Carvin Vintage 16 112 Combo

Purchased Sept 2004, mine is stock, for '04 - has a carvin GT12 100watt 8ohm speaker. A nice little one channel amp for practice/jams. Soak/volume, pentode (16watt), and triod(5watt) controls allow you to dial in nice break-up at low sonic levels. Looks good.

Works fine at practice volume - rock, blues, c/w, folk, jazz - but still workable at a blues jam. Not much bottom, but with bass at 10, enough. I like the triod 5watt mode - perhaps a bit spongier. I use several guitars, but my carvin ct3m with Lollar neck pu seems happy plugged in. Sounds fine with my overdrive pedal, and runs quiet.

Since carvin sent me free new tubes, no problems.

had some microphonics initially - called CS and they sent new tubes, plus backups - nice.

I would recommend this for the purposes described above. If I didn't have a Reverend 40/60 112 (sweeeeet), I would be checking into the carvin Nomad. Have purchased 3 guitars, 1 amp from carvin - no problems.

See any number of previous reviews.

I submitted a very favorable review of this amp in November 2006. Since that, I have noticed that reviewers either love or hate this amp. Of course, reviewing is quite subjective and that alone may account for the extreme divergence in opinion, but I think that something else could explain why people have such widely different takes on this amp.
Amps are like guitars in that there can be a wide difference in tonal characteristics between examples of the same model and year. Whenever someone buys an amp or guitar in a brick and mortar store, they usually try all the models in stock in an effort to get the one they perceive to be the best.
Because of a problem I had with the reverb when I received mine after a cross country UPS ride, I actually had 3 different amps before I was able to get the reverb to work on # 3. The first one I had sounded pretty sweet to me right out of the box but I ended up sending it back. The second one was much different, I would describe it as another reviewer did - "lifeless and bland". I could not believe the difference. In a way, I was lucky that the reverb did not work because Carvin took it back. Amp # 3 clearly had been in and out of the shipping carton several times and it took some doing, but I finally was able to get the reverb to work. It sounded much better than # 2 , but I felt is was not quite as sweet as # 1 had been. However, with time it seemed to sound better and now it really can produce chimy clean tones with strong mids and harmonically complex grind when I cut the wattage back to 5. There may be something to what some the old reviews said about breaking in the speaker ??
If you buy online or over the phone, you take a risk that you avoid if you buy in person and can demo the product.

I did a poor job of explaing why I think so many have reverb problems with this amp. This is my opinion but I feel that the magnet on the speaker is quite large relative to the size of the box. The reverb tank and springs are relatively short. It could be that the magnet is pulling the springs up to the top of the tank and screwing things up. If yours is not working, turn it off, remove the tank while leaving it connected and set it outside the cabinet and see if it works outside the cabinet, I bet it does.
At any rate, Carvin set me a replacement tank in addition to the 3 amps and I finally was able to consistently get reverb

Already posted.

Already posted

listed many times over by now

the clean on this thing absolutely sucks ass! it SOUNDS like a 400 dollar amp...maybe less. the closest this thing comes to sounding o.k. is with the dirty sounds. not even the (chinese made!) celestion vintage 30 speaker can help this thing.

it's built like a 400 dollar amp too. took out the chasis to check out the construction. this baby was made as cheaply as they could get away with. also, carvin shouldn't claim "all" plywood construction as the rear panel that protects the tubes is particle board. tubes mount directly to pc board. why don't they just get it over with and start manufacturing in china or mexico? heard these things have reverb problems, not mine. don't know how long it'll last because i sold it.

sometimes they're dicks, sometimes they're nice...roll the dice.

people, save your money for something better even if it takes a while. this thing was a disappointment. how stupid of me to think i could get more amp than i paid for based on hype and advertising. i sold this to help pay for a REAL amp- a Carr Mercury. yes, it cost more, but i got what i paid for and my search is now over for a low watt amp.

I have the new iteration of this amp, so it has the Celestion Vintage 30 speaker and GT tubes. As far as features are concerned, the only fault I can really fine is the fact that the tubes are PCB-mounted, and I worry that this could cause problems down the road.

Other than that one complaint, the V16 is a great-looking, solidly constructed amp.

