Carvin Legacy Speakers - Greenbacks or Vintage 30's?

[jippy]

Well...this summer I'll be taking the plunge and getting a Carvin Legacy (not sure if it'll be the half-stack or the 2x12 combo). I noticed the specs have changed on the Carvin website. They now ship w/Celestion Vintage 30's rather than the original 25W Greenbacks. Anybody have some commentary on why they were changed and preferences between the two? I think I'd prefer to have it w/Greenbacks which means I'll be most likely be looking for a used one. Let me know. Thanks!

[RSVampire]

I'm not sure either...I thought it was because Vai wanted it that way...I'm not sure if you can just ask for Greenbacks or whatever.

[Soup Kitchen Studios]

Vai changed his mind... but he still used a greenback loaded cab at G3 last summer, as well as some v30 cabs.

You can't request greenbacks, I'm pretty sure Carvin is out of them. *Carvin recently started using a new speaker that is supposed to be very similiar to V30's (but Carvin makes them, not celestion). *It's in there MTS Cabs. *I'll be playing with one for my summer gig, so I'd be able to let you know how they sound in a few months

[RSVampire]

I wanna get those Celestion Century thingys. They look pretty cool and light. But how would I get them into a closed back cab?

[goldboy]

Hey Jippy!

I've recently picked up a used 2X12 legacy cabinet that I've like better than the sound of my Boogie 4X12! *They have the 25 Watt Greenbacks in the cabinet and the closed/open option is a nice one to have. *The 2X12 really focuses my sound and the 25 watt breakup (i play with the volume pretty darned wide open but use a Hotplate to attenuate it) then translates pretty nice through the cabinet. *

I've been very pleased with the breakup distortion sound that i get when I merely crank the volume up and the harmonic play is still very much their...no loss of definition at all.

Hope that helps any (though I haven't heard the 'newer' cabs to a/b them).

BTW: (off topic Jippy) I landed that Ultra Plus strat....nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice. *Courtesy of Rikk Beatty.


GOOD LUCK

(Edited by goldboy at 10:18 am on Mar. 15, 2002)

[jippy]

Thanks for the feedback (no pun intended!) guys! I stopped by Carvin's shop on Tuesday and played thru the combo (they only have the Vintage 30's now). The clean channel is stellar. It just refuses to break up no matter how hard you push it. Notes retain a lot of clarity, just as I've heard from fellow Jemsiters. Now I just need to convince the wife that GAS is gooooooooood! It probably will sound like this:

"So, what do you want to buy now?"
"What makes it better than what you've got?"
"Will you use it?"
"It's HOW much?!"

[goldboy]

Now ... really ... I am one very 'unbiased' individual in terms of reading reviews and taking them as face value from individuals who are posting opinions...

it kind of 'raised a red flag' in the back of my head about the reliability of the Carvin Legacy from what I've read at both Harmony Central and amptone.com about the 'quirkiness' with that particular head. I've had the head for about 6 months now and have been VERY VERY happy with it...

til this past weekend. *at rehearsal, just like TWO reviewers said in their posts, I was just jamming along and I noticed that my volume started to crackle and fade and as I turn around in rhythm strumming bliss the amp is SMOKING LIKE CRAZY!!!! *I run over and unplug it immediately and just stand back with my band and listen and smell as the inside just smokes up and burns!

I was really shocked about this......well...sadly...I called Carvin up already and since I bought this used the warranty is NOT transferrable and they're gonna charge me parts and labor to fix this problem.

I'll reserve my opinion elsewhere about this amp as this forum is not to vent about this...however...I would have to say that this amp has seriously received the 'shun' from me.

Stick to Boogie. *

[Darin W]

30's