Carvin V220

Carvin has been making guitars for decades. They are a custom shop where they make everything to order and sell everything direct. They are all American made to your specs. This is one of their very 80s models. The V220 is like an upside down Rhodes V mixed with an Explorer. The model has some 80s features and is very 80s in appearance as the one I am testing is pink. The guitar is alder with a maple set neck. The ones now are neck through I believe. The fretboard is ebony with 24 frets. The pickups are a set of Carvin M22 pickups. There is a locking nut up top and an old school Kahler floating tremolo down at the back. The controls are not very unusual with two volumes and a master tone. There are a set of mini switches for coil splitting along with a 3 way toggle.

UTILIZATION

The guitars radical shape gives it decent balance. Although you will need a case or a stand at all times because this guitar does not know how to hold itself up. The heel is pretty small even with the neck through construction. With the radical shape you get great upper fret access. The standard ebony fretboard is great and gives a nice smooth feel. The ebony they use is a very high quality. The Kahler tremolo has a different feel than a Floyd Rose. It feels a bit more bouncy if you are working it but if you like to rest your hand on the bridge it does not effect the intonation as much like on a Floyd.

SOUNDS

These Carvin pickups have the 80s tone in spades. Overall this guitar has a pretty bright tone. Back in the 80s when everyones rack was as big as their hair you needed a really bright guitar to cut through all the effects. This guitar still has its 80s sound. You will never find a mix you cant cut through with this guitar. The neck pickup is slightly smoother but it is still pretty bright. You can really play screaming not singing leads with this guitar. The bridge pickup being so bright has a very cutting tone. This isnt really a chugging guitar. This guitar is built for Def Leppard style riffs and tones like that.

OVERALL OPINION

You can get a new guitar of this model now. They have brought back the old V220. The options are slightly different but they have improved the model overall. You can get neck through construction on this model now with a wide range of Carvin pickups. The biggest downside to Carvin is an advantage to many people. They have pretty horrible resale. No one wants to pay a lot for a guitar that someone else had made to their own specs. On the used market you can get great deals on Carvins. You just have to find the guitar closest to the specs you like. It will be pretty unlikely you will find a guitar for sale used with the exact specs of what you want but if you can get close you can get a great deal. If you find a good deal on one of these used and thats very possible you should take it. Otherwise you could probably build your ultimate V220 factory direct from Carvin for not much more.