Carvin Vintage 16 112 Combo

I have had this amp for a few months. It is a vintage tube amp, and thus quite basic in it's features. The volume (master volume) makes it possible to play at full soak setting at low levels - very wife/neighbor friendly. It does not have channel switching, but the soak (gain) knob makes it easy to adjust the level so you can control overdrive from the guitar's volume. It is possible to hook up a different speaker cabinet, but you have to disconnect the internal speaker. I wish it had line out.

I use it with a Aria Les Paul copy and a Fender Powerhouse Stratocaster. If you're used to solid state amps, you will get a whole new experience with a tube amp like this one. The Vintage 16 is very responsive to your playing, great harmonics and it gives a nice range of sounds with the eq settings on the amp and on the guitar. It is supposed to sound even better with JJ tubes, but I think it sounds great even with the original tubes.

The Powerhouse Strat has active mid boost which turns the amp's sound from very clean to a nice blues overdrive. If you want to play heavy you wil have to add a distortion box.

It is very loud. I used it at a outdoor party gig, and was told to turn it down. And the volume was set around 5. It is much louder than my old 30watt solid state amp.

At the Carvin forum the representatives from Carvin admits that there were some initital problems which was fixed. So beware if you are getting a used one.

I call it "Sweet sixteen", and it also got a great review in "Guitar Player" july 2003. Great sound for the price and what it is supposed to be.

My other Carvin stuff has been exellent, so I expect this amp to be reliable as well.

Never dealt with them.

This is a great little vintage amp. Of course a Bad Cat at six times the price is better, but the sweet sixteen lives up to my expectations. It is suitable for practice, recording and small gigs.

Soak, Vol, Bass, Mid, Treb, Single Channel, triode/pentode switch for 16w/5w operation. Pretty basic vintage style all tube amp with two EL84's in the power section and 3 12AX7's up front. Nice tweed covering gives the vintage vibe.

When I fist got this amp, I was pretty disappointed with the sound. It was really muddy and had a pretty nasty hum all the time, even with humbuckers. The tone was passable with single coils as long as you didn't turn up the soak too much, but combined with the humbuckers it was pure mud! After replacing the tubes throughout, I was amazed at the difference in tone. I replaced the 12AX7's with Electroharmonix and the EL84's with JJ's and the difference was incredible. No more buzz, not so muddy anymore. I also found that you have to mess with the tone controls a bit more than with my Fender Super. I play mosly overdriven electric blues and I now ONLY play this thing in 5w pentode mode. I found that by cutting the bass below 4 and turn up the treble to match the soak i.e., Soak=5 Treble=5, Soak=10 Treble=10, this keeps the tone pretty balanced. For humbucker equipped axes I keep the soak under about 7 to 8 or it seems to get a little icky, but teles and strats sound great all the way through the range. It is a single channel amp with just the 'dirty channel' so it does not deliver the sparlkling clarity of say, a fender clean channnel, but I didn't really expect it to when I bought it. This amp is surprisingly loud. There is not a huge deal of distortion but it should be enough for blues players. Sounds real good with tube overdrive or a vintage tube screamer as well. I regularly play this amp with:
2000 Fender CustShop '60 Strat, 2000 Amer Deluxe Tele, '57 RI Strat w/ Fralin Vintage Hot, 1971 Gibson LP Deluxe w/ mini-hums, 1977 Gibson LP Deluxe Pro w/ P90s, 1980 Gibson LP Junior RI w/P90, 1997 Gibson ES-335 Dot RI, ts808 tube screamer, Dean Markley tube overdrive.

I gig with this amp and it seems pretty reliable, but I haven't had it a year yet so time will tell.

Who knows.

I have been playing electric guitars for 30 years. I usually play fender amps and have owned several different models.
After throwing away the stock tubes, this amp is my main small gig amp. It has a very awsome swampy blues tone and is very light and portable. It also is great for recording and can deliver great tones at a very wide volume range.
Carvin would do well to ship these amps with higher quality tubes as they would probably sell more of them! Until then, buy the amp and destroy the tubes immediately as a public service.
It would be cool to have this same amp with a clean channel added.

