Product: Carvin MTS 3212
Price Paid: US $700
Submitted
10/31/1996
at
02:51pm
by
aaron rusch
Features
:
9
One clean channel, and one distortion channel. This amp is extremely loud! It has settings for 50 & 100 watts, 4, 8, and 16 ohms. Tubes galore, and you can definitely hear it in the distortion. The dirty channel will knock you backwards, and the clean channel is bright. It has a presence boost for the clean channel to brighten humbuckers, and a separate lead presence knob which provides great glassy high end. The sustain on this amp is wonderful.
Unfortunately, the footswitch is not designed very well, and there is no midi jacks. So if you use an effects processor, you will be stomping on a lot of pedals. The effects loop is adequate, but lack of level LEDs make setting a strong input difficult. This amp isn't made for effects anyway; it has a great classic rock sound, with a natural decay reverb that fills it out even more. If you are not into effects, this amp is for you.
You will have to test this amp in your practice room, because it's so loud that any home playing is virtually impossible. The 2-12 speakers Carvin put in really crank. It's a great tube amp.
Sound Quality
:
9
If, you're into creating unique and experimental tones, I wouldn't recommend this amp. This amp is a very straight forward rock amp. Rock and punk guitarists will love it.
This amp does feedback quite a bit, even on the 5 setting. A volume pedal would be a nice addition. I've used both humbucker and single coil active pickups on this rig, and even with the distortion jacked up to 10, I still heard my guitar's tone.
The clean channel is bright and punchy. I noticed some distortion when I played the clean channel at 7 or so. Not a lot, but the distortion is definitely there. Very full sounding on the clean channel, although it could use a slight mid-range boost.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Due to it's incompatability with a complex signal processor, I returned it, so I can't tell you about the reliability.
Customer Support
:
2
Carvin has some really rude people working for them. Be sure to not take any crap from them. The salespeople I spoke to didn't play guitar, so I kind of took a chance on ordering the product (since they weren't giving me a sales pitch based on personal experience).
Overall Rating
:
9
Overall, it's a great amp with a truly vicious distortion. The price lited above includes the tax, shipping, and footswitch, but at 700 dollars, it's a great deal.
