Carvin MTS3200

This is pretty much explained in all other posts. Its a 100 watt RMS all tube driven head with outstanding tone and sound. It has two channels - clean and crunch, reverb, normal ther settings and truly exceptional gain. I play it through a matching 4x12 Carvin Cab. Feature I really like is the ability to switch from 100 to 50 watts....gives tube saturation at lower volumes. Don't believe the negatives you might hear on that feature. The amp is still loud but the saturation comes at noticibly less volume.

The sound is great. The clean sound is very good and it goes all the way to simply brutal distortion ( a good thing!) I read some folks did not think it was loud or had enough gain. Unbelievable...the amp is pro quality and sounds fantastic.

I play a Gibson Les Paul DC Standard, Mex Standard Strat and a Ritchie Blackmore Signature Strat through it right now. I also have a Carvin DC 127 and EVH Wolfgang that I have not tried through the amp yet.

You can play any style through this amp. I compared this amp to a new all tube Marshall (which was twice the cost) and a more competitively priced 100 watt solid state Marshall and this amp blows both away - no comparison. I was originally after a Peavey 5150 but this is just as good at half the price.

NO Issues...I've had a week and the amp worked perfect out of the box.

No issues...amp arrived on time as promised.

Can not beat this amp. I hate to say for the price because it is truly as good or better than the pricier marshalls or peaveys. Bottom line is this is a world class pro qulity all tube driven amp that is solid, versatile and has great tones accross the entire sound spectrum. It is a great amp and the price (about $1000) for an all tube american made half stack is awesome. In comparison...I tried out the 100 Watt Marshall solid state (new) half stack ($750)and it is a good amp but when I evaluated it against the Carvin I immediately took it back to Guitar Center - no match.

I also own a Line 6 AXS 212 combo...Bought it new 8 years ago. Thats a good amp and I've been happy. Again, no match for the carvin - this amp is at the next leval.

I've been playing seriously for 8 years. I play hard rock and metal mostly - Deep Purple Family( Purple, Whitesnake, Rainbow), Led Zep, GNR, ACDC, Scorpians, Van Halen Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi etc...and this amp easily delivers.

If stolen I'm calling Carvin for another the same day!!

I love the sound, the killer looks, and the quality of this amp. Nothing beats all tube power - don't kid yourself and this baby is the most affordable.

One last point: I like buying quality and most of the gear I own sounds good and does what the manufacturer says. For example, that solid state marshall I compared to the Carvin did sound good and worked well...same with the Line 6. The Carvin just sounded better. The sound improvement is worth the additional $200. I read in amazement how many really negative reviews I read about amps and top quality guitrs like say a Gibson les Paul Standard. So be careful when reading reviews....many of the real negative ones about the sound come from hackers who can't play. Likewise....watch out for the infactuated buyer who says all is great.

I?m writing this review in Portuguese to brazilian guitarists.
Amp de 2004, anniversary edition, comprado diretamente na loja nos EUA. Comprei usado o cabe?ote e a caixa 4 X 12. Confesso que comprei totalmente sem conhecer o som desse amp pois o pre?o estava imperd?vel (mesmo!). O amp ? vers?til o suficiente para v?rios estilos. Eu diria at? que ? vers?til para TODOS os estilos. Tem todos os recursos que eu procurava num cabe?ote: 2 canais com equaliza??o independente, footswitch (? opcional de f?brica, mas o meu veio com o foot), loop, chave 50/100 W (eu uso em 50W), chave para 6L6/5881/EL34.
Usa 5 v?lvulas de pr? e 4 de power. Reverb de mola tipo "tail" (pelo que eu pesquisei ? um tipo de reverb mais longo). Tem ainda uma chave de presen?a para o canal lead (que varia os "mids" para mais grave ou agudo)

