tell me about the Carvin X60B

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halford
halford
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Hey guys

Anyone played one, had one, uses one?

One for sale in my local area hopefully gonna try it in a few days.

I have a 5150 looking for something quiter for practise.

Looking for good 80's metal tones.

Its the 6L6 version too.

Cheers!
 
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halford":c538b said:
Hey guys

Anyone played one, had one, uses one?

One for sale in my local area hopefully gonna try it in a few days.

I have a 5150 looking for something quiter for practise.

Looking for good 80's metal tones.

Its the 6L6 version too.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

they are great amps for that 80's sound

have a freind touring and he is looking for one
that i belive is an X 100 B
it has a bumper sticker on it that says Helmet Law's Suck
in the Middle of the Head
if any know's where this Head Is Please contact me with pic's
we belive it was lost ! :cry:
 
Hey man,

Good luck with finding it. What's Helmets Law anyway?
 
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halford":41bd9 said:
Hey man,

Good luck with finding it. What's Helmets Law anyway?
Click to expand...

Ride Free :)
the real reason we are looking for this head is
because it was bought off Steve Vai
yep the one and only Steve Vai and we Miss it :aww:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/kevinkyle46542/myoldcarvinrig.jpg
 
Ah ha I see!

Well,hopefully gonna try it out next few days.

Have a good feeling it might be good for me (and quiter!)

So Vai used to use one?? Not up on the play with Vai's backline
 
i've got one. what do you want to know? front panel layout is similar to a mesa mkII. rhythm.. lead.. master.. bass.. middle.. treble.. presence.. and reverb with a switchable graphic eq for either rhythm or lead channels. 25%-50%-100% and switchable 4-8-16 ohm selection on the the back.
to really get the most out of this amp i suggest you get the fs 36 footswitch. it will allow you to channel switch.. turn the effects loop on and off.. use the loop as a solo boost when nothing is plugged into it.. and turn the reverb on and off.
it has active eq. start with all tone controls at 5 and add or subtract from there.
it has a nice full.. warm sounding clean channel and a very liquidy sounding lead channel. it doesn't sound like a mesa or a marshall.. but sort of in between. the active eq really adds alot to the range of tones you can get from the amp.. so some experimenting can work wonders. it also takes pedals very well.
if you take some time to google you can probably find instructions for building the fs 36 on the web. i was lucky. i got mine used for 100 usd and the footswitch came with it.
i'm using it through a marshall 1960b with g12t75's right now. i went to the carvin site and checked the museum. i believe that ev's were offered with thier cabs at the time.. so that could give you some kind of an idea as to what they were thinking as far as speakers were concerned. hope that helps. :)
just wanted to add that if you are looking for this thing to get 5150 tones.. you aren't going to get there without a pedal or a rack in the loop. it's more of a mid gainer.. which suits me fine.
 
Hey thanks for the reply!

wow lots of info there.

No i dont want 5150 tones. i want 80's metal tones. Priest, Maiden etc.

Could i get them or should i be looking at somethign else?

Thanks man
 
you'll probably want to think about using some sort of distortion pedal to get you there as it's pretty smooth sounding stock. i've had good results with a ds-1.. but it's not everyone's cup of tea as a distortion pedal. i believe vai used to use one with the x amps. keep the distortion low and the level up. i usually set the distortion at about ten or eleven o'clock and the gain about one or two o'clock and work the guitar's volume control to go from clean to dirt. hit the lead channel with the ds-1 engaged and you get some nice controlable overtones. i usually set the lead gain at about eight to keep it from getting too saturated. that way it stays tight and sings nicely. you can control overtones simply by adjusting your guitar angle to the cab. if you're looking to get priest/maiden type tones you may want to experiment with different pedals and find one to your liking.
turning up the presence control also helps add some sizzle to the tone and makes it sound more marshall-like. i use the graphic set to the lead channel and notch it like a "v" so it doesn't "push" when i engage the channel.
i like a big bottle 6l6 in this amp. when i got it it had peavey super 6's in it. they're a small bottle 6l6 and sounded too thin for my tastes. i went with jj 6l6's and it really warmed it up and made it sound deep.. thick and more musical. i think the previous owner was trying to turn it into a
marshall clone instead of trying to figure out what it was supposed to sound like as itself. i've had mine for about four years now and it does a really nice 70's-80's thing. it's a keeper.. for me anyway. :thumbsup:
 
cheers man!

