Carvin Legacy Head

very basic 2 channel EL34 tube head

Clean channel is very nice and round. Could use a bit more sparkle on top. Sounds and responds awesome with overdrive pedals. I use a crappy DS-1 in the clean channel set to low drive for an explosive mid drive sound. Well, there is my third channel :)
Lead channel burns. EQ voicings are in unusual frequencies. You will not get a mid scoop metal tone out of this. Notes blossom georgeously and the feedback is superb.
I use 2 of these heads in a slave/master setup with a G major in the fx loop and the tone is ABSOLUTELY dripping hot. 2 Custom 2x12's each with a Fender Vintage and a Celestion G12t-75. Blew my fender vintage first rehearsal out...lol
I bought both heads used cause I figured used the kinks with factory issues would be ironed out, that is the previous owner already went through the return hassles etc.
Not sure the years on them but both sound completely differant and look a little differant too. One has EH EL34's (slave) and the other has Sovtek EL34's(master) The Sovteks sound WAY better in my opinion. The Slave amp is a bit louder but I use the Gmajor to control volumes on each amp.
There is a bit of a noise floor but the gate takes care of that.
This amp is fast. Palm muting is quick and explosive.
I only rate this a 9 because the reverb is a pile of shit and should just be disconnected and used as a wheel stop for your car or boat.
Yes it is that horrible, unmusical and useless. The tail is way to long for this amp. Its like a 5 second hall junk. Carvin should put a 2-3 second max in it.
And like others have said these are loud. Not ear piercing like a marshall, just friken loud but smooth. With 2 of these on 3 you'll have to mike the drums....lol
Tried with 6L6's- Bass was bigger, highs are thinner, but I didn't like it. EL34's are richer and more detailed in this head. Both switch pedals are trash but I use a switching system.

No problems yet but I'm only a couple months into these. My band plays large halls in the San Francisco area. So we'll see this coming season and I will update my review then.

I hope I never need them

reverb, reverb, reverb------ yukkkky!!!!
Been playing for along time. We do about 150-200 shows a year.
Original Progressive hard rock.
Bought 2 of these and sold my Mesa rack set up. This is much better.
Ibanez RG's- some with EMG's, others with Duncans.
For the price these are great.

I bought this amp brand new in 2007. It's a 2 channel tube amp, switches from clean to overdrive, with reverb, and an effects loop. Pretty basic stuff here...

I've been playing this amp for about 4 or 5 months and I gotta say that I love it, BUT, it took me a little while to find how to use it. I use 2 guitars. A MIM dual humbucker strat, and an American made Jimi Hendrix Voodoo strat.

When I first got it before I took it to band practice I messed around with it here at home. I never got the volume up past .5-1. This thing is LOUD!!! I first tried it with my Voodoo strat. At this low volume setting I was a little disappointed at first, but I realized "this is a tube amp, it's meant to be cranked." The reason I was disappointed was because at the low volume setting, with the single coils, it was a little brittle for my tastes. I was able to dial in a decent tone, but I had to put the presence and treble way down and the mids way up, with the gain on 8.

Next I plugged in my dual humbucker strat. With this guitar there was still some brittleness there, but not as much. I was actually able to dial in a pretty good "brown" sound with the gain at 6 and I was able to add a little more treble and presence.

Then I took it to band practice and turned the volume up to around 3. It was like having a totally different amp!! With the humbucker guitar the brittleness was gone and the distortion was really thick and middy sounding. I actually had to turn the treble and presence up to around 6 and the mids and bass down to around 4 or 5 while keeping the gain at 6.

When I switched over to my Voodoo I had to turn the treble and presence down and crank the mids up a bit. I also turned the gain up to around 8 to make up for the weaker pickups.

The cleans are top notch! No complaints here!

We play anything from Greenday to Nickelback to Godsmack and this amp does the job for me. I've read reviews where this amp doesn't have enough gain, but I keep mine at 6 and it's plenty for me! I don't even have to use a boost unless I'm going to play a solo. Speaking of solos, this thing can provide you with some liquid leads, with great sustain.

