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MGR/Drew Lankford (AKA FastRedPonyCar) « Carvin DC135 »
Published on 07/19/05 at 15:00Was looking for a good solid body to replace my parker night fly. The parker was phenomenal and left big shoes to fill. The DC135 sounded better and played better than the parker (not quite as good as the standard flys but better than the bolt on niteflys) and the carvin was very well priced.
I ordered a custom shop 135 and it is absolutely incredible. I've played a few Charvel neck through USA san dimas guitars and aside from different pickups, this carvin is equal or better to the $1500 charvels and much better than any Ibanez (with the exception of the JEM but I still think it plays better than the overpriced JEM).
The neck is by far the best neck I've ever played with the exception of the parker fly. I played so many $1500+ guitars and wasn't satisifed or either they were too expensive. The carvin's neck is so fast and the action is rediculously low. The neck through construction is incredible and the sustain goes for DAYS. The wood quality is excellent and the craftmanship is flawless. I thoroughly insepcted the instrument for flaws and couldn't find any.
The guitar also sounds awesome. The carvin pickups are equal in sound quality to anything seymour duncan produces. I'm convinced that you simply can't find a better playing/crafted/sounding/looking instrument for under $1000. Believe me..I've looked high and low and lost count of how many expensive factory produced guitars I've tried in my search.
The volume knob had sort of a scratchy sound. I called carvin that afternoon and they sent a replacement knob for free priority shipping and also credited my bank account $25 to have my shop switch out the pot. That's what I call customer service! turns out the pot just had some dust in it. They sprayed some compressed air in it and it was quiet as a mouse and I had a free volume pot left over for any future need!
Aside from that, I have no complaints about the instrument, the wiring is top notch, fretwork is perfect, wood grain is magnificent and it plays like a dream.
Top notch. As I mentioned earlier, I inspected this thing high and low and everything was perfect. The paint/clearcoat was perfect, wiring was perfect and very clean and tidy and the intonation and tuning was spot on right out of the case off the UPS truck.
Bottom line is that these instruments sound, look, and play like custom hand built instruments and are priced at a fraction of the cost of your typical Gibson, fender, PRS, ETC.
I played several thousand dollar PRS's, gibsons, top of the line fenders, Ibanez, jackson, you name it and wasn't satisifed with any of them. Most of them were grossly overpriced for what you get and others just plain didn't sound good or play well for what the price tag said. It felt like I would have been paying for the name on the headstock rather than the instrument that was attached to the headstock.
I left the stores empty handed and turned to carvin after reading all the stellar reviews. They have a 10 day love it or leave it policy since you can't usually find them in stores unless they're used. I knew the minute I opened the case that it was a keeper. That was before I even held or played it!
Do yourself a favor and try one. If you don't absolutely fall in love with it, just send it back for a full refund.
Check out my 135 here.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v212/fastredponycar/Guitar/Carvin/
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I ordered a custom shop 135 and it is absolutely incredible. I've played a few Charvel neck through USA san dimas guitars and aside from different pickups, this carvin is equal or better to the $1500 charvels and much better than any Ibanez (with the exception of the JEM but I still think it plays better than the overpriced JEM).
The neck is by far the best neck I've ever played with the exception of the parker fly. I played so many $1500+ guitars and wasn't satisifed or either they were too expensive. The carvin's neck is so fast and the action is rediculously low. The neck through construction is incredible and the sustain goes for DAYS. The wood quality is excellent and the craftmanship is flawless. I thoroughly insepcted the instrument for flaws and couldn't find any.
The guitar also sounds awesome. The carvin pickups are equal in sound quality to anything seymour duncan produces. I'm convinced that you simply can't find a better playing/crafted/sounding/looking instrument for under $1000. Believe me..I've looked high and low and lost count of how many expensive factory produced guitars I've tried in my search.
The volume knob had sort of a scratchy sound. I called carvin that afternoon and they sent a replacement knob for free priority shipping and also credited my bank account $25 to have my shop switch out the pot. That's what I call customer service! turns out the pot just had some dust in it. They sprayed some compressed air in it and it was quiet as a mouse and I had a free volume pot left over for any future need!
Aside from that, I have no complaints about the instrument, the wiring is top notch, fretwork is perfect, wood grain is magnificent and it plays like a dream.
Top notch. As I mentioned earlier, I inspected this thing high and low and everything was perfect. The paint/clearcoat was perfect, wiring was perfect and very clean and tidy and the intonation and tuning was spot on right out of the case off the UPS truck.
Bottom line is that these instruments sound, look, and play like custom hand built instruments and are priced at a fraction of the cost of your typical Gibson, fender, PRS, ETC.
I played several thousand dollar PRS's, gibsons, top of the line fenders, Ibanez, jackson, you name it and wasn't satisifed with any of them. Most of them were grossly overpriced for what you get and others just plain didn't sound good or play well for what the price tag said. It felt like I would have been paying for the name on the headstock rather than the instrument that was attached to the headstock.
I left the stores empty handed and turned to carvin after reading all the stellar reviews. They have a 10 day love it or leave it policy since you can't usually find them in stores unless they're used. I knew the minute I opened the case that it was a keeper. That was before I even held or played it!
Do yourself a favor and try one. If you don't absolutely fall in love with it, just send it back for a full refund.
Check out my 135 here.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v212/fastredponycar/Guitar/Carvin/
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com