Carvin

- 2 channels, clean and lead - Controls for volume, treble, mid, bass per channel - Presence switch for clean channel - Drive and presence controls for drive channel - Master reverb - Switchable between 50 and 100 watts - All tube (5 12ax7 preamp, ships with 4 EL34 power section) - Switchable between EL34s and 6L6 power tubes - Cabinet voiced lineout - 4, 8, or 16 ohms - Hand made, USA UTILIZATION While this is an incredible amp, I do have a few usability issues with it. There is no master volume control, so unless you have a place to run this guy full tilt, you are in trouble. It literally does not go below wall shaking volumes. There is a switch to run it at half power (50 watts), but remember that watts=/= volume, that really just drops it by a couple decibels. I like that you can run either 6l6 or EL34s (also E34Ls) in the Legacy, I’ve used both and it really makes a difference depending on what kind of voicing and headroom you want. The tone controls don’t have a huge amount of range on them. Overall it was pretty reliable, but I did get some issues with the effects loop circuitry at one point. I bought the amp used, so I won’t knock Carvin for this, but it is worth noting. SOUNDS Aside from the issues in usability, the sound is just incredible. The clean channel is beautiful, icy bell lie cleans. This isn’t really a warm clean amp, more like a fender twin style. Perfect for picked out clean parts. A ton of headroom, really doesn’t clip out at all. The lead channel is just pristine. Very articulate, nuanced and harmonically rich. It really is just the perfect lead amp. It has a surprising amount of gain on tap, sweet spot is around 7. The louder you crank it, the better it’s going to sound. OVERALL OPINION The Legacy is one of the best clean/lead amps on the market right now. Just make sure that you have a place to crank it. Designed by guitar virtuoso Steve Vai along with Carvin USA. Carvin sell direct, keep the middle man out of the equation, and are able to deliver handmade amps at killer prices. As a result, the used prices for these are absurdly low, usually below $600. The Legacy isn’t for everyone, but if you’re after something that does cleans and leads very well, this is an excellent option.

