Carvin SX300H Head

I like the features on this head. After you have been playing and gigging for several years, you start to gravitate towards practicality, use-ability and reliability. I like the smart effects feature as it allows me to have simple but different effects on each channel. I like that there are three channels and the mode options on channels 1 & 2....I like the simulated output (although I have not tried it).

All in all, this is a very good feature set for the price. I think it should be a requirement that the foot-switch have LEDs so you can see the channel wo turning around...and it would be super cool if the ch1 gain boost was foot-switchable.

I'm using a double-fat fender strat, an HSS carvin loaded fender strat, a Clapton Noiseless strat and a stock road worn strat.

My first comment is that all of these channels are very useable. In a cover band setting, I can get "good" renditions of the 6 sounds I like...

Clean
clean sparkle (turn on a '65 deluxe Boss pedal)
SRV: Ch2, gain on 2 neck single coil
70s rock: CH2 gain on about 3...SC or Humbucker
Basic Metal: CH3, gain on 7
Hetfield (EQ in loop to scoop and gain boost to maintain apparent volume)

For solo work I turn on a TS-9...also I use a GEQ-7 before the input set at about -6dB gain, flat, to duck under vocals during songs...it also reduces the overall gain a bit and pulls down the harmonics in the mix to let the vocals cut a bit more.

I really like the tones from all three channels, but I find the EQ settings to be a little non-intuitive. WIth a mesa 2x12 vertical recto cab w/v30s I'm usually at Treb = 3, Mid =5/6, bass = 4/5. IN The cut sheet they say that the base sound is scooped so there is a little clue.

If you cannot use this amp, then you are not a pro...at some point you have to leave the nitpicking behind and recognize that nobody except guitar geeks will notice a difference in the tone at a club gig...if you have a clean touch on the fretboard and understand that less gain actually sounds heavier, this amp is a good working man's tool.

That said, this amp does not meet my holy grail tones for clean, sparkle, SRV, 70s rock, 80s metal and hetfield. Thats ok because it gets you an inspiring sound and gets you close enough especially considering the price, the weight and options!

used at about 50-60 gigs and no trouble yet

playing gigs for about 13 real years...had a guitar since 13 and I'm 45 now but there was college and a wife and kids so all those years don't count as playing years. I am going to get a backup just in case...My mesas, marshalls, egnater and B_52 sit at home and the SX300 Head gets the work done...It's not a killer amp nor do I love it, but it is a great working mans tool!

great value

I just recieved my SX300 head from Carvin on Friday.Hey this is the most fun I've had with an amp in a very long time!I almost made the mistake of not spending enough time with it and dialing good tone in [Not that it is hard to operate or anything]. I wasn't initially impressed and was going to do the 10 day trial refund thing. Boy, am I glad i didn't.This is a great light weight amp for the price. Fantastic value. Very versatile, and definitely the best Solid State amp I have ever heard!

Great tones can be had with it if you spend a bit of time with it as the EQ controls are a bit different than other amps. Many have critisized the 'Blues' mode switch on channel 2. Here's the deal on that..Bass-8..Mid--4...and treble way lower than normal at 3 or less. Now you have a great Stevie Ray sound especially good with a single coil equipped Strat on the neck pick-up. Wow! That's the sound and the realistic 'tube sag' and feel this amp creates is remarkable really. Like most amps it's a different beast with humbucker equipped guitars and single coil, but both vintage sounding and nice.The effects are very decent as well and easy to dial in, and I like the fact you can push a switch that gives you a lush Reverb on all three channels which is seperate from the 'Smart Loop Effects System'. Great idea, as is your choice of 1/4 inch or XLR direct out.The 'high gain 'switch on channel 1 can be a bit noisy and a bit of a mystery as of yet to me. I would suggest a gain setting no higher than 7 or 8 if you choose to use it.It does offer another useable tone dimension.

For the price asked, Carvin builds great stuff.I have a lot of Carvin gear in my home studio, and on stage when I play live. Never had a problem with my current roster of 7 Carvin amps,and a RX1200 mixer, all well made, reliable, and very well priced. This thing looks very well made and it is thought out well and very user friendly

Great service. I ordered it on a Monday, shipped Tuesday from San Diego and they said 7 to 10 days delivery. Well much to my surprise I had it in 4 days on the Friday to my door in Canada.