Features reviewed in earlier posts. Very basic. Reverb somewhat unimpressive, but adequate. Soak, Vol, Bass, Mid, Treb...you know the drill no frills. Good for what is is.
Update to an earlier post. I replaced the Sovtek EL 84 tubes with JJs and the sound took off! Distortion much more musical, rather than grainy. Output increased I have to work harder to drive this into distortion now. It's a good loud amp even in the Triode (5 watt) setting. I used to pretty much crank it to get to the back row of one of the churches in which I play. Now I don't have to turn it up so loud to hit the back row.

Les Paul Deluxe, ES 225T, Mexican Strat, Hamer Tele copy, Lotus Steinberger copy, Kramer Condor accoustic solidbody,

Good reliable amp, No problems after about a year.

Pretty good. I had a problem with this amp's carrying handle falling apart. I emailed them and let them know about it, and they sent me a new one--no questions. The only niggle I have is that they don't seem to quality check items as well as they should before they send them out the door. I had an overdrive pedal that crapped out, that they promptly replaced, too. I simply think the QC should be better before the fact. My amp should have not have had the crappy handle, and the OD should have been more reliable.

Great one-trick pony! I use it extensively, live. It's also very comfortable in the recording studio. I'm very pleased with the overall sound of this amp. I concur with the opinion of an earlier reviewer. It's about the musician, not the equipment. I have a number iof guitars from vintage to el cheapo, but the tone is im my playing style. My amps range from small tube amps to moderate (50 watts( solid staed. While I try to chose good equipment, I don't think you have to pay a mint--or be a gear snob--to find it. This another good example of good, inexpensive equipment. Not only would I buy another one if this were lost or stolen, I'm thinking about buying another one to double my pleasure--stereo, or two channels for around $700 total, still pretty cheap for good sounding gear.

2002 16watt one channel 312ax7's two EL-84's one 12" Carvin speaker.

Had this amp for a year, using it with Fender U.S. Standard Strat, Tele, Carvin DC-127, Gibson Les Paul JR. Playing mostly blues. This amp is very uninspiring. Reverb dull and barely apparent. Clean is lifeless and Gained out the amp is okay, but very vanilla lacking any distinct character.The amount of gain leaves something to be desired. This is no wolf in sheeps clothing, rather it is a sheep in a ballerina skirt. I don't wanna insult Frank Zappa or anything but this amp nails his cheesy blues tone during the breaks in the title track of Joes Garage...dink dink dink dink dinka dinka dink!

Can't stand to hear the thing so it hasn't seen much use. Did have a microphonic 12ax7.

Usually Carvin has great service. I think this amp embarrassed em a bit so they insist nothing is a defect and won't fix.

I have been playing for ..omg 23 years. Just occasional casual jams any more as I have responsibilities now. But I can tell you for small stuff I always take my Champ as it totally kills the V-16. The only thing I wish it had was a good clean sound or a good dirty sound or at least reverb like the knob implies.

Bought March 2003. Single channel, soak, vol, bass, mid, treb, rev. Front mount controlls, sturdy metal shafts. Accessible fuse and tubes with protective strip. Seems solid, tweed and grill very nice.

I'm surprised. It sounds great. I've owned too many amps to mention. I had a Soldano 16 I sold. It was sweet and I expected the Carvin might be similar. My Carvin is louder with much more clean headroom. Compared to my Fender Delux Reissue the Carvin is about as loud with a little more solid headroom. Soldano would break up at 3-4, Delux at 4-5 using Gibson Les Paul. Using PRS McCarty, Carvin is more abrupt distortion curve with soak at 7-8. 5 watt triode offers more distorton, less volume.

I haven't done strip-search inside. It seems adequate for the money.

Ive found Carvin easy to deal with in past

Ive been playing in some capacity about 35yr., mostly as a bass player. I don't care for bass any more. Ive played a lot of big loud gigs in past but don't care for it now. I got the Carvin for home, practice and maby emergency back-up or tandum. I'm pleased so far. The last 10-15 yrs Ive played small occasions: weddings, barbeques, private parties, country clubs, special events, ect. I'm no pro. Try to keep my hobby in perspective, like accoustic guitar too. I read the other user reviews after buying the Carvin and don't understand their disapointments and frustrations. My friends and I are impressed with it so far.

