So I took a chance and ordered one of these from Carvin based on positive reviews. Including shipping and a fitted cover, this little rig cost me less then I would have had to pay for an equivalent GK, Traynor or TC Electronics combo locally. I have only had her for a few hours but thought I would post an initial review as there doesn't seem to be a lot of these floating around.
Keeping in mind the insanely low price of these (currently $319 for the 210), I was not expecting this rig to compare in tone to my Mesa or Epifani gear. But I have been on a bit of a quest for an ultra light combo and have bought and sold quite a few "mini" rigs in the past year or so.
I went with the 210 combo over the 115 or 112 as it seemed like the most "bang for the buck". I like the form factor and the fact that this amp has a very small footprint but has some height to it, making it easier to reach my ears on a stage. The fact that you can add another 8 ohm cabinet to the Carvin combos is a great bonus over some of the other brands and I like that Carvin makes matching extension cabs for very good prices.
So on to the review, out of the box, the MB210 looks very well built. I went with the "White Bronco" tolex just for fun as Carvin is currently offering your choice of about 8 different colors for no extra charge. The amp arrived very well packed, the matching cover was only about $17 extra and fits nicely.
The amp portion of the combo is sunk into the top of the cabinet which has rubber feet on two sides so that you can use the amp lying on its side or sitting upright. Nice metal corners and good quality looking tolex.
The amp's controls are mounted to a plastic faceplate which feels a bit cheap compared to the all metal "head" version of this amp, but the controls and switches all have a nice solid feel to them. The amp weighs a reported 36 pounds and is easy to carry with the side mounted handle.
I plugged in and noted the jewel light is red upon startup, then turns blue when the amp kicks in a few seconds later. The light will go back to red if the mute is engaged and flashes red when the compressor is kicking in. The amp sounded a bit boxy to me at first, but it only took a bit of initial tweaking to dial in a nice punchy tone.
The titanium horn sounds great. Not at all like the cheap piezo in the GK MB series combos. Very sweet and the "dim" switch allows for a 50% setting which warms things up if desired.
I really like the input gain control. I found no clipping when the gain is dialed up high even with my SR5 or active Lull jazz bass. Loads of headroom and the amp just sounds better with a hotter input signal. It took me a few minutes to figure this out, but the one drawback of having the gain up high, is that the signal then hits the compressor real hard and even dialing up a small amount of compression, just squashes the tone completely. This is easily remedied by turning gain down to anywhere under halfway and the compressor becomes very useable without too much squish. Very nice to have an onboard comp on a budget amp.
The semi para mid controls are fantastic and the bass and treble controls are very well voiced. The rig was a bit too deeply voiced with everything set flat but taking a bit of the bass out, really allows the amp to open up and get very loud without any breakup. I was quite impressed with the power of such a small rig.
The speakers actually seemed to break in and improve within 15 minutes of playing through the amp. Not sure if that is possible but everything just seemed to settle in after a bit of playing and I really started to like the little cabinet's tone. Obviously there re limitations to a single 210 setup, especially since the cabinet was likely designed to be as small as possible, rather then to sound optimal.
Still I am impressed and can imagine that a second matching cabinet would make for a completely smoking little setup that is ultra portable and cheaper then just about anything else on the market. This amp is made in the USA like all Carvin products and I was overall very impressed with the fit and finish and overall feel. The quality is there despite how inexpensive these are.
So far, I am liking the tone and the feature set much more then the GK MB112 combo that I briefly owned and find the rig has a smoother and slightly more quality tone then the Traynor Small Block 115 or 112 that I also had owned for a brief time. The GK and Traynor amps were perfectly fine for their intended use, but they were both more expensive then the Carvin and had a lot less features.
I owned a TC BH250 head for a few months and thought it was pretty impressive for its size but was really looking for a combo and the BG250 115 combo, just didn't do it for me.
So again, its only my first evening with this little combo but I am hopeful that she will be a keeper. The build quality, tone, power and features are all better then the price would suggest. The fact that these are made in California and can be had for such a great deal are really amazing. I should mention too that Carvin states they need 3-10 business days to build an amp in a custom color. I ordered mine last Monday and they shipped it 2 days later on the Wednesday. It arrived by UPS today (Monday) so basically a week from the time I ordered it to having it in my hands. Outstanding!
