Carvin SX-100D

you can see the features listed in the other reviews.foot switch seems to work fine. i haven't tried the headphone jack yet, because my headphones are history.more than enough power to play small to med. places. i tested it against a peavey bandit(80 watts)the clean channel was alot louder than the peavey, the overdrive channel on the peavey was a little bit louder.the reverb on this amp is pretty good after you mess with it for a while. the chorus and echo(delay) are ok, but the flange is pretty lame. get a pedal (boss bf-2). has a light for channels but no light for effects.

i have a 70 les paul deluxe and a cheap 95 mexican strat.i play the strat most of the time because i want a strat sound,(our other guitarist plays a les paul.)we play everything from blues to van morrison to matchbox 20.this amp can do it all except metal. the distortion sounds the best set between 4-6 for me. i figure if i need any more crunch i'll use a pedal. it does have a pretty warm sound when it's turned up past 2. the clean channel is another story. this amp can flat sing! the clean is outstanding!i like it so much that i almost don't want to switch channels sometimes, and i DO like distortion!when i put some chorus on, the strat shimmers. it sounds sooo good!this amp is very quiet. you can get alot of sounds out of this puppy! if the distortion was as good as the peavey i'd give this amp a 10 in a heartbeat!

would'nt hesitate to use this without a backup. it's only a month old has a 1 yr. warranty. seems pretty sturdy.

this may scare you, but the 1st amp i got from carvin was defective.i hit the footswitch one time and a puff of smoke came out! then the channel lights got dimmer and there was a lot of bleeding between channels. i talked to their tech dept. the next day and they told me the amp was defective(no shit!) the clean sound was so good i decided to give them another chance, and i'm glad i did, they paid for the shipping back to CA and i had a good amp the next week. everybody i talked to was very helpful and i didn't get the run around.

i've been playing for 20yrs but just recently got back in a band and i needed to get a new amp.i tested A LOT of amps under $500 and this one had the best combination of sound and features. some of the amps that compared it against were the: fender deluxe 90, great clean plenty of power but crappy distortion. crate gfx212, decent dist. stale clean. peavey bandit and revolution, good crunch no effects and big drop in volume on the clean channel. if this amp were stolen i would buy the sx200d(2 12s).i really like the sound of this amp, it is pretty damn good for the price, and i'm glad i took a chance on something mailorder. if you play a lot of metal buy the peavey, but for someone who can't spend big $ and wants a versatile amp buy the carvin. if i were'nt such a perfectionist i'd give this amp 10's across the board.

This has already been described. I'll just add that it only has 1 speaker output. So you can plug it into a single 4x12 cab, but not two. The headphone jack is a plus. It can go from very quiet to very loud. It is very easy to dial in the exact amount of volume you want. (Unlike some Carvin tube amps that are hard to play quietly.) Digital effects add nice versatility. A middle ground between the new breed of modeling amps and the traditional amp.

I have biases like everyone. I like Carvin, but on the other hand, I'm a tube amp exclusivist. I got this because I wanted a good, indestructable transistor amp to practice with and abuse. I ended up surprised at how good it is. I'm playing this with a 79 Gibson LP Artist and a 89 USA Fender HM Strat. This amp allows both guitar's tones to shine through. The clean channel is amazing. It sounds to me like an old Fender tube amp. Because this amp pushes 100 watts into only one speaker, the clean channel can cause speaker overdrive at high volume. However, this speaker overdrive adds to the versatility of the sounds. (Just don't try to use too much speaker overdrive.) If you want extreme clean and extreme volume, use a 4x12 cab. The overdrive channel is very impressive. It does get the smooth distortion like a good tube amp. However if you want to get that cross of clean and overdriven sounds depending on how hard you play, set the overdrive at about 2 of 10. (Assuming you have hot humbuckers.) If you want extremely smooth leads, just turn up the overdrive. If you want the death metal sound, this can do that ok, thanks to the versatility of the lead presense knob. (Not as much so on the clean channel.) However, if the only thing you want is a death metal chugg, then go with the Crate GFX. That is the only way the Crate is better. (I don't like Marshall's Valvestate, yuck.) If you do like your transistor amp to sound like a tube amp, go with this Carvin. The digital effects are a nice touch. The reverbs are excellent, the others are not bad. Overall, I don't think I've heard a better tube like transistor amp (for both channels). Perhaps the much more expensive modeling amps can do a little better, when you want a million different sounds, but they're in a different league. (And not necessarily a better league.) Overall sound is great. I play prog rock, classic rock and metal. I prefer the tube sound, and use mainly tube amps-I've got 3 tube amps-but this will do for everything but studio recording

This is the reason to get a transistor amp like this. (Well along with price, and not having to replace tubes, etc.) This is built as tough as they get. Metal corners is a nice touch.

I bought this on Carvin's website, but I am always happy with Carvin's support. I am always battering them with questions. ;-)

I've been playing for 9 years. I didn't expect this amp to be so good. It makes me less worried about the inevitable end of tube manufacture. (Bill Clinton blew up a tube plant in Yugoslavia. There are only 4 left in the world.)

I won't bore you with repeating the features others have mentioned (scroll down to read the other reviews). I bought this amp because I wanted something with a headphone jack, was inexpensive, small & light and had two independent channels so I could play my synth/sequencer in one channel and my guitar in the other. There really weren't too many choices out there.
Luckily the SX-100 fit the bill quite nicely.

Don't be fooled by its small size and single speaker. This amp is LOUD.
The clean channel is remarkable. You can dial up a ton of bottom end at low volumes (something my Blues Jr can't do) and the presence control can make your guitar shimmer. And you get everthing in between as well. The reverb isn't bad (I just like to use a touch). The other on board effects are okay to play with to start carving out a sound, but you're better off using dedicated stomp boxes once you find which effects work for your tune. Still the DSP effects are a nice addition over the older SX-100 models.

