Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Recent acquisition.
The Carvin VT16
http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/s ... oduct=VT16

Sweet little amp head at 28 pounds 16 / 5 amp pure tube signal path with the exception of a digital reverb.

After long though and multiple conversations with Jeff about his V3 mini amp I came to realize that my needs being different that a small single channel amp was all I really needed.

8 / 16 ohm switchable out put as well as a built in dummy load.

I love it !

Got her set up with the line out into my PA set on the 5 amp setting and the dummy load instead of a speaker.
With just a little tweaking I've got that tone I love, and a little more gain / responsiveness and the only ambient sound on the stage is from the monitors. Not an amp screaming in my left ear.
If this continues to work this well I may have to sell my Nomad and get a 2x12 cab for when I'm not playing through the PA
[img][img]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm74/sanshouheil/Pedalboard001.jpg[/img][/img]

sans im a big fan of smaller amps turned up rather than visa vesa , always sounds more real ! kobalt aint bad either

LOL ... The tool chest has really decreased the number of boxes we have to tote to a gig. It holds all of our Hot Spots, cables, extra tube s tools, mic's and other small gear perfectly.

Had I listened more intently to some of the guys here a few years ago I would have been on the micro amp band wagon sooner.
In my inexperience I actually thought that the 50 watt Nomad would be " small " enough.
Don't get me wrong the Nomad an awesome amp, But to turn the volume up much past 4 or 5 is just painful, and disruptive to the stage audio environment.

yea i use a 20 wtt amp about 95 % of the time

Not me Im a monster amp guy, 150 Watt Triple Rec into a pair of 4x12s is my weapon of choice, but actually I dont play that loud, now if you want loud I can give it to you, but I just dont turn it up that hot, but I do get a fat aggressive sound.

For recording, I use a 20 watt Mesa or a POD PRO Preamp, but it doesnt matter I sound about the same no matter what I play thru.

Ive used my triple, my roadster (100 watts), my 20 watter, and even did a couple of gigs with the Preamp. But theres just something about the big heads that beg me to use them!

In thinking along these lines, if you could get a drummer who would play electric drums, you could just do away with amps altogether, run everything into the PA and use some in ear monitors, it would be slick and overall volume changes would be a snap, but my band is almost too old to learn new tricks, we still give it the dinosaur treatment with lots and lots of paper, LOL!

Rock On

Nice amp George, but you sure run your gain hot, on my mesa's I dont get much past twelve oclock and get all the gain I need.

Thanks John & yes I do run it pretty hot on this little head.
Though I'm far from done with the experimental stage the setting shown on the photo ( except for the reverb ) is where I got the identical tone I got out of my Nomad's lead channel with the soak @t 2.5 / 3 and the volume @ 3-4
Once I get it near the maximum or edge of feed back I use the tone and volume pots on my guitar to alter the tone / intensity depending on the needs of the song or segment there of, as per your suggestion several years ago.

We will be working on blending three to four voices into our music over the next several months. Much of our new music is " pretty " and the harmonies will make or break them as far as emotion / crowd appeal go.
The more control I have over the stage environment as the " sound man " the easier that task will be.

Looks like a sweet amp there George! Congratulations on your new acquisition!

Thanks Jeff.
I'm really enjoying it.

Was a difficult choice between the VT16 & the V3M despite the obvious price point difference.
But to date I have never used the clean channel on my Nomad at a gig.

I figured at this point with everything else I am trying to cover as the light sound & guitar player the KISS method would be the best choice for the amp.

This evening I'll take my Strat out there and see how she responds to the new amp.
Just for giggles.

LOL. glad you remember about the volume and tone on your guitar, so many people I see just dime it all the time.

I set my amps up pretty hot too, and then just push them with the guitar volume, like you said.There is a world of tones right there without even tweaking an amp.

That looks like a sweet amp, would love to plug it into one of my 4x12s and see what it would do with them.

Keep Rockin

Im back to being the sound and light guy also, the last two shows were much smoother with me just setting it up and rolling with it, our sound guy just couldnt keep his hands off the controls.

Agreed ... set it up and then roll with it.

I've played the new V16 through the 12" speaker in my Nomad and I have to say it sounds quite good especially in the 16 watt mode.
The 5 watt "triode" mode is a little thinner but gave me some sweet single coil tones from my Strat's neck p/u tonight when I rolled back on the tone control on the guitar.

The 4x12 cab you mention is 8 ohm yes ?
Was a fairly clean MARSHAL slant face top I felt up in a pawn shop Saturday.
But they wanted $250.00 and my not being able to tell what speakers / condition was in it I found that kind of steep.

Saw another Cab today at a " garage " sale in an old Chevy dealership building.
Man that thing was six foot tall. Appeared to be a bass cab built to hold two 18's. No speakers, and the back was just a piece of old ply painted black.
I had no cash on me so I did not even make an offer for it.
Wish I knew more about this stuff. I'm coming across all kind of old gear making the " antique " rounds with Jeanette.

this is the amp I've been using the last 6 years love it http://www.alessandro-products.com/GPNO ... wp2_sm.jpg you can see it on stage on my posted pics

Now that is a unique looking amp.

she's a sweetheart & one of the best sounding ( for my style) Ive ever payed through. somewhere between an old fender deluxe and an old vox ac15

i love carvin gear , great stuff , i use 5, 10 and 15 watt little tube amps , just crank'em and go , i have been interested in the little v 16 for a while , i like the way you have your rig run , i will have to try
that myself...