the 2x12 ext cabinet. The second one I got used from a rich kid who barely let it break in. A week latter I bought another 2x12 ext cab direct. The first one I had modified with some "vintage" tubes and the bias reset from a "tube tone" Jedi master I know. I can't describe in words the sweetness that comes out of those 12's. I use this set up smaller gigs: Blues,Rock-a-Billy, Country. I tote the ext cab for a bigger room. I'll mostly use it clean and add a Fulltone2 for distortion. I use the full set up for Rock gigs or if I'm the only guitar and I need to fatten it up through my Boss ME10 Stereo effects rig. Then get out of the way. And yes, you can get heavy as you want. I play all styles.

I'm using in no particular order; '94 G&L Legacy, '71 Gibson SG, '95 Ibanez USA Custom Shop RG Series, 81' BC Rich Mockingbird, '96 50th Anniversary Fender CustomShop Tele & Strat (they match). And I use the BelAirs for them all. You let these babies warm up for a 1/2 hour and your done son.

I've hauled these amps everywhere and never a problem.

Always a help. I buy all all my gigbags, straps, cords, knobs, and doo dads from them.

I've been playing forever. I did the the whole Sunst Strip scene in the 80's. The Whisky, Gazzari's, Troub, Roxy, you name it. Three records, 200 tours, etc. I've had Twins & Marshall's out the yazoo. I dig these tone monsters a bunch. And they're pretty too!! I buy'em again in a second if stolen.

I've had this new amp for just a short while now and I'm pretty sure it was made in 2000. Full on tube richness and VERY loud. I'm 47 yrs old and been playing since was a wee lad of 10. I've had the blessings of playing a huge number of amps by the top names, you know...Fender, Marshall, Mesa, Gibson, Crate, and the list goes on. I can say without any hype that this Bel Air is as rich sounding and well made as ANYTHING I've ever used, heard, or demoed. To compare it to all the other choices out there is not really my point...This amp is in a class all it's own and stands up with any of the the big names and holds it's own. I've read that some would not consider this a full on metal amp and I'd beg to differ..it is equal to the older Marshalls in it's over drive, or "soak" as Carvin calls it.

My primary guitar is a 82 Gibson Artisan w/ three hummers. I play a lot of differant "styles" and this amp goes from straight, clean jazz, to crunchy blues to a more than adicate hard/metal distortion. It is noiseless in the clean channel and naturally gets dirty in the extreme end, but at that volume and type of music that is normal for any amp I've played. As I said, I feel that the distortion works for any hard or metal sound. Simple tweeks of the knobs will do the trick for all types of raging.One of the mind blowing things about this amp is the variety of tones. I do notice how ever that the foot switch, when the amp is at low volumes, tends to be a little clicky...

I heard that some folks had shipping problems. Tubes loose and all that. Because I spent a bit more for second day air, I avoided that problem it seems. Just for good measure I checked each tubes seating, but they all were fine and the amp has worked as expected since. I don't neglect my gear. Call it old age...call it what you like.. but I take real good care of my stuff, and avoid misuse or neglect. If you treat your equipment good, it does the same to you!

Very nice folks...Not hyper sales geeks but real people.Because it a mail order deal you have 15 days to check it out and return it for any reason..period. It has a standard one year warranty.

I really enjoy this amp. It has killer tones and is the loudest 50 watts I've ever played! I'd choose this Carvin over amps costing twice as much and more. It really is as good as any thing out there for any price. I have played my Gibson thru it, as well as my Ibanez Joe Satch, (humbuckers as well) and I have no reson to look further for another set up. I use a Line 6 POD 2.0 as well for recording because it is far better than mic'ing up an amp in my small studio, but I have yet to use it with the Bel Air...no need to get a better sound. I HIGHLY suggest checking out the POD! If you record..you will love it! I also use the pre-amp of the POD for bass tracks...very nice.

I just ordered the Bel Air 212. I went with second day air largly due to the fact that I'm impatient, and also the few stories of tubes and things getting rattled around via ground shipments.

Just the demos and other reviews suggest this amp to be a very loud, wonderful sounding tube amp in both channels.

Staff was very helpful with the order and not in anyway acting like airheaded Californias we've heard so much about.