i got a maxon ts808 so at least i got somethign to try with it.

yeah keen to try tyhis amp now, not many for sale in my area so may as well make the most of it.
 
if you do decide to get it, retubing is a breeze. carefully remove the old tubes. the downside to this amp is that the tube sockets.. both pre and power.. are ceramic and are attached directly to the pcb board. you just have to wiggle them carefully in and out when replacing tubes so you don't crack the socket or the pcb and its traces. the x amp uses a resistor to set the bias.. so you don't need a bias meter or dmm. just plug in the new tubes and away you go. x amps are biased a bit on the cold side from the factory.. so you may want to talk to a reputable tube supplier when it comes to picking power tubes.
i've got an od 808 but i haven't tried it with this amp because the od 808 pushes the mids a bit and being a 6l6 based amp it's not lacking in that department.
good luck and i hope i've helped. :)
 
i just wanted to add that a downlaodable pdf manual.. schematics.. and fs 36 schematics can be found at www.carvin.com.
 
The active EQ is really powerful. Check the manual posted ^^^

I would describe the X100B as marshally, but you can dial in a Mesa-esque sound using the settings in the manual.

I keep thinking about selling mine, but for some reason i cant bring myself to do it.
 
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1big1":b5747 said:
if you do decide to get it, retubing is a breeze. carefully remove the old tubes. the downside to this amp is that the tube sockets.. both pre and power.. are ceramic and are attached directly to the pcb board. you just have to wiggle them carefully in and out when replacing tubes so you don't crack the socket or the pcb and its traces. the x amp uses a resistor to set the bias.. so you don't need a bias meter or dmm. just plug in the new tubes and away you go. x amps are biased a bit on the cold side from the factory.. so you may want to talk to a reputable tube supplier when it comes to picking power tubes.
i've got an od 808 but i haven't tried it with this amp because the od 808 pushes the mids a bit and being a 6l6 based amp it's not lacking in that department.
good luck and i hope i've helped. :)
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Hey man thanks HEAPS for all the info.

will hopefully be getting the amp tomorow if no other mo fo gets it and will let ya know!

comes with the footswitch too
 
you are more than welcome and i'm glad i could help. i think it's appropriate to mention that there were three different incarnations of the x amp. the earliest was black tolex covered with white piping and had 6L6's in the power section. that was followed by the el 34 powered version after people complained that the 6L6 version didn't sound "marshally" enough. some of them were covered in black tolex before they switched to the gray "fuzzy" version. after they switched to el 34's players complained that it didn't have enough gain so they made a third version that had what they called a "hotrodded" gain channel. the reason i mention this is because i think it's important to know which version you have so you know what to expect tonewise.
i'm glad you got the footswitch with it as it seems that that is the hardest part to find.
 
...didnt get the amp or get to try it :( :thumbsdown: :cry:

was GASing bad for it! so many people wanted it the price was too high for me and a second amp.

Gonna get looking again for something.

Thanks for all the info on the Carvin! know alot about them now :)
 
Ive tried to shy away from them
but i just keep coming right back to them
the Carvin MTS 3200 Kicks ass
its the 50th Anniversarry Edition :m8:
 
I got a Carvin Valvemaster head for sale....it's the iteration after the X series, before the MTS series. It kicks ass and is super versatile. Can use EL34s or 6L6s, 100/50 watt switch, FX loops, etc. :cool:
 
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halford":80ed2 said:
...didnt get the amp or get to try it :( :thumbsdown: :cry:

was GASing bad for it! so many people wanted it the price was too high for me and a second amp.

Gonna get looking again for something.

Thanks for all the info on the Carvin! know alot about them now :)
Click to expand...

sorry that didn't work out for you.. but there are some good deals on "sleeper" amps out there. hopefully you'll find one. :)
 
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