Suhr vs Anderson vs Carvin.. thoughts?

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veji

veji

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Hope everybody had a great time over the New Year

Anyway proud owner of 3 beautiful suhrs .. owned 2 Anderson drop tops etc.. but recently been thinking of going to
Carvin for my next build..cheaper and faster.

what are your thoughts of these three popular custom guitar makers?
Both Suhr and Andersons go for over 3,000$ easy and Carvin is around 1200$
Both Suhr and Andersons take about 7-8months and Carvin takes aroun 8-9weeks.

wood is wood right? and Carvin's guitars have really gone up in quality and honestly from the pics posted here and on Carvin's website.. for the price of a suhr/Anderson guitar you can have 2-3 Carvins?
please share your opinions/thoughts
 
I've been thinking about Carvin also - I think the thing that's putting me off is that it seems too good to be true, which makes me suspicious about where corners are being cut. Obviously, selling direct takes out the store commission, one shipping cost etc, but not sure that's enough. But I'm happy to be convinced to give it a try (and the Becker numbers might be the exact thing!)
 
me too but Carvin has a 10 day policy if you don't like it they will rebuilt you a new guitar from scratch.
 
Again, i'm alittle hesitant because i have alot of experience with Suhrs/Andersons but 0 experience with Carvin. Every Suhr i've ever played from the suhrs hanging on the walls in a music store to my friends suhrs to my own. They have all been Top Notch!

anybody who owned suhrs and Carvins.. wanna do a comparison?
 
I have 3 Carvins, 3 Suhr moderns & had 1 Anderson. The Carvins are as good as any Suhr, Anderson or ANY other top shelf guitar out there.

Their quality & craftsmanship are amazing & their prices can't be beat since you're by passing the middle man & going direct.
 
Look really nice, don't think they will be displacing my Suhrs or my Anderson though...question is how do they sound? Pickups have been a weak point in the past but obviously can be changed easily but adds to the costs. Seems to be a great value, but people still buy and play Andersons and Suhrs for a reason. Every one of my 5 Suhrs is awesome, not a dead one or lacking in any way on each one, sound amazing, play amazing and are all flawless builds and 3 of them are Pro Series. Then there is re-sale, good luck getting good money on a Carvin anything, just the way it is.
 
RG955TT":1b9kfa8x said:
Look really nice, don't think they will be displacing my Suhrs or my Anderson though...question is how do they sound? Pickups have been a weak point in the past but obviously can be changed easily but adds to the costs. Seems to be a great value, but people still buy and play Andersons and Suhrs for a reason. Every one of my 5 Suhrs is awesome, not a dead one or lacking in any way on each one, sound amazing, play amazing and are all flawless builds and 3 of them are Pro Series. Then there is re-sale, good luck getting good money on a Carvin anything, just the way it is.
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If you're worried about resale value get a Fender or Gibson. Suhr's don't hold their value THAT well.

Carvins are as good as any Suhr or Anderson, but for some reason they don't have that boutique appeal.

BTW, their pickups sound really good.

 
In my limited experience carvin guitars have gone downhill, not up. Played one from the 80s and one from around 2008. Much preferred the one from the 80s, it was a great guitar. The new one had a wider neck and just didn't feel or sound as good. These belonged to a friend of mine who is now a prs fanboy. Btw, since switiching to prs, he no longer lets me try out his guitars, which is typical of prs owners for some reason. ;)

I would stick to suhr or Anderson myself. Not a fan or carvin pickups either, whereas I like Anderson and suhr pickups, so you might factor a pickup swap into the equation.
 
Doughboy":m8fvzqsj said:
I have 3 Carvins, 3 Suhr moderns & had 1 Anderson. The Carvins are as good as any Suhr, Anderson or ANY other top shelf guitar out there.

