tjon901 « 24 Fret carved top Carvin »
Published on 11/03/11 at 08:05Carvin is a custom guitar maker out of California. They make all their items in house and sell them directly to the customer. This saves the customer a lot of money and allows them to get a guitar with all the features they want on it. Their electric guitar lineup has two segments. The neck through segment and the set neck segment. The CT624 is in the set neck segment. This guitar is very PRS like in nature. This is a very recent model and up until now you could not get a carve top Carvin with a 24 fret neck. Since every Carvin is built to the individuals specs the specs on the model I am reviewing may be different than the one you purchase but overall the quality of the guitar will be the same. The model I demoed had a very nice flame maple top. The body is mahogany. The set neck is maple with a tung oil back. These come with ebony fretboards as standard with other woods as an option. This one had an ebony fretboard. The frets were 24 jumbo stainless steel frets. Up top you get locking tuners. The bridge on this guitar was a tune-o-matic style guitar with a string through tailpiece. The weakest part of a Carvin guitar is usually the pickups so this model I tested out the owner had swapped in a set of Dimarzios. The controls are simple with a master volume and master tone with a 3 way toggle.
UTILIZATION
Carvin necks are very nice. They have something called Rapid Play technology. I dont know what it is but the action is very nice. With the jumbo stainless steel frets there is no resistance on the frets and they always feel brand new. They dont wear either so your setup stays true for longer as well. The oiled neck option on this model means the back of the neck does not have any sticky finish so it is super fast feeling. The locking tuners up top are great and every guitar should have them I think. The bridge is very low profile. Its not like some tune-o-matics where the bridge is up an inch off the body this bridge is right down on the body. Dimarzio also includes a little microchip that can help you find your guitar incase it gets stolen as well. Too bad people who charge twice as much for their custom guitars do not do that.
SOUNDS
Stock Carvin pickups are pretty mediocre. Most people swap them out to their ideal pickup set. When the rest of your guitar is built to your specs you want the pickups to be the perfect set for you. The pickups I had in this example were a set of Dimarzios. It was the newer set consisting of a Crunchlab in the bridge and a Liquifier in the neck. This is the pickup set that John Petrucci of Dream Theater is using currently. This set is very setup for modern heavy music. The Crunchlab does what it says it does. It gives a thick crunchy rhythm sound. The pickup is a tiny bit noisy but when you are playing you do not notice that. The Liquifier in the neck is a super smooth lead pickup. It is pretty much made for leads and cleans only. Its smooth but retains definition for fast picking runs.
OVERALL OPINION
This is right up there with a PRS Custom 24. With the PRS you might get a prettier top but the cost is going to be 3x as much as this guitar. Its hard to rationalize paying that much for a guitar that wont sound or play any better. PRS will not give you as many options either. If you are looking for a high end guitar you should check out what Carvin has to offer. There is a good chance one of their guitars has the features you want as standard or as an option.
UTILIZATION
Carvin necks are very nice. They have something called Rapid Play technology. I dont know what it is but the action is very nice. With the jumbo stainless steel frets there is no resistance on the frets and they always feel brand new. They dont wear either so your setup stays true for longer as well. The oiled neck option on this model means the back of the neck does not have any sticky finish so it is super fast feeling. The locking tuners up top are great and every guitar should have them I think. The bridge is very low profile. Its not like some tune-o-matics where the bridge is up an inch off the body this bridge is right down on the body. Dimarzio also includes a little microchip that can help you find your guitar incase it gets stolen as well. Too bad people who charge twice as much for their custom guitars do not do that.
SOUNDS
Stock Carvin pickups are pretty mediocre. Most people swap them out to their ideal pickup set. When the rest of your guitar is built to your specs you want the pickups to be the perfect set for you. The pickups I had in this example were a set of Dimarzios. It was the newer set consisting of a Crunchlab in the bridge and a Liquifier in the neck. This is the pickup set that John Petrucci of Dream Theater is using currently. This set is very setup for modern heavy music. The Crunchlab does what it says it does. It gives a thick crunchy rhythm sound. The pickup is a tiny bit noisy but when you are playing you do not notice that. The Liquifier in the neck is a super smooth lead pickup. It is pretty much made for leads and cleans only. Its smooth but retains definition for fast picking runs.
OVERALL OPINION
This is right up there with a PRS Custom 24. With the PRS you might get a prettier top but the cost is going to be 3x as much as this guitar. Its hard to rationalize paying that much for a guitar that wont sound or play any better. PRS will not give you as many options either. If you are looking for a high end guitar you should check out what Carvin has to offer. There is a good chance one of their guitars has the features you want as standard or as an option.