Members mike-o Posted December 17, 2009 Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 Traded my Laney GH100L for it and the dude also threw some cash my way. The Carvin has been modded with a switch that takes out the solid state clipping diodes, which is cool. So far I've only played the Carvin with my Les Paul with a Duncan JB in the bridge. I needed an amp with a dedicated clean channel. The dirt channel is very nice. Not as nice as the Laney, but the Laney had my favorite lead sound ever. So crisp, defined, and punchy with lots of sustain. The Carvin has less sustain and a less tight loose end than the Laney, but it's still very nice. I like the dirt channel on this more than most other amps I've tried. Keep in mind I have the clipping diodes deactivated. To all Carvin MTS owners, this is a crucial mod. The clean channel is amazing. It can be crisp and punchy or smooth ad soothing depending on how you hit the strings and your pickup combo. I cranked it yesterday and it did not have the slightest amount of breakup, so I think I'm going to throw an OD pedal in there with the settings very low to get the slight dirt I sometimes like on the clean channel. I would stack the clean channel on this amp up against any Fender. And I have played a lot of them. I'm curious to see how it sounds with some spacey chorus, vibe, and phase effects, but I left my pedals at my apartment at college. The amp is very bassy, and when sitting directly on top of my cab, the reverb tank gets shaked up or whatever and causes the reverb to go wild. Does anyone know a good way to fix this? I don't really know what it's called but it happens with my Tech 21 combo when I move it around. Surely someone knows what I'm talking about. So this is my brief review of a cool amp. I guess Carvin discontinued this amp for the X100B reissue. The MTS is awesome, if you are looking for an inexpensive head with ridiculously beautiful cleans, hit this up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NinjaRaf Posted December 17, 2009 Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 I {censored}ing love that amp. I actually liked it a lot stock. Clipping diodes in there didnt bother me. I thought the distortion was tight and great for playing metal. The clean and reverb are some of the best I have heard. One of the greatest kept secrets of the amp world IMO. HNAD!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MattACaster Posted December 17, 2009 Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 Loved the one I had too. Got 100x better with a EQ in the loop boosting the mids too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mike-o Posted December 17, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 When the clipping diodes are removed, there is less compression, bringing the upper and lower frequencies to the level the mids are at. You lose some tightness in the low end and in the sustain, but in my opinion, it sounds better overall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Curtis.Fagan Posted December 17, 2009 Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 If you could get that tightness on only the low end with that amp it would be dreamy. I always liked it stock though. Happy NAD dude, enjoy it -Curtis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crunchtime Posted December 17, 2009 Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 It's hard to beat the clean on a MTS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sahlomonic Posted December 17, 2009 Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 There's on on KC's CL for $400 . . . I thought about checking it out. Unless it was the one you bought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mike-o Posted December 17, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 No, this was in VA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hung Over Posted December 17, 2009 Members Share Posted December 17, 2009 What kind of cab you running it through? I played one through the matching cab; while I thought it was decent, it had an ungodly amount of low end. The clean was tits though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarbilly74 Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 leave the clipping diodes switch on, it's part of the amp tone and it sounds weak without it. I still have my friend's MTS at my house and I love it. Fantastic amp. You can reduce the bass by using EL34s, swapping the PI with a 12AT7 and simply turning the bass down. Increasing the mids also helps the amp to cut through better, the amp's voice is naturally scooped so you can set the mids as high as you want without it sounding boxy. This is THE underrated amp to buy, you can get them for as low as $280 and they sound really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hung Over Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 leave the clipping diodes switch on, it's part of the amp tone and it sounds weak without it. I still have my friend's MTS at my house and I love it. Fantastic amp. You can reduce the bass by using EL34s, swapping the PI with a 12AT7 and simply turning the bass down. Increasing the mids also helps the amp to cut through better, the amp's voice is naturally scooped so you can set the mids as high as you want without it sounding boxy.This is THE underrated amp to buy, you can get them for as low as $280 and they sound really good. I was floored by the amount of low end. Usually when I demo an amp I set all teh tone controls at noon with presence off and any other resonance (if the amp has one) off as well. I'd like to try one again with a different cab. But the store that had it was only selling it as a package deal for $599 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members musicdog400 Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 You lose some tightness in the low end Interesting. I like the sound of the MTS, but not a big fan of diodes generally. I did the diode removal mod on the Belair and it sounded better. But after a while I realized my main complaint wasn't the diodes, it was too much low end going into the preamp. Putting an EQ in front fixed it. I thought the hi gain sound of the MTS was great. At low distortion levels, the diode thing kind of stuck out to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chaos2767 Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 I miss my old MTS, the cleans were soooo lush and a 10 baand thru the loop made a great amp even better. Congrats and dont let it go becasue everyone regrets losing them lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NinjaRaf Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 I miss my old MTS, the cleans were soooo lush and a 10 baand thru the loop made a great amp even better. Congrats and dont let it go becasue everyone regrets losing them lol. This. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarbilly74 Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 I was floored by the amount of low end. Usually when I demo an amp I set all teh tone controls at noon with presence off and any other resonance (if the amp has one) off as well. I'd like to try one again with a different cab. But the store that had it was only selling it as a package deal for $599 yeah that won't work on the MTS at all, my settings on the MTS on the lead channel are something like bass 2 mids 9 treble 8 presence 6 but it goes up as I turn it up louder... on most amps these settings would sound like crap but they work really well on the MTS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mike-o Posted December 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 I'm playing it through an Avatar 2x12 closed back with Vintage 30's, which really brings out the chimey high frequencies in the cleans. And yes, it is a very bassy amp. I have the EQ knobs set at like bass:3 mids:5 highs:4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalkat Posted June 8, 2013 Members Share Posted June 8, 2013 ive had lannys-marshalls--- even fenders & DREADED peavey junk various other offshoots bugera crap tranz & tube big little my marshall always was the best jtm60 all around ; but never quite my sound ,always had to run some pedal ect..but this made me smile; im yes a sredder! its not a 83 channel amp but the 2 get it done!i genneraly run pedals but this straight in is killer !!'; my lanny's were bassy but not really clear distortin. the marshall had cooler dist. but not enough bass 4 me and still pedal bound.im not rich/no 12 boggies soldanos eggnaters never owened any of those, but owned alot amp's trying to get my sound/found it ! 4 me any way..but im mad scientits i mod everything gtrs-pedals ect...the diode thing is intesting ;my experiance with pedls show's that changing the INDICATOR yes indicator led WILL alter the sound!!!! of the pedal my first was a govener 2 marshl pedal going from red to bright blue made it sound like a mesa boogie yes that drastic of a change---not the the too led's in the unit that make the distortion but the on-off led!?so never got to try to change the 2 led's in pedal;;but it stands to reason that that mod would also make a differance if diodes were changed to led's( in the mts). im assuming the change may be due to value of led change-(diff color's-diff value?) but diff colors of many kinds do change sound i now have a korg 411 fx that is tunned by the color ive used 4 each channel .so far nobody has found out about this-that ive seen but it very cool for pedals anyway- it seems to add more high end head room lot higher gain not as warm as ended up useing red led in the marshall pedal to get that older marshall crunch tone.ive seen your latter threds on your failer to remove diodes but am intrested in the capacitor mod you did the one that got you the boggie tone{ive got your mod instuct copyed} but is the 2nd cap mod(were you said id stop there;but dint like tone) dependent on canging the 1st cap to the legacy value you talked about?????????but ilike it alot the way it is but 4-h says make the best better.so all you mad scientist's let us know what happens can the diodes be exchanded 4 led's & if so what are results with differnt colors-light emitting DIODES anyone??????????????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalkat Posted June 12, 2013 Members Share Posted June 12, 2013 that is an old problem its sympethetic vibration from cab. solution; put peice of thick foamrubber, the harder the better between amp head & cab-this also helps with saving your tubes curcuit boards ect.. or put head on somethin eles -even a towell or small rug may stop vibration if you must keep on cab. i really like the stock mts,never heard legecy or v3 played x100b long time ago, liked it alot but it didnt have gain these do. i know paul gilbert (endorses) plays the lanny g100/ but i have racer x vidio hes playn marshall but hey we all use pedals prossesers. most every one talks about pure tube distortion -then they kick on their TRANSISTOR tube screemer........ the MTS-METAL TONE SEIRIES! got me playin paul gilbert licks straight in love it made me have sound i get with my pedals only real. still like the mod with caps though as that can be switchable as well.but rather have too much bass and graphic or parametric it out/pedal/ than thin tinny tryn to put bass into amp thru eq ect..... dont know marshalls are great (right tubes-spkrs--) but they use diodes as well the L.E.D.s in amps as well as pedals! so? love the MOLTAIN-TRAIN-SOUND MTS ITS MAKES ME WANT TO PLAY HARDERER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalkat Posted June 12, 2013 Members Share Posted June 12, 2013 AGREE 1000% EL34S DONT TELL HOW GOOD THESES AMP'S ARE/ I TRADED 120W BURGERA 1990 HEAD-BLUE VOO DOO 4X12 W CLEST.V30'S-MARSHALL AVT 50 COMBO///NO REGRETS THIS MTS BLEW AWAY EVERYTHING THEY HAD ALL THE NEW MODDLING & MARSHALLS PEVEY1/2 STACKS ALL OF THEM--I WASNT EVEN WANTING ANOTHER AMP DONT KNOW ABOUT LEGECY BUT I LIKE THIS STOCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalkat Posted June 12, 2013 Members Share Posted June 12, 2013 THIS IS AN MUSIC FORAM NOT NUTRALITE GO HOPE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalkat Posted June 12, 2013 Members Share Posted June 12, 2013 YES SIR/ BEST ADVICE YET THE DONT SOUND REALLY GOOD-----there great! the unsung hero the $25.00 eq pedal get the bass eq works better than gtr.eq-ped. dod eq is the only dod -digitech pedal i like- the boss sucks any old eq 10band does same thing w/more control than switching capasitors no mod to devalue amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalkat Posted June 12, 2013 Members Share Posted June 12, 2013 same deal i ran into would not split cab&head but the cab was the fuzzy one not ,the origanal ,,dont even know whats in it for spkrs it's a carvin cab yes tons of bass but i really liked this combinatin still tight not harsh love it 599.00 got for trade 570.00 worth every penny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalkat Posted June 12, 2013 Members Share Posted June 12, 2013 try eq pedal in effx loop or bbe or boss eh2 enhancer tightn away i like all that bass but running el34's/my new delay helps as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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