Carvin B4 Bolt Kit

Swamp ash body, maple neck, ebony fret board. passive j style pick ups. 22 fret. 2 volumns 1 tone control. Sting through body. Basic but every item in the kit is well made. The only reason no 10 is my bass is very basic but if there was a 10 for basic, this is it.

I'm a finger style players who ocasionally will venture into uncharted areas. This bass is dead quiet. Very good sound easy to hear in mix. My system is an ashdown rpm 1 into a mackie 1400i then into an aquilar 212, then the other side runs into an alembic f2b into the mackie into an avatar 210. Effects are Fulltone bass drive, Akai bass synth, ebs multi comp. morley aby, MXR flanger doubler, Art effects processor. Other cabinets are added for bigger rooms. This bass works well with my system.

This is up to you the builder. Carvin factory basses are incredible and worth every penny. I am very fussy about the body shape so I wanted the option to customize it to my body so I bought the kit. If you are not patient and don't have any wood working skills and you can't solder well, buy the factory bass. Personally being able to have part in the construction and getting it just the way I wanted it was perfect for me.

This is as good as any bass on the market that is priced under $2000 and I am not kidding.

They have been good so far, understand if they say 4 weeks, they mean 4 weeks. The 8 is because a 10 is for increably kind and for that I would have to be given a tshirt. How ever they are as good as any and better then most.

I have been playing 38 years and I have owned or played quite a bit of stuff so I will cut to the chase. Carvin instruments are extremely well made and a huge bang for the buck. Soon I will buy the B5. The neck on this bass is as fast a neck that I have ever played. I am one of the cheapest, frugal people that you will ever meet. Example I managed to but a G&L 2000 off the shelf with case, new, for $600. I had to wait a year but obviously it was worth it. There is no where that you will find a bass, this well made this price. If you are playing bass track down a carvin and play it. There is no other company giving this quality at these prices.

Built this kit back in the summer of 2001. Got the swamp ash body, string-thru-body bridge feature, chrome hardware, and the Bridge humbucker and coil tap "active electronics upgrade." Well worth it! This kit comes with ebony fretboard on a graphie reinforced maple neck as standard.

The thing that initially struck me is that all the hardware, wood, and finish of this "kit" was better than many high priced basses I'd been shopping around for! The neck comes completely finished with absolutely first-rate fretwork. You do have to complete all the (top shelf, BTW) electronics and if you're soldering skills are lacking, you might have troubles but if you're any good mechanically, you should be OK.

Having owned several less expensive basses over the years, this was my first "quality" unit. I decided to order the kit from Carvin because I wanted to have a bass that was "mine" without having to resort to stickers, vandalism, or other nonsense to make it unique.

The sound is unlike any other bass I've ever heard! I can honestly say that this is the sweetest sounding bass I've ever heard - and I've heard a lot of them. It is the most mellow, fully rounded beauty of tone you'll ever find. And talk about variety! If there's a sound this bass can't make, the sound don't exist!! From smoother than a '59 Jazz to raunchier than a 'Rick; this bass delivers!! In fact, the only bass I've ever played that could even come close to the range (not quality, range) of sounds this bass delivers was a fully stroked Alembic - and if you can aford one of those, you ain't looking here for info.

The electronics are quiet - no hums or other noise and the "bad ass" style bridge allows for "thru body" or normal stringing. I've found that going through the body allows for a bit more mellow tone while normal stringing allows roundwounds to sparkle! I normally play flatwounds, so I go thru the body.

Since it's a kit, the action will only be as good as you are. Since this was my attempt at luthiery (is that a word?) I took it to a custom guitar shop to have it intonated and a "final" set-up done. I initially thought that the nut was way too high and the shop guy agreed with me. No problem, a quick bit of file work and we're on the money.

In fact, the shop guy who did the work on this bass for me didn't even realize it was a kit when I brought it in! He thought it was a factory job - not because of my skills at assembly - but because of the quality of materials! You can't go wrong with this bass!

So far, so good. I only play a couple of gig's a year (I play for family and jam with friends only) but I've had nothing go wrong yet.

In fact, the only real complaint that I have with this bass at all is that it seems to absolutely EAT batteries! Although, I've never had an active bass before, so this might be what they're all like.

Very good. No complaints.

I can't imagine why you'd buy another bass....

Bass kit purchased in 2003. 4 string, 22 frets. I went for the swamp ash body upgrade, and also opted for the HB2 humbucker in bridge position in conjunction with active electronics. The neck pickup is a J99 jazz-style single coil. Controls include push/pull volume knob which switches active/passive, pickup blend, bass, treble amd middle knobs and a switch to select single coil or humbucking operation for the HB2 PU. The neck is one piece hardrock maple with two carbon rods inlaid and a dual action truss rod. The fretboard is ebony. The neck feels very nice and fast, relatively flat and thin, but not overly so.
The string through body option is now standard and I have my bass strung this way. All materials are first class and arrived in top condition. I bought the ABS plastic hardshell case which is very nice.

I rounded off the body edges a bit, sanded the body carefully down to 600 grit. Then I applied a red tung-oil based stain and applied 4 coats of pure tung oil over it. The neck and headstock was also stained and tung oiled the same way. For added durability of the tung oil coat I followed up with two coats of Arm R Coat oil-based finish, which includes some polyurethane. Finally I buffed the body and neck to a low sheen and polished with orange oil.

