Carvin X100B

I just want to point out that "X100B" is the model name for a series of amps Carvin built for over ten years from the early 80's to the early 90's. You'll find lots of all vintages on eBay and elsewhere, selling for around $300. The earlier amps, identifiable by a cursive, curvy Carvin logo, and covering that looks like Tolex vinyl, use a quad of 6L6s for the power tubes. The later ones, with an italic Carvin logo, usually "carpet" covered, are EL34 based. Most need adjustable bias added for best sound.

All of them share the same basic schematic. They have many op-amps and FET switches in the circuitry for the graphic eq, tube drive/receive, and even in the main signal chain of both channels. These are used for transparent switching and buffering. The distortion sources are all tube circuits.

The footswitch is a three-button affair with a DIN connector. Most used amps don't have the footswitch, which appears regularly on Ebay for lots of money, or you can get something compatible at tonejones on the web.

There are also cute combos available, with a 50W(XT), a 100W{XV)112, and a 100W(XV)212 made in most years. I really like the fuzzy grey 112s.

See carvinmuseum on the web for more details.

The 6L6 based amps, like most 25-year-old amps, usually need a good overhaul. Control pots, tube sockets, and reverb connections usually need cleaning. Once restored, these amps have an amazing Fender-like clean channel that can run at full power without break-up. It feels like infinite headroom. HV sag is moderate to low. The result is a really good amp for your tele or pedal-steel. The high-gain channel is less appealing. I prefer a tube-screamer up front driving the clean channel.

The later EL-34 based amps are still 15 years old, and can usually benefit from an overhaul. These amps give a more Marshall-like tone, with overdrive that gets really carried away if you turn the lead drive past 3. Again, the clean channel is still the high-light. These amps are good for blues and classic rock.

The circuitry is basically reliable, but these are vintage amplifiers with lots of connectors and knobs. They do need a bit of love.

You can find all the schematics at www.carvinmuseum.com.

Hey, what do you want for $300? If you like to mess with amps, and know enough to avoid getting killed, these amps are great fun. I've got 5, plus an X50B, an XT112, an XV112, and two XV212s. I guess that makes me partial.

i bought my x100b used at a local music shop. it's a carpet-covered later model. same features as previously mentioned in other reviews. the guy at the shop told me it was a metal monster. like mesa or marshall at less than half the cost. all the features were a little overwhelming at first, but i've had an easier time since downloading the manual on the carvin website.
he was right about the metal monster part. i don't know about the other reviews contradicting this fact. they probably don't have the right axe and cables, and can't dial-in the right settings. totally don't need any external effects. it's got everything covered. unless you want your axe sounding like a synthesizer.
this thing can get loud and sound like a freakin' chainsaw. setting the graphic eq and pickup selector to rhythm, pulling the rhythm channel to bright, and turning up the lead drive to like 9 produce face-melting deathgrind tones. the rhythm and master channels and presence control don't even make it past two before i can feel the immediate tremors on the hardwood floors!!!!
i'm really a one genre kind of player. but when i'm dialing in my tone, i can hear the other possiblities before arriving at brutality. for metal, this thing is friggin' awesome!

this thing does heavy and loud (my two favorite things) clearly and perfectly. although, i guess it helps playing a les paul with a pair of emg-81s run through monster cables.
turning up the lead drive produces gain that feels like a drill running through your ears to your brain. i recommend wearing earplugs if you value your hearing. also, the pull bright on the rhythm channel produces crazy mesa tones at (can't emphasize this enough) less than half the price. just gotta make sure everything is set to rhythm and all your pickup and eq settings are turned up.
you can get about any sound considering the multitude of controls on the amp and your axe. and with active circuits it doesn't take much knob turning to alter your sound.

i've never had any problems with it. but i've only played once in public at a local park amphitheatre. worked great for me. everything else is confined to home. i get it looked at for tube replacements etc. every couple years. so that probably helps too.

only used the website to download and print a user manual so i can't say much for their customer support

i've been playing for about fifteen years and owned the x100b for ten years. it was my first "real" amp and i've never had the desire to replace it. mainly cuz of the performance versus value aspect. it's always worked fine for me, and i can get the same sounds as other high performance amps for way less money. so there's never been any reason to change. not to say i wouldn't play the "high-end" stuff. i just ain't paying for it....