I'll be getting back as soon as it arrives. But to say that this format didn't play an important part in my choice would be unfair. This format has been very helpfull and usefull with good honest talk from folks. Excellent!

Made in 1999. Two channels, clean and overdrive. Standard three-band EQ on each channel, with a rear prescence control affecting the clean channel. Basic, effective controls. Effects loop and direct line out. 2 12-inch Carvin Vintage Series speakers, tweed covering, oxblood grille cloth, chicken-head knobs. 50 watts. 4 EL84 power tubes and 5 12AX7 tubes. Plenty of power for any situation. Looks good aside from the akward modern-looking Carvin logo planted on its face.

I primarily use a Carvin Bolt guitar (Strat) with three single coils and a DC127 with two humbuckers. I dabble in a variety of styles and find this amp particularly well-suited for blues, jazz, and classic rock. The clean channel is fat and sparkly, with the rear prescence control adding a nice glassy tone. Subtle tones tweaks are easy to dial in with the standard 3-band EQ. Tons of bass on hand if you want that hollowbody sound. Very responsive to pick attack. It stays clean until you crank the volume and attack the strings, then you can hear some power amp distortion, a la early Vox.
The drive channel is where this amp comes into it's own. Gobs of fat tube tone. There's more gain in there than I thought it would have. With the EQ set nuetral and the gain on 2-4, I can nail classic Hendrix/SRV blues tones with my Bolt. Interestingly, I can sustain notes infinitely even at volume low. Sensitive to pick attack, with a nice punchy midrange that can shake your chest. The tone is thick and detailed. Playing through a neck humbucker produces a smooth fat tone. I rarley use gain settings above 5 or 6, because the lower gain settings sound so good.
BTW, this sucker is LOUD. Sounds like it's pushing more than 50 watts. Metal heads need to look elsewhere....but if you're a metal head looking for a tweed, you probably have some other issues.....

I have owned and played other Carvin gear without incident, and I would suspect this amp to be just as reliable. The cabinet is thick birch plywood with bracing, so it's plenty strong. No crappy particle board. Thick steel chassis. I would use it without a backup, although I would bring some spare tubes.

My customer support guy is Urvan, and I ask for him by name. Always willing to do whatever it takes to help a brother out. The rest of the guys are hit and miss--some are helpful and friendly, others want to get through the call quickly and without much concern.

Great amp, can't beat the price....or the quality....or the sound. The downside: you can't try it before you buy it. This is a problem for a lot of folks, although I haven't been disappointed yet. Check it out if you want that classic tube tone with 2 channels. It is a simple, effective tone machine.

the amp was made sometime recent (2000). it is versatile enough for any of the styles i may choose to play. i usually like to play some kind of experimental/noise, but i am starting to dabble a little into jazz and trying to shed my blues based style. the bel air has two channels, clean and overdrive (what a surprise!). it does have channel switching and an on/off switch for the reverb on the pedal. it also has an effects loop, but no headphone jack. There are countless features i could think of to put on an amp, but i think that all those bells and whistles built in can take away from the sound quality of an amp. some basic features that i feel lacked, however, were a master volume and a level adjustment for the effects loop, and even an on/off switch for the effects loop. I appreciate the acoustic presence adjustment, but i just can't find much use for it due to the fact that i use a tele, and it's already bright enough, but i could see it being useful if i needed something really bright. i use this amp mainly at home, and i find it to have more than enough power ( i rarely turn it above twenty percent). i feel pretty confident that it is powerful enough for almost any application, though. specs: all tube (5 12ax7's & 4 EL84's!), 50 watts, 2 twelve's.

