Carvin SX-200H Head

I had a religious experience last night. It was the first time I put my new SX200H onstage since I got it two days ago. It's been logically designed and very well layed out. You can read about the controls anywhere in the other reviews, no need to go over them again, however one control stands out and that's the drive control. With other heads like Marshall and Crate for example, you need a good input level and adjust the channel gain and adjust the input gain and somewhere along the line you'll get a sound you're comfortable with. With the Carvin, all that's needed is to dial in the amount of overdrive. That's all. I play dancable classic rock, from Doors to BonJovi. I found myself using the amp overdrive a lot as opposed to my Zoom GFX-8. The on board digital effects are very usefull. As far as the "tube emulation", well it works. This thing is as far away from a solid state sound as you're going to find. It's not tube but unless you're that picky even when nobody else can tell, it's a close copy. Oh yeah, that religious experience? It has "Oh MY Sweet Jesus" power. I could only get the overdrive channel up to 2. Even at that low setting, it was vibrating my pant legs.

I've been using a Musicman Sillouhette for the last couple of years. It has the H-S-H Dimarzio combination. With this thing in the overdrive channel I finally heard the clicky single coil sound most Strats get. The bridge humbucker sounded very fat and powerful. As I stated before I use a Zoom GFX-8 amp modeler and a talkbox which is powered by a small Vox. The ability to layer an extra reverb on top of my already processed sound or to ad a nice echo when the Zoom is maxed out as in when I use the harmonizer is very cool. The overdrive is NOT a Marshall clone. The best way to describe it is that it sounds like a Carvin. It really sounds the way a tube amp should. I tried other heads including Marshall's AVT50. No mid control on the lead channel. Half the power. No effects. Crappy plastic foot switch. 'Nuf said. I tried a Jackson 100 watt tube half stack. No EQ on the lead channel. No effects. Thin sounding overdrive. 'Nuf said. See where I'm going with this?

If I get the same reliability as I have with the Carvin 412 cab I have it matched up with, then I'll be a happy SOB. I bought my cab as part of a Carvin SX400 halfstack back in 1990. It's still in exellent shape and still puttin' it out. Rating is for previous experience with Carvin Products including my Carvin sound system and my keyboard player's bi-amped Carvin stack.

I've had great dealings with Carvin beginning with an order placed in 1990. I sent in my order with my payment but I had ordered from an expired catalog and there was a price increase on the halfstack I ordered. They called and gave it to me at the old price. I had problems with my PA crossovers and all were replaced within days. They even sent me the wrong x-over, one for an 18" sub and they said keep it. Thats an $80 x-over. Very cool to deal with. Normal warranty is 1 year.

I foolishly got rid of my SX400 head 'cuz I thought the cool thing would be to downsize my rig but all I did was sacrifice a lot of guts. I won't do it again. If this thing continues to do what it did last night (and we were f**king loud) then I won't be getting another head for a long time. I've been playing for 37 years and have owned Marshalls, Fenders, Peavys, Yamahas and a few others. Quite simply put it just sounds better than anything else I've owned. The overdrive with it's effects and extra reverb processor blows away the Marshall AVT50. Twice the power, two onboard effects processors, 4 band eq on both channels and $150 less. Just sounds like a beter deal to me.

Two channel w/ effects, the effects are standard modulation (Chorus, flange, echo, and reverb, with a seperate reverb that can be used in conjunction with the others ie. chorus & reverb) Has FX loop, footswitch, headphone jack, a handy ohm guide by the speaker outs. I play out and was using a Mesa Boogie Maverick 2-12" combo to run 2 4-12" cabs (My other guitar player plays a Marshall stack, had to keep up!) I needed a amp that was suited to power a full stack, this does without much effort!

I've put both a Gibson with humbuckers and a Mexican Strat w/single coils straight into the input (redundant)and was impressed with the way the charistics of the pickups were represented. I play alot of Metal (All kinds) and the overdrive can duplicate some hard rock, but didn't have the ultra-gain necessary for anything past Metallica. Was VERY impressed with the tube emulation you can read about in the catalog/website. My guitarist buddy with the Marshall was very impressed with the overdrive sound and it's tube-like quality, note I said tube-like, it's as closer than any tube simulator I've ever listened to, but you can tell it's not tube. Impressive nonetheless.
LOUD! Keeps up with before-mentioned Marshall volume wise. Our stage volume is as loud as it can get and it keeps up without much effort.
I use an RP-1 (Quit laughing) so my effects are taken care of there, but I give this amp a 9 for it's tube-like quality.