Overall I was able to get a really thick sounding distortion out of both guitars, although for what my band plays I prefer the humbucker guitar, but this is the first amp I've had that shows the different personalities of different guitars.

I've read some horror stories, but that goes for just about anything. I've been playing mine for 4 or 5 months and I haven't had any problems. The only thing I've noticed is a "farting" type noise when I turn the am on from standby, but I've read on the carvin forum that it's normal for this amp.

Never had to deal with them. I believe the warranty on the amp is 1 year and 90 days on the tubes.

What can I say. I love this amp. If you're a fan of scooped mids and fizzy distortion then stay away from this amp. If you like a nice thick and meaty distortion with great sustain for leads and an awesome clean channel to go along with it then this is the amp for you.

This review is of my 2007 Legacy. Pretty standard amp specs. two channel amp: Clean and Lead. Strait ahead setup.

I'm using the Legacy with a Les Paul Classic (loaded with a DiMarzio ToneZone in the bridge and a Duncan 59 in the neck), Carvin DC127c (loaded with a DiMarzio Fred bridge and PAF Pro in the neck) and a partscaster loaded with DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Solo set. Amp is running a Marshall 1960AX cab.

The amp is very warm and punchy. Evey though the Legacy Cab is loaded with Vintage 30s, I find the amp responds best to Greenbacks and GT-75s.

The clean channel is very clean, and I find that when using the 100 watt mode it doesn't breakup until very loud (7 or above on the master) It 50 watt mode, it will break up around 3 or so- which is still very loud. the clean channel has a unique voicing. You either like it or you don't. After much tweaking, I was able to find a tone that I really liked... and then I didn't touch the controls again!

The dirty channel is where this amp really shines. It has a mid heavy tonality overall, but then the guitar is a midrange voiced instrument... so there ya go. The tone is thick and chewy. It is more in the line of Marshall in it's overall voicing. Think of it as a JCM800 with a lot more gain. It sits well in the mix, and takes up a lot of sonic room. It is very articulate, even with the gain levels set high. I typically run the gain around 6.5, which is more than enough for my playing.

Over all, I find the amp to be quiet. Until you get really high on the gain settings. Around 4 on the master, the amp opens up and starts to really breathe. However, this is NOT a bedroom amp. It is extremely loud! I play hard rock, and the amp performs wonderfully for this application.

I gig without a backup all the time. It hasn't let me down in the past 6 months.

Carvin CS is simply the best. I have always had good dealings with them.

Overall, this is a great rock amp! It takes pedals extremely well, and allows you to sound like you. My only real complaint is that I wish the master volume wasn't so touchy. It's either off or loud! I do wish the amp had an adjustable solo boost, but I can live without it, since the amp does take pedals well. A TS9 in front gooses the volume for solos nicely.

The Carvin Legacy has two channels, Lead and Clean. It has tube-driven reverb and is supplied with EL34 power tubes. This amp is designed for soloing. Consider it a cranked up Marshall on steroids. That's about it.

If you like the "Brown Sound" - this amp is for you. It not only does that, but does it pumped up to the next level. The distortion is best around 7 and is incredible for soloing. You can also get some very nice power chords out of it as well with high-output pickups. Get rid of the EL34's and put in a set of 6L6GC's for more of a bottom end and move from the "Marshall" character to a "Boogie" character. (It does not however sound like a Recto.)

The reverb will add some "buzz" to the sound of the amp. It is a known problem with Carvin and they will tell you, but only if you ask.

Don't expect it to sound like something else. It will only sound like what it is, a Carvin Legacy.

Had a tube blow out on me within the first couple of weeks of purchasing it. This took out a few resistors and ruined the rest of the power tubes. This wasn't covered under warranty (since it was a faulty tube and not the amp) so I repaired the amp myself. The fuse didn't blow as it should have to prevent this problem.

The input jack also can have a grounding problem and create a lot of buzz. This is covered under the standard warranty.

Never gig without a backup, but if you're playing at home only, it should be fine.

Carvin's support can vary from day to day, depending on who you get when you call them. Internet support is virtually non-existant. When you get the right person on the phone, they can be great - otherwise don't expect anything special.

