Carvin MTS3200

i think thats been pretty much covered. definitely needs a master volume.

i run my own custom hand made guitar.with custom wound dean pickups.play pretty much older metal and rock. Iron Maiden,Judas Preist,Metal church,AC/DC and i run an older Ampeg ss412as cabinet with the stock eminence speakers. this thing rocks.i changed the 5881's for el34's because of a volume problem i was having on the lead channel.do this and you will wake a sleeping giant. this thing has fu@##@$%^&^& volume.and it woke the drive right up to.

i had some problems with it at the begining. lead channel at any kind of volume would shift up and down and wasnt very responsive so like i said i replaced the 5881 tubes with el34's.i also replaced the stock 12ax7's with mesas.as far as gigging goes ive only gigged it a cuople of times im more of a hobby musician and only play outside of my home when my buddies regular guitar player cant make the gig because of his job. but still have not owned long enough to really rate reliability.

been playing about 10 yrs and i used to own a couple different peaveys an old reknown and a vss20 mini stack. also an older vox 100 watt head and an older marshall cabinet.all of which were decent amps.if it were lost? i dont know how this would happen id purchase another one, for the money you cant go wrong. if it were stolen, well lets just say he would have to be a pretty smart person and i dont know to many smart theives.i did test drive a gk a crate and a randall before purchasing this which i did purchase used off ebay got the head and cabinet for 550.00 which i thought was a pretty good deal. i would also like to mention as far as effects go i really only used a flanger and a distortion pedal of which neither one i use now with this amp beause it sounds sooooooo goooood raw.

2 channel tube amp with OPTIONAL footswitch, efx loop, tone controls.

Clean Channel is wonderful. Clean for days, headroom galore, rich and smooth. None Better, period.
Distortion channel is nice and thick, ut is worth noting that to get this amp to realy sing you have to crank it. As with almost any 100watt tube amp, they don't start to sound really good until you get the voltage hitting those tube plates. At low volumes the distortion channel doesn't sound too good but crankit and it is a beast.

Well, I've had to have the tube sockets resoldered twice, last time did the trick apparantly. Had to have the tube sockets "retentioned" for the power tubes as 1 was glowing red intermittently and that fixed it. And had to replace the trans because Carvin didn't tell me in the manual that I had to have speakers plugged in when using the line out, apparantly that isn't a "proper" load. I have to admit it sounded prety darn good when the trans went out though.

