Found the Heritage looking for a Legacy

[mars_hall]

I heard a friend play a Legacy 1 through a pair of V30s a few weeks ago and it was one of the most fluid sounding amps I'd heard live in a long time. Lots of articulate bloom and range in its tone palette.

 

Some amps will just seem to play along with you and respond to your every touch. This is definitely one of them and it's designed to sing. 100W/50W/15W

 

A Legacy is coming my way and should be here Friday.

 

 

 

Listen to the whole thing. This one has more than one voice.

 

 

[yoslate]

Like the clean channel...which is probably where I'd live (sounds good with single coils!). Lush reverb! Channel 2...very usable (drive around 2 to 4). Ah...EL34's...yes. Like the mids on channel 3.... Like the way it responds to pick attack, too. "Singing" is a good descriptor! I'm not a gain player, but if I were, I'd be thinking hard about this box! Looking forward to hearing you review, Mark!

[JeffB]

Cool! Look forward to your review.

[Guest HRB853370]

Carvin, right?

[Gitfiddler]

Carvin makes great gear. Congrats on scoring one of their best products. And yes, sound clips if you can, when you can.

[FredZepp]

I can see in the demos why you are likeing that amp. There's lots that can be done within the three channels and with 100/50/15 W available it can fit a lot of situations.

 

It really shined in the demos... I'd have high expectations for that Legacy.

[Genericmusic]

Carvin makes great gear. Congrats on scoring one of their best products. And yes, sound clips if you can, when you can.

+1

They make very good amps and you've chosen one of the best

[Steiner]

I'm real curious about your take on the Carvin; knowing your affinity to the Euro "M" company. Please do keep us abreast.

[Guest HRB853370]

I'm real curious about your take on the Carvin; knowing your affinity to the Euro "M" company. Please do keep us abreast.

 

He likes Behringer equally well too!!

 

[bolero]

you're going to have to change your username!!

[H]

... Euro "M" Company

We might be in the EU but "M" is British through and through!

[fxdx99]

Nice when you find an amp that really blows your dress up. Congrats. And yeh, looking forward to reading your review. A work buddy is a big Vai fan, has an early Legacy version (and Jem(s) to go with it).

[mars_hall]

you're going to have to change your username!!

Mar_vin ;p

[212Mavguy]

Here's hoping for your greatly enjoying it, trouble free, for a long time!

[tulk1]

Thats a lot of knobs for a lunch box amp!! Whats the footswitch look like?

[mars_hall]

Thats a lot of knobs for a lunch box amp!! Whats the footswitch look like?

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/FS44M

[mars_hall]

Here's the report out on the new amp.

 

I just spent some quality time with my new child. A lot of time you come home from work in the evening and your mind is focused on a hundred different things other than where you would like it to be. There's getting out of your work clothes, entertaining that child that wants your attention 'cause Mom's spent as well, supper, the news, and going over what you've accomplished today and what you hope gets done tomorrow. Then there is the required march to the cave to noodle in and out of that rut you've dug yourself into, while trying to clear your way out into new territory and hoping you've remembered that gained the night before or perhaps before you went to work this morning. You have your chores and social obligations there and here, so you look at that new amp and plan for daybreak Saturday morning when the house and your mind are at peace.

 

During the week in the hurried calamity of living, I plugged in and quickly ran through the paces of trying to meet my expectations only to find I can do things half-assed if I try little enough. So I did a series of tired licks and counted on Saturday.

 

 

Today came.

 

15W

H157V SD SH-11B and Pearly Gate N

Marshall 1960A GT12-75

Marshall 1960C Greenbacks

 

Clean - CH1

The cleans are as perfect as any clean amp I have heard. The full tonal palette is there and it is shocking to hear this clarity coming from an amp associated with Steve Vai, especially through the Celestions in the 1960A cabinet. I am not a critic of the blackface/silverface world, but I do know what I hear and any of you looking for the unsaturated tones of that world will find it. The reverb sounds very nice as well. I prefer just a subtle touch of it and set it at about 9:30 on the dial.

 

Crunch - CH2

Both CH2 and CH3 tend to engage their treble coloration somewhere above 1 o'clock on the dial.

 

In most other amps, you will find a downward change in treble coloration that tracks the amount of gain/drive used in the setting. In this amps case, that is not necessarily the situation. Once fixed at a level, the high frequency content is constant across the changes in gain.

 

It should be noted that the treble control in the EQ section appears to operate on a lower band of frequencies than the presence control. Presence adds treble from a loop after the output tube stage in an amp, whereas normal treble controls are before the output tubes. That is another way of saying output tubes can mask the content passing through them.

 

All things being equal, the amp has a very nice saturation when the drive is engaged. At this point I have not turned the gain much passed 12 o'clock on this channel as I have been trying to achieve a balance between the 3 channels from the standpoint of usable variations for what I would do most. I can explore more later. Achieving balance is surprisingly easy, given the wide range of saturation levels I use.

 

The gain in this channel is very usable and can vary from slight bite to full gnaw. Like I said, I haven't explored much in the upper range, have yet to dime it in CH2 or CH3, but sense it is there for the asking. Not the brash but the Leslie West edge of pulling nails from sappy oak.