Inicialmente o som deixou um pouco a desejar. Eu gostava do clean. Bem claro e limpo, principalmente com strato. Testei o canal lead com strato (american standard) e les paul (Epiphone standard). Testei com pedal, testei com pedaleira e n?o me agradava. Embolado demais. Graves demais. Sei l?. Troquei ent?o as 5881 que vem de f?brica por 6L6 (pretendo colocar EL34 mas ? que eu tinha essas 6L6 de outro cabe?ote Giannini). A? a coisa mudou! O som sujo ganhou mais defini??o e punch! S?rio! S? posso pensar 2 coisas: ou as 5881 que vem com o amp s?o muito ruins ou as 5881 n?o s?o o tipo de som que me agrada. O amp n?o faz muito ru?do nem com o ganho quase no toco. A distor??o ? brutal, por?m eu me arrisco a usar at? o n?mero 5 mais ou menos. A equaliza??o ? muito sens?vel. Uma mexidinha de nada no bot?o de agudos e fica agudo pra kct. Ele tem muito TUDO: Muitos graves, muitos agudos. Coloco por exemplo os graves quase no zero e ainda assim sobram graves. Isso ? um problema, a dificuldade de timbrar. Mas a partir de um momento que voc? acha uma configura??o confort?vel fica tudo uma beleza. O canal limpo N?O distorce com volume alto (talvez quando eu colocar as EL34 ele distor?a um pouco). Eu dou nota 6 com as 5881 e nota 9 com as 6L6. Espero poder dar nota 10 com as EL34.

N?o tenho como ter um "backup" e acredito que para a maioria dos m?sicos brasileiros, ter um outro equipamento pra servir de segunda op??o caso ocorra algum problema com o equipamento principal, ? quase imposs?vel. Os impostos e a falta de vergonha na cara das lojas aqui (digo falta de vergonha na cara pois mesmo quando o d?lar est? em baixa os pre?os de instrumentos mant?m-se altos e ? muito comum nessas ?pocas de baixa do d?lar os bons equipamentos ficarem em "stand by" pelas importadoras, ou seja, guardados at? que o d?lar suba e eles possam colocar a venda e obter lucro maior).
O amp nunca deu problema comigo (estou com ele h? duas semanas) e pelo estado geral eu diria que nunca deu problemas algum com o antigo dono, j? que nenhuma pe?a foi trocada da configura??o original de f?brica). Me parece ser muito bem costru?do. Bastante s?lido. Tudo em compensado e pe?as em metal. Me passa mais seguran?a que muito Marshall por a?.

N?o sei. Moro no Brasil.

Toco h? uns 10 ou 12 anos. E j? tive alguns valvulados: Laney, Giannini. E alguns transistorizados: Meteoro, Peavey. Esse sem d?vida o equipamento mais profissional que j? tive. N?o poderia comprar um Marshall cabe?ote e caixa que aqui no Brasil sairia, usados, no m?nimo uns 6000 reais (um JCM 900, que nem ? l? essas coisas). Portanto fico extremamente satisfeito de ter tido essa oportunidade de comprar um amp americano em estado de zero, por um pre?o muito em conta. E, ainda por cima, de excelente qualidade sonora e de constru??o. Recomendo.

Se fosse roubado o cara teria que vender esse amp pra outro pa?s, simplesmente porque n?o existem muitos Carvins por aqui e eu reconheceria o meu facilmente. Se fosse roubado eu n?o poderia comprar outro porque teria dificuldades de achar. Aqui nas lojas brasileiras ? oito ou oitenta: Ou s? tem solid states ruins ou hibridos. Os valvulados, em geral s?o cabe?otes de 8000 reais ou mais. N?o h? uma pol?tica de mercado aqui que valorize o m?sico com renda de classe m?dia. Ou voc? compra um solid state barato ou s? vai encontrar um cabe?ote car?ssimo. Ou um combo valvulado mas com pot?ncia baixa e ainda assim caro. ? por isso que os hand mades aqui tem se proliferado. E eu desejo boa sorte a todos os hand mades. Eu mesmo vou encomendar um hand made personalizado em 2007 (o cara tem tanta encomenda que o meu amp est? agendado pra ser constru?do daqui a 2 anos!)

