TREMOVERB vs. Carvin V3

[AMP-BLACKOUT]

OK, let me start by saying that I had a specific objectives in my thought process of buying yet another amp:
OBJECTIVE 1: Obtain tone similar to my TREMOVERB red channel at max gain (my setup is currently Sino (Shuguang) EL34B, Tung-Sol 12ax7's and Philips JAN NOS 5U4 rects... and ever since I discovered this combination have never changed.
OBJECTIVE 2: 3 Channels (1 clean, 1 hi-gain chunk and 1 hi-gain lead), footswitchable with a "solo boost" and master level over all channels.
OBJECTIVE 3: Cheap

those were the two main objectives, among other minor ones like midi and multiple loops....

So, I read and read reviews, heard sound clips etc etc, tested the peavey xxx, the valveking, the stilleto, the 3channel recto, and ubershall and finally settled on the CarvinV3.

So I called up Carvin and ordered the V3 Head with the 4 switch footswitch, basically 999 plus shipping (so far so good).... I got it a week later, got it all hooked up to my arsenal of cabs (some of you me as the builder of ThunderCABs)... and, and and..... hmmmm, there's something wrong... sounds like my guitar is at 1/4 volume.... no saturation, no sustain...but loud and sounds decent... and played with it for an entire weekend.....

During this time, my 9 year old son was doing a science project for school and choose a hypothesis of " does a guitar's tuning pitch change the amount of sustain?"... which included timing each string with different tunings.... which gave me an idea... why don't i do this with the V3 compared to my tremoverb... so I did: so for the LowD string .046 (tuned to Dflat), and the same audible volume and approximately the same tone with gain at max, when picking the string with the V3, it lasted 9seconds, and with the tremoverb, it lasted 47seconds.... my son says: Dad, I think that carvin sucks..... okidoki... back in the box and back to Carvin it went, and luckily that have this 10-day no questions trial period.....

So, I'm sure some of you have read some of those same reviews that stated that the V3 did the job of rectos, ubershalls, engls and diezels at a fraction of the price... it doesn't even come close, infact, my son's junky amp (line6 spider30) even sounded way better (his real amp is an F30)... whoever did those reviews for the V3 is deaf!!! it is simply not even remotely close to a hi-gain amp, which is what it's being sold as... in any case, I am on the waiting list for a roadster head...

AA

 

[zakk615]

You sure there was nothing wrong with the Carvin or is it just a relatively low gain amp? You would think it would be pretty versatile with it being a multi-channel amp. But 9 seconds of sustain when picking a low string with the gain maxed out is rather is short.

 

[BENNY]

i seen 2 tremoverbs on ebay for 1000 bucks. why not just get another one ?

never played a V3 but i played one of the carvin vintage sires type amps, can't rember what the call it. win-a-bego or something like that and i was pretty nice.

 

[AMP-BLACKOUT]

FollowUp: I did call Carvin before starting the "return during 10-day trial" and one of their techs spent about 25 minutes with me on the phone, he had me switch out the v1 & v2 tubes with a couple of the tung-sol spares I had.

His overall opinion was that there was nothing wrong with the amp, but did say that it was NOT intended to be a hi-gain amp, and that their MTS series amps were closer to hi-gain because they had an op-amp in the circuit before the signal enters the v1 input tube.... I will say that I did try it with one of my ThunderStomp MikroScreamer (basically a ts9 with bigger bottom) that I make, and yes, it did get close to the amount of usable gain of my tverb.... but that is not what I'm after.... and while i do build lots of custom gain stompboxes for people, I personally hate using them... my belief is plug straight in and thats it, period... I am actually back to debating on what to get next... but i think that since i know i have (and how to duplicate it with my personal combination of tubes )my perfect sound with my tverb, i'll probably just get another one....

 

[bunyok23]

get a jsx.

i have the tremoverb, jsx and mark iv. all of them are excellent. especially paired with a traditional 4x12 rectifier cab.

