Carvin TS100 Power Amp

Features: All-tube signal path. 50 Watts per channel or 100 Watts bridged. Each channel can even be independently biased to use EL34, 6L6, or 5881 output tube types.

- 4 12AX7 preamp tubes
- 4 EL34 matched Groove Tubes???
- Internal bias selection switches for each channel (EL34 or 6L6/5881)
- Front panel volume and presence controls
- Front panel power and stand by switches
- Rear panel impedance, bridge, parallel, and ground lift switches
- Premium construction features metal bushings and shafts
- Cooling fan
- 19" 2U all steel chassis with Chrome front panel and knobs
- Dimensions: 3.5" high x 19" wide x 10" deep
- Weight: 25 lbs
- Made in San Diego, California

This amp was made in 2007. It is versatile enough for many different styles of music. it is a two-channel amplifier than can be operated in stereo, or bridged-mono. it has all the features I could ever desire from a musical instrument power amplifier. I use it in a Rock band that I play with...

I play Strats and "Super-Strats" with humbuckers and single coils.
This amp suits my playing styles very well, which are Rock, Blues, and R & B. The amp is not noisy. It does one thing, and that is to amplify whatever preamp signal that is fed into it. The only sound coloration would be that of the EL-34 output tubes, as they are known for their "snarling midrange", and compression. It has lots of clean headroom, and must be cranked almost all the way up to overdrive it.

I would always "prefer" a backup when gigging. Sometimes I have one and sometimes I don't.

I've had this amp since October 2007 and it hasn't broken down yet...

The Carvin company has always been very friendly toward me.

I have never sent anything to them for repair, but I have a friend who did (guitar amplifier combo), and their service was nothing short of AWESOME. I was amazed when I heard about it, because I think they went beyond what should be expected...

I have been playing for 24 years. It seems that most of the reviews her are from kids and inexperienced players. I own all kinds of other gear that would take too long to list here. It is all from top, well-known brands.

If I could change one thing about this power-amp, I would increase the input sensitivity. I have to turn the volume knob to the 2:00 position to make this amp as loud as my Marshall head with its volume knob at 12:00 (straight up the middle).

This TS-100 has everything that a power amplifier should have...

I bought this used, but it is the newer version...still a chrome faceplate, but with the improved ventilation in the front. 2007+. Stereo tube poweramp, 2 channels, 50 watt per side, presence and a variety of i/o. EL34 and 12ax7 tubes.Using this with a Digitech GSP2101 preamp/processor, BBE Maxcom and running a Vox Clyde reissue, Morley Bad Horsie ll wah and a Keeley Tubescreamer in the front end. Have also run this with a Voodoo Labs pre...but it functions much much better with the Digitech....More on that in sound quality...he he he....

Quiet amp. Using it with the above mentioned junk and Strats, Les Pauls, other single and hum equipped guitars...
I play heavy rock/classic style metal, jazz, fusion,shred,funk,etc...
This amp sounded ok with my Voodoo Lab preamp, but added too much bluesy type overdrive....taking away from the tightness of that preamp. I DO agree with the previous reviewer who mentioned that was the type of gain it added....however with a GSP2101...which tends to be a bit sterile..this is EXACTLY the type of gain it needs.It makes the heavier distortions more lively, realistic and fat. The cleans more breathy...and the bluesy stuff...well, more bluesy. :P
I dime the poweramp and then raise my volume on my pre from there. May not give the longest tube life..but gives the most saturation. This poweramp put my Digitech back in my rack...It had become unusable for me tone wise compared to my Voodoo Labs. (which I use with another 6L6 based poweramp.) So...my high score will be with that particular function...

Mmmmm...I would never gig w/o a backup...but seems pretty solid. I keep a fan clipped to the back of my rack to (try) keep things cool... I have owned a decent amount of Carvin stuff...and so far so good. Usually well built...I have another poweramp from them that is over 15 years old..and still kicking..so..take that for what it is worth.

