Carvin SX-200

My amp was made in 1988. This model has the low cut switch will scoop out the bass and mids. It is very easy to get a good 80s metal sound out of this amp. There are no built in effects. It has two channel, overdrive and clean along with a foot channel switch.

This is a 150 watt amp. My complaint is it's not that loud. The clean channel comes alive after 12 o clock on the volume. The overdrive sounds very good when the volume is crank between 12 and 3 o clock on the dial. I have the overdrive set to 12 o clock. I get a nice crunch. When I add the Tube Screamer (TS-7) to the overdrive channel, the sound becomes smoother, creamy and well define. It sounds like a modified Marshall without the Marshall price. I absolutely have the sound. It will not give you the nu-metal sound but that is not the sound that I am looking for. I love the early Def Leppard, Tesla, and Queensryche sound. My SX 200 with the TS-7 nails it! If you have an SX-200, a TS-7 is must for this amp to make it shine.
The clean channel is sick. It is very glassy and very clean. You cannot get a bad sound out of this amp.

I purchased it in 1988. It only broke down on me once when it the amp was still under warranty.

Carvin support is great!

This was the first amp in the market with the tube emulation. That was a break through technology in the 1980s. SS amps sounded muddy and crappy until this amp came along. I will never sell my SX 200 and I am tempted to buy a new SX 200 head because it is on sale for $199 during Christmas. This thing sounds a lot better then most tube amps in the market.

This is an update of a review that I sent in earlier. After I got my amp back from Carvin for the "hiccups" and the no more sound coming fron the Overdrive channel, dammit to hell if it didn't do it again. I mean how in the total hell can a solid state babied amp do the same thing twice in the same year. So, what I have to do is play through the clean channel and use my effects in front of the amp because the effects loop is CRAP!! It hums and hisses something terrible. I like Carvin guitars. I think their guitars are wonderful. Not as good as my PRS but I like them. But for what torment I have been through with this amp and why it doesn't want to work I have to give it's reliability grade a 1. Usually a guitar player might use a solid state amp for a backup (if he's already shot all of his tubes to hell). As for the power cord--I agree with the one review that said the cord was total crap. That's probably why this amp died. It has since been replaced (but for some stupid reason I still have the clutter of this thing) with another amp. I can't take it back to Carvin because the 1 year warranty is expired so I am slaving the speakers on the thing to get a stereo sound. Other than that it would be absolutely worthless

I believe this is a 200 model, as it doesn't have the "Smart Effects" or the "Blues" switch. I play old style classic rock (Purple, Rainbow, Trower, etc.). The amp is definitely versatile enough for them. I disagree with the folks who bashed the tube emulation qualities of this amp. It has a great deal of variety in the gain stages; as you gradually change your settings, there are many sublte changes in tone. I love the active tone controls. Makes it much easier to dial in the tone that sounds good to ME. The previous reviewers are right, this amp is LOUD! I primarily selected this amp for the non-tube issue; my other real amps are a Fender Champ and Deluxe Reverb. Great sounding, but I don't care for doing tube maintenance on them. Plus, to get a good distortion or crunch with them, I have to use a pedal. Not so with the SX...I can plug in, adjust gain, volume and tones and noodle all day! They sit at home unused since the SX came to stay. You've read the other reviews, so you know it has two channels, etc... I've used the headphone jack once, thought it sounded good, but my headphones are pretty bad so it's hard to tell. Haven't tried the effects loop yet. Having a Fender amp background, I find ANY other amp's reverbs and cleans to be lacking, but this amp does a good job. Not real fond of the flanger, echo and choursu yet, but I'll keep playing with them. Probably will find MY sound in there, just won't necessarily be able to "nail" someone elses! BTW, I have other effects pedals to use, so if there's a sound I want, I real for one of my pedals (ZOOM GFX-8, various Morley, MXR, and DOD pedals). I think it would have been nice to have the effects or cabinet OUTs in stereo for flexibility, but seriously can't complain... I'm giving this a 8, though, becuase there are some hisses and noises the amp makes while just sitting there. could be I've gotten one with some bad connections, but probably not. I called Carvin and they told me that's one of the major complaints about this amp series... But hey, where else are you going to find a 100 watt two-channel amp with two 12 inch speakers for this price? Besides, I only paid $250 plus shipping...

I suse a 1999 American Deluxe strat with vintage noiseless pickups and a 1982 Yamaha SG3000S with coil taps. Again, there is enough adjustability in the tone controls to make up for any issues with the pups. It'll make some pretty good twang all the way to Metallica/old Deep Purple tones. With the gain dimed, chugging is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and make your drummer grin! Seriously, it'll punch you in the chest! Really!