I give this amp a big thumbs up. I mean for the price of $269 you can't beat it. It is fun to use, and has great tone and many ways to tweak that sound.It's light and portable, and is plenty loud. The clean channel sparkles, and the 'Tube realism' across all three channels is truly amazing. Remember, like any amp, experiment a bit, and tweak your tone dialing it in.Give it a chance initially and you will love this amp.....I plan on buying the 2X12 combo very soon...Get the footswitch, well worth it for $40!

This was bought in 2009. Specs are listed in the other reviews.

I am a working musician, playing everything from loud blues to commercial metal. I need to have a versatile amp that will give me any tone I want with minimal tweeking, and this amp gives me that functionality.
I love the fact that the amp sounds great at any volume, from bedroom volume to "outdoor music festival" loud.
Unfortunately the clean channel is LESS THAN HALF as loud as the two dirty channels, forcing me to not use it during live gigs. Now, I'm playing most of my gigs with a 5 piece rock/blues band that really isn't that loud, and I have to run the clean channel on 10 to compete with the dirty channels when they are only on 3.
Anyone who thinks the clean channel is loud enough is either not playing with a live drummer, or is being miked. I do love the clean tones, but I hate having the clean volume and all tone knobs on 10 to be heard over a blues band (my Randall RG80 is much, much louder clean). They should have put a gain knob on the clean channel.
The two drive channels are fantastic though, so I'll be keeping the amp for my miked gigs, and any studio work. If I can figure out how to mod the clean channel to get a better punch I'll start using the sx300 again as my main amp.
The clean channel volume is really my only complaint about this amp.

I have used both humbuckers and single coils with this amp and I can get any tone I want, from super clean to very heavy distortion. I've seen reviews saying this amp "can't do metal" but that is completely wrong.
Anyone who can't get a good heavy gain tone out of this amp is using cheap speakers, or playing at bedroom volumes. Cranked up this amp can really push some nice tones.
The gain channels are a bit noisy compared to my other SS amps, but still well within what I consider acceptable.

This amp is very solid, and has put up with lots of abuse so far with no problems. I never gig without a backup, but I haven't needed the backup since I started using this amp.

I have called Carvin before about other issues and always got a polite, helpful response from the support staff.
Carvin service has been very good.

I bought this amp because of very good online reviews and because I needed a good 3-channel amp. Basically I love the amp's functionality and tones, and the output volumes of the dirty channels. Unfortunately it would seem that most folks who reviewed this amp are bedroom players, so keep that in mind when you read that the clean channel is "very loud"...because it's not. All of my other SS amps rated at 100 watts have much more perceived output power.

I'm assuming this amp was made in 2005/'06 (At least that's when I bought it!) This amp is a dream! I have never ordered an amp before from a mail order catalog and/or the internet. I usually like to get me hands dirty with an amp before I buy it, to verify it lives up to my standards. Well this one does! My setup goes like this:
Squier Standard Stratocaster w/ Seymour DUncan APS II's in all three positions - DOD 6 pedal pedalboard (Noise Gate>>Octave>>Fuzz>>Octave>>Metal Distortion>>Phaser) - Jim Dunlop Wah Pedal into amp. When I fired this thing up I noticed the absolute silence of solid state, no hiss, no buzz, it was amazing! Then I strummed a few open chords on the clean channel, and it was so smooth, and glass-like that I had to check to make sure they didn't send me a different amp by mistake! I switched to the second channel which is a "gain" channel, and it rocks! I hardly had to use the other "Hi-gain" channel! But I sampled it anyway, and I tell you there's Metallica/Anthrax/MegaDeth tones in there! It all depends on how you E.Q> the amp that you notice a big difference in the sound of each channel. When using that hi-gain channel I try to remove as much mids as possible without going "scooped", then on the 2nd gain channel I kick in the "Blues" switch and I'm riding down some dusty road near Beale Street ,Mississippi! It absolutely sings! Then getting crafty I use the fuzz pedal, along with the effects on the amp and I'm back in the 60's man! The reverb is smooth, and is available on every channel, and the chorus is amazing, not bad for a solid state amp! I've played quite a few all tube amps that cannot compare to the pristine sound this amp gives.

The best thing to compe along in the world of solid state technology since the advent of the distortion pedal! If I had to pick a favorite channel it would have to be the 2nd gain channel, with the "blues" switch, it's the most versatile for the style of music I play, which is a mix of Hendrix/B.B.King/Metallica with this channel and my pedals I can cover all the bases, and not sweat wether the amp I'm using will have the guts to go the distance.

