Carvin Legacy

[Viz]

Just thought I'd get my legacies out for an airing and get some stereo sound from the ole G-System :-)

[BucketheadRules]

Wow.

[Viz]

lol and there's another 4x12 cab in the studio mwahha haa haaaargh

[ICBM]

You must really like them!

I had one in for repair last week - just out of curiosity, do yours have no top-end at all? This one didn't. I don't even like bright sounds but I had to have the treble maxed on both channels to get it to sound even bright enough.

It was also a 100W combo with two Greenbacks - 25W each. Are those factory original? (I thought I'd read somewhere that they are.) If so it strikes me as a very bad idea unless you only ever run it on the 50W setting without an extension cab... but your combo doesn't appear to have them.

[Viz]

It should have 60W 16 ohm vintage 30s, and has masses of top end; I have to set my bass at a level slightly higher than treble (like bass on 7, treble on 6), though I do have presence on about 7 as well. that gives you a full-on vai sound, though I do also use a bad horsie wah for some bite and expression. On the clean channel, anything more than 7 on treble sounds irritatingly jangly and jarring. I think older ones did have greenbacks, but I assumed they must be 50 or 60W not 25W

[ICBM]

That's much more like what I was expecting. The amp came in for a cutting-out problem - which I couldn't find - but although I couldn't find anything actually 'wrong' with it, I did wonder if it should sound like that... Vai isn't exactly known for a 'smooth' or 'jazzy' tone either!

If it makes any difference, it was loaded with JJ valves, which I normally find dark to the point of muddy (though also oddly harsh at the same time, if that makes sense!) but this was more extreme than I would expect from that alone.

All greenbacks are 25W - or 20 or 30W if you mean original G12M-20s or G12H-30s which also have green plastic magnet covers - but "Greenback" now only applies to the reissue G12M-25 which is a strictly a 25W speaker. They're not dark either, so that isn't the reason.

I'll see what the owner thinks. That was helpful, thanks.

[Bidley]

Wow, another Carvin owner! I have an X-100B reissue, your collection looks superb, I'd love a rag on a Legacy. Have you tried one of the lunchbox-sized ones?

[Viz]

OK cool - re cutting out, by the way, the send & return sockets are really weird (on the Legacy 2) - they almost reject the jack - I've seen the jack actually coming out with no pulling whatsoever - as though there's someone in the amp pushing it! Took me ages to locate that, and I suspect you'd never find it in a test situation bcoz you wouldn't try to locate it by putting pedals in the loop!

[Viz]

Wow, another Carvin owner! I have an X-100B reissue, your collection looks superb, I'd love a rag on a Legacy. Have you tried one of the lunchbox-sized ones?

It's on the AAS list :-)

[ICBM]

OK cool - re cutting out, by the way, the send & return sockets are really weird (on the Legacy 2) - they almost reject the jack - I've seen the jack actually coming out with no pulling whatsoever - as though there's someone in the amp pushing it! Took me ages to locate that, and I suspect you'd never find it in a test situation bcoz you wouldn't try to locate it by putting pedals in the loop!

Not with pedals, but the FX loop jacks were the first thing I checked when I couldn't find a problem - they're one of the most common causes of cutting-out faults .

I suspect that given the description of the fault when I checked with the owner - *fading* out over a few seconds - that it was the big jumper connector that supplies (among other things) filament current from the power transformer to the PCB. If that makes a bad contact the valves go cold so the amp stops making sound, but not instantly. I don't like connectors like this in an amp, to be honest. I resisted the temptation to cut it off and hardwire all the cables though... just tightened up the pin contacts.