Bought it used with a blank warranty card...but would have to say if it failed I would take it to a local tech instead of sending it to CA for 5 months...so...no comment.
I HAVE dealt with Carvin on new purchases and spoke with techs regarding problems, but never had to send anything back. It would have been handled, I'm sure, but I don't speak from specific experience.

Been using it with the stuff mentioned. Been playing over 20 years...blech...
If stolen, I would probably buy something else truly high end...or at least that has a better reputation for saturation.Then again...it really DID liven up the Digitech specifially...which is incredibly versatile in the effects section and cleans...this made the preamp sound much, much more organic in the high gains. I got this for a pretty decent deal and it is dead mint..basically unused. I love what it did for the Digitech. I don't "hate" anything about it...but would not consider this a "Holy Grail" or anything....of course, I just saw Dweezil Zappa the night before doing his dad's material...and they had Fuchs, Bogners and a buncha other krazy KILLER krap onstage...so...maybe it's just gear envy...sigh...:P

One one hand it can be fitted with a variety of types of tubes quite easily (has EL34s) for the power section stock. I didn't try changing them out so I'm not sure exactly how easy this is compared to other amps. Also, the two 50w channels can be bridged to one 100w. There can even be separate types of tubes in each channel. This versatility is the primary reason I bought it. I thought it would be interesting to try a variety of configurations. There's also a button that lets you send a mono input to both channels (not bridged) and impedance selection for both channels of 16, 8, and 4 ohms (double each of those for bridged).

On the other side of the coin, there is only one voicing option per channel, presence, which is set up at the 6khz range (seems high to me for guitar). With high preamp gain, this amounted to more or less fizz :P Therefore, there isn't much customization of tone on this amp beyond the choice of tubes.

I should pretext all this by specifying that I play mostly technical metal. Us metal guys tend to like the "errors" generated by amps intended for high gain and heavy styles of music. The part we like so much is actually NOT faithful sound reproduction :P The TS100 is intended for near faithful reproduction, that is, pretty flat response with some added 'tube color'. I don't know why I didn't key in on this before I bought it since they say it can be used in HiFi systems. Therefore, I give it a high rating because I feel it does what it's designed to do well. If you are really happy with your preamp sound and want a clean power section then, with just some subtle tube color, this is for you. Otherwise keep looking.

I've read a lot of reviews that seem to confuse whether or not one can get power tube distortion of of this amp. You can. With the TS100 running at full throttle, I ran my preamp into it at about 70% and it began to break up. The sound is what I would characterize as a bluesy overdrive maybe up to classic rock with everything completely maxed. I tested this with the amp running to a Palmer PGA04 DI load box (to verify it wasn't speaker distortion). Again, this is probably 'the sound' some folks are looking for, authentic bluesy power tube distortion...but not me.

This was the 2nd model of the TS100 with some more vents on the front face plate. My guess is the original may have overheated so they made this revision. Not as pretty but probably more stable.

Like I mentioned, I ran this thing at full volume and didn't experience any problem beyond the expected high vol breakup.

For long term operation I really can't comment.

So I actually ended up sending this unit back as it is not what I'm looking for. I contacted them via e-mail before returning it and they got back to me within a couple hours.

I ended up spending a little more, well scratch that, twice as much for a VHT 2/90/2 and the difference is tremendous. Rock on baby! But the VHT is intended for what I do.

I think the TS100 is a fine amp, especially for the price, if you want some tube colorization and not much else done to your existing sound. I can see it going over very well with jazz and blues guys, or even metal folks that are happy with their PODxt sound. None of my influences go that route though.

Not knowing too much about tube power amps, I don't know how to rate features. But what it has is a chrome faceplate and ice blue power LED (VERY cool!), two channels, front-mounted volume and presence controls, variable impedance, stereo or bridge modes, 4 12AX7s, 4 (comes with EL34s), four speaker outputs, and 100 watts of juice!