. Now if you bought this head and being a novice at tube amps or electronics would you know to hook up speakers? No because they specificially OMIT that part in the manual. Here is what Carvin tells you to do in the manual.
"REAR
PANEL 15. SPEAKER JACKS Two 1/4a?? SPEAKER JACKS are featured to operate several speaker systems at the same
time. Calculate the total speaker impedance based on parallel wiring as both speaker jacks
are wired in parallel. Select the IMPEDANCE SWITCH for the correct impedance.
16. SPEAKER IMPEDANCE SWITCH The IMPEDANCE SWITCH offers the selection of 4, 8 or 16 ohms to match your speaker
system. The correct setting for two 8A? speakers or cabinets would be 4 ohms. Select the
proper impedance. The impedance of the MTS3212 combo amp is 4 ohms. In the case
of adding another 4 ohm system such as Carvina??s VE212 4 ohm extension cabinet, keep
the switch at 4 ohms as the amp and power tubes are designed to work at 2 ohms as well.
17. 4 TUBE 100 WATT OR 2 TUBE 50 WATT OPERATION
For maximum output power, be sure the power tube selector switch is selected for 4 TUBE
operation. For lower overall levels and early power amp clipping, move this switch to the
22. AC POWER & FUSE The detachable AC POWER CORD supplied is designed to operate with one type of voltage
(the European 230V export model uses a CEE-7 plug cord set). Check the rear power
cord label for the proper voltage and fuse value. Make sure the cord is securely inserted
into the back of the unit. Plug the cord into a grounded a??3a?? pronga?? power source. No
attempt should ever be made to defeat or use the amp without the ground connected.
The FUSE (some models have circuit breakers) is located within the AC power cord receptacle.
To check or replace the fuse, remove the power cord, place a screwdriver under the
a??FUSEa?? cap and pull the fuse holder out. The fuse type is a 250V Slow Blow SB 5 x 20mm
rated at 3A for 120V & 1.5A for 230V models. Do not use fast acting fuse, only a SLOW
BLOW (SB) type fuse will work.
HELP SECTION
a) FEEDBACK FROM THE LEAD CHANNEL
GETTING STARTED QUICKLY If you are like most players, you probably want to plug in your new amp and get started
playing it right away. You can read the rest of the manual later to learn the finer points of
operating your amp. In order to get started you will need your MTS3200 amp, a 120 or
230 AC grounded power outlet, your instrument and a standard guitar cord. With the amp
turned off, you may now plug it into the proper AC voltage.
Now turn all the volume and drive controls off and set tone controls at their mid center position.
If you have purchased the FS22 foot switch, plug it into the rear foot switch jack for
switching the channels and reverb. Note: The channel SELECT button must be in the OUT
position (CH 1) for the FS22 to function (a hum will be heard if ita??s in the wrong position).
Now, turn the power switch and standby switch ON. Allow 60 seconds for the tubes to
warm up. Gradually raise the volume controls and re-adjust the tone controls and your
ready to go. The brass knobs can feel hot after the amp has been on awhile. This is normal
because brass conducts heat while plastic does not. This will not cause a problem for the
controls. Please call if you feel your amp is malfunctioning. Occasionally tubes are damaged
in shipping." http://www.carvin.com/manuals/MTS3200.pdf
Now they don't mention speaker cabinets but figure you are too stupid to know you need to plug it into an electrical outlet, ironic.

Fine amp and meant to be PLAYED LOUD. Kicks the 5150 in the ass and then gives it a wedgie and drags it around the room by it's tightie whities laughing while the 5150 whimpers and begs the MTS to stop picking on it. Only prob is the manual, it ASS-UMES you are tech savy and know you are supposed to hook up speakers. (OK sure most do but hell they tell you to plug the damn thing in, if you don't know that then it stands to reason you might not know that you need to plug in speakers or even what an extention speaker cabinet is for. ) They also fail to tell you that you have to have a speaker cabinet hooked up when you use the line out............................ Carvin is negligent and irresponsible in this regard. The amp isn't the problem, it's the attitude of the people at Carvin when you point out that they may have slight imperfections and don't dare go to the Carvin BBS and complain. good grief.

The clean sound lacked sparkle and the distortion channel had very very little gain. I've seen stomp boxes that are more versatile.

The clean sound was dull and muddy and the distortion channel and very very little gain. I've never seen a tube head with so little to offer.

It works just sounds like crap. I even put new tubes in there thinking the tubes were shot. It sounded the same. I called Carvin back and they said that's just the way it sounds so I sent it back. I can't believe anyone would release a tube head with so little to offer.

Carvin's customer support overall is crap because they won't send you replacement parts for a broken amp or anything. I had a mini pa from them that crapped out after 2.5 years and all they wanna do is take some money off of a new one. Who wants a new amp from Carvin when it dies after 2.5 years of very sporadic use?

Repair guys all over hate carvin because they won't send out replacement parts to them. Carvin wants all the repair work themselves so who the hell wants to ship something all the way to California for some inflated flat rate when you live on the east coast. It can be the smallest problem and carvin wants like 135 screw that! So yeah between their stupid policies and horrible sounding head they get a crap rating.

100 watt tube amp. The amp is a couple of years old and is much more versatile than I originally thought. I consider myself an eclectic rock guitarist. I dabble in all sorts of music. I fiddled with it and got some good sounds out of it, then I read the manual and that helped a lot more. The key to getting great distortion out of this amp is to have to the lead volume up real high, like somewhere around 7-10 and then adjust the gain and the presence accordingly. Seriously a wicked distortion. I found that the amp had a switch on the back to cut the wattage to 50 instead of 100 and found this really helpful. It actually doesn't affect the actual volume the amp is capable of creating as much as it does where the sound distorts. It works for breaking up the clean channel a bit. If you want it to break a little easier.....then don't turn on the presence switch. This amp will pull off a lot of different sounds, but you gotta know how to dial them in. The one thing I really wish this amp had was a second lead channel, nothing a pedal won't correct.....but still.