I have a 2001 MTS 3200, Which is stocked with sovtek tubes(I checked). I bought the amp before I ever had used one, so I was taking a gamble. I was shocked by the clean channel. I know that can be a bit of trouble on some tube amps. I must say the lead presence on the head works great for getting the spanking clean I love to use. and being able to disengage it from the clean channel is great for my style. I do like the fact that each channel has its own EQ. Im glad there is no preset resonance. It has enough bottom end for me. and then some. I play through a cab loaded with Vintage 30s. I would love to see the amp have a low and high mid knobs. But I will say the midrange and all setting on the EQs of both channels work great, no extreme volume or gain jumping like some older marshalls do. I would buy another one if I lost this one. I have not replaced my original tubes, they sound great to me and I will when the old ones die, put groove tubes in the preamp section Electro Harmonix tubes for power, I am very happy with the features on my head. I sound like MYSELF and not trying to copy anyone else. I gave up the hero worship when I was 18. I do not run my effects loop, only for my decimator. I am happy with the features of my amp.

I use a range of sounds, I like the fact I can back off and get a sort of JCM 800 sound, but the amp has more gain than most Marshalls I have played through. I use a MichaelKelly Patriot Phoenix, loaded with a seymour duncan Jazz neck and a Screaming Demon(hate the name) in the bridge. all of my guitars from my Telecasters are loaded with duncan customs and a 59 at the neck, a tele with emg tele pickups and a korena explorer with a dimarzio Norton at the bridge and a PAF Joe in the neck. I have had no problem with noise out of my amp. Ive rarely used the decimator on my head. I play alt rock and metal as well as some classic rock, and I can get all the sounds i need out of my head. I learned from my 18yr old days. of not jacking the gain, you loose definition. I run medium gain pickups, then I can kick in the gain a bit and come up with a better sound. no chainsaw here, but you can get it from the head by jacking the gain all the way up, its versital to me, Ive never had my clean chanel distort at high volumes. And after 5 years of owning one Ive tried them all. It may not be for everyone who wants to sound Scooped, but if you want that horrible bedroom metal tone with no mids. You can waste a good head doing that with the MTS. Recorded, the amp is full of bite but nice and smooth through Vintage 30's Its has the snarl, but it is a totally diferent beast when recorded, dont be fooled. Im very happy with the sounds, I get, Im running a line 6 MM4 only for modulation effects. and it works great. I let my head do the work, like anyone should instead of a processor. I have never needed to use a distortion pedal with this amp. its has the balls you need.

I have not had to have my amp fixed yet. When I do play out I keep A Vamp on for backup. its never given me any problems. Im sorry if it seems to be that good , but Its never been serviced and I have used this amp for some pretty long marathon sessions. But I must say I am VERY careful when transporting my head and taking care of it. So I have had great success with reliability. and I have loaned it out many times for people to use as a backup and when there heads are down, seem to make them want to buy them.

I have only had to deal with carvin once, they sent me a legacy booklet with the amp,but I found out if you put el34in the head it basically is a Legacy and thats coming from a Carvin tech. my head had the one year warranty. but I work with a guy who is an engineer he fixes all the amps in our area. so I do not have to send it off to be repaired. alot of people in West Virginia play tube heads, and our guy can fix them all. so I never have sent it off to Carvin, but thier Customer Support is great and they are very patient with me. When I have dealt with them.

I give the amp a 9 overall. if it was stolen I would buy another one in a heartbeat. It is the only amp I own, besides the Vamp. I chose the amp for price for once but doing my reasearch, it was worth it. I wanted a 5150 back in the day and a marshall, but now im glad I found another company that was as good as Carvin. I have found my tone, Im not trying to copy Zack or Randy or Eddie, I wanted my own tone, guess it comes with age but get over the hero worship and play for yourself, you can buy your favorite players gear down the the last pedal , I wont make you as good or sound like them, its in thier hands. and for God sakes, Scooping out your MIDS SOUNDS HORRIBLE, as well as cranking your gain, doesnt make you heavier, just an ass. use your ears. PLEASE

Mine is the 2003 Aniversary Head.
5 12ax7's
4 5881's
2 channels the regular for the head.

