Carvin MTS3200 212 Combo

Carvin: Master Tube Series 3200.
I've had this amp about 2 weeks, and Im impressed. I bought it used, like new. Im not familiar with all of the technical features, so I'll let the people who know what they're talking about fill you in on that. It has everything I need in an amp. A good sound and a place to plug in my guitar. The built-in reverb is a nice touch.

I use this amp as is, sometimes with the exception of a Boss MD-2 for when I need a nasty metal tone. I got this amp mainly for practice, and small gigs. My other amp is a JSX halfstack, and I got sick of hauling that around just to go jam in a friends garage.

As far as power goes, it's got plenty. As long as your neighbors are deaf, this amp shouldn't bother them. If they aren't deaf, then just crank this amp up to max volume and play for a few hours.

I mostly use electric mahogany guitars with humbuckers. Deans, Gibsons, etc. Stylewise, this amp will handle anything. Except maybe really heavy metal rhythm. For that, a distortion pedal is advised. I don't think this amp does diode clipping. Im pretty sure all the distortion comes from overdriven tubes. I generally run the drive knob to warp factor 11, and put on a little extra light crunch with the distortion pedal to get the scream I like for metal. For regular rock n roll lead/rhythm and blues, the overdrive is plenty.

I really like the clean channel on this. Very sparkling and full. The reverb sounds great. Im not sure what type the reverb is(spring/plate/etc), but I know it sounds good, and this amp will provide way more reverb than you could possibly ever want if you so desire to turn it up that far. The clean, like any tube amp, will break up a bit if you really play hard and have hot pickups. As far as this amp's clean channel vs the JSX clean, I'd say they are both tied at 10.

As far as noisiness goes, I suppose it's about average for an amp this size with no noise gate. A little buzz, nothing a little guitar playing wont cover up.

I give it a 9. Lots of tubey character and nuance. Very smooth clean channel. Dare say I a sexy clean channel?

Reliability? I couldn't say. Haven't owned it long enough, and I don't know what the previous owner treated it like.

I've been playing around eh..7 or 8 years. I own a JSX halfstack, some assorted pedals, a couple guitars. If this amp got ripped off, I don't know I would replace it with the exact same thing. There are lots of inexpensive tube amps that sound good. This one just happened to be the best deal at the time. I paid $300 for this thing. Well worth it.

It should be noted this thing is heavy. I'd guess about 60-70 lbs. It would cause some damage below if your girlfriend threw it out a window, but the good news she isn't going to be picking it up unless she is on steroids. If so, thats your own damn fault for going out with her.

This amp is comparable in tone to a Peavey Valve King or Marshall JCM, but with a better clean channel and a fraction of a price. If you're looking for a good amp at a good price, this is worth checking out.

This is my primary amp, I use it for band rehearsals and all gigs. I blindly bought this amp in 2000 directly from Carvin, having read reviews of it online. I had never played one but liked what I read and placed the order. As described by others reviews, this is a 2 channel, non-master volume 100w amp powering two 12in 100 watt speakers. Effects send/return, reverb, line out, impedance switching, and a few other items. Heavy yet very compact, I still lug this 80lbs brute around every weekend. Both the drive and clean channels have independent 3-band Eq with a presence pot for the drive channel and a bright switch for the clean. The drive channel has a good range of tonal qualities from soft overdrive, AC/DC grit, to some good hard rock/metal sounds. As mentioned before, the drive channel is very quiet and almost useless in any sort of live situation. I don't know why this. That said, I strictly use the clean channel and control everything with pedals. The clean channel is Fender clean!!! Loud! Whip the volume knob to 8 and it's still clean with almost no breakup. The EQ works well, although overall this is a very mid range amp that sometimes I have a hard time shaking even with 8 years of experience with it.

Drive channel only good for practicing, yet it yields some great tones to mess around with. Clean channel is up there with the best of them and very loud. This amp will fill a small club with sound and works well running through a PA. I have issues with the overbearing mid range this amp produces, I wish it had a high and low mid pot to help balance this. Aside from that, everything sounds great and consistent.

This amp is a tank. I do bring a backup head to gigs to power the speakers if anything in the amp goes wrong. But I have never had a problem over 8 years, hundreds of gigs and hundreds of practices at stage volume. I did replace all tubes a couple years ago after one of them died, but that's normal for a tube amp.

I have never had to deal with Carvin.

