Carvin B4

Alder body, ebony fret board, maple neck. Two humbuckers and carvin proprietary electronics module.

This bass sounds very very nice. It sounds that way because of the wood that carvin uses. It is very resonant and loud. I replaced the preamp with an aguilar OBO-3 and the pickups are now nordstrand. I dont credit the good tone to the aftermarket preamp and pickups, i credit it to the wood. I think this bass sounds better than my sadowsky honestly.

The action on this bass is considerably above average. It is not the best i have ever played, but easily one of the best (maybe the second or third best). There are three brands of basses that consistently play absurdly well: carvin, peavey, and warmoth. This bass plays better than my boutique bass IMO. Finish is very nice and well done.

I wired it myself after changing the guts and pups, so its very reliable. The neck is very stable, i have heard others say carvin necks are spaghetti necks, but mine is very nice.

Carvin has very bad custmer service. Its not that i am saying the people who work there are idiots,I understand that they are very busy, but they have an unacceptable amount of errors. I ordered an amp from them. It arrived DOA, I had to pay the shipping back BEFORE the ten day trial was up to get my refund-ludacris in my opinion, they should have paid considering they sent me something that was broken. One guitar had paint chips in the neck pocket from the neck being forced in while there was a bit of excess paint in the pocket, this resulted in cracks in the paint running about 1/4 down from the neck pocket on either side. I ordered a bass neck from them, and they gave me much conflicting info as to when i would get it. I was originally told 4 weeks, 5 weeks later i was told they had no record of me ordereing a neck, then i was told they were making after all all along, and that i was going to get it in about 8 weeks from the original order date. How does it take 8 weeks to make a whole bass, and 8 weeks to make only a neck? My current bass has been in neck construction for 36 days, so we will see how that turns out.

I think Carvin may be a family business, hiring family members who are hard up for a job(the pot head loser relative in his early to mid 20's who cant hold a job anywhere else). Some of the guys that I have talked to on the phone over there sound like they smoked 2 joints before work (they were speaking very oddly and unintelligably) I had to ask them to repeat themselves several times before i could understand what they were saying. One repeateedly called me "guy". It was very demeaning and annoying. I had to correct this same fellow 3 or 4 times on the options on my bass. He did not seem to be familiar with the options and what they cost.

In fairness though, i have talked to a few guys over there who were on the ball and knew allot about what they were doing. I would say from my experience that about half of them are good and half of them are bad reps.

They make very nice basses, at a very nice price. Like i said, this bass plays and sounds better than my sadowsky, peavey cirrus, alembic, and g&l simply because the action goes much lower and the wood is far more resonant. If their prices were higher however, i would not order anything from them ever again---they are too much of a pain in the ass to deal with.

Hard to tell the year with Carvin's goofy serial no's, but it was new on the floor--should be a '05 model at the worst. It is pretty close to "Vacman's" B4 (who, BTW, wrote a really good review) except no bird's eye neck (bummer). DOes have a really cool butterscotch transparent finish--nice!. Flawless fit, finish and construction. No real features to speak of--this is a solid "old school" feeling and looking bass.

The stacked passive humbuckers sound pretty good, and are really hot and sustain well. The B4 sounded like a good mid-line bass, nothing special or terrible--just solid, until I put a set of Carvin flats on it. That really made this thing come alive and deepened the tone (without killing the highs excessively--of course you lose some highs with flats--but I'm more of a Jamerson guy, anyway). I am impressed with these strings. Try it, you'll be amazed at how they make this bass sound. I'd rate this a 9 with the flats.

Fit and finish--Perfect. Not one nick, sloppy joint or obvious flaw in the construction. I have a high or low fret somewhere in the middle of the neck, the action was a little high as a result, so a point off (I'll have to find it and fix it to get the action as low as it can be). I was able to lower the action significantly with the flats--another reason to use them. Nice work on this bass overall, Carvin--very well constructed.

We'll see. Some complain about Carvin's truss rods, but I have never had a problem with my LB-70. I'm not too worried, Carvin usually builds things well. The finish always seems to wear well on Carvin's--it won't look beat in a year or two.

