At first I thought boy a 55 minute video was a bit too long for the average attention span. But after watching repeatedly an amp that has been built for 34 years with out change or revision that has been so successful needs a complete top to bottom demo. Adam's smooth talking and spot on definition married with his excellent playing shows why the Carmen Ghia has lasted so long as a top seller and why it is easily one of the most used amps in recording studios still to today. I can have my choice of many amps, but I play my Ghia everyday at home and find myself lost in its incredible rich tones. Please take your time and enjoy this video and find the hundred of unique tones it is capable of producing. Thanks again Adam.

@johnnytruck2009

2 жыл бұрын

I see a new rabbit hole coming my way. Amazing sounding amp. With an awesome demo.

@tomolewine5743

8 ай бұрын

Dr. Z and Adam, could you really ask for more?? I say, not a chance. I truly enjoyed this extended video even though I've owned Ghias for years. Thank you Adam!

My favourite head bar none. I rebuilt some old Deluxe Reverbs and Princetons, tried all kinds of amps over the years, but the Carmen Ghia just hits it for me. So touch sensitive. Heaven.

I just bought my old Ghia back, with the Z 1x12 convertible cab, have a TT alnico in there, I need to replace it with a blue or something that matches the amp better. Probably the reason I sold it was due the the speaker pairing. Looking forward to brining my long lost friend back. So far I've sold three pieces of gear I regret, two have been bought back. Really enjoying the demo. Thanks for making this!

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

I don't have a blue to try (yet). I really like it with the v30, and my v30/h30 4x12 sounds glorious with the amp. But for one speaker, v30 is a solid choice. I first tried it in my Marshall GB 4x12 and didn't really like it at all. So yes, the speaker paring can make a huge difference. It's a wonderful sounding amp, and so simple. Pretty special I think.

Missed this one a couple weeks ago! Love my Z Wreck JR! Dr. Z is the real deal!

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Check out the z forum, there's a Remedy for sale there right now for $850 + shipping. Older one like mine with no master. Sounds a little too good to be true, but maybe it is.

Better than most reissued amps from Fender and Marshall (plus it’s handwired). Love these in depth reviews, hope you do more of them.

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I thought it would be helpful to at least someone somewhere. btw, the Ems vs Antidote. I did a quick test on that tune and found I could get kind of close to that sound using the Ems on the 800 side and rolling down the guitar volume, then picking up the volume for the more distorted part. But it was close. The Ems has a little more hair on the notes, even when clean. They both speak that Marshall type of tone though.

@youssefkasim7556

2 жыл бұрын

@@AdamGotheridge thanks a lot

I took the 12ax7 out of V1 on my Ghia and put a 12at7 in its place and now the breakup is much later. More headroom. I love it much better now.

Don't stop.. Keep playing. Digging it.

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Johnny! 🤘

@johnnytruck2009

2 жыл бұрын

@@AdamGotheridge Thank You!

I’m in love with this amp!

Very AWESOME Video 📹 👏 👍 ✌️❤ I wanted a Dr Z, now I might sell a few of my Great Amps and get a Carmen Gia. Excellent Sounding, I'M listening through my Vox mini Super Beatle Audio amp. It is Bluetooth

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I think it's a great little amp, and thought it was worth sharing.

Yeah, you can sing, Adam, I can't wait for your and Monica's next singing video! 🤗🤘💖😎🤘Your guitar sounds great! 👌🎸🤘

Hey, the Tele is magic! So versatile. Thanks for sharing and teasing us all again! Darn it.

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, rock,/jazz/blues/funk, it's all really there in one simple instrument. I forgot country. 🤔

Love it. Always wanted one. One day…

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

It's a great little amp.

