Nov 07
22
An open letter to Carvin
If someone would have asked me 10 years ago what kind of musical equipment I use, theanswer would have been “I’m a Fender guy.” And while that would have been an honest answer (and I do love and own Fender guitars and basses), a more accurate answer would be “I’m a Carvin guy.”
Looking back on all the years of playing professionally, I have used more Carvin products than any other manufacturer.
My first Carvin was a sweet, blonde maple CM95 guitar. I was playing in my first post-high school band, Banana, still playing my very first electric guitar. Chuck, our lead guitarist in the band, gave me a Carvin catalog and said the company made really great stuff for cheap. I loved the look of the CM95 and decided it was worth the risk of buying from a mail order company I had never heard of.
When it arrived I couldn’t believe the quality of the guitar. The action was so beautifully low; I just loved it. Within a year, I also bought a Carvin ML212 guitar amp (like a Fender Twin Reverb, except solid-state).
I played it through my band, Alki (that’s us, left, in Bellingham, Washington. Gotta love the shirt!). That guitar and amp travelled all over the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. They were thrown on airplanes and bounced around the back of trucks with never a problem. (The guitar — in its case, luckily — was dosed with a huge bucket of beer in Boise with no serious consequences, too).
With that band, I was starting to play more bass than guitar and bought an SB60 bass. (That’s Alki playing on Alki Beach in Seattle — our namesake) Blonde maple again and a nice bass with a very thin neck. It played well, but never had quite the punch I got with the Fender Precision I bought later. (I think Carvin’s basses now sound great.)
After several years of not using Carvin equipment, I bought a Red Line series bass amp, which is nice and compact and really booms when I need it to.
When the Po’ Boys started playing again, we bought a small PA410 Carvin sound system, which a very helpful person at Carvin made sure got to us before our first gig.
With the band playing such a wide range of music, I was really itching for something more versatile than the Fender Telecaster I was playing. After weeks of research I decided on a Carvin TL60.
The TL60
This was my first guitar through Carvin’s custom shop and it was quite an experience. So many options! I knew one right off — the Fishman acoustic bridge pickup. The rest (again) a helpful Carvin person walked me through until I had the guitar I wanted.
Now the wait (Mr. Instant Gratification hates waiting for anything).
Eight weeks to the day of ordering it, the guitar arrived. It is simply one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever seen. And the attention to detail is amazing. The through the body neck is such an elegant touch and makes playing high up a pleasure. The action, as always, is perfect — a real Carvin trademark.
Even little things like the convenient little door for the battery in the back (versus having to unscrew the entire back plate like you have to on other guitars). The tuning machines are amazing. This is the easiest guitar to change strings on and it stays in tune very well.
It’s the versatility that I really love. Between the Fishman pickup and the active humbuckers, the TL60 does it all. This is the guitar I wish I had all those years of mic’ing an acoustic guitar.
This is not a great guitar for the price; it’s just a great guitar period. And as I continue to compare, Carvin equipment is consistently the best buy you can get in professional, reliable gear.
And now we’ve supplemented our Carvin gear with a new monitor system (DCM150 amp and two PB5-B speakers) and my SX300R pre-amp. We must be stopped!
The AC375
The latest chapter in my Carvin lovefest is my AC375 acoustic guitar with a Fishman Prefix Pro acoustic pickup. Another very-impatient eight week wait, but well worth it. Right out of the box, the guitar was perfect — and perfectly in tune (how do they do that?). Phenomenal action, gorgeous wood and inlays on the neck. It sounds good as an acoustic, but is stunning through an amp. Perfect.
So a big thank you from me to Carvin for doing such a great job for so many years.
The latest edition 2010: Cobalt C980TMW Jumbo Acoustic/Electric
I had been considering buying a dreadnaught to perform with. I love the AC375, but I also wanted something with a really big sound that I could use for performing and recording. The Cobalt C980TMW really fills the bill.
The guitar was fantastic right out of the box. First thing that hit me when it arrived was how gorgeous the case was — rich brown with gold fittings. Seems like a trivial thing to be impressed with, but even before seeing the guitar, I was loving it.
But then, when I opened the case and saw this beautiful black guitar with the abalone inlays and white binding, it almost took my breath away. My guitar was 100% in tune right out of the box — classic Carvin. The action is low and easy. Intonation is perfect. The tone unplugged is big and rich with nice balance across the entire sonic range. Plugged in, the tone is equally as good. Great attention to detail, beautiful guitar and a real workhorse. Excellent!
Warren’s Carvin Gear History:
- 1973: CM95 electric guitar
- 1974: ML212 guitar amp
- 1976: SB60 electric bass guitar
- 1999: R600 bass amp
- 2004: PA410 sound system
- 2004: TL60 electric guitar
- 2005: DCM150 amp and two PB5-B speakers
- 2006: SX300R pre-amp
- 2006: PA620 sound system
- 2006: AC375 acoustic guitar
- 2006: PB100-15 bass amp
- 2008: DCM 600 Power Amp
- 2008: c844U Mixer
- 2009: AC120S AC Power Conditioner
- 2009: EM900 960-Channel Wireless In-Ear Personal Monitor System
- 2010: EM-DR rack mount for the EM900
- 2010: Cobalt C980TMW Jumbo Acoustic/Electric