My model amp is an 89 model which i Bought new - with the "carpet covering", "EL34s" and "hotrod 1b factory mod".
As already indicated this amp has 2 channels, and for me the amps only problem is that there is no preamp control on the clean channel.
The result is that the clean channel stays very clean even at high volume, at times a slight bit of overdriven sound on the clean channel would be nice.
All the other features that others have already mentioned are very good (and useful).
One point on carpet covered amps - some people hate them but i love them, sure it does look a little ugly but its far more practical than Tolex. I must have played hundreds of gigs with this amp and it looks as good now as it did when new (however it is always transported in a roadcase). Carpet is hard to tear unlike tolex and velco sticks to it very well - Therfore, I have velcro under my wireless transmitter, tuner and anything else i sit on top of the amp while playing and never worry about things vibrating off.

I have read many reviews and couldnt be bothered writing one myself until now, as i had recently gone through a process of trying to replace this amp.
I simply could not find anything that was exactly what i wanted and did A~B testing with this amp and others including TsL100, 5150, Marshall 6100 and Mesa MkIV as comparisons.
I found that i could make the Carvin sound so close to every other amp (but with only very slightly less gain)and without having the 2 amps side by side i dont believe anyone could tell them apart.
The reason for this is the EQ sections on the carvin, - no amp came close to the control of its active tone and Graphic EQ functions.
The Carvin has more than enough gain (And i do like lots of gain) for myself so i couldnt justify spending thousands of $$ to get an extra channel or gain on the clean channel. As others have stated if you want a loud clean sound this amp is hard to beat.

As i have already said, i have done hundreds of gigs with this amp, i have replaced the valves a couple of times and had no problems at all.

never needed them but their website is good and you can download manuals and schematics.

Ive been playing for 26 years, and always plug straight into amps (no effects) and have many guitars of all configurations, all sound good (and different) through this amp.
My biggest revelation is how i have been setting up my tone more recently (since i decided not to buy another amp).I generably keep the tone controls reasonably flat (equal) and boost the mids and lower mids on the graphic EQ.
Like all tube amps, they just sound better when the power amp is turned up. Here is where the carvin trully excels.
Turning up a 100watt amp can be way too loud for certain venues, however as the carvins EQ is so powerful you can run the power amp to nearly full and drop all the tone controls down to about level "2" or less.
In other words you can get that highly sought after power amp overdrive at low volumes by using your EQ controls to control volume.(maybe at the expense of wearing out valves quicker).
Running the amp this way I now can also have that overdriven tone on the clean channel too. Yahoo.

I've had 5 of these things: 2 combos, 2 6L6 heads, and currently an el34 head. I don't like the el34 head nearly as much as the 6L6 versions regardless of a supposed hot rodded circuit. Either version needs a good boost pedal to get the distortion channels to kick @ss, anyway, though the cleans seem great on both. The graphic eq plays a major role in why I've had a number of these amps. From using these, I've learned that putting a good eq pedal in the loops of other amps can make a huge and great difference, as well. Due to the distortion being pretty lame without a boost and not having 3 channels like I'm currently used to with the Peavey Ultra Plus, but at the same time having a decent active eq and a great clean channel, I'll give this category an 8.

I may have found a solution to make the el34 version sound fairly good (using a Bad Monkey as a boost), but it's still not the same as the 6L6 versions boosted with a good tubescreamer. The X100B el34 version that I have now I might mess with a bit more and then possibly trade off for another 6L6 version if I can't get it up to par with what I'm used to.

To the reviewer a few posts down who said his 6505 kills the X100B in volume when the graphic eq is being used, all I can say is I don't know what he's talking about. I had a 5150 for a year that I also boosted the volume with a graphic eq in the loop and still can't say the amp all the way up is as loud or louder than the X100B with the graphic eq scooped, though admittedly I didn't also have every other control at zero, either. Playing too scooped takes all the tone and cutting ability out of about any guitar amp, anyway. Not knocking the 5150 here but rather am defending the Carvin where I don't think it was given a fair shake.