I have a small, but good, collection of gear. Amp-wise, I have a '73 Fender Champ, a '74 Fender Princeton, and an '84 Marshall JCM 800 half-stack (2204); in the past, I've owned a number of other vintage Fenders, blackface and silverface, as well as several Mesas. Guitar-wise, I have a Fender AVRI '62 Stratocaster, a PRS McCarty Soapbar, and an '86 Squier Strat (killer guitar, BTW), among others.

Like many players, I've been receiving the Carvin catalog on and off since the mid-80s, so when I recently decided to pick up a small, master volume combo, I thought I'd give Carvin a shot. As far as the sound quality of the V16 is concerned, the bottom line is the amp is fairly limited in terms of variety of sounds, but for low-to-medium gain tones, it's fantastic. Using my strat, the V16 is the perfect practice/recording amp for achieving great roots-rock and southern rock/country tones. The key to getting a good sound out of this amp appears to be keeping the soak control set fairly high (I set it between 7 and 10) while also setting the volume between 5 and 10 - you have to get the EL84s cooking a bit to get this amp to sound its best. Because of this quirk, there isn't much in the way of good clean sounds, although, when the amp is set as I describe above, it's very responsive to pick attack, so if you lighten up, you'll get very pretty clean tones.

My only complaint, is that the amp can sound a bit small at times. This is likely due to the fact that it has a fairly small cabinet. This particular characteristic isn't problematic if you're using the amp for a practice amp, a recording amp, or putting it through a PA for live performance, but on it's own, it probably won't cut it for playing live - there just isn't enough volume or low-end thump.

My first V16 arrived DOA - probably a problem with tubes being damaged during shipping. Carvin very quickly sent me a new amp, and it arrived in perfect working order.

As stated above, I do have some future realiability concers owing to the PCB-mounted tube sockets.

Very responsive, so far.

If you're in the market for a medium-gain practice/recording amp, you really should give the Carvin a shot. It's a killer amp regardless of price.

Not much here,I thought it would be great though for a small home practice amp. Liked the idea of the 1/4 power switch.

I thought this amp was very lifeless and bland. I could not get a good crisp, clean sound out of it at any setting or volume. At really high volumes it does have some character in the low-distortion range. Not much else to mention

The reverb did not even work. It made no difference when turning it all the way up other than a very slight volume decrease. Suspect the tube cracked or reverb tank damaged. I sent this thing back crying for it's mama. Very disappointed.

I'll say one thing, Carvin asks absolutely "NO" questions about the 10 day trial period. I would have been extremely ticked if I had been stuck with this loser. I had to pay to have it shipped back, and then they took 2 weeks to redeposit the money from the day that UPS said the amp had been delivered. The only reason they get a 6 is because of the 10day trial.

I had great hopes for this amp. I play a Fender Pro Reverb, and did not want to keep lugging it around back and forth to church, so I bought this amp hoping to have a small tube amp to practice at home. If you are looking for all tube in this price range, you may want to try some valvereactor VOX units, or a preamp which has headphone outs.

I bought this amp in February 2005. It has the Celestion Vintage 16 Speaker and 3 12AX7 and 2 EL84 tubes. I've read a lot of reviewers berate the stock tubes and immediately replace them. I like the tubes and will wait until they need replacement before upgrading. Carvin has since "upgraded?" to Goove Tubes and changed the speaker they offer. After shelling out for a nice but powerful 50 watt Crate Vintage Club, I came to appreciate the benefits of a smaller amp to get good tone while jamming at a bedroom volume . prior to that, I acquired a 20W Marshall Valve state and I eventullay grew tired of solid state lack of warmth and complexity of tone. I also have a Fender Pro Junior that I like a lot.

I bought the Carvin for it'e ability to switch between 16W and 5W's. if you need tone at very low volumes, a low watt tube amp does it best for me. It has plenty of volume in eirher mode and I can find lots of good tone at either power level.
Basic but effective EQ'ing set up with spring reverb.

My guitars are a few early 80's Ibanez Blazers (strat), 77 Ibanez Performer (LP), and Gibson Nighthawk. My jamming buddy has a major collection of vintage (primarily Fender) guitars. He also has a 60's Fender Vibro Champ, 60's Fender Princeton and an 8 watt Gibson Skylark Amp that I get to play. So I get to hear the Carvin with a variety of guitars and also can AB it with some very cool amps. Of course, the EL84 Carvin sounds different than the 6VC Fenders, and there is a lot of great complex tone amongst all the amps. All in all, the Cravin is a steal at its price range ( I paid $349) and it is much more versatile than any of the cool Vintage amps. I can't quite get the glassy fender tones on it, but I can get close if I want to. The Carvin can also deliver chimy, Vox like tones and much more. Very cool to get real amp distortion at a low volume. Humbuckers in particular overdrive it easily with tons of harmonic stew to wallow in. I prefer single coils and they sound great through this amp- clean and dirtied up.
Reverb is musical but will not overly wet due to the relatively small spring.