The distortion channel is okay, but you won't mistake it for a tube distortion if you have much of an ear. It's hard to get a "brown sound" (on the edge of overdrive) out of it. It's more like "smooth distortion" and "more smooth distortion". Unlike a tube amp which loses its highs when it overdrives, the Carvin loses its bass in the distortion channel. You can compensate by cranking up the bass (but much more than you'd have to on the clean channel). However, the highs remain so the distortion channel ends up acting like a stomp box rather than a tube amp. It's okay, but like the effects, I'd go with a stomp box (Boss OD-3?) to get more bottom end and sustain.

Still the clean sound is SOOoo good, I have to give it a 9.

No tubes, so there's some built-in reliability right there. The cabinet is put together well and it has metal corners all the way around (are you listening Fender?). I'd easily use it without a backup.

I never had to have the amp serviced, but I (as everyone) had to order it from Carvin. The sales person was great and courteous. No complaints here.

My other amp is a Fender Blues Jr. so it's easy for me to do an A/B comparison. While the Blues Jr can get a great brown sound, it's no where near a versatile as the SX-100D. If you have to have one amp, the SX-100D is the one to get.

2 channel, solid state 100watt amp with 1-12 inch Carvin "British" speaker. 1998 model, paid $375 or so plus shipping. Effects loop, headphone jack, hi-z line out, foot switch jack, speaker jack on back. Channel switching on the front via a button, or through the optional foot switch. No channel indicator on foot switch, have to look at amp face, which has lighted indicators. Tan covering holding up so far, but I got the amp cover for it. Digital effects (reverb, chorus, echo, flange) with several styles of each available and a master level for selected effect. However, you can't mix effects, one at a time is all you get. 8 for features, because the digital effects can't be mixed. Most folks like a little reverb on with other effects...

Best thing about this amp: Sounds decent, gets loud enough for medium gigs, and you can one-hand it with ease! I can carry my entire set up in one trip, with amp in one hand, guitar in the other and gear duffle over my shoulder. Try that with a dual twelve tube rig!

Used with Carvin Bolt hardtail with humbucker bridge pu, Les Paul Studio with stock PUs, Warmoth Kit Strat with Duncan Jazz neck, Ducan Vintage Rails mid and Duncan Pearly Gates Bridge, Jap Tele with Duncan Vintage stack neck and Lil 59 bridge. Music Style is christian contemporary (jazz-pop stuff), classic rock and blues, mostly rythym, some leads. Amp's strong suit is the clean channel and mild distortion. Clean channel allows guitar's character to come through, and is very quiet (if built in effects are off!) Good depth and detail with all guitars but especially with humbuckers. Good jazz tones with Les Paul. Haven't found any distortion yet in clean channel up to 6 which is too darn loud for in the house! Also gets good SRV tones with strats, but even boosting the treble and presence can't get into surf zone like a good Fender. Treble gets harsh when maxxed with single coils, so don't do it. Distortion channel is reasonable, but gets into saturation very quickly. Between one and two on gain are some solid bluesy tones and good rythym sounds, but past 3-1/2 everything fuzzs together on rythym. Good harder rock lead tones past 3, but that's not my bag so I hesitate to make recommendations. Doesn't respond as well as tube amp to playing dynamics, but is pretty good. Stays solid as you push volume, but I've never maxxed it out. Doesn't develop the richness of a tube amp as you get louder, but it doesn't crap out either, like a lot of transistor amps.

Clean channel works well with stomp boxes. Effects loop not so good, but I'm using distortions which usually do better in front of the amp (Zoom 505 or Snarling Dogs Blues Bawl wah/distortion are main effects SD is a good one!). Time effects would probably be fine in the effects loop.

Built in effects as noted in other reviews are fairly noisy, and get obnoxiously so past six on the level control. Hard to understand why with a digital system, but a quick stomp on the foot switch cuts the effects and hum between songs and sets. Reverbs and echo pretty good, chorus and flange not inspiring but ok.

Overall, an 8. Probably as good as you can get for a solid state box. Not any distinctive characteristic that you can say "That's the Carvin sound", but will let you play a wide variety of sounds and styles, without being optimized for (or limited to) any one.

Had it 18 months and it's never hiccuped, so it gets a ten. Case is solid plywood, not particle board, seems very solid. If I'm playing an important gig, I always try to have a back up, but I've never needed it.

Mail order is always risky because you can't try it first, and the time delay factor in getting your stuff is a negative, so Carvin loses one point on general principles. I've never called them on the amp, but I returned the neck on the Bolt Guitar kit for what turned out to be a dab of epoxy on the fingerboard (I sent it back because I couldn't chip it off with a fingernail and I wasn't going to take a chisel to a part still under warranty). Carvin fixed the neck and sent it back in reasonable time. It wasn't next day air for free, but that's the cost of doing mail order. People on the phone were solid and helpful.

Been playing for 20 years now (my God, how did I get so old!) seven years semi-seriously. I've owned a Peavy Bandit 65 and an old Fender Bassman (great sounding amp, but oh those tube maintenance blues!) and I try out other amps as often as I can. The rating is for what the amp is designed for. It's not a Fender twin or a Marshall stack, and it's not intended to be one. For the non-pro that has to hump his own gear, has to cover several styles and doesn't need paint peeling volume in large venues, it's about ideal. If it were stolen, I'd probably check out a modeling amp first, to see if the sounds are better, but for construction and portability with solid sounds, the little Carvin is great.