I've been playing The Legacy half stack for 6 years with both el 34s and 6l6s (JJ,Groove Tubes,EH) volume around 6 on both channels. Over 200 gigs per year.I play in a cover band all kind of styles :).Fantastic amp!At higher volume I keep the lead channel's bass knob almost all the way down..I highly recommend the amp for any style of music.I like Vai's playing no more than any other great player.Great demo BTW!!!Cheers all!
I know this is an old vid. But man, really great job, about 99% of amp reviews on RU-vid are hack players with iphone mics. You sold me on the tone of this amp.
Hey, thank you very much! I just received your comment and broke out the drill :) you are 100% correct. the speakers in the 2X12 cab ARE in fact Greenbacks. I was going off the carvin website. Now I know :) So thank you again!
@hunterlpdc94 Thanks for watching the Carvin demo. As for different amps, right now, I'm using a newer company called 'Blackstar' The R&D guys from Marshall left and formed their own company. I'm using a Blackstar HT Stage 60. For now, Im really happy with it, but as my quest for tone is never ending... that is always subject to change. Good luck in your quest!
@Sebastianodelarada hey, thanx for watching. the speakers are greenbacks. Initially, I thought they were vintage 30's as thats what the Carvin web site said, but another viewer told me they looked like greenbacks, so I broke out the drill and sure enough they are greenbacks.
@SurfGreenTelecaster I could never claim to be that sophisticated :) that is actually 'Diary of a Madman' by Ozzy Osbourne featuring the late (and great) Randy Rhoads. Thank you for watching, and thank you for the comment/compliment!
Sorry it took me so long to respond. I live in an apartment, so I rarely get to crank the volume :( its like having a shelby GT and having to drive in a perpetual school zone. This amp DOES scream. In the demo, i wanted to show a different side of the amp, so i used my strat. I did get quite a few people asking about the gain, so I made a 2nd demo of the amp using a different guitar to show just the gain channel. Again, thank you for watching AND for your feedback. HAve a great holiday!
@MarkThomasMusic Yeah, that's where Randy Rhodes copped "Diary"; he had been studying classical and found "The Little Etudes" book in his mother's music store.
@Korby lol, no problem...i usually do the same thing (skip ahead in videos)...mostly because they reviewer/demoer talks about the amp for like 4 minutes before play
That VOLUME knob on the Drive side goes way higher then that(as you already know), and cranking the gain up anywhere past 2:00 is just Ludicrous.Still you managed to pull it off, and If I did that with my Marshall DSL the tone would sound very fizzy. You have to drive those OUTPUT Tubes to get the full effect.Great Harmonics, sustain that is SILLY GREAT! I am sure you know this already, and it would be impossible to record as well as you demonstrated with the volume up to 12:00. Great Job
Fantastic demo. Love this amp but always tot that a little overkill for me. Is there much cheaper or lower mid range amp head that is somewhat similar to this amp? Im trying to find a 70-80% alternative.
@fallingangels18 I'm sure on some level, yes, there would be. Would I notice it? probably not. Alot of the time, its merely preconceived notions. I had a Line 6 POD X3 that i had programed and die hard tube amp fanatics swore i was using a real Marshall plexi. Only to find it was my line 6. The only reason I purchased this over a combo is that this is because this is what I found on craigslist.
@TrippyTheShroom Doh! My bad. That's what I get for skipping ahead in the video. lol I didn't even hear that part. You're right. I thought you were talking about the intro to Miracle Man from "No Rest For The Wicked", which he plays at around 8:30.
Nice sounding amp!! Are there any other amps on the market that are just as versatile? As a guitar player, I play a lot of jazz, but some times I just like to crank up the gain and play some metal. Are there any amps that will accommodate that?
hey, right after u played the intro to diary of a madman, there was a melody which brought back a memory of a song i wanted to know the name of, but couldnt remember. can u tell me what song u played? please? it starts at 1:45?
@hunterlpdc94 man this is such a versatile amp, got from low to high gain, from plexi to vai lead sound to 80's jcm800, a very nice clean with a beautiful reverb. No other amps as that all-in ;) just need to understand how to set up everything, sometimes u need to krank up the high, and sometime the mids, depending on which sound u want to achieve.
hi have one of these amps but it is very noisy when turned on compared to other heads i have -i read on a forum they are prone to this hiss-is that so---thanks
Good review! I have one myself, and what say aboute this amp is complete the same as i do. But i will add there is this special mid in the amp, no matter what setting you bring in, it's there. If you take all the eq-buttoms to 0, you can hear it clearly Atually i think this is the recognition of this amp. If listen to Steve Vai, you can stil hear it though all the delay and stuff. By myself i'm a blue rock guy (never listen to Steve Vai), and i have changed the tubes til JJ EL34 JJ/Tesla and some TAD tubes in the preamp, and it brings more warm bluse-rock tone to the amp! Maybe I will try to put some 6l6 next time. Have you ever tried some different tubes, and can you say anything aboute it? Wonder if a attentuator will fit this amp, too!?! The clean chanel sound SO GOOOOOOOOOOD if it have a bit of drive, but it's just so loud, Thanks....
Rocky Balboa more open headroom than Alec Baldwin's skull. Carvin has a reputation for designing incredible clean channels. Legacy 1 amps are loud and warm/dark amps. Very sensitive to pick attack/dynamics. I have never turned the volume past 3 in a pro rehearsal studio with full band.
What you mean " warm/dark" ??? bassy? muddy? i have to find one to check out myself. ears are individually.. but what i hear on many review videos, is a " lite, pretty musical voice" as far as the "amps voicing" ...... being an instrumental guitarist, where the guitar is the voice in the music, i was concerned with the " head room" because i use pedals.. and the signals get fuzzy and no pun intended " distorted".. lol.. which also takes away the musics nuances, dynamics, textures, over all message.. I have the JSX and love it for its clean, clear, and reflective of whatever you put through clean channel... BUT it doesnt have a "voice"... so this is an issue.. if i had the money, i would build my own amp.. but i would need time for "finding my Voice" and thats where things get expensive..
Some guy on Craigslist told me he's selling his with a problem "doesn't sound to good" he said he changed tubes and biased it he said not sure but yea still problem should I get it ? $50
James johnson Rock on man! I just found one of these on CL for $100, no tubes, but stil!! I don't even really need it, but holy hell man, I'm going to buy it, it's freaking ridiculous what you can buy on CL for no money
To me the main problem with this demo is amps sound very different turned all the way down. This does not demo what the amp would sound like at "live" volume levels
Ronald Watson Because I highly doubt that Vai uses a stock amp besides all the other pedals and processors. Would it have been so hard just to demo the amp at a few different volume levels? Any pro guitarist knows that tube amps don't really start to sing until turned to a minimal volume. Other then that it's a great demo!
Evan Levenseller What a stupid comment! Sorry I'm a WORKING guitarist who needs to hear an amp at stage levels! Why the hell would I buy an amp to demo it? Dude already had one....all he had to do was turn it up for a few seconds! I said other then that it was a great demo!
Your arrogance is nauseating but 'cot damn, those cleans! Great choice in tunes as well. I just found a Legacy up for auction on ebay for $699. Might pull the trigger after hearing this...