I play a BC Rich mockingbird with some kind of Seymour Duncan in the bridge. I'm not sure of the exact pickup, but the highs on it are a bit much....so the treble on the amp is set nill. The amp can give plenty of feedback when it's distorted, but keep your hand of the strings and it'll stay nice and quiet. The clean channel will distort a little and sounds real nice with the reverb all the way up. I love reverb and think the distortion sounds great with it too. "How brutal is the distortion?".....what a lame way to phrase a question. The distion is isn't brutal, it is Cruel. Seriuosly though, this amp has a real full distortion, with plently of the fuzz and none of the mud. You can hear all notes and subtleties clearly with the distortion cranked, unlike some british counterparts.

Can you depend on it?well..... it is a tube amp..... That aside the MTS has been a loyal companion. I'm not always as nice to it like I should be, but it's always fired up and blasted, with one exception. A little while back it did die on me. I replace the tubes and the amp was born again. In fact, when I came back to it after a whole week of not playing ( I was scrapin' together the dough for tubes) I fell in love with it again. The lower score applies to the fact that it is a tube amp.

I went to the Carvin store in Santa Ana to buy some new tubes. The guys there were total dorks, but they were plently helpful. New tubes were a bit pricey....and Jonny did hurt a little in the wallet...so it goes. I realize that it is not as easy for people who live outside of Southern California to have relations with Carvin. I feel sorry for all that dwell in the rest of the country, for not having a Carvin store to go to......and other stuff. =P

Hmmmm, I guess I've been playin' guitar for some time now....somethin like 9 years. Long enough to distinguish crap from junk and junk from quality. This amp is QUALITY! (The price does not suggest this, but it is). The Les Paul is a decent guitar, but you know how much better the old ones play, back when someone put some love into makin' them. Well it's kinda like that, you can tell someone(s) put in a lot of love when they designed this amp. As a Korean guitar is to an American (not meant to be patriotic) guitar, as a solid state is to a tube amp, is how most of the competition is to the Carin MTS, it's just better(completely subjective, right?).....and that does include amps with Union Jacks on them.

100 watt all tube head. Effects Loop. Reverb. Clean channel and Lead channel, both with their own EQ. Presence button for clean channel. Presence knob for Lead. Bias Switch for power tube types [EL34 or 5881/6L6. 12ax7 pre-amp tubes. All the basics, plus some extras.

When i first got this amp, it was just to hold me off until i could get a new head. I wanted a Peavy 5150. $100 from my bands old singer. They are $650 or so on Carvin's website. yea. deal and a half. The head is probably 5 or so years old. The tubes tat were in it when i got it [6 months ago] were generic russian 5881s and sovtek 12ax7 pre amp tubes. It sounds decent. but the volume was NOTHING. jsut to hear myself over drums i had to be on 8! thats through a 4x12 cab too. So i got the message from an agel in my sleep to get new tubes hah. I bought some affordable Fender tubes. 6L6 and 12ax7. the volume was improved. the sound was relatively the same. The volume started to drastically start to decline. wonderful. BUT, one day i look at the back of my head...the Bias switch was on EL34. ugggh. i didnt effin touch the bias switch. it was either the guy at the music store that i took it too when i get the tubes, or someone in my band. tsk tsk. but anyway. i figures the bias problem fried the powertubes. SOOO i got together some money and when to Falcetti music mall and got me some Mesa/Boogie Tubes all around. They are wicked affordable too. i dont know why. $7 for a preamp tube instead of $14, and $28 for a pair of power tube instead of $40. 6L6s and 12ax7s again. As soon as i put these bad boys in, i heard a world of change. The volume was nice and loud as hell. The sound was a lot gainier. in a good way. The distotion on this amp is effin nuts. I play in an emocore band and we have mosh breakdowns, so the chug chug 5150 tone is the standard. This thing reaches that, and more. I use EMGs in my Gibson SG and my Epiphone Les Paul. but dont get me wrong here. I also use an Epiphone LP with stock pickups and the distortion is still more powerful then most military firearms. Seriously i can kill babies with this shit.

