Carvin V3

dogismycopilot · #1 03-19-2008, 03:29 AM

So my co-guitarist insists that i pull out 2 tubes and switch it to the 50watt setting in order to drive the tubes harder to produce a different tone (that he likes). He wont shut up about it, so i decided to give it a try and if i end up hating it, then i'll just put them back.

My question is, which two tubes do i remove? I cant find anything online telling me which ones i need to remove. The manual is no help either.

losgatosrg350dx · #2 03-19-2008, 03:53 AM

isnt there a switch on the back to do it

dont get hose tubes mixed up now

Tank · #3 03-19-2008, 04:38 AM

There is no need to remove any tubes. You just set the switch on the back to the 50W setting and 2 power tubes will be shutdown.

I do however not see the point with the V3's construction. 50W is still extremely loud when you want to drive the power tubes into saturation as the V3 has lots of headroom. Without driving the tubes into power tube distortion the sound of the V3 is not really different with only 2 tubes.

Also the V3 has so much things you can dial in with all its possibilites (3 modes for each channel, EQ expand, master EQs etc.) if you still need more it is more likely that your pal has no real clue about the V3. However power tube drive can be nice (see AC/DC), I can get a real good Angus sound on the V3 without it. Or your pal is impatient, due to the large range of the EQ's even minimal alteration has great effects on the V3, so it can be a little pain to dial in sounds... I would recommend to ask him what it should sound like and then take your time and tune it...

losgatosrg350dx · #4 03-19-2008, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tank

There is no need to remove any tubes. You just set the switch on the back to the 50W setting and 2 power tubes will be shutdown.

I do however not see the point with the V3's construction. 50W is still extremely loud when you want to drive the power tubes into saturation as the V3 has lots of headroom. Without driving the tubes into power tube distortion the sound of the V3 is not really different with only 2 tubes.

Also the V3 has so much things you can dial in with all its possibilites (3 modes for each channel, EQ expand, master EQs etc.) if you still need more it is more likely that your pal has no real clue about the V3. However power tube drive can be nice (see AC/DC), I can get a real good Angus sound on the V3 without it. Or your pal is impatient, due to the large range of the EQ's even minimal alteration has great effects on the V3, so it can be a little pain to dial in sounds... I would recommend to ask him what it should sound like and then take your time and tune it...

you COULD find out wich preamp tubes are for the channels you dont need, leave it on the lead channel, and remove the preamp tube(s) that arent in the circuit, this way you over saturate the tubes u are using with more voltage, this gives you a really hot sound its probably what he meant....i do this on my fender bassman ab165 circuit its like a 66 i think

it works great.....flip the half power switch on the back of ur amp, take out probably one or two tubes, YOU GOTTA CALL CARVIN TECH SUPPORT AND ASK THEM they will only know wich ones arent used when ur in the lead channel

and it sugest like take out those tubes and replace the rest with tungsol wich handle better in those conditions

**jim777** · #5 03-19-2008, 02:59 PM

Removing some preamp tubes to 'oversaturate' the remaing preamp tubes sounds like something you don't want to do. Why even suggest someone remove 2 channels of a 3 channel amp to get a more driven sound? I would either simply switch the output to 50 watts with the power switch on the back or put an overdrive pedal out front (or both). Don't go pulling tubes out of your amp because a guitarist (of all people) said so. Most of those guys are idiots

losgatosrg350dx · #6 03-19-2008, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim777

Removing some preamp tubes to 'oversaturate' the remaing preamp tubes sounds like something you don't want to do. Why even suggest someone remove 2 channels of a 3 channel amp to get a more driven sound? I would either simply switch the output to 50 watts with the power switch on the back or put an overdrive pedal out front (or both). Don't go pulling tubes out of your amp because a guitarist (of all people) said so. Most of those guys are idiots

actually its completely harmless to the amps, it just over saturates the tubeand makes it last less longet, theres a difference betwen half power switch for the power amp section and over saturating the tubes, its completely okay ive had it on my blackface and on my ultra gain for years and it was FINE.....its just shifting all the filament voltages to the remaining tubes instead of spreading it out

but its okay to do, some people dont like it, buts its harmless in any case you cna just get a new set, but it will reduce the life of your preamp tubes....

you can have tons of options on the v3 to play with, its one of my favorite amps, and you probably could acheive the same tone with the controls as with removing tubes...since when you remove the tubes, you still can only go 2/3 on the pots before the tones start to really bleed in together..

Martyr Machine · #7 03-19-2008, 07:21 PM

I believe you're talking about removing a pair of power amp tubes in order to decrease the wattage. As far I know, this can only be done on amps with at least 4 power-amp tubes, in which case you would remove either the outer or inner pair. You would then have to change the impedance setting on the amp, but I'm really not sure about the details.

**jim777** · #8 03-19-2008, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by losgatosrg350dx

actually its completely harmless to the amps, it just over saturates the tubeand makes it last less longet, theres a difference betwen half power switch for the power amp section and over saturating the tubes, its completely okay ive had it on my blackface and on my ultra gain for years and it was FINE.....its just shifting all the filament voltages to the remaining tubes instead of spreading it out

It's besides the point. The guy should be trying an overdrive pedal first, not castrating his beast of a 3 channel amp into a single channel, half powered, one trick pony just to please someone else.

losgatosrg350dx · #9 03-19-2008, 10:15 PM

hey i didnt say its desireable, and i did say with the options the v3 has he should need to go to that extremes....even though i do it sometimes on my fender bassman blackface, its just becasue ti sounds better and doesnt have the features the v3 does

and no i am refering to removing the unused preamp section wich over saturates the remaining preamp tubes
and in some cases you can pull powertubes, but ive never had to, ive only had to pull the preamp tubes

dogismycopilot · #10 03-25-2008, 03:42 AM

Well i put it on the 50 watt setting, and no difference. I put it back, but he's still not conviced that i did it right; whatever.

Tank, i will PM you for those settings for Angus =).

Tank · #11 03-25-2008, 04:31 AM

No problemo, I sent you some settings to start out with, of course you have to fine tune to your liking (or a specific Angus recording, as his sound varies also).