Well... So much for that. NAD

  • Thread starter Thread starter War_in_D
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War_in_D

War_in_D

Well-known member
So, I had commented in the "New Gear Resolution" thread that I didn't see myself buying much of anything going into 2025. But, I did mention that targets of opportunity were still on the table and technically it's still 2024. So... Enter this Carvin Legacy (Steve Vai) 212 Combo. Hit a pawnshop last Friday that was doing 30% off all guitars/amps and after discount I brought it home for right at three bills after tax. Going through it today checking tubes, bias, cleaning inputs/outputs, pots, etc..

I feel like these kind of get a bad rap on the interwebs but initial impressions after a very short playing session with it yesterday is that it sounds decent but reverb is horrible. I didn't mark the preamp tubes in their positions before I took them out, but put them back in where I thought they should be given what the Orange MKII tells me. I may do some tube rollin' before I throw it back in the cab. It's sporting a full set of GT power (EL34R) and preamp tubes (12ax7C's) right now. Still has the original V30's in it as well.

Carvin Legacy Chassis.jpg


Carvin Legacy Combo.jpg
 
For that price, I would have taken it home as well. I think a big folly in most amp can situations are the speakers they use. My Rivera has a fatter, more in your face sound with greenback style speakers, or at least one mixed in than with straight V30s. I wonder if all of those came stock with V30s, and the amp actually meshes better with another pairing.

I always wanted the Vai stuff when I was looking through the old Carvin catalogs. Even now, seeing that can made me a little giddy.

Great buy. Let us know how it works out!!
 
CrystalSky said:
Happy NAD! These Legacy halfstacks looked cool to me back then when I saw them in magazines as a kid.
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Yeah, I'm not the biggest Steve Vai fan but gotta give the guy props for sure. First time I remember ever hearing about him was as Jack Butler in Crossroads. Just checked the bias and it was running a bit cool at around 23 mV so I bumped it up to 36 mV on the hottest tube and letting it sit right now to see how much drift I get. Be interesting to see how it sounds after a bias adjustment.
 
I had a Legacy 1 head. $300 is a great price for that combo. I preferably liked 6L6 tubes in it. Paired mine with a VHT fatbottom 212 cab. Had good rock tones with a boost. Not metal really. Soloing and cleans were the best parts of it. I liked the legacy way more than the X-100B. On a side note, growing up in the Midwest, getting Carvin catalogs as a younger guy was the best.
 
crwnedblasphemy said:
I had a Legacy 1 head. $300 is a great price for that combo. I preferably liked 6L6 tubes in it. Paired mine with a VHT fatbottom 212 cab. Had good rock tones with a boost. Not metal really. Soloing and cleans were the best parts of it. I liked the legacy way more than the X-100B. On a side note, growing up in the Midwest, getting Carvin catalogs as a younger guy was the best.
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Getting a pretty wide bias range on this set of tubes with my Weber Bias Rite. Only three of the four probes work though. Hottest tube is staying right around 36.5 but I've got about 28 and 31 on the other two. The two outer tubes measured 10 on my Orange MKII (36 and 31), two inside measured 9 and that's the one running at 28. Not sure if the tubes are that far out of whack or I have something else going on.
 
War_in_D said:
Getting a pretty wide bias range on this set of tubes with my Weber Bias Rite. Only three of the four probes work though. Hottest tube is staying right around 36.5 but I've got about 28 and 31 on the other two. The two outer tubes measured 10 on my Orange MKII (36 and 31), two inside measured 9 and that's the one running at 28. Not sure if the tubes are that far out of whack or I have something else going on.
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I thought those just told you general specs and gain levels, I didn't think they were used for matching like that. Like you could have tubes with different gain factors that would still 'match'. I could be so absolutely wrong though, just going off of vague memory.
 
GuitarGuy08 said:
I thought those just told you general specs and gain levels, I didn't think they were used for matching like that. Like you could have tubes with different gain factors that would still 'match'. I could be so absolutely wrong though, just going off of vague memory.
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It does the gain levels on the preamps tubes, but it's supposed to be able to match power tubes by the "number". Although, it's not a accurate as something like a maximatcher. I would imagine that whatever number the Orange gives you would be within a range, so if you had a really low 9 and a really high 10 they might be pretty far apart even though the 9/10 would look pretty close on paper.
 
crwnedblasphemy said:
I had a Legacy 1 head. $300 is a great price for that combo. I preferably liked 6L6 tubes in it. Paired mine with a VHT fatbottom 212 cab. Had good rock tones with a boost. Not metal really. Soloing and cleans were the best parts of it. I liked the legacy way more than the X-100B. On a side note, growing up in the Midwest, getting Carvin catalogs as a younger guy was the best.
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I loved those Carvin catalogs. Would constantly look at the guitars. Koa DC400 with all the switches on it. 😀
 
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