B1500 preamp clipping problem

[Brick Top]

I use passive basses...yet I am having problems with my B1500 preamp clipping when I play. I have been trying all kinds of different knob configurations to stop the clipping and still get enough power output. I turn the volume down on the bass and/or turn the drive knob almost off on the B1500. Last night I turned my eq setting to less than 12 o'clock for the most part and that seemed to help as well. Problem is...with the setting all set low enough to allow my to dig in...or god forbid slap....my volume is not what it should be I feel. The master volume is at 3/4 full....and this is just to practice loud enough.

I bought this amp for the power and headroom. I am losing faith.

I called carvin about a week ago...and some lack luster dweeb tells me that's the way all heads are now. He says I just gotta tweak between the drive and volume button to find the sweet spot. He was rather useless!

I don't have this problem with my Gk RB800....but it doesn't have a clip warning light. But the B1500 will shut right off for a few seconds if I clip too much. My Rb800 never did this.

Is anyone else having an issue with this amp? Or am I missing something? Any and all help would be appreciated.

[Doug Parent]

In a word......yes. The B1500 is rated at a gazillion watts but it runs out of poop long before that. I was using mine with a premium 8 ohm 4/10 cabinet and it was clipping it all night. On another gig I used the 4/10 and a 2/10 stacked on top (4 ohms total) and it was fat city but the amp was maxed out. Dropping the impedance on this head to 4 or even 2 ohms seems make a big difference.

I love the clean tone on this head but it's not the headroom monster I had hoped. I get as much clean volume using a MarkBass F-1 at 4 ohms and sometimes I think it's even cleaner than the B1500 at higher levels.

I use passive basses too now and it does not help when you have to run the master volume so high. Sorry for the bad news.

[Brick Top]

I do run two 8ohm cabs...so I am at 4 ohm total. But the preamp being so sensitive just seems wrong to me. The dude @ Carvin says all the newer heads are like this.

[Doug Parent]

I think the clipping that I saw on mine was a reflection of the power amp, not the pre-amp but come to think of it I could be wrong. I was slapping the B string pretty hard. Now I'm not sure and will refer back to the manual. I'll pipe back in later. I also have a Carvin BX500 and it does not clip, just FYI.

[Mo'Phat]

Originally Posted by Brick Top

I use passive basses...yet I am having problems with my B1500 preamp clipping when I play. I have been trying all kinds of different knob configurations to stop the clipping and still get enough power output. I turn the volume down on the bass and/or turn the drive knob almost off on the B1500. Last night I turned my eq setting to less than 12 o'clock for the most part and that seemed to help as well. Problem is...with the setting all set low enough to allow my to dig in...or god forbid slap....my volume is not what it should be I feel. The master volume is at 3/4 full....and this is just to practice loud enough.

I bought this amp for the power and headroom. I am losing faith.

I called carvin about a week ago...and some lack luster dweeb tells me that's the way all heads are now. He says I just gotta tweak between the drive and volume button to find the sweet spot. He was rather useless!

I don't have this problem with my Gk RB800....but it doesn't have a clip warning light. But the B1500 will shut right off for a few seconds if I clip too much. My Rb800 never did this.

Is anyone else having an issue with this amp? Or am I missing something? Any and all help would be appreciated.

I think your amp might be malfunctioning. I play shows without FOH support with my volume on 3, maybe...and it is freakin' loud with room to spare.

You say your drive control is all the way down...but I have mine at 5 (12 o'clock). Any more and it gets a bit too grindy. What's your EQ like? If your subbass control is dimed, you could have a problem with trying to amplify too much ultra low-end.

If your amp is 'shutting off', it's going into thermal protection and that is your power amp, not your preamp...most likely.

[Mo'Phat]

ps. In Carvin's defense (not that they need defending), but all major music manufacturers were gearing up/doing NAMM last week. So, your lackluster dweeb in customer service might have just been the guy that normally packs the cardboard into the baler.

But, yes, the Drive control and Master go hand-in-hand. If you turn one all the way down (drive) then your volume will suffer.

