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Carvin guitar quality?


strings4v

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So i had got an estimate planning my ideal guitar. It was like $1600 or something. Is Carvin's built quality reliable? Would i be better off just buying a stock guitar with that money? I really like how it looks and all the hardward specs. Sound... I can't never tell because i won't be hearing the guitar until the day I get it. I know there is a 10 day satisfaction so i am not too worried. Also how are the Carvin pickups? I chose C22 and TBH60. Should i get them swapped into Suhr or Dimarzio pickups after I get the guitar? Do they do it in factory? And can I ask for a potentiometer change and treble bleed mod from the factory? 

Sorry too many questions.. but tell me some story if you have gone through Carvin Custom process!

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Carvin Quality? Rule #1 never buy a expensive guitar without first playing it. I did the carvin thing once. After it was sent back to me the 3rd time I actually put the guitar in the trash can. You may have a different experience.

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The electrics I've played are built really nice, but I'm not totally sold on the sound.  They don't hold their value as well as they would if you were buying a gibson, fender or PRS.  I have some issues with buying a guitar I haven't played, as I'm pretty picky.

FYI, the only one I have actually owned is an acoustic, which is really nice for a cheap guitar. 

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My Carvin experience is limited to the stuff a few buddies of mine have bought - one of their Bolt kits, an import acoustic, and a neck-through bass neck (which my friend used to make a Ric-inspired bass).

 

All of their stuff has been quality all-around, and the Bolt kit actually sounded fantastic. I have seen some Carvins hanging on used walls at GC, and they don't look like impressive custom shop jobs, but there are lots of Carvin fans out there. You can't order them with non-Carvin pickups, so if that's an issue, try another custom shop.

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I've owned and played Carvin guitars and basses from the 80's that were great quality, and some from the mid-2000's that were terrible. I've heard that the non-bolt-on ones currently aren't bad.

Overall:

-Don't buy a Carvin if you are already thinking about selling it before you own it. 

-Do buy a Carvin if you want a very specific set of options/features that you can't get anywhere else for the same or less money.

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Hi There

 

I had ordered a Carvin in the Early 1980s, It was a V220......   It took forever and I canceled the order and got a 83 Korina Explorer (best thing I've done musically)

 

That said I always wished I would have got that V220 I loved the pointy look.  In 2008 I treated my self to ording one.....  It took 6 weeks but I chose every last detail from the skunk stripes to the gold metal to the burst and abolone blocks....  I think I put every single thing on it that I could.....  It Costs about $1500-1600 area.   After getting it I was completely happy that I did, it is kick butt plays as nicely as anything I have ever play'd.    For $1600 you can get a good used Les Paul or maybe a nice Used PRS Etc......

 

Those are great guitars but for me it was worth every penny.   I agree with I could never sell it for that but I have no intentions of selling it.....  It was a childhood guitar that I've always regretted not getting and now I have it plus+ all the options I couldnt afford then.   

The Korina Explorer, I still have and has probably gone up in value maybe 10 fold and I love that one but the Carvin will always have a sweet spot for me.....

Dont buy it expecting to sell it in 4 or 5 years because youll lose $$$ ....   But the quality on my V220 is as good as anything out there and it gets just as raunchy as any Les Paul .......

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Glad to see nothing's changed around here! Debating the quality of Carvin guitars till the end of time!

 

I've owned my Bolt+ for just over three years now. I've decided it's time to switch out the pots and caps, as they seem to kind of suck. They were fine at first but they're noisy now and the switch especially is noisy.

 

Apart from that though, I've sold off every other guitar I had since I got the Carvin, except for one as a back up for gigs. Once you get your hand on that Carvin neck with tung-oil and stainless frets it's game over. I highly doubt I will ever buy another guitar from anyone other than Carvin, unless I can afford something like a Suhr or a Becker.

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Out of my 31 guitars 5 of them are Carvin's. The first 1 bought new from the factory in 1979. (DC-150) The build quality was about the same as an upper end Ibanez. But since then their QA/QC has improved considerably.

The last one I bought new from the factory a year and a half ago is a CT6-T. This is the model that looks similar to the PRS McCarty Body. In my book it is as well built as any of the PRS's I've seen/owned or played. Attention to detail is impeccable. Fit and finish is as close to flawless as ANY guitar I've ever come in contact with.

The playability of my CT6 is where she shines the best. The guitar melts into your lap. The neck is wide in playing area but thin front to back. The tung oiled Mahogany neck is as smooth as a spanked babies bottom. The Stainless Steel frets always look freshly polished and they play like you're on ice. You can bend strings SOOoooo much easier and more accurately too. And they last nearly forever.

The pickups are more subjective. But almost every L.P. picker I've talked to said they changed the pick ups on their guitar so from that I could only take that L.P. pick ups suck coming out of the gate. What it really means is that everybody has different tastes and I would be prepared to change the pick ups on any guitar I bought not just a Carvin.

That being said ... I ordered my CT6 with the covered pick ups and absolutely love the tone. Warm but yet crisp and clear. I will admit, they have a bit of a bite to them but rolling the tone pot back just a touch rounds them out very nicely.

Pull the tone control up and they turn into a crisper version of a P-90. Roll the tone cointrol back a smidge and wha la P-90's tone. (Or extremely close)

Playing my CT-6 acoustically produces a very warm and soulful sound.