The Carvin MTS 3200 is a 100 watt tube amplifier. The amp features two channels, Lead 1 and Clean 2, respectively. Channel 1 Lead controls include Treble, Mid, Bass, Drive (gain), and channel volume. Channel 2 Clean controls include Treble, Mid, Bass, Drive, and volume. There is also a push-button presence switch for the Clean channel. The front panel houses two additional controls; a global Reverb control that affects both channels, and a Lead 1 Presence knob that selects the Lead channel's presence frequency. Rear Panel: On the back of the amp you'll find the usual suspects; a bias switch for selecting 6L6/5881 power tubes (which ship with the amp) or EL34s. A switch to select cab impedance (4, 8, or 16 ohms) is included along with the two speaker-out jacks. Send and Return jacks for the great sounding serial effects loop are found here as well. The loop can be switched on or off via the included footswitch. A very handy and smart feature of this amp is that the output power can be cut down to 50 watts via a switch on the rear panel, which will keep your neighbors and FOH soundman happy! (it should be noted that the impedance does not have to be changed when running the watt in 50 watt mode, as it is not the same as pulling the outer or inner pair of power tubes as many commonly do to tame 100 watt amps) This feature is great for getting that driven tube sound at lower volumes! UTILIZATION This amp is very easy to dial in, which will be appreciated by the guitarist who is buying his/her first tube amp, or the seasoned pro looking for a great value in a well built, time tested product. Turn the knobs on the front panel and you'll notice that the overall sound of the amp doesn't drastically change. It's as though the amp was designed to deliver a general sound (albeit a very good one!) despite where the controls are set. It delivers its tones with only a slight variation from the eq controls, which is good since both the clean and lead channels sound very desirable! The treble on the Lead channel is the one control that can drastically alter the tone, but once you find a setting that cuts through without sounding overly bright, the other knobs only slightly alter the tone for fine-tuning. The manual is well-written and covers the basic features of the amp. No complaints here. The global reverb control is a bit sensitive. Trying to find the perfect amount of verb can be tricky as there's a fine line between just enough and too much. Once you find your sweet spot though, the result is spacious, and beautiful tube-driven reverb that spills over when switching between channels or when turning the reverb off. One of the best verbs I've ever used! SOUNDS Channel 1 Lead: Channel 1 Lead is a very smooth playing channel with enough gain to get into hard rock or even metal territory. It is voiced somewhat like a JCM 800, but is thicker, looser and less defined. The trademark Marshall "kerrang" and wiry top end is not there, but the overall character is decidedly british, especially when using EL34 tubes in the power section. I found that with the drive control set between 7 and 8 (around 2:00) this channel comes alive with harmonics and singing, controlled feedback that always sounds musical and is never stiff or harsh. This amp is a lead player's dream! It's gain texture is soupy and lead lines flow effortlessly from the player's fingers! Kick in a touch of the tube-driven reverb and it becomes spacious and full. The Lead channel's presence control is very different from most other tube amps. No matter where you set it, the amp will never become muddy, harsh or overly bright. At first listen, it seems as though it has a very minimal, or no affect on the tone at all. But crank the amp up on stage or at band rehearsal, and give it a twist! You'll notice a subtle shift in the high frequencies that really lets you choose the right setting to cut through the mix. This is a very well thought out feature! The mids are also voiced very musically in this amp, as turning them higher doesn't warrant a harsh result, and only brings more focus, bite and clarity to the voicing. The lead channel can also be set up to suit the hard rock riffer by shifting the presence and treble controls. With the treble past noon, the tone becomes a bit sharp. Dime the bass and scoop out the mids a bit and you're in the modern rock/metal realm. In doing so however, you sacrifice the warm liquid lead tones that are had by setting the amp up with more subtle high frequencies. I prefer keeping the channel set up for a soupy lead tone, then kicking on an MXR 10-band Eq in the effects loop to get the more aggressive and heavy rhythm tones. Another thing I'd like to point out is how the bass control sounds. This low end control acts more like a depth control that can be found on some amps, such as Diezels. Adjusting the bass on the MTS is like fine-tuning the very low sub-frequencies, and never adds low-mid flab like many other amps' bass controls. With the bass maxed, the lead channel becomes extremely huge sounding and almost feels like you're playing through subwoofers! Channel 2 Clean: Switching over to channel 2 Clean, the first thing you'll notice is that this is no ordinary, dull clean tone like you find in so many channel switchers. This is a full bodied, warm, almost acoustic-sounding clean that chimes and shimmers! Playing a strat or tele through this channel delivers some unbelievable clean sounds! Arpeggios and chords ring out clearly and never sound dull or thin. The quality of the onboard reverb can really be heard and appreciated on this channel. It's thick and lush with beautiful tails that decay and trail off naturally with no artificial artifacts or cheap digital sounds. Amazing job Carvin! Plugging in a Les Paul, I hit the presence-boost switch and the thick, round tone became bright and spanky and airy in the top end. This setup could almost pass as an acoustic sound from a Piezo bridge pickup! OVERALL OPINION Given the low price and high build quality of this two-channel tone machine, I find it difficult to nit-pick. However, if I had to make one complaint, it would be that there is no mid-shift or contour switch on the lead channel. This would allow me to dial in my liquid lead tones, and then flip the switch for playing aggressive riffs. This is hardly a problem though, as an eq can be used in the fx loop to attain these results. I would buy this amp again in a heartbeat! I can recommend this amplifier to the player who is looking to buy their first tube amp on a budget, or to anyone who wants a great lead channel and one of the best cleans available in a channel switching amp at any price! A great value!

I'll repeat what 's been said already, but it's not that bad. 50W all-tube combo with a celestion vintage 30 speaker (excellent speaker, by the way), at least on my version, I think previous versions had another speaker. Regarding the controls: - Front panel: Volume control and EQ (3 bands: treble, middle, bass) for the clean channel, clean/lead switch, soak (=gain), volume control and EQ (3 bands: treble, middle, bass) for the lead channel, reverb. - Rear panel: On/off switch, stand by/on switch, "acoustic presence" control for the clean channel, send and return for the effects loop, line out, footswitch jack, impedance switch (4/8/16 ohms), 2 speaker outputs, one of which is used by the combo's vintage 30. Vintage look with a very nice-looking tweed coating. This combo gives a very sturdy impression, unlike many other combos at the same price point: The pots are perfectly linear and are smooth throughout the entire travel, all switches are extremely robust, neither the jacks nor the switches feel wobbly... In short, it's all good! The only drawback is the lack of a Presence control for the lead channel, but that's being really picky, and given its price... USE PLUG AND PLAY! That really nails it. It sounds great regardless of the position of the controls! This amp can really make anyone who has a hot rod deluxe, bugera, or any other combo at the same price point and with similar manufacturing quality point, weep. It's simply awesome! It can really get the best out of any quality guitar, be it a strat, lespaul, ES, sg, they all sound great! SOUND THE SOUND! Well, okay, death metalheads won't feel the same, which is quite logical, but it's perfect to play anything from jazz to hard rock. Personally, I use it with an MXR zakk wylde overdrive for sharper Metallica-like sounds. It sounds great with pedals, too, which is great news for people who have 9ft long pedalboards ;-). I play a strat highway one with a duncan sl-59 (humbucker) at the bridge and, for the time being, not even the mesa boogie haven made me change my mind. Both channels have a warmth seldom (or never) found on a combo at this price point and that's why I chose it! I've been using it at home and for rehearsals two years, since you can easily get a good sound at low volumes thanks to the two master volume controls. OVERALL OPINION If you are looking for versatility, ease-of-use, compact dimensions, a warm sound, and your budget is nowhere near $3000, this combo is for you. This is the best combo I have ever tested. If 50w aren't enough for you, try the carvin legacy, which is just as good but has more power!