The clean channel is nothing special. not bad, not spectacular. my EMGs effin kill the clean too. Im selling both my EMG rigged SG and LP for a gibson les paul studio. The distortion wont be sacrificed much, and my clean willbe tons better.

Considering its 5 or 6 years old its not too bad. I had problems with the sound just randomely cutting out a while ago, the volume being half it should be, and the distortion being a vomitting mess. But once i got new tubes it was fine. Sometimes it acts up, and sound weird if you dont let it warm up enough. I used to turn it right on and shit with the old tubes. im sure that killed em along with the bias switch being on the wrong setting. Let this thing warm up for a good 5 minutes, this thing is a beauty.
Its built like a tank. not as heavy as a 5150, but its still a blunt object that could wreck your enemies.

I havent ever dealt with carvin, considering i dont have the warranty stuff on this crap [the head and the matching carvin 4x12] but my bassist used to have carvin stuff and they caterred to him like slaves. wicked good with sending parts and stuff. i need to shampoo and condition my hair.

why the hell is rod stewart playing on my playlist. So yea, id say this amp is great. Itll stand up to a 5150 especially if you have EMGs. but even without, this thing cranks. You can get a sick distortion either way. and the clean channel is better then the rhythm channel on a damn 5150. Im getting my gibson les paul studio soon. then ill get a cab perhaps, cuz i think the speakers in my carvin cab are starting to go. I was goign to get a peavey XXX or 5150II soon, but i think ill keep my carvin til have the money to just throw around $1000 for a new head. yea i cant pay attetion anymore.

2003, bought new from carvin. i use it for a few different projects,
mainly for a really heavy hardcore band. i LOVE the dirty channel on this thing. those who say they can't get a decent dirty sound out of it must be kidding. i can really get a brutal, scooped, thick, heavy, distorted tone or a really messy fender-ish neil young sound.
i use mostly les pauls & sg's with it, through 2 marshall jcm 800 4x12 cabs. my only complaint is that i wish the clean channel would break up a little better at higher volumes, but then it wouldn't be a clean channel...

seriously, i love it. i got my first one used, traded a marshall jcm800 for it. a few years later i got an offer to trade it for an original 5150, what a mistake. i had to buy another mts from carvin. it sounds amazing. i can get any kind of sound out of it, from jcm800 crunch to neil young reverb madness to all out kiss it goodbye high gain madness. the bass end is killer. again, i wish that channel 2 was not clean only, but i only felt that way after owning a 5150 for a year

built like a tank. i've owned a ton of amps over the years, and the 2 of thses things i have owned are the only ones that never had any trouble, besides the maintainence stuff all tube amps need. the first one i owned had the original tubes in it and i played it a few years without changing them, no problems at all.

carvin was great when i called them asking if they offered a rack-mountable version of this head. they reccomended some flight case manufacturers.

love this amp. if it were lost, i'd have to get another one.
in fact, i am considering buying the combo version to play at my house. carvin makes some killer products for very little money, i have sold a few of my friends on this head!

features are what everyone enlse said.but i love this amp and they way i have set it up anyone who plays through it loves it.
this amp is extremely responsive to tube changes.and different speakers.YOU HAVE TO FIND THE COMBINATION THAT WORKS FOR YOU!

i use a custome built strat with fender custom shop fat 50's neck and middle and duncan lil'59 in the bridge and a custome curly maple top les paul with duncan 59's. i play everything.classic rock metal blues and jazz.it covers it all.SET UP PROPPERLY!
I use ruby tonebone adapters with el84's,it makes the clean channel breakup like my super reverb did.
a marshall blues breaker overdrive on the boost mode makes for more distotion on the lead channel and srv sounds on the clean.
i used to own a booie and a super reverb and A/B box but i got tired of all the gear lugging.
this amp with the RIGHT TUBES AND SETUP AND A GOOD EAR replaced all that gear.
anyone who does not like this amp has no patience.
chang tubes,different brand and gains.YOU CAN FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IN THIS HEAD! PERIOD

never had a problem,don't need a backup but always carry spare tubes.

awesome support ,response within a day.

i had one stolen ! a combo.
i went through marshalls mesas and fenders and could not get the versatiliy this amp has.
i replaced it with a head.
i would replace it again hunt down and kill the culprit this time.