I got this amp because I liked the sound of the Carvin Legacy. There are many other amps to choose from, but this one had the sound I wanted. Do not buy this amp if you want to play thrashing metal. It will not do it. It will however do most anything else, and even a bit of classic metal to some degree.

The Legacy is king for soloing, and fairly good for everything else.

Listed Below. 2 Channel all tube head with reverb. Presence switch for the clean channel that adds bright to the higher frequencies and a presence pot for controled presence on the overdrive channel. Mine did not came with a footswitch pedal, but I don't mind. For the features, it's not a line6 with a thousand buttons and switches, just a fine head with the right controls. Perfect for me!

I play through an old Jem77FP (first year of production), a Peavey Wolfgang Standard Deluxe and a Epiphone X-plorer with Zakk Wylde's EMGs. I play mostly hard-rock, but any kind of rock that suits my taste (generally all of them), just a very little bit of fusion and a little bit of funk. Sorry guys, no jazz or coutry here. Well, at least not yet.

Thats where the Legacy really shines. Absolutely tone heaven with any of my guitars!!! It sounds like a very hot-rodded old Marshall, with lots of low-end and beautifull highs, and, I mean, lots of distortion, just not enough for the amp to play for you, if you know what I mean. Any setting you dial with it sounds good, and its perfect to achieve absolutly great cleans (sparkly, ballsy, shimery and never, ever distorted) and absolutely amazing distortion (everything a distortion should have, thght bass, beatifull mids and perfecly screaming highs, beside the fuckin' great harmonics)

The amp clearly transpasses the tone of the guitar and consequently the player's, making the player's mistakes more aparent, but that's the best part, you start to play in a cleaner way, and its distortion is quite enough for playing the sillyest nu metal available. I don't know what these guys think of guitar playing, nevermind. I'll put some videos in youtube, and everybody will be able to see haw far the Legacy goes.

Ah, and theres something else. The Legacy sounds completly different with each cabinet used, even someway retaining its own caracter. Running it through a Mesa 1x12, it reminded me somehow of a Rectifier. Through a cabinet loaded with an eminence, it sounded completly like a Marshall. I'll post the rest of this part when its own cabinet arrives.

Until now, it looks like nothing can brake it. Since I have it only for a month, I'll not post anything relevant here, but soon I'll express myself again about it.

Did not have to deal with Carvin yet, but the amp arrived on the scheduled time, with everything perfect (I mean the box, the shirt that it came with, stuff like that)

I play for something like 4 to 6 years, don't mind the time, and I don't own a lot of gear, but this amp does not need much of anything else to play with. Just a good guitar and creativity. If it was stolen I would replace it shurely (if the financial situation allows me to). For me it has been a perfect amp, it has made me smile everyday I get home and hop into the guitar for playing. I don't imagine how is it going to be when its great cabinet arrives =)

I bought my "used" Legacy head back in 97'(approximately, I've ran it through a 2X12 Marshall 1960 cab and most recently trough a 4X12 Legacy (Bottom) cab. In both cases it absolutely screamed like a demon... The Marshall cab seemed to sound a bit mid-range(ish) but the matching Legacy cab naturally matches up much better. In short, I am 100% a "Legacy guy", as it stands today I would'nt switch to anything else...

www.myspace.com/throttleusa

2 channel tube head clean and distortion, 100 watts all tube, 50/100 power switch to make it run on only 2 power tubes instead of all 4, bias selector to switch from the stock el34's to 6L6 power tubes.
Effects loop, line out, selectable impedance for whatever speakers you are plugging into this.
Footswitch costs extra, cover costs extra, they could have at least included the footswitch without having to pay extra, how many people will use this without a footswitch carvin? come on...

For solo's this amp is the king, nice smooth and defined lead tone as long as you have the drive between 7-8 you will be in heaven, the drive control is pretty much worthless at any other setting.
For metal it is pretty weak, I threw some 6L6 power tubes in it to give it a bigger bottom but it didn't make much difference it was still weak for metal, for a great all around amp that covers all the bases buy the carvin V3, if you want something that just has a great lead tone then grab this amp instead.
The cleans are pretty much what everyone else says about them, as clean as clean can be with no breakup unless you run the master around 9-10.

