Carvin TN100 Tone Navigator Preamp

The Amp is very versatile especially when you start playing around with the mid sweep controls.
The effects built into it are standard chorus,reverb,delay and flange, the flange isn't all much good.
Would be better if it had a tuner built into it.

I was looking for something to give me that Gambale sound he used to have when he used mesa boogie amps, and even though this is not a Boogie the mid sweep controls can very closly copy one.
I don't think much of the preset patches on it, even Frank Gambales own, but after playing around with it I have got the sound I want.

I haven't had chance to gig mine yet but seems to be well built.
I am going to buy and fit mine into a rack so it should be a lot safer then.

Never dealt with carvin.

I would strongly recommend this amp to anyone looking for a very specific distortion sound, and don't be put off by the pathetic preset patches, spend time with the mid sweep controls.

2004 Carvin TN-100. I own a number of Carvin guitars and amps. I dropped a bundle of money over the years and always received excellent made gear, from Carvin. I am however, shaking my head over this piece of gear.

I ordered this amp/processor with great anticipation and rather then be negative I'll give my two cents, with humility. For the past 40 years I have played all styles. I have played with the old rocking Coasters to hillbilly jazz fiddler Vassar Clements and with trumpet great, Winton Marsalis. Because my band backs up such a variety of musicians I need my gear to do as much. I have to say with sadness the TN-100 won't be on tour with me.

Rightfully the TN-100 should be made into a floor unit. With the present sound library it should be priced comparatively to maybe a Zoom processor unit. In all fairness to Zoom they actually have a better variety of sounds then does the TN-100. The TN is clean and quiet and offers some tweekable distortion, EQ and a few effects like reverb, chorus and phaser, end of story.

Don't know.

Carvin has always treated me well in this department.

If you need a well made instrument, shop Carvin but if you are a hardworking musician on a budget looking for a good preamp/processor this is not the unit to buy.

For a good overdrive pedal see Analog Mike. He does amazing things with an Ibanez Tube Screamer. Roland GT-5 works well and can be found used for a couple hundred on ebay.

Go to your favorite guitar players web site and see what he or she is using, then look on ebay for the deals.

Carvin shame on you for the price and limited functions on hand. Please put it back in the oven add some more spices/effects, control functions and let it cook a little longer.

I'm a composer/performer, mostly on the classical guitar but due to mid-age crisis, the fact that the electric guitar with processors makes for powerful sonic statements and the fact that I never really resigned myself to only being a classical guitarist I have been into gear again. I've been playing for 35 years and have an MFA in composition/performance. I'm an egg-head with blood and guts.
I mostly use a Brian Moore i1p, has a piezo bridge, a Gibson Firebird VII, what I had when I was a kid and a handmade Brian May with a gaagle of vintage pickups. I also use two digitech TSR-12 and 24 a parametric EQ for the piezo, a Jamman (in a GNX3) all run into a small but powerful PA. All goes into a Sampson 1602 Line mixer.
The TN-100 is fully MIDI controlled and this was my original reason for getting it. I have enough processors to make what I need and the TN-100 has two digital processors concentrating on chorus, reverb and delay and to me it was superflous. There are also two extra midrange controls besides the regular bass, mids, treble and presence. There are two clean a crunch and a distortion function for each preset. All is accesed by the clearly laid out front panel. On the back there are two outputs with one of them speaker cabinet emulated for my use with a mixer. This is a full featured package, I've been tweaking it for only a few days and I can't think of anything I would need that it doesn't have. It's a tweaker's dream.

The TN is based on the SX-200 solid state tube emulated head. I am a tube man. I previously used a Boogie Studio 22 but eventually picked up a SX-200 combo because it was cheap and I could use it for my classical guitar amplification in small spaces. To my surprise the SX-200 is a kick-ass combo both clean and dirty. Beyond my expectations and I am no longer a tube-only guy.
So speaking to an extremely friendly and informative Carvin person, finding out it was based on the analog SX series I bought.
The TN goes beyond the SX in sound. The two extral mid range control, with a frequency select and amount makes the amp sound beautiful. With the two clean options, one scooped, it will make the sweeted and stringy sounds you can imagine. The crunch and distortion, with the two extra mid controls, is the best I've ever heard. You can get total saturation and a Boogie like crunch so it easlity replaces that preamp I used. You could use this preamp for any style of music and it is dead quiet.