Anyway, I've used the X100B's to play everything from clean strat sounds to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Hendrix style blues-rock to classic rock and metal such as Rush and Iron Maiden to Slayer and Metallica tones when using a decent pickup such as active EMG 81/85 set or nice Dimarzio and Seymour Duncan high gain pickups in addition to using a tubescreamer as a boost. A nice chorus in front of the amp in addition to the onboard reverb can make the cleans sound exceptionally good, IMO.

I'll give it an 8 for tones considering the clean is great but the distortion channel is fairly lame without a boost but gets it done with a tubescreamer or other similar pedal.

Very solid amps, though I had the reverb mess up on the combo I had a long time ago; I was pretty ignorant regarding matching Ohms up, though, and likely messed it up by just plugging it into different cabs all the time without verifying the Ohms matched up correctly. I've played these amps for well over a decade with no other problem that that and played at high volumes with a heavy hitting drummer, and that includes playing the combo after the 'verb messed up for at least 5 or 6 more years with no other problem.

I like the carvin museum forum and the regular carvin forum, though I liked the older version of the regular forum better than the new one. I also like that they at least have a schematic of the old fs-36 footswitch available on their site, but I've never had any direct contact with the company, so I'll leave it at no opinion but feel likely the customer support would be very good.

Again, I've owned 5 of the X100 series amps altogether, and there's a reason I've bought more than one; first, I traded my first combo amp for a JCM800 amp back in the early '90s thinking it would be a better amp, but I wasn't really into the Marshall like I thought I would be and so got an X100B head that I found at a pawn. I used that head for a good while but ended up needing money pretty bad and didn't need a loud amp for a short while and so sacrificed it. It didn't take long to miss that, and then I got another combo. I played that one for 6 or 7 years and then found another head that I thought sounded better and bought along with the current V412 cab I currently have and love (that also has sounded great with the 5150 I used to have and the Ultra Plus I currently use).

Overall, the Carvin's a great workhorse of an amp, and when paired with a boost and decent pickups on the guitars can get some great rock to metal tones as well as very good clean tones. I'm not as keen on the el34 versions, but then again I've only ever played through one of those and that's the one I have now; maybe it needs rebiased or something. But the 6L6 versions are sweet, IMO. When I simultaneously owned the 6L6 head and the 5150, the band I was in liked the variety when sometimes I would show up with either of the amps, and they loved how thick and powerful the Carvin sounded as well as the 5150 with the eq in the loop. I know they liked the cleans on the Carvin more. ;)

I'll give this category a 9 due to how useful these amps have been to me over a long period of time. 8)

2 channels with a high lead on the dis. side. rythm, lead switch, and a bright switch for the clean channel. basic rock amp, can get a decent metal sound if you play with the knobs. only one warning not a plug and play amp. you will have to search for your sound, but it is probably in there somewhere, just have to know what to do.

you can get just about any sound you are looking for exept metal. for that just get a good pedal and you'll be fine.never had a problem with clean headroom, but ive never had it louder than 4 or 5 on the clean side, and that was to loud.distortion is not brutal at all at best you get a guns and roses or metallica black album sound without pedals. i retubed the head with jjel34s and ecc83s and now ive got a decent zack wylde sound. i play a prs custom 24 stock and a strat. overall amp is ver versitall does anything i need. but i dont play alot of metal. for that run a od pedal in frot of the dis.

never had a problem, but it is a tube amp. never play without a backup.

n/a

been playing for 7 years. i own a prs custom 24, les paul, and a strat. amp sounds good with them all.i would buy another if it ever blew up. i chose this amp over the marshall dsl 2000, and a jcm 900. the marshalls just aren't worth the extra $600 to $700. plus the carvin has a better straight up rock sound, and the clean channel is better than anything else ive heard period. you cant beat this amp for the money.i would recomend this amp to anybody, except maybe a metal player, you nedd a marshall or soldano.

