Carvin X100B

from chime to grind active eq and reverb
this thing does country-jazz-metal-rock-industrial-goth-you name it
i've gotten it out of this baby!!!!!
i have a 6L6 version and an EL-34 one-man they blend well-but truth be told--6L6 one into a 16 ohm cab and people get bummed cause they
just spent 2 grand on a bogner and i spent 150 bucks and i like the carvin better. zappa knew tone yes he did

frank zappa used this and next time you see vai
remember the legacy's are for show guess what's under the stage piped to the pa---hmmmmm? i did backline in vegas and guess what i saw going to the house. i will put this against anything and kick your ass. hell i've had people tell me to superglue the knobs cause it sounds so good.

all i've done is put in jan phillips 5881's with mullard ecc83's and look out bogner boy. i just spanked you for pennies on the dollar
a friggin tank

the best
they get excited when you tell then your still rockin with a 20 year old carvin
if i could have any endorsement it would be carvin and gibson

one hundred and fifty dollars
so you go get a 2nd job to pay for your triple rectiFIRE
i ain't a snob except when it comes to this guy
i will put it up against anything well except my 68 plexi--thats another story-

find one and snatch it up before they go up!!!!

Carvin, a California company, has been making great products for over fifty years now. In order to keep prices down they have always shipped direct to the consumer, thus making quality affordable to the average man in the street.

This review is for a 1984 model with the older "Big C" script logo and 6L6 power tubes in the output (around 86/87 carvin changed these amps slightly,adopted their new logo, and began using EL34's).

It is a 2 channel amp with your standard "Treble", "Bass", "Midrange", and "Presence" controls. These controls are shared by both channels. They are also ACTIVE. To people unfamilar with active tone controls: IT IS MUCH BETTER TO CUT THAN TO BOOST. If you want to add highs for example, it will sound more natural if you cut some bass and mids. Cranking the tone controls can make the amp sound very harsh because you are actually increasing db's (gain) to the preamp.

The Clean channel has it's own "Volume" control as well as a "Pull Bright" switch. On the Lead channel there is also a bright switch called "Pull Hi Lead" as well as "Volume" and "Gain" controls.

The X Amp extras include a 5 band graphic EQ (assignable to one of the channels), a 3 spring reverb (footswitchable) , an effects loop (footswitchable), and power switch to run your amp at 25,50 or 100 watts.

This amp is very simply laid out but, because of the active tone controls it can be difficult to use until you understand how it behaves.

This was the first tube amplifer I ever owned. I now own over 25 amps and I still find use for this one. I have played in the same band for almost 20 years. We started out playing Metal, then Rock, and finally Jazz. The X100B has been versatile enough to hang with my style as it has changed and evolved. It has never been noisy (wish I could say that about some of my other amps).

The Clean channel is OK. I hear tons of people rave about the clean side of this amp but, if that's what your looking for I think you could do much better elsewhere. Compared to a blackface Fender or older Vox it's pretty lifeless.

The distorted side however, is where the amp shines. If you're looking for tight rhythm where every note of a chord can be heard clearly-THIS IS YOUR AMP. You can play chords with 7ths and 9ths and it wont turn to mush.

This amp has tons of headroom until you get the volume up to around 8. It then begins to soften and become much warmer from 9 to 10. This is where you will find a rounder lead tone with less pick attack on the strings.

This amp has more distortion than a JCM 800 but not as much as a Mesa Boogie Mark 3. I always kicked in my old TS9 (another good buy in 83/84) for solos, so you will need some kind of overdrive for leads unless you can run the amp wide open (This was my prefered choice in the studio but, how many clubs will let you get away with it?).

I play traditional Strats with three single coils. I have no problem getting a thick sound for chords and leads with this amp. One suggestion I would make is to try this amp with different ohm cabs. The original Carvin 4/12s were wired at 4 ohms. This makes the amp sound a little harsh to my ears. I changed to 16 ohm cabinet and noticed a big improvement (Front and rear-loaded cabs also make a difference-try 'em both.). I also changed preamp and output tubes (5881's in the output now).

