The knob layout feels surprisingly uncluttered for having so many controls on such a limited surface space. The amp feels solid and road-worthy, and at 19 pounds, isn’t as easily tipped as some smaller heads. The amp’s two-toned metal enclosure lends a utilitarian vibe, though there are some flashy touches too-the dynamic V3 logo and the red or blue LEDs inside the cage enable you to augment the natural glow of the four 12AX7 and four EL84 tubes, livening up your stage presence. Paired with a Carvin 212V cabinet with the company’s GT12 speakers, it’s a great looking micro stack.
#SENDING WOOD TO CARVIN GUITARS PORTABLE#
At 15'' wide, this is a very portable 50-watt, all-tube head. The first thing I noticed when unpacking the V3M was, of course, the size. But this little amp does many things well, and at a price that could make the most hardened gear snobs look twice. The little beast unites a compact package with the high-gain spirit of Carvin’s bigger heads. The questions always remain-how can an amp laden with the electronics necessary for a thousand features compete with the signal purity and unique tonal complexity of a great point-to-point design? How does a 19-pound box squeeze out the visceral dynamics and screaming saturation necessary for modern metal sounds?Ĭarvin offered answers at Winter NAMM earlier this year with the fully featured three-channel V3M. The guitar industry has seen a lot of products that promise a-million-tones-in-one solutions. Trainspotting and Bargain Hunting.When meeting any highly adaptable piece of equipment for the first time, it’s easy to assume a “jack of all trades, master of none” bias. Sad Songs and Steel Guitar.Ĭhicago Valley Railroad. Kiesel seems to be doing well, still making custom USA made guitars with allot of emphasis on headless designs.Ĭarvin Audio, on the other hand folded a few years back, abandoned all it's warranty obligations, closed it's US manufacturing and then relaunched the following year with a very limited range of import products. The company split a few years back into Kiesel Guitars and Carvin Audio, each headed by a different branch of the family. Lately I mostly have gigged with the Carvin S8.Ĭarvin is just combination of the names of Lowel Kiesel's sons Carson and Gavin. Later I bought a Carvin S8 wood body lap steel. Bobby Seymour told me his first steel was a similar model as mine. If I recall correctly my research revealed the business name changed changed from Kiesel to Carvin in 1950. Many years ago I researched some of Carvin history because I bought a Kiesel D8 bakelite lapsteel, the forerunner of Carvin. Interestingly, this is the only Carvin or Kiesel I can find of this fretboard pattern in this color scheme. It came with a case which I don't think is original but is delightfully covered in pearloid. The only non-original parts seem to be the jack plate and neck switch, though bigger leg sockets were added and removed at some point. In a similar vein, the 8-on-a-side tuners are actually doubled mandolin tuners, with one end of the strip cut off in the Fender style to fit end-to-end. If you look at the covers, they're jointed in different places I suspect that they didn't have 8-string covers and simply cut and spliced together two 6-string covers. The pickups aren't adjustable at all but have excellent string balance and a bit more fullness to the bass than the AP-6/AP-8 design. From the look of this steel, it was probably more of a garage than the later factories.īut, despite the quirks, this actually sounds better than the later Carvin steels I've owned. The logos say Baldwin Park, and Carvin was only based there for a few years in the early '50s. It's a bit more crude than their steels from just a few years later, and there's a definite home-spun vibe about it. Because I'll probably never have another opportunity to play this model.
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