Haven't had it all that long to tell but if I were to grade carvin products on their reliability overall I guess they would score pretty low.
They use cheap parts in their amps and they seem to break down quite often, I have been left with a non-working amp more than once due to the cheap parts that they use, failing when I needed them the most, that is why carvin will never be a mainstream manufacturer of musical equipment and that is why you don't see many people currently endorsing their products, that is why when you go to your local clubs you rarely see anyone using carvin gear, they need something they can depend on.
Sure Steve Vai likes their amps but this legacy is modeled after a Bogner, not even an original idea to begin with and they polish his balls constantly whenever he has trouble by providing him with an endless supply of amps that probably have better quality components than the ones they sell to the public.
This has not always been the case with carvin, they used to make great products in the past but something happened around the mid 90's and their quality has gone way downhill.
They got rid of some of their greatest items they ever sold such as the X amps and pointy guitars, replacing them with guitars that look like complete garbage mostly due to the headstock and logo designs(with the exception of the PRS copy CT series) and an MTS amp that has no real power to it at all, very weak, show me the list of MTS endorsers carvin and I'll retract my words, the amp simply sucks, what are you people thinking over there?? how many of those heaps of junk are you really selling? I bet they don't even sell 50 a year including the combo version, pitiful, make a 2 channel version of the V3 and get rid of that stinking hunk of crap known as the MTS3200 head.

This is another issue where they needed some serious work, yes I give them credit where credit is due, they have been a lot better to deal with than they used to be, in the mid to late 80's they were a real pleasure to deal with, however sometime (and here it is again) in the mid 90's they lost it, they had some real winners working for them in customer service, I have never been so frustrated with dealing with a company as I have been with carvin, even worse, when they lost Sean they went way downhill, I felt as if I was calling aol or someone equally as terrible, clueless and insensitive.

Overall I would say the legacy is a great lead amp that has a great clean channel, but I expect trouble with it in the reliability dept. but I plan to hang onto it for my collection anyways, it looks nice and is very loud and the cheapo chinese vintage 30 clones don't sound bad either.
That reminds of of something to say positive about carvin, I know they used to sell these with the greenback speakers, the best move they made with this amp was to get rid of those useless speakers, they would blow way too easy and sounded they garbage but that is my experience with other amps using those speakers and not the legacy amp although I can imagine the legacy had the same issues with those speakers.
And a word about the museum, it seems like an ok place to get some info from but the forums leave a lot to be desired, all you will find there is praise praise PRAISE for carvin products and opinions from so-called players who are pretty much clueless (listen to the BBB sound clips) stuffy old men who have nothing better to do than compliment each other on the grade of their flame and quilt maple tops and argue over tone.
One thing the disturbed me the most was when someone who posts there lost a child, I couldn't believe the stuff I was reading about it, the father was posting constantly about his loss instead of spending time with the remainder of his family, the last thing I would do if I lost a family member was spend hours typing into some web forum.
That is the mentality of the people who post there, you have been warned.

This is a 2006 model with EL-34's Groove Tubes. I bought the Half stack, so the price corresponds to the half stack price plus shipping to Canada.

This amp is a true 2 channels amp (clean/overdrive) with separte EQ (Treble, Mid & Bass). On the clean channel you also have a presence switch that boost the high frequencies... on the overdrive channel you have a presence knob that enhance the high frequencies too. It have a switchable reverb. It also have an output switch (50/100 watts)... but the sound is better on the 100 watts.

PLUS: True 2 channels amp
50/100W switch
Reverb
Great Looks
EL 34 Groove Tubes

CONS: I wish it have light indicators on the footswitch.
Really loud ! ...will need a hot plates !
The Presence knob on the drive is pretty unusable pass 4 or 5.