Well put it this way, I had (not intentionally of course!) left this at a friends house, he lived about 3 hours away from me, he also had a very energetic 8 year old, who loved to touch things, and I found out only 3 weeks later that my amp had been knocked down, and had mysteriously "fallen" down the basement (concrete!) steps, but as far as I'm concerned it works just fine!

Never had to deal with them, but if their repair department is as good as their amp building department, then I'm assuming it's a definite 10!!

I have been playing guitar since I was about 16 years old, (I'm 36 now!..so I guess you could call me a veteran!) I've been doing it since before MIDI ever existed, or at least since it's early stages, if it were ever stolen or lost I wouldn't just replace it, I would get a second and third as backups! If I hae to pick one thing I love the most about this amp, it would have to be it's sound and it's looks, it has a refindew look to it, sort of like Humphrey Bogart, and it also isn't that heavy!

??? Power amp: 100 watts - THD less than .1% at 50% power, Freq. Response: 20 to 20k Hz
??? True 3 channel design - clean, lead - blues drive, lead - high-gain
??? "SX" Classic Tube Emulation with overdrive control - turn down the overdrive channel for 2 independent clean channels
??? Active 3 band EQ for each channel--Bass, Mid, Treble
??? DSP effects--Chorus, Reverb, Flanging & Echo
??? Optional foot switch for channel & DSP effects (On/Off) switching
??? Effects Loop (send/receive)
??? Headphone & Pre-amp output jacks
??? Light weight - no particle board.
??? Covered in thick black vinyl
??? Dimensions: 24.5 inches wide x 9.5 inches deep x 10.5 inches high
??? Weight: 16 pounds
??? Made in San Diego, California

The amp has two gain channels and a clean channel. The two gains are virtually the same but can be separated by two opposite modes which can add more gain to one channel and a "bluesy" sound to the other.

The clean channel is pretty decent for a solid state amp. It has a wide range of usable tones from a warm bassy sound to a shrill tone.

The overdrive channels are where this amp falls apart. The second channel is decent for SS. It can achieve some decent crunch, but lacks any low end. The "Blues" button attempts to emulate a bluesy type of low crunch overdriven clean channel. It didn't find this very usable, since it was too harsh sounding for blues or a weak distortion.

The heavy overdrive channel is just terrible. Soundwise it suffers from a the same problems as the second channel with absolutely no bass response, but also bears an incredible whine. This is the noisiest channel I've ever played on any amp, including tubes. I found it to be unusable on anything but a weak gain setting as the squeal was so abominable. Maybe it just didn't like my Duncan JB but I simply couldn't use it. Needless to say, the hi-gain switch was rarely engaged.

The digital effects were decent and the reverb sounds good. The loops also handled my pedals well. More parameters would have been nice, but the inclusion of DSP effects at all seems like a marketing effort to compete with solid state makers like Crate and Line 6. They seem mostly unnecessary.

One thing that was correctly advertised: in attempting to emulate tube technology, this amp actually does sound better the louder it gets. It's just unfortunate that it doesn't sound very good to begin with.

Bottom line, this amp is incapable of anything but a few classic rock tones. I play metal so the amp was a total waste for me. I get the feeling it was intended to be something better, but just failed in so many areas. Perhaps mine was just broken. It would be interesting to hear it with a OD pedal on the clean channel.

Despite the atrocious tone, I have gigged with it and it held up just fine considering the above listed limitations, but being solid state, that's probably to be expected.

One problem that was common for my amp's generation of manufacturing was that the input jack would easily come loose. Sure enough, it happened to me. Not just wiggly loose, but lose it inside the amp loose. Now a nut holds it in place and it hasn't really been a problem. Perhaps this is a contributer to the noise, but I have no idea.

Carvin has always been pretty great in my experience. This doesn't directly involve the amp, but I bought it as a package with their 412 cabinet. On arrival, UPS had kicked in the grill so that it was touching a speaker. I called Carvin about getting it repaired and they sent a totally new grill free of charge.

I've been playing for six years and have played in a few bands. I mostly played through this amp with a Gibson LP and various Agile guitars.

This amp seemed pretty promising for a solid state, but in truth it pales in comparison to amps like the Peavey XXL in virtually every aspect.

I don't hold it against Carvin, however. I just bought a V3 and it's the best guitar related purchase I've ever made. I love every sound that comes from that amp.

As I said before, I think this amp was intended to be something different. Either it wasn't thought through well or Carvin's techs hadn't played a SS amp for 15 years. It comes out unusuable and not up to Carvin's standard quality.