4-channel tube preamp (9 12ax7): Channel 1: Clean (1 preamp stage, 1st stage of tube 1), volume, low, mid, high Channel 2: Clean (1 preamp stage, 2nd stage of tube 1), volume, and low, high EQ, cloak shared with channel 3 Channel 3: Clean (5 preamp stages, tubes 2, 3 and 1st stage of tube 4), volume, crunch and low, high EQ, cloak shared with channel 2 Channel 4: called Sustain (and rightly so) (11 preamp stages, 2nd stage of tube 4, and tubes 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), volume, gain, low, mid, high Boost switch, bright, separate EQ for the master. Effects loop on the master and specific loops for each channel. True reverb that simply sounds. Good quality noise gate circuit. Ultra-comprehensive connection options (jack, xlr, stereo, mono outputs with separate volume controls), inputs on the front and rear, footswitch jack for each channel (on the non-MIDI version). USE The settings on each channel are fairly simple (volume, eq). Knobs are very responsive, you can get interesting sounds right away. The manual is very well-made and not mandatory. Do note that the status of the master graphical EQ is activated by channel, so you can activate it for channel 1 but not the rest and these settings will be saved. SOUND Channel 1, wonderful clean sound, crystal-clear, easily shapeable with the EQs Channel 2, clean sound, crystal-clear, EQ shared with channel 3, very handy to have a "clean" version of channel 3 Channel 3, it goes from a warm clean to a downright rock sound with a good amount of distortion (with boost engaged if necessary and depending on the pickups you use). Among the most beautiful crunch sounds (from smooth to really driven). Channel 4, from crunch to fat distortion. Ideal for lead sounds, as its name implies it has a huge sustain. Probably among the most versatile preamps I know. On the same level as a Soldano (X88), Mesa (quad or triaxis) or Bogner (fish, for example) OVERALL OPINION I use it mainly within a studio setup and record it via the direct output into a soundcard input, I then add a speaker emulation (like a Torpedo), and the sound is wonderful. Unbeatable value for money secondhand. Its only negative point is that it depends a lot on the quality of the tubes used and when you need to replace them, you need to break the piggy bank. I opted for a cabling mod that allows me to use Russian 6N2P-EV tubes of excellent quality, which only cost a couple of bucks (and sound way better than some $50 NOS ones).

