Carvin LB70P

Mf'd: 2006 USA
# Solid body 4-string bass, neck-through
# Standard features: alder body, maple neck, ebony fingerboard
# Electronics: H50S stacked humbuckers, Special Piezo
# Neck: 34" scale length, 24 medium-jumbo frets, ours has Stainless Steel Frets
# Gotoh Tuners
# OHSC
# I can't remember all the tone controls because it has spent so long at Carvin for repairs. But it is the one with the concentric tone sweep pots. This thing has it all. Coil tap. Piezo. Everything but a log-splitter.

We really liked the sound, although it is way more versatile than we needed. We play lo-fi indie rock. But we could dial it into a sound we liked. We played it into an SVT4Pro with two cabinets (4x10, 1x15). Very rich sound. I think you could get about any sound out of it. If we ever see it back from Carvin it will be our backup bass and studio guitar for recording.

Solid black, the neck through seems beautifully merged with the body. It needed a more thorough setup to make it playable. But everything looked and played fine (at first). Stainless steel frets on the black dotless fretboard looked great. Felt fine. No noise from any pots or controls. Stayed in tune very well. Chrome hardware also looked great on the slick black finish. The truss rod has to be adjusted.

As this has been sent back twice in 4 months to Carvin I will have to say it cannot be trusted as anything but a backup. The frets look like they would outlive us. The finish is thick and looks extremely durable. Although someone nicked it when it went back for repairs the first time. The preamp is known to fail and drain batteries inadvertently quickly. NO, we don't leave it plugged in. No, it doesn't have push-pull coil taps. (It has sweeps). I would NEVER take this to a gig w/out a backup. The strap buttons seem solid enough.

Worst I have ever encountered. I should have known when I could not get a straight answer on the features included in this bass when we originally inquired. This was one we saw online at Carvin.com. Although for a catalog store they do a pathetic job of matching pictures of the guitars to the actual product they are selling. Sales associate got frustrated and couldn't be bothered to answer reasonable questions about simple features of this $1000 purchase. In August of 2007 about 7 months after repeated battery changes we sent it back AT OUT EXPENSE to Carvin with explicit notes on how it was draining batteries in as little as two weeks. This model takes (2) 9v batteries. A pro luthier and another instructor with 40 yrs of experience diagnosed the problem here. It was the preamp. In our rush to get it fixed (we had a show coming up) we put the batteries that it last drained in backwards. They never looked at my notes and just adjusted the jack (as it was not holding the instrument lead that well) and sent it back without ever contacting me. Not only was it not fixed, but it drained batteries twice as fast and never sounded correct after that. Then began nearly two months of going back and forth with them delaying pickup of the instrument. Shuffling me to other "associates", offering me advice that did not apply to the instrument. And eventually UPS (at their expense) finally showed at my office and got the bass. That is the last I have heard from them. It has been nearly 3 weeks. They no longer respond to emails. I have called them several times in the past and was not allowed to talk to the party that was working on the guitar or a manager. Denied. Granted most of that side of the state was on fire. But it is darn hard to think that they are doing anything but stonewalling at this point.

I have been playing music for 20+ yrs. I wished I'd asked if they were just going to take my money and ship me a defective bass. Not that it matters since the sales associate continued to tell me "Yes" to whatever I asked him even if is invalidated the previous question.
If it were lost or stolen, shoot I feel like THEY stole $1000 from me at this point. NO I would NEVER buy another piece of Carvin gear and I have spent plenty with them in the past. I did compare this to other basses. In fact I ended up getting a Fender Highway 1 P bass because I couldn't wait for them to ever get this one back to me. We got this one because of my previous experience with Carvin gear, and because of the features. I wish it had a company that stood behind their workmanship and at this point I would rather just have my money back. I would strongly recommend that anyone buying Carvin gear live in San Diego so they can just go get their surly customer service first hand instead of having to do it over the phone or via email. Otherwise develop a VERY close relationship with UPS. AND you better buy something as a backup you can get fixed locally. Because whatever it is it will be gone to California for a looooooong time.

This is as close to the bass of my dreams as I may ever get - what a beauty! A bit of history is needed before I describe this bass. I have been playing bass for about five years and in that time have owned about eleven different basses. Some of this was trading 4-string for 5-string and back and some was just wanting a different sound. I actually owned one of these as my second bass and traded it in search of a vintage passive tone only to come back to this same kind of bass - trust me, I won't be trading this one!

