GUITAR
TONE
Carr Amplifiers’ Speaker Selection
This month, I spoke with Steve Carr, founder own voice. Although all of our five current
and designer of Carr Amplifiers, about his models sound different from each other,
amplifiers and the speaker selection process. they all have these similar characteristics.
Even when designing an overdrive-focused
amp, these sonic priorities and features fall
in around it.
series at NAMM, I decided to work with
those. I felt the diversity of tone from our
amps would benefit from a variety of speaker
models.
What’s your process for creating a new
amplifier?
What a huge question! I usually start with a
classic design as a platform then collage in
other classic designs. Once I feel like I hear
something promising I start tweaking. I also
try coming up with unique ways to configure
the circuit with useful features. For example,
the Vincent amp
started as a
modified Rambler.
Although they
are both cathode
biased, the bias
circuitry is very
different. Also,
the design of the
Drive control is a
new approach to
adding gain and
clarity while retaining the reverb
character of the
amp.
What role does the speaker play in the
Carr tone?
Speakers are very important, especially considering we make mostly combos. Although
I have favorites I rely on, I try a number of
After the electronics come together,
we start working
on cabinet ideas
with different
dimensions and façades. We also audition
different speakers to find the best amp-to-speaker pairing. Once we have a complete
system, more tweaking is involved.
speakers with each new design. Our house
favorites are the Wizard and the Red, White
& Blues for open back cabs and the Cannabis
Rex in closed back cabs.
How do you decide the power of the
amp and what role does the power of the
speaker play?
The majority of our amps are 40 watts or
less with the most popular, our Mercury, at
8 watts. These days you don’t need lots of
power. PA systems have gotten much better
and clubs tend to be
a bit smaller. I use
our Mercury live in a
five piece band with
no volume issues. In
fact, I’ve been asked
to turn down a few
times. Eight watts
is loud! The five to
40-watt range is
where I like to work.
Speaker-wise, I lis-
ten to its tonality in
the system with the
amp. I haven’t found
that low-watt amps
need low wattage
speakers to sound
their best. In fact, the
standard speakers
with 60 to 75-watt
ratings seem to sound
much fuller in low-watt amps, compared to
15-watt speakers.
Do you try to fill a niche or are you try-
ing to emulate something similar on the
market?
I am usually looking for something interesting and different – then I consider if there
is a market for such a tone. I rarely emulate
something for its own sake. It is more of a
springboard-type process.
How do you go about finding the right
speaker? What factors do you consider?
I start with my favorites from the Eminence
line. I feel they have tones that resonate with
my taste. If those don’t seem right, I get a
handful more after consulting with Eminence
and try those. Generally, my shortlist works.
For more information on their products,
please visit Carr Amplifiers
at carramps.com.
Do you aspire to create a specific tone
when designing a Carr amp?
My personal preferences are for clear, grain-free clean tones with character, and thick
overdrives that retain the sound of the particular guitar. Still, each new design lends its
Do you prefer custom designed or off-the-
shelf speakers and why?
We used the custom designed Kingpin 60
from Eminence for the first six years of Carr
Amplifiers. This was a great speaker but the
basket vendor went out of business. After
hearing and liking the Patriot and Red Coat
Anthony “Big Tony” Lucas
is a guitarist and Senior Lab Technician at Eminence
Speaker LLC, where he specializes in guitar-speaker
design and customer support. Big Tony has been with
Eminence for over 10 years and is responsible for many
well-known guitar speaker designs.