Eight years with almost no problems says a lot, especially when it's getting thrown around a couple times a week and dragged in and out of clubs. If it were ever stolen, I don't know if I would really pursue trying to get another one. I'm in the process of looking into other amps anyways. I love the clean channel, it's very consistent and predictable because I know it so well. I don't really hate the drive channel because I don't need to use it, it's just not loud. Even if it was loud enough I would be using pedals anyways.

I just bought this amp new, so I am guessing it was made in 2007-early 2008. This amp is very verastile. The Clean channel is nice and so is the dirty channel. I play metal rock. Some call it fuzz rock or stoner rock. This amp is a beast! Two channels with a footswitch for channel switching and kicking on the reverb. I basically just down-sized from a halfstack to this amp. I am not disappointed at all. I play the amp on the 50 watt setting and have yet to turn it up past "2". This is a LOUD amp. It is a tube amp, that contributes to it's loudness, but yet excellent tone.

I currently play a 1996 Gibson Les Paul Studio with a 57' Plus pickup in the bridge and a 490 in the neck position. I also have a Fender Custom Deluxe Limited Edition Telecaster, all mahogony with a set neck, and it has Custom Wound DiMarzio's in it. These two axes sound great! This amp is the quietest tube amp I have ever owned. Really takes pedals well. No "hissing" noises. I have yet to use my noise reducer on it. Brutal distortion. More than I have ever heard out of a tube amp.

Excellent. The amp came with 6L6GC's, but was advertized as having 5881's. So I emailed Carvin and they are sending me a free set of power tubes. That's commitment to the customer.

Been playing for about 20 years. I also own several effects pedals, mostly Electro Harmonix (love the Muff through this amp). If it were stolen I would go buy another for sure. Can't beat it for the price, plus the great customer service. Love everything about this amp. Wish it had a headphone jack. Buy it and you will love it!

The Carvin 3212 is well although well thought out has a couple of things I would change or add. The clean channel needs a presence potentiometer not a switch. Independent reverb controls would be nice as would a master volume. All in all I am able to get the right noises from this amp the way it was designed.2 channels foot- switchable. Power and standby are on the front as they should be.

I had to swapp out the stock tubes for Electro-Harmonix EL34EH's. The biasing dial (built-in) came in handy. I run the power tubes a bit hotter than Carvin does stock and this gives me the dynamics and harmonics like I like. :-) The clean channel is pristeen, bell like tone with plently of thud when you need it. If I use the presence switch I just back off the treble a bit and my tone is there. I can get clean tones anywhere from Wes Montgomary to Stevie Ray Vaughan to Eric Johnson from this beast. I found the Drive channel to be a bit of a challange at first. With the 6550's in the power amp the default sound is ACDC. Add a keely modded Boss SD1 and youve got some real hair to your overdrive. Total saturation. Even though there is a bit of hum and hiss at higher levels it is quickly replaced by killer tone once you start playing. This amp has the perfect ombresure for tapping, gliss picking, and pinch harmonics. With the power tubes changed to EL34EH's it produces a true Brown sound. (In my opinion) My playing style incorporates a lot of muted rough housing on the strings. I get a pleasing amount of "BUMP" out of this baby I rarely Re-EQ when changing guitars. My main axes are
a 98' Fender lonestar (pearlygates baby!) a Fender SRV strung 12-52,
An Ibanez 570 and a 58' Les Paul. My combo came with Celestion Vintage 30's. I opted to buy the 2x12 extension cab and changed the speakers to Vin 30's. 4-12's is a wall of useful tone with this amp.

I have only had the 3212 and cab for about 1 1/2 years. No problems yet. The quality of parts and construction are obvious.

No problems to report. I called Carvin for advice before switching power tubes they were very helpful and right to the point. Professional!

I had to spend a little more to get 4 Vintage 30's, I think the extension cab should have come with that option. The obvious enhancements to the controls would be nice but it functions as I need it to the way it was designed.

This amp has some nice features like bias switch on the back, an adjustable bias wheel inside to dial in your bias at home,50/100 watt switch. It has all the normal stuff, effects loop,external cabinet out, etc. What I wish it did have is a master volume, presence pot on the clean channel, and reverb pot on either channel, (only has master reverb pot). Those things would make this amp nearly perfect.