i think the features on this amp are just fine. i bought it mainly as a practice amp to lug around as it is very light. i like vintage style amps that are simple to use.my other amps are a 1961 fender concert, a 1960 gibson ga40, an australian custom made amp called chicken head that is a 15 watt handwired hybrid that consists of 100 watt marshall preamp stage, fender twin tone, vox ac 15 out put stage with 1964 alnico vox speaker.this an awesome amp.people always inquire about it.i

i think this amp sounds just fine. i use a variety of guitars 1991 us strat, 1988 us tele, 1998 guild starfire 3,1995 gibson 335,1961 hofner colorama, 1961 hofner senator. i play mainly blues,blues rock and a range of 60's to contemp pop rock tunes.i set the amp up as follows soak 7-8, 5-10 depending on the room , bass8-9, treble 5-6 mids off (none of my other amps have a mid control) these settings give a nice warm tone with just a bit of edge .even with the soak on 10 this amp will not give you a creamylead tone, its more a crunchy rythym tone .i use a hughes & kettner tube factor for overdriven rythym & solos.

i just bought so i can't say.

i have been playing guitar for 30 years and aside from the gear that i have mentioned above i also own a vox ac30 2000 reissue which i am selling as i feel that it is overpriced and not quite as nice as the other vintage amps that i own. i bought the carvin amp mainly due to its size ,weight and price.i like valve amps and can pull a good tone out of most amps.i tried a variety of other amps crates laneys peavey, the only i really disliked was the laney vc30 as it is too bright with no bottom end. i have changed the speaker to a celestion green back. this makes the amp louder, warmer with a better all round tone as the speaker is actually doing some work.i think the carvin gt12 is fine for the other carvin amps as they have a much higher out put.to those guys that like to seriously bag this amp remember its just a budget amp and the gear you use is only as good as the person using .i've heard kids playing prs into mesa boogie rectifier amps and they sounded like crap they were backing avril lavine at the recent music awards.but seriously i know some session musicians in adelaide that can plug a slab of wood into a cardboard box & still pull an incredible tone. your tone is in your fingers,look at santana ,steve lukater or srv it doesnt matter what they play or what amp they use their tone is unmistakable.

The amp was purchased May. It has Soak, Volume, Treble, Mid, Bass, and Reverb. 16 watts / 5 watts. 2 EL 84, 3 12AX7's. 1 instrument input and Carvin 12" Speaker which they claim to be voiced similar to a Celestion Vintage 30. 1 speaker out jack. I bought the amp more for the 6 watt mode than the 16 watt output since I only play at home. The tweed covering in very nicely done and over all it is a very pretty package. My musical styles are classic rock and blues and the amp does both fairly well.

All of my guitars are Fenders. I do have a Lone Star Strat with a humbucker in the bridge but the rest are obviosly single coils. When I first brought the amp home I had problems. With my guitar on 10 and the amp maxed at full volume and soak, anyone could have a pleasing conversation. Consequently I changed all of the tubes and the problem went away. For the bulk of the last few months I have been very disappointed with the speaker. The amp did not seem to do low volume very well and my discussions with Carvin confirmed this to be true. Compared to my Feder amps this just seems to lack sparkle and highs. Feeling it was the speaker I purchased a Weber Ceramic Blue Dog, but not installed it yet. The gain comes on at about mid way and usable until about the 4 o'clock position. Even with the gain all the way up it is qieter than my other amps. Clean is not this amps forte. It does dirty pretty well. In hopes that the speaker needed breaking in I have been playing very loud and the sound has improved but the Webber is going in.

Other than the tubes in the beginning, and a recently cooked pre amp tube, I have had no problems.

The people at Carvin have been very helpful. I retuned the amp with my problem and they were very cooperative. Everytime that I have called customer support they have answered every question that I ask.

I have been playing electric for about 5 years and classical for about 9. As mentioned above I have all Fenders, Teles and Strats. My amps are a Fender Blues Deluxe, Fender Blues and Pro Jr., and a Clark Beaufort. The Clark is superb. At this point the amps is starting to grow on me. I hope the new speaker takes care of my preception of the sound. If something happened to the amp I don't know if I would replace it, I would consider a Gibson GA-15 RV.

