All the Tubes! Carvin Quad-X

[@DangerNoodle-yw8yt]

Ok I've owned my Quad X for well over two years and it sits alongside a Mesa Studio, a JMP1 and a Triaxis. The Triaxis is my favourite, nothing can touch it but I really think this video does the Quad X a disservice. The valves used make a massive difference to the sound - Ive discovered EHX give it a smooth and rich warmth that Harma, JJ Tesla and Telefinken dont. So before anyone slags the pre off check the valves. The Quad X was also ahead of its time in having onboard speaker emulation, MIDI switching and very high levels of connectivity. Its a great piece of kit. Just pay as much attention to dialling it in as you might with a Mesa preamp.

[@DCWPFLHTP]

Had one since they came out...love it.

[@ianfurqueron5850]

Oh wow... I remember wanting one of these so much back in the day since I had a X100B head... but ended up with an ADA MP-2 instead, since I think Musician's Friend was blowing them out for cheap (along with the matching Microtube 200 power amp). Combined with the fact I could fit the ADA bits and some effects into a 4 space rack and I was happy. I still have the ADA stuff.

[@fafe283]

Hey Leon, I bought one a few weeks ago, and I was experiencing the same thing with the distortions, so I read the manual, and they say to not have the channel volume higher than the stereo out. And because of the active controls, the defaul values of the knobs are: Volume 3, overdrive 3, tones 5 (In all channels). The channel volume should be 3 (but can be increased to match the other channels). If you use the stereo out at 4 you should get a better sound in the crunch and lead channel. Start from default and then u should be good to explore the knobs, but remember, they are active controls, not like regular amps, a touch in the knob changes alooot.

[@stevebeck3164]

Some things to mention: The EQ sections are ACTIVE, meaning there are op-amp driven EQ stages, and can really sound crappy if tweaked too far in any direction or not balanced with the other controls. For early/mid '90's, you couldn't find a tube MIDI preamp with all the bells & whistles at the price range, compared to a $1,200.00 Triaxis.

[@backingtrackscave]

Thank you! I've been searching for a good review of the quad x for 2 years or so.

[@louisolachea1076]

I heard a Quad X Amp when they first came out. I was a bit underwhelmed then. And despite your great playing and presentation, my mind hasn't changed.

[@DaveSteele07]

The balanced outs were for poweramps with balanced inputs. Makes em super quiet!

[@Breathemusic4202]

This guy Leon, gets the BEST tones out of any channel on youtube I have heard.

[@LeonTodd]

Thankyou!

[@JBGoode-zx7pp]

13:58 14:23 14:44 Works for me! 😅

[@Arby82]

I pre ordered one of these at the Carvin Santa Ana store before they came out. Got one of the first ones and gigged it for a few years. The individual fx loops on each channel proved very handy.

[@samclements8246]

Great video, I love hearing the “under the radar” amps.

[@larslevinberget9558]

The QuadX wanted to combine the features of The Mesa Boogie Quad preamp and the Peavey Rockmaster in one...with the tone of the Marshall 9000 preamp. My friend had all those 3 in his rack, while another had the QuadX going direct to PA...in 1992!!

[@LeonTodd]

That's wild, what a rig!

[@gibsondcxpl85]

I had one of these in the early 90’s, paired it with a MosValve power amp and an ADA split cab. I was overall disappointed with it, I was going for a nice crunch but just couldn’t get a good overdriven tone in either CH3 or 4. Stuck with it until the first release of the Fender Deville

[@stevedaffer2366]

I had one of these many many years ago. A lot of cool features except the most important. The sound. My peavey rockmaster preamp got a lot more play time.

[@LeonTodd]

Love the Rockmaster! Some of the best mods gain tones in a pre ever

[@JHPRS]

@@LeonTodd I had 3 Rockmasters and I can't believe I sold them all. I guess I was younger and foolich. :)

[@JBGoode-zx7pp]

13:58 14:23 14:44 How is this not a great sound? 😅

[@FlashGrover]

2020 = the return of the preamp! Thanks leon

[@kirkpono5951]

I have a Carvin V3M and I love it! Such a great amp! Wish I could get my hands on some of those rack pre's you have! I sold all mine back in the mid 90's. Regretting that now!

