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Carvin BX500 opinion

#64
jaywa said:
Yes please do! Right now I'm planning to order one to test drive on my next 2-night gig (Oct. 16 & 17), so I want to hear people's impressions right up through then and I will provide some of my own after that.
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I was probably the first guy on this board to get the BX500 back in early Feb of this year. Thru countless gigs it has performed better than expected, not a single problem and I run it at 2 ohms thru 2 Carvin cabs - a BRX10.4 and BRX10.2 neo in parallel. I've been using Carvin gear exclusively for the last 2 1/2 yrs and have never had as to not one problem with any of it. That's including the SBR1018 and the BRX cabs w/BX500. I've been playing for 35 yrs and highly recommend Carvin gear, it's been very good too me.:smug:
 
#65
Cool -

Vinx - What is your impression of the tube pre-amp? It seems opinions are split. Some really don't think it's more than window dressing, others say it does make a difference when engaged. Others think it has some value but say the factory issue tube is lame and advise swapping to a different tube right away. You?
 
#66
jaywa said:
Cool -

Vinx - What is your impression of the tube pre-amp? It seems opinions are split. Some really don't think it's more than window dressing, others say it does make a difference when engaged. Others think it has some value but say the factory issue tube is lame and advise swapping to a different tube right away. You?
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If the tube does something, someone needs to tell me what it does because I can't tell the difference with it engaged or not engaged. I know this and that is that the amp is very loud and I prefer the sound of it over the BX1200 which I also own and played thru for 2 yrs. It seems to have more grit to it than the BX1200 and that's something that I do like.
 
#67
vinxbass said:
If the tube does something, someone needs to tell me what it does because I can't tell the difference with it engaged or not engaged. I know this and that is that the amp is very loud and I prefer the sound of it over the BX1200 which I also own and played thru for 2 yrs. It seems to have more grit to it than the BX1200 and that's something that I do like.
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Same here! I've had my BX500 since March and it has preformed flawlessly. However I too can not tell a difference with the tube preamp engaged.
 
#68
To me, with the tube engaged you get an ever so subtle amount of tube compression/fatness (on top of using the onboard compressor around up to 9/10 o'clock). Kind of like the SWR tube response...but the Carvin has the drive so get can get some grind as you dig in. Good stuff.
 
#70
So I received my BX500 today, and there was a bit of an issue out of the box, as I did not get any sound. I played with the cable, and it appeared that something was not quite right with the input jack. By inserting the cable a couple of times, It seems that it is working now, but the cable does not insert smoothly. :(

I tried the amp into my Mesa Powerhouse 2x12 and a PH 1x12 cabinet, and I can absolutely confirm what everyone has said. This amp is bright and pretty loud. I rolled off the treble, and some of the upper mid, and it did tame things down a bit, but that inherent brightness was still there. When I rolled things down in a more extreme manner, the amp did smooth out, but it seemed to have lost some character by that point. I also played around with the "player network" on the back of the Mesa cabinets to take some of the treble down from the tweeter, but I still did not find a tone that I was loving. Not bad, but there was no love connection.

I did like the compression on the amp, as long as I did not go past half way on the dial. I played with this setup for over two hours tweaking the para EQ's along with Graphic, using my MIA Fender Jazz bass and while I did dial in some decent tones there just was a little bit of bright harshness to the tone, unless I really cranked down all of the high end settings, which resulted in a bland tone. I also did not detect much of a difference whether the tube was engaged or not, so I am not sure what purpose it serves.

In putting the BX500 up against my Mesa M9, there is simply no comparison. The M9 was just richer and smoother set pretty much flat. I know it's not a fair comparison being 3X the price of the BX500, but that's all I had to compare.

All in all, not a bad amp, especially for the money, but I feel that the build quality is just OK, and the tone just did not suit my tastes, so I will be sending it back.

Dave
 
#71
Funny, I had the same issue as Blueser with the cable, but after five seconds, it was all fixed without a single problem. It was just a matter of unplugging the cable and plug it one more time and wow !!!!

For the weight, tone shaping capabilities, good overdrive Tone, price, power and other options, the Carvin BX500 is really hard to beat.
 