For those who have read previous post on sound quality, the first thing to consider is do you know how to set up an amp, and or effects. This amp is not designed to have one type of sound. A mesa sounds like a mesa, a fender sounds like a fender, a marshal sounds like a marshal etc, but a carvin has many features described above in the features section that allow someone who knows what they are doing to get the sound they want. It comes out of the box with 5881's and has a aggressive distortion channel that you can get a really good "brown" sound out of. The clean channel is nice and clean although a little cold in the bias setting from the factory. The rest is up to you. Carvin gives you alot of options to change things that make it much easier then other amps you need to take to a tech, or have extensive electronic skills and a soldering iron to change things up. One of the key adjustments is the bias wheel on the inside of the amp. This thing comes from the factory with a cold setting that helps tubes last longer, too long really. If you want a more warm mild overdrive you better change this, otherwise changin tubes, speakers etc. will not get you the sound you want. In my opinion a true electric guitar player should know how to do these things. If you do you can get tone to die for for a price that is unbelievable. If you don't have these skills stay in your bedroom and dream of things that will never come true.

Never had any problems this thing is as indestructabl as they get in the tube amp world

Lots of info at the carvin forums. Never had any problems so never had to contact carvin directly

I would rate this the best tube combo out there. I have played and owned everything from fender tweeds, twin reverbs, mesa's, even a vox uhg?, Marshal's etc., and nothing comes close to what this amp can do. You can use this amp as a 100watt head with 4x12's and 4x10's as well, so there are not many limitations. If your a tone freak that knows how to adjust and get good tone this is the amp for you. If all you know how to do is turn on your amp, turn the e.q. and volume dials and expect to get a certain sound go spend the money on that certain sound you want.

I've had this amp for about 5 years, and I've been fairly pleased with it. It works well for quieter home practices and is CERTAINLY loud enough to handle the small to medium sized gigs. I usually just kept it at the 50 watt setting because with the 2 12inch speakers its almost too damn loud (it can be set at 100 watts). It has all sorts of other features: cabinet voicing, effects loop, reverb, dual channels, lead presence and a clean presence boost. Lots of stuff here, but I never use the cabinet voicing or the effects loop, though they work well enough. It's all tube, but I replaced the stock tubes with JJ tubes, and it sounded better to my ears.

Overall...tons of features in an inexpensive unit.

I use a Carvin DC127 with dual humbuckers and a '72 Gibson SG, also with 2 humbuckers. I play in a versatile band that performs funk, blues, reggae, hard rock and jammy rock (like Phish and Moe, that kind of thing).

The clean channel is very clear and bright, which works well for jazzy chords and bluesy leads (I use a Tube Screamer to give a bit of edge), and the reverb has a subtle trailing-off quality that blends in nicely, though I wished sometimes that it would stand out a bit more.

The Distotion channel is a mixed bag--it's really best suited for Metal and hard rock, as its got tons of gain and lots of bass/sub-bass if you are into that scene. Getting those in-between bluesier sounds takes a bit more tweaking and probably a pedal to help you out. I'm able to use the drive channel with the gain down for chords, and then use a Tube Screamer to boost it for leads.

But it is easy to get really singing leads with no pedal, which is what I like best. But for live performance turn the drive channel up, if you are playing chords and not a lead...it has a tendency to blend into the mix (boosting the mids helps too).

Overall, the clean is espescially nice and responsive...and the drive is more limited to the heavier stuff.

I've gigged steadily with it, accidentally knocked it on its face a few times, spilled drinks on it--all the usual gigging abuse--and it works like a champ. It certainlt LOOKS like its been through the ringer, but it still performs great. Just replace the tubes on a regular basis.

I've only dealt with Carvin's customer service when I purchased my guitar (the delivery was delayed by a month or so)...they were nice at that time, and they even offered me some free picks and a free strap for my trouble.

But I haven't needed to use the customer support for the amp.

I've been playing for about 15 years and I've gotten to know a number of great and useful tones...This amp can get you some of them (and for cheap).

I'm currently saving my money for a Fender Twin because that amp has a more nuanced drive channel (though it cant do the really heavy stuff very well); my playing style and tone preferences are more in line with that sound. But the Twin is much more expensive than this Carvin MTS3200.

For the cash, this amp is really hard to beat...but if it blew up or something, I'd probably take the hit in my wallet and go with the Twin.

Amp has a lot of features which have been well covered. Lacking overall master volume to be able to push the gain further without too much volume, but thats about its its lacking - feature wise.

Here's where I had problems. At bedroom levels, practicing by myself at home, it sounded like a dream. Smooth, thick distorition, active EQ that shapes the tone, amazing clean, etc. I was so excited to use it to play a show, and when I did - Problems! I was trying to use mild distortion from pedals on the clean channel, and then switch over to the lead channel for heavy distortion. Uh oh, when I switch over - murk. Volume was way up, and I kept turning it up so that it would be audible, but it just dropped out of the mix altogether. So I ended up after about 3 songs just using the clean channel with pedals - distortion channel was USELESS live. Totally buried in the mix. I thought maybe I had been crazy, luckilly we recorded the show, I went back and listened, and was totally right. Every time there was supposed to be thick, heavy guitar in those first 3 songs - nothing. Sound just fuzzes out and pretty much disappears. I get the thing back home and look it over, it plays fine as always, nothing wrong. Just can't cut it live.

