Carvin LB20

My LB20 is probably 2000 or 2001. Real plain, black with chrome knobs. Neck through construction. Made in ole USA of course. Seriously, the neck through construction rules. Everyone who has ever picked it up and messed around raved about the lightness and balance.

I've used the bass for years in live and recording sessions. Mainly alt-rock. Most recently, our 2-time Grammy winning producer said it had great tone and fantastic warmth.

The bass did come with something wired backwards so I was getting a lot of feedback. One quick $10 visit to the local music store fixed the problem. I really don't adjust it very often. No need.

I have rocked the snot out of this thing for over 5 years. Everything is still solid! I've never brought a backup.

I've heard bad things about Carvin support, but never experienced it. Personally, it I had a minor prob, I take it to the local store and they hook me up.

I would ONLY buy another Carvin. Fantastic feel...light, balanced. I could see getting a guitar with active electronics just to mess around with. The Fenders and Ibanez are like picking up water-soaked logs after playing this. And the price is great. At least it was. I bought it for $579 years ago, and i think they want like $200 more nowadays.

I own an October '00 Carvin LB20. 24 frets, neck-thru construction, 2 passive single coil Jazz-style pickups, 2 vol, 1 tone; adjustable bridge, sealed tuners. It is gloss finished natural mahogany with matching headstock and chrome trim. The neck is a two-piece laminate and the body adds two more to the width. It's a 34" scale double cutaway solid body with an ebony fingerboard. I bought the molded plastic hardshell case with it. Like all Carvins (other than the Cobalt acoustics) it was made in San Diego CA. I'm rating it a 10 because it has all the features I have ever used on a bass.

The Carvin came with roundwound strings. For the first 3 years I had it I barely picked it up but it was played by some excellent bassists in my studio and always gave a great recorded sound. I always record DI into the board via a tube preamp with consistently good results. This year I actually took it out to gig with (got volunteered to play bass with a '50s revival group) and it was plugged into my '63 Ampeg B15N and the PA for 2 sessions. Punchy sound, good on either the front or back pickups, but the monitoring situation was not great. Later I played in my recording room through the Ampeg and thought it was a good fat sound. I got involved with a project where the leader asked me to play bass on several bluegrassy and string-band style tunes for a CD and I couldn't make the sound happen. Then I reverted to what I had played for 20-some years, ground roundwound strings (GHS Brite Flats) and I suddenly achieved a very thumpy sound appropriate to the material. Strings make a big difference: this an axe with a wide tonal range. On stage I play with fingers and with a pick in the studio and it is easy to tell which is which. As a studio rat, I am mostly interested in a full sound that can be EQd into submission as needed and also a solid bottom end. This does the job. It's really a 10 for what I do but there are probably players out there who would not be happy with it.

Finely made bass, everything is tight and shiny! It's a killer looker, and I get comments all the time about it. With its orangish-brown glossy mahogany, black fingerboard & pickups, & chrome tuners % bridge, it looks like a sleek California hotrod. The only adjustments I have made have been to the truss rod: I guess the mahogany is not as stiff as maple for that. The adjustments were easy and quick, by the way. It was nicely playable first time out of the case. All controls are very quiet. The LB70 is also available, just like this LB20 but with active pickups. No thanks, I'm putting batteries in practically everything I own as it is! 10 for this: best playing bass I've had my hands on.

I play mostly in the studio, and much of the time my axes stay in their (hard) cases. This one seems to be pretty durable, but I'd hate to gt beltbuckle rash on that pretty finish. I also have a Les Paul that's a real road warrior, but I'd like to keep this one pristine. Strap buttons work fine, but I only use a strap when I'm gigging. It is well balanced on a strap. I have adjusted the truss rod twice in 3-1/2 years (just did the second one last week). I'd gig without a backup if I were gigging. It is so comfortable to play (lightweight mahogany, remember) that I would hate to go back to the Fender JBs and its clones I used to play.

I have been buying from Carvin for 23 years, they are always helpful. That includes having returned a tube guitar amp for repair...they got it back very quickly, and took a bit of time to securely package my new tubes that had gone to California with it. I think the warranty was a year but it has never needed attention. I would buy another one in a minute, if I needed to.

I have been playing since 1970, and own a whole studio full of gear, guitars, and amps. Les Paul DeLuxe, Gretsch Country Gent, MSA pedal steel, Dobro, a couple of steel strings, another bass, a couple of no-name electrics, the Ampeg B15N, a MusicMan HD130 Reverb piggyback, a Carvin X100 and a Sears Silvertone Twin Twelve. I decided on Carvin after playing an older Koa wood Carvin a friend has, and it has been perfect for me. Light weight, good sound, solidly built, and beautiful. I'm a longtime Jazz bass player and the pickups suited my expectations pretty well. A Ric fan might have another opinion. If it went away I would get right on the phone and order another one exactly like it. You CANNOT buy a bass this nice for under a grand, anywhere!

i bought this used so i'm not exactly sure on what year it was made, somewhere from 95-97 judging from the options on there. 4 strings, 24 frets all very accessibile. this bass is very easy to play. i believe there are H50N stacked humbuckers in there, both passive. 2 voulume and 1 tone control. the finish is natural with koa wood. neck through.

very good sound. even out of a bad amp. not as comfortable to slap on this bass(pickups kinda get in the way) but everything else is perfect.

action is set low, like i said before this bass is very playable.

this is at least 5 years old, and everything still works fine on it.

never dealt with customer support with this one, but i have ordered other things from carvin in the past wiht nothing but helpful service.

best bass i have ever played. i'm so impressed with this one i'm thinking of getting another, with my own custom options.

Made 1993 USA

24 frets, four strings

Passive, Jazz bass configuration (2 vol., 1 tone), H50N humbucking Jazz-shaped pickups

Neck through, this one is all mahogany, tung oiled finish

Used for blues, R&B, rock, pop, country, anything...

Smooth, refined J-bass sound is as predictable and versatils as a Swiss Army knife. I have used and used and used the LB-20 live and in many studio settings. Engineers and producers like it - they generally raise the fader and immediately say, "Yes, okay! that's sounding good."

The oiled mahogany is smoother and darker sounding than the usual hard woods, giving this instrument its own bottom-end and a softer high-end character. I bought it new and it has improved over a decade.

It's not intrinsically boomy or deep like an old Harmony H22, which for blues you sometimes want. (Some of this is related to neck pickup position - to get that thick-as-a-truck-tire bottom, the neck pickup would have to be under the 24th fret - but you know that!) But boosting low end on the amp or recording console yields a thick, cohesive low end.

How can I put this? The sound is not particularly distinctive, but is consistently good and useful. It stands up in the mix. You hear every note.

You know the story - CNC milled wood, + or - 1/1000th inch tolerances - made near-perfect, stays near-perfect. Great action, every fret is flawless.

Editorial: many reviews complain of action problems and condemn the bass. Hey. Learn to set up an electric bass to your liking. I do it and all my basses are the way I want them. I would never spend $$$ on a tech to set neck relief, pickup height and bridge adjustments. YOU are the only one who knows what's right for you. Doing a bass setup isn't rocket science. And getting it right isn't done in an hour on a tech's bench, but by ever-finer tweaking over time - done by your hands. It is part of being a competent musician, IMHO.

My LB-20 has the now-gone Trevor Wilkinson bridge, which I dearly love. It sounds great and stays where you put it. It has sharp edges to cut the hands of the careless. String spacing is adjustable, a very useful feature not available on the new Gotoh bridges.

Ten years of playing are on this bass and everything works and holds up perfectly.

For the first couple of years, I applied a variety of oils and waxes to the mahogany, since the body wings especially were rather dry and open-grained. The stuff soaked in and got rubbed in until the grain was smooth, deep, rich and clear, and hard. Now it looks like a million bucks, and only needs an occasional moistening-up with a great beeswax furniture polish called the Natchez Solution.

Reliable and durable in every way. I have cleaned the pots twice with De-Oxit, and they remain dead smooth and quiet. (The bass does not hum, even in heavy RF environments.) Since active electronics are not there, they never fail and the not-present battery never runs down.

I have had various dealings with Carvin over the years (not on this instrument), and I think the competence of advice and help depends upon who you get on the phone. If reviews are any indication, they are not too accomodating after you get angry and insulting with them, but you can charm good product support out of them. Like any good business...

30 years making a living playing bass. I have a number of 4- and 5-strings and a variety of amps and preamps.

Other basses have more unique character (and limitations), while the LB-20 is ready to cover any gig.

I value my LB-20 highly.

Timothy Schmidt likes his.

Your mileage may vary.