I've tried it with a Fender Fat Strat USA with noiseless pickups and a Seymour Duncan TB-4 on the bridge; a Jackson King-V USA. I've tried it straight to the amp and with my pedalboard (GUITAR-Boss TU2-Boss Noise Supressor-Xotic BB Preamp-Ibanez Tubescreamer-MXR EVH Phase 90-MXR 10 Band EQ-Boss Delay-Boss Chorus-AMP)... I also tried it with RAT, MXR Wylde Overdrive and EH Big Muff.


This amp is awesomely versatile ! You can easily go from Jazz to Metal... you can also play country and blues in between ! And of course instrumental rock like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Andy Timmons !

Clean Channel:

PLUS:
Really clean and doesn't distort at high volumes
Dreamy sounding
Fender quality clean
Great for Blues, Jazz and Country... reacts well with overdrives stompboxes (RAT, Tube screamer, BB Preamp, Big Muff & Zakk Wylde Overdrive).

CONS: Doesn't break (for blues... but my stompboxes can acheive that sound anyway)
Really loud

Distortion Channel:

PLUS:
Really mid sounding... great for lead tone
You can have a really great sound at a low volume setting
You can easily acheive that "Brown" sound
Really easy to have the Vai sound (easier with my Jackson)
Mostly for Rock oriented music, definitively not for Metal Heads in search of the "Mesa/Boogie Rectifier" sound ! But you can acheive a great metal distortion (easier with my Jackson... of course !)... 80's metal like old megadeth and old metallica and old rock like Van Halen, AC/DC, Aerosmith, etc.

CONS:
lacks of bottom for more agressive music... but that's not why I bought it... so that's not really a "minus".
A little to easy to sound harsh (mostly presence knob)
Fairly difficult to acheive a great blues distortion (but I use my stompboxes for this).

I own it for one month now so I can't say something about reliability...

at fisrt I was having problems... but it was the shipping that damage the power tubes.

but it seems built like a tank !

I totally rely on it !

When I received it the amp was sounding very bad... very harsh specially the distortion... I've told it to Carvin via email

Then they sent me new preamp tubes at first... and the amp was again sounding bad... then they sent me new Power tubes... ahhh ! wow the sound was beautiful ! night and day !

They are really kind and comprehensive.
It's trully the best service I ever had with musical instruments yet !

About the warranty you have 1 year for the amp and 90 days for the tubes.

I've been playing for 11 years now, I studied in Jazz music. I play mostly Rock, Blues, Jazz, 80's metal, Instrumental rock and compositions. I own a Jackson USA King-V, a Fender Fat Strat USA, a Jasmine Classic guitar and a Simon & Patrick Mahogany Pro acoustic guitar. Along with this I own several stompboxes... BOSS: TU2, Noise supressor, Super shifter, DS-1,delay, chorus, volume/expression pedal. MXR: Dime Distortion, Wylde overdrive, EVH Phase 90, 10 Band EQ, Super Comp. Ibanez: tube screamer TS-7. PROCO: RAT distortion. Xotic: BB Preamp. Electro Harmonix: Big Muff.

I have search for an all tube amp for so long (4 years)... I've tried alot of different brand and models (Marshall, Fender, Mesa/Boogie, Peavey and Carvin) and for the price none of the other brand was acheiving that quality. The other one I was considering was the Bogner Extacy... but way to expensive ! the last duel was: Mesa/Boogie Stiletto Deuce and Carvin Legacy... those two were really good amps... but I don't have the money to afford the Boogie and... So I've chosen the Legacy !!!

For the price/quality you can beat the Legacy... and it has his own voice and this is what I like with the Legacy... it doesn't emulate... IT CREATES ! This is not only for the Vai freaks, but also for the ones in search of a unique sounding amp, you can create a lot of different colors with this amp... and this is what I like with it !

Unless the fact that this is my FIRST ALL TUBE AMP, I've played with alot of tube amps in different shows and in my music formation, so I can say that this amp is a great Tube amp that belongs to be with the greats like Mesa/Boogie, Marshall, Fender, Vox and Bogner.

My years of search are now over !

If I were stolen... I'll surely buy another one !!!

Both VL100's sounded different when I turned them on...mostly bad.
Both TN100's needed to be turned on and off before I got them to work properly.

