Carvin Legacy II

New Carvin Legacy II Head purchased in this April. The features of this amp are described well by the previous posts. Quasi 3 channel amp that will take you from pristine cleans all the way to light high gain. You WILL need a good overdrive pedal with this amp... but you will also need a good overdrive with a Marshall Plexi as well... so relax and read on. I have owned many amps including Marshalls, Fenders, Mesas, Music Mans, and the features of this amp, although fairly basic (especially when compared to Mesa amps) allow it to be very versatile. This amp will do classic rock, 80's rock, 80's metal, country, and jazz with ease. The Legacy II has a power selector switch on the back allowing use in 100 watt, 50 watt and 25 watt modes. Each power setting changes the feel and headroom of the amp dramatically in my opinion. Coming from Mesa amps, the power setting on the Legacy II changes the feel more so than the bold/spongy, 100 watt & 50 watt power settings and the tube/diode rectifier settings on the Stiletto II, and Lone Star Classic that I owned. The series effects loop is very nice and user friendly. A parallel loop would be nice as well. The Mercury Magnetics transformer is a plus.

I am using a 1982 stratocaster with breed pickups. I used a reverb unit & delay in the loop. In front I use a BB Preamp and volume pedal. Again, a good overdrive is a must with this amp... but.... Vai, Johnson, Satriani, & TImmons all use an overdrive so get over it.

Clean Channel:

The two best clean sounding amps I have ever played were my 65 Fender Deluxe Reverb and my Mesa Lone Star Classic. The Legacy II is every bit as good but... it has a very unique voicing. EL34 based amps are not noted for exceptional cleans and the Legacy is an exception. The Legacy II has an acoustic quality to it when the presence is engaged on this channel. Turn the presence off and you have a very nice jazz voicing. Go with a single coil pick up or a tapped humbucker with the presence engaged and you have an amazing clean tone. Select 100 watts and you have almost unlimited headrom... select the 25 watt power mode and the channel will lose the headroom and begin to break up at higher volume unlike many other amps with variable power options. This clean is my favorite over any amp I have ever owned.

Boost Channel:

This channel basically gives you the break up that the clean channel will not. Amazing Hendrix type sounds lurk here. This to me is the Legacy II's Plexi channel. This channel with the drive dimed and the BB Preamp on through humbuckers totally nails the Santana sound.

Lead Channel:

This channel is amazingly smooth. Very Eric Johnson'ish in my opinion. It is articulate and will track as fast as any shredder can pick. The other cool quality about this amp is that it plays very clean. You WILL hear everything you play... however... this amp doesn't amplify other noises like many high gain amps do. What you play... you hear. This is absolutely the best lead tone I've ever had.... by miles.

Summary:
The Legacy allows me to get a very unique acoustic sounding clean that I prefer over the Fender or Mesa Lone Star that I owned yet it gets the best EL34 lead tone that is smooth and not harsh. The best hot rodded Marshall sound I have played to date. One more note... the eq section on this amp is passive. It is the most user friendly amp I've ever played through... turning up the treble or gain doesn't screw with your other tone settings like an active eq does.

I would use this amp without a back up. Any tube amp can break down so a serious musician would be crazy not to have a back up. It is still new so it remains to be seen how reliable it will be. Build quality looks almost as good as my Mesas.

Customer support for my questions during ordering and shipping was very good. Servicing requires that you ship the amp back to Carvin. This is a pain... but because the amp is sold direct from the manufacturer you are getting more bang for your dollar so it is a trade off.

I have been playing guitar for 30 years. I have played professionally many of those years and attended GIT. I currently own a Mesa Stiletto Deuce II and prefer the Legacy II over it. I've put the Mesa away and although I pulled it out a few weeks ago... I quickly went back to the Legacy II. I would definately replace this amp if stolen.

The Carvin Legacy II was introduced in January 2009. I purchased the amp I'm reviewing in August 2009.
The versatility comes from the 3 channels and 3 power options available. You can choose from 25, 50 or 100 watts and the channels are clean, boost and lead. You can read more about the channels on the Carvin website, so I won't be rehashing them here. But from a power perspective, 100 watts is very, very powerful. There is a lot of headroom in the cleans but you really have to crank it up for the distortions to really sing. The 50 watt setting is very good and is the one I'll use live. The headroom is reduced on the clean channel but I turn the guitar's volume down a bit to clean things up. I've played with the 25 watt setting just a little bit and found it very useful just sitting in my small practice room, but I won't use it live.
I wish all combo amp manufacturers would remember to include one thing - CASTERS! This is the 5th combo amp that I've purchased and the 4th one that I've had to put casters on. I would like to see a boost option on this amp like the Carvin V3. I also have that option on my Peavey JSX using the gain controls on the effects loop. I turn them up and put a patch cord from send to receive and then step on the effects loop button on the footswitch and viola - boosting! I wish the Carvin had that or had a MIDI setting to a dd a few db to the signal. I like being able to switch channels with MIDI and I've experimented with using my POD XT Live to do that, but will use the footswitch for now (trying to reduce my rig not complicate it!).
This is an all tube power house and one that I really enjoy playing. It has warmth and articulation and just the right overdrive. Plus it is so present, the notes all hit you right in the face!

I'm using a JEM with this amp and I tried to avoid getting Steve's amp because I already had his guitar. But I own the Peavey JSX and I bought the Marshall Vintage/Modern and just was not happy with the versatility of either. I now the Marshall wasn't meant to be versatile. So although, I couldn't try the Carvin out, I ordered one figuring I could send it back. It took a little playing around but I've found what I'm looking form, especially using the 50 watt setting. The Boost channel has just the right amount of boost, there are times that I'd like a tad more but I realize that's my old habit of wanting to be soaked in overdrive. The Boost channel has nice sustain and edge to it.