Anyway....... . Lol! I love listening to you play man. Great demo great tones great playing. I LOVE the Carmen Ghia. It's one of the Z's that I've never owned. I've always needed (I thought) louder amps for the stage. But in 2022 the Ghia is plenty loud for most stages and their respective sound systems. Long time Maz player (and Marshall's, I'm a plexi junkie) but my next z may be a giant, though I've been planning on it being a Nova. Can't really go wrong with anything the Dr puts out. Enjoyed it brother. I still watch that Hemispheres (full side live performance) about once a month! Your a players, player man. 🤘

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

You are too kind. 🙏🙏 The Z's, yes you can't really go wrong on any of them. Yes, Ghia can still get pretty loud if you want, but sounds great quiet too. The Nova has always interested me as well... there's another one you can tell just sounds fantastic and nothing like the other ones. I'm envious! Thanks on the Rush thing too, that was a lot of fun. I still see the drummer quite often.

Love this channel! Thank you

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

No, thank you! 🙏🙏🙏

Keep it up, very informative

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

🙏

Sure gets some killer overdrive for being a “clean” amp! This amp(and many Z amps) really turn the guitar’s controls into the amp’s control panel. Dr Z has some of the most elegantly simple and effective tone stacks because of that. It’s really amazing what two knobs on the Ghia let your guitar do. Turning the guitar’s volume down literally cleans everything up while still sounding very full.

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

I couldn't agree more. I got a prototype yesterday and that was my exact thought with that one in particular, like turn up the amp a little, use your guitar controls, and done. It's taken me a while to sort of learn how simple and practical that is, and it really works well with the Z amps for some reason.

@williambock1821

Жыл бұрын

@@AdamGotheridge He’s very astute when it comes to engineering tone stacks. That’s the thing that really struck me the first time I built a Z amp. I’ve never bought one. Can’t afford them,lol! So I’ve built 3 different models so far. A Z/28 mk 1, the mini Z,and the Carmen Ghia. All have very slick tone stacks. You can get a little Vox,Fender and Marshall out of every one of those models. The Mini Z does it with ONE knob! The guitar’s controls handle the tone and gain. I WILL say Celestions and similar voiced speakers (Scumback,Weber Blue Dog,etc)are almost a necessity with the Z amps I’ve tried. Jensen type American voiced speakers don’t have the midrange needed. They make the high end fizzy with buzzy and flubby low end. Z amps seem to love Brit voiced speakers. A Greenback would probably be perfect in a Ghia. Maybe a Blue if you don’t drive it too hard. Creamback would work well.

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

@@williambock1821 Yes, a lot of them seem to cross boundaries of the other amps, but it's always a kind of unique thing too. For me, it's like I can use this amp where I would want a Marshall, or a fender, or whatever, but it's really different (I think). They are all just really musical sounding somehow. Kudos on the amp building and learning that stuff, but I don't think Z would be too happy about people copying his stuff. From his side, he spends a lot of time and money on the engineering side to come up with designs that are different, like he has zero interest in copying an old Marshall or whatever. Besides the time factor, there's always sourcing different caps or tubes or transformers or whatever and those costs just kind of wind up sitting on shelves for parts which never get used in a design. I get it though, just trying to point out the other side of that one. That kind of just is what is though and happens all over the place, like you can buy a series of Nike shirts and just completely copy what they did.

@williambock1821

Жыл бұрын

@@AdamGotheridge I don’t build them to sell unless it’s for a friend. If I were to build a line of amps to market heavily, I’d wait till I came up with something unique or at least my own take on something classic. In order to learn what makes an amp great, you kinda have to just build them. There’s no getting around it,really. Same thing with learning what isn’t great. Then you start changing it to figure out what you do or don’t like about it. I guarantee that’s what Zaite did for a long time. Btw, if you ever want to build a custom amp, lemme know! You can order the parts and I’ll build it for a fair price. Much better than you’d get in a store. We could discuss what you were looking for. Here’s a link to some demos of some of my builds. I have a woodworking friend who can build a great cab set for you as well. Or just a head. Whatever you’d like. youtube.com/@Warfratcoonhound

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

Understood and thanks. I have too many amps already though!

As with most KZread amp video reviews, you get no sense of the noise floor when sitting next to a guitar amp. The Carmen Ghia is a great sounding amp but the noise floor is unacceptable to me as a home style amp. I sold my head version of this amp as the noise floor was too high. The Z-28 head I owned was much better but that was eventually moved on too.