I give this amp a "5" for it's clean tone,"10" for it's (distorted) rhythm tone, and "7" for it's lead tone. I'd also give it a "10" for it's versatilty so, I'm averaging the score at "8"

I used this amp in countless rehearsals and gigs and never had a breakdown. Once, I blew a fuse-popped in a spare, and kept on going. That is the only problem I've had in 20 years.

Carvin has an excellent reputation for repair and service. Having said that, I have never had to have them repair anything!

I have been playing for over 20 years and have gone through tons of gear but, I always hung on to this peice.

For distorted rhythms where you want the ultimate in definition-THIS AMP HAS NO EQUAL. Chords and arpeggios can be heard clearly without turning to a muddy mess.

I now have vintage Marshalls,Voxes ,etc. and I still come back to the Carvin for this particular function. This is also one of the only amps I own that is not point to point wired.

On the downside, the Clean is not the best but, it's servicable. Likewise, the reverb is OK. It's not Fender reverb but what (besides a Fender)is? My biggest gripe is not being able to use the graphic on both channels instead of just one (I might have it modifed for this in the future).

For all these complaints, I would still buy this amp again. While the lower power settings don't sound the same as the 100 watt, they do provide some interesting tonal contrasts. The effects loop is a godsend, and when you use the footswitch to kick it in you can actually set a boost up to 10db (via the three position level switch on the back)! Also, the tone is different with the switch in and out so you have a couple of extra options there as well.

When Carvin changed to EL34's, the sound of this amp changed. They also tried to update their circuitry with more gain to compete with Mesa and others. In my opinion they ruined the amp. If what I discribe sounds interesting to you, look for the early logo 6L6 version.

When people speak well of Carvin amps they always mean the X amp models. There is a difference. Carvin never had the success with any of the other amps they created that the X amps acheived.

I don't currently own this amp but I hope this helps. This amp was probably manufctured in the middle of the 80's. It has 2 channels and an eq. It was fairly generic for the time but similar to an old Boogie with the eq and all. It was versatile enough to do A Vanhalen tribute band. It was a super loud amp and sounded best cranked up.

This amp could do a good brown sound on down to a good Skynnard sound. It suited our style at the time. It wasnn't really noisy. the clean was cool and always sounded best with a chorus. The clean never distorted for me. The distortion wasn't really brutal but it chugged along fine.

In all the time we owned it we replaced one tube. I think that was over a 17-20 month period.

never used them. Won't speculate.

Overall, with the head and 2-2X12's for around a thousand dollars was a good deal. I loved the amp but sold it after I got out of service to ge money for a down payment on real estate.

I bought this 100 watt head in 1986 along with a 4 x 12 cabinet direct from Carvin. It basically has 2 channels - clean and lead. Each channel has separate volume controls. The clean channel has a "Bright" setting, which is activated by pulling the volume knob. The lead channel has a higher gain setting by pulling on the master volume knob. It also has a 5 band EQ which can be used on either channel but only one at a time. It came with a 3 button foot switch for channel, effects loop and reverb. My basic complaint about this amp is that the clean and lead channels share the same Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence and Reverb controls which is somewhat of a compromise when trying to dial in a certain sound on each channel even though you have the graphic EQ. The lead channel on this amp is no where near the type of saturation you would find on a rectified boogie (I also to own a Dual Rectifier) so if that is what you are looking for save up more money and go for the Mesa. With mid level distortion it gives a pretty good dirty sound but once you crank the lead drive control the bottom end gets "flubby" and breaks apart. As far as rating this category, I have to give the clean channel a definite 10 but the lead channel is closer to a 6 so the average of the two gives this category an 8.