If you're in the market for a cheap SS head, then the SX-200H might be the way to go. An OD pedal in front might make that a great SS head. It's hard to recommend a three channel amp for that purpose, however, especially since the main attraction doesn't even work.

I've done other reviews on this site, mostly with other Carvin heads like the MTS3200 but also solid states like the Randall Cyclone and Mastertone pickups. I'm guessing this is a 2005 SX300H. The amp is probably the best amp I've paid this amount of money for ($289 USD on Ebay), and definitely the best solid state that I have. It's versatile enough to play the death metal I like and also has a pretty decent blues channel. Amp has the usual; 3 channels (high gain, midgain/blues, clean) effects loop, line out, footswitch jack, etc., but where's the adjustable presence? I haven't used it very much but as I'm a Carvin fan I like the way it sounds. I've always felt that while that company doesn't make the best stuff there is, they definitely make great stuff for the money. Controls are laid out very logically, although some might get the effect and amount knobs confused (presumably one controls the volume of the effect, the other the intensity). What I don't like again is the lack of a dedicated presence knob and the lack of an independent drive knob on the clean channel.

I played through this head with my old standby; a '96 Japanese Jackson Kelly Standard Professional with EMG 60/81s. I like the amp because I think it is a jack-of-all trades, master of none, and can do metal pretty reliably. It doesn't sound as brutal as the Randall, but it also only costs $300 and is a lot more flexible. The amp is noisier when the high gain button is engaged, but it does add a little more gain saturation and high end sizzle to notes. The amp goes from a fairly saturated crunch to a run of the mill solid state Marshall/Crate sound, to a really nice blues sound when the button on the 2nd channel is engaged. The amp will definitely do Metallica and might do Napalm Death if recorded properly; distortion saturation and brutalness are a matter of taste. My main problem with the distortion is that it tends to be very bassy and somewhat sterile; I keep my bass and mids on 5 and my treble on 10 with the presence engaged. However, some tube amps with too much touch, I feel, weaken the sound by making everything very AC/DC and brittle sounding; so perhaps that sterility is a good thing when you want a really focused, consistent attack. Pick attacks sound great, but I also use a metal pick. I feel it does high gain leads better than my MTS3200. But the clean and the digital effects are the best part. The clean is absolutely gorgeous, especially with chorus and reverb, but I found the flange to sound more like a tremolo or vibrato effect as opposed to the EVH panning phase that I anticipated (I was running the amp mono, however). The clean is the best part of the amp.

Haven't had the amp long enough to find out.

Carvin's usually been great to me before, although it seems sometimes their stuff breaks conspicuously close to when the warranty runs out.

I've been playing for 10 years and am GIT educated. I own a BBE Sonic Maximizer, Carvin MTS3200 head and cabs, Randall Cyclone, and now this SX300H. I have a variety of Jacksons with EMGs and Mastertone pickups, as well as an ART SGX 2000 Express preamp, which I might replace for clean/lead sounds with the SX300H. I like how versatile the amp is; however it has the main limitation of all solid states in that it is missing something in the distortion department and the clean isn't very warm (although that can be affected somewhat by increasing bass and mids). I don't like the lack of a dedicated presence and drive knob for every channel. For the money paid, it's one of the best amps I've owned; the Randall sounds better for metal, but that's *all* it does, and cost me 700 bucks used. This amp doesn't do quite so well, but it does more, and at only 300, so youll have to make the call. I like all of Carvin's stuff pretty much, and this is just the latest piece of gear I've added to my collection. The amp is very light and portable (you can carry the head with one hand), does a lot quite well for the money, and I think would be a great first amp for a young player. It definitely sounds better than my old Crate GX130C combo, which also included distortion and stereo chorus. I think this amp would work well for a lot of jobs and Carvin generally set the price pretty accurately for that great-value amp. It's a better amp for the money than the Randall, and does more than my old MTS3200 standby, although it doesn't sound better than they do on an individual basis. I plan to keep it in order to create a variety of sounds in the studio and as an inexpensive backup/live amp. I like it as a complement to all my other amps.

Manufactured mid 2005, only had the amp for a few days, seems to be suitable for any style music., well suited for blues and classic rock, definately a 3 channel amp as stated, the effects are good for what they are you could definately get by with them, plan on using the effects loop. On channel 1 there is the high gain switch most likely will never use that. Will use this amp live more than enough power, solid state very solid, made by carvin reputable company.