I received it used, from a guy who is an electrician and tech as well as musician, and he replaced all the tubes so I don't know how it sounded with the originals. But through a Triple XXX 412 and two Marshall 1960A 412s, it has beautiful tone! Someday when I can afford to experiment I might see how 6L6 or 5881 tubes sound, but my heroes use EL34s and I love the slightly more cutting tone! I crank the volumes to 11 and set the presence at around 1:00, and I've used it with a Peavey Max 100 and Rocktron Chameleon 2K. Both great sounding preamps, though neither are the best. The amp has not been the source of any hiss I've heard, and it's very clean and warm--smooth, LOUD sound!

I have had it for over a year now, with no problems at all. Never shut down, even at pounding input. I power it with the Carvin AC120, and it's probably better than running it straight into the wall. I'd feel fine gigging without a backup at this point--I haven't yet--but it's always better to have one, isn't it? I mean, tubes do burn out after awhile, and you never know when.... But every time I've turned it on, everything worked correctly.

I haven't dealt with their customer support much, but their phone service has usually been better than emailing. It's 50/50. A wonder since I've heard so many happy experiences with this.

This says it all: I would buy it again, no questions asked!

Volume and presence for both channels..50watts each...The best and original feature is each channel can be independly biased. So one chan can run 6L6 and one can run EL34..You can use them separate or bridge them together. The only concern I discovered is the way its put together. Under the lid everything looks crammed together. The tubes are very close together. I Couldnt put kt88...barley fitted 6550

I have a soldano SP-77 which sucks balls. I have an insatiable appetite for gain so I put a digitech screamin blues(sic) pedal in front to round shit out. I use Ibanez with EMG pu. Speakers are some crappy 75ers. For the money I must say its a good deal. I didnt like the sound with the stock el34, it was lacking punch and sounded dull so I put in 6550 baised it hot then it finally sacked up. I highly recommend retubing with a pushing bias. After some servicing I was finally able to hear the tube charactar come flinging out. Now it sounds like a sparkling thump

Blew a tube and a fuse. Im nervous to go onstage in fear of it crapping out after looking inside the amp. The power cord doesnt stay secure in the socket in back of the amp in my rack. There was a couple times it kinda slipped out and turned off. I kept having to push it back in

I did call once for help and spoke to a complete douche bag...I guess he thought he was the shit.

If It got jacked I would go with something else, a peavey or mesa. Actually I would for sure buy a head.. but with this thing I you gotta have a good modern preamp to carry the weight or else there will be short-comings. I personally had to screw and tweak my whole setup to get it right

i havent had to much experience with power amps but this one sound pretty good. i just wish i had something else then a gnx4 for the preamp. i run it thru the legancy top cab. also chrome front plate adds a nice look. but this review is about reliability of it.

I got this amp and had it for a couple of months till it fried. had to ship it back to carvin and waited to get a new one (2 weeks) got the new one. had it for about a week thus time and the same day i had a show it blew again at band pratice(2 more weeks). i opened it up and saw all the resitors were fried. called up carvin and they said that they upgraded the circuit board and that i must of been sent one that had a mix of the old and new boards. they sent me another one but with a crome plate with rinkels in the metal in some places.

2 blown amps and they couldent send me a loner for eather time. making me pay for shipping charges because they fucked up. tryed emailing them a couple times for seprate situations and got no reply most of the time. calling was relativily good.

Made in 2005. Versatile amp because you can bridge the output to mono. I wanted to try this because I've been using Carvin guitars since the 80's and they've never let me down. It's a power amp so it's features are far less than say a MB Road King, but it's better equipped than many power amps.

I'm using my standard arsenal of guitars (12 in all) with EMG, Seymour Duncan, Heritage and other pickups. I tried this amp with a MB Triaxis, Line6 Pod Pro, MB Dual Rect preamp, Laney Preamp into a 4x12 with Celestion Vintage 30's and into a MB 2x12 Recto cab. It didn't matter.

THE TS100 IS DEAD FLAT IN THE LOW MIDRANGE TONAL AREA.

I tried the stock EL34's and then went with Sovtek 6L6/5881's. While it's a versatile amp, it's lack of that low midrange guitar sweetspot makes it completely uninspiring.
My old Peavey Classic 50/50 power amp was much cheaper and sounded a little better although that amp lacked a little in the low mids too. For my money, find a used PV 50/50 power amp.
Or if you have the cash, a MB 2:90 or new power amp is voiced properly for guitar. This TS100 isn't.

