MkIII Renegade
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2005
- Messages
- 188
- Reaction score
- 4
This thread inspired me to check out the Carvin website for the first time in a long time. I am truly impressed with the number of new guitar models they have created in the last ~5 yrs, including the DC600 and Holdsworth Steinberger style headless guitars, not to mention the more traditional large bodied guitars, they have an exhausting selection at this point! :shock: They used to have a rather slim lineup with the DC400 at the top, but that has effectively become more of a midrange guitar for them in recent years.
A long time sore point has been the stock M series pickups, which tend to be rather thin-sounding, although they improved this quite a bit with the C series (and the active preamp adds a nice boost for any of their passives, although all of their 22 pole piece pups have a rather industrial look). I haven't tried their actives yet, but would love to hear them in person. I have to say that there are some rather lustful pieces on their website! I'm sure I'll ending up with another Carvin of some type fairly soon, although one of their more thick-bodied guitars, and probably with a fixed bridge (I think a Floyd blows the Wilkinson away). One of the things I've always loved about their guitars and basses from an aesthetic point of view has been the variety of beautiful tung oil finished models. Too bad they REALLY stick it to you on the options, which is where their true profit comes from ($400 to have a koa neck and body!! :shock: ). You can easily get up into used PRS territory by the time you option out a nice Carvin, but the PRS would have sold for $3000+ new and will be worth a lot more in the future, so you just have to accept it as something you want and go for it.
There are some real steals on ebay, but the naive owners always seem to start asking over the top prices before they finally come down to reality...a big part of that lack of cache is that some owners choose one or two dubious options that can make the guitar fugly as-is...almost like a gaudy '70s custom van with shag carpeted walls. :lol: Especially when they overdo the gold hardware, inlays and purple finishes or the like.
A long time sore point has been the stock M series pickups, which tend to be rather thin-sounding, although they improved this quite a bit with the C series (and the active preamp adds a nice boost for any of their passives, although all of their 22 pole piece pups have a rather industrial look). I haven't tried their actives yet, but would love to hear them in person. I have to say that there are some rather lustful pieces on their website! I'm sure I'll ending up with another Carvin of some type fairly soon, although one of their more thick-bodied guitars, and probably with a fixed bridge (I think a Floyd blows the Wilkinson away). One of the things I've always loved about their guitars and basses from an aesthetic point of view has been the variety of beautiful tung oil finished models. Too bad they REALLY stick it to you on the options, which is where their true profit comes from ($400 to have a koa neck and body!! :shock: ). You can easily get up into used PRS territory by the time you option out a nice Carvin, but the PRS would have sold for $3000+ new and will be worth a lot more in the future, so you just have to accept it as something you want and go for it.
There are some real steals on ebay, but the naive owners always seem to start asking over the top prices before they finally come down to reality...a big part of that lack of cache is that some owners choose one or two dubious options that can make the guitar fugly as-is...almost like a gaudy '70s custom van with shag carpeted walls. :lol: Especially when they overdo the gold hardware, inlays and purple finishes or the like.