i run a standard telecaster through the bel air. i find the sounds coming from it to be capable of covering any style i play. i wouldn't expect an amp to make any outlandish type sounds or anything like that; it's not the purpose of an amp. i think it is a great foundation to build on with various effects. i can't really say what type of style i play, but my playing is (and i hate to say this) a reflection of my influences. i am influenced most by bands like as radiohead, sonic youth, portishead and the like. this amp is capable of suiting those styles and mine. the amp can make great, great clean sounds, and pretty decent overdriven sounds, but i think the clean channel is the crown jewel. don't get me wrong, the distortion is not by any means bad; it's just not something outstanding. the bel air would not be an ideal amp for a metal/shred/spandex clad riff-o-matic, but i don't think anyone would expect it to be. you could get metal sounds with the aid of various pedals or what not, but the amp itself is not designed for metal. it can however cover anything from the cleanest jazz to pretty hard rock. the clean channel maintains its clean at very high volumes. it might break up slightly at full blast, but it isn't much. i wouldn't want it to anyways no matter how popular an overdriven clean channel may be. the distortion, as i put earlier, is not extremely heavy, but at the same time, it should suffice for nearly any style, but not metal. one of my favorite features of the distorted channel is its ability to make that sustained feedback much like "white room".

i have not had the amp long enough to tell if it's going to last. it seems pretty well constructed, so i would be kind of surprised if it failed, but you can't really tell.

carvin was extremely helpful with my purchase. upon recieving the amp, i found that one of the preamp tubes was cracked. i called carvin and they shipped one within two days, free of charge. one of the disadvantages of factory direct shopping is that it is impossible to find any authorized service center. hopefully, i won't have any major problems that i can't repair myself. the warranty is one year. i just want to thank carvin once again for their outsanding costumer service.

i've been playing for about ten years, and in that time i've acquired only a strat, tele, a hughes and kettner attax 200 combo, crate practice amp and epiphone les paul junior, and various effects pedals (aside from acoustics). i prefer the carvin over the hughes and kettner, and obviously the crate as well. it is more genuine and real. if it were lost or stolen, i would try as hard as i could to buy it again. i love the amp's straight forward design as well as its great tones and practical features. i also love the price/quality performance. it's one of the best buys i've ever seen. there is not much that i dislike about this amp nonetheless hate. i compared this amp to the hughes and kettner attax 200, fender vibrolux reverb, mesa dc-3, various digital amps, vox ac-30, crate vintage club, and peavey classic series. although a few amps above, specifically the ac-30 and whatever else are higher quality products, i think that the carvin far surpasses them in its price to quality performance, and i even prefer the carvin over some of the higher priced amps regardless of the price. the things i wish it had are an effects loop switch and level for effects loop, and a master volume, but these are very small gripes. i honestly have no regrets whatsoever in purchasing the bel air.

AMP 1999 PAID$550.00 THIS AMP DOES EVERY THING I WANT IT TO DO AND DOES IT VERY WELL. ITS A TWO CHANNEL AMP,WITH CHANNEL SWITCHING.IT ALSO EQUIP WITH A EFFECT LOOP. THE ONLY EFFECT I USE IS A BOSS DELAY PEDAL AND THE LOOP WORKS FINE. THE FEATURES ARE FINE ONCE I SET MY AMP TO MY TASTE THATS WHERE IT STAYS. ITS ALL TUBE AND YOU CANT ROCK TIL YOUR TUBES GET HOT. I ONLY PLAY TUBE AMPS.

I USE A FIRENZA WITH P90S AND A STRAT PLUS WITH TEXAS SPECIALS A ZION WITH EMGS S/S/81HUM. IT SUITS MY NEEDS FINE. I PLAY 60 TO 70S STYLE ROCK AND BLUES IF YOY WANT METAL YOU BETTER GET A BOSS METAL ZONE. THE CLEAN CHANNEL IS EXCELLENT, FENDERISH BUT SWEETER BECAUSE IT HAS A GREAT LOW END WHICH I LIKE THE LOW END THOUGH IT DOESNT TAKE OVER THE AMP. IF YOU CRANK THE LOWS TURN THE VOLUME UP YOU CAN GET A NICE GROWL FROM THE CLEAN CHANNEL. BUT PLUG YOUR EARS. THIS THE LOUDEST 50 WATTS IVE EVER ENCOUNTER. IF YOU LOVE SOUTHERN ROCK. ARE REELIN IN THE YEARS. YOU WILL LOVE THE DISTORTION CHANNEL ALSO CAN DO GOOD BLUES

I BEEN PLAYIN CONTEMPARY WORSHIP 20 YRS IVE OWN BOOGIE,PEAVEY,FENDER,MARSHALL AND RELIABILITY STANDS TOE TO TOEWITH THEM. IVE HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH THIS IN THE YEAR IVE OWN IT. STOCK TUBES STILL ROCK. I USE TO AMPS ANY WAY MY CARVIN AND A BOOGIE STACK. JUST IN CASE I NEED A MODERN OR METAL DISTORTION. BUT MOST THE TIME THE BEL AIR DOES FINE. IF I COULD ONLY USE ONE AMP IT WOULD BE THE CARVIN.