Like I mentioned above, I bought this amp in 1986 and at that time I was into 80's shred and thrash metal. This amp definitely excels at that genre of music, especially the lead channel with the EQ on, the mids scooped and a good distortion pedal(TS9 etc). To me though, the most impressive thing about this amp is the clean channel - very clear and powerful. It is also the reason why I never sold this amp in 17 years even though I have gone through a few other amps within the same time period. My style of music now can best be described as any type of rock, hard rock, metal or blues of which this amp can hold its own. I would expect that this amp can be used for jazz or country because of the clarity of the clean channel. It is definitely a LOUD amp but not noisy like other 100 watt tube amps.

Having owned this amp 17 years I have only had to retube a few times and resolder cold solder joints a couple of times. No major malfunctions even though this amp spent plenty of time bouncing around in cars and trucks going to and from gigs and studios and also spending many years in a smokey basement bandroom environment.

I only had to deal with them once when I had a question about impedance matching with speaker cabinets and they sent me a technical spec sheet right away.

I have been playing for close to 20 years now. Although I know there are better amps around, when you consider the price to performance ratio this amp's value far exceeds its asking price. I don't remember what I paid for this amp in 1986 but the price paid from others on this list seems to be in the $200-300 range which is a bargain when compared to Peavey or Marshall amps in the same price range.

2 channels - clean and lead

reverb - nice smooth reverb. Sounds great, but I've been using delay more lately.

active eq

graphic eq - switchable to clean or lead channel via toggle switch on the face plate.

I'm told that my X100B seems to be the one of the last manufactured before production stopped. I believe the amp is late eighties or early ninties.

The X100B is incredibly versatile. Because of the active EQ, the smallest changes have a big impact on the sound. The addition of a switchable graphic EQ adds even further to the versatility. It can recreate many different tones, but its strength is '80's or early ninties metal, classic rock/blues and possibly jazz because of the fantastic clean channel.

The amp is 2 channel with shared EQ and reverb. The channel switching, fx loop and reverb are all footswitchable.

I wish the graphic eq was footswitchable. I wish it had a bias switch for different tubes. I wish it didn't have that ugly gray carpeting!! But in all honesty, these would be more enhancements than real complaints.

The amp is absurdly loud. I play at home through a Marshall 1960a cab and I can't put it past 1.5 or 2 without going deaf. The clean has awesome headroom. I can't get it to break up on its own without making my ears bleed.

Extremely versatile tube amp. Mine takes EL34's. Can do anything from jazz cleans (yes the cleans are THAT good!) to classic rock to metal.

I have 5 guitars all loaded with humbuckers and floyds. Real shredder guitars. They all sound very different through this amp. But the X100B can be tuned to accomodate their differences.

I generally play very shred oriented stuff (Paul Gilbert, Andy Timmons, Jason Becker etc... just not nearly as well) and this amp does all of that flawlessly. If I need some more dirt, I just turn on my Boss SD-1 to push it a little harder, but I find myself rarely using the Boss these days.

The amp is incredibly quiet. I turned it up to 4 once (which almost knocked the windows out of my room) before I could actually hear that the thing was on.

The amp can easily out-Marshall a Marshall. Prior to this amp, I owned a Marshall JCM900 and this amp absolutely kills it in just about every category. Its very good at metal tones from the 80's or early 90's. I've gotten some very aggressive tones out of by scooping the mids out, but this is not the amp for that type of sound. If thats what you're looking for, get a Mesa Boogie dual rectifier. If you want a hotrodded Marshall, look no further.

I have yet to get the clean channel to break up. I imagine I would have to put the volume up so loud, it would kill small animals. The clean is one of the nicest, warmest, fattest clean sounds I have ever heard. I would say its easily on par with any vintage Fender that I've played, but it has its character. It doesn't necessarily sound like a Fender, but it can absolutely hold its own.

The amp has alot of gain, but its not modern voicing like a Rectifier or a 5150. Its like a hotrodded Marshall. It sings beautifully, sustains for days and has a voice and character all its own. But its closest kin would be a souped up JCM 800 or JMP.

