Carr Mercury

[Stan Malinowski]

I now a previous thread briefly touched on the Carr Mercury.

Anybody out there have one or played one enough to offer input? I am still searching for the perfect "studio" amp.

[tom]

have both merc and rambler. love the rambler and it's clean to cleanish tones. the rambler had more familiar tone controls for me. the merc has more variety gain wise. the merc doesn't seem as sparkley on top which i miss. both amps have a big rich bottom for a combo. jesse has the merc at home now is is loving it. he says he hasn't found a guitar that sounds bad through it. i met steve carr at the show today and you couldn't ask for a nicer guy. i would certainly investigate further.

[Stan Malinowski]

Thru the power of gear trading, a new (old) Carr Mercury is on its way to me! Lucked into finding someone who wanted one of my guitars which got little play and was willing to trade me a Mercury! Should be here on Monday!

[Rick]

That's great -- please report on what you think of the Mercury. I only tried one out for barely 5 minutes a few weeks back & my reaction fit with Tom's description about lack of sparkle. I'd thought maybe it would be a good lower-volume replacement for the 1956 Champ in my living room (4 watts), but although it sure seemed like a fine piece of equipment, it did not have that instant hit of "magic" for me when I hit a note like the Champ does. But it wasn't really an adequate trial.

[JoeB63]

I've never played a Mercury, but I'd sure love to try one. I have tried 3 other Carr amps and haven't been overwhelmed by any of them. But the Merc would be perfect for a light combo to bring to rehearsals and low-volume gigs.

Complete review requested Stan.

[oscar100]

"jesse has the merc at home now is is loving it. he says he hasn't found a guitar that sounds bad through it"

could this b becos he plays andersons?

:D

[tom]

he does have a firebird and a trousart rustocaster also.

[tom]

stan, any merc report yet?

[Stan Malinowski]

Hi Guys!,

I do plan to write up a complete review when I get a chance. Unfortunately work and some home obligations have kept me from finding the time. What little time I do have I've spent playing my Andys thru the Meteor - AND its new brother a Rambler! Surprise.

I promise complete reviews in a week or so, I'm off to Massachusetts next week on business.

[MusicGearGuys]

You just cant go wrong with a Carr Rambler an a Anderson.
They sound amazing together.

Gregory:)

[Stan Malinowski]

Well, I have had the Mercury for about a month now and the Rambler for about 3 weeks. They are definetly different animals. Both great amps, but in different ways.

First, the Mercury. To me it seems the roots of the Mer lie in the "tweedy" side of things, especially when pushed either by increases in volume or switching over to one of the two boost settings. Volume at the non-attenuated 8 Watt Setting is LOUD. In the non-boost setting at 2&8 Watts the Merc stays clean up until about 1 o'clock on the volume. Not a real sparkly, chimey, blackface clean, but more of a tweedy clean. Pushing volume above this gives som nice breakup, very reminescent of a tweed Champ. Attenuate the non-boost settins down to 1/2 watt and tone is very consistent with the same settings at 2 & 8 watts. I found the 1/10 watt attenuation not useful. When either of the boost settings are kicked in the volume required for a great tweedy grind drops down to 9-10 o'clock. The higher of the two boost settings yields some pretty serious crunch, harmonics and feedback! I think the tone in both of the boost settings remains dead-on as you attenuate down to 1/2 watt levels. I found the Merc to be pedal friendly with my Fulltone FD2. Since the boost settings disable the tone stack using the FD2 with the clean settings allows you a bit more flexibility in EQing. Overall a VERY cool amp for low volume apps & recording. I will agree with others who have commented that the Merc doesn't have the high end clarity of the Rambler, it is, as I said before, more tweed-like in nature.

The Rambler seems to be derived more from the Blackface era tonewise. People have compared it to a BF Princeton Reverb. typically play the Rambler in a home environment in the 1/2 power Triode Mode as oppossed to the full up Pentode Mode. VERY clean, sparkly and chimey with any single coil guitar (Anderson Classic, HDTC, Suhr Classic and Grosh Retro). It's sparkly nature sends cills down my spine, especially when reverb is added. Much more headroom than its Merc sibling. The downsid is volume. Even in the Triode Mode this sucker is LOUD, high end tone is good, but degraded a bit at very low volumes. Some may find this amp difficult to use at home. The Rambler is also very pedal friendly and gives some pretty serious rocking tones with the FD2.

Conclusion: I LOVE THEM BOTH!!! NEITHER is going anywhere. Both have there places and they do fantastic when applied correctly. Steve Carr is right on track with his designs and workmanship. I guess my love affair for both is understandable given my split personality!

[MapleGuitar]

Just wanted to chime in on the Carr Mercury... it's my favorite amp. I also have a Savage Rohr 15, Savage Macht 6, Bad Cat Mini Cat, Dr Z Maz 18, and Two Rock Ruby. (As you might guess, my quest has been for great tone with low volume.)

One of the nicest features of my Carr Mercury is that it doesn't hum and hiss like crazy. Every other amp I have radiates a nasty hum, even when no guitar is plugged in. For studio situations, it becomes a problem. Likewise, some of these amps get way hissy, I suppose due to the high gain.

So, kudos to Carr for making a great sounding, low volume amp without the hum and hiss. I only wish they would make a "head only" version of the Mercury (and the Rambler) for us aging baby boomers with sore backs and fragile wrists.

[tom]

i have been bugging steve about a rambler head. i'd like that as well.