I don't play metal, but this amp was good enough for me to buy.
Played on tour with a friends, and loved it.
Out of the box the tone was kinda tame.
The power tubes would not let the amp sing like it wanted to do. IT was frustrating to get it to the full 100 watts, no headroom

Changed the tubes to this.
1 EH 5851 in V1
3 EH 12AX7's in V2 - V4
1 EH 12AT7 in V5

4 power tubes JJ 6l6's

now the amp sounds like a mix between a vintage fender, and marshall.
it's amazing to get those high gain tones with a vintage tube screamer.

One thing that i love about this head is the reverb. One of the best amp reverb i have ever heard.
It was noisy, and microphonic when i got it... but i changed the tubes and all teh problems went away.

Never had trouble except the tubes.

never had to use.

I've been playing for 8 years or so. In a few bands touring and not.

I'd definately recomend this amp if you're willing to put some time into finding an excellent tone.
With some tweaking, this amp is lovely.

IF it was stolen, i'd buy another.

Mine is a 2003 50th Anniversary Edition.
It is an all tube amplifier. (4 power @ 5 preamp tubes)
This amp suits my styles of playing extremely well. I play classic rock, jazz, contemporary Christian, and heavy Christian rock. This is a two channel amp. Clean and Lead channel. It has a switch on the back so that you can use either 5881/6L6 or EL34 power tubes. It also has another switch to change it from 50 to 100 watts. Very versatile. I tried several other amps before purchasing this one.
(Mesa's, Fender's, and Marshall's.) Each one had it's strong points but over all the Carvin just covered it all. It has a very sweet clean like the Fender is known for and a distortion that I feel is much more soaked and sustaining than a Marshall or Mesa.

This amp sounded very, very nice right out of the box. Carvin did an excellent job when they designed the MTS3200. I did however make a change that made an incredible difference in the sound of this amp. Like so many major amp companies do, they also used a less expensive tube in their amplifier. I changed the power tubes to Svetlana ("Winged C") 6L6's and the preamp tubes to Electro Harmonix 12ax7's. I know music is so subjective. What one person loves in sound, someone else doesn't. I am just giving this information to try and help. I tried so many different combinations of tubes. I mean countless. When I tried this combination, it blew me away. I have had so many people comment over how sweet this amp sounds, clean is distorted.

So far I have had no problem.

I have called Carvin for several things over the years from guitars to amps to sound equipment. They have always been very helpful and courtious.

I have been playing for about 25 years. The guitars I use are a Taylor 410 CE Acoustic and a Fender American Series HH Strat Hardtail. My effects consist of a Boss CU-2 tuner, Boss CH-1 chorus, Boss Mt-2 distortion ( Modded by Keeley ), Boss DD-3 delay, and a Boss NS-2 noise suppressor. If it were stolen I would definately buy another.

I bought this amp used on Ebay, according to the seller it needed new tubes, but was in over all good condition. its your pretty standard set up 2 channels, reverb, etc.

its Rebiasable which is nice, it can use EL34, 6L6, or 5881 type tubes, i put in a pair of E34L tubes which are cleaner EL34s with more bottom end, and it plays them fine in the EL34 setting without needing a manual bias job.

it can switch from 4 power tubes at 100 watts to 2 power tubes at 50 watts as well if you want.

ill give it a 7 because i feel its about normal for an amplifier as far as features go.

im not sure how it sounds stock with the 5881 tubes but from what i hear it has a lot of bottom end and a really good clean with those tubes (people say comparable almost to a fender twin clean)

like i said above i put in E34L tubes which are EL34s with approx. 20% more headroom and a tighter bottom end.

My band plays our own style of laid back Alt/Rock with songs requiring a glassy clean and a warm marshall esque crunch as well.

This amp feels like its inbetween a Marshall and a Mesa...more bottom end than a marshall but not as much bottom end as a Mesa and a bit higher gain than a marshall but not as high gain as a Mesa.