THIS COMPANY GOES OUT OF THIER WAY TO HELP YOU.VERY HONEST IVE USED OTHER EQUIP PA.S IVE NEVER NEEDED REPAIRS YET. LETS FACE THEY BEEN AROUND 50 YRS WHATS THAT TELL YOU. IF YOUR ANY KIND OF MUSICIAN AND PLAYED FOR YEARS YOU KNOW THESE THINGS. I WISH THEY HAD A STORE HERE CLOSE LIKE WICHITA. BUT THEN YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY THAT DREADED MIDDLE MAN.

BEEN PLAYING TWENTY NINE YEARS. 20 OF THEM 3NIGHTS A WEEK. IF IT WAS STOLEN I WOULD REPLACE IT IN A HEART BEAT BE ON PHONE NEXT DAY. I LOVE THE CLEAN CHANNEL BEST. IVE OWN FENDER,PEAVEY,BOOGIE,MARSHALL, JC ROLLAND 120. BUT EVEN OTHER GUITAR PLAYERS NOTICE THIS AMP EVERY PLACE I PLAY. THIS AMP ACTUALLY INSPIRES ME TO PLAY.IT REALLY ENHANCES MY STYLE.ALL MY OTHER AMPS ARE COLLECTING DUST BRAVO CARVIN YOU MAKE MUSIC A PLESURE.

This amp was originally puchased in August of 1998, however I bought it off of E-Bay in the Winter of 1999. The amp is extremely versitile for most of the music I play, which is from Jazz, to Rock to Blues but needs a little more saturation for the heavy metal/art rock stuff. As most of us know it has your two typical two channels, one clean and one distorted, saturated, screaming or what ever else you would like to call it. I do apreciate the cleanliness of the channel switching and the reverb, however I wish it had a seperate button on the foot switch for the effects loop(though I have not used the loop yet).
One other feature that I would like to see is the low and high gain/tube saturation on the second channel so you could actually get a third sound (like what some of the Fenders, Mesas and Riveras have). I think on the Fenders it's the "Gain/More Gain" button. The amp has more than enouth power for my use and I have gigged out with it (they made me turn down). Since I'm not in a band now I mostly use the amp at home and about once a year throw a band together and do a couple of gigs. IMHO this is a great amp even if you purchased the amp new from CARVIN. So far, I've never talked to anyone thats own a CARVIN and told me it's a peice of **** (you may install your own four letter word).

Most of the time I play a "strat" type guitar I made using Carvin pickups, however when I play straight forward jazz I use my Ibenez GB10 and it sounds great through the amp. One thing I have noticed about the CARVIN over other amps (I also have a Quad-X) the Bass, Treble and Mid controls seem to work extreemly well and it took me a while to realize that I wasn't getting the sound I wanted because I had too much treble dialed in. I just dialed it like I had my othe amps not realizing the dB gain the controls on the CARVIN have. It also has a useful "Presence" control on the back. To me, it's a very clean sounding amp with all the notes of the guitar being well defined at any volume. Of course as we all know it sounds just a little better when it's cranked up a notch. (however it does NOT go to 11...ha ha...) I let a buddy of mine borrow it, he does a lot of vintage Tube amp repair and the only complaint he had was that it was too loud. Beside that he was quite impressed.

I have found this amp to be very reliable and would definitely gig out with it without a back up (even though I have one). The amp has never broken down or given any type of trouble. I've never even replaced a tube yet.