Like other reviewers, I had trouble with the reverb. I actully had Carvin replace my original amp twice because the reverb did not work. First we tried replacing the 12AX7 tube and they ultimately sent me a replacement reverb tank. I finally was able to get the 3rd amp's reverb to function. I'm not tech, but I feel the magnet on the speaker is large and fairly close to the spring, it it may be causing the problem since the reverb would always play when taken out of a problem amp.
Other than that, I've had no problems although I only play the amp at home a few days a week.

They were OK to deal with, but it is time consuming to send things coast to coast like I did with the reverb problem. I have noticed that more recent buyers of this amp have not mentioned reverb issues - so maybe they fixed that.
They honored the 1 year warranty .

The Carvin V16 is a no frills tube amp featuring reverb,basic EQ,volume and soak (preamp distortion).Neatest feature and the main reason I got it is the ability to switch between 16 and 5 watts.This is a good practice/bedroom amp although 16 and even 5 watts can get pretty loud.Good variety of sounds.Very strat worthy.Nice if it had a headphone jack.

This is an excellant blues amp.Not a Fender clean of coarse it has EL84's but an EQ pedal can help get you there.Same can be said for Blues Jr.Stays clean at high volumes,distortion mellow but biting.MIM strat and Ibanez AS73 sound ballsy clean or crankin.I use this for mostly blues and I think that this is really this amps forte.Having said that you can pedal your way to just about anything you want as far as sounds go.Quiet,love reverb.

Amp arrived with a bad tube.Carvin sent me a replacemant set right away.After that all well.Have had it for 10 mos,retubed once.I use it about 5hrs a week switching between it and a Fender solid state.

They were very prompt in getting me a new set of tubes.I do wish they had some authorized repair people other than at the factory.Shipping your amp out for repairs could be a pain.This does seem to be built as a low maintainence deal,tube change easy,did not need rebiasing.

For me this was a good entry level tube amp.Inexpensive at $359 it sounds better than the Blues Jr and is more versatile.I've been playing for many years but just started playing electric blue 2yrs ago.Have in addition to the above mentioned guitars a Keely modified TS9,MXR EQ,DF7 and Multichorus by Digitech and a Crybaby wah.Yes I would replace it.I lust after some others but none of them are even close to this price.

I bought this amp about 2 months ago. It has a great reverb from mellow to surf. It will switch between 16 and 5 watts. It has a celestion vintage 30 speaker It has soak(gain),volume,bass,mid,treble and reverb. No direct outs, speaker outs or effects loops. I bought it because I was looking for a amp that would sound great at lower volumes. I could not be more happier with how this amp sounds and the dynamic response it provides. I have a Evil Twin and Yamhaha soldano T100. They need to be cranked up to sound good. This little carvin has became my amp of choice at lesser volumes.

I have 12 guitars. Teles, Strats, LP, Hamer, Jackson (mostly clones)they all have Duncans or Lawrence PUPs. This amp responds well to any them with a litte EQing. I am a hobby guitarist I play what I'm in the mood for. Clapton, Stevie, ZZ top, Knopler, Santana, Hendrix Etc. If I use this amp on it's own it has a retro feel to it. Great clean with punch and a sweet blues tone with harmonics. It's all in the Eq! what it doesnt do is hi gain. I have a Soldano SP77 preamp. When I plug it into the input of the carvin it just screams with crunch and punch. The SP77 provides a very nice clean and fantastic searing harmonic rich tone when it comes out of the Carvins vintage 30. The secret is to turn the Carvin volume wide open and the soak barely on. Bass at 10, mid at 5, treble 0 and EQ the Soldano to suit your taste.

It really seems sturdy and well built. Time will tell

I bought it from a factory outlet in Sacramento. There was nothing to make me think that customer support would not be good. They seemed like good people to deal with.