As far as the music i play goes, it falls in pretty perfectly with the sound that i wanted, i play it through a Hartke 4x12 cabinet with Celestion G12H80 speakers.

The clean is really good sounding, really glassy with a lot of headroom and the crunch can go anywhere from Weezer (around 3-5 gain at about 3 volume) to 80's shred metal (high volume high gain, but back off the bass knob a bit)

over all the sound with the E34L tubes is what you would expect from a boutique amplifier, that costs 3 times as much.

it seems solid enough, was gigged a lot before i got it, inside was dust free and clean, very well built, tubes are held TIGHTLY, TIGHTLY, TIGHTLY took me forever to jiggle them out.

it seems like a very simple amp on the inside, pretty basic and probably pretty easy for a tech to fix if it ever had problems.

I've dealt with Carvin before having bought from them a lot over the years, although i wouldnt deal with them online or over the phone unless you have to. if you live in california and have the luxury of going in person you will probably get the best customer service.

if i ever had problems with it and lived in another state, id probably just take it to a local amp tech instead of ship it cross-country to get looked at.

great great amplifier, from what i hear though change out the Sovtec 5881's that it comes with for a better tube type, its easy and i hear that people like the sound a lot better. I'm using JJ ECC83s in the preamp and JJ E34Ls in the power amp, sounds great.

I'd recommend this amp to anyone who is looking at buying one used in good condition.

My buddy brought his Soldano over yesterday and we jammed for most of the day and he thought the amp was a killer deal at $300.

If i were to put its worth alongside other amps, id put it next to a marshall JCM 800 and Mesa Dual Rectifier. It really is that good.

Bought used on a pawn shop I don't know the year it was made. Features were already described here. But anyway, it's a 2 channel amp with reverb.

Clean tone is very good, very clean and bright. Overdrive is a little fizzy and thin with the stock tubes (5881). I hope EL34s and a rebias helps it. Good for nu-metal tones, but not much else.

I don't know yet. It looks reliable. No opinion.

I never called the phone support. I checked their website and it's scary to say the least. They have a discussion board to ask questions..but you cannot say anything negative about their amps or mention other products or they kick you out. It's just praise, praise praise...LOL A nazi company. I was there for one day and my comments were deleted because I said something about the distortion being really thin and shitty.. they didn't like it LOL ... how about making a better amp then???

If I ever have a problem with this amp I will take it to my local tech in NYC. I wouldn't want to ship it cross country to CA anyway..

The amp is pretty good. It needs some tweaking, probably some new tubes. I bought this to be a back up for my Marshall 1987.
I won't even bother comparing it to the Marshall it doesn't even come close but the Marshall costs over agrand. This is more of an entry-level amp, for nu-metal kids who want to rock. LOL The legacy is more of a real amp. The X100 is very good also.

I use it with a Marshall 4x12 and a Guild SG copy. I'm trying to get a 70's heavy rock tone like old Sabbath, but so far everything coming form this amp is too scooped and thin. Maybe EL34s will help. The clean is great and the reverb is good too, so hopefully I will be able to tweak the distortion or I may just add a pedal to the clean channel.
Great for the price, but buy it used, save some $$ (they sell for real cheap used) and avoid dealing with Carvin at all costs.

So here's the bottom line about this amp:

THIS AMP SOUNDS GREAT CLEAN BUT THE DISTORTION NEEDS MAJOR IMPROVEMENT!
IT IS NOT A MARSHALL KILLER, MAYBE EQUAL TO THE 900 BUT A REAL PLEXI WILL EAT IT FOR LUNCH!! EVEN A 2000 WILL BE BETTER.

oh and also:

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE AT THEIR ONLINE BOARD. IT'S MANIPULATED BY THEIR EMPLOYEES BUYERS BEWARE!!
GO THERE AND TRY IT IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME!! THE RUDE CARVIN EMPLOYEES WILL KICK YOU OUT.
WAKE UP CARVIN, THERE ARE OTHER PLACES WE CAN TELL THE TRUTH
THANK YOU HARMONY CENTRAL

this amp is really clean, and the distortion gets mean!! i crank the gain to full, scoop the mids to about 2, put treble at 8 or 9, and put bass at 8 or 9. without a boss ns-2 though it gets pretty noisy at high levels. but the noise supressor solves that. and this amp can wail. kinda wish the clean channel would break up a little bit. but all aside from that its pretty damn sweet

i use a gibson sg standard with stock pickups and the amp sounds sweet and i also have an old 80s kramer beretta with emg hzs in it which are slightly less noisy but it really doesnt matter with a noise supressor. anyone who doesnt have one should get one they are the greatest invention since slice bread. i play mainly hardcore/metal so i would really say im kind of biased on the variety cause i pretty much just crank this thing. but sometimes ill play along with metallica and the clean sound they have is easy to acheive with a little reverb on the clean. the presence switch also makes the amp sparkle but i feel its a bit much, cause ill hit low e and its pretty loud, but as soon as i hit a high e the volume seems to double which is somewhat unnatractive, but who cares i hardly ever use clean. honestly lots of people look for the sparkly clean and this amps clean is definately crystal clear, but i would like some breakup

i would never use any amp at a gig without a backup, especially a tube amp no matter how reliable, thats just asking for it... but ill say ive never had to resort to my back up... thank god... its a crate blue voodoo 120. i have literally had no problems and ive been a proud owner of the amp for about a year and a half now. carvin seems to make quality products. especially PA equipment. and their basses are sweet too. however i would probably never purchase a carvin solid state head.

only time ive worked with them is to buy stuff, and of course they are friendly... they want my money right? when i ordered this head though they accidentally shipped me a 300 watt club loudspeaker. that was supposed to go to someone in texas, he probably wasnt too happy with carvin... supposedly the only way to get stuff serviced is to send it to carvin... so hopefully tube maintenence is the only service itll need, cause i dont wanna pay that kinda shipping since i live in georgia

ive been playing 8 years. i own a gibson sg standard and an old 80s kramer berreta and i used to own an epiphone les paul standard (sold it too my other guitarist) i also use a shure wireless, a big muff pi ( too bring out solos) a dunlop crybaby wah 535q, an ibenez delay pedal, and a boss ns-2 noise supressor, and a boss tu-2 tuner, however im seriously thinking of going all rackmount, and just using the wah, and maybe the big muff for extra volume/gain. i love the distortion on this amp, and the fact that it brings out notes, instead of hiding them like other high gain amps. this amp is real sensitive, so boys, if you buy this learn how to work the intonation of your guitars, and dont play sloppy cause both are pretty obvious. i only wish this amp had a master volume. but the 50/100 switch kicks ass cause tube saturation at low volumes helps a bunch when writing songs in the bedroom. this is a solid amp to buy new, and i hear that on ebay you can find some pretty kick as deals on them as well.

mts3200 1987
no.style Ray von van halen pop metal 80 rock
2 channels switchable, effect loop, line out
effects loop input pod to control the volume so
effest don't effect over all out put volume.
tube amp. I have two diods burnt out on preamp
which gives me no volume and breaks up at five on master volumes



need to fix before I can really tell if it will work
for my needs

can't tell yet

ebay

30 years.
many out board gear, old ada 2fx, me-6,beringer delay
zoom gfx 707
i need to find out rating on the diods that blew up to
replace them.

I posted a review before...many have listed the features. It could still use a master volume...perhaps a 3rd channel...nothin' a boost won't take of though. The reason for the repost is that I changed the tubes.

I replaced the 5881's with JJ E34L's. This amp is much better than I thought it was before. With the E34L's the amp warms up big time. Seriously a huge difference. The sound is somewhere between a Mesa and a Marshall...seriously! I love it...unique, with tons of gain and growl. If you love rock and roll...try some E34L's in it. So good for leads.

tubes!

People at Carvin have always been good to me.

If you like a JCM you'd really love the sound of this thing E34L's.