I have delt with CARVIN for about the last eight or ten years and have been very pleased with their products. One of the first products I purchased from CARVIN was two instrument microphones, I let some kid borrow one for his DJ stuff and it came back not working, I sent it to CARVIN (it was just out of warranty) and they sent me a brand new mike with an extra cable. I have also purchased several cords and guitar and bass string sets from them and on two ocasions they accidently sent me the wrong guage of strings and wrong length of cord, when I informed them of the mistake they sent me the corret strings and cords and told me to keep the ones I had already received. I thinks that's pretty good service.

I have been playing guitar since about 1970, have been in many bands, gone through many guitars, basses and amplifiers. If my CARVIN was stolen I would definitely purchase another one. I love the size, portability, reliability and sound of the Bel-Aire, I don't hate anything about it. I got rid of a Fender HotRod Deville to buy the Carvin, and I think that the Mesa Boogies are overpriced, but they are great amps. My collection of guitars is down to nine or ten guitars and have three others in various stages of being built (remember I'm trying to be an amature luthier) I have a small PA system, Tascam 424, CARVIN Quad-X with a Carvin Tube 100 power amp midi to a Digitech Studio Quad effects processor (lots of overkill here but every sound in the world)ran into a 2X12 CARVIN cabinet. Currently the only Bass that I have is a six string Carvin, plays and sounds great.

I have read all of the reviews and agree with all the positive comments, so I won't repeat them here. I bought my Belair from Carvin in early '98 and didn't even realize the 15 day trial period had expired! There was no question from the moment I plugged in (at work where it was delivered), that this was what I was looking for. I was looking for a brand new, loud, versatile, reliable combo amp with 12" speakers, a gain control and reverb. I had an old low wattage Fender that sounded fantastic when you turned it up, but it just wasn't all there at lower volumes that were sometimes necessary. I have played almost exclusively blues ( been in a blue/rock band the past 3 years) but write songs in all genres and am confident that this amp can do it all (even Metal with a decent pedal). My feeling there is that if you have a powerful, harmonic rich, clean channel, you could always put effects on it. It is the natural overdriven tube distortion I crave, and I can get it even at lower volumes now. I had been shopping for a new tube amp for quite a while and felt that it was one last amp that I could check out risk free before returning to the Fender Hot Rod Deville 212 that was closest to my needs and (especially) my budget. I didn't like the Devilles overdrive "buttons". There are only a couple things I wish this amp had. One, a level control for line out and better tubes from the factory.

First of all, I have noticed that a lot of reviewers don't play out too much or haven't had there Belair long...no prob, their comments are all valid. Even if they had problems, my bet is that Carvin took care of them. Like I said, I liked my Carvin right out of the box, but do yourself a favor, retube the amp. DO NOT wait until the stock Sovteks wear out! Carvin? are you listening? I know 2 regularly gigging guitarists who returned their Belairs during the 15 day trial period because they sounded thin, that have both questioned and complimented me on my tone. I experimented a bit with some old 12AX7s I had laying around and was plesantly suprised at the smoothness in comparison to the stock Sovteks. Some guys like them but I found the ones in my amp harsh. After that mild discovery, I replaced the power tubes with GrooveTubes GTEL84s (made by Tesla), put all Tesla 12AX7s and had it rebiased by a local amp guy. The difference (on my amp) was totally amazing! Very smooth and creamy. Put the soak on one or two and the volume on 4 and I could nail the SRV tone with the neck pickup of my stock '62 reissue Strat. If you just replace the 1st 3 preamp tubes, compare the soak channel all the way up before and after. Don't take my word for it! Try it. I usually don't turn up the soak past 2 except when I play lower volumes but now much more of the soak knob is musically useful for me. The clean channel is smooth and very responsive with Fender-like chime and shimmer although I keep the presence down. It apparently was not designed to distort. Either that or I cannot bear to turn it up that loud looking for it, but I am also glad to have it. The lead channel is a bit more bassy and dark but that is what I like and it is MUCH better after retubing, not muddy at higher volumes. Don't try and set the tone knobs the same on both channels either, you need to tweak a bit more on the lead channel, its there, you will find it...but remember it is not a Fender. This baby can cry too! I love bringing it out to blues jams & open mics..."Fender territory" and showing off! I still have to rate this amp at 10 for sound dispite the fact that I had to spend another $100 on tubes and rebiasing. Another thing, EL84s are the cheapest power tubes there are. I paid less than $40 for a matched quartet! I intend to experiment again before these wear out. I am also considering different speakers too.