No problems while I had it. But I sold it because it didn't sound very good.

Carvin tried to help by offering other tube types to use. But this amp was crap.

I love carvin guitars, they make fantastic axes. But as for this amp? Maybe mine came from a bad run of them, but if I tried to take this into the studio, the producer would be scrambling to swap it out because it sounds dead. It'd make a good home stereo amp though. haha

2005 model with the cool chrome face. It looks perfect next to the blue chrome digitech 2101 LE in my rack.
I have the digitech running into it stereo, one side goes into a peavey 16 ohm 4x12, the other side goes into a crate 8 ohm 4x12.
It does everything I need it to and nothing more, I don't want more switches to flip and buttons to press, just tube power. Clean and simple. It comes stock with EL34's and 12AX7's.
All other feature listings can be found on Carvin's website if you need the details.

I mostly use a schecter with dimarzio pickups. I Also have several 80's ibanez and yamaha guitars. They all sound great through this amp. I play rock (as if you couldn't tell by the guitars).
For the first day I had the amp I couldn't tell what this "tube magic" was all about and considered returning it and buying one of their solid state 5 billion watt amps. Then I read someone elses review about turning the preamp volume down and turning the tube power up. So, I turned the tube amp all the way up and slowly turned up the digitech preamp...now I understand. Amen brothers.
After running around the house screaming like Sam Kinison OHHH! OH! OHHHHH!!!!! I sat back down and tried to sort through what my ears had just discovered.
This tube amp gives everything a warm side, even my most robotic Queensryche clean tones sounded like they had been dipped in sunshine. Beautiful.
Distorted rhythm sounds checked in and are still here with me, I had to do some EQ tweaking to get my nasty (pantera style) sounds back, but that took seconds and I was done.
Distorted solos...words can't give this experience justice.
I've cranked it up to about 80-90% of it's potential and it -didn't- turn my clean sounds into crap, just sunshine. LOUD TOO. I was afraid of buying a 50 watt stereo amp, but I'm not anymore!

OK, I've only had it a month, I know it's not fair to give it a rating here yet so I won't. I must say though, the thing is built like a tank.
Also, people...please. NEVER GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP.
I don't gig now, but if I did I would buy something cheap to get me through the night until I could afford to buy -another- TS100.
If you were planning on buying one of those "big boy" brands you can go ahead and buy two TS100s now, because that is how much money you would have spent anyway!

I was worried about the "turn the power amp up all the way and turn the pre amp down" method, so I emailed Carvin today, and I got a reaponse...TODAY. The guy wrote to me that the tubes would burn faster, but other than that to rock on. I bought the 2 year platinum service plan which basically covers everything except me throwing it overboard and letting it sink to the bottom of the ocean, though I think it might cover helping me into a hospital if I actually did that.

I've been playing without power tubes for 19 years now, I'm very glad I finally decided to give them a try.
The last two power amps I had were "fake" ADA microtube 200's with 12AX7's, they PALE next to power tubes.
Why on earth did I choose Carvin?
1. They have been around for quite a while.
2. Made in USA.
3. Reputation for quality.
4. Factory direct = Incredibly good prices.

Features are seperate Volume/Presence, on front .. standard.. the back has standard ohm switch for speaker load , seperate channel inputs most of the regular stuff , but 2 features stand out for me and caused me to buy this amp . First there's a push switch on back that will take a mono input and send it to both channels.. I thought that was kinda cool especially when dealing with mono FX loops with multiple speaker cabinets. You can feed your FX into channel 1 and have it automatically split to channel 2 so you mono FX will come out of both sides. Cool. Second Feature that sold me was the EL34 and OR 6L6 selector. Even the 50/50 Boogie is a EL34 OR 6L6 but cant mix the sides. You can have Channel 1 EL34 and Channel 2 6L6 if you want.. way cool. But I have to take off 1 point for the ohm setting in Bridged mode, it will only allow you to go down to 8 ohms in Bridge. I was hoping it would go down to 4 ohm's in Bridge but no big deal cause I've never needed to bridge it to 100 watts. 50 watts has been very loud enough even with a hard hitting drummer in our band.

