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Carvin: Quality?


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I know that Carvins have been discussed here according PU, sound etc.

There is a Carvin Stratocaster, offered as project on ebay, w/o PUs. I am thinking about buying it, to put some good PUs in it... Any opinion on woods and built quality of Carvin?

Thanks

daniel

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Their bolt kits are fine. I've played a couple of builds, and found the wood component quality to be high. It's all CNC-machined stuff, so I'm not sure how it would ever be inferior to a run-of-the-mill Fender. Just be aware that the resale value is typically very low. Carvin is certainly a niche brand, mostly by design.

Although the one you're looking at is sans pickups, the AP11 single coils are actually quite good for a powerful, glassy Strat tone. The humbuckers are spotty; I've played some that sounded OK; others that sounded like shit.

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I had a factory built Bolt T... prior owner picked out good stuff,  Ferrari red with a black tortoise

guard, sperzels, and a wilky, I think.    pretty nicely made,  the problem was I just don't think

it was warm... kind of mechanical sounding.     can't quite put my finger on it...   there was

kind of a cool one a month or so ago at my local store... (some kind of duo tone hybrid a/e thing)

but had a lot of fretwear... so I didn't look at it that much further...

  

seems like the guitars with flametops are pretty nice.  would have liked to see some

of those tops on Hamers...  

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Carvin guitars are manufactured quite well, as are the Kiesel guitars now that they have changed their name. Their strat / bolt bodies are great bodies, as are the necks. The electronics can be great, or not so much, depending on what type of sound you like. If you love your Seymour Duncan or Gibson pickups, you will most likely NOT like Carvin/Kiesel pickups. If you really like the air style Dimarzio pickups, you may like carvin pickups.

That said, I have a stock Carvin Bolt with the AP11 pickups, which are similar in sound to the G&L MFD single coils. The construction is similar, with a ceramic bar under a bobbin and pole pieces. There are 11 pole pieces so they are somewhat like a rail pickup in sound.

The Woods that carvin uses are great. I've got some really nice alder and swamp ash bodies from Carvin.

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I have a Carvin Bolt I bought new about 12 years ago.  Has an ebony fretboard, satin maple neck and alder body, HSS setup with coil split for the bridge pup.  Wilkinson trem, locking tuners.  I don't have any complaints.  

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               I guy I know has one of these...............early one he paid quite a bit for it also. I played it and it was made very well and played excellent.................I would not own one but he had 4 other Carvin's and really likes them............obviously.

 

 

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I've been using a Bolt for years.   It's a good solid guitar I'd rank ahead of any MIM Strat and they can be found at decent prices. I agree with the above statements about the single coil pickups.  

The new Kiesel line is just miles ahead of anything they've done in the past. 

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Two friends of mine play Carvin. One of them is a bassist. His basses rock big time. The other is a guitar player. I see no quality issues with his guitars. The Mathes hate Carvin though. There should be something there to be taken into account. No idea though. :) 

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I've got 4 Carvin basses, two carvin bass stacks, one practice amp, two of their effects processors, two power conditioners, and a bunch of their guitar amps. Never had any complaints. Kinda wish the amps weren't all SMT now, but that's how the industry is going. To fit all that functionality into a tiny box, standard PCB through construction isn't compact enough.

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