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tjon901 « Reissue of a radically shaped Carvin »
Published on 08/10/11 at 12:05Carvin 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.
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.