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Carvin BX500: Pt. 3
- Thread starter Chef
- Start date
I bought mine second hand from a TB member a couple months back. I love this head. I had a gig a couple weeks ago where the amp was sitting on the floor, and a photographer walked up and somehow stepped on it and broke my master volume knob off. Called Carvin, no warranty... the sent me a new master volume pot free of charge. Considering I have a friend that is an electronics guru, it's not costing me a penny to fix it. I also can't say enough about Carvin's customer service. Every experience I've had (also have an LSx-1503) have exceeded my expectations. I ended up playing several gigs with the volume knob broken. Worked perfectly... and now I'm considering selling off my F1 because I like the tone of the Carvin better. I was very skeptical, but I'm a believer now!
Wow, I totally missed that one. Good catch. That would be a deal-breaker for me.
I wonder what they were thinking? I mean, if anyone wants to go dry to the board, then he can just run a simple direct box, then from there to the BX.
I gotta be missing something really obvious. Maybe a sound man broke into the design room on the afternoon of final sign-off and started waving a .45 around.
tocs100
Utah Bass of Doom, Metal DJ @ leafpileradio.com
Lol: yep. And apparently the same sound-guy nixed the fx loop
=() graphic, & f-switch on the 200w combo's, although they did manage a pre-post d.i. switch on the combos....How good is the BX500 comp anyway? Good enough that nobody here is using an outboard comp/limiter in the loop?
I see little reason to use an outboard comp, except for effect, and the fact that I have a comp on my board. When the board is not around, i squeeze things a little with the on board unit.
Comp is one of those effects that is a different beast in the effects loop. Use caution and have fun. My outboard comp is usually before the input.
A couple of comments after skimming this thread:
1] Personally I think having the DI pre-eq makes sense: for the most part I use eq to compensate for the vagaries of my speaker cabinet, which potentially could conflict big-time with the sound person's job. Same thing as when I'm in the studio: I mic up an eq'd sound from my cabs, but send a pre-eq send to the board.
2] Class D amplifiers [SMPS] have actually been around for quite a while: back in the early 80s I used a Carver amp in my home stereo, a design that was lifted from patents filed back in the 1940s! Of course those were vacuum tube switching amps, and the technology lay fallow for decades before Bob ran across it and dusted it off, and the intervening decades have seen the technology finally trickle down to the masses.
And now a question [I'm gonna call Carvin either way to confirm but wondered if this is an anomaly] but I notice when I power the amp up, no matter what the switch settings, as the protection circuitry clicks on and the amp comes on-line, there is a thump and the speakers are pulled in a bit. Is this common?
1] Personally I think having the DI pre-eq makes sense: for the most part I use eq to compensate for the vagaries of my speaker cabinet, which potentially could conflict big-time with the sound person's job. Same thing as when I'm in the studio: I mic up an eq'd sound from my cabs, but send a pre-eq send to the board.
2] Class D amplifiers [SMPS] have actually been around for quite a while: back in the early 80s I used a Carver amp in my home stereo, a design that was lifted from patents filed back in the 1940s! Of course those were vacuum tube switching amps, and the technology lay fallow for decades before Bob ran across it and dusted it off, and the intervening decades have seen the technology finally trickle down to the masses.
And now a question [I'm gonna call Carvin either way to confirm but wondered if this is an anomaly] but I notice when I power the amp up, no matter what the switch settings, as the protection circuitry clicks on and the amp comes on-line, there is a thump and the speakers are pulled in a bit. Is this common?
That's odd because my new MB10 does have the selector for PRE/POST, plus a Direct Out level adjustment. The BX500 will probably get this in newer models, I would expect. It's still a seriously affordable head for what you get.
Sorry, but the Carver amp was actually a Class G circuit with variable rail voltage and a sort of pre-regulator on the power supply; it really doesn't meet the definition of Class D. Now, there was an early 70s Infinity power amp which was a discrete Class D design...
I'm almost positive that this problem was addressed earlier in this thread. If I remember correctly, the general consensus was that it WAS a defect, and I think some guys sent theirs back to Carvin for new ones. I could be sooooo wrong about that, though, so I would search the thread. Good luck!
Spoke w/ Carvin and tech confirms this should not happen, and CS is cross shipping me a replacement head...I can't believe how helpful these guys are...in the meantime I used the amp once live already and besides the turn-on thump, it performed flawlessly...
I think I'm in love...
So... after looking at all the posts for this head, I'm still unsure. Is this a good head? I play mostly Classic Rock, Blues, Country and Worship. I would love to have a nice lightweight amp / 410 set up for small to medium sized venues. I don't play arenas, and if I did... well, this wouldn't be an issue. Is this a good head to base your main rig around?