Currently using a Gibson ES137, Les Paul Classic, and Mexican Strat, suits style very good classic rock Amp is a little noisy, on high gain but mess with eq and no problems.. cold be noisy if you realy cranked gains but I leave them at 5 not an issue, very wide variety of sound, thing I like about this amp it gets a very very good marshall tone, gets that glassy tone..especially with presence on
this amp is loud... distorion is very managable

Would depend on it, very solid head itself is light very light, solid state no worries

Always nice whenI have spoken w/them on other thing

Hvae been playing 28yrs, own a fender stage 100 similiar amp, like th carvin for the almots near marshall tone, if this amp was stolen would definately buy again. All around well balanced amp as far as noise as stated in other reviews it just depends on how much you wnat gaind but amp doesnt really all that much gets a great sound and tone

This is an update of my previous review, which is right below me. Features will move from 8 to 9 because now I know about the Active EQ and how it works.

If you own this head, and have noise problem, this is critical, if you read nothing else read this because Carvin will not tell you unless you know enough to ask. Most amplifiers that you have used probably do not have active EQ, meaning you cannot boost, only cut. This means that when you boost bass or treble to 10, it is the equal to 0(no cut or boost) on a graphic EQ. With the active EQ, 5 is equal to 0, 10 is boosted, and 0 is cut. Basically what it means is that if you are used to boosting your bass and treble to the 8 or 9 range, only boost it to 3 or 4 here. If you are used to keeping mids down to 3 and 4, keep them down to 1. I am now only boosting my bass to about 3.5 and treble to 2, and that seems to give me the same effect as before. If you boost anything to far above 5 in this EQ, you will get a ton of noise. This amp still has noise to deal with, but at least it will be manageable.

I gave it a 5 before, but now I will boost it to 6. It still cannot get brutal distortion on its own, it is not a metal amp without a pedal. With a good pedal though, the sound coming from this amp is a solid 8.

Solid state, built like a tank

Here is what sucks. This company is not customer oriented. They make good products, but treat customers like idiots. BTW - I am an engineer, and they still treat me like an idiot, so if you are treated badly, don't take it to heart, it is not you.

If they would fix this, they would probably sell a lot more equipment. I mean when I first contacted them about my noise problems on the amp, one of the first things they should have asked me was about the EQ settings.

Well, the thing I do like about Carvin amps is they are versatile. I good get a Marshall or Mesa, but they are a one trick pony. One sound, and that is it. I think if I had to replace it, I would buy a Carvin MTS 3200, a tube amp. They are jerks at Carvin, but they make good equipment.

This amplifier is very versatile, and you can easily find yourself spending many hours becoming familiar with the many "sounds" this amp is capable of.
The amp only gets an 8 for the following reasons:
1. This amp only will not satisfy the heavy metal guitar player as advertised (Does everything else very well though).
2. Could use a graphics equalizer, compression, and/or some sort of noise suppression circuit.
3. Reverb could have been better.

This section is difficult for me to rate, as I am trying to be honest here.
The good:
First the good stuff. If you are not a heavy metal player and you do not need the high gain circuit, this amp is for you. Blues, jazz, rock sound fantastic through this amp. The second channel can get some fairly overdriven sounds, and for a blues player sound great. I can get a lot of 70s rock sounds here. The clean channel is crystal clear, with plenty of warmth.
The effects are not bad, but I do not use them beyond a little reverb or chorus here and there (again, reverb could have been better).
The bad:
I am frustrated with this amp, because I cannot get the heavy sound I want from it. Part of the reason is the overdrive just does not get that heavy no matter if you are looking for an 80s metal sound, or a 90s nu metal sound. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of gain, but it does not equal the sound I am looking for no matter what settings or EQ I use. The second problem, and biggest complaint I have here is the noise. You have already read other reviews about this noise, but this is no joke. This amp is noisy as heck on the hi gain channel. It is virtually unusable. For example, if I dial the gain on just 6.5, and volume at only 3, I hear banshee wail. I don't have to dial up to 10, and the distortion is not so thick here at 6.5 as to be useful to me. If you want to play metal, prepare to buy a distortion pedal, maybe an EQ, and noise supressor and do a lot of tweaking. By the time you are done spending the money for all these little things, it adds up and you could have had a higher end amp that worked right out of the box (Crate Voodoo, 5150, etc).

I am giving the sound only a 5 because Carvin advertised this as capable of heavy metal sounds and a good choice for my style, and it is not. If it were not for the other channels sounding so good, I would give this a 1.

I have only owned the amp for 6 months and I have not had a problem with it. Seems sturdy enough...

Well, when I addressed these issues with Carvin, I did get good response time from the technician, and I tried everything suggested, but none of it worked. The fact is, Carvin pretends this problem does not exist with this model, and that is the most irritating part about this problem.

I have been playing on and off for 17 years now. I played semi professionally about 8 years ago, but now I am just a hobbyist.

I also own a digitech distortion pedal of some sort (I forget, but it works well), Behringer V-Amp Pro (2?) rack model (this thing is awesome, and the reviews are correct here, the Behringer is a POD killer for a fraction of the price), Behringer 12 channel mixer.

I would not buy this amplifier again. I purchased this on reputation alone, and that was a mistake. I have already noted what I like and dislike about the amp.

I also considered a Crate 1200, and a Marshall 100MG series amp. I purchased this amplifier mainly because it was in the right price range. I have played combos in this price range that sounded better.

Finally if anyone else is in the same boat as I am, drop me a line, maybe we can compare notes and equipment. I am NJ/Philly area.
gimpyacy@yahoo.com

This is a new head, had for 3 months. This is a true 3 channel head. It is 100 watts. Each channel has it's own full set of controls. Channel switching via footswitch, which also turns the "smart effects" on and off. They call it smart effects because it is supposed to remember your effects settings when you turn the amp off, although mine never seems to do that. It does remember each channels effects setting though, while you are using the amp. Channel 2 (rhythm channel) has a "blues switch" which is totally useless. Channel 1 (lead channel) has a high gain switch which I don't see the need for either. I'll never use it. Heavy Metal shredder guys might like it. Channel 1 (clean) sounds great because the EQ tone controls on all channels on this amp are active, not passive like on most amps. This gives you incredible tone range and response. It has all the basic stuff like headphone jack, effects loop, voiced line out, speaker cabinet ohm selector etc. Unfortunately, there are no led's on the footswitch which there should be. Also lacking is a master volume which would be very helpful with a 3 channel head. You could then adjust only one volume knob instead of 3. There is a separate reverb on/off push button but it needs to have it's own level adjust knob. My suggestion is go to Carvin.com and see it and read about it to get a better idea of the effects set-up. The effects are reverb, chorus, flange, echo with 2 parameter controls. This is a solid state amp and one nice thing is it only weighs 22 pounds according to Carvin but it feels like less than that. Ok, enough about features, lets get to the good part - Sounds.

The tones that comes out of this amp are AMAZING! I'm playing it through a 2x12 Mesa closed back rectifier cab. with celestions. It sounds incredible. It is one of the best, if not the best, sounding amp I've ever heard. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years and I've owned and heard a hell of a lot of amps - both solid state and tube. It sounds better than the 2 tube amps I own now, one of which is a Mesa Boogie Mark IV head and the SX-300 is 1/4 the price! Another plus for the solid state with active EQ is the amp sounds really good at low volume which is always a problem with tube amps. They have to be turned up to sound good. I use a '72 Gibson ES-355, an Epiphone SG and a Carvin DC-135 which is like a Strat only much better quality with a one piece through the body neck. I'm not a big fan of bolt on necks. It has a Carvin humbucker at the bridge, a Carvin single coil in the middle and a Fender lace sensor at the neck. There is a coil splitter for the bridge pickup and 5 way selector switch. My style is bluesy, jazzy, fusion stuff, some rock. All 3 guitars sound great through this amp and I can't imagine any decent guitar not sounding good through this thing. The effects are good. I'm not a big effects guy and this is all I need. Reverb sounds very good. I think this is a very versatile amp and could suit most any style. The tones that come out of the rhythm and lead channels are fantastic with great harmonic overtones and just a sweet, full, fat sound. Very clear and crisp, not dirty and muddled. Carvin is factory direct so there is no retail mark-up. You get a quality product for your money. They have a money back guarantee. You get a full 10 days to try it out.

I haven't owned it long enough to know but I own 2 other Carvin amps, one I've had for 10 years and one for 4 years, one is tube, one is solid state. I've had no problems with either. Personally, I would always have a back-up amp just in case. You never know.

There is a one year warranty. The only time I had to deal with customer support was to return the first SX-300 head I bought. It had a problem and I sent it back during the 10 day trial period. They were good about it and paid the shipping, too.

I want to say the amp cost $360.00 + another $40.00 for the footswitch. I think they had a deal on free shipping at the time. If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another one.