CARVIN MTS3200 50th Anniversary opinions?

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SatanSix666SixSix

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Hi all,

I am curious on what other think about the Carvin Master Tube Series 50th Anniversary amp head, or if anyone else has one/owned one of their own before.

This amp head blows my mind and I cant believe how powerful and sculpted the tone is. It is 100W/50W, 3 way Ohm selector, killer effects loop, and a designed pre-amp for reverb!

I practiced through a friends EVH III and Marshall 1960A 4x12 cab (of course its amazing) which gave me a baseline to compare mine too. The next day, I used my head instead of the EVH and daaaaaaaaamn!! It sounded exacty on par with the EVH III head, even down to the same volume level at same volume level.

I bought it from a local guitar shop for $200, replaced the tubes and a rebias and feel like I scored big time :thumbsup:

Anywho, I never have got an opinion about them before and I am wondering

Thanks for reading,
 
I had one 6 months ago and it was a great amp,very loud amp,and of course the clean channel was amazing.I liked channel 2 as well.I did put in a matched quad of JJ's 6l6-GC's and set the bias,I kept the stock Sovtek preamp tubes in all but the PI tube,then I put the JJ's balanced preamp tube in there..after all that it opened the amp up,i was a fool for selling it,but they can be found very cheap..check out the Carvin forum,there is a 40+page section on how to bias a carvin at the standby switch,but the manual says 100 Mv at switch and that is too cold..I did the method I mentioned above about how to bias the MTS 3200 and did the math formula and set the bias using bias probes and set bias according to the formula..easy amp to work on..and if you like to use pedals of any kind it loves all pedals thru the front or back.. a lot of people I have read about online say they don't like the amps distortion and do some mods as in removing diodes and putting resistors in their place,but for me it sounded fine stock,and for more gain I ran an AMT Electronics D2 and B1 preamp pedal thru the front end on the clean channel and it blew me away how badass it sounded! Very unloved amp you have there,but I loved mine! Just make sure the switch on back is put in correct position for tube selection as in el-34 0r 6L6,even though the switch does help the bias it still needs to be properly biased..
 
Right on, I am stoked to hear that you enjoyed it too! I have quad matched JJ's as well!

Which PI pre-amp tube brand do you recommend?

I think using a high-quality 5th pre-amp tube (PI tube) would be beneficial for transferring power over or whatever it does because I switched out my reverb pre-amp tube (the tube has been used less) into the PI spot and I already noticed a improvement of tone clarity!

I have been using the gain channel and running effects through the FX loop for the longest time, but recently I tried playing my pedals through the front on the clean channel, and delay pedals through the back... DAMN, it blew me away how much more response I get from it. That clean channel has some very sharp tone definition that I feel is better than the second channel. Maybe the diode clipping does play a part in that.

I absolutly love this amp and it does the job right! I am broke AF so I'll probably have it for the rest of my life!
I wish there was a way to post a picture of it on this board because I have some beautiful pictures of the amp in great condition and new tubes, but the discussion board will not allow me too (**Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached***).

Do you know a way to share a picture?

Thanks again for responding and have a great day
 
AmpliFIRE":20qukgbq said:
Sounds like an angry can of bees. Not a fan...
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Somethin' must of have been wrong with the one you played because mine sound far from it dude!
 
His amp was not blessed by the church of satan in California, that's why it sounds bad
 
lespaul6":2kpif6d8 said:
His amp was not blessed by the church of satan in California, that's why it sounds bad
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HAHAHAHAHAHA!

\m/
 
I thought these had reliability issues? I never owned one but there was an explosion around both the "bee factor" and amp fails years ago. Never looked at them after that.
 
I've had one for many years. My first tube amp (head and matching 412).

The clean channel is very nice and full. I'd describe it as a very round and bell-like clean. It's sort of dark without the bright switch but I always liked it better that way.

Lead channel is sort of like a much fatter sounding and slightly mushier JCM 900..sort of. Hard to explain but there's a similarity there. There is a TON of low end on this amp. When you crank the low end on this amp it's crazy how punchy and huge it sounds. Not the same as a dual recto for example where it's in a "farty" frequency range. It mushes but still has punch. Very speaker dependent amp too, mine sounds great though the Carvin cab (darker Eminence made speakers) but kind of buzzy through my Mesa 212 with V30/75.
 
glassjaw7":2ad359vr said:
I've had one for many years. My first tube amp (head and matching 412).

The clean channel is very nice and full. I'd describe it as a very round and bell-like clean. It's sort of dark without the bright switch but I always liked it better that way.

Lead channel is sort of like a much fatter sounding and slightly mushier JCM 900..sort of. Hard to explain but there's a similarity there. There is a TON of low end on this amp. When you crank the low end on this amp it's crazy how punchy and huge it sounds. Not the same as a dual recto for example where it's in a "farty" frequency range. It mushes but still has punch. Very speaker dependent amp too, mine sounds great though the Carvin cab (darker Eminence made speakers) but kind of buzzy through my Mesa 212 with V30/75.
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Exactly! You pretty much defined that amp and yes, this amp is very speaker dependent!
 
SatanSix666SixSix":19hpaj1c said:
Right on, I am stoked to hear that you enjoyed it too! I have quad matched JJ's as well!

Which PI pre-amp tube brand do you recommend?

I think using a high-quality 5th pre-amp tube (PI tube) would be beneficial for transferring power over or whatever it does because I switched out my reverb pre-amp tube (the tube has been used less) into the PI spot and I already noticed a improvement of tone clarity!

I have been using the gain channel and running effects through the FX loop for the longest time, but recently I tried playing my pedals through the front on the clean channel, and delay pedals through the back... DAMN, it blew me away how much more response I get from it. That clean channel has some very sharp tone definition that I feel is better than the second channel. Maybe the diode clipping does play a part in that.

I absolutly love this amp and it does the job right! I am broke AF so I'll probably have it for the rest of my life!
I wish there was a way to post a picture of it on this board because I have some beautiful pictures of the amp in great condition and new tubes, but the discussion board will not allow me too (**Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached***).

Do you know a way to share a picture?

Thanks again for responding and have a great day
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The box shows ECC81-JJ's..MTS I had was like brand new,guy bought it new and had original receipt,he said to powerful for him so he put it in one of his closets covered up..I would and probably will pick another one up shortly..highly under-rated amps..mine had zero noise at all volumes on both channels..they come stock with Sovtek 5881's,thats when I switched to the JJ's.
 
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