Doughboy
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I finally got my Carvin Allan Holdsworth Model a few days ago. I'll break it up into Pros & Cons.
Pros
This has one of, if not the nicest, quilt maple top I have ever seen & the finish, which is antique brown, is amazing. The overall craftsmanship is as nice as humanly possible in a guitar. The frets work, PU height, action etc all were meticulously done. Bravo to the folks at Cravin!!!
Cons
This guitar was definitely built for someone else, namely Allan Holdsworth. The neck is HUGE with a ton on shoulder & the whole guitar is a tad neck heavy. I wanted the exact model Allan uses, which is alder body & neck w/ ebony fingerboard. This may work for Allan, but to me, it sounds very thin & lacking in bass & warmth. it's very even sounding, but just sounds 'not alive', for a lack of a better description. I've had to turn my bass up by 50% & reduce the treble by 50%. Using the settings that I normally have on my gear, which works with all of my other guitars just doesn't cut it with the H2. I have no idea what Allan does to get his amazing tone, but he has to be running a pre amp, EQ or something to add life to the tone.
The neck is also set very far out, even more so than an SG, which makes playing in the lower frets very difficult. It's almost like playing a baritone guitar.
Overall, it's really a quality, amazingly built, innovative instrument, but it's not for me. Perhaps if it was made out of mahogany with different PUs & a smaller neck, but then again, that wouldn't be the Holdswoth model.
Thankfully, Carvin offers a 10 day back guarantee, & as much as I REALLY want to keep this guitar, it's just too hard to play & the tone is too flat & lifeless for me.
This isn't Carvin's fault, as they followed Allan's instructions. It may be someone else's dream guitar, but unfortunately, that person isn't me.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWNqupfDgiM[/youtube]
Pros
This has one of, if not the nicest, quilt maple top I have ever seen & the finish, which is antique brown, is amazing. The overall craftsmanship is as nice as humanly possible in a guitar. The frets work, PU height, action etc all were meticulously done. Bravo to the folks at Cravin!!!
Cons
This guitar was definitely built for someone else, namely Allan Holdsworth. The neck is HUGE with a ton on shoulder & the whole guitar is a tad neck heavy. I wanted the exact model Allan uses, which is alder body & neck w/ ebony fingerboard. This may work for Allan, but to me, it sounds very thin & lacking in bass & warmth. it's very even sounding, but just sounds 'not alive', for a lack of a better description. I've had to turn my bass up by 50% & reduce the treble by 50%. Using the settings that I normally have on my gear, which works with all of my other guitars just doesn't cut it with the H2. I have no idea what Allan does to get his amazing tone, but he has to be running a pre amp, EQ or something to add life to the tone.
The neck is also set very far out, even more so than an SG, which makes playing in the lower frets very difficult. It's almost like playing a baritone guitar.
Overall, it's really a quality, amazingly built, innovative instrument, but it's not for me. Perhaps if it was made out of mahogany with different PUs & a smaller neck, but then again, that wouldn't be the Holdswoth model.
Thankfully, Carvin offers a 10 day back guarantee, & as much as I REALLY want to keep this guitar, it's just too hard to play & the tone is too flat & lifeless for me.
This isn't Carvin's fault, as they followed Allan's instructions. It may be someone else's dream guitar, but unfortunately, that person isn't me.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWNqupfDgiM[/youtube]
the idea was that if I didn't like the trapezoid side, I could always shave it off, so the neck could have a round profile, like a baseball bat. but I actually like the trapezoid. it makes playing much easier and natural. just angle your hand and thumb; you'll see that the part near your thumb isn't round, its angled, like a trapezoid. but your index finger does look rounded; more so than your thumb. so my neck fits my/your hand perfectly.