OK - the bass! I got this in trade for a Fender Jazz but it's almost exactly what I would have ordered if I bought it from Carvin. The body is smaller, thinner, and lighter than my previous Jazz which is very nice on my back. It has a one-piece flatsawn neck-thru maple neck. It isn't their usual laminate neck, but I'm not worried about stability - the graphite reinforcement rods will take care of that. The body wings are alder. The neck shows through on the other LB70's I've seen but not this one - this one has the most beautiful bookmatched claro walnut top I've ever seen and it covers the entire top of the bass. The walnut is flamed in a very uniformed way that looks like ripples of walnut. The fretboard is their typical ebony but there are blocks of abalone instead of fretboard markers. The whole thing is finished in clear poly that is smooth to the touch and not a bit tacky on the neck like some lacquers can be. Possibly the greatest feature of this beautiful bass is the headstock. I don't really like the typical Carvin headstock - you know, the beaky 80's looking thing? This one has their traditional headstock (much like a Gibson or Epiphone Les Paul headstock) with a thick claro walnut veneer and 2+2 tuner setup. This absolutely tops this thing off for me!

The hardware is very nice! I can only assume that the frets are medium. The tuners are nice Gotoh style sealed mini-tuners that are very smooth and 20:1. The bridge is string-thru and solid.

The pickups are Carvin models in a J/MM configuration and the bridge has piezo saddles, so the bass really has three pickups. The MM pickup has a coil tap switch for making it single-coil. The controls are: volume, pan, piezo blend, bass, mid, & treble. The preamp also has an active/passive option when you pull up on the volume knob. The preamp is 18v and the batteries have their own hinged compartments so you don't need to unscrew anything to change the batteries - just pop them in and out. The control cavity is fully shielded with copper foil.

I wanted to mention that it took a little bit to get used to the nut width. A Jazz has a 1 1/2" nut and the Carvin is about 1 5/8". The beauty of this neck is that it has a very gradual taper to it, so that the witdh at the 12th fret isn't that much wider than the nut. This allows play up the neck witout straining for the E string. I have this bass strung BEAD but sometimes I need to play as if it were still strung EADG (meaning that I need to play higher the fretboard). This is no problem with this neck. The other nice thing about the neck is that it's pretty thin.

I'm going to give this bass a 10 because for the $1000 you would spend on this baby new you get a whole lot of bass! The workmanship, as on all Carvin instruments, is impeccable. It's truly and amazingly versatile bass.

Like I said before I've owned one of these basses before and traded it because I wanted a 5-string. At the time I wasn't knocked out by the sound but I was a true noob and had this mythical idea about bass sound/tone. The bass I traded for my Carvin was a very nice MIA Fender Jazz with a J-Retro preamp installed. A J-Retro is the best sounding and most versatile preamp you can get for a Jazz and made this Jazz sound really great! The problem I had is that I could only ever get a really clear sound out of it. If I dropped the treble it just got muddy.

Carvin electronics are much maligned in reviews and on bass forums, but I really like 'em! I've owned a bass with a Bartolini preamp and the J-Retro of course. In both of these cases I found that the volume changed when you adjusted the preamp. I also found that extremes on the knobs gave unusable sound. This isn't the case with the Carvin. Even though the 18v preamp gives you a lot of headroom the tone control knobs (except for the bass) don't make radical changes in tone. I'm using nickle rounds on this bass. I usually leave the bass and treble in the middle and adjust my tone with the treble. In the middle I get a nice round bass sound. If I turn the treble all the way up I get a nice, clear, Jazz bass type sound, but it isn't harsh like other preamps. If I turn the treble all the way down I get muted thump, but it's still articulate. I never really boost mids beyond the middle but I'm sure it would just make your tone really middy. Boosting the bass all the way does make the sound too bassy, but anywhere below max is good.

The fact that the preamp is 18v rather than the usual 9v gives you much more headroom in volume control. With the preamp on I never turn the volume past middle or it's just too loud. This makes switching to passive mode really convenient. I've found that switching to passive with some other preamps means a massive loss of volume. The volume only drops a bit with the Carvin, so that I turn from 1/2 on the volume control to about 3/4. These pickups sound great in passive mode! In passive mode they're nice and vintage sounding.

There is a piezo pickup in each of the bridge saddles. This allows for an acoustic-like sound, but I find that it doesn't really sound acoustic at all. Soloed the bridge piezos are bright and brassy - it actually works pretty well for a rockin' sound. There's a preamp knob that allows you to blend the piezos with the other pickups. If you put the knob in the middle it adds piezo brightness to your sound and a little depth (almost like a light chorus).