I'm using a Carvin DC135 for most of my Gigs right now. We play Rock and Blues and my Gibson SG is not versitile enough. My rig consist of the TS100, Boogie rackmount V-Twin into a 2x12 3/4back Boogie cab and a 2x12 closed back JDesign cab I had custom built. I'm combining Celestion and Jensen speakers in both cabs and getting a brutal sound. This Amp right out of the box with EL34's didnt impress me at all. But take that with a grain of salt because I'm a 6L6 guy. I pulled the tubes after the first day I had it and pluged in Ruby 6L6's then rebaised it myself and the TS100 became a MONSTER! (the owners manual will walk you through rebiasing) Dont try it if you havent any experience tweeking amps cause you can FRY YOURSELF) BUT if your a little experienced it's no problem)The Clean is Punchy springy well rounded thump with no break up.. Ah..Just what I was hoping for. I use my V-Twin preAmp for the break up If I want it. The Cleans are full and strong and the Distortion and Mind twisting.. Sustain and harmonics just jump out everywhere!! I've been playing for over 25 years and this is the best bang for the buck I've ever heard! I was previously using a 120 watt tube Classic from Peavey, but was very very dark, I had to use a BBE to clean up my sound a little but since I bought this TS100 from Carvin I now have my BBE on Ebay for Sale!

I've had it about a month now with no Problems. My band plays 3-6 gigs a month with a rehersal or 2 thrown in. It's still early but no problems so far but I always bring a backup to my gigs, thats just C YO A. After years of playing gigs I actually only broke down Twice that I can remember (maybe more I may have been impaired at the time) and one was a Solid State Amp.. umh..

Carvin has been very supportive in my opinion. I bought one of those "Going out of Business" FX pedals and recieved it broken. I called and shipped it back and was promptly retuned my cash.. Cool.. I've also spoken to tech support for a few questions I've had and have always been spoken to courtiously.

Lets see I've been playing longer than I'd like to admit. Lets say over 25 years. I own other boogie equipment and Gibson guitars. Yep, I'd buy it again because it's such a steal of a Deal. I mean come on man, a new boogie 50/50 (which cant run 6l6's and el34's at the same time) cost 2 times as much. Are the good amps? Sure they are. But NOT that good! I just didnt hear a 500 dollar difference between the Boogie and the TS100. Hey I'm running a Boogie PreAmp and STILL couldnt hear the diference. But do yourself a favor and TRY this amp. You can always send it back if you think if sucks. Would da ya got to lose.. but money!

I ordered my TS100 Tuesday Night and it was delivered Friday. It has all the necessary features, but could be better. A speaker jack standby switch would be nice by my main beef is that you can't replace the fuse w/o taking it out of the rack and opening the case. My Carvin Quad-X has the fuse holder on the rear and flipping the fuse holder switches the preamp to 220. I guess the features are comparable to other stereo power amps.

I play funk/rock/hip-hop and this amp sounds incredible! I still haven't had the chance to really dial in my tone, but it has a strong clean sound and with the Quad-X on the high gain channel it RIPS! Definitely money well spent. I havn't hooked all my cabs (2 Carvin 2x12s)and set the preamp volume so the TS100 barely distorts all the way up and it's pretty loud. Nice taper on the volume control. Easy to use low levels, still has more juice after turning the knob to 3 o'clock. The presence control seems kind of subtle is very nice sounding. It sounds better than I hoped!

Carvin stuff is very well made. I just got it so I can't really say how reliable it will be but my Preamp has never given me any trouble.

Never needed it but I like the owner's manuals online. Customer sevice seems to be really good.

Amazing piece! I couldn't be happier with my investment. It lacks a couple of features but the sound is everything!

