My guitar player has quite a collection of amplifiers , about a dozen I guess. He has about a half a dozen keepers and then a buy and sell bunch.
He picked up an 8 watt Carr, Mercury amp a couple of months ago in St. Louis and I'm very impressed with this thing . It's a boutique piece and he won't even tell me what he paid for it, but at 8 watts this thing is incredible . It's a real vintage looking tube amp with a single 12" speaker and it's 8 watts are on par with just about anything(excluding Marshall) at 50 to 60 watts.
He's been on a quest for the perfect tube sound for a couple of years now and he thinks he's got it. I think he might be right. He has burned through several boutique amps including a couple of Brunos in the 30 to 45 watt range that were really nice too , another Carr and a couple I can't remember.
All were pretty pricey stuff and all sounded really good but the problem was turning them down and getting the sound right. This little Carr at 8 freakin'
watts keeps up with my Seymour Duncan 400 watt bass amp set at 10-11 o'clock, a 60 watt solid state Crate, and a drum set with a mic on the bass.
Playing it dirty, he could probably stick with me up to 12 o'clock . Playing clean it needs a litttle help to get maximum volume and he uses a Barker Launch Pad pedal which works quite well. To go out and gig, that 8 watts would work for a lot of rooms but it would be borderline and would be best with a mic.
He had another Carr for a real short time that was more powerful, but to him , didn't sound as good and was harder to control , so he took a loss on it and traded for the 8 watt model.
Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone else has any experience with these things. I'm kinda questioning my sanity at my amazement with this little 8 watt wonder
Rick
