Carvin guys, come on in

[Chris O]

Seems one gripe is that they lack "character" in their tone, and can be "sterile", but the same has been said of PRS from time to time as well.

This is such BS.

*OPINION IS MINE*

I had a Carvin bass for a while. Never had an electric, so take this with a grain.


Those who HATE those pickups, and have actual qualitative experience with them are few.

Those that HATE those pickups because they arent COOL are many.

Fact is, you can make music with a Pignose.

And if you cant, dont blame the equipment.

Can't say I disagree. I've found that I'm less and less concerned about pickups these days. I kinda sound the same regardless. As long as they aren't too hot or too weak, I'm good. Except Tone Zones and Screamin' Demons...I hate those things...

 

[C1-ocaster]

Seems one gripe is that they lack "character" in their tone, and can be "sterile", but the same has been said of PRS from time to time as well.

This is such BS.

*OPINION IS MINE*

I had a Carvin bass for a while. Never had an electric, so take this with a grain.


Those who HATE those pickups, and have actual qualitative experience with them are few.

Those that HATE those pickups because they arent COOL are many.

Fact is, you can make music with a Pignose.

And if you cant, dont blame the equipment.

Can't say I disagree. I've found that I'm less and less concerned about pickups these days. I kinda sound the same regardless. As long as they aren't too hot or too weak, I'm good. Except Tone Zones and Screamin' Demons...I hate those things...

I'm kinda in that camp too. I've not done any pickup swapping. Usually I just tweak the amp controls and guitar eq and get a tone I like and that works and I go from there.

I do see the value in pickup swapping. If a player has a certain tone in mind and really wants to tweak out something he hears in his head and can't get from just the amp and guitar settings, then pup's are another to fine tuning option.
I also never adjusted the pole pieces on pup's until a few months ago after reading some info about it.
Then I started experimenting and I was nicely surprised that it can make a difference for the better.

 

[aizenx]

Seems one gripe is that they lack "character" in their tone, and can be "sterile", but the same has been said of PRS from time to time as well.

This is such BS.

*OPINION IS MINE*

I had a Carvin bass for a while. Never had an electric, so take this with a grain.


Those who HATE those pickups, and have actual qualitative experience with them are few.

Those that HATE those pickups because they arent COOL are many.

Fact is, you can make music with a Pignose.

And if you cant, dont blame the equipment.

Can't say I disagree. I've found that I'm less and less concerned about pickups these days. I kinda sound the same regardless. As long as they aren't too hot or too weak, I'm good. Except Tone Zones and Screamin' Demons...I hate those things...

I'm kinda in that camp too. I've not done any pickup swapping. Usually I just tweak the amp controls and guitar eq and get a tone I like and that works and I go from there.

I do see the value in pickup swapping. If a player has a certain tone in mind and really wants to tweak out something he hears in his head and can't get from just the amp and guitar settings, then pup's are another to fine tuning option.
I also never adjusted the pole pieces on pup's until a few months ago after reading some info about it.
Then I started experimenting and I was nicely surprised that it can make a difference for the better.

Good points made here. Carvin pickups are no slouches, certainly workable for just about any style. But I see the value in swapping pickups if you have found a particular model that you like.

But for me it's a personal preference thing. I grew up playing Dimarzio's and love the feel of them under my fingers (it's difficult to describe these kinds of things). Sure I can make Carvin pickups sound good (in fact I keep the neck pickups stock 90% of the time). But for bridge pickups, Dimarzios fit the bill - they are just more inspiring to me and I play better with them, so that's why I swap them out. Sure you can make great music with a pignose, but when you have a Marshall Plexi available, why would you?

And you always have the guy saying "man in 'merica Eric Johnson would sound just like Eric Johnson playing through a line 6 spider 1, it's all the player man, it's all in the fingers." Um yeah, he would sound like Eric Johnson alright, but a shitty version of him. Just saying, gear plays a bigger role than people think. Otherwise why isn't he playing a pignose on stage?

 

[mudf00t]

my only beef with carvin is it seems the resale value isn't as high as most other "name brand" guitars. I've played a few but never actually owned one, so maybe I'm just imagining it.

This may not matter to some people, but for someone like me who is constantly switching out gear it does

I think this is a myth. They actually hold their value just as well as a PRS, Fender or Gibson. That said, there probably won't be a huge collector base 30 years from now for Carvin's as these other brands. I will give you some examples.

A brand new Gibson Les Paul Custom costs around $4000. A used one runs $2000-2400.

A brand new PRS Custom 24 10 Top costs around $3500. You can buy used ones for $1600-2000.

The Carvin in my sig (and pictured above) costs $1650 new. They run around $800-1000 used.

Discuss.

Very interesting info you've got there.