1984or1985 black tolex covered head, with the 6L6 power tubes,no "hot rod" cirquitry.Two channels, reverb... All the features are covered in the other reviews, so i wont go into all of them.More than enough power for anyplace ive ever played!As a 100 watt all tube head, it is extremely LOUD!, and very heavy, as in weight.I run mine at the 50% power settings,and i don;t notice any loss of tone as opposed to the 100% power settings, as some people suggested.Maybe the gray carpeted version acts differntly at the 50% power, but mine sounds just fine, and i can open up the master volume more, and you can really tell when the power tubes kick inat around 3 on the master volume.THe bottom end of the sound really fills in and the louder you turn it up, the better it sounds!

I just got my carvin out of the shop 2 weeks ago, and had it totally gone thru, re-tubed with all new JJ tubes, some jacks and swithces replaced, and the amp bias set.I had;nt played this amp in at least 6 years.The clean channel is very good, but it;s not the warmest clean I ever heard,sounds like a early fender type sound, but it;s a little raw around the edges at times, almost a little bit of a brittle sound at times,I like the reverb alot.The pull bright onthe clean is really nice,really sounds fenderish.the distorted channel is a difernt beast altogether.At low gain settins, the amp nails the 70;s and early eighty rock sound.THere is definitly a british influnce to the sound, even with the 6L6 tubes,also as my friend pointed out to me, the amp has a certain honkeyness, or nasal about its general tone, that you can;t completely get rid of.At higher gain settings,and the amp has plenty gain, the sound gets kinda fuzzy/ raspy/muddy.And this is my point, the amp actually has a good amount of gain, it;s just not a smooth/singing/sustaining kind of distortion.The tone, or shape of the distortion is not that pleasing, and theres not much you can do about it, it;s just a characteristic of this amp, but it;s not bad at lower gain settings. This amp is very chunky sounding, and has some great rhythym sounds, thanks to the carvin 4x12 cabinet.As a stand alone amp, this wouldn;t cut it for me, because the distortion just isn;t very good, So heres how I deal with that,I run into my trusty ADA MP-1 tube preamp[ also with fresh JJ 12ax7's]first, and then.. into the clean channel of the Carvin.This changes evrthing, and now this anp breathes fire.I play a Parker Nitefly guitar, thers also an Alesis Midi-verb2 in the effects loop of the MP-1 for some delay.I play everthing from blues to mowtown,classic rock. to progressive.This amp is pretty quite,if it;s plugged into some clean power.

Had this amp for 20 years, did have it die on me once, were it needed some work, but all in all it's worked fine for most of the time i've owned it.

Always very helpfull

Iv'e been playing 32 years , and own a flextone 3 plus amp, a parker, and a kramer pacer deluxe guitars,and asst. rack gear.I wouldn't replace this if it were lost or stolen, as it's just too old, and too heavy!I love the look of this half stack, it;s most impressive.I love the fact that it;s 100 watts of all tube power for me to use however I see fit, weather it be with a distortion box, or my MP-1 preamp,WHen used in this fashion, this amp kicks butt! The louder you turn it up, the better it sounds!My 2 biggest gripes would be it's just to big and heavy for the places my band plays at, and the slightly honkey/nasal character of this amp,which isn't as bad when used with the ADA mp-1.

In regards to the reviewer below me, allow me to quote exactly from my original review:

"I have all Jackson/Ibanez guitars with either Duncan or DiMarzio p/ups. These are all very hot p/ups so it helps a great deal. I play this through its matching Carvin 4x12. I put JJ EL34's in the power amp, JJ ECC83's in the preamp, otherwise comes standard with Groove Tubes.

While this amp can produce massive WALLS of tone that really hit you in the chest, it simply will not give you a scooped high gain sound that can cut through enough to make a difference in the live situation. This is a moderate gain midrange amplifier well suited to hard rock and 80's metal. I play 80's metal with a bit of classic rock and heavier metal. It absolutely shines in the first two categories - extremely clear sounding and has a great "chunk" to it. I would say avoid this amp if you want a scooped/high gain sound because again, the amount of distortion while very distinct and clear, loses that "cut" when you scoop the mids. But if you're willing to accept the fact that 90% of tone comes from your fingers and the midrange frequencies, you will be delighted.

