Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Would like to know if anybody has used or are currently using and of Carvin's bass heads new or old, if so, you thoughts and opinons..

Yes, I'm currently using a Carvin R600 head to run 2x10s and a 15. I find I can get pretty solid tones out of it. My current rig was what I could afford back then (8-10 years ago). I haven't felt the need to upgrade. They give you great bang for the buck.

I'd say get down to a Carvin store and try one, but the stores are only in California.

i've done emergency surgery on a few 100 watters at gigs for our warm up acts and was not impressed with the idea they had to mount the output tubes on the circuit board instead of the chassis. the immense heat transfer warped the boards and cracked copper traces. the boards were thin enough (like the fender paper boards of old and you know they warped big time) that the power resistors for the output tubes blew holes in them when they failed and burned. love the smell of fried fiberglas ! they sounded somewhat like old sound city heads kinda honky in the mids very close to old ampeg solid state stuff. these would date to the late '80's early '90's that i've heard. mind you i wasn't happy with the dead strings they were using, but to each their own.

I'd used Carvin amps for years with no problems, great "middle of the road" gear for the money in my opinion. I kind of got off and into Gallien Kruger in the last few years, but have been looking a Carvin again recently. I'd like to try the B2000 head.

I'm using a Carvin DCM1540L for my power amp, seems pretty good so far...

so you guys are all using solid state amps ???

Back in the early '90's I had all the cash I needed to purchase whatever head I desired. I tried them all then: Ampeg, Fender, Harke, G-K, T-E, etc., including all the cheaper no-name models of the day. The only head that carried water and actually sounded like a bass for a reasonable price was the Carvin PB-300. I still have that head and I still use it. It has seen literally everything from Friday night to Sunday morning, and everything in between, both locally and on the road. It just keeps crankin'. Because I now gig double bass as well as electric bass (and tuba), I don't use it because it has a voicing that is great for electric, but not upright. But that is a voicing issue, not a quality issue.

So...last year I purcased a Carvin new MB-12 combo amp to do double duty for both upright and electric. Magnificient amp for the money. When I need the extra 1/2 octave extension down, I have a 1X15 cab I've had for over twenty years, also loaded with a Carvin driver, that I set the MB-12 on top of. Lightweight, great tone, usable features for the gigging musician, it sits in the back of my Aveo hatchback with the extension cab, my 4002, my fanned-fret P-style, and my upright bass and accessories (stands, cords, etc.) and music for gigging.

The PB-300 head and the SWR Triad cabinet it sits on now are mostly used for keyboard work, but I have used and still do use it to good effect for both PA microphones (with an XLR-to-1/4 inch adaptor) and for background music feeding it with (over the years) tape player, then CD player, then computer, now pod player. Yes, for almost twenty years of yeoman's duty, it has transcended a couple of different electronic sound reproduction generations, and seems to be good for the indefinite forseeable future.

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:so you guys are all using solid state amps ???

Yeah, aren't tube amps only for guitar players?

sloop_john_b wrote:

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:so you guys are all using solid state amps ???

Yeah, aren't tube amps only for guitar players?

Yes, especially after I found out that at the time, it would have cost me about as much to re-tube the Ampeg SVT head I used to own as I paid for it used, and not much less than the new Carvin PB-300 head cost me at the time. Plus, the Carvin, of course, was much, much lighter!!!

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:so you guys are all using solid state amps ???

Yeah. With SansAmp RBI/RPM for preamps....

sloop_john_b wrote:

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:so you guys are all using solid state amps ???

Yeah, aren't tube amps only for guitar players?

us bass players use our big tube amps for keeping the basement warm...which in turn, heats the whole house . a warm main floor is a happy floor !!! in my case it's like exposing a nuclear reactor core down there !!!

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:so you guys are all using solid state amps ???

I'm still rocking an SVT rig. Just not as formidable as yours .

How often do you guys gig? Just curious (not meant sarcastically; I am genuinely curious!).

who guys ???

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:who guys ???

The guys with the big heavy tube rigs!