Why would you sell the Streamliner? I love the Carvin's but the Streamliner's a great little amp.
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Carvin BX500: Pt. 3
- Thread starter Chef
- Start date
Why would you sell the Streamliner? I love the Carvin's but the Streamliner's a great little amp.
My guess is that once production is in full swing on the 1600 and 700 heads, we will see the 1500 and 500 go away.
You're probably right, there just isn't enough difference in those heads to distinguish them really.
- Jan 17, 2002
- 1,249
- 23
- Disclosures
- I paid for all my gear myself. Well, me and MasterCard.
I've tried a Streamliner only once. But others have said it has a particular "baked-in" tone. If that tone works for you, great. If you need more versatility, the BX500 is a better choice.
Anyone have THIS kink?: My BX-500 will run just fine as long as I leave it on. But if I flip it off after a set (an hour or so), it has to cool down pretty fully before it will turn back on. The lights will come up, but when I hit a note, no sound and the protect light comes on. Missed a recent encore because of this -- that the bandleader called because I was there!
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Not I. But I usually just turn down the volume between sets (so used to older amps, which did not have this feature).
Never heard of that issue, but why are you turning it off? I just pot down the bass between sets (sometimes I'll remember to maybe hit the mute switch on the amp) and let it go at that .
I've had mine for years after I called Schroeder speakers for a recommendation. Jorge Schroder himself recommended it to me. Works great with my mini 12.
Mine did something like that before I removed the ribbon cable and sprayed contact cleaner on the connection. You may wanna try that if you haven't done it recently.
I'm a little late to the game here, but I've been looking for a lightweight practice/small gig amp and found it in the BX500. I ended up using it at my gig tonight and it sounded really great through my Hartke Hydrive 410. I gotta say I was really impressed and the guys in the band were too. It was kind of nice not hauling the 60lb rack consisting of my LH1000, tuner etc for once. I pretty much left the EQ alone and had a little bump on the compressor as well as on the contour knob. It cut through but still sounded fat and maintained a nice top end. Great little amp and worth every penny I paid for it!
Yeah that's good to hear as my experience is similar. Last Saturday I did an outdoor festival thing with mine (2.5 years of gigging it - I always take it to outdoor functions because it literally screams the higher freqs and I can hear it really well on stage, tis crazy loud) it sat in the sun and it was 95 deg out and I pushed it hard with a 7 pc RnB band. Not the first time that I've done that with that amp. Sure, I had to do the contact cleaner on the ribbon cable thing a year or so ago. But that is one sweet little head and it takes a lot of punishment in the heat and totally delivers. I bought a Tung sol tube to try in my Genz shuttle and put the Ruby that was in it in the Carvin. I can't hear a difference in the Genz, still sounds great but that Ruby tube in the Carvin actually made a difference. I can actually hear a bit of grind when I crank the drive and pull back the master. I bypassed the tube back and forth and could hear the difference! I was shocked. Tung sol in the Carvin and couldn't get any warmth, original tube (not marked) in the Carvin same thing. Ruby tube in the Carvin? Yeah that worked! But nobody will ever hear it but me. Got another outdoor gig this Friday and will be taking the Carvin bx500 again for an hour and a half set in predicted 90 deg heat. Hopefully not in the sun again. I usually pair it with a GK212MBE 4 ohm standalone cab for maximum portability (my main goal after years of heavy lifting). Performance is excellent with that package, inside or out.
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4:00 or so now. About 8 or 9 with the master set very low maybe around 8:00 (about 2). I also have the active switch on. Its a very loud amp. But when I do that with the orig. Ruby tube from my Genz shuttle I can hear some grit and I like it, never heard the tube in the carvin do anything before. The genz well you can hear the tube gain in that one.
Around 11:00 to 1:00 depending on the song. I set my Low Mid FREQ at 100 and boost the Low Mid LEVEL to 1:00 - 2:00 (3 to 6). Now it RAWKS!!!
That's a sharp rig. I like those hybrid Hartke cabs and the BX500, with all it's mid-range control, would pair nicely with it!!
Just received up a used BX500 a few days ago. I'm using it with a pair of neo 112 Fender Rumble cabs. I bought it to use as a power amp with my VTBassDI pedal as the preamp into the fx return, however I've been enjoying the preamp section of this amp alone without the VTBassDI. The amp definitely has a hifi reference like tone set flat, but the eq is very effective & a cut of the lows & 50hz on the eq slider tightened up the bottom with a boost of the para at 100hz & the 125hz eq slider. I also cut with the para at 2k & some of the high mids on the sliders. The drive doesnt seem to get dirty at all until past 7 with the tube engaged, I'm still in the experimental stage. Only thing I wish was for a post eq DI setting for the occasional recording.
My BX500 is going out with me for another outdoor festival thing on Sept 1. This box has required the typical shot of deoxit on the ribbon cables, but has also performed around 500 hours of hard time (and a lot of that in outdoor heat) with excellent results. Everybody good or are we on the 700 bandwagon now?