 

[jwnc]

I have a V3 and it gets heavy not metal but heavy enough to be close. Also you have to dial in the eq and volume. What cabinet are you using that makes a big difference.. you need to put good tubes in the V3 and turn up the master volume to about 6 thats when it really starts to sing.

Jason

 

[domct203]

I had a V3 as well and it's a nice amp, but it's no Recto !!

It's more like a Marshall on steroids. I just could not muster up a good high gain sound. It has an awesome clean, and good lead tones are easy to find. I never noticed an issue with sustain however.

Definatly change the tubes. The best combo I had was a Tung-sol in V1, 9th Gen. Chinese in V2, JJ ECC803S (great Clean tube IMO) in V3, and a balanced 9th Gen. Chinese in V5 ( PI ). The GT in V4 seemed fine for the loops. SED =C= 6L6GC's sound great in the power section as well.

Dom

 

[FastRedPonyCar]

As an owner of a V3, it most certainly DOES have lots of gain and gobs of sustain I might add. In the studio late last year, I had specific parts of one of our songs that I sustained a single note through the entire verse part of the song effortlessly so this no sustain argument holds no validity in my book.

That salesman is an idiot too by the way. The V3 has quite a bit more gain than the MTS.

Here.. Does this sound like low gain to you?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=264448&songID=4492340

that's a strat with a pearly gates humbucker -> boss chorus -> V3 -> Vintage 30 -> SM57.

And a video I took this afternoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds7y5Jp-7zo

 

[CudBucket]

As an owner of a V3, it most certainly DOES have lots of gain and gobs of sustain I might add. In the studio late last year, I had specific parts of one of our songs that I sustained a single note through the entire verse part of the song effortlessly so this no sustain argument holds no validity in my book.

That salesman is an idiot too by the way. The V3 has quite a bit more gain than the MTS.

Here.. Does this sound like low gain to you?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=264448&songID=4492340

that's a strat with a pearly gates humbucker -> boss chorus -> V3 -> Vintage 30 -> SM57.

Relax Drew. This isn't the Carvin boards. You just have to accept the fact that some people prefer a Mesa Recto to the V3.

 

[edgarallanpoe]

How did I know that the mouth breathers over on the Carvin board would get uptight over this..... :roll:

 

[AMP-BLACKOUT]

Well, the recording definitely sounds like the V3 has gain... and is definitely NOT anything remotely close to what I was getting.... I spent the time with a Carvin Tech (and he confirmed he used to be part of the build process of the v3)... I am starting to wonder whether I simply got a defective one... and I did offer that as a possibility to the tech.... who knows....

as far as cabs, some of you know that I am also the builder of ThunderCABs, so I plugged it into several of our cabs I have at home with all sorts of speakers (v30's, 7080's, our own version of a killer celestion the ThunderCone Vintage 80)... so i tried it with everything....

 

[FastRedPonyCar]

How did I know that the mouth breathers over on the Carvin board would get uptight over this..... :roll:

Relax man. No one's getting up in anyones face here. I was just pointing things out from my point of view.

It defineatly sounds like the amp wasn't working properly. I have a local guy who opened up for our band one night who uses a dual rectifier and now pays me $20 per gig for me to bring my amp to their shows to let him use it. He says he just prefers the sound of the V3 over the recto which I know you guys could probably care less but for the metal that they play, he said the V3 does a great job.

As far as the voicing goes, the V3 isn't a recto. It's got gobs of gain but not a rectifier's voicing. It's sort of in the middle between a marshall and mesa but lacks either's distinct voicing.

That being said, if you like hte sound of the tremoverb and voicing, that's what you ought to stick with.

I took a couple of videos this afternoon after band practice so you can hear a few more sounds I get out of my V3. The C66 video has low audio as I used an external mic and the detuned clip (1st video) I used the camera's mic so make sure you adjust the volume back down after listening to the C66 vidoe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds7y5Jp-7zo

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lafd7YB3o6A

 

[Storm]

Ah!!!! We've had a similar thread over at Cyberfret. I can't escape you and your Carvin whoring anywhere :lol:

Ciao ...