The MM pickup is full when soloed, but a bit muted so I usually either boost the treble or add piezo. The neck and coil-tapped bridge or both blended give classic Jazz Bass. True to form, either of these pickups soloed can give a hum, but I've found that it's only when you're right next to a flourescent lamp. On stage in the gym I play in sometimes I get no hum, even though the lights above are flourescent tubes. At home I get hum from the flourescent money-saving bulbs on my ceiling. I think it has to do with closeness. I'm only going to give the sound a 9 because I'm sure there could be something better, but it's great for what I want to do.

Here's where everybody agrees - Carvin shines! The workmanship is flawless! The finish is beautiful and even. Wonderfully playable. Very well balanced.

This bass can definitely withstand live playing, but I'm really careful with my basses. The finish is strong and will last, but I don't want any more dings/scratches than it already has (which are thankfully few!). I replaced the standard strap buttons with Dunlop Straploks (a must!) but all the rest of the hardware should hold up for a long time.I do gig without a backup (I only have one bass), but I never worry about that. This bass is very reliable and with a passive option I don't even need to worry about the batteries.

I've never had to deal with the company but I've heard their customer support is great. I would think it would have to be good since they're a mail order/custom guitar maker. I haven't dealt with them so I'll leave this one blank.

Overall I would give this bass a 9. I've owned the Jazz I mentioned, a Lakland 55-02, Ibanez BTB405, Dean Edge Q, Fender Roscoe Beck V, so I've owned some pretty nice basses. In comparison to the other bass I've owned in the past I would give it a 10. I give it a 9 because it's not the end-all be-all bass. There are better basses out there, so I'm just being honest. I do love it a lot and won't be trading it.

If it were lost or stolen I would buy myself an SX Jazz to use while I saved up for another LB70P. This time I think I would get the bookmatched flamed koa top with the same kind of solid top that mine has, matching headstock veneer on the same kind of traditional headtock, and I would get a 5-piece laminated neck. I would also get mother of pearl blocks instead of the abalone. I think I would also get the dual humbucker option to add a more versatile neck pickup since I mostly use both or just the neck in my playing.

I got the bass in mid-2002. Whata sweet bass this thing is! I got yhe P-Series which adds the piezo electric pickups in the bridge. What a wide range of sounds. I definitely recommend the HB2 option for the humbucker. It provides some good low end and sounds excellent when slapping. You can blend the humbucker and single coil on their own, and you can blend them with the piezo electrics. An unlimited amount of tones and sounds. It's all active and requires two 9-volt batteries. I've replaced them 2 times in the past year. As far as finish, the body is figured walnut and I got the 5 piece neck with tung oiled finish on the back. Overall, the finish was perfect and it's held up very well.

This thing is awesome! I use a Trace Elliot amp (2 x 250 watt) thru a 2 x 10" and 1 x 15" Trace cabinets. The bass is dead quiet, although it had some noise in the volume switch when I got it. Carvin immediately sent me a new pot, but the sound went away and I haven't replaced it yet. With the different pickups and the piezos, and active electronis, you can make this bass sound like anything. I have a P-Bass and an Ibanez Soundgear as well. I haven't touched either of them since I got the Carvin because they don't come close to matching it!

The bass was setup great from the factory. I just adjusted the action a couple weeks ago because it was getting a bit high. The finish was perfect!

I've had it for a year now and played a number of gigs. No problems with anything. I definitely recommend the straplocks! It's nice not having to worry about the guitar falling off the strap!

They were fine during the ordering process. When I had the problem with the noisy volume pot, I called and within 3 days I had a new one free of charge sitting at my house. Other than that, I haven't contacted them at all.

I've been playing for close to 10 years. I don't play my other basses anymore because I absolutely love my Carvin tou much. It plays so smooth and is almost effortless to play. I'm thinking of stepping up to a 5 string and I will only buy a Carvin. There's too much I liked about this LB70P that I'll never look anywhere else.

2002 SAN DIEGO MADE I bought this as an in stock item as opposed to a custom order. It has walnut finish and maple thru body neck. The pickups are the same as previous listings. It has 3 band eq, piezo/magnetic pu blend control, Humbucker/single coil blend control and active/passive volume control. It also has a coil splitter switch for the bridge humbucker. Bridge is real nice and cool looking with individual sets for each string piezo pickup.