[@christians254]

Agree with you review Leon. By specs and looks it promises a lot!!

[@TrumpetsInMy4x12]

Every Carvin amp ever="It's a really weird type of distortion".

[@bardicdad]

I think this is coming from a tube/op-amp hybrid circuitry. If you look at the schematic . . . tons of op-amps. I took it to a boutique amp maker to see if he could get rid of the buzz in CH 4, but he pointed out the op-amp complexity and thought the noise gate was added to calm down the obvious buzz in that channel.

[@poison7512]

​@@bardicdad nah. Plenty of all tube carvin designs that sound like complete trash.

[@bardicdad]

@@poison7512 Read a schematic before you comment again and get back to me.

[@Dejoblue]

17:13 sounds like the tire shop down the street on a busy day lmao :)

[@stevenmgyori3826]

Good morning Leon! If anyone can find some great tones with that Carvin it's You! Well done and thanks for sharing brother! Be Well All!

[@techniqueswithtodd]

I remember these, you got "pre eq" the signal before input. Gotta trim 100hz all the way off before adding much gain. Then a clean bost, then add the graphic eq on board after the fact.

[@MikeOria]

I'm a long time Quad-X'er from the early 90's. Can't blame some of these comments, however, as that unit sounds very bad. A nice set of JJ's will custom tune the drive channels. This model is a great platform for outboard effects as you alluded. The sheer number of available loops really makes it versatile. Thanks.

[@danmcnay4905]

AGREED! Quad X user from back in the day, still got it. Changed out to JJ's years ago and changed the whole beast entirely. This is for people who like to tweak their tone with a light touch. Heavy knob turning is not for this rack.

[@spetersonmusic]

Hahaha! Leon, you are going through a pretty thorough tour of all the gear I used to own back in the day. Geez. I didn't keep that preamp too long, I really didn't think it was that good. The Carvin "Tube 100" was the power amp I used with it. The power amp was chrome. LOL. Wow. You keep sending me down memory lane!

[@fillo1971]

La prima volta che l'ho visto in un negozio di Torino ne sono rimasto folgorato, un suono per l'epoca strepitoso, era il 1993-94 in vendita anche la testata 5150 peavy , erano il mio sogno, ma i soldi non me lo permettevano. Allora comprai a rate l'intellifex blak face, ormai è da quella data che ce l'ho e non lo venderò mai, adesso è in coppia con un proGap ultra da oltre 20 anni e mi ci trovo da dio. Grande Leon. 👍

[@89ji76]

I was thinking of picking up one of these because they looked interesting and seemed handy to have around the studio as a real tube option that doesn’t take up the space of an amp head plus load box. But I think I’ll be sticking with modelers. It ain’t no triaxis that’s for sure.

[@LeonTodd]

That's funny as there's one on a local bit and we'll site that reads "Quad X, just like a Triaxis!". Yeah, nah mate.

[@guitarsrusinc2908]

Bet that would sound great with an ir loaded in the effects loop

[@vinniekay0967]

I had one in the mid 90's. As a back-up for my two Mesa/Boogie Studio Pre-amps and my Kitty Hawk Quattro Pre-amp. Recorded my entire 2nd Album with it, only downside: it's kinda noisy. High gain Hisss.. Regret and can't even remember selling the amp, since i still have the Mesa Pre Amps & Kitty Hawk Amps and Marshall Power Amps, 'somewhere' in storage..

[@LeonTodd]

I've got a Studio pre and a KH Quattro as well! Fun pre's :D

[@vinniekay0967]

@@LeonTodd Funny you have both these Amps aswell ;)

[@mikeoxley9121]

I had one for a couple weeks, but sent it back. Didn’t care for the distortion sound. Later I got the Boogie Studio Pre, which I love and still have - used it for years live and in the studio, and a tour.

[@LeonTodd]

Love the studio pre, possibly my fave preamp ever!

[@tatoler38]

I have one of these. Some choice tubes in choice positions changes tones a lot. I love mine. Don’t really use the cloaking feature. The pedal for this is a must.

