Guitar / Bass Amplifier Info & Education

Overdrive is absolutely essential for many genres of music, especially rock, blues, and metal. Imagine Metallica, Nirvana, or SRV without an overdriven guitar sound- it just wouldn’t sound right! While distortion and overdrive are undoubtedly among the most popular guitar effects ever, they are also one of the hardest to get right. Many guitarists spend their entire lives chasing the tone they have in their head.

Carvin Audio offers a free impedance calculator application that calculates the total impedance of all cabinets in your load. So if you want to double check your math or just don’t want to do math, this handy app is a lifesaver! 

If you're laying down bass or guitar tracks in the studio and the engineer asks you to go direct, you may be slightly concerned, especially if you're a guitarist. Playing through a DI is a very common practice for bassists, but guitarists generally prefer to mic up an amp to get their sound and might be a little apprehensive about using a DI. For some, a DIed guitar and/or bass track may sound dull, sterile, and flat, even when using a high quality DI unit. 

Some of the awesome adjectives bassists use to describe their ideal tone- for instance, “grindy,” “punchy” “clanky”- can be attributed to a single knob present on many of today’s bass amps. While the big picture of overall tone depends on a myriad of different factors, from the amp and cab to the bass itself, and of course the player’s technique, the often-overlooked high mids knob can be just what you need to dial your tone into its sweet spot.

It goes without saying that there’s nothing quite like an all-tube guitar amp cranked up to its sweet spot. In fact, many tone aficionados will tell you that this setup is the only way to go if you’re serious about your guitar tone. However, weight and portability are often a factor with all-tube amps (with the exception of smaller, more compact designs like the V3M). And if you’re in a position where you’re downsizing your transportation to save on gas or just do not want to lug a heavy amp to the gig, you may find yourself wondering if there’s something else that can come close to the sound of an all-tube amp. And while nothing will sound exactly like it, there are a few options that may prove to be worthy substitutes.