Carvin is a small American guitar company that offers custom made to your spec guitars at rediculous factory direct prices. Carvin has been hand making guitars in the USA for 30 years. Every guitar they make is made to order and sold directly by them. There is no middle man when it comes to Carvin guitars and this allows them to give everyone factory direct prices. They save the cost of selling to suppliers and pass the savings on to the customer. The customer is able to customize any part of their guitar and get any kind of wood or electronics configuration they want. The CT series is a newer line from Carvin. It was introduced in 2004 and has a shape similar to most PRS guitars. The CT6 is the top of the line model in the CT carved top series. For these guitars they select the highest quality AAAA woods for the tops and they are all real lookers. The body and neck are made from mahogany from Honduras. The top wood on the body is 20mm of super high quality flamed maple with quilts available as options. The fretboard is ebony of course with big beautiful block inlays. It has dual carvin C22 pickups with master tone and volume knobs. The tone knob has a push/pull coil split function to give you single coil sounds. The bridge is your choice of Floyd Rose, Wilkinson Fender style tremolo or Tune-o-matic string through the body bridge. This one I had has a tune-o-matic. UTILIZATION The playability on this piece is great. Carvins neck is what they call a "Rapid Play" action on the neck. The neck is lined up with the body to ensure you get the lowest fastest action possible. The neck is the standard Carvin 25 inch scale which gives you the best of both worlds between a Fender and a Gibson. The Carvin bridge is locking so it doesnt fall off when you are changing strings and it is laying right on the body. On some tune-o-matic bridges the bridge is way up high on the posts. Carvin does not do that. The ebony fretboard is great under your fingers. I feel that ebony is the best wood for fretboards. There is a reason orchestral instruments have used ebony for hundreds of years. The carved top body fits your body like a clove and does not dig in anywhere. SOUNDS The Carvin pickups are good at what they are made for. They are medium output and have their own distinct sounds. The neck pickup can give you the good creamy neck pickup tones that you always like. The push pull coil splitting tone knob gives even more tonal variety. The single coil tones are nice but without a middle pickup you cant really emulate many of the iconic strat tones. The bridge pickup is pretty weak for the type of music I play. It would be good for clean playing or some classic rock but it does not have the output or clarity for heavy music. Dropping a Seymour Duncan in the bridge could really wake this guitar up. OVERALL OPINION The Carvin CT6M is right up there with Gibsons and PRS guitars in terms of quality and is pretty much half the price. Gibson or PRS wont make a guitar for your specs without charging atleast 5000 dollars. Carvin does that for pretty much every model up and down the range. Carvin gives the working guitarist realistic prices for high quality custom gear. If you cant find a guitar with the woods or specs you want you should check out Carvin. It is more than likely that they have or can build you a guitar that meets your exceeds your expectations.

The Carvin DC400 is the top of the line model that Carvin offers. These are very affordable, made in the USA guitars that are semi-customizable to your tastes. The one I played had the following specs: Neck-thru 25'' scale length Mahogany body with a quilted maple top Maple neck with ebony fretboard 12'' radius Tung-oil finish HH configuration Floyd Rose Sperzel locking tuners Push/pull active/passive setup with 3 mini toggle switches and a 3 way switch. UTILIZATION Carvin always does a wonderful job when it comes to building guitars, especially for the price. The fretwork on these models are great. The back of the neck feels awesome thanks to the tung oil finish. It's never sticky like so many other finishes out there. The 12'' radius makes is great for both chording and soloing, and the neck thickness seems to be just about perfect. The upper fret access is a breeze thanks to it being a neck-thru model. On top of that, it's extremely versatile thanks to its pickup configuration. SOUNDS This guitar sounded pretty awesome, and it was ridiculously versatile. The active/passive switch in this made for all kinds of crazy sounds. Despite it only have two humbuckers, you could cover tons of ground with this thing. I play mostly metal, but I also dabble with fusion and blues. This guitar did it in spades. On top of that, it was very resonant. However, if you ever decide to replace the pickups, it can be a real pain thanks to the crazy switching configuration they have going on in this thing. Just keep that in mind if you ever decide to buy one. OVERALL OPINION This is one of my favorite Carvins I ever played. It was extremely resonant, had all kinds of cool options built in, the pickups seemed to work a lot better than in the other models (probably thanks to that active/passive thing they had going on), and it was quite the looker thanks to its crazy quilted maple top and transparent finish. These are a bit more expensive than the other Carvin guitars, but they're totally worth it.

This is a tube amplifier, made by Carvin. There is a single 1/4" input as well as a footswitch input. There are 16 watts of power, but there is also a mode that allows you to use a lower 5 watts. There are controls for volume, soak (which is similar to gain), bass, mid, treble, and reverb. The amp is 16", hence the title. UTILIZATION This amp is a pretty easy one to get a good sound with. There isn't really much room to mess around with tone controls or gain knobs so everything tends to sound relatively raspy gritty. This is a good thing. I really like the way it responds to an overdrive pedal, as this amp tends to allow even distorted tones to ring out above the sound of a band. While it's not enough to carry it through a venue, you'll be able to clearly hear yourself over a drummer and bassist during rehearsal. SOUNDS This amp is pretty easy to get a good sound out of. Its clean tone is superb, and simply dialing in the right eq tends to be all that it takes. I also like switching to the "triode" mode, which only uses 5 watts and gets a raspier, relatively more aggressive tone. This is as easy as hitting a switch in the back. The tone is always very clear unless the soak is cranked, and even then, the notes will ring through. With a good overdrive, the amp really kicks, and is capable of some serious rocking. OVERALL OPINION I really like the tone of this amp the most, I think that it's a great sound for blues and light rock players. With a good overdrive pedal, the amp can really rip, and it sounds great with most Single-coil pickup guitars as well as those with humbuckers. I really like this amp a lot, and look forward to trying more Carvin products in the future. This is a great amp for practicing and rehearsing with a small ensemble.