[@TheGospelGuitarist]

Replaced the stock China tubes for Tung-Sol and Mullard mix in the one I had; it became a tone monster. Ran into Marshall 9100 power amp into Carvin 412. This demo does not do the unit any justice at all. This unit takes time SLOWLY turning knobs to get to know what it can do. I didn't get into cloaking either.

[@donkarnage6032]

I've got a 50w combo version of the X-series amp. My impressions are the clean is really good(much better than my 6505) and good to use as a pedal platform. The overdrive channel can be very fickle. I find it's kind of got one sound it does really well and the rest is too loose or hissy. Im always boosting the OD channel with some kind of overdrive pedal to combat the natural looseness but with all that it does a great 80s rock sound and with the reverb and delay sounds great for lead guitar not the greatest for rhythm. It was always intended to be this way as the X-amp was partially designed as a Frank Zappa signature amp. Zappa almost never played rhythm(by the late 70-80s) and only played lead guitar. Most notably though, the X-amp was used on Rush's Moving Pictures album and other Rush albums throughout the 80s.

[@larslevinberget9558]

It does the Steve Vai Flex-able warm saturated tone and pristine clean, very well, but nothing crunchy or vintage like the Peavey Classic 50

[@henrod27]

I have a carvin quad x amp preamp given to me as a gift I knew it was a preamp rack and it was old but run this to my interface using IR or run it to a power amp and can and its pretty good I like, but the channel 1my gosh it is the perfect pedal platform amp Channel 2 is all right and channel 3 and 4 is useless but channel 1 giving me that fender hot rod deluxe vibes which I like alot

[@fabiol.9161]

Great video.. I asked the previous test to do that.. I can t understand so bad comments.. I think is a great unit..

[@liontone]

I had one. I could make channel 1 and 4 sound really nice. Always had to work at 2-3. Lol. So usually I just stuck a chorus or phaser or something in their loops, and used it as an auxiliary effect. Ultimately, it was easier to go back to pedalboards and amps, than fight with it, and try to make all the channels vibe with each other every night. And then there was the maintenance. The Quad X Is REALLY complicated inside. I believe It basically uses transistors to get levels, and low voltage starved tubes to create distortion. So you basically get nice cleans, and nice high gains, but the mid gains were lacking. It was just over engineered for me. Lol. I traded it for a Kingsley Minstrel that can get very high gain, and do all the low and mid gains well.

[@courtney2018]

I didn't care for the crunch sound, but everything else sounded pretty good. I liked it. Thought of getting one of these as well as a V3. Still may. Great sounding amps.

[@crazeyjoe]

As far as the "cloak" on channels 2/3. I understand it to be used as a "blend" knob between the 2 channels.

[@liontone]

Basically a high pass filter.

[@ortanchibiri]

I LOVE that you taped the "G" logo Soon I'll have my own demo of this preamp on my other (guitar related) channel. I've been postponing it since september... Before this video of yours, the best demos were by a dutch (I think) guy called Nicklaus Brocke or something similar. Nice job on this one!

[@TheRealRichardBlack]

I have an X100B from 89. I like the clean but the gain channel is just a pain to use. I ended up just using a drive pedal in front of it on the clean channel. See if you can get a hold of one, it would be interesting to see if you can make it sound half decent.

[@stevebeck3164]

I bought mine in '92. Still have it. Carvin changed the lead channel components from late 80's to early 90's. The tone is decent, but a one-trick pony. I ended up modifying the lead channel from Marshall schematics and made it much more versatile. Ch1 has incredible headroom and difficult to get it to break up without driving everyone out of the house. The switchable output power is useless.

[@JasminMusic1602]

Please test Engl 520 preamp from 92-93

[@moldypj]

Fun video, I like the modern tones maybe a dif speaker may change the flubbyness?

[@aoe-music]

I think so...I'm using the Quad X with Simul 290. I drive the clean channel 2, for Band use, with boxes. I am just using Hi Gain with Low Dist. plus an OD Pedal in front. Sounds amazing, but different for drop tunings. Ch. 1 and 3 I'm using for stand alone sound. Solo arrangements with no, or light OD. The chain ends in two DIY Thiele-Cabs with 1x12" Fane speakers. Works well for playing Funk, Rock, Hard Rock, also for Jazz & Blues. For me this video sound seems direct line without integrated analog cab sim.