2 years of almost daily use, regular 2-3 hour weekly rehearsal, light to moderate gigging, lots of moving around... I take it out twice a week now and haven't had a single problem. I usually bring a backup for important gigs but so far, I am impressed with reliability.

What can I say? I'll bet you think I work for Carvin...nope. When I first considered Carvin, I approached it as a "ok, whats the catch" kind of attitude. I had already grown tired of music store salesmen that would move on to a more prospective customer rather than follow me around the store asking questions that they would have to fake or look up. I would roam around and plug into everything and play until I found something I didn't like. I will admit it, when it came down to my hard earned cash, I was a pest. Carvins' Sean McAnally shot me off a users manual as soon as I started asking questions and was very patient with me through 2 or 3 phone conversations and several emails. I didn't want to get this amp and go through any hassle to return it. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Right? Well, I didn't return it and I have been playing it for 2 years now. I have not talked to him or Carvin since. Haven't needed to.

I have been playing guitar since I was 11. I got my 1st "real" amp, a '64 blackfaced Fender Vibroverb, when I was at 15. Nope, didn't know what I had...too soon old, too late smart. I sold it because it wasn't loud enough. Duh. The perfect amp for what I am doing know but now I couldn't afford it. Ouch! time for my regular kick in the ass. I own a Fender Power Chorus and a Pignose, and various Stratocasters. I love this amp. It is not too heavy, turns heads, sounds familiar or unique, it gets the tone I like. Smooth overdriven almost Marshallesque. I don't like the direct out. It needs a level control or something, but I actually perfer micing amps anyway. As stated previously, I don't like the stock tubes. I would like the option of choosing between the stock and premium tubes, but I am a dreamer... My amp guy said that amp companies often underbias slighty at the factory to help the factory tubes last longer. Another reason to have your amp checked out. I would buy another one.

The amp is very simple and straightforward. I like the effects loop. Both channels sound excellent, and can cover the range of rock, blues, country, oldies, funk, alternative, etc. Love the classic tweed look. Love the vintage amp sounds. Would have given it a "10" if it had an effects loop "send/return" level, and if the reverb knob (on front) was in the back and the brightness knob (on the back) was on the front, in the clean channel. And believe it or not, I prefer the older "vintage" style reverb. This reverb is very warm and smooth with a long tail. I like the old twangy-boinky sounding ones that didn't sustain as long. So I'm a vintage-head! Sue me!

Tone is where this baby shines. The clean channel gets a "10". It has a beautiful glassy, rich tone that is neck in neck with my best Fender amps (blackface Bassman, Bandmaster, Pro Reverb and silverface Twin). It also gets LOUD and stays nice and clean, something that the Fenders (except the Twin) have problems doing. The crunch channel gets a "7" on its own. By using the effects loop and adding a little cut around 3K, and a little boost at around 6K, it gets a "10" and is neck in neck with my favorite Marshall JCM800.

Still new....only had it for a couple months. So far so good!

Bought this amp at the Carvin store in Hollywood. The sales staff was VERY friendly and helpful. Great guys! Would have given them a "10" if they washed my car and bought me a burger, but oh well...

I LOVE the way that Carvin backs up their product. The fact that I could return it (I think they give you 10 days or so) if I didn't like it is very cool!

I'm a part-time working musician (playing top 40 every Friday & Saturday night) and am an avid fan of Fender & Marshall amps. The band I'm in plays oldies, blues, funk, classic rock, alternative & country and this sucker sounds great on all of em'! In fact, I have been looking for a single amp to replace my Fender & Marshall for YEARS and have tried many amps (some costing 3 times as much this one)that didn't sound as good. If it was ever lost or stolen, I'd get another one in a heartbeat!

Amp was made in 1997 and is still going strong. Haven't needed to replace a tube or anything else yet! I used to play classic rock and some token blues, now I play jazz (and a jazz-inflected blues, of course!).
Rest of the features are described well enough by other reviews, you should also go check out the www.carvin.com website if you want more info and photos.
I use the amp mostly to practice at home, but I've rehearsed with others and gigged with it, no problem. 50 Watts, yes, but the thing has the capability of being far louder than you'll ever need it to be...(if you need louder, it means you're in an arena that requires a PA or more...)