I also have a Strat and Gibson Les Paul and they each sound different in this amp. But to be honest they are all great as well. I really enjoy playing the Strat, the amp just plays so well with the Texas Special pickups.

The amp is not very loud at all. In fact, I played a Fulltone OCD through the Lead channel and it was still very controllable.

My style is very rock oriented (Frehley, Nugent, Van Halen, Young). My band plays songs upbeat songs from the 60's to now, focusing on guitar driven bands and this amp is perfect for that gig.

I've taken the amp apart to see its construction and it's built very, very well. The cabinet has very clean and tight joints. The speakers are enclosed in the box and there is plenty of room for the tubes. The amp is a litle higher than other combo amps to allow for that room. I will absolutely use this on a gig without a backup and I won't worry about that at all.
The amp is still new so I don't have long term statistics.

I've had great response from Carvin to date. The amp was shipped with the wrong footswitch and I called Carvin and had the right one withine 3 days. I haven't had to find an authorized service center and I believe the warranty is for 1 year against defects. I don't have any worries about Carvin and this amp.

I've been playing for about 30 years and I've owned many amps, guitars and stompboxes over that time. If this amp was stolen I would certainly buy a new one. Compared to the JSX combo amp, I have to say this one is better suited to my tastes, style and needs. The JSX is too overdrive for me, this amp allows me to breath a little.

I want to thank Steve Vai for his involvement with this amp and Carvin for getting this amp to the market. I look forward to many years of satisfaction with the Legacy II. I guess you could say I look forward to the legacy of the Legacy (yeah, I know ;-)

I'm playing the head through the Legacy 4x12 cab.

It's lost the reverb from the Legacy 1, but no matter - because it's gained a boost channel and a master volume control. The head is pretty basic, which cuts down on the buttons. But it has everything you need. There's a footswitch for the channel select.

The only slightly complicated thing is that the tone and volume settings on the clean channel affect the boost channel as well, which you can then alter again via the boost channel's own tone and volume controls.

I suppose I'll have to knock half a point off for losing the reverb, but I prefer using a delay pedal anyway. And another half point goes for only having 1 input socket. I knock another 0.2 point off for the cab not coming with wheels as standard, but that's not really the head's fault is it, so that's a 9 then.

Because of the 3 channels, and the "Vai feature" (that on the distorted channel, if you keep the drive at 6 maximum, the signal cleans up as you roll off the volume control on the guitar), it's very versatile. Plays jazz, metal, rock, blues, etc etc. Even played through a high gain, high treble guitar such as the Ibanez Jem, it has plenty of bottom and middle, which give it a lot of warmth.

The amp sounds AMAZING.

Clean sound doesn't break up no matter how loud you go. My roof blew off at 6, so I didn't go any higher, but at least till 6, it was still perfectly clean. seemed as though it had a lot more in reserve too. Unlike many amps, especially combos, the clean sound has a lot of organic warmth, even using the bridge pickup.

Boost channel - I set the drive on maximum for this and use it as my rhythm sound, which is perfect - gives it a strong crunchy rock rhythm sound.

Distortion - as with the Legacy 1, this is superb. Through the 4x12 cab, it has limitless bottom, screaming top, and a cracking distortion - might as well throw your distortion pedals away, unless you're looking for a death metal sound.

The master volume means you can crank up the valves and still have it at bedroom levels - GREAT!

I'll give it a 10, though I've only had the thing for a couple of days! This is based on the experience I had with my Legacy combo, which never went wrong in the 4 years I've owned it. Certainly it's built like a brick house of some description or other.

Never dealt with Carvin in the US. But their UK distributor, RockStarGuitar.co.uk was amazing, the chap who runs it, Dameon, was extremely helpful and went totally the extra mile to make sure I was satisfied. In fact he went the extra 130 miles - DHL refused to deliver the cab because their van was too small and feeble for it, so he arranged for private delivery that evening. That is service you don't see in the UK much these days. So that's a 10 for Carvin's UK distributor - well done!

It looks awesome. It sounds awesome. It smells and tastes awesome. It feels quite nice. Overall, it is awesome.

Made in 2009, amp can do styles of Jazz, blues, rock (classic and heavy) Some metal territories. Three channels of Clean, Boost and Lead. Channel switching for all three channels and Midi controlled as well. Serial effects loop(very good) Use the amp for all gigs and use all features live. The amp has 25, 50 and 100 watt settings. Plenty of clean headroom.

Using Carvin California guitars with Dimarzio PAF 36 anniversary pickups. I play in a cover gig and this amp is better than the Bogner Shiva I had. Modern and classic covers. Very quiet amp. The amp can get very classic sounding(JTM 45 territory with gain backed down and mids up) Can get pretty dirty and do 80's metal well. Cleans are very chimy and full with plenty of EQ to shape whatever you need and stay clean even at high volumes. The boost channel just adds some grit to the clean channel and you have gain, Volume and Treble with a presence button. IT is great for light rock sounds with the gain up. The lead channel sings and is also very adjustable. It has more available treble and presence than the first Legacy and can get very dirty and still have the tone remain.

I haven't used a backup head yet but it is still only a month old. I have owned plenty of Carvin amps including the V3, origianl Legacy and The MTS3200. None of them ever gave me any issues what's so ever.

Carvin is always there to help, no repairs necessary. warranty is one year

I have been playing 22 years and this amp is the everything I hoped and waited for. I would replace this amp in a heartbeat. I will order another for backup just in case. I did have a Bogner Shiva and it is a great amp but this Legacy I feal tops them all. I don't hate anything but maybe would change the look a little bit, but I am geting used to it and it isn't all that bad cosmetically. I would however like to see it have a parrallel effects loop to go with the serial one, just for user option.