Two 1-12" combo amps, one a vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb, the other a late 90's Carvin Nomad modified by me. Played side by side, which is which? Both are pretty nice, eh? Amp #1 is the Fender Amp #2 is the Carvin
Shocked you still reply to comments like as of 6 months ago. LOL Just modded a Nomad Rev I True Reverb with channel 2 mods: bypass caps, diode delete, tone stack and presence control both channels. Sounds so much better. But better still putting in a V2 12AU7 or 12AY7 to get more usable Soak/Volume 2 range. Killer little combo. Nice clarity and chimey on channel 2 into a ET-65 now. Great mod advice, thanks a bunch Hasse!
Excellent video, it just goes to show we really need to put "Branding" out of our heads when considering the "best sound"...I initially thought Amp 1 was Nomad, and then as I heard certain characteristic sounds (as I also own a Bel Air 2x12) I realized the Carvin was spanking that Fender...your answer below revealed the same Amp 1 -Fender, Amp 2- Carvin.
I am a bass player, but I bought a Nomad and a Carvin Valve Master II for a band I put together in the early '90s'. The Nomad is by far the warmest, sweetest sounding guitar amp I have ever heard. I never had any feedback from our audiences about not being able to hear it, either. Recently, my current band had a guitar player with a Fender Twin Reverb, which sounds fantastic, but it couldn't match the warm sweetness of a Nomad.
haha By the second demo, I was like "OK, amp two is obviously the classic Fender sound, it's less "papery" and richer tone" hahahaha guess I don't know shit!!! That Carvin is a smooth oeprator
@thesubterrain I think the nomad just sound more punchy and agressive when your playing harder on the guitar. The Fender stays cleaner even if you're playing more agressively! Thats why fender's clean tone is famous and this amp sound great!! I like both amp, they clearly have different personality and tone!
Well, the 2 amps have very different tone circuits, it would be silly to set them the same. As far as the modifications on the Carvin go, all of my mods are done on the dirty channel, which was not used in this comparison, it was a comparison of the clean channel on the Carvin to the Fender. However, the Carvin does have my Master Volume mod on it, so I was able to turn it down to match the volume of the Fender, otherwise the Carvin would be much, much louder. Well, and the Attitude mod too.
I have read your articles on the mods, I intended to use this as a jazz amp, so I'll be using the clean mostly. Any mod you recommend doing for the clean or reverb only, or the master volume mod is useful? Is the stock speaker good enough, say compared to a Jensen P12Q?
I played through Fender amps for 20 years so I picked up on which amp was the DR pretty quick, not saying anything bad about the Carvin thought at all. I've been playing through Carvin amps myself the last few years, mainly a x100b and Legacy 3 head and I absolutely love them. I'm listening to demos of the Nomads now because I'm thinking of ordering one. It has a little more mids than the Fender, kinda like a darker Vox with a little Fender tone blended in I guess. Tone is hard to describe but I like it. Finding a late 80's Carvin xt112 is another idea I'm thinking about for a 1x12 combo, I think with a little tweaking (it's really going to need new filter caps anyway being 25+ years old) you probably could make one sound extremely close to a blackface/early silverface Fender. My x100b will come very close if you scoop the mids on the EQ.
I guessed right. I have a stock Carvin Vintage 33. I've had a Fender 4x10 Concert Reverb, great amp too heavy, loved it but. Once I heard the settings I knew right away. This setup I preferred the Carvin. Usually I'm a fender guy. Vintage 33 cost me $250 a Deluxe Reverb would cost way more.
I can really hear that bright, clear Silverface sound on #1, and a little more tweed in #2. I do think the tone controls were set to bright on the Fender, especially for a Tele. I'd like to hear a pre/post mod on the Carvin. I think the Nomad vs Fender Supersonic 22 would be very interesting too since they're both two channel amps. I played through a SS 22 and really like it but I have no way to try the Carvin.
+TomBob 277 South I have the Carvin and have played the SS22. SS22 hand down. The Supersonic Series sound spectacular, but Fender screwed up on the quality.
Difficult to compare the two if not set to sound the same. They clearly sounded different. The Nomad had the fuller bodied sound and the DR much brighter sounding. I'd love to hear a comparison trying to set these up with exactly the same frequency/tone which I'm sure would take some time and a nice spectrum analyzer to do, but I'm sure could be done. There's never been anything wrong with the Carvin's clean channel which is extremely good and very pedal friendly. The dirty channel is another story where the soak is almost a waste of a circuit and you're better off using a pedal to get the sound you might want. The newer amps IMO solved some of the issues, but not all. I recently bought a Carvin Belaire 212 with the newer GT12 speakers which IMO solve some issues. I think they're much better speakers than the old 12's on par with my Celestions in other amps I own. Very usable and I don't feel the need to change them out. Would love to do some of the Hasserl Mods to it and see how that channel cleans up.
It is a great demo, But I didn't get everything ( sorry I'am French). What else did you change on the Carvin apart from the speaker witch is a Tonker now if I got it right, Anything about the diodes or the presence control for the overdrive channel? Sound better than the Fender anyway Thanks Lionel
The speakers used contribute to a huge difference in tone. The stock oxford is cool but anemic compared to the Tonker. If the DR was played through the tonker it would sound very different. But as-is I think the nomad sounded better.
Is it hard getting parts and scats for a Carvin Nomad? I ask because I use to own a Carvin Acoustic amp and it was murder getting Carvin to send the scats to St. Louis so a local guy could repair it. They wanted me to send the amp to them instead! Of course the cost of shipping an amp every time you need it repaired is crazy, so I'm leary of Carvin amps these days.