Rough calculations:
LP Custom loses about 40 - 50% of original price.
PRS Custom loses about 42 - 54%
Carvin in sig loses about 39 - 51%

Pretty close depreciation percentage.
But in terms of actual loss in dollars the Carvin beats both other brands.

In real dollars:
LP Custom loses between $1640 to $2000.
PRS Custom loses between $1500 to $1900.
Carvin loses between $650 to $850.

Both the Gibson and PRS lose enough real dollars to buy a brand new Carvin, each, with some left over for a pedal maybe two.

I've never had a chance to play any Carvin guitar. I have played one of their 5 string basses from like the mid 80's, and it was a fine instrument.

You have hit the nail on the head as far as the point I was trying to make. A Carvin doesn't lose more in depreciation than any other brand from what I have seen. I think that there is some confusion of the point I was trying to make where people are basically conflating resale value with market potential. I think it is fair to say that a Gibson, Fender, PRS or Suhr have better brand perception. That said, I have never had a problem selling any of the Carvin's that I owned. I haven't owned a bunch of them but I have sold 2. Most recently, I sold a Carvin Swamp Ash Bolt T that I bought on CL for $250 and resold for $500.

 

[aizenx]

my only beef with carvin is it seems the resale value isn't as high as most other "name brand" guitars. I've played a few but never actually owned one, so maybe I'm just imagining it.

This may not matter to some people, but for someone like me who is constantly switching out gear it does

I think this is a myth. They actually hold their value just as well as a PRS, Fender or Gibson. That said, there probably won't be a huge collector base 30 years from now for Carvin's as these other brands. I will give you some examples.

A brand new Gibson Les Paul Custom costs around $4000. A used one runs $2000-2400.

A brand new PRS Custom 24 10 Top costs around $3500. You can buy used ones for $1600-2000.

The Carvin in my sig (and pictured above) costs $1650 new. They run around $800-1000 used.

Discuss.

Very interesting info you've got there.

Rough calculations:
LP Custom loses about 40 - 50% of original price.
PRS Custom loses about 42 - 54%
Carvin in sig loses about 39 - 51%

Pretty close depreciation percentage.
But in terms of actual loss in dollars the Carvin beats both other brands.

In real dollars:
LP Custom loses between $1640 to $2000.
PRS Custom loses between $1500 to $1900.
Carvin loses between $650 to $850.

Both the Gibson and PRS lose enough real dollars to buy a brand new Carvin, each, with some left over for a pedal maybe two.

I've never had a chance to play any Carvin guitar. I have played one of their 5 string basses from like the mid 80's, and it was a fine instrument.

You have hit the nail on the head as far as the point I was trying to make. A Carvin doesn't lose more in depreciation than any other brand from what I have seen. I think that there is some confusion of the point I was trying to make where people are basically conflating resale value with market potential. I think it is fair to say that a Gibson, Fender, PRS or Suhr have better brand perception. That said, I have never had a problem selling any of the Carvin's that I owned. I haven't owned a bunch of them but I have sold 2. Most recently, I sold a Carvin Swamp Ash Bolt T that I bought on CL for $250 and resold for $500.

My experience has been the same as well. Every Carvin that I have sold (which has been only 2 - I've kept everything else), has sold for about what I paid for it.

Now if we're talking an investment purchase, that's different. I can see someone saying a Carvin may not increase in value like a Gibson Les Paul would, but lose value? nope. (talking long-term here, not short term)

 

[mudf00t]

from the guitar world fb page... yowza... 10/10 would bang

 

[C__]

from the guitar world fb page... yowza... 10/10 would bang

It only cost $1700 too!

 

[Chris O]

SICK!!

 

[aizenx]

Awesome guitar! Love the two tone thing going on when viewed from the side!

 

[ctoddrun]

Trippy neck treatment.

Looks like paint.

Never seen that look before.

 

[RJF]

Seems one gripe is that they lack "character" in their tone, and can be "sterile", but the same has been said of PRS from time to time as well.

This is such BS.

*OPINION IS MINE*

I had a Carvin bass for a while. Never had an electric, so take this with a grain.


Those who HATE those pickups, and have actual qualitative experience with them are few.

Those that HATE those pickups because they arent COOL are many.

Fact is, you can make music with a Pignose.

And if you cant, dont blame the equipment.

Can't say I disagree. I've found that I'm less and less concerned about pickups these days. I kinda sound the same regardless. As long as they aren't too hot or too weak, I'm good. Except Tone Zones and Screamin' Demons...I hate those things...

To me, pickups to the guitar rig is like tires on a car. A hot sports car is not going to handle to it's potential with a plain jane regular tire, nor would a big lifted 4x4 do well off road with a highway tire.

Having the right pickup that suits a certain guitar well makes a big difference.