These pickups are very hard to find now, since Carvin (now called Keisel) stop making them a few years back, but you can find some (rarely) used on Ebay or Reverb, but at a much higher price, these days . The pickup is wax potted to surpress microphones/ feedback (squeal) and solidly made to deliver great tone. This pickup was made for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. What visually stands out about the M22SD pickup, is that instead of the typical 12 pole pieces, the M22SD has 22 hex pole pieces, that easily adjusts with an allen wrench. My M22SD was rated at 14.06k ohms, with an Alnico 5 magnet. Tone wise, this pickup has the treble response of a Bill Lawrence XL-500, especially when you raise the pole pieces close to the strings. If you lower the pole pieces and raise the entire pickup, the pickup transforms sound similar to a Dimarzio Evolution pickup. The difference between the Dimarzio Evolution and the Carvin M22SD, is that the M22SD has more defined bass frequencies, cleaner lower mids with more upper mids and more treble than the Evo.

The Carvin CM68 is a dynamic handheld-style microphone that is similar to a Shure SM58. It has a built in windscreen, and it is made for live vocals on stages. It is a standard directional dynamic microphone, with an xlr connector on the bottom. It is black, and it feels relatively heavy and solid. The windscreen does unscrew, revealing the directional dynamic microphone underneath. The black band that labels the microphone ("Carvin" and "CM68") is also removable when the wind screen it disassembled, which is a bit odd; that would make it easy to switch out the label, and convince someone it's a different microphone. There are plenty of microphone fakes out there, specifically the Shure SM57 and Shure SM58, so it is odd to see a different level of security of branding here. OVERALL OPINION I've used this microphone for all sorts of different purposes beyond the vocal mic usages. At practice, I commonly use it inside of a kick drum, so it's easier to hear my drum player's kick drum notes. His bass drum is made for the studio, with a lot of padding inside, so it doesn't project sound as well as it could, particularly for practices. This cheap mic fixes that problem easily, and it sounds fine for that application. Just don't expect the tone to be recordable or anything, but it is clear and noiseless. For vocals, this microphone is mediocre, with a sound quality that is a little worse than the standard Shure SM58. It isn't noisy, and it doesn't seem to have any feedback problems, which is nice. But certainly, it's nowhere near my current vocal mic, an Audix OM7, which blows all other vocal mics out of the water, as far as I'm concerned. But overall, this is a useful, and cheap microphone, if you happen to get your hands on one of these models. Check it out!

tubes: 3x 12ax7a, 4x EL34.. 100W RMS, 2x 12" british series speakers, 32Kg UTILIZATION the tone controls are +/-18db so it's easy to mess up the sound, you must stay where it sounds good.. this the lead drive channel and hi-lead requires high volume to deliver a good sound SOUNDS I have a Simon Pinder bodythrough neck with EMG gold active pickups and Kahler mechanics With a Morley wah in front, a LXP5 in loop and sometimes a H&K speaker emulator on the HP output (with a load capacitor) connected on a LXP1 before in the mixtable I just love it :-) Now I use it almost always directly plugged on it, when I dont play with my Jamman and MPX G2.. :) Generally it sounds better (basses) when you set the volume high on the amp and lower the volume on the guitar Now that I'm older I'm almost only using the clear channel.. The grain, the dynamic are very nice, I love the basses and the warm and slamming sound from the tubes, I set it like 8(bass) 7(middle) 5(treble) 4(presence) and 1-2 (reverb)... I like using low pass filters OVERALL OPINION I would buy it again without hesitation, but it's just a subjective advice :-)