I just came across these Nomads in a brochure. I was curious how this Nomad in it's stock configuration would've compared to the Fender. With the mods it beats it hands down!
You make a good point about how amps can sound very nice when played by themselves but not very good when played in the mix of a band. And the vice versa can also be true believe it or not. In this case though, the Nomad really does work well in the context of a band, cuts thru very well as a matter of fact. Anyone that owns one can tell you that.
i love the fat mids of the nomad...the fender is definitely more glassy...but i like the nomad far better...at least from this video. have you ever compared these amps to the peavey classic 30 or 50 amps? i have a ton of amps, but the classic 30's are some of my favorite.
Carvin takes my vote. I like that you didn’t set the amp controls to noon. I think thats a poor way to demo an amp. Best to find each amps sweet spot and demo from there.
Yes, the older amps like mine the reverb was analog with a reverb tank mounted in the bottom of the cabinet. The later amps Carvin changed to digital reverb and dropped a tube. The early amps had 5 12AX7's, the later amps with digital reverb have 4.
Bought the Nomad! . . . a couple of questions tho . . . 1) what A/B switch you using . . it's very quiet. 2) does your Nomad have the Vintage 30 spkr & a big spring reverb?
Sure, 2 common issues with these amps are 1. corrosion build up on the contacts of the FX loop jacks causing noise or even loss of sound. And 2. corrosion buildup on ribbon cable connectors inside the chassis. #1 is easily fixed with a little contact cleaner and inserting/removing instrument cable into the jacks several times. #2 is harder to deal with, sometimes requiring replacement of the cable (which is no longer available, as far as I know). If the amp on the clean channel sounds clear and full, that's a good sign that it's in good shape. And another issue just came to mind, loose tube sockets allowing the preamp tubes to get loose causing noise and intermittent output. Again, if the amp sound clear with a full sound, it's probably in good shape. And these types of problems are not unique to these amps, many (most?) modern tube amps with FX loops, and/or ribbon cables can have the same problems.
If I was to compare the modified dirty channel of the Carvin to the Fender it would be an unfair matchup, the Fender could not hope to keep up without some kind of distortion pedal in front of it.
I think No. 1 is the Fender amp. And, did you tampered with the Carvin amp..? I used to have a Carvin vintage 33 and it didn't sound anything like this.
Per Normann Yeah, I've done a lot of modifications to the Nomad, but they don't really effect the clean channel much, they're mostly focused on cleaning up the muddy distortion of the Soak channel. What you' hear in this video is pretty much what the clean channel will get you from a stock amp. The biggest difference here is the Master Volume, Since I've got the channel volume cranked up to about 7, without the MV it would blow the DR out of the room with volume. So I used the MV to equalize the volume with the DR. So with my Master Volume mod the Carvin will get that tone at the same volume as the DR, or up to about twice as loud if you wanted/needed it to be. The Carvin has a ton more head room than the Fender.
Caution: These EQ settings don't show the Deluxe in a good light, esp with the notoriously thin-sounding Tele. Treble on 9, bass cut to 4? That's why it sounds like an icepick to the forehead. A bit more bass, a lot less treble, warms it up in a hurry. I'd back off the Nomad's mids and treble a bit, too, for my own purposes, but it sounds good here. Both are good amps. Nomad's more versatile, and light to carry, but don't write off the Deluxe based on these apple / orange settings.
I feel that the Deluxe should have had less treble level given the tele. It can sound better. I took my Carvin Vintage '33 (late 90's), which is similar to the Nomad, and tested it alongside my '72 Princeton Reverb. I used the clean channel on the Carvin. I was more interested in low volume tonalities for solo guitar. I plugged in an SG with humbuckers cause it was handy. After spending time dialing in each amp (volume controls at about 2-3), I ran some chord melodies on both amps. The Fender was superior hands down! I wouldn't run out and buy a Carvin tube amp just based on this video, interesting as it is. Thanks for posting it though.
Well, I never said I think the Carvin is better. I actually own 5 vintage silver face Fender amps, as well as a couple of homebrew amps based on vintage Fender tweed amps. I love Fender amps. But, I also own 4 Carvin amps, and am fairly well known for modifications for Carvin amps for superior tone. All my amps, Fender and Carvin, are modified in some way to enhance the tone. With all of that said, there really is no comparison between a Deluxe Reverb and one of my modified Carvin Nomad amps. The DR is a classic amp for good reason, but the Carvin is far more versatile, will cover far more ground with the 2 channels. It will do the sparkly clean tones like the Fender, as this video shows, but when you want to rock the Carvin will spank the Fender no problem, it's not even a fair match up. The Fender will require some kind of OD or dirt pedal to push it into the territory the Carvin covers with no pedals needed. And then there is volume, the DR can in no way keep up with the Nomad in volume. So, to each their own. I'm lucky enough to own a lot of different amps, and I get to play through even more. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it...
I guessed that #2 was the Fender. Apparently, I was wrong. I'm looking for a good amp under $!000. (Forget vintage...) A new Deluxe is roughly $1,000 and a new Nomad is $550. That's a no-brainer for me. The sound is pretty close, the noman has more than twice the power, and I can buy effects with the extra $450.
for the money AND THE SOUND! . . . the Nomad is 50w vs 22w for the fender so you could drive a full stack easily. Nomad has effects loop, fender doesn't. Nomad has the sweetest ch2 tone I've ever heard, fender . . . uuuhhh . . has 2 clean channels? the Nomad I have has big spring reverb & Celestion V30 . . . Carvin site indicates digital reverb so maybe they've gone digital on the reverb. Too bad because mine sounds huge. Nomad footswitchable, not sure about fender. Fender has tremolo! hmm