I haven't gigged anywhere with this amp, but I've owned it for 2 years and its been flawless. I bought it used, so someone had to have owned it for a number of years without any problems. Its very well made. I took it apart to peek inside and retube it and its built like a tank.

Its old so they won't support it anymore. I asked Carvin for the schematics and they emailed them to me. Kind of snotty in the replies, but I gave them a piece of my mind and they changed their attitude pronto. I would assume that if I bought a new amp from them, I would probably get kinder responeses. But they were helpful.

I've been playing for almost 20 years. I've owned a bunch of other amps and I'm extremely satisfied with this amp. It sounds atleast 5 times more expensive than what I paid for it. The only amp I've played that envoked the same reaction from me when I first plugged into it was a Bogner Ecstasy 101B.

I absolutely love this amp. Even if I get tired of it and buy another amp, I would not sell it. Its too versatile and sounds too good not to keep. If anything happened to it, I would get another one. I'm actually considering getting another one to make a stereo rig. There are a couple of other amps I would like to get, but not as a replacement. I like the idea of having a drastically different feel or tone at my disposal.

I love just about everything about it. I love the lead channel, I love the clean. I love its versatility, but I've found its strengths to be in the 80's - 90's metal area.

It was an unexpected buy. I went into Guitar Center to buy an fx processor and saw this thing. Decided to give it a try and was completely blown away. I spent the next 15 minutes trying not to like it, but couldn't. I went into Guitar Center to look at a new guitar and played through a Marshall DSL100. Within seconds, I was able to get my sound. So I would say the X100B bears a very strong resemblance to that amp. I also owned a JCM900 for about 8 years and this amp really kills it in just about every category.

I wish it was covered in Tolex rather than that nasty gray carpeting, but thats a small price to pay.

Its the prototypical sleeper amp. I would highly recommend it to Marshall fans or fans of shred/80's metal.

Not quite sure when this monster was made, bought it used from atomic music in college park MD which happens to have one of the best guitar/amp techs on the east coast. After talking to the man for a while about what I was looking for -"2x12 all tube combo"- he was very excited to show me the X100B.
2 channels- 100 all tube watts- 5 band eq- reverb- push/pull bright and lead knobs- effects loop- british series celestions- and "thank the lord!" a foot switch!
Well I plugged in and gave it shot.....
I never played through a CARVIN before, after about 15 years of marshall, peavy, fender, and most recently LINE-6,......I finally found my amp!
Not to mention the fact that the wonderful people at atomic music accepted my trade-in of a ARIA proII bass(5$ at a pawnshop)an IBANEZ RG-270 w/ a scream'n deamon in it, and a crap bass floor board(DOD),and $50.00 cash..... I was very happy!

Then I took it home for the real test. I plugged in my sience project of a guitar (yamaha neck,charvelle body,duncan pickups w/ fender noise free electronics, sounds kinda funny but it plays and sounds great)and WOW! first thing I noticed was the power and warmth of the lead channel. Playing in an all wood room really brought out the bottom end. The reverb is ok, but not outstanding. The 5-band eq has alot of personality to it. You can get alot out of eq to dial in what you need and then some.
The clean channel is great w/ the reverb on about 4 or 5.
Then I plugged in my IBANEZ artcore hollow body w/ the same settings on the amp. It sounded wounderful with great control of the feedback having the gain in lead mode at about 7.
If metal is your thing, which is what i grew-up with and still like to play from time to time I recomend running a LINE6 pod in to the face of this amp and you can get any thing you want, and I mean anything. Also my tube screamer sounded great. Other then that for what i'm doing musicaly now the overdrive is perfect. Even for mic'd studio situations it does very well.

As far as reliability goes with mine all I did is replace the tubes to keep the low hum down and she's as good as new. Built like a tank, and weighs like tank the way a good combo should be. I havent gotten into the guts of the amp but considering the price I payed a $50-$100$ repair is worth it to me, at least. But I would be suprised if something freak were to happen.