 

Ultra - CH3

One of the things you notice about this channel is the sensitivity to attack. If I were to approximate what I hear it would be two parallel paths to the output section. One of the paths tracks the gain setting directly in that it has the continuous bite no matter the change in attack. The perceived parallel path varies directly with attack responding to lighter touch almost as clean then as harder touch is engaged goes to full snarl in this path matching it parallel sister. Like I said it is a perception and may not reflect what is actually going on within the amp.

 

There is a small range around 2 oclock for this channel on the presence control that is most critical. Small changes cause rapid changes in the treble coloration. This amp has been described as dark. That may mean on CH2 or CH3 you have to push the presence above 1 or 2 oclock to get the proper (my ear) content. It is possible to get too much and a lot has to do with the pickups on my guitar (SH-11) which were designed for brighter guitars. My red 157 which tends to have much way more high content has to be backed off with the same amp setting. The pick used is also a factor.

 

From a usability standpoint, I will have to find a place for this channel as its true character has not yet been fully explored. It doesn't sound like a rehash of channel 2, but once you are into high gain range, it is a choice of which color to use at the moment. That said, I prefer CH2 for its greater clarity but at this point back off its gain more than I would like and use CH3 to have the widest range of coloration across the three channels.

 

 

 

I will go to the 100W setting with its full headroom at some point in the near future and see my child as it truly was meant to shine. So far on the 15W setting the master has been just above 1 on the dial. The individual channel volumes have been in the 9 to 10 oclock range and one of the rules of amp design is to fix your design at 12 o'clock, middle of the range. Any other setting is compromising the intent of the baseline design. This changes the colorations available since circuits are operated away from the middle of their curves and shifts in filtering occurs. It's a system with everything in the path effecting the outcome. Everything. It's a good buy.

[JeffB]

That is a great review. The product reviewed is secondary to the review. The review is the "thing"

So many quotable lines and statements.

 

I like multi channel amps and have tried quite a few of the usual suspects. Ive never tried any of the Carvin Legacy models. You made me want to.

[Genericmusic]

Great review. I've been toying with the idea of a Carvin V3m. Similar but 1/2 the power. I'd be interested to hear more about your musical adventure.

[Steiner]

^{Man, that was fun! I enjoyed the way you approached this; comprehensive and well though out. Just a fun read. And yes, I'm going to have to check one out too. Thanks for the review}

[barrymclark]

I was VERY seriously looking at this amp for the cleans alone awhile back.

[212Mavguy]

Aww, what a nice review, well done! I like the descriptions of what you are percieving about the amp circuit. Your presence control is fairly common, it's called a feedback loop, and that power section is where they often originate from. There is a lead coming post power tube back to the preamp that the control pot and other parts are located somewhere on.

 

Some amps use feedback loops within the preamp to affect their tone palette as well. Ultra-linear amps have a special tap in the output transformer for a negative feedback loop, in a hifi amp negative feedback is used to keep the amp clean sounding at higher volumes. Thinking that the not so popular Fender 75 watter combo uses this configuration.

 

Check out the C-lator from Ceriatone, it's one example of the Dumble designed tube loop buffer that not only mates your effects seamlessly within an amp's fx loop, it also serves as the overall master volume for your amp. This is the secret of the Dumble camp, how to control those 100 to 150 watt late 70's early 80's monster stadium amps to get them to sound great at the smaller rooms, easier on the output tubes than an attenuator. I have a very nice attenuator/lineout box as well as the C-lator, they both have their uses. Not too many folks know about them. Using the c-lator, I can get singing leads with great tones at usable smaller club stage/room volumes. I can use that massively powerful 100 watter of mine where I want instead of outside blasting only, because that amps tone is so good that it would be a waste to not be able to play it anywhere I want. For me to own a given amp it has to work very, very well where ever I want it to.

[mars_hall]

Finally took the subliminal hint the designers had placed in the amp via the LEDs they had associated with the channels (1 Green/ 2 Red/ 3 Amber) and worked out what to do with a gratuitous channel 3. You may recall I was not sure earlier, having found such a killer in channel 2. Normally folks will tend to think that because a channel, ch3 in this case, has more gain it should naturally be used for the cutting edge to nail a lead into place. That works in most cases, at least until you run into the limits of what you consider acceptable tastes in tone. Just because you can use the extra umph, doesn't necessarily mean you should. So in this case, less is more.

 

I approached the possibilities available in a slightly different way, which means backing off the gain in channel 3, boosting the presence and cutting the mids on the EQ to find a sweet spot and a good mid level crunch channel, which is now properly aligned with the default amber LED left to contemplate by the original designers. Problem incubation works.

 

I now use the 50W setting and have switched from using a stock 1960A 4x12 cabinet with its Celestion GT12-75s to a 1960BC with Greenbacks. I had read on the Carvin forum that the Legacy design had originally used Greenbacks before switching to V30s and I am elated with the results I am now getting. The whole system is now better balanced, matches the output of my red 157 (59s) which is sonically bright, and is very responsive to changes in attack.

 

I gave it all a shot with a EVM-12L loaded Thiele, having switched to a darker voiced 157 (SH-11s) and while it sounded good, I didn't play loud enough to put it into the working range of the EVM and cabinet. On a Friday night with the wife and child watching TV in the next room, you have to consider your options wisely and well, the greenbacks sound great at a lower levels.

 

I am considering getting a Legacy for my son-in-law, who can appreciate the sweet tool it is.

[mars_hall]

Here is my friend Rick playing his Legacy, the one that got me interested in them, with a couple of friends

 

 

[TalismanRich]

So that's what "heavy metal" looks like, eh?