I like the color too:
Keeping in mind the insanely low price of these (currently $319 for the 210), I was not expecting this rig to compare in tone to my Mesa or Epifani gear. But I have been on a bit of a quest for an ultra light combo and have bought and sold quite a few "mini" rigs in the past year or so.
I went with the 210 combo over the 115 or 112 as it seemed like the most "bang for the buck". I like the form factor and the fact that this amp has a very small footprint but has some height to it, making it easier to reach my ears on a stage. The fact that you can add another 8 ohm cabinet to the Carvin combos is a great bonus over some of the other brands and I like that Carvin makes matching extension cabs for very good prices.
So on to the review, out of the box, the MB210 looks very well built. I went with the "White Bronco" tolex just for fun as Carvin is currently offering your choice of about 8 different colors for no extra charge. The amp arrived very well packed, the matching cover was only about $17 extra and fits nicely.
The amp portion of the combo is sunk into the top of the cabinet which has rubber feet on two sides so that you can use the amp lying on its side or sitting upright. Nice metal corners and good quality looking tolex.
The amp's controls are mounted to a plastic faceplate which feels a bit cheap compared to the all metal "head" version of this amp, but the controls and switches all have a nice solid feel to them. The amp weighs a reported 36 pounds and is easy to carry with the side mounted handle.
I plugged in and noted the jewel light is red upon startup, then turns blue when the amp kicks in a few seconds later. The light will go back to red if the mute is engaged and flashes red when the compressor is kicking in. The amp sounded a bit boxy to me at first, but it only took a bit of initial tweaking to dial in a nice punchy tone.
The titanium horn sounds great. Not at all like the cheap piezo in the GK MB series combos. Very sweet and the "dim" switch allows for a 50% setting which warms things up if desired.
I really like the input gain control. I found no clipping when the gain is dialed up high even with my SR5 or active Lull jazz bass. Loads of headroom and the amp just sounds better with a hotter input signal. It took me a few minutes to figure this out, but the one drawback of having the gain up high, is that the signal then hits the compressor real hard and even dialing up a small amount of compression, just squashes the tone completely. This is easily remedied by turning gain down to anywhere under halfway and the compressor becomes very useable without too much squish. Very nice to have an onboard comp on a budget amp.
The semi para mid controls are fantastic and the bass and treble controls are very well voiced. The rig was a bit too deeply voiced with everything set flat but taking a bit of the bass out, really allows the amp to open up and get very loud without any breakup. I was quite impressed with the power of such a small rig.
The speakers actually seemed to break in and improve within 15 minutes of playing through the amp. Not sure if that is possible but everything just seemed to settle in after a bit of playing and I really started to like the little cabinet's tone. Obviously there re limitations to a single 210 setup, especially since the cabinet was likely designed to be as small as possible, rather then to sound optimal.
Still I am impressed and can imagine that a second matching cabinet would make for a completely smoking little setup that is ultra portable and cheaper then just about anything else on the market. This amp is made in the USA like all Carvin products and I was overall very impressed with the fit and finish and overall feel. The quality is there despite how inexpensive these are.
So far, I am liking the tone and the feature set much more then the GK MB112 combo that I briefly owned and find the rig has a smoother and slightly more quality tone then the Traynor Small Block 115 or 112 that I also had owned for a brief time. The GK and Traynor amps were perfectly fine for their intended use, but they were both more expensive then the Carvin and had a lot less features.
I owned a TC BH250 head for a few months and thought it was pretty impressive for its size but was really looking for a combo and the BG250 115 combo, just didn't do it for me.
So again, its only my first evening with this little combo but I am hopeful that she will be a keeper. The build quality, tone, power and features are all better then the price would suggest. The fact that these are made in California and can be had for such a great deal are really amazing. I should mention too that Carvin states they need 3-10 business days to build an amp in a custom color. I ordered mine last Monday and they shipped it 2 days later on the Wednesday. It arrived by UPS today (Monday) so basically a week from the time I ordered it to having it in my hands. Outstanding!
I like the color too:
