Carvin Icon 5

My bass is a 2006 model, purchased new from the Sacramento outlet in November that year. There are many options available from Carvin. So, if you're considering a new one, it would be wise to go into their web site and try a few "pretend" custom builds, to see what is most important to you. It is surprising to see how easily, and how quickly your choices add up to a very expensive bass. Even so, they are still a bargain, for a hand made customized build.
My bass has the matching peg head in quilt maple, with umber stain, black hardware. The fingerboard is a nice thick slab of ebony, with abalone position markers. (square block style) The frets are jumbo stainless. Dunlop strap locks were factory installed. Pickups are Carvin soap bar humbuchers in both neck and bridge positions. The neck position pickup is not too close to the fingerboard, it's set back a bit, similar to how pickups are spaced on a PJ setup.(Good for slap) There are seperate bass, treble, and sweepable mid controls (200-800hz)detented pan, control for pickups, 18 volt preamp with two switches: #1 on/off, #2 in/out of phase. The body is quilt maple with umber stain (4AAAA) with mahogany core. There is a super thin laminate of some kind of black wood sandwiched between the core and the top. (Looks cool) My bass has the option to cover the neck laminates with the wood chosen for the top, so you don't see the neck through style on my bass. (classy)The neck is a 5 piece mahogany with two maple runners, reinforced with 2 graphite rods inside, and a truss rod. The asymetrical design with wide spacing was included. The bridge is a string through- body, or top, Hipshot type A.

I tried every bass at the Carvin outlet the day I bought mine there. I had only come in for some strings, but couldn't leave without her! It was the variety of sound possibilities that intrigued me so much. The sweepable mid gives you some amazing control over the tone. I will forewarn you though, that if you aren't used to so many tone shaping options, it can be intimidating. If figuring out how to dial in some complex controls isn't your thing, choose something simpler. Of course you can simply leave the controls flat though. And there is also a pull up switch built in to the volume control, that will defeat whatever you have done with the tone controls. That feature can give you two bass tones such as, one for slap, one for finger style. Or one for normal, one for soloing, etc.. Then there's the pan control. One trick I have learned is to pan slightly toward the front for my "main" sound; that is, it gives you that almost P bass-ish fat, strong fundamental sound. Pan back a bit toward the bridge pickup, for a good solo, or jazz tone. "The sky is the limit" with the options you have. The bass itself is built to sustain well,and produce great clarity. That, with the quality of the electronics makes this bass a world class instrument,at a factory outlet price. I have been very pleased, although I am never completely satisfied!!(Don't expect it either!)

My bass is nearly flawless in not only the build, but the set up too. They really seem to work hard at this, and it shows. The flaws that I could find were hardly even noticable, but I'll tell you about them. There is a slight unevenness to the stain on a small area; Barely noticable. Also there is a small glitch in the wood laminate between the core and top in a tiny area; again, hardly noticeable. And yet they aren't absolutely perfect. I will point out however that I have a custom Alembic Series II that would cost 10x the amount of the Carvin, easily. And I returned to the factory for some problems with that bass. So I think that Carvin has stood up well against other top quality brands. None of them have been perfect in my experience either!

It runs on 18 volts. Don't forget to unplug it between sets!!! It will use batteries a lot faster than you'll like, if you do that. They are easily changed however. I've had no reliability issues whatsoever with my bass, other than some distortion I was hearing. Is it the gain setting? no. Something wrong with my amp? no. DOH! my batteries are about dead! Man, I just replaced them three weeks ago??? Oops, I left the bass plugged in.
I have used this bass on many gigs without a back up. I always have spare batteries, and strings with me, so no problem. The bass is built like a tank! It's going to out last me.

Their support is good, not the very best, but good. They return calls fairly promptly. They do what they say they will do, as well. I like them, but I wasn't blown away with their customer service.

I am a life long working bassist with many basses and amps. I am obsessive about tone and response. (Two different aspects of the sound of a bass.) If this weren't an awesome bass, I would never have took it home with me. And then if I hadn't loved it, I could have returned it within the 10 day trial period. Would I replace it? There are other basses I would love to have like F bass, Fodera, and others. So perhaps the better question is, If I bought one of those basses, would I sell the Carvin? Maybe not. The Carvin is unique. It would boil down to usefulness for me at the time.
I bought this bass already made. I wouldn't have chosen mahogany for the body and neck. But, when I played it- wow!! You know the story; I couldn't leave her at the store. (There are so many basses, so little time.) I'm loving it. I would say, check them out. You could get lucky, like me.

This bass was made in 2005, made in USA. Beautiful 24 fret neck thru 5 string. Birds eye maple fretboard with a solid KOA top and swamp ash wings and a 5 piece neck with a tung oiled neck, has the 5W asymetrical neck with .750 string spacing. Active/Passive 18 volt electronics, volume,bass,treble, cut and boost and mid frequency selection and cut and boost.

Gets all the sounds I need and some I do not use. I play in a modern country/Southern rock band

no problems, bought it used and basically new from a collector, but I always do my own setup, just a lot of craftmanship

I play it live 3 to 4 times a month w/o a backup and rehearsal 5 to 6 times a month, I have had this bass about 6 months

I have bought new basses from Carvin and they are hot and cold, I mean sometimes they could really care less, sometimes they act interested in your comments or questions.

I have been playing bass and guitar about 40 years on and off, this is the finest bass I have owned and I have owned a bunch, for the money I believe that Carvins are a absolute value. I do not see myself ever selling this piece but I have said that before. I guess this review sounds like an advertisement but I truly am 100% satisfied with this bass.