Their quality & craftsmanship are amazing & their prices can't be beat since you're by passing the middle man & going direct.
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Hey how do the carvin necks compare to your suhr modernS?
 
veji":21j8qjkz said:
Doughboy":21j8qjkz said:
I have 3 Carvins, 3 Suhr moderns & had 1 Anderson. The Carvins are as good as any Suhr, Anderson or ANY other top shelf guitar out there.

Their quality & craftsmanship are amazing & their prices can't be beat since you're by passing the middle man & going direct.
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Hey how do the carvin necks compare to your suhr modernS?
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Suhrs have the Modern elliptical neck profile which is their own thing & Carvin has their own specs. Really apples & oranges. I like both.
 
Doughboy":2t301kwj said:
Carvins are as good as any Suhr or Anderson, but for some reason they don't have that boutique appeal.

BTW, their pickups sound really good.
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I disagree with both of these statements. I've had a couple of Carvins myself, and while they aren't bad and are great for the money....I do not find them to be in the same league as Suhr or Tom Anderson. I would however own a Carvin again if they would simply offer a 1 5/8 nut width option, but they refuse to do so.
 
I've owned 2 Carvin basses. Sold the first, and have owned the second for about 2 years now. Completely happy with it, and I wouldn't hesitate making my next guitar purchase from them as well.
 
I love my Carvin, and look forward to ordering another! I think the low resale is a myth, these days. They used to sell very low used. NOt so much anymore. I'm not a big fan of their pickups. I've heard you can send them whatever pickups you prefer and they will install them in your custom build.
 
I own/have owned both.

I currently have a Bolt+ I purchased ten years ago, and until recently I had a Suhr Standard Pro that I lost due to an electrical fire in a rented rehearsal space.

Both are (were in the case of the Suhr) excellent guitars, and I would have no qualms about purchasing another Carvin or another Suhr.

Was the Suhr "better" than the Carvin? Impossible to answer. In my experience, once I reach a certain quality point with a guitar, "better" and "best" are irrelevant terms as the differences really boil down to individual preferences.

A Carvin and Suhr will differ in sound and feel, but both companies produce excellent sounding instruments to my ears.

I still have the stock pickups in my Carvin. The AP11 is a nice, modern sounding single coil (again, to my ears) and the C22 reminds me of the JB. All the electronics are stock, and I do not have any noise issues when playing through high gain amps at a loud volume.

I miss the Suhr, and I will replace it with another Suhr when I make my next guitar purchase. Two months ago I stumbled across a deal on a Les Paul Classic that I wanted and a Schecter Custom Shop PT (another guitar I have wanted for some time), so I purchased those with my insurance money. Again, not a knock against the Suhr, and if the Carvin had been lost in the fire I would have made the same decision to purchase the LP and the Schecter.

So, none of this helps you, but you can't go wrong with either guitar if it matches your tone/feel expectations.

Neither will make you a better player.

Both companies seem responsive to customers. Suhr in particular appears to have great customer service. I never needed to contact the company, but John Suhr is active on a few forums and seems to be a stand-up guy.

The best course of action may be to buy and enjoy one of each. An expensive proposition, but the demand is still out there for plasma, sperm, and black market organs.
 
well I do own 3 suhr guitars.. the reason for my post is this. Suhr doesn't do mahogany necks with maple fingerboards or walnut necks/maple fingerboards.. well carvin does. I love maple boards.
 
Have never owned an Anderson but have a Suhr and a Carvin and the Carvin is very comparable and maybe even less sterile. It is an 8 string and the Suhr is a 6 but still the Carvin just has more life to it if that makes sense. Great guitars for the coin....
 
I'm impressed by all the fancy looking Carvins I've seen in their youtube vids, but whenever I've run through their spec process, I've not seen the 'fancy' options (stained fingerboard for example). That said, I've not run through that process for a few months..
 
Carvin is the real deal, but when I went to spec one, I was nearly $2K for one, a bare bones guitar is the lower numbers you see advertised.

I would take a Carvin, and just about anything else, over a Suhr or Anderson any day.
 
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