Well, this aspect really doesn't apply yet but I will base this part on my previous experience with Carvin gear. Never fails.

As well, Carvin is there for you with informative and helpful people. They never fail.

I would replace this preamp in a heartbeat if it were stolen. It is simply the best for me! I'm a picky Moe, if you read my reviews at New Millennium Guitar, I spend much time picking things apart. My ear is a biological wonder, if I may toot my horn but I say this only to further focus the fact that this is a marvelous sounding preamp.

1. Probably made in 2004.
2. I play hard rock, blues and country professionally. This is a very versatile rig for all.
3. It's a stereo rig I run through a 100 watt Carvin Stereo tube rack amp and a Marshall 4X12 cab with 25 watt Greenbacks. Plenty of power and sound for me.
4. This rig has more features than I use but the tones and patch selections are unbelievable. I'd spent thousands of dollars on amps and effects to try to produce the tone and sounds this thing does in one rack space. The tones are just incredible. The sweeps and sweep levels allow you tweak your sounds to studio quality. I've sold all my former gear and this rig is now my sole source of sound.
5. I can't speak

I run a Gibson Les Paul Classic, a Strat Plus with Lace Sensors, and a Music Man EVH through it.

No noise. The fan in the Carvin Tube amp is the only noise you can hear and even that is barely audible even at full throttle. I have no complaints about the majority of the effects, but then I don't use much of them. If you want clean with full rich deep tones you want this rig. I've never heard anything so beautiful except for what Eddie Van Halen can produce with his gear.

I've gigged with it for about 8 months in 24 venues and its worked and sounded perfect every time including gigs outside. I know I'm taking a hell of a chance gigging without a backup but this things been knocked around and fallen over in the rack case from atop my 4X12 cabnet and nothing's hurt it yet. If I get a backup it'll be a duplicate of the exact same set up I have now and nothing else.

Great customer support. Angel was the dude who hooked me up. Great guy. Gave me about every discount imaginable. I walked out of the shop with a Road Warrior case, a Carvin 100w tube amp, a Carvin line conditioner with rack lights and the Tone Navigator for $1,100.

Been playing for 20 years. Tried a bunch of different stuff seeking the illusive tone. If it were stolen I wouldn't buy anything else but the exact same set up again. I love it. There's nothing I hate, dislike, or am irritated about. It's just all cool to me.

This is a new Artist Signature preamp designed in conjunction with Carvin by fusion great Frank Gambale.

It's a SS, digitally controlled analog preamp. No algorithms or simulated tones. It has 119 presets or "patches". Numbers 1-20 are Gambale's own personal favorite presets, ranging from various "clean" patches to a few of his favorite high gain sounds. Numbers 21-49 are Carvin's own creations, and here the tones are a little more varied. Now you start dipping into some wilder sounds as well as many vintage sounds.

One thing you won't see here is any amp modeling; nor will you see anything utterly insane such as Line 6's, errr, "Insane" modes. All the tones except for "CRZY TRAIN" (a bizarre, wooden sounding thing I just don't get) are quite "traditional" and very useable.

Patches 50-99 duplicate patches 1-49. All 99 of these patches can be tweaked and/or completely redesigned by the user to suit his tastes. Patches 100-119 are Gambale's presets again, only here they cannot be altered.

Any patch that's been altered by the user can be restored to the original presets via a handly little "Utilities" control.

This unit does not come with any Carvin footswitching ability, though one could opt for very limited footswitching from Carvin via their optional FS22 footswitch. Better to just go ahead and get a midi footboard, such as the $80 Rolls MP128 Midi Buddy, which is what Gambale uses with the TN100. This footboard has ten available footswitches per bank, with twelve total banks.

The Tone Navigator also includes a fine array of effects, including Delay, Reverb, Chorus and Flange. These effects can be tweaked any way you want them and you can apply up to two effects per patch.

The Tone Navigator's main claim to fame, it's raison d'etre, if you will (borrowing from Frank there...), is its incredible variety of EQ-ing options. Aside from the usual Master Volume and individual volume, treble, presence, mid and bass controls the TN100 also features a double mids sweeping feature that allows you to double sweep both the level and the frequency of the mids.