I haven't even mentioned the clean tone yet! I remember first powering this up, and thinking how amazing that clean tone sounded...but once you pull the "Bright Switch" - incredible! It is almost as awe-inspiring as the distortion, just so much to work with on this gem.

Rhythm/Clean Tone: Warm, bassy, very versatile.
Bright Clean Tone: Crystal clear, Fenderish.
Distortion A (un-hotrodded): Punchy and articulate. Think AC/DC and Led Zeppelin here. Underrated!
Distortion B (hotrod switch engaged): Very unique to my ears. It's like Gumby - you can shape it any way you see fit! Moderate distortion sound elevated by the incredibly sensitive tone controls. Superb."

In regards to the reviewer below me stating that my youtube video demonstrated less than satisfactory volume, please keep in mind that it was a small club and that when you're actually playing in a band you don't need to crank the amp that loud in said venues. I guess a bedroom's acoustics are a bit different.

Oh and by the way, here's the link to my youtube video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XsGlp7SUdTQ

In regards to the reviewer below me, please understand that I recommended this amp to you on a couple of occasions, yes - but I also said that it will not match your digital amps in terms of zero dynamics chunk. It ain't gonna' happen.

It was nice knowing ya' man, I'm glad to see you're doing the same.

I bought one because people told me it was one of the greatest amps ever made - WRONG! I later found out that they were just Steve Vai fanboys. This amp lacks a WHOLE lot, everything sounds like you would expect from a 20 year old amp, unstable and poor. The distortion is not hot compared to anything you can buy today, the cleans are its strongest point and they are good - but not great or awsome. The 'output' is pathetic at best, I was told this was a REALLY loud amp, if you think so then you desperately need to introduce yourself to a REAL loud amp, don't compare it to your 16 ohm stereo. Most of the volume is in the EQ, try to scoop the mids and you're done. It has no thunderous, wall shaking power. If you want it loud and bassy you dime the bass, if you want it loud and trebly you dime the treble, the volume is entirely wrapped in the EQ and even with everything dimed I have never needed to wear ear plugs, Someone who urged me to buy this amp talked about how he thought it was so incredibly loud, then I saw a video of his cover band playing live on youtube (unfortunately after I bought it) and I immediately noticed that I could hear people in this bar talking over what they were playing, thats not loud at all. Compared to my 6505, this amp is a joke in all categories and upon some further research Steve Vai hardly used it and flooded it with OD's, ext. preamps and effects when he did. This amp is far from worth it's hype. It was one of the cheapest amps on the market in its time for a reason at $440-500 brand new, I wouldn't suggest that anybody pay more than $50 for one if they plan on using it, it's nostalgic at best.

Horrible, it took me 3 weeks just to get my serial # dated.

Best suited for beginners and undevoted guitarists looking for something better than nothing, I gave mine to my 9 year old nephew, he likes it.

I bought one because people told me it was one of the greatest amps ever made - WRONG! I later found out that they were just Steve Vai fanboys. This amp lacks a WHOLE lot, everything sounds like you would expect from a 20 year old amp, unstable and poor. The distortion is not hot compared to anything you can buy today, the cleans are its strongest point and they are good - but not great or awsome. The 'output' is pathetic at best, I was told this was a REALLY loud amp, if you think so then you desperately need to introduce yourself to a REAL loud amp, don't compare it to your 16 ohm stereo. Most of the volume is in the EQ, try to scoop the mids and you're done. It has no thunderous, wall shaking power. If you want it loud and bassy you dime the bass, if you want it loud and trebly you dime the treble, the volume is entirely wrapped in the EQ and even with everything dimed I have never needed to wear ear plugs, Someone who urged me to buy this amp talked about how he thought it was so incredibly loud, then I saw a video of his cover band playing live on youtube (unfortunately after I bought it) and I immediately noticed that I could hear people in this bar talking over what they were playing, thats not loud at all. Compared to my 6505, this amp is a joke in all categories and upon some further research Steve Vai hardly used it and flooded it with OD's, ext. preamps and effects when he did. This amp is far from worth it's hype. It was one of the cheapest amps on the market in its time for a reason at $440-500 brand new, I wouldn't suggest that anybody pay more than $50 for one if they plan on using it, it's nostalgic at best.