No comment. The gear I got broke after a week.

Marco (customer relations supervisor) was extremely kind and helpful but unfortuantely his being nice doesn't do anything for gear that doesn't work.
We exchanged the defective amps and TN100 racks and got exactly the same problems after a week.

I own a music school and professional studio. I also do studio and live session work on a professional level. I was looking for a company that had all the products I needed under one flag. Carvin seemed like a good choice.
I ordered 2 Legacy Half Stacks, 2 TN100 tone navigators, 2 custom 7 string guitars and a 5 string bass for an amount almost over $7000

I firstly got the amps and tone navigators. 1 Amp and 1 tone Navigator we're broken out of the box. I called up Carvin for an exchange and they told me they couldn't ship out replacements until I returned these. So I took another two weeks to get my replacement units.
In the meantime the VL100's tubes blew out on me in one week without gigging and just sitting in the studio and the Tone Navigator was acting weird not changing presets when It was suppose to and sounded boomy.
I finally receive the replacements. They Broke after a week (in the studio, not moving!).
You can start to understand why I wasn't going to take these products out on the road.
I asked Marco what the heck was going on and he told me it was an isolated incident but after doing a little research online I found many with my same problems.
As for the guitars. Well I was double charged on my Credit Card for the XB75 Bass so I was $1200 short and it took Carvin 10 days to admit fault and issue a refund that took 2 weeks to take effect.
The Guitars were due for delivery August 27th. Still nothing here. It took them 5 days to build the necks and bodies but they have been in the "string set up phase" for Three weeks now.
I just left a message for Marco and emailed to cancel all orders and issue a refund A.S.A.P.

I don't know what else to say. You be the judge.

You know the set up. All tube amp. I play rock. classic rock mostly. and some newer stuff. also play blues. this only thing I don't use on this amp is the presence on the clean channel.
My amp is set up with Electro Harmonics EL34's in the power tube section and chinese 12ax7's in the preamp section. I think they come with Groove tubes from the factory. At least thats what I read at the carvin website. I use this amp everywhere I go. it even sounds good at low volumes. But don't let the 50 watt switch fool you this amp is loud. low volume on this amp is set at 1. after that your on your own. the louder the better!

This amp sounds AMAZING. I've only played on solid state amps. and some hybrids, I then purchased a tube overdrive pedal and I fell in love with that tube sound. so I figured let me check out some tube amps and see the difference. to my surprise they sounded pretty much the same, I could basically get the same tone from my set up to the tube amps I tried out. not exactly the same but close enough to where I didn't want to drop down a nice chunck of dough for one. Until I found this amp. The Carvin Legacy. this amp is like nothing I've ever heard or can recreate with my set up, it is so crisp and clean, I never heard my guitar's sound so beautiful, even the overdrive is so clear not muddy at all. every note can be heard clearly note for note not mixed together or sloppy, this amp can go from clean to dirty without a change in volume, like some amps I tried. the reverb is amazing also its very smooth,doesn't sound like your playing on the toilet. I use a Jackson warrior XT with the stock detonator humbuckers and I can get plenty of gain with this amp and clearly. I was going to change the pickups in warrior because I thought they were crap, I could never get a good distortion sound out of them, it would always break up really bad but now its sounds good.to get really good distortion I set the gain anyware between 6 and 8 depending on your guitar and use the volume knob on the guitar to control how much distortion you want and beleive me there is plenty. I also have a strat with stock pickups that I play blues through and this amp can do that very well. I now like my strat again, it was my first guitar and I stopped playing it because I didn't like the tone all that much and was getting ready to sell it, Lucky I held on to it. its sounds amazing through this amp. I didn't mention any names on the other amps because I don't want to bad mouth any brands since they all have their own tones which I also like. Tone is like ice cream so many different flavors and everyone has their favorite. and this one is mine. and I'm only giving it a nine because you never now when another flavor is going to get your attention.

No problems Yet. If you can't depend on it why keep it.

I don't know how it sounded from the factory since I bought it used with different tubes in it. I know that if it doesn't sound good, it can. with the right tubes.