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Thread: Carvin VT410!

  1. #1
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Carvin VT410!

    I finally got around to posting a pic of my recently purchased 1995 Carvin VT410.

    I bought this as a non-functioning project amp. The traces on the power tube PCB for the plates arced to traces for the cathodes' grounds (aka, let the smoke out). It's an easy fix with a simple bypass surgery (hard wire the plate connection away from the ground! I replaced the tube sockets, the tubes, a couple of fuses, the jewel lamp bulb and cleaned the sockets and set the bias. I may go back in and replace the electrolytics, but I'm feeling lazy about it- the amp has a one sided PCB with the traces on the bottom so the whole amp has to come apart for repairs (the power tubes were on a separate, smaller, easier to remove PCB!

    The repair is better than the original design (it's a known issue on these early Vintage Series amps, maybe others) and the amp will not have that problem in the future.

    The amp sounds great as 4x10" often do! The head weighs about 35 pounds and the 4x10 cab only about 40 pounds!


  2. #2
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    Oh, and I might leave the tattered grill cloth. It kinda goes with the burns on the top of the amp! Rock 'n roll!

  3. #3
    Forum Member CoyotesGator's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    Cool save.

    Someones cat loved it!
    What happend?
    Who let the magic smoke out?

  4. #4
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    is that cab closed back or open back?

    I love 4x10 combos, it must be the open back that I like. I had a 4x10 marshall cab that was only so-so. It didn't sound bad but nothing like an open back 4x10 cab. Peavey makes a nice open back extension cab but I can't remember how many ohms they were.

  5. #5
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    Open back. Carvin claimed they were going for a vintage Jensen sound with the speakers. I think Eminence made them.

    The guy has a macaw and has had other birds. I wonder if they had anything to do with the damage. He also said that he had loaned the amp to a friend for many years. Maybe he had a cat. The guy was a character. An old hippie on Cape Cod. I enjoyed meeting him.

    I may replace the grill cloth, but grill cloth isn't cheap and the amp was.

  6. #6
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    I did a little experimenting last night and the amps that I tried sounded better through this cab.

  7. #7
    Forum Member chuckocaster's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    Glad you got this fixed, saw a pic on FB. Eminence doesn't always get talked about much, but I think their speakers are really good.
    "don't worry, i'm a professional!"

  8. #8
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    Thanks Chuck.

    I went back into the amp last night and cleaned the scratchy pots (I don't clean pots that don't make noise) and removed the clipping diodes. With the diodes in place, the dirty channel was good with a Strat for an SRV kind of sound, but muddy with humbuckers. Without the diodes, it's more of an authentic cranked amp sound. I like it. This is a very nice sounding amp, even though it smells like the dampness of Cape Cod, marijuana and pets when it warms up!

  9. #9
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    your description of the smells was quite vivid and funny

    how would you describe the amp? What does it have for tubes? How many ohms is the cab?

  10. #10
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Carvin VT410!

    Quote Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan View Post
    how would you describe the amp? What does it have for tubes? How many ohms is the cab?
    I haven't had a lot of time with it to describe how it sounds, but the clean sound is good- though it seems like humbuckers are pushing the clean channel a bit too hard. I just put new JJ tubes in it but might swap them around and try others and see how it responds. There might be an issue with a component.

    It sounds great with a Strat as it is. A great sound for someone like me who plays a lot of blues. The 4-10 cab makes everything sound better, though. I had an '81 Concert 410 and a '67 Super Reverb in the past and have always had a thing for 4x10s. This is why I jumped at this amp.

    There's an "Acoustic Presence" control on the back that affects only the clean channel. I haven't messed with that much yet. The reverb is nice. Much tamer than a Fender. You can crank it all the way up and it doesn't get out of hand.

    It has four EL84 power tubes and five 12AX7 preamp tubes. One of them drives the reverb.

    The cab has 8 ohm speakers wired in series/parallel so it's 8 ohms.

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