Carvin LB70F

1996 Fretless Carvin (inlayed fretlines)...Koa Body tung oil finish...5-piece maple neck with Koa stripes. Rounded sides. Wilkenson Bridge. Mid-EQ boost option. About 4 months after I bought it, Carvin switched to string thru the body bridge (Hipshot?). Kinda pissed about that. But no complaints.

Awesome. Great fretless sound. Lots of tonal options with onboard Eqing. I play through Hartke 4x10 and Hartke 4000 amp. Can get a decent rock sound out of it too. Slapping is a bit less bright, but doable. Great sustain. Extremely noise-free and clear.

Bass came on time and perfect. I had asked for flatwound strings, and roundwounds were installed. Other than that everthing was great. Carvin sent the flats to me, and I got the bass set up. (I lived in Philly, so it was long haul). Action is great - even my standard maintance sessions required very little work. The bass sets itself up. Finish was awesome. The bass is beautiful. Even after 6 years.

Since it is tung oil, you need to maintain the finsih alot more. And I haven't done the best job. Lemon oil I use for polishing once in awhile. I have not re-tung oiled it yet. (Tung oil is more like a laquer than an oil, it's misleading...) The bass in more suseptible to dings, because there is no gloss. There's a groove in the wood where my thumb rests on the pick-up. Annoying, but hey...that's what you get. If I really wanted to, I could repair that area, but I don't think I will. Straplocks work. Electronics never gave out. Always reliable.

Been fine. AS mentioned before, they sent the wrong strings - and quickly sent the correct ones at no charge. Very cool when I ordered as well...helped me out with a bunch of questions.

I've been playing bass for 8 years. Gigging with this bass for 5. Carvin now has upgraded their options since I bought mine. Better bridge (thru-body) - better pickups. Their options are now a bit cheaper. This is my main studio and giggin bass and I love it. It plays and sounds like a $3000 bass, that's for sure. I compared it to high end Fenders and some other boutique basses. Hands down winner. I was a little put off about buying it sight unseen, but it came through. Carvin did a great job - so much so, that I order a fretted bass from them. - I'll review that later. It's the best bass out there for the money. And it's custom. And it's USA made. You can't go wrong!

1991 4 String Fretless 24 fret ebony fretboard
Maple Neck Through Koa Sides Maple Headstock Overlay. Gloss finish
Active Humbuckers
Hipshot installed later
BadAss Bass II Bridge
Bass Treble and Pickup Blend Controls
Old school Carvin suicide headstock. (Gave guitar player's girlfriend a concussion - long story.)

I have used this bass for a decade now and it has performed admirably from Jazz to hardcore punk. I used to use a 600 watt Peavey head through a 15 and 2-12s. Switched to a Eden WT-400 and a 1986 Mesa 4-12. The bass has a great growling sound. Completely even response. For punk rock stuff, no one believes it is a fretless. When I need it, it sounds very fretless. When I decided to get a new bass, I went down to Guitar row in Hollywood and played 3-dozen basses. It sounded better than all the Warwicks, Zons, Music Mans, Fenders, you name it. Wound up buying another Carvin. Amazing.

People always marvel at the action. Superb. Have probably adjusted the trussrod three times in ten years. And this is before Carvin started sticking carbon fiber reinforcing rods in their necks. Everything worked great. Except for the origional (Wilkonson?) Bridge, whihc was just a bad decision on Carvin's part.

I was in a very hardcore punk rock band a few years back and I used to literally beat people off of the stage with this bass. Only the G string would go out of tune. Amazing. My insistence on using round wound strings tore the fretboard to shreds after a couple of years. Still played well, just buzzed in a few spots. Had it planed and finished with some sort of special stuff that was supposed to allow roundwounds to be used on fretless basses. Supposed to last years. Tore it to shreds in a matter of months. The original bridge was awful. I actually snapped off a saddle on stage. Replaced it with a BadAss and have not had a single problem since. Never even broken a string on this guy, and I play very hard. Until I got the new bass, never had a backup. The battery stays good for years. I change it whenever I think of it, but it always tests as good. Tuners are still good. The thing is a tank. The gloss still looks great, even with 12-dozen dents and dings, cuts, etc. About a 1/4 inch of varnish was used.

Even though I bought the bass in 1991, Carvin will still set it up for me if I bring it into the shop on Sunset. And, I didn't even buy it from them...

I love this bass. It is still beautiful after ten years of severe abuse. Best $450 I ever spent. I got it used. All the stuff I did not like about the bass, Carvin has changed in recent years. Namely the bridge, (now made by Hipshot - Good bridge) Also, they added a seperate battery compartment. On mine, the battey is pack onto the circuit board wedged between a piece of foam and the plate. Bad design, no fixed. Also, they changed the headstock. Which, while I like the old style with its very sharp point, has spilled auite a bit of blood over the years. I wish this bass had 18 frets instead of 24. I play hard enough that I am constantly clicking the strings on the bottom of the fretboard, which has made some pretty cool dings. The bass is a tad heavy, but that is probably from the Koa. I love this bass and cannot imagine ever selling it, althoughmy new Carvin 4 string bolt on has replaced it as my main bass.