I've owned many les pauls but always ended up ditching them in the end. What i've found is that I like playing a les paul sitting down and on the lower register but to me the upper fret access is crap (even on there axcess model) and i'm very dissapointed with gibsons quality, they generally 9 times out of 10 have the nuts cut to low which causes frets 1-3 to buzz no matter what, (even with the new plek system in place) The factory setups are usually good for a slide player! and ive seen so many microphonic pickups lately its unreal! and don't even get me started about the broken head stock issue. Gibsons customer service sucks and god forbid you ever have an issue. In my opinion , gibson aint the company it used to be and a company like Carvin slaughters there quality and customer service, and you can make a guitar to YOUR specs at a price you can afford, right here in the good ol USA.
I've owned my cs6 and dc127 carvins for a while now and just put in an order for a walnut/ maple ultra v in tung oil finish! which will be my third Carvin. I'm really happy with carvins products, they make a very nice instrument right out of the box. They stay in tune, they are setup EXCELLENT right out of the box, very stable high quality guitar to YOUR specs not someone elses, and to me that means the world.
As far as a direct comparison of the two guitars, i can tell you this,The les paul has a much louder acoustic property to it, and i believe that to be because they are chambered and have more of a break angle on the headstock and bridge. The carvin is a much more mellow sounding guitar unplugged but has really opened up over the passed few months of playing it. The neck on the carvin is really comfortable and somewhere between and 50's and 60's neck gibson style. There is always the option 50 stuff which means they can pretty much do anything you want. The word is that they have a bunch of different neck profiles scanned in from actual guitars...
The recessed bridge on the carvin is a really great idea and man can you ever get the action low if you want on it, i've never played a guitar that played so well and was so SMOOTH and easy to bend. I'd say the carvin is a mixture of a les paul and a PRS. Being a 25" scale guitar and all....
As far as plugged in , i just wrapped up tracking my bands new cd (you guys will here it soon ccv / carvin content!) and the other guitar player used and SG and we also used my Bass players les paul silverburst showcase edition. Going to tape, the carvin cut through better and just had more punch and clarity. The gibsons were muddy in comparison, the carvin breaths fire.
So to me, the Carvin is a faster supercharged version of a les paul with better playability and the best upper fret access in the business period. You can get your hand passed the last fret with the way they designed the heel. I recommend the 14 inch radius, its killer and I really hope they come out with a 24 fret version of the carvin cs6 to! Pretty amazing stuff, combine that with the fact they are totally customizable to your specs and needs, use killer locking sperzel tuners, graphtech nut, saddles, gotoh bridges, incredible fret work, bookmatching, wood choices, insane action, features, and price.... whats not to like? Plus they are made here in the usa...
Gibson is dead to me .... they are slow playing dinosaurs , and accessible only to the big boy guitar player kinda company, and they proved that to me time and time again in real life. They could give two shits about guys like you and me! They could take a lesson or two about customer service and what a custom shop really is, without leaving the hardworking american walking away like they got gaped / atm'd .....
Here is a pic of the finish on my carvin, this isn't actually my guitar but it looks exactly like it minus the floyd...