controls: Lead/Rhythm EQ selector switch; five band graphic with shelving frequencies for 75, 150, 500, 1.5 and 3K bands with a range of plus or minus 18 db. Reverb, Presence Treble Middle Bass Master volume with a Footswitch Boost mini toggle switch. Lead master volume with another mini toggle for gain boost Lead Drive and a mini toggle for channel selection Rhythm volume with a bright mini switch 12ax7s and EL34 powered. UTILIZATION This is a very interesting amp from the late 80s I believe. The EQs are all shared, and you can assign the EQ to either the lead or rhythm channel. The rhythm is the clean channel, or you can crank the gain on it to have 2 distortion channels between the lead and rhythm, and then assign the EQ to one of them to differ the sound all together. This might take some getting used to as it's really just one channel since everything's shared but you gotta make sure you know what you're doing with the 5 band EQ to get things to sound good. Lots of tweakability actually with just the shared EQs and the 5 band. It's the 5 band that allows you to have such versatility in the channels and it's a great idea. One thing though is that this amp doesn't sound good at low volumes, it's old school so you gotta crank it to get it to start sounding good and non fizzy. SOUNDS I just want to say this has got to be one of the most unknown sleeper amps in the world. This sounds ABSOLUTELY AMAZING for both cleans and dirty!!! Cleans are super bright and shimmery, with plenty of headroom. You can get that fender twang no problem and you can get all that spank you've ever wanted in a clean amp if you've got a single coil equipped guitar! I've noticed almost all of carvin's amps have amazing clean sounds, not sure what they do to it but it's always great!!! Dirt. Think hot rodded marshall sounds. Very tight, crisp, and clear. Plenty of gain on tap to do anything you want. What's also great about it is that the amp cleans up with the volume rolled down. I ran this head through a few different cabs, avatars, Gflex, marshall cabs. It sounded good through absolutely everything. Very awesome amp! OVERALL OPINION Super ugly. But Super awesome sound!! Clean tones are to die for, dirt is a very nice hot rodded vintage sound. Plenty of gain on tap, yet dynamic enough to clean up with the volume rolled down. What more can anybody ask? There have been many different versions of this amp, though most of them should sound quite similar so I don't think anybody can go wrong with an amp like this. Just try to get past the look of it and you're golden!

Carvin is an independent guitar maker in America. They make all their stuff themselves and sell it directly themselves. Since they sell directly to their customers their prices are a lot lower than other companies for the quality you get. Every guitar is made to order and made to your specs. It is a real custom shop that gives you quality guitars at low prices. This is one of their newer models the California Single Cut. It has a Les Paul like design but is very comfortable to play. You can pick your own woods from a vast selection. I will just go through the options the model I tried out had. This guitar is in the single cut design. The body is made out of Honduras mahogany with a flamed maple top. The set neck is also Honduras mahogany. The flamed maple top is AAAA quality. It has an ebony fretboard with jumbo stainless steel frets. The radius of the fretboard is 14 inches. It has sperzel locking tuners and a tune-o-matic bridge with a string through tailpiece. UTILIZATION The playability is perfect on these guitars. Since they are fully custom if your guitar has something you dont like on it that is probably your fault. The stainless steel frets are an option and I think they should be standard on every guitar. They never wear out and are always super smooth. The flatter radius fretboard is also an option and helps get you a lower action with the strings. The locking tuners are great and every guitar should have them. The profile of the neck is not to thick not to thin and the heel of the neck is carved away nicely. The ebony fretboard is nice and smooth and is fast. SOUNDS With all the high end custom parts on this guitar the sound from it is pretty generic. Carvin pickups are not that great. They are good all around pickups but you will probably want to throw in a set of pickups made specifically for whatever type of music you are playing. The pickups can get a good jazz or blues tones but outside of that they are not great. The bridge pickup can get a little fizzy when you throw on too much gain and the neck pickup gets muddy if you are running it thick. This is the only downside of doing everything in house. They dont use other brands pickups so you will have to do the swap yourself. OVERALL OPINION With the Carvin single cut you can finally get a fully custom single cut guitar made to your specs without spending a fortune. Since you order factory direct there is no middleman to jack up the price. The quality on these guitars is top notch. Everything is spec'd out to what you want. If your guitar doesnt sound or play well it is probably your fault when it comes to Carvin since they only do what you ask. It is a shame the pickups in this guitar are so mediocre. A set of Duncans would set this guitar on fire and make it untouchable. If you are in the market for a custom single cut guitar Carvin should be the first place you look. For the price of a Les Paul Standard you can get a fully custom Carvin with everything you want on it.