The HB2 humbucker in combination with the swamp ash body sounds fantastic. Rich, growly mid bass, punchy mids. It cuts through anything without being obtrusive or harsh. I also like the neck pickup almost soloed for ballads and other mellower stuff. Very round, full with lots of highs and lows. I am not very fond of the sound I get from both pickups together. It seems a lot of sound gets cancelled out. But the individual pickups are great, with or without a bit of the other one dialed in. I haven't found a good use for the single-coil operation of the humbucker yet when soloed. Compared to its normal operation it looses a ton of bite. But it doesn't sound bad at all, just not useful to me (yet).


The sound palette is very versatile. I play rock and pop covers and have found a sound that works for every song with our instrumentation. I play through a Carvin PB500 amp and a vintage Alembic 1x15 cab.

The action is as good as you're willing to adjust it. The kit came reasonably well set, the neck and frets are top notch, so it was easy to arrive at a setting that works perfect for me. Apart from fretless basses, I haven't played many instruments that have such good action.

My finish looks good to me. Close up you can tell that it was done at home. However, the very nice wood shining through the deep transparent rasberry red, combined with chrome hardware looks great and I got lots of compliments for it.

I can't think why this thing should ever fail. Like all tung oil finishes, it will need occasional refreshing. No big deal. I will give the bass a total workover and readjust truss rod and action now that all parts have settled in. The great thing is that I know now how to do this properly. One of the great benfits of building from a kit.

The sales guy was very nice and helpful. There was a billing issue where a special price wasn't honored initially. I called back and Carvin [paid me the difference to the last cent.

The best quality bass you can buy for this price, bar none!

This is a Carvin made in USA kit guitar which I bought in October 2000. It has 24 frets, 4 string, 34 1/2 inch scale, 2 carvin pickups. I bought it with the following options: Swamp ash body, string thru body, active electronics, humbucking pickup, gold hardware. At first my band gave me a hard time about the "guido" gold hardware, but after a while they had to admit it was a pretty good looking bass.

The neck is maple and fingerboard is ebony. I got the carvin soft bag which I highly recommend over the hard shell case, much easier to lug around to gigs.

I gave it a tung oil finish which looks fantastic.

I gave the rating 10 for features because you decide what options you want.

I play many styles, including folk, 50's, 60's 70's and jazz via bass lessons. The band comments that the bass has a nice almost accoustic tone to it, which I attribute to the swamp ash. I highly recommend swamp ash over alder, as its lighter, harder and has much better tone.

I use a small Carvin PB-10 amp as foldback and use a DI to go directly into the board. Occassionally I will use a Blue Tube pedal to get a slightly warmer harmonic tube sound.

The bass is very versatile. You can get any kind of sound you want on it. The three tone controls has 6 DB of gain, and between that and amplifier adjustments, you can do whatever you want. Also, there is a pan knob between the top pickup and the bottom humbucker pickup.

I have used the bass on stage and recording in the studio and it sounds very good in each situation.

I had to set up the bass when I assembled it. Which means, if you don't currently know how to set up a bass (neck adjustment, bridge height, intonation) you will learn in a hurry or take it to a guitar store to finish the job.

The bass had no flaws from the factory. A little sanding required.

The only problem I had was the nut being rediculously high, so I took it to a guitar store to have them lower string grooves. I didnt feel qualitied to make that adjustment. (now I would).

The electronics are noiseless. I would have to say that installing the active electronics was a bit of a soldering experiment. As I had never really soldered before, it was intimidating. I should have got a friend over who's a bit of an electronics geek. However, I did complete it, and my second guitar (a fretless) was easy after completing the first guitar.

My tung oil finish was pretty good but if you look real close you can see its a home job. But who cares, really?

This guitar is very reliable. All the hardware will last. The tung oil finish has held up really good. The strap buttons are solid.

I have to tweek the truss rod about once a month, but then again, I'm extremely picky about my bass adjustments.

I would absolutely use this bass without a backup on a gig. In fact, it could be your one and only bass no problem.

Why pay more, really, unless your truly professional at it full time? The limit is usually the player, not the instrument.

Carvin generally has been pretty good. I've bought quite a bit of equipment from Carvin, and I have never had a problem. The stuff is excellent for the semi pro player.

Generally the customer support is pretty good. Once I had to return some strings because they delivered the wrong guage, and they made me return the set rather than just send me another set. But then again I've gotten free t-shirts, speaker cable, etc. from them.

I wouldnt worry about Carvin customer service, they are reliable.

I have been playing guitar 30 years, and bass 3 years. I also own a Carvin fretless bass I bought in kit form, which was excellent. I have also bought carvin amps, speakers and carvin bass amps, all which have been excellent.

If I lost this bass, I would certainly build another. In fact, a number of people have asked me to build a Carvin bass for them.

What I love about Carvin basses is they are excellent value for the money, not trying to be pro gear, but definately high quality semi pro gear.

What I like about this bass is I assembled it from a kit, so if anything goes wrong with it, I can take it apart and put it back together, fixing whatever needs fixing.

The only MAJOR SUGGESTION I have for carvin is to offer a carbon neck option on their guitars and basses. If they did that, they would take the market by a storm. Why pay a gizzillion for a carbon (read modulus) guitar if I could get a carvin with a carbon fiber neck option for $300?