Bought it new from Carvin in 1997 with a cover and footswitch for $700

Just found a site to get schematics from, going to give it one more try before dumping it on Ebay.

Used it (while it worked) with both single coil and humbucker pick-up type guitars. Pretty versatile, was only able to put about 12 hours of play time on it before it died.

This is where it gets ugly. Right out of the box the amp made some groaning noises and the reverb didn't work. Made several calls, had parts sent out twice to attempt to correct the problem. Ultimately had to ship it back to CA.($40 shipping each way), got it back in 3-4 weeks. Played on it for about 12 hours before something burn't up (smelled like burning toast). Got disgusted and put it in the closet.

Lame

Be prepared to ship it back to the factory for repairs, although now there are schematics available for it so getting it fixed locally may be an option.

I have a variety of amps, two Fenders (twin and a quad), ART DST-830, oh yeah and a dead Carvin MTS 3200. If the Carvin were stolen I would laugh my ass off at the idiot that took it, and Hell No about buying another Carvin anything.

This amp was made in the Carvin factory in San Diego California. I mainly play 80's metal such as Metal Church, old Metallica, Death and can get pretty good Yngwie Malmsteen tone out of it. It has 2 channels Clean and Lead. It has channel switching, effects loop, but no head phones jack (why would you need one playing through a stack?) It has eq's for both channels a master reverb but no master volume which would be nice but not needed. Its all tubed, 5 pre amp tubes and 4 power tubes. The stock tubes are pretty good. A kool feature is the 50/100 watt switch.

Im using it with a Gibson Les Paul Classic with stock pickups. Its very versitle, you can get a great clean channel, and good blues crunch and an awesome full out metal tone. Not to noisey, just as noisey as any other tube amp cranked. The clean channel no matter how loud doesnt really break up with is nice for me but some may want that distortion tone when the cleans cranked. The lead channel can go from a soft crunch to a good heavy distortion.

I gig it without a backup. The amp has never broken down. Its built great and I dont expect any major problems.

Carvin is great. This was my first tube amp so I had some questions when I got it and every person I talked to hepled me out. Also the guys on the discussion board are awesome, if you have a question id head there and ask them theres some really smart guys in there. When I got it I had a problem with my v4 tube. I called Carvin and they sent me 4 new ones free, hows that for service.

Ive been playing for 3 years. I also own a Peavey Bandit 112, a Carvin DC 400, a Gibson Les Paul Classic, a Cry Baby Wha, a Boss Metal Zone. If it were lost or stolen I would go get a new one. I love the clean channel and the lead channel good to, I run a SD-1 in front of it sometime though for a solo boost. Dont really hate anything. I mainly choose this because of the price. An awesome amp, I like it just as much as my friends Marhshall.

This is to update an earlier review.
You have to tweak this amp like you would a 5150.
If you leave the "Treble, and Presence" knobs where you would with most ampsthen you will get a very brittle, bright sound.
Having said that,I leave the Presence off, and the Treble at 3. My sound is stil pretty bright. With these tweaking suggestions I am able to achieve a great dirty tone. It has a Mesa style bottom, but with a vintage Marshall type of midrange.
The clean channel is good, but not as good as my blackface Fender that I A/B it with.

My Rig:
Robin Savoy.Alamo TOnemonger.Fender Tele.
Samson airline wireless
EH Memory Man
Ibanez 7 band EQ
Boss TU-2 Tuner
A/B
A:Fender Bassman and 4x12 cab
B:MTS and Carvin 4x12

Rock Solid

Amazing