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Carvin Redline 1000

Dark Horse

Dark Horse

Jul 31, 2008
11,869
21,977
Austin, TX
#1
So.... I can get what appears to be an excellent condition Carvin Redline 1000 head for what seems like a great price. But I don't need the head, and I'm plenty happy with my Aguilar. I don't know the going prices on these heads...worth getting and flipping ? What are these amps like tone-wise ? Reliability ? Thanks....
 
#2
I use one as practice head for my outlaw country band with a carvin 4x10 and 1x15 (I know, I know) and it sounds alright. The built in compressor and crossover are pretty handy features to have. Honestly the head isn't anything too special in the tone dept for me. It seems like just a straight forward, reliable, powerful bass head. I like my Carvin B2000 much better.
 
#3
nickrs540 said:
I use one as practice head for my outlaw country band with a carvin 4x10 and 1x15 (I know, I know) and it sounds alright. The built in compressor and crossover are pretty handy features to have. Honestly the head isn't anything too special in the tone dept for me. It seems like just a straight forward, reliable, powerful bass head. I like my Carvin B2000 much better.
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Cool, thanks for your opinion...I appreciate it.

Yeah, the only reason I'm even considering it is the price. Get it as a backup, or to flip. I love my Aguilar - super happy with it - so it is doubtful that the Carvin would be able to "replace" it for my needs.
 
#4
I had one, and would describe it as thin and sterile.

Replaced it with a B1500, and couldn't be happier.

I don't think they have a very good resale value though. They frequnetly go for peanuts on ebay, and used on Guitar Center website. Probably not much to be gained by trying to flip it unless you can get for under $200
 
#5
Bass_Pounder said:
I had one, and would describe it as thin and sterile.

Replaced it with a B1500, and couldn't be happier.

I don't think they have a very good resale value though. They frequnetly go for peanuts on ebay, and used on Guitar Center website. Probably not much to be gained by trying to flip it unless you can get for under $200
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I can get it for $120 + tax

Ebay shows one "completed auction" for $350, but I have the feeling that's an anomaly, not a "regular resale price".
 
#8
I bought one from Carvin years ago. Sent it back. As stated above, thin and sterile. Piss poor tone wise. Wasn't nearly as loud as I hoped either. Don't get me wrong, they do make some great products, but they booted it on this one.
 
#10
Dark Horse said:
If any Austin guys are interested, I'll gladly tell you where it's located. I think I'm just gonna "pass". Seems like it might be acceptable if I needed an amp, but "flipping it" might be more hassle than it's worth.
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You're here?

I might take it as another biampable backup. Used to gig an R600. Not much for baked in tone. You have to know how to run eq good to get tone out of them but they do have a ton of it. They don't hold resale value very well. At 120, you'd make something, but not a lot. That price makes me wonder if there isn't something wrong with it. The older carvin pro-basses and the newer stuff I think are better sounding amps, at least more plug-n-play.
 
#12
will33 said:
You're here?

I might take it as another biampable backup. Used to gig an R600. Not much for baked in tone. You have to know how to run eq good to get tone out of them but they do have a ton of it. They don't hold resale value very well. At 120, you'd make something, but not a lot. That price makes me wonder if there isn't something wrong with it. The older carvin pro-basses and the newer stuff I think are better sounding amps, at least more plug-n-play.
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yep, i'm in austin ...if you want to look at it, hit me up and i'll tell you where it is
 
#17
Used to have one. Not as loud as I thought 1000w should be but good enough. Plenty of tone for me and the tube preamp sounded good. They did have a problem where the tube preamp stopped working which only left the transistor preamp which was nowhere near as good. I can't remember what the fault was but Carvin did fix it if you returned the amp to them but being in the UK made that option a bit impractical.
 
#18
Wow, the reactions here are completely opposite of mine. I got the Redline 600 combo - if you call still two 8s (8s? Maybe 10s, a little foggy on that point) and one 15, plus head in one box a combo - years ago, shortly after they started making them in fact. It was my "gig rig" for a few years - I loved the tone and the flexibility in my formative years. Very clean.

Either way, I'd probably hit that for $120 just as a spare.
 
#19
I just sold one. It was OK, but the tone didn't knock me out. I bought a new Mesa Walkabout and couldn't be happier (unless it was 600 watts, maybe). I love my Carvin LB75, though. They're definitely worth $120 unless there's something wrong with it.
 
#20
I never had a problem getting good sound out of my redline600, but you had to turn knobs to get there. It was pretty "sterile" when you first plugged in. Great eq section though, and the comoressor is at least decent as far as ones that are built amps. Ratio and threshold controls with a lot of subtle "little bit" settings. Noise gate too. Never really had much use for that, but it was good for keeping quiet between songs if you had a buzzy flourescent or neon light thing happening.

Mine got plenty loud, but did feel a little weaker than a 600 watt amp should. I rhink a lot of it comes from being so clean and not having an overly hyped up, baked in eq curve. That and it's only the 600 watts bridged at 4ohms, more like 180 per channel at 8ohms. This 1000 is the exact same amp, just a little stronger power section. 225 watts per side at 8ohms, 350 at 4. They only do clean. If you want any kind of grit or growl or anything other than straight clean, you have to add effects externally.
 

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