tell me all about your Carvin custom shop guitar!

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Camer38

Camer38

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I'm really looking to get one as i can't find any guitars out their with specs i like other than my ESP horizon.
Please share your experiences with Carvin guitars!
 
Yep, horrible resale value which was good for me as I got a used one for a steal. Absolutely killer looking/playing/sounding rig (with aftermarket pickups). One of the very best I have played. I couldn't be happier with it.
 
glad to hear because i dont sell my guitars, i keep them as souveniers of my life =)

and yes i would probably replace the pickups
 
my CT6 is my favorite guitar I've ever had. It is built better than or as good as any I've owned or played-ESP Horizon and 2 Vintage Plus strats, Les Paul Traditional and Classic, Tom Anderson strats, Godin Artisan TC and LGX, PRS, Wolgang, countless Ibbies Prestiges....
The pickups sound great ( I don't know why they get hammered), they are clean, balanced, and articulate.

As far as resale, they hold up as well as any other; go on ebay and look. For what that is worth, people that buy them, keep them. There is never more than 5 or 6 pages for Carvin guitars ( right now there are 13 pages for "Carvin", tons of crap like truss rod covers and non Carvin gear).

I'm a Carvin fanboi; I've had guitars, Legacy 1/2 stack, Legacy combo, V3, pa gear, the new iem's...I've never had any trouble out of any of it.
 
I have a DC-125 hardtail. Mahogany body, maple neck, stainless frets. It's my favorite guitar to play, the pickups are best when the volume pot is dialed back a bit, at full output they're fizzy.

Paint and finish work is excellent. Fretwork is great, neck is thin but not too much, really a great guitar. I bought it used for about $500, and once pickups are swapped I'll still have under $700 in it. Totally worth it. I considered buying new, but was lucky enough to find essentially what I wanted on ebay.

Let me show you...

carvindc127001.jpg
 
Top notch guitars all the way around. I currently own 4 of them and have owned a total of 8. Playability is excellent and build quality is superb. 4 different fretboard radius choices, different bridge choices and their finishes are some of the best around.
The electronics are the only item on them I don't really like. I usually swap out the pots, switches and pickups because I prefer a different sound. But, I do that on every guitar pretty much. Even stock though, they sound good out of the box.
If you don't want to drop the coin on a new one, there are a ton of deals on eBay or the web.
 
Well made guitars, horrid pickups. Guitars are also way too bright and sterile for me. I've sent back/sold four so far in various wood combos, and I think I am done with them. I just can't get rid of the bright/sterile aspects. These were all neck throughs though, I haven't tried the CT/CS series or the Bolts.

I also wasn't particularly impressed with the build quality, per se. Definitely not bad, but not any better than a good ESP or Ibanez Prestige. All four I've owned have had cosmetic issues that should have been caught in QC.
 
They are a bit bright, I put an Air Zone in the bridge and an Evo neck (swapped magnet to an A2) in the neck and.......absolutely heavenly tone.
 
jjblacksheep":191pgze6 said:
They are a bit bright, I put an Air Zone in the bridge and an Evo neck (swapped magnet to an A2) in the neck and.......absolutely heavenly tone.
Click to expand...

I admit to being spiteful; it absolutely pisses me off that they use odd screw holes and odd routes on the pickups, and the last one I sent back I just didn't feel like routing it, buying $200-$250 worth of pickups, only to find I still don't like it. I've already been down that path once with Carvin, and I took a bath on it selling it on Evilbay.

The reason I had tried them again is that the options and playability i love.
 
That's a common complaint, but I didn't have any problems. An Anderson or something, I would have had to route. But I wanted these specific Dimarzios so it went smooth, no mods needed.
 
I think Carvin has changed their routing pattern since adding the covered pickups to their options. So now just about anything should fit.
 
don't forget, you have 30 days to send it back if you buy new. No one else will do that.
 
I'm thinking all mahogany with a maple fingerboard. Any opinions on that? Is koa worth the extra dough?
 
Well, the first one I got sucked. I sent it back to Carvin twice and they couldn't reproduce the fret bottoming out problem that I could produce when doing bends on the E and B string above the 12th fret. Then I drove 90 minutes one way and showed them and they built me a BEAUTIFUL new guitar. It was just like the first one but the flamed Maple top was W A Y better and it didn't "fret out" when doing bends above the 12th fret. I sold that guitar to tubesteakfortone's brother in law. Cool guitar but I can only surmise that Bruce Egnater will eventually own it.

What was the question?
 
Back in the early 90's I had a few Carvin custom guitars. I went out to California and got to personally pick out my body blanks for the tops and got to hand inspect the wood for the ebony fretboard. Pretty cool! They pay a high attention to detail for sure! I threw some EMG's in most of them and the tone was always "there". :rock:
 
Vince Sansevere":2s5bti4n said:
Back in the early 90's I had a few Carvin custom guitars. I went out to California and got to personally pick out my body blanks for the tops and got to hand inspect the wood for the ebony fretboard. Pretty cool! They pay a high attention to detail for sure! I threw some EMG's in most of them and the tone was always "there". :rock:
Click to expand...

Vince Sansevere here on RT with 14 or so posts??? Wow... how's it going man? Long time no see. Got out early?

But serially, you're lucky you're not amongst cork sniffers or your EMG comment would discredit you for life. But I know you man, you don't care what other people think.
 
I got my DC747 for cheap off ebay and it's the easiest and nicest playing guitar I've played. I like it even better than my Ran custom. Not quite as nice wood quality as the Ran though.
 
nakedzen":3ql0gbok said:
I got my DC747 for cheap off ebay and it's the easiest and nicest playing guitar I've played. I like it even better than my Ran custom. Not quite as nice wood quality as the Ran though.
Click to expand...

I've also owned a DC747. It was a hardtail and a very cool guiter. I put some Duncans in it and wish I had kept it.
 
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