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

Good observation on noise floor and demos. Mine, as my other Z's are basically dead quiet, so I'm not sure about your experience. There's no gating or anything like that going on with this video. Probably doesn't help, but hope it does anyway!

There goes the wallet. 😃 Great video Adam.

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Pete! If that's what you are thinking, maybe wise to act sooner than later because prices can only go up from here. That can probably said of any amp at this point. Good luck!

Beautiful clean sounds! Which chorus were you using with the Ghia? Awesome!

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Boss CE-2w. 1:05

Nicely done! What overdrive pedals do you like with the Ghia?

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

ty! The revival drive I feel like I can always make work in whatever amp if I mess with it enough. Tube screamer works pretty well to me with single coils. JHS morning glory works pretty well too, but I usually like that as a solo boost rather than a core sound. 🙏

@Sep45

2 жыл бұрын

@@AdamGotheridge Yeah that revival drive seems pretty awesome. Thanks!

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

@@Sep45 Most welcome!

I would assume the sound you are hearing in the room and on a stool is much better than the shrill direct recorded mic sound.

Thinking of giving Dr. Z a second chance. Had the M12. Good amp but sounded a little bit glaring and i wasn't much satisfied with gain pedals. The Carmen Ghia seems to have the same qualities, right?

@AdamGotheridge

Ай бұрын

I haven't tried an M12, and am not really sure what you are going for either. Ghia has a 12ax7 and the m12 the ef86, one difference that might be notable, like pushing those two tubes with pedals, they really react differently, like the 12ax7 distorts and compresses at lot faster where the ef86 kind of takes more volume push and output that push in more volume instead of compressed distortion (to me), and they distort a little differently. The Ghia, assuming the non master version like the one where), is pretty clean at low volume and gets some hair on it pretty quick as the volume goes up, so if you are looking for a lot of clean headroom, maybe it's not the amp for you. When it gets to distortion levels, it's not like a Marshall distortion, it's something else. I think the amp sounds very musical and good, but it's different from say vox/marshall/fender sounds.

Down here in Australia these amps cost a fortune $$$$$

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

Sorry about that. This one in the US is quite reasonable, particularly considered it's made in America.

@therapist6328

Жыл бұрын

That is how i feel about Maton guitars here in Canada!

What z would you go for to get Tom petty/ mike Campbell tones?

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

I think the yet to be released X-Ray or an old Stang Ray.

@okaytastic6691

Жыл бұрын

@@AdamGotheridge thank you!

@AdamGotheridge

Жыл бұрын

A little more info. The first x-ray thing I did some videos on was Mike kind of messing around with some stuff in an el34 format and it sounds fantastic, but is kind of in some old Marshall camp (I think), but it also sounded kind of wound up fender at the same time. I think that one is a bit one the self for the moment. Last week he sent me another one (x-ray) which is really closer to the stang ray with some "improvements" like a master volume and a custom effect loop. 4 el84's and ef86, combo with a celestion gold. That thing sounds fantastic and is way more in that Vox Petty camp. It's completely different than any of my other amps including a Vox ac15, but has some of that Vox thing going, but done right. Think early Vox ac30 before they ditched the ef86 and added the top boost circuit. I think it's really something, but it's probably not that far off the stingray except say adding the loop and post phase master to make the thing controllable volume wise. I think that thing would tick your box for the mike Campbell thing, but I bet an old stang ray would be great too if you could find one at a deal. Put it this way, I liked it so much I told him he couldn't have it back. He didn't like that idea too much, but I think it speaks to what I think of the amp.

@okaytastic6691

Жыл бұрын

@@AdamGotheridge wow ok great I might hold off and see if this comes into a production amp then. That’s a tone to behold!

@okaytastic6691

Жыл бұрын

Sorry to keep pestering but what do you think about the m12? Think it’ll do that chimey edge of breakup like the stangray or X-ray?

Dude what was that chorus pedal?

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

Boss CE-2w. 1:05