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New Carvin Micro bass combo amps!

#221
The MB15 +15 is quite the nice setup. I only use it for practice at home (for now), but love the tone and it can crank.
I would describe the tone as a bit vintage due to the settings I have and that the cabs are sealed.
Drive at 7.
Contour about 11:00.
Bass is centered at 50 Hz, so I only bump it about +2.
(the cabs are rated down to 60 Hz, too much 50Hz = boomy)
Parametric 1 gets set about 60 Hz and bumped +9.
Parametric 2 gets set at about 250Hz and bumped to +7
Treble is bumped to +9.
Compressor is about 10:30.
 
#222
georgiagoodie said:
I'm with Jeb on this.
I bought a BX500 18 months, or so, ago, and totally dig it! Heck, I just bought another one for backup this week (NT model $358 shipped, from Carvin, off the bay). I then ordered the gig bag ($34) and a JJ12AX7 ($18) direct from Carvin (plus $9 total for shipping). I have not had any problems, I just like having the back-up amp for gigs. The dang thing is just so easy to move around. 'Buy the black padded gig bag for it, and just throw it over your shoulder (what 6 lbs.?). I double with a 17-piece big band "Metro Jazz Club", and play through a Berg AE112 for rehearsals and add another AE112 for gigs. I have plenty of power and EQ capabilities, and the tone I get is superb. I also have played it through a 1x15 cab., a 2x10 cab, and a 4x10 cab. The BX500 just plain works, and for the price, it cannot be beat.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Instead of waiting for reviews on the MB210, I just pulled the trigger on a BX500 from a fellow TB'er here. Now I just have to decide on a cab... :D
 
#223
I was just at the Carvin store where I played through:

MB10
MB10 w/15"extension
MB15
MB12
MB12 w/15"extension
MB210
'MB210 MB12 w/15"extension
BX250 - BR210.

Here's the why, the what and the result.

I have transitioned from a loud, classic rock band into a more intimate Jazz/Gypsy/Bossa Trio so I no longer need to haul around my 1000W 410HLF rig. My impressions:

MB10 - Great little standalone10". Clean, flexible, small and light
MB10 w/15"extension - Horrifyingly deep and solid rig. Just sounded amazing. 1+1=5
MB15 - Not really into single 15's but sounded nice.
MB12 - Biggest disappointment. I really wanted to fall in love with this one. It sounds really mid-forward and didn't seem to have the same low-end I was hoping to hear.
MB12 w/15"extension - Better.
MB210 - Dang. Huge, deep sound on this. The best sounding stand-alone of all of them.
'MB210 MB12 w/15" extension Big, deep, nice.
BX250 - BR210. There is a noticeable difference between the combos and the head/cab set up. This sounded like a bigger rig all on it's own.

So what did I walk out with?

(drumroll).....

The MB10. Why? Because I liked the tone of the the 110 w/the 15" expansion cab more than any other combo of micro cabs (I was combo shopping, not cab shopping). Plus, it's a small, light and great sounding rig that will fit in the trunk of my import. I can take the 110 to practice, and the full rig to gigs when needed. I originally had the MB210 on the counter, ready to go, but at the last minute opted for the 110 with hopes of adding an extension cab as needed.

More to report after a rehearsal.
 
#225
Curious why you tried just about every combination EXCEPT the MB15 +15 extension?
Your rig - your choice, but I found that a bit missing in all-inclusiveness.

I chose the MB15 + 15, and love-love-love it.
But - I can see how (since you are not into stand-alone 15's) you chose the MB10 + 15.
Have fun - these are great little combo's! :)
 
#226
I walked out from the Carvin store with a MB10 also. As a practice amp it has no competition (anywhere near its price range), and with an extension it’s a gig-able amplifier. If I didn’t have a rehearsal amp I would be jumping all over the MB210. Small footprint, 210’s, 200w (internally), perfect rehearsal amp. I heard fella say he couldn’t get a fat sound out of it, but I have troubling believing that because I can make the MB10 sound fatter than butter by boosting lows + low mids and cutting out high-mids + highs. Heck I can make it sound like an Ampeg B15 with a blanket over it! The key is that BX250 head built into these combos, which is a great little head IMO.
:bassist:
 
#227
Don;t get me wrong, I'm not baggin' on 2x15'!. It's just that I play quite a bit of EUB these days, and have found that it works best through a 10" driver (or 2). Dual 15's just weren't in play for me this time around.

Combined with the 110, the 15 extension cab adds a really nice low end to round things out, but still has the 10 that the EUB seems to prefer.

If I was doing a different type of project, I would certainly have demoed 2x15's. That's what's great about these. If I get back into a rock type thing, I can just pickup an MB15 and have that massive 2x15!


tlr1293 said:
Curious why you tried just about every combination EXCEPT the MB15 +15 extension?
Your rig - your choice, but I found that a bit missing in all-inclusiveness.

I chose the MB15 + 15, and love-love-love it.
But - I can see how (since you are not into stand-alone 15's) you chose the MB10 + 15.
Have fun - these are great little combo's! :)
Click to expand...
 
