Carvin CT6M LH

Carvin is a small guitar maker who makes everything to order to the customer specs. Because every guitar is made to order there is no up-charge for lefty models. They make the lefty models as they are ordered. 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. The string through tune-o-matic is well setup and is not standing up high on the posts.

UTILIZATION

Carvins neck is what they call a "Rapid Play" action on the neck. You can select the fretboard radius you want all the way up to 20 inches. 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. You can get a satin finish also which will make the body even more comfortable.

SOUNDS

Carvin pickups are made to be good all around pickups so they are not great at any one thing. 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 or Dimarzio in the bridge could really wake this guitar up. If you are playing metal you could install some EMG's but that would require changing all of the electronics.

OVERALL OPINION

The extra money most companies charge for lefty guitars is crazy and you will have to sell your house to get a lefty built to your specs from most companies. 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 and dont even ask for a lefty. 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.