I'd depend on it...I have to. But since I play at home, it's not an issue here. If I DID gig, I'd take it without a backup, but only because I probably wouldn't be getting paid and if it broke down, I'd just quit playing or use someone else's amp. I only play in casual settings. Carvin has a great reputation, though.

Depends on who you talk to. Some days I've called and been treated royally, other days felt rushed and patronized. Depends on the service provider. I'm stepping out in faith and giving Carvin a 9 here, just because of the positive actions I HAVE been a part of.

Been playing (noodling) since 1975 (29 years). If it were lost or stolen, I'd get the SX-300 or the Carvin Tone Navigator (due to all the hook-up configuration options). But for the price, you can't beat Carvin products.

not too many differents things but it dose what it dose and dose it well. the effects are pretty weak

First of all, the distortion is the best tube emulation distortion ive ever seen without actully having any tubes. I play hard rock, metal, blues, and jazz it dose all of them well. The clean channel is ultra clean and very loud!!! its nedds to have a some compression though it is a little too dynamic. The distortion is great!!! it is really smooth. if you are lookjing for a really harsh nu metal sound youll need a pedal but if its blues,rock or any thing that dosent need to hard of distortion its gtreat, in short it is about the same as a cranked classic tube amp with more bite if you want.

its never failed me yet

if it were stolen ide defently by another, its cheap powerfull reliable, good sounding and works perfectly for any gig i need it for (i have and older model so id probily get the new 3 channel) this amp cranks!!!!!!!

I bought this amp new in 2001. I read Anderton's report and thought I'd give it a try. It has a tan tolex cover that is durable and doesn't show dirt. It has a clean channel and an overdrive channel and has 16 effects from echo, flange, chorus, and reverb. It also has a frequency knob to tailor the amount of effect that you want. However I do agree with the one review that the overdrive is useless. I have a Paul Reed Smith, a custom shop Fender Strat and the overdrive is still CRAP!! The only thing about this amp that is good is that it is plenty enough loud. If you're looking for a practice amp, then this amp would be for you. The clean is pretty good but needs warmth and more character to it. I use it at home with some effects and it will do for now.

I have a Paul Reed Smith McCarty "10". God, I love this guitar. I also have a Fender Fat Strat custom tailored with Kinman pickups and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker. I play classic rock and a lot of blues. The clean channel is the channel I do most of my playing with. I process it with a Digitech RP-14d to get more of a tube sound (the RP-14 has a 12ax7 tube in the preamp) and I also use a Soldano GTO tube overdrive pedal. This definitely helps. The other thing that drives me nuts about this amp is that the effects send and return makes my processor noisy. Probably because of the preamp. But, I don't care if I turn the gain and volume all the way down on my processor the amp stil hisses bad. So, I go direct into my processor from my guitar and line out to the guitar input of the amp. This cuts down the noise a whole lot. I like the chorus on the amp and the echo is pretty good. At a high volume (around 4 or more) the amp will give you pretty good harmonics. But, like I said , the amp really is loud so, at 4 this amp is cooking. I just don't care for the overdrive at all.

I had the amp maybe 9 months and have babied it pretty much and was playing one day when the amp got the hiccups. I would play a note or chord and the amp would stop playing. This lasted for about a day and then the amp would not do anything. I called Carvin and they tried to walk me through some troubleshooting procedures to no avail so, I had to ship the amp back to Carvin at a cost of $36 and they fixed it and sent it back. Since then it has done the same hiccup thing 3 or 4 times but it hasn't completely shut down......yet.

I talked to one of their tech. and he was pretty helpful and friendly and all even though I couldn't fix he was still pretty helpful. I sent it out (from Indianapolis) and got it back about 2 weeks later. Since the amp was still "new" and under warranty you have to send it back to Carvin or they won't pay for your local amp pro to look at it. The warranty is for one year.

I have been playing for 35 years or so. Most of my experience is with accoustic guitars. 3 years ago I teamed up with a friend of mine and he convinced me to get an electric. He gave me a Cruz guitar that needed some work and I put Sperzel tuners on it a nd a bone nut and had it in pretty good shape. I just needed an amp. I didn't have the big bucks to get a premium amp and my friend haa a Carvin guitar and I looked through his Carvin catalog and saw Steve Anderton's review and saw that it had some effect on it and thought the amp would work. After playing through a Johnson Millenium,a Peavey Deuce. A Marshall JCM 800 and so forth I now know what an amp is supposed to sound like and what kinds of sounds and nuances I'm missing with my premium guitars through this amp. Oh well, Soldano here I come

Bought used on Ebay in 2001. Amp was probably made in 2001. 2-12s, reverb and some other effects.

Bought this amp for a small weekly gig because I got tired of lugging my Vibroking. Take the other reviews with a grain of salt. This really isn't a professional gigging amp. The clean channel is OK in a solid state kinda way. It's clean, but just not enough warmth or bass response. I would use this amp for a really small club date gig maybe, or a jam session, that's about it. Do not buy this amp as your main amp especially if you play rock or blues. Other than that, consider it a good practice amp. I play a custom shop strat, '67 Gibson ES-340TD, '69 Les Paul, Carvin DC127 and a 1989 Tele.

Carvin makes reliable stuff as far as I know. No problems with my 7 year old DC 127 guitar.

I haven't dealt with them personally, but I hear they are good. But, I cant rate since I have no presonal experience.

See sound section above. By the way, the overdrive is totally unusable. I have tried it with every guitar I own and it sounds solid state farty and thin. Forget the reviews by Craig Anderson in Carvin's catalog. Maybe it would be OK for a beginner stepping up from a beginner rig, but anyone who's played for a while wont bother with the overdive. By the way, I do love Carvin as a company, so I'm not knocking them. I think they make great products for the money. It's just that I expected a little more tone out of this amp. In fact, I only bought it (without hearing it first) because it was a Carvin. I would have never bought another solid state amp. But, I figured I'd give it a shot. Oh well, no bigge. I'm back to using my Vibroking on gigs and I keep this at home if I feel like doing a little jamming.

Made in 2000 I think. I bought it used. I was hesitant to buy another solid state amp but I got a good deal and after I played through it for a few days I really like it. The echo is great, and I like how adjustable the reverb is. The fawn tolex looks sharp, and doesn't show dirt at all. I recently replaced the silly looking metal grille on the front with some oxblood grill cloth and now it looks like a vintage tone machine. Cool!

Since I rely on pedals to color my sound, this amp is great because the clean channel is so nice. Very full and resonant,. I sometimes use this in stereo with my Vox Cambrige C30. The Carvin provides good thumping lows and mid-tones while my C-30 gives me the shimmering highs. However with the eq, you can dial in just about any basic tone you want, I usually play an Epiphone Dot and for distortion I use a Danelectro Daddy-O, or a Vox Distortion Booster. Also, this amp is freaking loud! I play in a garage band and our drummer is not that loud. I could drown him out on 5. I usually only turn it up to 2 or 3 for practice. I can only imagine what a pair of alnico speakers would sound like in this thing. I'll give it an 8 only because the distortion channel isn't really usable, but what solid state amp has a nice distortion channel?

I bought this amp because I joined a band and I needed a reliable amp to gig with. My C-30 twin has been in and out of the shop and doesn't like to be moved. This thing is built like a tank in comparison. I've used it on several gigs so far without backup.

Don't know

I've been playing on and off for ten years but I just recently got serious and joined a rock'n roll band. We play psychedelic sixties and this amp is great for the clean sounds, and it works well with my distortion pedals, with a nice thick sound. The only thing I wish this amp had would be a pre-amp tube in the dirty channel.

I am now updating my update. After replacing the original cord with one from an old computer I had, I found that the amp worked perfectly. Turns out that the cords that Carvin provides for their amps are crap, but the amps are okay. So, if your Carvin amp's effects are shorting out and the sound is getting thin, replace the chord and everything should be fine.

This is an update on my original review. My amp is dead. First the effects went, now the amp is slowly fizzling, sputtering and dying. Phooey. My original review was very accurate, but I must now put the reliability rating at a 2. I cannot reccommend something that is not reliable. If you want a rugged, reliable, approximately equal sounding amp for about the same amount of money, buy a Randall 212 combo. My uncle lent me his Randall and it is incredible. The sound is not quite as good as my Carvin, but this is an 18 year old solid state amp, the newer Randalls sound better. I just use effects to compensate. That Randall is about as solid as you can get. Remember, if you buy a Carvin tube amp, you'll be okay. And I still use the speakers in my Carvin as a cabinet, they make good speakers. However, a Carvin tube head is more expensive than a Randall Solid state head. Buy a Randall 200 watt head and run it through a Carvin 412 cab, you'll save money and a headache. Then buy yourself a nice Digitech effects processor with the difference.

~Pretty straight forward regular amp set up.
~Check the other reviews for features.

~Cold and austere.
~Very sterile sounding.
~Good power but not as much as a 100w tube
~Beautiful bass response-wow surrounds you with vibration!
~Sounds awsome with a tube pre amp to warm it up like the
mesa/boogie V-twin!
~With tube preamp: 10 By itself: 7

~Had mine for about 1 year no probs.

Awsome amp if it's got a good pre-amp!
For the used price you can't beat it with a stick!