#72
Interesting about all of the "bright tone" comments. Maybe since I have only used the head in my BR515N combo I don't hear it like that? My combo also has the old tweeter (not the new titanium one) so maybe that has something to do with it?

FWIW, this is an amp where you have to use eq (both parametric and graphic) to get the best out of it. On some amps, eq just clutters up the tone where as in this amp it improves it IMO.
 
#74
uglybassplayer said:
To me, comparing something like a BX500 to an M9 (or any other Mesa head for that matter) is like comparing vanilla ice cream to something like rocky road. It's never going to be able to compete in terms of flavor on it's own, but it makes a great base for addiing other ingredients to taylor it to your taste.
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Agreed, but as I mentioned, it is the only other amp I own, so that's what I had to compare it to. I was not expecting it to compete with the M9, it was just an observation.

Not slagging this amp at all. I think it does sound good, and is a ridiculous value for the money. It just doesn't make me :).
 
#75
yes, it is a bit of a trade-off... I have several 20-30 lb heads that sound a bit better and have a bit more low end to them and each has a distinctive tone, but in the end I wanted a lightweight head that I could drag from gig to gig in a nice lil bag over my shoulder, that is loud and was 2 ohm stable, and had a great tone that I could build on yet would also let the tone of each individual bass shine through, and the BX500 is that for me.
 
#76
Well here I am again. I was one of the guys that had one of these when they first came out. I sent the first TWO back for problems ( and had a major rant here) then got the 3rd and have been RELATIVLY happy with it. ( OK it's not even close to the sweetness of my Glockenklang) but as everyone knows a lot lighter and a little more powerful. I had been using it for about 4 months now with no problems. BUT last nite it did shut down in the middle of a tune, man that pi$$es me off. I wasn't sure if it was the bass or amp at first but the amp was definitely in thermal shutdown mode. I turned the amp off and changed basses anyway. I turned the amp back on and finished the gig without any more problems. But I gotta say second guessing whether or not an amp will get through the nite is really a pain in the a$$. I have never in 45 yrs of gigging have ever had to bring a back up amp and now this has me wondering, again. The place we played was not a dive so to speak but I did note that they had one of those long strip plug in bars across the stage that I think was new from the last time I played there so maybe that was it. This made think of an old friend that used to always bring a 100 ft. extension cord so he could always plug into a different part of the bldg. I really hate the uncertainty of all this and don't want to be going to every gig wondering WHAT THE F&^% IS GOING TO HAPPEN "TONITE"

your's truly..........stressing over this amp AGAIN !!!


peace capt Kirk
 
#78
Kirk -

That sucks. I have run into the exact same issue of late with my beloved mid-90s Hartke 3500... never knowing if the D.I. is going to be working or if it will fuzz out at sound check. (This after about 5 repairs the last 3 years for the exact same problem). That's why I was looking into the BX500, actually.
 
#80
Kirk Bryant said:
Well here I am again. I was one of the guys that had one of these when they first came out. I sent the first TWO back for problems ( and had a major rant here) then got the 3rd and have been RELATIVLY happy with it. ( OK it's not even close to the sweetness of my Glockenklang) but as everyone knows a lot lighter and a little more powerful. I had been using it for about 4 months now with no problems. BUT last nite it did shut down in the middle of a tune, man that pi$$es me off. I wasn't sure if it was the bass or amp at first but the amp was definitely in thermal shutdown mode. I turned the amp off and changed basses anyway. I turned the amp back on and finished the gig without any more problems. But I gotta say second guessing whether or not an amp will get through the nite is really a pain in the a$$. I have never in 45 yrs of gigging have ever had to bring a back up amp and now this has me wondering, again. The place we played was not a dive so to speak but I did note that they had one of those long strip plug in bars across the stage that I think was new from the last time I played there so maybe that was it. This made think of an old friend that used to always bring a 100 ft. extension cord so he could always plug into a different part of the bldg. I really hate the uncertainty of all this and don't want to be going to every gig wondering WHAT THE F&^% IS GOING TO HAPPEN "TONITE"

your's truly..........stressing over this amp AGAIN !!!


peace capt Kirk
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How where you running the amp when it happened? Just curious as to check if the amp can't handle certain volume/eq situations.
 

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