Carvins

[danastas]

I'm thinking of ordering a Carvin soon.

I've got quite a few guitars made of mahogany bodies with maple tops. My two Jacksons have that profile, as well as my Gibsons.

The only alder body I have is a Fender Strat, but that thing is pretty thick and heavy too.

I was thinking of switching things up by going to something light, like Swamp Ash.

Or, do a 180, and go with something heavier than Mahogany, like Koa or Walnut.

So, I have three questions if anyone can answer them:

1. What do you think of the quality of Carvin neckthru guitars?

2. What do you think of Swamp Ash wood?

3. Ever play a guitar made of Walnut wood?

[IrfaanSE801]

Well, I've heard mixed reviews on Carvin. I personally think their guitars are great though, as every one I've played was a very solid piece and built well. As far as swamp ash, that's one of my favorite woods to use now since playing G&L guitars. I love the bite in tone, but not all swamp ash is light. I've seen about 60 swamp ash bodied guitars and less than half were light (and still not light as a Soloist). But it's a great wood with some beautiful grain, especially if your getting it in a trans finish. With walnut, I haven't played a guitar with that top or body wood, but let me know if you decide to go with that. I always wanted to buy the walnut Dean Hardtail Collectors Edition. The wood is so beautiful, but tonally I don't know it's properties.

[danastas]

I've actually been kicking around the Carvin bulletin board and I'm going to go with all Swamp Ash. I guess there are some concerns about brightness, and people are suggesting a maple cap but I don't want to go that route.

I think I want to bribe someone in the custom shop though to make sure I get a light piece of wood. heavy swamp ash is almost useless.

I was originally thinking an all black guitar, no inlays, with zebra pups. But I may go for the trans finish instead.

I'm of two minds about the stripes, though.

[toejam]

Never heard of swamp ash being heavy. Northern hard ash is heavier.
Here's my Carvin SC90... swamp ash, maple neck-thru/maple board. I changed out the two coil-tap switches for an extra volume and tone control, and the three-way toggle is now a DiMarzio Petrucci switch where I can get the inner coils of both pups on while in the center position, and I just roll back one of the volume controls if I want a single coil sound from either pup. The pups were their C22T and C22N, but I swapped them for some DiMarzios... Super 2 at the neck and Super Distortion in the bridge. The guitar is very light, sounds nice, but it is still on the bright side.

[metaljunkie]

I have a DC400 that is flawless in quality and playabilty.I would recommend Carvins to anybody.

[lerxstcat]

My Carvins are all 80s models, a CM130 (LP Jr. style), DC150 (similar to a Melody Maker) and an early Ultra V (set neck, round horns, Vee headstock). They are the nicest-playing guitars I own, not excepting my Gibson LP or my Jacksons and Charvel. They are rather bright-sounding since mine come from the era of maple bodies! I love them and recommend Carvin wholeheartedly.

Unless you have to have neck and headstock binding; they just won't do that for some reason...

[DenimBrigade]

I ordered a DC400, and I was a bit nervous bnecause I had never played one before, but this thing blew me away. I absolutly recomend them, especially with the trial period. If you do got for one, get the oiled neck feature, it is awesome.

[danastas]

From what I've been hearing, if you take the top half of a swamp ash tree, it will be very dense, and tonally almost dead. The best swamp ash is the wood that has been submerged under water. That's when the pores open. Otherwise, the above water part of the swamp ash tree is very dense, and practically useless for guitars.

[danastas]

The Carvin was ordered this morning with these specs. Thanks for the advice.

DC127M Neck Through/Strat style
M- Tuneomatic bridge/String-through body
BC - black chrome hardware
SL - Dunlop Straploks
36 - phase switch pickups
C22T pickup in the neck, better lowerend, less highend, usually a bridge pickup with less output
406 - Zebra Pickups, Black bevel
NIN - no inlays on ebony fretboard
STF - stainless steel frets
R14 - 14" fretboard radius
TN - tung oil neck
SG - seafoam green paintjob/black back
ASH - Swamp Ash Body w/ Maple neck

[pro-fusion]

Sounds like a nice guitar you've got on order. I've got a DC747 that I'm pretty happy with. In my experience, Carvins always tend to be rather bright sounding. I think it has as much to do with the body thickness and construction methods as it does with the tonewoods used. I put a Duncan Distortion-7 in the bridge of my 747 and it really took the guitar up another notch.

[ChickenScratch]

I'm in love with my Carvins, I would go as far as saying I prefer them to Jacksons now ... yeah, I said it! In any case, as far as quality goes you can't beat them. I can't really comment on the woods question because all my guitars are alder.

[SEEGERMANY]

Toejam's Carvin may be the classiest guitar ever posted at JCF!

As for the quality, I have a dear friend who was a diehard Les Paul player during the 70's, 80's and 90's. He switched to a Carvin in 2001 and has never looked back. Durability and reliability, well he gigs heavily on average of three nights a week and he told me it's the most dependable guitar he's ever owned.

I'm just trying to figure out why I don't own a Carvin.

[toejam]

Toejam's Carvin may be the classiest guitar ever posted at JCF!

Thanks! It plays awesome, too. It was my first Carvin, got it in '02. I also had a 12-string DC120 and a DC400, but both of them are gone, I don't think I can part with the SC90, though.

[FusionFarmer]

I got their catalog a few weeks ago. got it right there in the "Library", And I'm getting close to ordering a custom myself, they have some really great stuff to offer, Let us know how you like it.

[Zerberus]

After the way they handled an issue last year with a buddy on the Duncan boards, even going so far as to try to have SD remove comments or the whole thread, Here´s the thread for anyone that may be interested...

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47281

After that kind of Debacle, I´d rather pass and spend 500$ more on a guitar that comes with decent customer service. YMMV, but Caveat Emptor in any case.... But anyone that´s not 100% satisfied with JCMI´s service should definitely think twice IMO, becasue it can get much worse....