Also, amp made the occasional weird noise if I leaned over while holding my guitar. I brought the guitar to a tech to ask what the problem was, and after looking it over he said it must be the amp. Pitty, I paid full price new for this thing, and while it sounds so f-in' good at low volumes, it just can't perform properly for even a small-sized club gig. The search continues!

The weird noises were a pain, but I never had any reliability issues in several months of ownership.

The first amp I was sent was manhandled by the idiot UPS man, and Carvin really did their best to make up for it, sent me a new amp before that one was even returned to them, and gave me $50 credit. Good company.

Overall a great disappointment. I thought for sure this would be my main gigging amp. Sounded great at low volume, but as I describe above, no amount of adjusting the distortion channel made it stand out enough to be useful live. After checking the amp after that gig, I put it up on eBay immediately, and went back to using my solid state Sunn concert lead, which never had any trouble being right up there in the mix live. Tubes AREN"T always better folks, hehe! Along the lines of this amp, I want to try out the Ashwdown Fallen Angel 60 head, as from what I've heard, it actually does what this carvin was meant to do.

MTS3200 212 Combo
100 watts
GT75 speakers
2 channels
Bias switch
Effects loop
Smallest 212 ever
still heavy as shit though
etc..

Well when I finally got the amp and got to play around with it I was initially...... dissapointed. It was my first tube amp. I got the usualy omfg tube amps > solid state. So I was persuaded to find a decently loud amp that I could gig with and was tube so I came accross the carvin website and found this. At lower volumes the dirty channel is really trebly and harsh. Solo leads are not smooth and are tinny and judt usually un pleasent. Rythm wise it wasnt any better and I couldnt get a metal chunk for the like me. I EQ'ed and EQ'ed and it was always too trebly or if I try to cut the mids and treble and bass it became completly muddy. Plus the presence knob does abosultley nothing at lower volumes for some reason. When you get to turn the it up it becomes completly different still doesnt sound that great but its defintley gets better. Now its really bassy and the presence knob does work. You cant really get a metal sound which is what I was looking for without cranking the drive and the volume but yeah I guess you can get some decent sounding distortion. The clean channel on the other hand is much different its great. Low volume or high volume its like a fender nice and sparkly then why you add the spring reveb its just great. Too bad I hardly ever use cleans in the music I play. The amp is a 100 watts but it really seems kinda weak for 100 watts tube. It can get really loud but I have to turn it up pretty high to get it at a decent performing level. My friends DSL 50 was doing much better and yes thats a half stack but this has twice as many watts.

This is wear things get ugly.... So I get the amp play with it alittle and then I want to go jam with my friends bring it over and its making this rining noise that wont go away no matter what. Turns out the tubes went microphonic in just 2-3 days. Get new preamp tubes now the power tubes start to crap out. Also the worst part of all is the feed back. This thing feed backs so much its just ridicoul I have my volume at 8 and my drive at like 6 or 7 and the feed back is so intense that I could duct tape my strings in place and be a mile away from the amp or any electical device and it would go EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Sometimes the feedback is so strong that it will go throught the volume knob on my guitar it will feed back even though its all the way down. Totally unacceptable and thats the final straw for sendin it back.

The only good catergoy. I have to say even though I found the amp to suck ass carvin did a good job. I had to call them up several times and they were always helpful and answeared my questions and called me back several times good job here.

Well maybe I just got a lemon amp but still the amp just isnt for me. I play the heavy kinds of music and the amp doesnt cut it in the sound department. Im probably going to go back to solid state and because I just cant trust the the fragileness of tubes yes that might shock alot of people but whatever if you get good tone who the ^%$# cares where it comes from.

Reverb?both channels
? Dual channels (clean & crunch/sustain) with separate level controls
? 50 /100 watt output switch for tube saturation at lower levels
? Bias switch for your choice of 5881, 6L6GC?s or EL34 power tubes (supplied with 5881)
? The cabinet voiced line output jack delivers the natural ?mic?d? sound direct to your mixer
? A 4, 8 or 16? switch allows your choice of speakers
? A normalized Effects Loop is featured for foot effects as well a rack effects
? The optional FS22 foot switch is for selecting channels and reverb
? Tubes: four 5881, five 12AX7A
? Hand crafted 7-ply poplar wood cabinet (not particle board) covered in a rich black protective vinyl

Basic 2 channels with good tone control over each channel.