No opinion.

I have several basses (too many), have played and sold several others. I really like this Carvin--maybe better than my LB-70. This B4 was not something I would have bought myself (it was a gift), but I will definitely be keeping it. It sounds great with the flats, has a really killer neck--almost perfect in feel, slinky to play (damn that high fret or it would have been perfect), and is very light and lively. Glad I added it to the quiver.

made in the U.S.A.Four string bolt on with swamp ash body and birdseye maple neck. Two j style passive humbuckers. smaller body style. finish was clear. strings go through body. came with carvin strings but i swithched to the mighty rotosound. shipped in a hard case of good quality.

the best sounding bass i have ever played and i have played a handfull. ash body gives it a clear foucused tone that i was looking for. the passive humbuckers are hot! When i plugged this into my svt i thought they had made me a active bass by mistake. If this bass was in any music store it would have $1500 tone. no joke. Alot of folks rip the carvin pickups but not this guy; it think they are sweet.

action was crap out of the box but I ordered a Carvin not an Alembic.
I messed around and got it where it needed to be. Set up is all in the eye of the beholder anyway. Fit and Finish was good. I am VERY picky and went over this ax carefully and carvin does a great job.
Again, if you think by buying a carvin you are getting something for nothing think again. If you can afford a Fodera I dont think you are reading this review. But for the $700 I paid I got a hell of a value.

Built like a tank. having a clear finish is always a case for kid gloves but I am very easy on my gear so I am not concerned. Tuners by the way are excellent!

nOT ALL PHONE REPS ARE CREATED EQUAL!!!! I talked to Scott who is a great guy. Bass took 36 days to get to me but was well worth the wait.Everytime I had a question Scott called me back which in this day and age is a rare thing. If any Carvin big wigs are reading this please give Scott a raise. I will be calling him next year for another Carvin.

The best bang for your buck around. I will order another one as soon as momma lets me. These are not your highend Zon, etc. but for working stiffs like me the Value for money spent is hard to beat.
The options are great and the tone is good. Again, its not Zon, Roscoe, or Alembic tone but it is damn good none the less. I have played bass for 17 years and in those 17 years this one is a keeper.

This is a 2003 model I bought from the instock section on line. It has an alder body, maple, bolt on neck, ebony fingerboard, mother of pearl dot inlays, 22 frets, 2 Carvin J99 single coil pickups w/active electronics, hip shot through body bridge, graphite nut. 34" scale, with a 15" radius. The controls are master volume, pickup pan pot, active bass, mid, and treble. If the battery dies, you can pull up on the master volume push/pull pot and the bass becomes passive but w/no tone controls. The body is solid black, the neck is tung oil finished. It has a traditional bass body style ala Jazz/Precision. I got a molded hard shell case w/it and it fits like a glove; there is zero 'slop' in this case. The bass almost makes an airlock 'pop' taking it out it's so snug ;-), which to me is good. All Carvin's made in the USA.

I play a variety of original music from funk to hard rock to pop rock. I am a 'one man band' DIY at home recording studio type, so I AM NOT A BASS PLAYER rather a guitar player that plays bass on my own songs. I've owned 3 basses and this will be the last one I own. I do not play this through an amp since I only record; I use a Sansamp PSA 1 and a Johnson J-station. It's the best sounding bass I've owned or played; the active tone controls really shape the sound.

Ok, the bass came to me tuned a whole step down from the factory. The action is guaranteed to be 3/16" or less at the 12th fret. It might have been that, probably a bit higher. Then again, it's a whole week on the UPS truck from San Diego to here and wood moves, especially bass necks. It's VERY humid where I live and to adjust the truss rod on a bass 2 or 3 times a year is common. So, I went to work adjusting the truss rod. I knew I probably over tweaked it to start, and I did, but w/just 2 truss rod adjustment sessions and one bridge adjustment session, I have the best playing bass I've ever played. 1/8" on the E string at the 12th fret, no buzzing and I play w/a pick! It's SUPER low to me and that's the way I love playing bass. Not being a bass player and using a pick to play, the only way I can play w/any speed is to have low action, and this bass has it. The finish is flawless and the color was perfect, black!