Generally I'm more a strat guy. I play a lot of Blues. But when I want H.B. tone I thrive on my CT6.Carvin CT-6 2012b.JPGCarvin CT 6 Headstock 2012.JPG

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For me...

Carvin = Overated.

I've had:

1) Holdsworth

1) 7 string

2) DC400's

1) Contour

Longest I kept any one of them was 2 weeks.... none were junk.....but none did anything to inspire me whatsoever.... I would NEVER EVER consider one new.... I bought the Holdsworth off Craigslist, cased. 9.5/10 condition, green quilt top for $250.00.... hated it....had it on ebay the same day for $700...accepted a $630 best offer.

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Any non-famous guitar players dealt with the Seymour Duncan Custom S...hop recently? I want to know if others have had problems. An example: Seymour Duncan processes your order and payment, but doesn't deliver. I've called numerous times, left voice mail, sent emails and also requested order status on the order web page. All I want to know is how you got the probem resolved so I can too...

 

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I'm a carvin guy. The DC135 was my first real guitar. It goes everywhere. My vintage 16 is the best bang for buck I've found and I've found a lo I have an old quad X pre with a newer 100W carvin el34 power. I also have a little monitor that works great for my solo stuff

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I have played a lot of Carvin guitars over the years and have owned one of their basses.

 

They're decent instruments. I would place them below PRS and about the imports. The have kind of carved out a niche by making people believe that they're getting a custom shop quality instrument when in reality they're buying a base model and picking from a select set of options. Whereas Fender will make 50+ models of Strat, Carvin will offer a base DC-135 and allow you to pick hardware, color, pickups, etc....

 

I like to buy guitars that have distinctive sounds. If you say Les Paul, Strat, 6120, Rickenbacker, etc... a sound (or sounds) comes to mind. If someone says Carvin nothing really comes to mind.

 

Decent guitar for a decent price that you generally take a bath on when you sell. I would look at the used market.

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I have played a lot of Carvin guitars over the years and have owned one of their basses.

 

They're decent instruments. I would place them below PRS and about the imports. The have kind of carved out a niche by making people believe that they're getting a custom shop quality instrument when in reality they're buying a base model and picking from a select set of options. Whereas Fender will make 50+ models of Strat, Carvin will offer a base DC-135 and allow you to pick hardware, color, pickups, etc....

 

I like to buy guitars that have distinctive sounds. If you say Les Paul, Strat, 6120, Rickenbacker, etc... a sound (or sounds) comes to mind. If someone says Carvin nothing really comes to mind.

 

Decent guitar for a decent price that you generally take a bath on when you sell. I would look at the used market.

 

 

 

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on them. They're well-crafted instruments and some are absolutely gorgeous to look at, and it's nice to be able to pick the options you want to the extent they allow you to, but of all the ones I've tried over the years, none have ever really inspired me, and I can't really define the "Carvin sound" in my mind's ear... I don't really think there is one. And they don't seem to appreciate in value as they get older like some of the other American-built guitars do... there's no Carvin equivalent of the '59 Les Paul or '62 Strat that I'm aware of.

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The one model that is worth looking for is the SH-225. These were actually built by Heritage.

 

To my knowledge, it's the only ES-335 style guitar that could be ordered with a Khaler or Floyd Rose. They also made them with a TOM.

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Ahh, Carvin... One of my favorites. I've owned a 3 and all of them have been great guitars. I currently only own 1 due to changing musical tastes.

 

Their weakest point is their pickups. They're just kind of blah. Put the right pickups in, and they'll come alive. Of course, this is really limited to their older models that actually said "Carvin" on the headstock. Their newer Kiesel branded models use their new Lithium pickups and those are VERY nice. I played an Aries a few weeks ago and it was everything you could hope for out of a hot humbucker.

 

Build quality is usually fantastic on a Carvin/Kiesel. I've owned 3 and played probably a dozen and I've never seen any sort of factory defect. I've seen grotesquely customized guitars that would drop 2/3 of their value as soon as you pay for them, but that's on the customer that decides to check all the boxes on the builder.

 

Materials are always amazing with Carvin. Their tops are second to none.

 

​I'll never hesitate to recommend a Carvin guitar to anyone, but I will caution you about the build. If you throw everything at it, you can easily top $2-3k. You'll never get most of that money back. Buy it with the expectation of keeping it and you'll do well. If you flip gear a lot, buy a used one.

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The one model that is worth looking for is the SH-225. These were actually built by Heritage.

 

To my knowledge, it's the only ES-335 style guitar that could be ordered with a Khaler or Floyd Rose. They also made them with a TOM.

 

​I'd need to see evidence of Heritage building the SH-225. Carvin builds everything in-house. They used to outsource their acoustics, but customer feedback ended that mistake. I just don't see them outsourcing a model like the SH.

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I've owned two Carvins, A holdsworth 2, that had to be sold to keep a roof over my head, and my current, a 79 CM130. Both were bought used, and worth every penny spent on them. The Holdsworth was one of the most perfect playing instruments I have EVER touched. the SS frets, the Wilkenson trem, the ebony board, all screamed perfection. My CM130, a Paul like creature made of maple, birdseye maple neck, and a 24 fret ebony board, is a screaming beast, that begs to played loud.

And I completely agree about Carvin's pickups. The 22 series (M22, C22...) are bright, thin sounding, and lack a tonal complexity that others do. BUT once you adjust them, and I mean adjusting for HOURS, they can work. Eventually, I will find a set of pickups that will counter the maple, yet still have that maple tone.

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