[@loicv7022]

Very nice video. Really inspiring and didactic.

[@LeonTodd]

Many thanks!

[@ericharbauer]

been gassing after one of these for a long time. not as good as Id hoped for, but i still want one. lol. great vid btw.

[@terribleligadelmal4541]

You already have the triaxis, the studio, the quad... man, are you gathering all the weapons to conquer the world ?! Jokes aside, the quad x is a beast. Try a clean boost up front for early distortion (but obviously turn down the gain knob on the amp) and a high cut post preamp, it can be overdone to cut peaks from ... 6khz to 5khz maybe. This is what I do on my IV series x100b, 4CM with a Boss GT-10, so it doesn't get fizzy (well, the GT10 is known as too bright a pedal). Unfortunately I can't translate what I hear in real life to digital world ... I'm using line out, I also tried fx send, but the speaker and the room have so much impact that I can't simulate it with IR and EQ on the pc. And I suck micking a cab lol. But ... how can I describe the sound? Is it like ... a clear distortion? I don't know, maybe like Mesa's voice with the Marshall distortion, but not quite on either side. Also, it's a tweaker amp, you have to sit down and dial, and there are so many possibilities. Here at YT there are people who make it sound like a Mesa Mark, like Marshall JCM, and with an original tone like Keith Miller and BCyr1991.

[@gordontubbs]

"That tone can't have disappeared! No rackmount that small has a cloaking device." "Apology accepted Captone Needa..."

[@realtruenorth]

I feel like today's top distortion pedals can best this preamp of the 80's. Although sounded a little dimebag Darrel tone-ish at the end.

[@porieux]

Not bad but what were you using as a power amp/ cabinet?

[@NudnikShpilkus]

13:04 - interesting how different gear pulls different stuff out of the ol' gray matter, innit?

[@NudnikShpilkus]

17:05 - deffo in the angry Recto zone...

[@NudnikShpilkus]

17:20 - oooh, that's downright churlish....

[@NudnikShpilkus]

19:25 - almost expected you to break into Misirlou....

[@LeonTodd]

Yep, that's my main justification for having so much of it!

[@NudnikShpilkus]

22:35 - crunch is likely a byproduct of trying to get the clean to kinda-sorta hang together enough to produce recognizable sound near and at the amp's limits....

[@ROKZLEON]

I can't believe you found one of those! 🤣 You managed to wrestle a few good tones out of it! ✌🏻

[@Chord_The_Seeker]

My first guitar was a Carvin. It’s the one in my avatar picture. It’s sad that Carvin amplification has all but disappeared. My current main guitar is a Kiesel HH2.

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah Carvin do some solid stuff. I've got a V3 head that has some interesting features.

[@nigel900]

I love Carvin, R.I.P… and have a 1982 Carvin XV-212 100 watt combo tube amp (exactly the same as an X100B head). I adore the clean channel 1, but do not like the gain channel. This rack sounds akin to the channel 2 gain on the earlier Carvin tube amps. Great video just the same. 👍🏻

[@LeonTodd]

Very cool! I've got a V3 as well which does some pretty cool high gain stuff

[@tonyvermeer7409]

When I was preamp shopping in early 2000, this preamp and the silver VHT Valvulator were intimidating. So many knobs and sliders. No thank you.

[@PRScustom]

I used to own 1 a long long time ago

[@anguspotter-irwin7126]

What are you using for a cab? or are you just using its own direct outs?

[@Dejoblue]

The term "Serviceable" comes to mind :)

[@wakjob961]

I'd love to see a schematic for one of these... Sounds like some mod potential in there.

[@GillyRibeiro]

It's all over the Internet! Let me know if you actually have some ideas about it.