I recieved my ts-100 about a week ago, and so far I love it. It seems to be made very well....but what carvin product isn't? The chrome front looks awsome. If by chance you were in a 80's metal band, it would be great for applying your eyeliner...haha...either way, it looks cool as hell. I run a pod pro through the ts-100 and into a carvin gc412 cab. I am really impressed with the tone. I decided to upgrade from solid state power to TUBE POWER and i'm glad i chose the ts-100. The volume control kinda confused me at first b/c you have to turn it to about 3 o'clock before it reaches a reasonable level for live play, but it will definately get LOUD! The fan is very quiet and you get a nice little blue/purple light on the front.....but overall....its a damn good deal.

My complete rig consists of a ibanez rg-7421, pod pro, of course the ts-100, and a carvin gc412 cab. I play metal style and the ts-100 can definately handle it. There is no extra noise from this unit what so ever. I don't know much about EH tubes, but I do know that im liking what i hear.

Well...i know how carvin is on relibility, but i haven't taken it on the road yet, and it IS a tube power amp....sooo...it couldnt hurt to carry a few extra bucks for a possible tube burnout. the overall construction of the unit seems pretty damn sturdy. I did, by the way, take the top off of the unit to make sure all tubes worked when i first recieved it and the screws stripped on me while putting the top back on...but that's no biggie.

Carvin has pretty good customer support...although sometimes they make me feel like a dumbass when i have a problem with something that i have no clue about...so they need to work on that...but they have no problem with returning items damaged during shipping and the 10 trial period is great. So for the repair guy hurting my feelings.....i give them an 8...haha.

If this unit were stolen, i would track that mofo down and beat the sh*t out of 'em. haha...but if that wasn't possible, i would most definately buy another one. i mean come on....carvin relibility plus the extremely low cost of this unit...why not? Carvin is the SH*T!!!

Brand new model from Carvin ordered on 10 Feb. 2004 and recieved on 13 Feb. 2004. Smelled like new paint....yumm! Stereo, 50 watts per side, bridgeable to 100 watts with ground loop switch and parallel input switch so a mono input can be sent to both channels. Fan cooled. Four outputs on rear for speakers with 4,8,16 ohm selector switches. On the front a WAY COOL chrome face plate and purple on/off light with power and standby rocker switches and heavy duty dual chrome volume and presence knobs. If it had a line out or way to send a signal to another amp or mixer I would have given it a 10.

Used it with my Bogner Fish and a couple 8 ohm 2x12 split stacks loaded with Celestion G12H speakers it sounded GREAT! Transparent but just gives my playing that "spring board" effect of warm sustain and power. Super sensitive and makes your guitar almost play itself, haha!Fan is super quiet. Volume controls seem to be tapered so that it's no problem starting at 12:00 position for living room volume then turn up to about 2 or 3 o'clock to scare the cat and then around to 4 or 5 o'clock for some pain and cops at the door volume. This is 50 "TUBE WATTS" and it will remind you of that, but not till you are turning the knobs into the "LOUD" area.

Carvin has a general reputation as a company that genuinely cares about the customer and about producing quality musical equipment at a reasonable cost. Good value in other words. This is one reason I bought from Carvin. I honestly feel if I had a problem with the amp they would make it right. If I doubted it, I probably would not have bought from them. They also have a 10 trial period but I'm happy with this amp. I have had it only a few days so to be honest I don't think I should rate this until I've had it for awhile.

I've never actually needed any kind of service even though I own a Legacy Rig, the TS-100, and have owned a DC-127 in the past. I do read a lot of reviews and chat sites and although there are a few complaints, most of them are remedied quickly by Carvin. I do know the shipping is very fast and they are one of a FEW companies who will ship to MILITARY post office boxes. They support the troops and we apreciate that.

This is a a good value for the money. If you compare it with other 50 watt stereo tube power amps such as Mesa, VHT, Marshall, Groove Tubes, others, the price is really competitive for what you get. It looks cool, it's made well, good features, company has good reputation, finally it sounds warm and compels you to play longer and makes your notes just seem to fly off the fretboard. I don't see how you can go wrong with one of these. They also say you can even use them to power home stereos with the right adapters but I haven't tried that yet.