Carvin Pickups?

[Fifty Watt Mafia]

Here is my Carvin CS6M that I got about 2 weeks ago....love the pickups actually and I was very, very fearful. I like messing with electronics like many of you...but I have come to find that my taste in pickups really falls in the "Vanilla" category. Not too strong a la SUPER DISTORTION or NAILBOMB type sounding pickups or not too weak like vintage PAF...something in the middle. The carvin C22B and C22N do this well. They split and give a convincing single coil sound as well. With a little grit they can APPROACH a strat tone...but of course not the same. Very versatile is how I would describe them. And the guitar is absolutely top notch and I would put it up against anything in the price range of $1800 or so. I think my Warmoth when finished will be right there in quality to the Carvin if not better. A tad different with the bolt on...but the bodies...fit and finish wise are extremely close IMO.

Carvin next to a 2000 Gibson Les Paul Custom Shop Elegant loaded with "Vanilla Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz"...LOL)

My current Warmoth Build: (I let you know how it compares with the Carvin and Gibson when the neck arrives)

 

[bagman67]

Aloha, all - I'm a newbie to the boards here, but I've been lurking for some time.  I'm very impressed with how knowledgeable and encouraging all you guys are for us newbies to guitar building - I'll flesh out my hopes and dreams for my planned build in another post.

+1 on the earlier discussion of the V220 being all maple - during the mid-to-late '80's Carvin was really pushing their "neck-through" manufacture as the be-all, end-all - but since then they've been offering a broad-ish variety of neck and body woods (well, koa, ash, alder, and mahogany in addition to maple) and as a result I should expect that you can't really pin down a "Carvin sound."  Likewise, they have broadened their pickup offerings considerably.

In 1996, I got an alder-bodied Carvin Bolt-T (their Strat-clone) with a maple neck and ebony fingerboard.  Other appointments included a Wilkinson trem bridge and locking Sperzels.  In five years of heavy playing, The guitar never failed me.  I never even needed to adjust the neck or reset the intonation.  It was loaded with their AP11 single coils, which I found to be a little richer in the midrange and overall just a little louder than the then-current American Standard Fender single coils.  Fit and finish were far superior to all the American Fender products I tried out before I bought the Carvin.  Having tried out another Bolt-T in Carvin's shop last year (6 years after I sold mine), I find that they still sound good to me.

I also bought a pre-loaded Carvin pickguard with their twin-rail humbuckers to replace the pickups in a Peavey Predator strat copy my brother gave me when he found out I had no electric guitar.  They sound pretty good, and they don't sound like anything else, but they sure as hell don't sound like a Strat.  I do like them well enough, I suppose, particularly when playing slide with some power-tube distortion, but I don't think I'd buy them again. 

I have no opinion as to the standard form-factor humbuckers, not having played any.  In general I'm a single-coil enthusiast, and I am at ease working with and around the dread 60-cycle hum in order to have the pickup sound I want.

For a plain-vanilla Strat copy, I'd be very comfortable buying a Bolt again.  Of course Warmoth's got my attention because of the scads of options available to the budding enthusiast, so I'll go this route (at a somewhat greater cost,  and considering my neophyte skill level, lesser quality of workmanship as regards the assembly of the finished product).  That said, I really liked the neck on the Carvin (12" constant radius) and am actually contemplating buying one of their necks and attaching it to a Warmoth body once I take the plunge.

 

[Shandrazar]

That said, I really liked the neck on the Carvin (12" constant radius) and am actually contemplating buying one of their necks and attaching it to a Warmoth body once I take the plunge.

My understanding is that Carvin does not drill the holes for bolting on their necks in the same places that Fender and Warmoth use.  You will have to order either the neck or the body without the holes and then drill them yourself.

 

[kykah]

Carvin? They probably the best money/quality/playability/sound option out there. I've a stunning H2T guitar. Basically I usually play and sell instruments, but this one is only one I'll never sell. I can't say much about pups, I just never thought about changing them cause the guitar sounds just amazing. It has the very thick neck and chamered body. Yet to see a warmoth guitar to come even close to it, but to say the truth I've only seen 3 warmoth guitars :icon_biggrin: and own one.  I also have seen a twisted warmoth neck and extremely thin tops. Quality? I guess you never can be sure

The guitar never failed me.   I never even needed to adjust the neck or reset the intonation. 

+1. Same story here.