I use it with an Epi Sheraton II, stock humbucking pickups, nothing else, although i hope to chain up a Lexi MXP-100 and a Route 66 distortion/compressor pedal soon.
As said, I play jazz, and in my GetYerYaYasOut moments, i go back to my Rush/Who/Stones/Dead/whatever roots.
The clean channel is the crown jewel of the 212 Bel Air. Tight, lots of huge bottom end if you need it, and can give you thick/buttery to chimey to thin, all combinations, anything in between. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it, and I still love it, two and a half years later. It only distorts if you really slam a chord hard, and/or have the bass knob cranked, but in a small, very pleasing way. Related to that, I have to turn the Epi's volume down to 8.5 or lower on the clean channel, because the pickups will add to that crunch--nice if you need it, like on some Dead tunes, but roll it off if you don't. For jazz, I couldn't ask for much better for a low-medium end setup--it has turned the heads of a couple local jazz notables (one guitar player, one trumpet player). Think Wes (Montgomery).

The dirty channel has all kinds of nice classical distortion, more than you need. As said by others, this is *not* a metal amp, although I imagine you could find the right pedal to make it so. as noted above, i'm looking for another distortion pedal that matches up well, just for some variation--partly a function of what the guitar's limits are, partly a function of looking for another guitar that will get a little closer to Alex Lifeson's post-Gibson sound (the Epi and the Bel Air hits that Hemispheres-era Gibson tone very nicely, although feedback with a semi-hollowbody can be a problem).

Regarding noise: none. Any crackles and hum I hear are either the patch cable (which I need to replace), a halogen lamp on the same power strip, or perhaps the guitar jack. As for reviewers who hear radio stations: chances are, it's fault of your guitar pickups. I live half a mile away on a ridgetop line from TV and radio aerials two hills over, and I pick them up sometimes, but it goes away if you rotate your body (guitar angle) a bit.
The reverb is nice, and can even make your guitar sound distant (or close) in a big room. It's of course exceedingly useful to have the pedal that switches reverb on/off, and between channels. Still, the 'verb is a bit limited, as it's an amp reverb. I imagine there's far better, which is one of the reasons why I'm after a Lexi... >=^)

Bottom line: if you want warm, wonderful tube tone for under 700...this amp is *it*. I, too, was leery about going mail-order with an amp I'd never heard...it exceeded all expectations, and made me thank my lucky stars, because it can easily outdo amps in the 800-1000+ range.

The thing is quite tough...it's gone over many a bump on my cart, and in the back of my car, and even though I always worry about tubes, they're still going strong. (As a general rule, one generally ought not to beat the living beejeezus out of tube amps...) The only thing is that the plastic housing covering the presence knob has fallen off...must have gotten bumped against my luggage cart somehow. Granted, I don't move it around too much right now as in the past, as I'm woodshedding before I have the nerve to do a jazz gig, but it's a very movable amp. Still, I use the cart--it's 55-60 lbs or so, which is quite a bit of strain on the lower back, even lifting correctly, for those of us knocking on 30... :-7
More to the point, I've never had the luxury of a backup. Haven't needed it with this amp--I'll knock on wood anyway, but I don't expect to, either...

I only dealt with Carvin ordering the amp. Have not had to call them since. That one episode was nice, warm, friendly customer service. Certainly exceeds most mail-order firms in any business.

I've been playing almost fourteen years, really started to get serious in the last three. Got tired of the solid-state Crate G40C I've had since 1988, and wanted to spent the right amount of limited dough in the right places--that's why I can't say enough about the Bel Air, because it satisfied those limitations and then some. If it were stolen, I'd buy another, cash permitting, but not before a massive effort to track the SOB down and work him over... >8-). I just love *the sound*. The weight's a pain, but all tube amps are like that. I did't A/B it with anything, just listened over the years to the Princetons and the used Peaveys and anything else knocking around music departments, music stores and friends' basements...this blows all that away, at least in the combo department. i hate all the review cliches, but really, this thing is top-notch!!! go buy it, stop thinking about it.