 

[domct203]

Hi Drew.

Here's my story. I had a Triple Recto for about 5 years. Loved the rhythms, but was always "fighting" the amp for a good lead tone (can't count the # of tube swaps :? ). One day at a gig I noticed that the 3 other bands that night had Mesa Recto's. I paid attention, and noticed that just about all of them had the same guitar sound. Hmmm....

Can you see it coming?? Yep, I sold the Triple and picked up a V3 and G-Major.

The V3 is an AWESOME amp. The way it responds to tube changes is amazing IMO. But.....

Now I am diggin my V3's lead tones but my rhythms are not up to my expectations. The V3 can be thick (and a whole lot more) but it is a totally different amp from a Recto.

I gig'ed the V3 for about a year. Zero problems on stage. Many compliments on tone. But I was missing that Recto "wall of sound".

The V3 has been sold and now a Roadster is hooked up to the G-Major. My band mates are happy (they say the "nut" is back in our sound) and so am I so far. The Roadster has had me happy right out of the box, must be the built in reverb. My Triple was a little bit of a dissapointment when I got her home, I remember thinking "this is it??", and I was always tweaking EQ and gain, and spent $$ on reverb's that the parallel loop made sound crappy anyways. I knew the base tone was there, I just couldn't seem to find it.

Moral of this long and rambling story?

No two amps are ever going to be the same, even in the same model line (ie. Triple vs. Roadster)

No two players are ever going to be exactly the same.

The V3 really is a great high gain head. I encourage anyone to go play one, you will not be dissapointed. If I could have afforded it I would have kept it as well. But it's no Recto.

I am happy with the Roadster. But it's no Carvin :shock:

Dom

 

[AMP-BLACKOUT]

OK, here you go then: even trade (v3 for the roadster)....

 

[CudBucket]

OK, here you go then: even trade (v3 for the roadster)....

Hehe. I'd take the head-shell of the Roadster for either of the 2 V3s I had and sent back. That said, I'm eagerly awaiting delivery of a Carvin Legacy today to sit right next to my Road King II.

Drew, point of view? Everyone at the Carvin knows what your view on the V3 is. You don't have to come on to a Boogie board and defend it. It's not like folks from here come over there and bash Carvin amps.

 

[domct203]

OK, here you go then: even trade (v3 for the roadster)....

LOL, No thanks, I'm keepin the Roadster ( besides the Roadster is 2X the $$ ).

Dom

 

[CudBucket]

I do have to say though that it sounds like Blackout's V3 was defective. They do have tons of gain and are definitely not quiet amps. In fact, I think the V3 is a very thick sounding amp but for me, a harsh, stiff type of gain. If you felt like the guitar was at 1/4 power, I'd have checked the tubes or at least tried a replacement.

 

[FastRedPonyCar]

Drew, point of view? Everyone at the Carvin knows what your view on the V3 is. You don't have to come on to a Boogie board and defend it. It's not like folks from here come over there and bash Carvin amps.

Nobody's bashing anyone. If I had posted the same thing about a mesa on another forum, how many mesa owners would be chiming in correcting me telling me the amp was bad, the saleseman that told me a mesa was low gain, etc...

I GUARANTEE you there would be waves of mesa owners flocking to the thread with rebuttals.

Somehow I knew you would be the only one with a problem with me saying anything in this thread.

 

[CudBucket]

Nobody's bashing anyone.

Not here. You did on Carvin.com.

If I had posted the same thing about a mesa on another forum, how many mesa owners would be chiming in correcting me telling me the amp was bad, the saleseman that told me a mesa was low gain, etc...

Drew, I hate to let you in on this, but no one cares what you think about Mesa amps.

I GUARANTEE you there would be waves of mesa owners flocking to the thread with rebuttals.

You can GUARANTEE all you want because it costs you nothing to do so.

Somehow I knew you would be the only one with a problem with me saying anything in this thread.

Yeah, because I'm not one of the Carvin fan boys that think you know everything.