All user reviews for the Carvin V220 re-issue

Carvin is one of those companies that continues to produce very good quality equipment at low cost and prices. They have an assortment of musical gear ranging from pedals to amplifiers all the way up to guitars and bass equipment. They make very good quality stuff built in America usually on the west coast and very fun to play

This guitar is a very unusual sheet. You can see a little bit of a Charvel star in this guitar and you can see a little bit of influence from the Gibson explorer. But this guitar shape is all its own. It looks like something that was built out of the 80s and it certainly was but you can also be very reliable and usable in today's music as well.

UTILIZATION

construction neck through body
scale length 25"
body alder
neck maple with V headstock
fingerboard ebony, 12" radius
inlays standard white dots
neck width 1.69" wide @ nut, 2.22" wide @ 24th fret
hardware chrome
bridge M bridge with strings-through-body
tuners Sperzel™ locking tuners
frets 24 medium-jumbo, .103 wide X .048 tall
pickup 2 C22 humbuckers
electronics master volume & tone, 3-way pickup selector, push/pull coil tap
strings Elixir Nanoweb™ light gauge
dimensions 43" long, 15" wide body, 1.68" thick body
weight 8.25 pounds

SOUNDS

The body is made of alder wood with the maple neck and ebony fretboard. The scale length is a 25 inch and it has 24 jumbo frets . It has to classic carvin pick ups that is from Carvin themselves and not outsourced. The weight of it is just over 8 pounds which is pretty light comparatively to how big this guitar body actually is. That is because of the alder wood that is used throughout the body. It's generally a lighter wood which gets you a good crisp distortion tone as well as being light compared to other guitars such as a Gibson explorer.

This is the kind of guitar that is going to be very competitive to Gibson guitars primarily because the body shape and tell. It has a great tone for rock and hard rock and metal music. One thing that I really love about carving guitars is how well they feel in your hand. He feel extremely well built and very polished. So many bigger manufactures don't always feel this way from guitar to guitar. Carvin really makes great sounding guitars but they just don't get the credit they deserve. They are very inexpensively priced compared to other manufacturers such as Gibson or ESP.

OVERALL OPINION

You can find these guitars for right around $900 which is an exceptional price. You are going to like the body shape in order to buy his guitar. It is a select market is going to be interested in this guitar so if you are interested in this shaping this is body and this is good to be a great guitar for you.

Carvin is a Custom guitar and audio gear maker from the west coast. They make everything in house and all the guitars are made to order to the customers specifications. The guitars have hundreds of options and you can really get down to all the details you like. Recently Carvin has decided to bring back the old V220 model. This guitar is kinda like a reverse Explorer/ Flying V in shape. This guitar is a real 80s shredder. It has an alder body with a maple neck through neck. The scale lenght is 25 inches and the fretboard is ebony with dot inlays. The radius is your choice, the model I tested had a 14 inch radius. The bridge is a tune-o-matic string through design although you can get tremolo systems as options. It has standard Carvin pickups with a master volume and master tone with a 3 way toggle. You can get coil taps and phase switches as options.

UTILIZATION

This guitar balances pretty well with its radical shape. A bit problem with a guitar like this is that there is no way to place it anywhere without a case. This guitar being neck through there is no heel to get in the way of the high frets. The body shape also gives 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 tune-o-matic bridge is as simple as it gets and lets you change tuning and strings whenever you want without having to adjust springs for hours. The neck profile is a medium shape not to big not to thin and this with the flatter radius fretboard means this guitar plays very well. I have seen some Carvins with super low actions and this shows how well their fit and finish is.

SOUNDS

The Carvin pickups are a bit mediocre. The problem with making everything in house is that you make everything in house. Carvin are obliged to use their own pickups which are not that great. Especially for a guitar like this that has a bit of a metal image. You really want some hot pickups on a guitar like this and the pickups you get can do classic rock maybe and are better suited for Jazz or Blues. The bridge pickup can get a moderate crunch to it but it is not very tight. They do not have the thickest sound so it can get pretty thin sounding sometimes. The neck pickup fares better than the bridge pickup. It can get a smooth lead tone and although it can get muddy it isnt much worse than most neck pickups. I would recommend swapping at least the bridge pickup on this guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

There was a huge demand for Carvin to bring these guitars back. They were pretty cool in the 80s and now bring back a retro look to todays guitars. It has top notch fit and finish with Carvin Custom Shop build quality. You can get it built to your specs so there is no reason for you not to like it. If there is something on the guitar that you dont like it is your fault it is there. If you are looking for a radical shaped guitar that you want built to your specs here you go.