[@bardicdad]

Schematics are on the Carvin website, including a pre to post gain effects loop mod. I've done the mod on mine, and it's not hard. I think things sound a little better that way, but I would like to implement a toggle switch so I can switch between one or the other. I'm looking into swapping out the power transformer for a toroidal to help reduce some of the noise, and maybe swapping out some of the op amps for discrete op amps to help lower the noise floor further. I would also like to implement motorized pots so I can store tone settings and control on the fly via Arduino. Big ideas, but I like my Quad X and would like to make it better.

[@GillyRibeiro]

Hey! Great video, thanks! I also have a Quad X-Amp. And I found it funny that I have exactly the same "issues" as you, regarding Ch.3 and Ch.4! It's really hard to dial-in a good tone with those two channels. I liked how it sounded with the TS, though! I have recently bought one, but I haven't tried with the Carvin yet. Guess it's the ideal setup (maybe I'll drop it in the channel-loop for Ch.3). Question: how did you have the TS dialed-in? Just for a quick reference... There is no clean tone like Ch.1! Ever! It is designed for that late 80s "clean, compressed, processed tone". Love it! The cleans in Ch.2 are quite fun as well, but I tend to leave it almost dry. What I do is, set up the channel EQ on Ch.3 and "leave it" for Ch.2. That sounds good to me. I figure that the Ch.3 should be having a bit more gain/overdrive. It's mainly what I'm lacking. I crank the "Overdrive" setting all the way up to 10, with a "mild" Graph EQ on top of it, and it seems like the balls are still missing. That being, I'll crank the TS on that channel, no doubt about it! As for Ch.4, I usually go for a "lead tone" to it. Delay and reverb (I opt for an external unit, for I am not a fan of spring reverb) and it sounds like heaven! On a global, I share the exact feelings for it! That means... I don't know what to do with it! :-| Excellent video, thanks! Keep it up!

[@Batsinthebelltower]

great playing man , what pickups you got in the YJM ? if its dimarzio hs3 hs4 , do you have them wired as stacked hums or single coils ? great tones ! This amp tone reminded me of the sounds on DLR eat em n smile / skyscraper albums

[@LeonTodd]

HS3's, wired as stacked hums Love those DLR albums - the sound of summer!

[@larslevinberget9558]

@@LeonTodd no mystery, as the X100 amps were Vai's favorites at that time, at least he used it on one song :P It's on the whole Alcatraz album and Flex-able

[@shaterproofblosm]

But I already liked and favourited this video already so I cant like it again :/ This thing is absolutely incredible, thanks for showing and I would absolutely love to play with one!

[@singtall]

I had one and really wanted to like it, but in the end, the distortion had some type of nasty mid character to it that I just couldn't deal with.

[@JBGoode-zx7pp]

13:58 14:23 14:44 Works for me! 😅

[@MiamiTabor]

Now you have to show how to play the fast lick @13:40

[@patrickmoore3672]

Totally stealing that riff starting at 7:40

[@yellokrab]

That channel 4 sounds like a Metal Zone with an even more harsh eq.

[@hoosierdaddy2308]

First thing I noticed I must confess was your cool shirt! That preamp should have been named OVERKILL. 🤣😂.. Those faces you make when playing crack me up. I do it myself, and even worse contortions. 😂🤣 Good review sir. I still like the ADA better so far. I have to get one done day with like a marshall tube power amp and Marshall cab. Just for gigging and recording. 💖🤟🤟.. Great review man. Thanks so much. Stay safe sir.

[@LeonTodd]

Hahaha yes!

[@weareallbeingwatched4602]

The inside of these things looks like part of the space shuttle

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

Yeah well - I owned this for a while in the 90s. Sure there were all these functions, but it was basically rather fizzy and thin highs the clean to crunch were rather flat sounding and if you added the eq it felt like it sucked even more tone out of it. I am sure there is probably ways of making it work for specific applications but for all its functions its not really standard gig flexible.The video kind of confirms my memory of it. It kinda yields the same thinness to the core tone that a RAT does if you discount all the fuzz. If you like that then maybe you’ll be good, but at least a rat has soul. This doesn’t reallly .

[@Eventual420]

Leon, you broke YT with so many people trying to view your awesome video. Server Overload. 🤘😜🤘

[@LeonTodd]

It's all those tubes!