I have had no problems with this amp yet, it's seen a double-nighter with volume bashing abound, no sweat.

This amp frees up my Mesa Boogie to be a 2-12" Class A combo to be just that and gives me a full stack phallic fantasy! Best three bills I've spent on gear in a long time. Great reviews from guitar geek buddies. Check out www.wickedkick.com nothing to do with the amp, just being a self promoting whore!

i recently bought the amplifier w/ the cab, so 2002...the amp's versatility is awesome, really i play hardcore and punk rock and the drive channel's gain didn't let me down at all, it also has a blues switch which add's a butt-load of mid-tone, but i never use it. it's a solid state and i almost opened it to see if there were any hidden tubes in the pre-amp, impressive job with the tube emulation. the clean channel is awesome too, very sweet tones when mixed with the echo and reverb effects. honestly, i couldn't ask for more in a an amplifier, it's lightwieght and it sounds good with all the effects i ever use on-board. This amplifier is stinkin' LOUD when put together with the carvin 412 cab.

i'm currently using a epiphone G-400 right now, and the combination is awesome, the pickups and the amp were made for each other. there's a little noise when the drive channel is cranked up, but it isn't enough to bother me at all. The gain on the drive is alright, when the mid's are scooped out, i'm throwin' the horns! it's metal! bring the mid's up and turn the gain down to 2-3, bluesy!

let's see, i haven't been able to use the amplifier at a show or on a tour or anything, the bassist in my band has a carvin pro bass ii head and it rocks, and it's tough as nails, been through alot, so i'm expecting the head to rule at that.

well, i have talked to the carvin people and they have to be the nicest people around, the dood i talked to answered all of my questions, and even asked me to call him back when i got the amp and tell him what i really thought about it. he knew everything there was to know about the amp...good people!

i've been playing for about 8 years or so, and have used many amplifiers...many got borrowed and broken. i have had a marshall, a laney, peavey, fender, even played through a mesa triple rec. once or twice...but this carvin is one of the better ones that i have played through, i know that not everyone will agree with me, but the sound that this amplifier produces compliments my style perfectly...and if it was to be stolen, i would definitely buy another one. great amp!

2002 model with Blues Switch and effects. Two channel amp with effects loop. Pretty good all around head.

I play more than 10 guitars with many different pickups, so I'm not going to go there. The amp is very noisey using the distortion channel. If y Single coils sound pretty shitty through this amp for some reason. When selecting the Blues option the switch makes a loud nasty POP!!!. The distrotion is pretty good. If you touch the gain knob it sounds like there is a loose ground. I had to send the first amp back for the same reason, so I guess Carvin doesn't care about this obvious flaw.

It didn't make it to me through UPS without having problems, and that's two amps. So there is no way I would even think about taking it on the road.

As usual the Carvin support sucks. Every time I called for help the person didn't have a clue what I was talkng about. And once again one of the people just started talking right over the top of me when I was trying to explain. Rude to put it mildly. If you buy something and have a problem with it from Carvin you may as well send it back for a refund. I returned the first amp and the second amp had the same problems along with damage to the tolex (not from shipping) Missing tolex in areas, two of the black metal corners were worn to bare steel. And the noise is aweful.

If Carvin could get rid of the noise and the floating ground problem it would be a great amp, but Carvin has gone down hill recently with the selling of cheap Asian Acoustic guitars. I opened this amp up before returning it an found many electronics made in China. So I guess the Carvin made in the USA is a thing of the past. This is the last time I will buy Carvin. I've given them thousands of dollars and way too many chances to live up to the old Carvin name.

Latest 2002 version with blues switch. This adds a milder, smoother distortion channel. The regular distortion channel does metal up the &%%. Also has digital effect and a second reverb that can be combined with other effects.

