Multipurpose Combo

[H Nighttrain]

I picked up a Carvin AG100D Acoustic Guitar, Bass, and PA Amp the other day, about 20 years old. It’s pretty strong as a 100W 112 bass amp, 35 lbs isn't bad either. But then it also has another instrument channel, and a mic input (and line input) channel. Plus built-in effects.

Pretty cool little amp, and the emerald green tolex is really nice. Mine is scuffed up a bit, had some cobwebs behind the grill, etc., and wiping a damp rag took off a little grime. But it cleaned up nicely. Came with the cover, it smells a little like the bbq it must have been sitting next to in the seller's garage. One knob is cracked but everything functions fine.

So far I've only played bass thru it, but I plan to mainly use it as a powered PA for vocals, and perhaps an all-in-one busking rig.

I'd never heard of these before I saw the ad, I think I scored a nice piece of gear!

 

[57pbass]

Good score… I used to own this same combo and it was great. We did use all channels and the features. So convenient and good sounding. We also had Carvin PA equipment for larger shows and the electronics were sound but the speakers were on the cheap side and they did not have the fidelity of a higher brand speaker.

 

[Gervais Cote]

A console into a combo, awesome !

 

[bassfran]

I picked up a Carvin AG100D Acoustic Guitar, Bass, and PA Amp the other day, about 20 years old. It’s pretty strong as a 100W 112 bass amp, 35 lbs isn't bad either. But then it also has another instrument channel, and a mic input (and line input) channel. Plus built-in effects.

Pretty cool little amp, and the emerald green tolex is really nice. Mine is scuffed up a bit, had some cobwebs behind the grill, etc., and wiping a damp rag took off a little grime. But it cleaned up nicely. Came with the cover, it smells a little like the bbq it must have been sitting next to in the seller's garage. One knob is cracked but everything functions fine.

So far I've only played bass thru it, but I plan to mainly use it as a powered PA for vocals, and perhaps an all-in-one busking rig.

I'd never heard of these before I saw the ad, I think I scored a nice piece of gear!

View attachment 7427055

Absolutely good score. I did a brief tour in small venues with a trio once and one of these up on a stick was perfect for us. Sounded great.

Carvin made a matching 12" extension cab for these, too. Congrats!

 

[H Nighttrain]

So convenient and good sounding.

This sums it up well! The versatility and and overall package is awesome. It can put out small (med I hope?) gig volume, and while it doesn't sound great it does sound really, really good. It's relatively noisy, doesn't prodouce really deep low end, and doesn't sound 'hi-fi', but I envision this little guy seeing a fair amount of live work. I'm spoiled with my lightweight gear, but 35 lbs with a top handle isn't bad at all.

I'll have a chance to use it with a band in a couple days. BL brings a PA, but I'm going to put my bass and mic thru this thing to see how it does.

 

[Ursa]

Looks like an ideal rig for your planned deployment! Having two effects loops is a nice bonus.

If it had built-in reverb, I'd look into getting one myself. I've been known to run a Jazz Bass and Stratocaster simultaneously thru a Bandmaster Reverb head into a compact 2-way 15" cab. I've kicked myself many a time for letting that rig go.

 

[H Nighttrain]

This old Carvin has simple built-in reverb, chorus, flanger, and echo. I really like having a little reverb on my vocals, and I'm finding that reverb helps my drum machine sound. The Carvin has two different fx available.

I tried the chorus with bass, didn't like it, and echo and flange are pretty useless to me.

The reverb is tweakabe 3 ways, I had no problem dialing something useable for voice and drums. To be honest, it sounds a bit unnatural, "digital" if you will, in the high end, but plenty good enough for me.

 

[Ursa]

This old Carvin has simple built-in reverb, chorus, flanger, and echo. I really like having a little reverb on my vocals, and I'm finding that reverb helps my drum machine sound. The Carvin has two different fx available.

I tried the chorus with bass, didn't like it, and echo and flange are pretty useless to me.

The reverb is tweakabe 3 ways, I had no problem dialing something useable for voice and drums. To be honest, it sounds a bit unnatural, "digital" if you will, in the high end, but plenty good enough for me.

Thanks for pointing that out! It took a careful second look to see that EFF1 was Chorus and EFF2 was Reverb. I had assumed at first glance that these were controls for external FX loops.

Now I want one. I like a just a touch of reverb for electric bass, a bit more for keyboards, and more still for rhythm guitar. The spring reverb on my old Fender rig added a nice airiness and smoother legato to my bass playing. Combo organs don't sound correct without reverb.

I haven't heard an electronic chorus yet that rang my bells. Having played organs with Leslie and Spectra-Tone rotating speaker systems throughout my musical career, I guess I've been spoiled by "the real thing".

 

[H Nighttrain]

...EFF1 was Chorus and EFF2 was Reverb....

Actually, EFF1 can be either reverb, chorus, flange, or echo. Same for EFF2.

So I can put a little EFF1 reverb on my drum machine in channel 1, then a bigger EFF2 reverb on vocal channel 3, bass dry in channel 2.

Or EFF1 chorus for the bass in channel 2, then EFF2 reverb for drum channel 1 and vocal channel 3. Etc., etc., versatile enough.

There are 3 parameters to dial in for each fx type, and you can dial in the amount of fx for each channel. Sounds more complicated than it is, it's been easy set.

 

[H Nighttrain]

I got a chance to take her out for the first time - medium-sized dance club/bar, moderate-volume drummer and guitar (plus harp) blues/classic rock gig. I've done this gig with 100W and a 112, same as this Carvin (but a GK MB200 into a Genz NeoX cab). Sadly, I must report that the Carvin was not quite up to the task.

It did the gig but with no headroom... wasn't horrible, I was just hoping the combo had a bit more oomph in a live setting.

It should work well enough as a little powered PA, and it's perfect for at home... unfortunately it's just not up to performing as a bass combo for me.