[@davidhendrox]

Is there a valve preamp available that can both nail modded marshall preamp sounds and mesa / soldano range in a single unit ?

[@wakjob961]

Mako MAK4 CAE 3+

[@kelvinteokiatuan6635]

don't YJM strats only come in that yellowishwhite? where's this colour from?

[@LeonTodd]

It's a Warmoth Mary Kaye white body well spotted!

[@annazolkieve9235]

17:39 =D MEZA!

[@rockostiffredi4276]

I'll stick to the Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp, me thinks.

[@Gatopanzon_1976]

clean channel EQ bass level was super low at the end

[@drloqutis2492]

it sounds like you are using it in mono try a dedicated power amp in stereo and it really opens up

[@MFitz12]

Well, Channel 2 sounds nice.

[@indianajohn5669]

CERN t-shirt? Someone went to Geneva!

[@jerryhatrick5860]

I've had both versions, ap aker combos an power amp used made a huge difference. Try to find a Hughes n Kettner cf200. And a peavey 5150 cab. But noon wants to lug this gear anymore. It was OK. Not my favorite. Made a. Ton of money off these preamp. Foot swifhbis a nightmare. To find. Wanna buy one? F's and preamp? 800 it's yours lol.

[@matthewearl9824]

It sounds FLUBBY

[@donewithmodernlife]

Somebody call Michael Nielsen! I think this is the only preamp he’s never had on his channel. Was that some Chili Peppers I heard at one point Leon? Engage the cloaking device Number 2.

[@dougwebb485]

Not bad👏

[@2155leigh]

Yeh...had one of these for years..as ya said channel 3 doesn't go anywhere..cloaking control rubbish...I bypassed cloak control with simple mod, got a tiny circuit board copying EQ made by Granger amplification & inserted in circuit just like the clean & sustain channels. Definitely better, but still doesn't sound like a great crunch sound.If carvin would have got this right...would have been an all in one tone monster. Maybe if somebody knowledgeable in audio circuits could mod circuit of channel 3 where opamps with filter circuits are combined...ya might get a different result.

[@tonycarpenter-Makzimia]

Carvin are a conundrum as a company.. I owned several things of theirs, including a custom made guitar. I had a P.A with powered speakers & subs fold back monitors and a 24 channel mixer. I also had a IEM amp. Guitar was a disappointment in the end it was my 50th birthday present (it looked great) and it just was shoddy in some of it's bits of hardware, knobs put on wonky stuff like that, and I had moved away by the time these issues happened not long after purchase. 24 channel mixer was MEH, speakers were great, and IEM was also MEH. What I have read of this piece it's surprising what it can do. Good on you for taking it for a spin and showing off something, they got right?. I should add, l lived around the corner from them in Poway CA back then :).

[@tatoler38]

The tubes these shipped with were crappy Chinese brand. Definitely replace with some quality tubes. It’s drastically changes the tones.

[@ianfurqueron5850]

the irony is now the "good" preamp tubes apparently come from China... or did until the factory burned down or something.

[@Ghaos]

Dude you and your playing rocks. That said, thanks for testing the Carvin X-amp so the rest of us don't have to. Back in the day I lusted after one of these because I loved Carvin guitars, it had alot of knobs and it looked cool, glad I didn't buy it.

[@LeonTodd]

It is nice and shiny and covered in knobs.

[@TheCjbowman]

@@LeonTodd 🤣🤣🤣

[@Ghaos]

@@LeonTodd I have the share this story. I just saw another video of a player testing the Carvin Quad-X, and it sounded decent. Looked closer and he had an Engl 530 in the loop...lol. Oh well..

[@Ghaos]

In fairness to Carvin. ALL of their other gears is/was amazing. Just not this one, it happens.

[@kasakka]

Weird unit! Ch2 sounds better for cleans than Ch1 and the distortion character on Ch3/4 is weird. Makes you wonder if the people who designed this just perceived it differently or if it should be hooked up to something different.

[@davem7632]

I had one in 2008....couldn't get a decent tone

[@annazolkieve9235]

13:39 ZW detected!