The amp just hit the market, summer 2002. I tried to order it once,
but they were building the first production run based on how many
units they pre-sold, so I waited a few weeks and ordered again.
Standard controls: Soak (drive), volume, bass, mid, treble, and
'verb. A single 1/4" speaker jack in rear, so you could run it
thru a separate cabinet, tho the onboard speaker would be disabled.
I bought it for relatively low-volume recording, to supplement
a Princeton Reverb -- I wanted a second sound with overdrive
capability, which the Princeton lacks. I don't like fuzzboxes, so
I like to have another gain stage available. My playing is mainly
blues-based rock. I like a tight, punchy bottom for rhythm, and
a smoother, overdriven lead sound.
I'd like a standby, but Carvin may have designed the circuit for
a slow warmup so that the tubes don't get shocked too quickly.
That's what I believe Fender used to do on some of their smaller
amps -- hopefully Carvin did too, or my tube guy will be getting
rich.
Another feature I' d like to have seen is a footswitch, but that
would have meant adding a true second channel. Since the "soak"
control is always active, a footswitch wouldn't work with this
circuit anyway. For recording, it's not a big deal. Aside from
that, the controls are logically laid out, on the front (where
they belong -- Fender do you hear me?) A pretty neat package.

I play a variety of single-coil Strats, with pickups ranging
from hot and dark to hot and bright. I also have a stock '78
Tele, with low-output, very bright stock pickups.
Having previously tried and returned a Carvin Bel Air, which
uses a nearly identical tube complement, I was prepared to not
like the sound of this little brother. The fact that it had 'verb,
overdrive, and a 12" speaker (instead of a 6.5" or 8" as in many
low-wattage amps) as well as the ability to run in triode mode
at only 5 watts, convinced me to give it a try.
I was pleasantly surprised. I agree that the 100-watt speaker is
mismatched with the low power output, but since I don't like a
lot of speaker breakup, this doesn't bother me. If you're looking
for the speaker to interact more, then the other reviewer's idea
of substituting a 30-watt Celestion is a good one, and will likely
result in a more "Vox-like" vibe.
I find that the amp's controls allow me to dial-in a number of
sounds I find useful. With a dark, gritty pickup, I like to dial
the Soak up to 7 or 8, cut back the mids, run the bass midway
and the trbele at 2 o'clock for a nice hard rhythm sound. The
amp sounds nice and chimey when set clean, too, though it never
cleans up all the way like a Fender (EL84 tubes just don't clean
up like 6L6 or 6V6's -- it's their nature to always be breaking
up a little.)
I remember loving the Bel Air's 'verb, but the Vintage 16's
is not in the same class. It's not awful, but as a verb lover,
I must say it's not the greatest. The springs are probably
shorter than on the Bel Air -- it definitely isn't the same
sound. You can still use it, but at higher settings it is a
bit unpleasant. If you like reverb, then don't set this higher
than about 3, or your sound will get very washy.
Be careful with the "soak" control, too. At about the "7"
setting, the gain really kicks in -- the overdrive doesn't dial
in smoothly, in other words. This is an observation, not a
complaint, but the sound takes on a very noticeably different
character as you venture above "6".
As far as noise goes, I heard a very audible 60-cycle hum when
I first powered up. I thought the amp might have endured some
damage, but it turned out to be the verb knob, which arrived set
at the "10" position. The hum becomes inaudible at normal
verb settings, and the rest of the amp is dead quiet under
most circumstances -- even at high treble settings. So high
marks for low noise.
This is the 1st EL84-powered amp I've ever felt had a tight
enough sound that it suited my playing style. The bass does
become blurry at high gain settings, but overall it sounds
fairly tight. It has enough chime to make it a nice complement
to my house full of dead-clean Fenders. I'm keeping it.

Have only owned it two weeks, but I haven't seen or heard
any indications that it's a lemon. As a home-only amp, I'd
expect it to work well for quite a while, but I won't rate
it yet.

I've never needed service. The sales guys don't always seem to have
a grasp of the different items' feature sets, but they're sales
guys, not service, so hopefully the service guys do better. Word
of mouth is generally good. I won't rate it.

I've played for 25 years. Most of my gear is Fender, Yamaha, and
Shure -- solid, generic, functional stuff. I take care of my
stuff, and it takes care of me.

