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Ampeg or carvin? Would you rather?

#61
Indeed! And I know for me, it's really a moot point. If I want variety or a just a professional piece of equipment, I have to buy online or drive two hours either way to get it anyways. Most of the music stores around where I live sell lower-end gear with maybe one of two mid-level pieces on the floor.

I can definitely fathom how nice it would be to buy a piece of gear and if it fails, just jinking on down to the music store to have it repaired from where I bought it. But that's just not reality for me, anyways. If I want a pro-level piece of gear, it's coming from online, whether that's Carvin, Musiciansfriend, Sweet Water, or the TB classifieds, or from a music store in a city two hours away.
 
#62
Soooo I go to GC, and am working on returning it when I come across a eden e series 15........ And now i am an eden owner. Played it for about an hour at the store, love it. Got the warranty on it too.
First to say I cant stop smiling. Now its time to knock some pictures off the walls.
 
#63
Got2SadowskyNYC said:
They just are not as realiable.

If you the type that likes to trade later, you REALLY don't want Carvin. All things the same you get less for the Carvin. This is true for tradeing thier basses also and i happen to like thier basses.

Let me restate, I don't have either so I really don't have a dog in the hunt.
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Don't know 'bout this statement....but, I have a 1979 Carvin VTX 212 JBL guitar amp that's still going strong. Even with the original tubes. Umm...that 30+ years, baby. And hundreds of recordings and live play.

I also have a BX500 and a St. Louie SVT CL....both monsters. I like both brands.
 
#66
gjbassist said:
Same here. Like I said in an earlier post, many consumer electronics have to be shipped off to be repaired, whether or not they are covered by warranty. When my daughter knocked our Wii off the table and broke it I had to ship it to Nintendo for repair. When one of my Tamron lenses needed repair under warranty I had to ship it to them. I can see it being a bit of a hassle with a large speaker cabinet, but many times Carvin can ship you a new crossover or other part instead of you having to ship them the cabinet.
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I agree but your WII doesn't weigh forty pounds either and if they ship me the part and I have no experience repairing it what happens if I screw something up further damaging my product are they going to say hey no problem we'll ship you another part? This is from their support page:
"Carvin generally does not sell any major assemblies such as power amplifier modules, circuit boards, chassis, amplifier enclosures, etc. The exception would be items listed in our general catalog like crossover assemblies and some guitar electronic assemblies". I think I'll pass great gear though but what is not a problem for some is a deal breaker for me I think they could afford to have some regional support and repair sites.
 
#67
Got2SadowskyNYC said:
Let me preface this with I don't like either.

Of these two I would go with the Ampeg. Long term reliability.
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So after the guy has had 2 Ampeg lemons, you recommend him Asian slave labor made Ampeg over US made Carvin for "long term reliability"?

LOL!

All of the Carvin gear I have had and used has been very well built. I have owned 2 of their guitars, 2 of their basses, a nearly 20 year old tube guitar preamp (which is AMAZING), and a PB200 bass combo. I've used various other stuff at times too, such as the X series guitar amps (aka Mesa Killers). While the PB200 wasn't phenomenal (to be fair it was a 10 year old $300 low end combo), it was quite useable and I never had any problems with it beyond some scratchiness in the volume knob. And I didn't like the EQ on that series (treble knob at 2k and the 5 band also maxes out at 2k? Boooo!). But it seems like their bass amps have a much better design now.

Anyway, all that is to say I would never hesitate to buy a piece of Carvin gear if it had the features and specs I was looking for. After 15 years, even though it is the 2nd cheapest guitar I've ever bought (1st is my Reverend Roundhouse), coming in at a luxurious $265, my Bolt-T is still my main guitar (even in the presence of my many times more expensive Parker). So that should tell you something.
 

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