#230
Grateful,

Your review was fantastic for me. I am looking to upgrade from my SWR WM10... am playing in a jazz/bossa/acoustic rock thing... with a 5 string... and was wondering how all of those amps would be.

Somehow, I had a sneaking suspicion that the MB12 wouldn't be as good as it looks and that the 210 was exactly what I was going to be after...

So THANK YOU! Appreciate it.
 
#231
A little more to add here...

I finally got to spend some up close and personal time with the my MB210, my Ergo EUB and my Carvin 5 string fretless. My wife was watching 'Real Housewives of Who-The-Hell-Cares'' in the next room, so I took that as a sign that I needed to test the amp with some more volume...

It sounds absolutely perfect at the volume at which I usually play. It also has plenty of room above it, and retains it even lower. I will probably play most often at about 4-5, tops. I took it up to around 7-8 and just thumped in the B string. No farting whatsoever, and lots of bass.

I play my Ergo through a patch on a Zoom B3, and it really sounds fantastic. Really, really natural and clean with no mid-honk/bark and string/wood noise that so many amps can add to the EUB. And I had all the settings flat, compression at ~2 (7-8 o'clock), no drive. The compressor is very functional and responsive.

The fretless also sounded great as I got similar results. The combo responds well to preamp tweaks on the bass.

As I said before, I play in a Bossa/Gypsy/Jazz thing and we are not super loud. We've worked on assembling all the right pieces for this project and everything has to sound correct to work. Tone trumps volume without exception, and this one carries through exactly what I'm after without adding it's own dirty fingerprints.

I will be using this for rehearsals and most (if not all) gigs that don't require big volume. All things considered, I am extremely happy with the purchase.

The final test will be at the rehearsal this weekend.
 
#233
Grateful, could you tell us a little more about the MB12 with the 15" extension? I agree that the MB12 as a stand alone is extremely mid-forward with somewhat of a lack of depth. Also, it gets a little woofy on the B string at louder volumes. But man, the BX250 in it sounds great. I've paired it with a Hartke HyDrive to play gigs before and it killed with that as its extension cab.

Does the 15" extension give it a more full-range flavor?

P.s. BTW, one of the coolest gigs I've ever used the MB12 on was last summer. One of the clubs we play decided to stick us on their float for the county parade. They put a nice PA on board, but we still needed some "stage" amps. My Aguilar 4x10s and Mesa 400+ obviously were gonna be difficult to make work given the circumstances. In comes the MB12. We strapped 'er down, I gave the engineer a direct signal, and I rocked about 20,000 people with my little MB12. :D My guitarist and I still chuckle about that. Micro combo amps: They're just not for coffee shop gigs anymore. :D
 
#234
Along the same lines as Liquid Midnight's question above, has anyone tried the MB12 with the 112AG extension speaker? It seems to be exactly the same size (and price) as the 115MB extension, but with what appears to be a ported 12". Assuming it's the same basic cabinet as the powered AG100D, Carvin describes that as being a "tuned bass reflex enclosure response: 48 Hz to 16 kHz designed for bass guitar." As opposed to the 115MB that's rather vaguely spec'd as having: "Frequency Response: 60 - 5Khz."
 
#236
LiquidMidnight said:
Grateful, could you tell us a little more about the MB12 with the 15" extension? Does the 15" extension give it a more full-range flavor?
Click to expand...

In my demoing of the amps, I found that adding the 15" gave exponentially fuller sound than any of the combos as stand alones. Huge, wonderful differences. I needed a single cab, able-to-be-carried-in-one-trip solution, so I needed one that could handle it all by it's lonesome.
 
#237
Has anyone bought the MB115 extension cab? I was thinking of pairing it up with a GK 400rb for a micro rig, but the price is so cheap it kinda has me hesitant....

Anyone know if the cabs are made of solid plywood? What the speaker sensitivity is of their 15?
 
#238
A few people have bought it. Their reviews should be earlier in this thread.

Yes, the cabs are made of solid plywood.

The driver is the PS15. Carvin driver specs are [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].

If you're looking for the sound of a typical large-box fifteen cab, the 115 extension doesn't come remotely close. That was not one of that cab's design goals. You need to up-eq the low bass and down-eq the mids drastically to get anything balanced out of it. And then with all that eq it can sound sort of woofy. No surprise -- a tiny suboptimal box is a tiny suboptimal box, and that's what happens. There's no pushing that elephant out of the room.
 
#239
Grateful said:
The final test will be at the rehearsal this weekend.
Click to expand...

It was great. The amp I mean. We ended up having a lower volume rehearsal with the guitarist switching between an amplified classical guitar and his Eastman hollowbody (gorgeous hunk o' wood that is). I jumped between an active fretless and a passive P, both 5's strung with flats (Chromes on fretless, LaBellas on the P) and no effects. Even at a lower volume, each bass came through with it's own character and tonally merged great with the guitar. It sounded very, very natural and unprocessed. The only amp touching between basses was the mute and the active switch, settings were flat.

It's a keeper. Done.
 

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