Clean and distortion channels have 3 band eq and presence.

There is a huge range of distortion sounds available. Effects have fairly good adjustability. The reverb is beautiful, the chorus just ok, the echo and flanger very good. But again, the ability to dial in distortion for either nu-metal or Allman Bros-like creamy is amazing.

Subtract 1 for average chorus.

OK after 4 months, so no opinion yet.

Reps are friendly, but not very knowledgeable: had trouble explaining effects tracking on the phone.

Have been playing mostly at home for 30+ years. Presently playing an SG and a Carvin SC90.

This amp is a steal. I love the tones and I love the first rate 412 cabinet that I got with it from Carvin. Real plywood, front loaded cab. Compare crappy Fender or Crate products in this price range.

Just wish it had a better chorus, but that's easy to add. It has everything else I need. Oh, did I mention that the clean channel is also very good, and has a convincing tube emulation ?

This is a 2002 Carvin sx200h guitar head. My band plays original (old school) Metal, and this amp cuts through very well, for a solid state. The sx200h features two channels (clean and dirty), comes with a footswitch, and has built in effects. On the clean channel, I use chourus, to give my sound a full effect, and when I switch to dirty, the chourus cuts off, which is a nice thing to have. It has a switch for impedence (4, 8, and 16 ohm), an effects loop, and a headphone jack. I use it with an older Peavey bottom with Sheffield speakers. Our other guitarist uses a Boogie Dual Rectifier, and this 10 pound solid state amp keeps right up with it. I haven't used it live, yet, but I feel it blow people away when they hear how powerful it is; I don't even have it on 4, and the thing is LOUD!

I use two BCRich NJ series guitars with this amp; one's a Bich, and the other a Mockingbird. Both have stock pickups.This amp is great for Metal. I crank the gain up to 10; I like the crunch! There's a little noise, but that's to be expected. Like I said, I don't even have it on 4 and it's loud enough. It also has a "Blues" switch which gives it more mid-range, but I don't use it.The distortion channel is brutally crunchy, and the clean channel is so pristine......You can even get feedback from the clean channel if you strike a chord and let it ring out.

I just got this amp, recently, so I haven't used it very much. However, my bass player has used Carvin equipment for the last five years, and has never had a problem.

This amp comes with a 1 year warranty. Heven't dealt with the company, yet.

I've been playing for 22 years, now. I have seen equipment come and go, but this amp is the best I've ever played on. And the really nice thing is, if it gets stolen, it's only 300 bucks to replace! If it ever did get stolen, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. I can honestly say I had an orgasm the first time I played this amp. It will blow you away. If it only had a programable footswitch, it would be that much better. But, for 300 bucks, I'm not complaining. This amp is worth much more than that. Personally, I think it even blows away some of the Marshall amps I've heard.

This is a band new 2002 100 watt solid state head with built in fx (reverb, chorus, flager, and echo)
This is very versatile amp it covers my musical style very well (Rock & metal)
Standard 2 channels, foot switchable (free foot switch included) fx loop, head phone jack and a swith to select between 4 om, 8 om & 16 om.has all the features I could want. I currently use this amp at home through my ve212 cabinet.

I currently use this amp with a ibanez rg320dx with a pair of Emg 81s as well as a Hamer standard with sd distortion in the bridge and a sd 59 in neck. Like i said above I play rock and metal. It will cover AC/DC to Zepplin as well Accept to White Zombie.The gain channel has a little buzz just like any other amp and the clean is 100% noise free.This amp goes from very clean to a warm metal distortion with screaming harmonics.For fx I prefer my Alesis nanoverb to the built in fx but they still sound good.

I can't comment on the reliability because I just picked it up yesterday.But as with most Carvin gear it is built pretty solid.

As always the customer service was great,They were helpful & friendly, even with a whole list of questions I had.It has your standard one year warranty.Since I live about 20 minutes from thier san diego factory and showroom I will have no problem finding a service center.

I've been playing for 12 years, I own a variety of amps including a Laney hc50 , a Marshall lead 12, and a Fender super 210.This amp sounds better than all my other amps rolled into one.If it were stolen or lost I would get another one as soon a possible.