I rated this a 10 for overall. I paid about the same price for this as good effects prcessor. I haven't listened to many small watt amps, but I cannot imagine anybody selling a better amp for $359. I am a bit of a tone freak. I really don't use the bells and whistles to much. I did plug and old Yamaha REX50 into it and it sounded much better then in the Twin or T100. I thing it has to do with cranking the power tube wide open and backing of the soak.

The features are all pretty simple, but its all that you need, really. Its got your basic eq, reverb, volume and a soak thing for gain. I play it at home mostly and sometimes jamming with friends, but havent used in any kind of gig or anything of the nature. The switchable 5 to 16 watt thing is really cool and nice.

Ive used this amp with my Dillion flying V and old '79 gibson The Paul with Seymour Duncans and off and on with a visual sound Route 66, marshall Bluesbreaker II and voodoo lab Sparkle Drive in front. I play blues and rock pretty much and its got a great tube sound for that. The gain doesnt ever get over the top but has a really good warm and grainy sound. The 5 watt mode has a truly beautiful, smooth and warm, but still a little rude dirty sound. The only real flaw however, is the clean never really gets loud at all. Its either too soft and weak or it starts to break up. Its been impossible for me to find a clean tone loud enough to play with a drummer. The dirty sound is really nice though.

I havent done anything stupid to/with it, so its been fine.

These guys at Carvin are some incompetent fools and pricks, really. I first got my amp from their factory in San Diego, in a box. When I unpacked it at home in the Bay Area a few days later, the reverb simply didnt work. So a little while later I contacted them and they said to send it back and theyd send a new one. The new one came in a few days and I was very impressed with the service. However, once unpacked, this ones reverb didnt work either. I was very very very angry, so after a bit I e mailed them about this. They got back to me very fast again and after about a week and a half of e mailing, they said theyd send a UPS guy to pick it up within the week. So I waited around for a week and a half and nobody came for it. When I tried to email them agian, and got no resposne, even after several tries. So I called them but got sent through a bunch of bs and couldnt talk to the guy Id been e mailing. But as it turned out, Id be in San Diego soon and decided Id drop it off there and have them repair it while I was in the city so I could try it out before I left. After making contact with them I went down there and dropped it off. They managed to confirm that indeed, the reverb didnt work (shocking.). They said itd probably take about a week to fix however so theyd have to mail it back to me. Very angry. After week, the sent me the tracking number and said it was on its way. Well, it was the wrong tracking number for a product that was shipped a year earlier. After e mailing and finally calling them it turned out the amp was still there and waiting to be fixed. So finally a month later it came to my doorstep. I opened it, and, lo and behold, the reverb worked. After months of struggling with thier incompetent service, it was finally solved. Id advise anybody to NEVER buy a Carvin product, unless you dont mind a paying somebody at a musiic store to deal with it if it breaks down or anything. Their service is completely and utterly incompetent.

The amp sure is a nice little thing, although the clean isnt too hot volume wise. However, Id stay the hell away from Carvin. I plan on never, ever, ever buying another one of their products after the way they treated their customer. There are plenty of other low wattage tube amps for under $500. Dealing with them left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth.

I just wanted to do an update. See the "Sound" section.

I already posted a glowing review for this amp just a dew posts down. I just wanted to add, after having it for a few months, I've had the chance to play is side by side with a couple of expensive boutique amps. The first was a Dr. Z amp... I've forgotten the model... it's the one that has a single tone knob. As I listened to the Dr. Z I really was impressed with how great a clean sound it had. I was worried that as soon as I played my Carvin I'd be disappointed. Quite the opposite. From the first note I played through the Carvin I was thrilled to hear how well it held its own. In fact, I think I liked it better (I know... these things are very subjective). And it was half the price of the Dr. Z.

Secondly, the lead guitarist in my band (I play rhythm guitar, keyboard, and accordion) just went all out and bought a Matchless Clubman 35 with a Matchless speaker cab. This set him back about $2000. At our rehearsal, the Matchless sounded SO good. But the Carvin didn't disappoint... not one single bit. Of course the Matchless cab produced more bottom end than the open-backed little Carvin 112 combo, but the Carvin still sounded great next to it. I am SO happy I chose this amp!

No troubles since the initial DOA from the factory.

What a tremendous value, especially now that it comes with the Celestion Vintage 30 speaker (as mine did). I'd even venture to call it an unbeatable value.