This is key to the TN100. It's what gives it such incredible tonal variety.

I'd give it a perfect score for features, but for two things:

-The footswitch board should come with the unit, and Carvin should build it.

-While the effects sound killer, I'd like the option of being able to add all four to a patch, instead of only two at a time.

I've been playing off and on for about twenty years, either blues or guitar instrumental stuff. SRV, Hendrix, Page, Vai, DiMeola, yada yada.

I'm not a pro. At this point in my life it's just a hobby.

Been mostly playing this TN100 through a Legacy 3/4 stack (with Celestion V30s, not the older model Greenbacks), a DCM1000 power head and either a crappy old Strat or an Ibanez JEM7VWH. I originally tried this set up with an all tube TS100 power head but I decided I wanted more than 50w per stereo side and since the TN100 isn't a tube preamp I don't feel there's any sound degradation in going with a 1000w SS power head.

Tried 'em one after another and I can't hear any tonal difference. Sure can hear the volume difference though!

With all the available EQ options there's really nothing (within reason) that the TN100 can't do. Again, no, you won't get full on man-overboard-alligators-attacking-each-other-in-a-vat-of-jello Steve Stevens style FX crazyness but other than that, yeah, whatever you want. Tonally, whether you want Wes Montgomery, Robert Cray, Allan Holdsworth or Dimebag Darryl, it's in there. Also, the sounds are simply gorgeous. Forget the whole "Dude, but does it sound like tubes?" question. Yes, it does, and who cares anyway? It's a lead guitar player's dream come true, with all the pick attack you could ever want and harmonics aplenty on the gain channels. The sustain is endless. Whatever, whenever, however much...you decide. Since Gambale has such a strong jazz background it also is really beautiful sounding on the clean channels. Bright and chimey or warm, smokey and drinks clanking in a dark jazz club brooding, it's in there.

There's also zero extraneous noise from this unit, especially when paired with the DCM1000. If you want musical feedback, it's there for days. All you could ever want. If you DON'T want any extra sounds, it's dead nuts silent.

Isn't that what matters?

No way this category doesn't get a perfect score.

I've only had it a couple months so it's hard to say but it's SS and it's a Carvin so I don't see how anyone could hope to purchase better reliability.

Put it this way: While I won't give it a score I'll be shocked if this thing craps out on me.

By and large, in terms of customer service, I'd rather deal with Carvin than with any other guitar company. I've been on the phone with them so much recently, ordering so much gear, that I was bound to find the odd bad egg amongst their CS crew.

And so I did. Still, all in all, the good far outweighs the bad. Mostly, I think their CS is flat out remarkable in this day and age.

If this thing were lost or stolen I'd definitely want another one. I'd never get to play it much though because prisons don't allow rack mounts in their cells and I'd probably be in prison for what I did to the guy who stole it...

I think that in terms of pure function and tone there's nothing extra I wish this thing had, aside from what I already mentioned above. However, just to shut up the whining purists (of which I'm one, actually), I suppose I wish this thing were all tube. Problem is, Frank Gambale designed it and he has very pointed opinions concerning SS vs tubes.

One nice thing is that I got mine before Carvin raised their price on this thing. I bought mine for $449 and it's now $599, and easily worth twice that.

The reason I chose this product is simple. I drove down to Hollywood and played it in one of Carvin's stores. I simply think it'll be difficult to find anyone who won't want this thing after they've spent some time playing it.

I don't even like rack mounts. I like knobs, on heads, sitting on top of cabinets. I'm pretty much a moron. I like simplicity.

Doesn't matter. This thing is actually easier to use than a normal head, once you take a weekend and set up your midi board with your presets. From then on it's one touch footwork, only you have a bazillion channels and an equal number of FX presets, instead of a traditional head's three or four channels.

It even looks pretty cool, what with its blue LED lighting. Oh yeah, did I mention that it costs less than half of most any decent head, while giving you way more variety and zero maintenance hassles.....all while NOT being some cheesy sounding modeling amp?

Just get one. You'll love it. You likely won't need anything else, other than maybe a G Major if you're really into tailering your FX. If your ears work even a little bit you'll love the Tone Navigator.