I only play on using it for studio work but it should last. If I did gig w/it, if I were a bass player that is, I'd LOVE this bass. It's only 7.5 lbs.!! I was totally blown away over how light this is compared to the other basses I've owned and/or played.

No problems.

I've been playing 25+ years. I started out on bass, but switched to guitar within the first year of playing and never looked back. Last year, I bought my 2nd bass because I was recording at home and needed one. My first impression was to get a cheap, decent bass because I really didn't play that much. I think that might have been a mistake. Because I don't play that much, I think a better quality instrument would allow me to play better, easier. This has turned out to be true. I also wanted a bass w/active electronics to experiment with more sound shaping options. I'd get another one if this one were stolen, but the kicker would be the price I bought it for. Carvin had a KILLER sale after NAMM and I got this bass with a case for less money than a MIM Jazz or Precision w/a case! How could I not buy it?? I bought it for less money than what the kit version with the same options sells for now!! I was going to get the kit, but when the post NAMM sale hit, I had to jump on it. It is everything I wanted! I'm totally happy with it, killer bass.

I got this bass and put it together in jun./jul. 2001. I have the passive/active pickups, one is a J-type the other is the split humbucker. The strings are through the body. Everything is else standard. Because you can order a similar bass and put it together with all of the accutriments you want it is totally about choice, your choice.

I play all kinds of stuff, for not being a gigging player and there is not a sound I can't get out of it. I need to adjust the action and neck tension (truss rod adjust), so I'm dealing with a tiny bit of fret buzz. That should not discourage you, building this bass should equip you with the knowledge to make these adjustments. I get a bright sound in the treble range and enough punch to shake a small mountain at the low end.

The parts that I received were beautiful. The body is alder wood and any wood you get is bound to have some grain "flaws". I chalk it up to the natural beauty of the wood. Everything, (the neck, pickups tuning pegs, knobs, etc.) fit perfectly into the body. The finish, I must admit, is screwed up. I have no one to blaim but myself. That is part of the beauty of building the bass myself, there are few parts of the bass I do not know intimately. Admittedly, if I had it all to do again I would beg Carvin to prepaint the body or I'd use tung oil and nothing more. The B4 looks only as good as you make it look.

This bass has never gone out of tune while I'm playing. I have children, this bass is more durable than they are and they have never managed to knock it out of tune. The truss rod needs to be adjusted with the weather's extremes, if you take it out of the house. Buy strap-locks, they're only ten bucks more.

The company has to custom make all the bodies, be prepared to wait after you order it. I was antsy. When I called the reps were friendly, though.

I love having this bass. It is my first bass. Any other bass I have tried I find lacking. This is my primary bass and it will be for a long time. If it were ripped off I'd be mad. Then, and only then, would I buy something to replace it, probably an LB70 or BB75. I've got to stick with Carvin. If I love this bass, I think I would love all their basses. If you order one for yourself get only the options you think you'll need, I paid something like $100 more for active circuitry that I don't use.

1999, USA
22 frets, 4 string
solid top
Bass, mid, treble, push-pull volume(up for passive), pick up blend
JJ
Humbucker J's
Active and passive
Alder body, maple neck and maple finger board
Blue burst
Kind of a jazz style
String through bridge(not body because this is one of the first with hipshot's)
20:1, you know what they are.
Just slightly less than a medium sized neck, medium frets, maple fingerboard
Hipshot D-tuner, no inlays, hard shell case

First let me say this bass can be dialed to make ANY sound period.
Carvin PB 200 15
Super quiet, when you turn down the volume pot to almost nothing it has a little hum.
Any sound you want but has great punch, great thump, and great ring.
Any sound from super sub range bass all the way to ear piercing ultra highs.
Thats hard to tell, my studio recordings sound different than my stage sound but not in a bad way. The studio sound is pretty perfect and the stage sound really cuts through.
I have had this bass for more than two years and I have to say that I can't get another bass....period. This bass had qualitys that no other bass has. One that freaks out my bass player friends is the fact that its so in tune. I can play chords on the thing and they sound great. Next is the playability. One day I dropped the bass off at my guitar playing friends dorm and when I came back to practice he was all freaked out because he could play all of his riffs and lead on this bass. He even offered to buy it. Maybe the only dislike about this bass is the fact that when you pick up another bass you can feel the difference way too much. Like the differenced between a geo and a bmw. I know carvin makes good stuff but this is a supernatural bass.