[lo-freq]

Originally Posted by Brick Top

I use passive basses...yet I am having problems with my B1500 preamp clipping when I play. I have been trying all kinds of different knob configurations to stop the clipping and still get enough power output. I turn the volume down on the bass and/or turn the drive knob almost off on the B1500. Last night I turned my eq setting to less than 12 o'clock for the most part and that seemed to help as well. Problem is...with the setting all set low enough to allow my to dig in...or god forbid slap....my volume is not what it should be I feel. The master volume is at 3/4 full....and this is just to practice loud enough.

I bought this amp for the power and headroom. I am losing faith.

I called carvin about a week ago...and some lack luster dweeb tells me that's the way all heads are now. He says I just gotta tweak between the drive and volume button to find the sweet spot. He was rather useless!

I don't have this problem with my Gk RB800....but it doesn't have a clip warning light. But the B1500 will shut right off for a few seconds if I clip too much. My Rb800 never did this.

Is anyone else having an issue with this amp? Or am I missing something? Any and all help would be appreciated.

When you say clipping, do you mean audible distortion or what?
If your passive bass is all the way up and the Drive control is around Noon, you should have plenty of volume without getting overdriven or distorted unless you're driving it to really HIGH volumes.
I would ignore the clip light (if it has one) and just listen to the sound.
Also, verify that nothing else in your chain is malfunctioning.

[()smoke()]

this sounds like there is something wrong somewhere...not my experience with the B1500 at all, and i gigged out with them for almost 2 years with a variety of cabinets and basses and never had an input clipping problem...in fact, i always ran my roscoe with the input pad disengaged and not clipping there

both the B1500s i owned were never close to running out of power, and iirc, the test in bass gear magazine showed that these heads did very close to what they are advertised to do in terms of power

[Bass_Pounder]

Originally Posted by ()smoke()

this sounds like there is something wrong somewhere...not my experience with the B1500 at all, and i gigged out with them for almost 2 years with a variety of cabinets and basses and never had an input clipping problem...in fact, i always ran my roscoe with the input pad disengaged and not clipping there

both the B1500s i owned were never close to running out of power, and iirc, the test in bass gear magazine showed that these heads did very close to what they are advertised to do in terms of power

Same experience here...............

I own 2 B1500's. I run active basses through them (with hot pups), and DO NOT engage the "active" toggle at all.

I have NEVER even had the clip light come on at all.

[Brick Top]

Originally Posted by Mo'Phat

I think your amp might be malfunctioning. I play shows without FOH support with my volume on 3, maybe...and it is freakin' loud with room to spare.

You say your drive control is all the way down...but I have mine at 5 (12 o'clock). Any more and it gets a bit too grindy. What's your EQ like? If your subbass control is dimed, you could have a problem with trying to amplify too much ultra low-end.

If your amp is 'shutting off', it's going into thermal protection and that is your power amp, not your preamp...most likely.

I think it may be malfunctioning as well. My Eq was mostly at 5( 12 O'clock) except Sub & Bass at about 6.5.

It is definitely the preamp shutting down...not the power amp. The protection light for the power amp does not come on...and I don't have to reset the head after it shuts off. It only shuts down for a sec as long as I stop playing or play alot lighter.

I use two passive basses. A BB300 with new SB-3 pups...and a SX Jazz with stock pups. The BB300 is a lot hotter than the SX...so it really causes problems.

[Brick Top]

Originally Posted by lo-freq

When you say clipping, do you mean audible distortion or what?
If your passive bass is all the way up and the Drive control is around Noon, you should have plenty of volume without getting overdriven or distorted unless you're driving it to really HIGH volumes.
I would ignore the clip light (if it has one) and just listen to the sound.
Also, verify that nothing else in your chain is malfunctioning.

Not much audible sound....a bit of farting I guess is the best way to describe it....it's the clip light for the preamp that comes on while I play. If the clip light starts to flash....then if I play any harder, it will shut the unit down

There is no way I can have either bass full up and the drive around noon....I can get fairly decent volume, but the preamp is flashing and on the verge of shutting down.

Everything else in the chain is fine. In fact....having the compressor in front works better than plugging straight into the head.

