Members badpenguin Posted September 23, 2016 Members Share Posted September 23, 2016 And it NOT an Ibanez? Who would have thunk it possible? The other day, while in Georgia, found this beast in a pawn shop. A 1979/80 Carvin CM130. After some time talking him down, saved $350 I might add, I took it home, and needed to clean the pots and replace a switch. Seriously. The guitar is KILLER! the pots took less then 2 minutes to spray, and about 5 minutes to replace the swtitch. Some cleaning, and a minor fret job later, the guitar came to life! How to describe the tone.....? Shimmery comes to mind. The 2 piece maple body, one piece birds eye maple neck, and 24 ebony board just lends itself to brightness and sustain. I want to say it's closer to my L6S then a Paul, but there is some serious tonal complexity that the L6S seems to lack. Neck is wonderful roundish "D" that feels old school, but not baseball bat like. The frets are wonderful, medium tall, with such a beautiful fretboard. The neck joint is a little weird to my hand, but I like it. The electronics, like I mentioned above, needed cleaning. hey, It's 36 years old afterall! And replacing a switch. the switches are 2 coil taps, and a phase switch. Ahh, those wild and crazy 70's! Pickups are the infamous M22's. Some love, some despise. I think they are a little bright, but that's what the tone controls are for, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billybilly Posted September 23, 2016 Members Share Posted September 23, 2016 I really dig that so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted September 24, 2016 Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 That's really cool! Probably the nicest looking Carvin I've seen. What do the 3 mini toggle switches do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted September 24, 2016 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 The 2 are coil taps, the one one the bottom, phase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted September 24, 2016 Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 That really expands the palette. Very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted September 24, 2016 Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 Very nice. Congratulations and Happy New Guitar Day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarvelUndies Posted September 24, 2016 Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 HNGD! Really digging that Carvin. I assume that the pole pieces have been doubled up? Curious to see how that affects the tone. It's real pretty looking, too. Especially the neck joint. It looks like a lot of thought went into it. And I definitely love fiddling with crazy 70s wiring. Some may say it's a bit excessive, but I get really excited about having lots of switches and knobs to play with. My God, the possibilities... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted September 24, 2016 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 Marvel Marvel Marvel.... My friend.... yes, the switching does offer a great tonal pallet, but as wonderful as it may be, sometimes it's too much to remember. This one, is relatively easy to remember. UP humbuckers, Down singles, or Down out of phase. My Electra Zephyr Studio.... 4 push pulls for phase, singles, series parallel, then a 6 way switch for different tone caps. It does become to much to remember for a live performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted September 24, 2016 Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 I could indeed be fondle of that guitar. I've grown fond of natural finish guitars, but this thread reminds me of trading off my L6S, which I never like to think about. It made sense at the time, but in retrospect, it was an appreciating guitar (only blued booked at around two-fiddy when I traded it off) and now I have guitars in my collection that make much less sense than that L6S But nice looking Carvin, I've long been tempted but have never even played one, never mind owned one. But spend many an hour in the past thumbing through their catalogs. I miss receiving those. :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted September 24, 2016 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2016 You can still find L6S's on feeBay for the 600-800 mark. Occasionally check GC's site. I found mine for 399. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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