Perfect!
Pretty well but I've changed the back for the harmonics
No, Perfect finish and setup. The active module was acting up when I first got it but they sent me another one and I had a friend install it. No problems other than that.

This bass is rock solid. Nothing broke yet. Frets are almost perfect after these two years. Of course that probably has more to do with my DR strings than anything with the frets but still
The finish is great but I have some wear because I play it so much. Its all very minor though.
Strap button are solid
Yes, more dependable than a japanese car. I haven't adjusted it in a while but usually a 5 times a year, string changes and weather
Yes, this bass does everything a bass could do except turn fretless or acoustic though it can even sound like that almost.

They got my module out real fast and were very helpful and friendly.
Yes, easy as pie
2 year

5 years, carvin pb 200\
Is this the only one ever ordered like this.
I would freak and evntually buy the same thing again, hopefuly it would be the same.
Everything, I can't hate this thing. Other than the neck and sound and playability, I have to say the d-tuner
maybe a coil splitter for the humbuckers
This bass is for anyone. Forget the cheap price tag and realize that these basses are incredible. I don't know how they do it. I have play ed warwicks, warriors, fenders, g and Ls, everything! And all of the qualitys that make those basses are in this bass and more. Its the ultimate bass

2001 Swamp Ash Carvin Bolt on 4 String
Maple Neck
Active/Pull Passive electronics
Bass, Mid, Treble pots
Two Carvin single coils
Skull Knobs... Not in the catalogue

First of all, if any of you are familiar with Carvin's marketing machine, you know their Sctick is, "One hell of a bass for 1/3 the price of anything comparable." IT'S TRUE. I am probably biased because I have been playing Carvins for ten years, but I am telling you it is true! I had actually put down a deposit on a Warwick Thumb 4 bolt on, a $1400 bass. At the Carvin outlet, I walked out with this guy for $545. Including tax!

The sound is awesome. To my ears, it sounds like a '73 Fender Jazz with decent pick ups. It can growl, be sweet, hum - whatever. Oh, and if any of y'all like to pop strings, it sounds like metal against metal. I play through an Eden WT-400 and a Mesa Boogie 4x12. Nothing but compliments on the sound. I tried out 3-dozen other basses one day, and this had them all hands down. Except for the Warwick Thumb. But it really did cost three times as much, and I still fell the carvin sounds a little bit better.

I dropped the action a tad when I took it home, but it had been sitting in the store with 35-90s. I use 45-105s. I lowered the pickups as low as possible, but this is just something I do. The finish is perfect. Really, perfect. No nothing wrong with this guy.

You really have to play a Carvin neck to understand why people freak out so much about them. No other bass I have ever touched comes close to the action on this bass. A fellow bass player friend of mine came in from Chicago and after two minutes said, "This is sick action!" It is my friends, it really is. We had a cold snap and the neck went all funny. I removed the single screw to the trussrod cover, made a quarter turn to the left, and bingo - back in action.

I've written lines on this guy that I cannot play on other basses, because the action is nowhere near my Carvin's.

I have only had this guy for three months, but if my other Carvin is any indication (10 years of total abuse, neglect, punishment and torture) this guy will out live me. Everything seems bullet proof. This bass gets played five times a week, and I have not had a single problem.

First class.

Buy Carvins. You are tossing away your money if you buy anything intheir price range. There is simply no comparison. If you buy a more expensive bass, I doubt it will sound as good or be constructed as well. I plan on buying several more. Just because, just because. I own a 1991 Carvin LB70F fretless neck-through. The new pickups on my B4 have twice the output and sound sweeter, a little crisper. The bass is gorgeous. I literally do not have a complaint. Well, I wish it had fewer frets, but that is a personal preference.