I've been happy so far with my Vintage 16. As I'd hoped, it
fills a need for me, trying to record in a small, quiet
neighborhood. I played the Fender Blues Junior as well, but
opted for the Carvin mainly on account of its ability to run at 5 watts. Also, the Carvin is sure not to be a "floor model" with
who-knows-how-many miles on the tubes. Buying a Fender at Mars
or someplace could be like buying a five-year-old amp, because
everybody and his brother has had a crack at it. I could have
mail-ordered a Blues Junior, of course, but now that I've tried
the Carvin I find that I like it.
I have no major gripes. Overall, it's decently designed, it
appears to be well-built, and I would recommend that anyone
with a need for a small recording amp with a bit of versatility
give it a listen. I'd expect that as a live amp, it would come
up a bit short in all but the quietest of environments, though
it would probably sound fine for electric leads in an otherwise
acoustic group.

(Note that my price paid below includes cover and shipping --
$349 without cover, $19 to ship.)

VERY loud for 16 watts!!!! I really like the 5 watt option. REALLY soak the tubes.The only problem I ave with Carvin amps are 1)No standby switch and 2)WHY put a 100 watt speaker in a 16 watt amp????

Runnin a Les Paul 58 reissue with Lindy Fralins OR an 02 Standard with Burstbuckers.Clean is as clean as any Fender I`ve played. Distortion sounds like old ZZ Top. Go through a Marshall Guv`nor and Get ANY sound you want. VERY important. I switched speakers. The Carvin was good but not moving with 16 watts. I put in a Celestion vintage 30(CARVIN---TAKE NOTE).

My favorite amp(currently). Only playing at home for my own amusement.I would buy another if damaged or stolen.

Th guy I spoke to seemed nice enough.

As good as or better than anything else out at the moment. Great price. I had it shipped from California to NJ in 4 days!!!!

Basic: soak,(gain)treble, mid, bass, volume. Class A El84 tubes for power with 12AX7 pre. 16 watts, 1 12 inch Carvin speaker, tweed covering.

I play a Les Paul Custom, Fender Strat,Fender Tele, and Gibson 335, all stock pickups etc. Mostly 70's Clasic rock. Anything past 3 on the volume, and I couldn't clean this thing up. Anything under 3 and the volume was so low I couldn't hear it over the other tracks I was recording. So needless to say, for me this amp was not very useful. I wasn't looking for a "wall of sound" from a 16 watt amp but I have played thru several small 15 to 20 watters and this might have been the worst.

Looks pretty solid, Carvin has a pretty good track record with me on other products I've owned and still do own. No, I wouldn't gig with this amp. For me this was strictly a practice/recording tool.

I have dealt with Carvin 3 or 4 times in the past 3 years and have been extremely pleased with the tech support, repairs, warranty work, of course you know it's mail order so there's no "running into the shop for repairs" it's shipping stuff, but I've been impressed.

I've been playing for 25 yrs, semi-professionally for 8, I've had (and still have) quite a few amps, Fenders, Marshalls, Mesa's, Crates, Line6, a Top Hat or 2, and this is not going into the collection. Already sent it back. I'm looking for something else.
I've dealt with Carvin for 10+ years and have never been dissatisfied until now. Could barely tell the difference between the 5 and 16 watt switching in volume or gain. I think Carvin just rushed out to get in on the "smaller tube amp bandwagon" a little too fast and missed it with this amp. Overall I give it a 3, just because I've had some much luck with their other products.

Basic: soak, Master, Bass, Middle, Treble, Reverb. 8 ohm spkr out, I input, Triode/Pentode operation which allows for 5 and 16 watt operation, respectively. No FX loop. Despite lack of features. this is a pretty versatile amp. It's class A single channel.

A '72 Les Paul Deluxe--mini humbuckers, Strat copy, Tele copy, '57 ES 225 "dogear" P-90s are my axes. I rarely venture into modern metal or super heavy distortion. Most of what I play (country, classic rock, blues, jazz, and God-knows-what). The overdrive sounds I get with all of the guitars is appropriate for what I play. I like using the 5 watt setting and miking the cab in a live setting. (I play in church, we don't crank it up too high) It's plenty loud this way. The thing is sort of a cross between a Peavey Classic and a small Fender in terms of it's tone. I good amp for what I do.

I've not had it long enough to evaluate its reliability.

I've had good dealings with Carvin in the past. Not enough history to really say. I did have a problem with not knowing about the amp being back-ordered, though.

Good sound, Basic working amp.