Incredible cleans with both single and double coil pickup. Overdrive is nice an smooth at the high end or slightly gritty at the low end. Good for classic, heavy metal, country, blues etc.

It has never let me down. Well built, very tight construction. Tubes easy to get to yet protected.

Customer support is easy to get through to and very friendly and helpful. The tone and versitility of the amp along with customer support is what made me go for this amp and company.

I've been playing almost 30 years and still gig from time to time. Every amp I've ever owned has had tubes, Marshall, Fender and Mesa Boogie, with the exception of a solid state amp in the late 70's that was a mistake. The versitility of this amp, selectable bias, wattage, speaker ohms, effects loop, line out, is incredible. I was going to get a Mesa Boogie combo, looking at over $1,500, until I discovered this amp. I'm not saying that this amp is better than the Boogie but the price along with good tone and features was the determining factor.

I found mine here on harmony central for about $300 used. It's a mid 90's model and had a few blown tubes that the original owner I guess didn't know what was wrong and didn't want to fool with paying someone to fix it so I got it for a STEAL.

It's got the presence knob on back of amp along with the usual array of "standard" features. 2 channels, volume, base, trebel, mid and reverb along with effects loop. That's pretty much it. Nothing fancy. Straight forward, no nonsense workhorse.

Amp is extremely versatile and a pure rock amp at heart but I found that with the right tweaking on the knobs, country and blues musician's will also be very pleased.

The clean channel is simply breathtakingly beautiful. There is no other way to describe it. The drive channel is decent but I wouldn't say great. It lacks the power and refinement that my ears demand. It does do a great job of putting most marshalls to shame. That's the closest thing I can think of. It's got a lot of british rock crunch with plenty of mids and more highs than I'll ever need.

I wish carvin would throw their effects processing from their FX series in here for a little more added versatility but my Korg AX1500G takes plenty good care of that.

Currently, I'm using a carvin DC135T with a Peavey EVH wolfgang humbucker in the bridge, the standard single coil in the middle that I rarely use and the Carvin twin blade mini humbucker at the neck.

It suites my style perfectly. The wolfgang pup is an absolute JOY to play. It really can make a crappy amp/setup sound great. Combined with the amp and my Korg AX1500G, the tonal possibilties of my rig are seemingly limitless.

I also use a keeley DS1 ultra for a light distortion. I can't speak highly enough for this (as the reviews on this site can attest to). It offers a more refined and clean distortion sound than the amp can produce. Combined with the amp's distortion channel though yields an abosolute powerhouse of sound that will blow the roof off any gig.

The punchy lows that the mts produces are amazing and the highs are actually rolled back to 3 because they're just THAT bright. Some people may like it higher but with the amount of gain that I push through the amp, it is just too shrill and ear piercing.

Also worth noting is that the reverb DRASTICALLY changes the sound and on my amp (hoping that it's just something wrong with my amp and not the design of the MTS) it is for the worst. It acts like another presence knob (which the actual presence knob on the back of my amp is all the way at zero). So the reverb unit was snatched from my amp and the knob turned all the way to zero. The korg has tons of reverb effects to pick from and customize so I don't worry about it.

It hasn't been retubed in probably 2 years so there's just a slight buzz but only if the noise gate isn't on. The buzz goes away when playing. Buzz is heard even if nothing is plugged in. Probably just a tube going out.

The thing is built like a sherman tank. I've gigged with it for over 2 years and it's been dropped kicked over, you name it. Thick metal grill ensures that the speakers won't get any sneaker tread marks on em!

Haven't dealt with them regarding the amp but they were very polite and respectable on the phone when I was ordering my custom shop guitar.

I love this amp to death. You can't find a better basic tube amp for anywhere near this price. If it were lost or stolen however, I'd probably buy a legacy. I've played the legacy side by side with mine and the Legacy is just more refined and the distortion on the legacy is just earth shaking...Listen to Steve Vai. It's his signature amp and that's what it sounds like. You don't need fancy effects or procesing to get his signature sound but you do need about $1000 for his amp so that's why the MTS is a great alternative. With a decent sound processor (like the korg I use) legacy tones are much closer in grasp and much more)

I'm actually getting a Legacy for christmas this year so the MTS will be my practice amp at home.

If you want the ringing highs that rival that of the Fenders and want the classic british rock crunch of the marshalls all in 1 tight well built and affordable package then look no further.

Carvin offers a 10 day love it or leave it policy so you have nothing to lose.