[Brick Top]

Originally Posted by ()smoke()

this sounds like there is something wrong somewhere...not my experience with the B1500 at all, and i gigged out with them for almost 2 years with a variety of cabinets and basses and never had an input clipping problem...in fact, i always ran my roscoe with the input pad disengaged and not clipping there

both the B1500s i owned were never close to running out of power, and iirc, the test in bass gear magazine showed that these heads did very close to what they are advertised to do in terms of power

Thanks for chimimg in Smoke...I bought this B1500 from you. Your response tells me I may need to send this unit in for repair.

[lo-freq]

Originally Posted by Brick Top

Thanks for chimimg in Smoke...I bought this B1500 from you. Your response tells me I may need to send this unit in for repair.

Definitely!

[Brick Top]

Just got off the phone with Carvin...sounds like I got a real repair man this time. He says maybe the ribbon cable on the inside is dirty.

But I can't send it in,,,cause Carvin won't work on a B1500. But they will let me send them $400 to upgrade to a B2000.

I am losing faith in Carvin by the day with this attitude. So...if I upgrade for another $400...what happens in a couple of years if something happens to my B2000.....gotta upgrade again? I just don't understand why they won't service one of their own units.

[Mo'Phat]

Originally Posted by Brick Top

But I can't send it in,,,cause Carvin won't work on a B1500. But they will let me send them $400 to upgrade to a B2000.

BS. Not that what you're saying is BS, but that this is their stand.

My suggestion: call them back, stay on the phone until you get to an actual amplifier repair technician. Tell them what the customer service guy told you that they won't work on a B1500, and get the ACTUAL reason why they won't. If it's valid...which it has zero validity...then I suppose you're stuck. What reasoning did they give you?

I have the luxury of having them about five minutes from my house. If my B1500 was on the fritz, I'd set up camp in the showroom until they fixed it or replaced it. Upgrade, shmupgrade. It's arguable the B2000 is an upgrade from the B1500.

[Brick Top]

Originally Posted by Mo'Phat

BS. Not that what you're saying is BS, but that this is their stand.

My suggestion: call them back, stay on the phone until you get to an actual amplifier repair technician. Tell them what the customer service guy told you that they won't work on a B1500, and get the ACTUAL reason why they won't. If it's valid...which it has zero validity...then I suppose you're stuck. What reasoning did they give you?

I have the luxury of having them about five minutes from my house. If my B1500 was on the fritz, I'd set up camp in the showroom until they fixed it or replaced it. Upgrade, shmupgrade. It's arguable the B2000 is an upgrade from the B1500.

Yes...it's very frustrating. But....after reading their website more...I see that this is standard practice for them.

I live in a cow path of a town up north....so not much choice for a local repair guy. I do have one in mind though....hopefully he will have a look at it.

[Brick Top]

Update: I now find that most repair places will not even look at Carvin gear due to lots of past issues dealing with Carvin, and the fact they are a direct seller with no distribution.

So I called Carvin again, all set to go on a rant. This time I got a different amp repair tech...and he told me to just send it in to them and they will repair it. So I shipped it that day.

Why do I get different answers from the same company? This is one of the reasons I will probably never buy another piece of Carvin gear.

I do love the tone of the B1500 though. I hooked up my trusty GK 800RB to practice with last night....and although I had plenty of volume....I couldn't dial in a tone I was happy with. The other bands mates all agreed as well. Lots of grit from the GK....but not the deep smooth tone I get from the B1500.

[smoov]

sounds like a bad opamp. If you call Carvin again get the schematics, then take it to a repair guy. It will save a enormous amount of time.

[()smoke()]

Originally Posted by Brick Top

Thanks for chimimg in Smoke...I bought this B1500 from you. Your response tells me I may need to send this unit in for repair.

that's why the name sounds familiar...i didn't catch that, thanks for reminding me

man, i'm really surprised--i bought this one from another TBer after i sold my first one, and in the short time i owned it, i never had any issues at all...i saw where you were able to talk with someone who said they will repair it, sending you a PM

[Doug Parent]

Originally Posted by Brick Top

Why do I get different answers from the same company? This is one of the reasons I will probably never buy another piece of Carvin gear.

.

Employee turn over, and incomplete training means you'll find this elsewhere. The local Carvin here in San Diego has a good competent sales staff and they take good care of me. The B1500 sounds great, I can't see selling it.