[@Yupppi]

Maybe they should've named the preamp Perfect Dark since it already has Cloaking Device. This is the definition of over-engineering. This is what kids think they want when they buy a modeller for versatility. And end up using 1-2 factory presets when it's just way too much to dive in depth. Mesa managed to somehow keep their UI somewhat intuitive and simple with quad and later mark series despite a lot of options. The Carvin looks a bit more like a project amp that you finally nailed but didn't start the interface iteration process yet. Funny thing though, the back looked like your average home cinema amplifier today.

[@LeonTodd]

Man, Perfect Dark blew my mind when I got it on N64. the action was one thing and the story was such a surprise!

[@Yupppi]

@@LeonTodd it was a long-lasting favourite with friends and relatives for me! And now they're making a new one! But that game sure had a solid soundtrack on top of unseen events.

[@Starch1b2c3d4a]

The cleans were good...

[@SnappyJCM800]

It sounded ok. Wasn’t a fan of channel 3 “crunch” sounds from it lol. I’d like to add to the playing a different guitar every video like the ones to your left in the video that you also play a different 80s lick but don’t tell us what it is and see if we can pick it out of all your playing

[@Bridging_the_Political_Divide]

Carvin stuff was never supposed to be tight, they are loose amps, which Steve Vai always says he prefers. Not everyone wants a tight amp. Tight amps can be fatiguing. I get why Vai loves more of a loose bottom end, it's very expressive and very subject to pick dynamics. Listen to Frank by Vai, you really hear that loose Legacy bottom end, sounds unique and terrific in its own way. Heavy metal players of today like it Uber tight, but most others don't. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4ixeKGsp6t9ec0

[@kimmoparonen1737]

So it takes 9(!) tubes to make a preamp sound like some bad fuzz pedal! :)

[@kenbranca7215]

Maybe it sounds better in the room but over KZbin super thin and fizzy

[@bwgti]

Did this ever have a place tone wise? Sounds worse than some of the older digital stuff you have had on here. Maybe worse than the POD XT. Of course it doesn't need to sound good at all. You are just taking us on an adventure of what was in the world of gear. And I would have never seen or heard of this preamp if not for this video. Thanks! Keep the weird gear coming sir.

[@LeonTodd]

You could use it for that "tube smell" vibe in your studio :p

[@JJDPROMEDIAPRODUCTION]

A poor poor mans Tri-Axes.. Tri-Axes Wins..

[@billl.4410]

they should have called this one "Mosquitone". Carvin has only one good amp and that's the OG Legacy.

[@RU-HDD-4-HVN]

Gear snobs........ it is what it is.

[@TheCjbowman]

Loved the vid and the skillz, the Carvin not so much. Seemed too hard to dial in a good tone - just my opinion. 🤘

[@KamilKisiel]

From the manual: "Most tube amps have a decent overdrive sound only by accident. That’s right, by accident. Those vintage Fender and Marshall amps were never designed to be used for overdrive. Players in the ‘60’s turned there amps up too far and found a new sound. Most amps have changed very little since then. Check the history books. It’s true. Here’s a crazy idea . . . .What if somebody actually tried to design a tube amp for the wildest overdrive sound ever imagined? Well now they have, it's called the Quad X-Amp and it's only available from Carvin." ummm.... I think a lot of other amp manufacturers would probably contest that claim lol.

[@LeonTodd]

"Randall Smith has entered the chat"

[@gitarald-neu]

If anyone wants one, I still have mine - PM me in case .... 😉👍🏼😎

[@208414]

That "character tone" actually hurt my ears. I had to turn the volume down on my headphones so I could finish the video. I guess if you want to repel the audience that would be a good tone.

[@austinfailz]

That gain sounds... raspy and uninspiring to say the least. Maybe they should've focused more on the sound and less on the effects loops.

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah this isn't my favourite rack unit

[@austinfailz]

@@LeonTodd According to one of the comments on this video, the issue might be related to the volume levels, but with how uninspiring it sounds, I'm not sure it'd be worthwhile to attempt to reshoot the video with the volumes corrected. Also, I was looking at the back panel, and the "midi" seems poorly implemented. Definitely not in the same league as the 3+, Triaxis, IE4, et al.