Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

We had a gig last night. After setting up and turning the V3M on I always let the amp warm up in standby mode for a couple of minutes. When I turned the amp out of standby into play, NOTHING. I could hear the speaker pop when I turned it on like always. I could never get anything to come thru the speaker cab. after about 40 minute of elimination and frustration I thru in the towel on the Carvin V3M. I only use this amp for gigs and have played thru it maybe 10 times in the few months I have had it. We were about 50 miles from our house. Thank goodness we were only about 5 miles from the rehearsal room and the Bass player went to his house where we rehearse and picked up my Crate V32. I plugged it into the Mesa cab I use and we were back in buisiness. The sound guy did tell me the Crate has a thinner sound than the V3M of which I noticed in my IEM's. It made the setup a little stressful but we had a great crowd and a fantastic gig.
I really need consistency in the amps I am using and unfortunately I am beginning to believe that the V3M is not what I need. I am however going to give Carvin ONE more chance. If they rectify the problem I will continue to use this amp. However if this turns out to be a continued intermittent problem it will mean the end of me as a customer. I will keep you posted!

OH man ...
For sure keep us posted.
For what they want for one of those things it aught to last three life times.

I called Carvin this morning and described the problems I am having with the new V3M. The Tech I talked to said he is going to email a pre-paid shipping invoice and as soon as he has confirmation that I have shipped the head back to Carvin he would send me a new one. I'll keep you posted.

Their customer service has been exemplary.

Well ... with the exception of the dope head idiot I talked to the first time I called them.

Only service issues of late has been they shipped fud-ex.

Phuc fud-ex.

I had the EXACT same experience with them George! The sales guy I first talked with when ordering the head initially was vague and not very helpful! they sent it to me UPS they showed up at 10:00 pm.
The funny thing is the same guy I talked to when I first purchased the head is the one that talked to me today (Bart) LOL!

Yes apparently they have their sales people and then the techs they keep hidden away in the back room.

The tech fellows I have dealt with on questions / issues seem to very much have their poop in a group.

I just got off the phone with the Tech (Bart) he said my new head will ship today! I packed it up and dropped it off at the UPS center about 5 miles from my house yesterday. We will see but it looks like they do what they say. I will keep you posted!

I still want one of those amps ... It has to do better than that though

I called the folks at Carvin and sure enough the new head has been shipped. He gave me the tracking no. I think that these new heads were in such demand they had a hard time keeping up and perhaps manufactureing was a bit rushed. I'll just use the Mesa Mark IV for the gig this sat. and hopefully will be able to use the V3M at the gig on the 27th.

The new amp head arrived last night (Mon.) at 5:30pm I pulled it out of the box. It was so newly manufactured you can smell the paint fumes. I hooked it up to my cab. and set all the knobs to get the best sound that suits my playing. Everything works like it is supposed to. It is a different beast than the Mesa Mark IV but man that V3M sure has some good tones VERY CREAMY just sounds so good! I can't wait to play it at the gig this Sat. hopefully this one won't give me any problems.

Recent extended family / social issues have us strapped to scraping up change for gas money to get to work.

But that amp is on the to do list ... when better times come around again.