Customer support is something I know nothing about when it comes to CARVIN, hopefully I won't need to. But after reading some of the letters on this site, and other sites concerning factory help, I'm a bit bothered by what I've read. For those who spend money on new carvin gear no matter what it is , or how long ago you got your gear, I hope that they are professonal enough to respect your concern, and treat you accordingly. If they don't have the answer then I hope they can at least point you in the right direction. They know this is an expensive hobby/job and their is alot of compitition out there.

If my X-100B were stolen I would cry. It sounds great and for the price I paid I don't think I could easily find a deal that sweet again.
Overall if you play heavy rock, punk, jazz, even some new country, and you need a amp for about $350 to $400 that is reliable and sounds great which is more important than anything, If you find one get it, I think you'll be happy.

Also if any one out there has a 2x12 carvin exstention cab for sale $100 to $125 please e-mail me at scott_tipton1@yahoo.com
prefer the cab with the grey fuzzy camel hair looking fabric "boy is it ugly!". Gotta have one. thanx

100-Watt tube head (early-mid 80s - Script log and tolex covered, 4x 6L6 tubes). 5-band EQ, Presence, Treble, Bass and Mid Controls, Dual channel, effects loop, %100/60 power switch, 2x4 ohm outs and one 8 ohm out, 2x 1/4-inch jack footswitch ins (I use a Crate FS70 without a problem - the older Carvin switches can be hard to find).

I'm a musical schizo - surf, punk, rock, metal, jazz, blues and country, it's plenty versatile for my needs.

I have played a Hamer Sunburst import (RIP - it bit the dust), a Fender Toronado, and a Fender Jaguar into a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal(occasionally, for added distorted boost on the drive channel)the Carvin into a 4x12 Ampeg cab (sorry, the cab is borrowed and I'm a litle fuzzy on the specs). The only noise I get is from the pedal when couples with the amps' lead channel, but that comers with the territory. Otherwise, quiet with very no unwanted feedback (mind you this is in a small practice room surrounded by other amps, mics and PA's which would -and do- make lesser amps feeback like crazy).

This amp is totally versatile. In one jam session I noodled on blues riffs, surf rock, and Sabbath-style metal with very little to adjust. The distortion, fully cranked, is more of a vintage overdrive than a thrashy style distortion (but if that's what you need, just throw a distortion pedal on top of the dirty channel - voila! Problem solved). The clean is very Fender like - very rich, and didn't break up. The verb isn't quite as wet and slappy as a Fender though.

I would definitely use this amp without a back up, even though it's probably 20 years old - that alone says alot.

No dealings with Carvin, but again, it's 20 years old.

I have been playing for over 15 years. I've done the solid-state thing. I've Done the modeling amp thing. I'm sticking with the real thing. If it were lost or stolen, I would hunt down another one ASAP. It's a versatile amp with no frills or superfluous toys - just raw power. It's got great tone at all settings. I've played with Mesas, a Marshall or two, and a Fender Twin and Deluxe, and can't badmouth them, but most amps are one-trick-ponies, it's a fact of life. I feel that I get more versatility out of the Carvin, without the painful price tag.

I have 2 of these amps; one a head and one a 212 combo. I don't know the years of manufacture but I would guess mid-late 80s. The amps are rediculously versatile and yet simple to use. You can tweak to get any sound you want. It is the loudest amp I've heard (I've owned Marshalls). I gig/rehearse with it. Features compare with any other amp I've tried but the sound is what should sell you on any amp.

