Carvin ValveMaster Issue

[masahs]

I have a Carvin 100/50 Valvemaster. It is VERY loud but seems too loud. If I have the gain on about 6. I can only get the master around 1 or 1.5 before it is just unbearably loud. This happens at both the 50 watt and 100 watt settings. But that happens on the clean channel as well and even if I lower the gain it does the same thing. I bought it this way and have tried replacing the tubes and is the same with old or new tubes.

Does anyone else own one of these and have the same issue?

Thanks

[demonufo]

That's pretty normal for most decent valve amps. You need to try a 2203 or 2204 marshall with the master volume at 2. They're ungodly loud by 4, and from then on don't get a great deal louder, only fuller, more distorted and more compressed.
That's pretty much how valve amps are.

There's only 3dB difference between 50W and 100W.

Perhaps a 20watt amp might be more up your street?

[masahs]

Hey demonufo.. that's two post of mine you have answered in one day. Thanks!!

I guess it just seemed louder than my other tube amps.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE how loud it gets - and the tone - but my neighbors don't. I am going to be getting an attenuator to tame this baby a bit.

[demonufo]

Well the TSL you have aren't exactly very loud sounding as most Marshall's go, so I can see where your concerns are coming from.
It is possible that the Laney is overbiased and on the edge of death though, but I'd put it down to being normal unless you can see the power tubes redplating.

[masahs]

I found some instructions for biasing a Carvin amp over at Eurotubes.com. I am going to see if it needs adjusting. I recently switched from 5881 tubes to EL34's and there is a bias switch on the back for either 6L6/5881 or EL34 but still may need some adjustment.

I'll post back up and see what I find.

Other than that all looks good when the amp is on and warmed up.

[soundguruman]

Soundguruman says:
There is a difference between audio taper potentiometers (volume controls) and linear taper potentiometers. The ones in your amp (and many other amps) are audio taper. The audio taper pots will give you 50% volume at a setting of 2. This creates the illusion that the amp is very powerful, even when the volume is set low.
Now if you were to change these volume controls to linear taper, you would get 50% volume at a setting of 5. As you can see, the only accurate controls, which give you even volume control all the way up and down, are linear controls.
Audio taper is for shock and awe (volume 10 at setting 3), linear taper gives you a complete control range, from 1 to 10.
So, just changing the controls to linear will solve the problem. But there is no problem because the manufacturer did this on purpose, to make the amp seem louder than it actually is (fooled you).
It's a design based on hype. It's made to impress you, not work for you.

Second, it is time to de-bunk the 50 /100 watt switch...
The switch does not cut your power in half, even though the hype tells you so. In fact you will notice almost no difference in volume between 50 and 100 watts. This is because it takes approximately 10 times the power to double the volume that actually comes out of the speaker (depends on how good the speaker is too). Double the wattage, and the speaker gets a little louder but not much, certainly not twice as loud. And so here we go again, it's there to impress you, but does not provide a very useful function (they fooled you again). More hype. Does the switch cut the actual speaker volume in half? No.
Don't believe this? Measure it yourself with an SPL meter.

Soundguruman is a pro sound tech with 35 years experience.

[masahs]

Thanks for the info Soundguruman.

A few months back I took the head into the studio and it is like you said. At a certain point the amp stops getting much louder. Since then I have stopped using it because I built myself a JCM800 2204 and am floored by the tone. It is my #1 amp right now ,,, but maybe not for long. I am currently building a JTM50 and a 50W Plexi.

[soundguruman]

Of course, a Marshal is what other amps want to sound like, and I especially love the 2204.