I get all the lows I need and plenty of headroom. I can quickly change the tone dramatically and do most any style playing. Nice and clean

Action is a bit higher than some but if you play hard you want it high and I hit the strings sort of hard. Finish is tung oil and is beautiful
No flaws to be seen in the craftsmanship. Pretty wood grain body with light colored maple neck.

I have had no trouble with this bass and would get another Carvin anytime I needed a new axe. I bought a Carvin guitar in 1995 and have loved it. It has held up well too. If this bass does as well as the AE-185 I will be happy.

Everyone was helpful and friendly at Carvin on both occasions I have spoken with them.

I have been playing in bands for 35 years and have been a bass player for 28 years. I own 2 electric 6 string guitars, 1 electric 12 string guitar,1 acoustic 12 string guitar, 2 acoustic 6 string guitars, 3 keyboard synthesizers and 5 electric 4 string basses other than this Carvin LB70-P

lb70p,2001, USA, 24 frets, solid body. j99 single coil neck pick-up, HB Alnico-5 humbucking bass pickups, piezo bridge pick-ups. Active/passive electronics. Master volume, 1 knobs blend btwn the jazz and Humbuckerpick-up blenders, another knob blends magnetic pickups w/ the piezos. Split coil toggle, 3 knob graphic eq. Neckthru, swamp ash body(, Sunburst finish, maple neck w/ the same finish, ebony fretboard. Black chrome hardware.
Almost too many features on this bass!!! Good looking bass. On aesthetics--I wish the headstock were a little larger w/ maybe spit 2 tuning keys up and 2 down.

Infinite flexibility. I've had it for about 3 months, and I'm still learning to finesse the tone. The humbucker is very punchy, and when blended alone,gets a very powerful sound. Single coil option allows you to get that Jaco tone-unlike the Musicman models I've played. The piezo adds alot of brightness when blended in. When using it alone, the most acoustic sound occurs w/ treble turned up and bass/mids at about 1/2. The electronics are VERY HOT!!! I have to turn way down on the master to avoid getting fuzz on pedals. Playing out, this bad boy has excellent presence without getting to punchy on the high end esp. for slapping/popping.
The passive electronics are a plus in case the batteries die, however, there is no tone control in that mode.
This base is very veritile. I play through a GK400RBIII w/ a Hartke 4x10 w/ 5" tweeter, w a ZOOM BFX708 on occasion. I gig regularly.

Action was a little high, I lowered w/ the instructions and tools they provide. Pickups were exellent.
The cord jack tends to get loose and is difficult to tighten w/ out disturbing the electronics inside.

This bass is light and well built. Excellent quality. I would and have gigged w/out a backup.

Excellent help when ordering and selecting options. They were honest. For example, when I wanted to order the case, the tech suggested going w/ the SKB plastic case instead of a tweed/plywood case (which was more expensive and pretty), because it would be more durable-saved me about $30.
Very patient w/ my persistant calls on checking w/ the bass construction.

Nothing is perfect. I took a gamble based on previous experience w/ the Carvin name. I've played a million basses, and this easily compares w/ a Pedulla, Zon, or Warwick. I went w/ this bass because of the neck thru, split coil humbucker, active/passive electronics, and I was intrigued w/ the piezo pickups.
I am very happy w/ this bass and would replace it w/ the same if anything bad happened to it.

Basic lb-70p, except i got all alder, cause i wanted it lighter. Its got 3 band active eq, 18v. 2 pan controls. Coil splitter for the bridge humbucker. Piezo bridge, nice acoustic tone. 24 frets, abalone dot inlais. strign thorugh body. strap locks, hard case, neck thorugh, made in usa

It suits my style perfectly. Its got awesome slap!! with just the bridge humbucker on its great for that, you get a nice ballsy tone, music man like. if you fiddle with the pan controls and eq you can get a nice fat jazz tone. so its got great variety. I run it through a dunlop cry baby wah, bass pod, then ernie balls volume pedal (same one petrucci uses), and then the crown jewel...a peavy minx110!!! 50 watts of solid state, practice power!!! yeah!!!! The bass is really quiet though, even with single coil on. The onyl mild complaint i have is that the active electronics have too much headroom, i either have ot turn them off ( a convineit feature) or put the volume on really low, but of course i have a shit amp so...can't complain to much

The bass was set up average, no buzz, but really high strings. i have yet to fiddle with that too much, i'm jsut gonna let my teacher/tech guy work that out. The frets and such are really good, no glue on the fretboard. You cant detect frets if you run your finger along the side of the board. the wood is all AAA. Nice and solid. The body is pretty small, and light thanks to the all alder construction. Although there are 24 frets so it makes the neck SEEM longer than my fender jazz bass. All the knobs are nice and quiet, no hiss when you adjust them. The bridge is sweet too, no niose or shit from it like on my standard jazz (whose bridge i'm gonna replace next week) tunners are really smooth too. and of course the neck needs adjustment since it was shiped cross country (CA to IL)

CAn't really say. i've had it only for about 4 hours...so... But the strap has yet to fall off, even without the strap locks on. so that's about all i can comment on this part.