I play a standard strat (w/ Seymour Duncan screamin demon at bridge) and a Jackson dinky. The style of music we play is broad. ACDC to Bob Marley and everything inbetween. The headroom on clean is the best I've ever heard cranked loud and it's tone rivals Fender twin (I also own a Twin but havn't used it since I bought these amps). The distortion "out marshalls" Marshalls. I looked for an amp for 3 years and I've owned or tried for extended periods Mesa, Rivera, Fender, Peavey 5150, Twin, Trace Elliot, Laney and others I've since forgotten. Some of these amps (fender, mesa, marshall) I've A/B'ed with the Carvin and they simply can't compete. I can tell you I was very picky and critical about my amp sound. Remember it is as much your instrument as is your guitar. When I found this amp I was delighted. Best sound I've heard. Period. One fellow above noted that the distortion sucked. I can only say that there must have been something seriously wrong with his amp. These amps have more dirt than Pigpen. I cannot imagine and style of music that would require more great sounding distortion than this amp (this includes you metal thrashers). This amp has tone and balls. Buy one you will not be sorry. They still command a great price on resale which says something about thier desirability. One thing of note is the reverb sound better in the 212 combo than the head. That is to be expected I suppose since the tank in the combo sits in a larger "acoustical box."

Owned for 2 years and never had a real problem except tubes which are a regular maintenance item anyway. Hint; replace with Groove Tubes.

These guys have been extremely helpful; telephoned them when my amp was sounding funny (new tubes fixed the problem) and they were very helpful. Even sent me a schematic.

I would immediatly purchase another. I have not heard any of Carvin's newer products but it is a shame that this amp is no longer in production. Hope my review helps.

i believe my amp is an 86 model
the amp is fairly versitile perhaps too versatile, i play every thing from metal to noise, punk, and rootsy blues and jazz tones. Ive owned this amp for ten to twelve years and it has so many options that its taken me years to discover some of the capabilities with settings and different guitars.
I wish the eq was available to both channels or able to turn off completely
i rarely use the effects loop, ive tried but never seemed to need it. might be nice for some rack effects which ive still graduated tol
ive used this amp in live situations and regular practice for years. also used it in many studio settings. it has way way way enough power for i think anyone. My amp is of the 3 12ax7 , 4x6l6 variety. would like to try the el36 type to see the difference

i tend to use strat style guitars, ibenez, strats, old fender mustangs and broncos with my amp. want to experiment with some gibsons to see the differences. notice many options with the guitar and pickup differences. it seems to suit most of my needs especially live but ive had hard time achieving true tube amp sound i hear in classic old style amps like the ampeg jet series
the amp is not noisy at all and ive played with players of all types of amps and have been shocked by the sheer silence of my amp vs theirs at times
like i said the amp is very versitile, the tone ive been seeking may still be in their, ive just yet to discover how to achieve it yet
the clean channel is very clean and very tubey, have been trying to discover how to preamp this to achieve tubey saturation heaven
the distortion for my taste is a bit to distortiony and not tubey enough it seems to squash my tone quite abit so i rarely run it above say one and a half except with single coil strat and then ill run it hot say four or five maybe maybe more

this is, and i cant stress it enough the most dependable amp you could possibly own. I played this amp constantly for years. five to six bands worth, four or five albulms worth of recording and rigorous practice, 3 to4 nights a week and at least a show a week or so for years it has only broken down once in a live situation and that was the tubes so ive retubed it several times myself. other than that i never needed any help with it. it is by far the most dependable amp ive ever owned

never had to

ive been playing for 22 or so years. i own no other road gear. never needed it with that amp.
id want to replace it but would consider something else,but know id buy another
i bought it from a friend because i needed a powerful amp and wanted a tube head. was offered a good deal
great amp for young poor musician with want for tone

EL-34 Tubes, 2 Channels, active tone & grphic eq, reverb.

After twelve years it is still my go-to amp for sessions -- engineers and producers that I have worked with still use my tone as the benchmark by which all others are compared. Much of that is due to knowing how to choose and use equipment. I've heard alot of average tones from Marshall and Mesa users.

12 years and going...

I've dealt with Carvin many times...

Great amp at any price -- not a "poor-man's Boogie."