Its strongest point.

Horrible, it took me 5 weeks just to get my serial # dated.

Best suited for beginners and undevoted guitarists looking for something better than nothing, I gave mine to my 9 year old nephew, he likes it.

I own the 80's-style fuzzy carpet version. I believe it was made in '89. It has treb, mid, bass, pres, and also a seperate 5 band graphic eq. Having the different eq's allows different tones to be achieved. You might find that say a cut in the mids on the 5 band sounds better than the mid cut on the standard eq, and vice versa. Also the graphic is assinable to either the clean or dirty channel. This allows you to set your standard eq optimized for say your dirty channel and use the graphic to compensate for your prefered clean sound. It has a 100%/50%/25% power switch, footswitchable effects loop and spring reverb (also footswitchable). On the dirty channel, the gain know pulls out and adds more gain. The clean volume pulls out for a bright switch. It has 2 inputs. I has a preamp output on the back. Also has a switch for 4,8, or 16 ohms and two cabinet out puts.
I use this amp in a metal/rock band. This amp is very versatile and able to achieve the cleanest sounds and has a good deal of gain, considering its age. Many newer amps have more gain, but I find that this has all the gain that I really need anyhow. If I ever want a tad more, I would use a overdrive or booster to give it a bit more. The only thing that I wish the amp could do is footswitch between gain and more gain. This amp is extremely loud. I usually use the half power setting.

This amp sounds amazing both clean and dirty. The lead channel sounds a bit like a Marshall JCM 800. When I plug in my Les Paul the amp sounds perfect even with all of the eq knobs set at 12:00. However, each eq knob, being active, offers more cut and boost than you'll ever need. In fact, the manual recommends using only subtle movements away from 12:00 under typical uses. The graphic eq offers an entire different set of tonal possbilities. For instance, you might prefer the way a bass boost sounds on the graphic and the treble boost on the standard. You might use a combination of mid cut or boosts. The clean channel is first very clean and second very warm and pleasing as any fender, except with more eq versatility. The reverb sounds great as well.
This amp is by far the most pleasing amp that I have ever owned, for dirty and clean. I have owned marshall, fender, and mesa. In my opinion, they sounded great with some tweaking. The carvin sounds even greater before I even touch the tone controls. I never give something a ten, but in this rare case I will. Nothing even close in price compares to the sound of this amp. Actually, I like it better than anything I ever plugged into.
* I use this amp with an inexpensive B-52 4x12 Cab, not the carvin cab.

I haven't had any problems. It's a tube amp. It's never a bad idea to have a back up of some sort for gigs.

I contacted Carvin about getting an the long-ago discontinued pedal. They quickly got back to me and explaing how one of their current pedals could be easily modded (a couple solders to the cable) and sent me a diagram. I found an original one on ebay. I think that they should carry replacement parts, such as the footswitch for discontinued amps. But this might not be very cost-effective from their side. Any increase in expenses on their part will require them to raise their sale prices, which we don't want

I've been playing for 12 years and have 2 music degrees. I've owned more equipment than I care to mention and find this amp satisfying in every way. Tons of power, plenty of features, and unbelievable tone and flexibility. For the 300-400 this thing typically sells for on ebay, don't waste your money on anything else. (I got it at guitar center for $150!) The only thing that I would change would be to add a forth footswitch that goes from gain to more gain. However, the push in knob is simple enough when say a less distorted sound is desired for a certain song. Beyond this, the carpet-like covering is a little cheesy to look at, but I could always buy Tolex cheap and recover it. Another benefit, this amp isn't as heavy to lift as many other all tube heads. This is because Carvin uses ligher materials, I want to say Plywood? In any case, it's very light and still seems very strong.