Anyone have an opinion about Carvin guitars?

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I've played a few, and didn't like the neck carve on most of them. They all seemed to play a little stiff, although I knew a guy who loved his and burned like a candle playing it, so there you go. I was intrigued by the Holdsworth model, though. Still have never seen one.

I almost bought a Carvin bass, but a friend offered me his drop-dead kill-you-in-your-sleep MIA Precision Deluxe and I bought that instead.

'Never played one.

The catalogues are intriguing, particularly the concept of building a Frankencarvin from parts.

I ordered a Carvin CM140 back in about 1979 and played it for about 10 years. It served me well and overall was satisfactory. But I wouldn't monkey around anymore with them.

I've always felt that Carvin is one of these companies that comes up with their own ideas and tries to tell you how much better their inventions are than anyone else's.

Like their notion of the 22 pole pickup. Clearly ridiculous and not needed.

I bought a Carvin bolt kit. I got the Swamp Ash body, hardtail, blk hardware etc.
I love it , great action out of the box, It is basically wwht they sell as far as the bolt guitars with the pickups they put in most of their guitars. It is pictured here on the far left. (sorry it is the only pic I haveof the whole guitar)

Here is the headstock my friend painted for me.

As far as their other guitar lines My friend had a 6 string neckthru bass, it was sweet! I haven't heard anything negative about them otherwise.
The kit ran me $500 for an American guitar, not a bad deal.

Nice collection of guitars there

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Never been a huge fan of their guitars…they look great and play good but I don’t care for the stainless steel frets. They just sound too brassy and bright to me they lack the warmth I like (my opinion though) I do dig the Carvin Amps. The V3 Amps rocks and is priced way under all other name brands…sounds awesome. Their guitars are priced way high. I believe for that price you can have it custom made to you specs as far as woods and color and Pickups, ( and frets too now that I think of it) Hmmmmmmmmmm…! I may take another look at their sight....

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This is, as always, just my own opinions and should be taken as such.

I've never owned a Carvin (yet) but I have played a couple here and there over the years and they are very decent instruments. One thing I will say that I've noticed over the years is that I've never seen many of them used hanging in guitar shops...only 3 or 4 really in my 25+ years of playing. This tells me people who buy Carvins tend to keep them. Unfortunately this is also the down side too...

For many people, guitars are a -very- personal item and everyone's tastes are different. Some folks like Les Pauls, some like Strats, some like vintage arch tops, some like scalloped fretboards, etc., etc., etc.. The one single problem with Carvin in my always and ever so humble opinion is that unless you happen to live near their show room or you are lucky enough to find one used, you can't really play it before you buy it. I won't speak for others here but personally I find it EXTREMELY difficult to say whether I like a given instrument without ever having played it. Looking at pretty pictures in a catalog is all fine and dandy but it doesn't tell me how the guitar actually feels in my hands let alone how it's going to sound thru my gear.

That said I would reiterate that it seems that the majority of folks who buy Carvins tend to keep them. I do think that generally speaking Carvins are worth the money...they're not an "outstanding value" by any means as some of the advertising hype may lead you to believe, but I do believe they are priced fairly and competitively and that they generally have very good quality products. Beyond that, everything else is really just a highly subjective taste thing.

Again, just my own personal opinion.
Peace,
Jim

+ 1 on the collection of guitars and basses.

I agree I would never buy a guitar without playing it first. That being said a friend of mine has a Carvin set up like an HSS strat I think it's their model 137 and it plays nice, but I still prefer my strat or les paul. He said they have a return policy if you don't like the guitar, but how many would they let you switch until you found one you liked? I was never a strat person, tried a few and didn't really like them until one day I saw a cherry sunburst hanging on the wall at my local music store ( love cherry sunburst ) and thought I'd give it a try. 10 minutes of playing it and I was hooked, to me it was nicer than any strat I ever played. Bought it on the spot. That was 30 years ago and it's been my favorite guitar since.
filerj

The reason you don't see many Carvins used is because for most people it's their ideal guitar built to their specs when it comes to fret board radius,body wood, neck wood,finish,fret size, fret type etc so it's their ideal guitar. It's uniquely theirs and when you call something you're own it's hard to give up. I don't have a Carvin built guitar but I do have a neck from them that I've had for seven years and it's really good.

Thanks guys.
I cleaned out the room and moved some stuff around, took some pics of "the kids" and I'll post them later.

I bought a Carvin head in the mid-80s, the ones that were almost a Marshall knockoff. It was a great price (way cheaper than a Marshall), but ... I hated it. I sent it back, and they refunded my money right away.

However, that was long ago. Their stuff now looks real good. It is just not for me.

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Tex

Take a look at the "Price With Options" thread just a few down from your own. Lots of people had lots of stuff to say about Carvin Guitars. IMO it was very entertaining.

Noodles

Thanks you for the heads up, very interesting thread. Enjoyed reading it. I ask a big Carvin fan why he like his Carvin so much (a die hard fan) He reply was, when you buy a Fender you have to buy it from a dealer with 100% mark up so your buying a $500 guitar for a grand, when he buys a Carvin, it's factory direct and he he pays $1000 for the guitar, he gets $1000 guitar. My reply, mine has the Fender name printed on it, that's worth the $500 difference.

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