Well when i ordered the bass they were really friendly, and even when i called to change a few options 2 weeks after ordering they were really accomidating. they didn't add any up charge and the tech guy was really informative and told me what i wanted to know. so i give em a ten

This is a great bass, i was hesitant as many people are without seeing or hearing the bass before buying t. But my risk was rewarded. It exceeded my expectations. I idn't know it would have such great punch for the slap thing. a lot lighter than i expected. I will certainly get a carvin for my next bass (6 string) i would definetley recomend this for all.

Even though I've only owned it a few weeks, I feel I'm ready to review the following: The new 2001 Carvin LB70P series 4 string. It has a regular humbucking neck pickup, a huge alnico bridge pickup and individual piezo pickups in the bridge where you can adjust the volume of each string by the use of trim pots in the rear panel. I got the new Harlequin Prismatique finish. Neck thru body; maple neck, alder wings, ebony fretboard and active electronics. Strings thru body. Flying V headstock. Tung oil finish back of the neck which feels much better. Hipshot D tuner, Hipshot bridge (rugged). Carvin premium tuners, Dunlop strap locks. Rounded body sides.

I play mostly heavy metal with a pick or I slap and pop for my funk chops. With my Harkte practice amp it doesn't sound very good because this active bass is just tooo hot...brittle and glassy high's. But with my Carvin stack in the studio it sounds fantastic!! I'm not a knob twiddler so once it's set I leave it alone. I might make a knob change between a heavy tune, ballad or slap but right now I have the volume on 3/4. The 2 magnetic pickup blend in the middle. The piezo blend on just a little. Lots of bass, mid on just past half, the treble barely past half and the toggle switch to double coil. This setting sounds great for heavy songs and I already recorded with it. It has a great piano punch with a thunderous low and the biggest sustain ever. If I wanted to slap I would just up the piezo blend. For a ballad I would favor the neck pickup with more bass and lower the other tone controls. It sounds AWESOME!!!

Before I go on.......How was the NECK???!!! It is way more fast and slimmer than my old chunky Carvin neck that I purchased over 10 years ago. The nut width is just over 1 1/2" no matter what the catalog says. And with the tung oil finish....oh yeah! From the factory the action was alittle high but with NO fret buzz. I lowered it a bit and it sounds good with just a hint of buzz. It simply took out a bit of the fwd. neck bow with a 1/8th turn clockwise on the truss. And lowered the bridge saddles alittle. The volume knob feels sort of sloppy but I think it has to be cause of the push pull feature for active/passive. The Harlequin finish is different from the catalog pics. No instant 4 color change with just a tilt of the bass. However I think the real thing effect is even better. With dim light it's mainly a dull metallic green. But with different lighting and angels I've seen.....Metallic: blue, purple, green, gray, black, silver, gold and red sparkles (red is the least present) rainbow effects and an outer space starlike look. The clear finsish is great. There was just a small black mark in the finish on the headstock where a few metal flakes are missing put it is not pealing or anything. The D tuner is hard to use cause when you make the change it messes with the proper tuning.

It's surprisingly light weight and comfortable. Very rugged built. I always take a backup. It will last....trust me.

My bass took 2 months to build with all the options......then it was still a couple of weeks late. When I made followup calls for the status I talked to some Carvin people that was snotty and tried to brush me away and others were cool and helpful. I was glad that with my tons of different options that they got them ALL correct. Just waited a long time for it to arrive.

Carvin came thru in the end and it's my main baby now. I think I will stick with Carvin in the future. I was skeptical cause my last Carvin bass from 1990 sounded and looked great but the neck was chunky and uncomfortable, made me tired to play. It looks incredible and original from anything else which is why custom order is so right on bro! I chose this after trying countless brands and models in several large city stores. Many looked and sounded good but I didn't like the necks.....the neck is probably my favorite thing about this bass. The other brands I tried were Fender, Warwick, Yamaha, Ric, Lakland, Peavey, Jackson, Ibanez (would have been my next choice) etc. Thanks!