Carvin LB75P Fretless

I have been playing for 30 years and have played Fenders, Music Man and many others my whole life and I bought a Carvin in quest for the holy grail of bass tone(I have been searching for that forever).This bass has the optional Piezo pick up in the bridge and a ton of blend features that are pretty cool. My guitar has a flame maple top, neck thru, string-thru with a finished neck, it is fretted with all of the standard features you get when buying one of these instruments like ebony fingerboard, active/passive electronics, and a humbucker that is splittable and looks like a single coil in the front with a Musicman looking rear pick up. I also used the chrome harware on this bass.

This bass has a clear punchy, tight sound that is great for all styles of playing. It can sound very modern for that Jazz, Funk feel or it can sound very growly for New Rock or R&B. I use primarily a Mesa Head with a Hartke 4X10 & 1X15 cab and it sounds great. The guitar is not very noisey even when in single coil mode (still quieter than a Jazz Bass). This guitar sounds great when I record with it and when I perform live. I do however feel that my Musicman basses are louder and have a better EQ pre-amp in the guitar. The Mid and treble sections are not that dramatic as with the MM basses. The guitar has a great amount of natural sustain, you can notice acoustically or through an amp. For the money ($1100.00) you cannot beat the sound of this guitar.

When I recieved this bass from the factory there was a problem with the 10th through the 12th fret on the G&D string causing a complete dead spot on the neck. The guitar had to be sent back to Carvin for repair, but when it came back, they did the right thing and replaced all of the frets on the bass and re-set it up to perfect playing condition. The action and comfort of playing this guitar is superb. It feels great in your hands and can be played for hours comfortably. I have about 12 guitars at present and I prefer to play this one. While I like some of the other guitars for there classic sound or great looks and feel, I always gravitate to this one. It truely is smooth and just feels great. It's a daily player. The fit and finish is real good right down to the clean well insulated electronics cavity. The low B sounds great and shakes the ground with clarity. Not to mention it is great looking.

This bass appears to be able to hang in there for years to come it is well built. The hardware is great. I do sometime have a little issue with tuning the low B where I have to go past the correct tuning and come back to get the string just right but that is fairly normal with any bass. I have only had it for about 8 months now but I play out, rehearse and record alot and so far it appears to have all quality hardware on it. I have had to set the intonnation once and the Truss rod and action is tweaked when I re-string it, but overall it is not very weather tempermental. I also changed the strap buttons to strap locks after having to catch it from falling while performing with it twice in one night. I forgot when I ordered it to have them put on. Strap locks are a must when you order one!! I have the Carvin molded hard shell case and it is a nice fit. I usually bring this guitar and a Musicman Sting Ray 5 when I play anywhere but I have been know to show up with just this guitar at a gig and feel confident that it will work fine.

Well, I told you that I had to send it back to have it repaired when I first got it which had me wondering how it could have left the factory unplayable. There was a dead spot in the neck and one of the battery cavities needed replacement. I sent it back and yes like the others mentioned no one cared about me being without it for the duration until it came back, it took about 3 weeks and I had to call constantly to check on the status but they were pretty good getting it back. And when it came back boy did it play nice...

Also they have that Snag thing where they put a chip in the guitar that makes the guitar trackable if stolen or missing which is a nice feature. My favorite thing about this guitar is the playability. It FEELS GREAT. I Love it. For the money, you will not buy a better bass.I has more features than I need to use and it is definately a must have.

American custom made, i ordered this bass in January of 2003 and recieved it soon after in febuary. This baby is fretless, with the fretlines and dots painted on the 24 'fret' neck. the body is five-piece maple, and has a ken smith/alembic style mahogony stripe on the back with two walnut stripes in the middle of it. Beautiful instrument. it smells absolutely fantastic as well, and the neck is as smooth as ocean glass and as soft as velvet. the active pickups are a switchable P/J style, a humbucker, and some piezos (which i dont use too much). Built like a Jazz bass, and heavy as well (though not like a stingray). The body has a tung-oil finish, so the bass is naturally soft looking. the bridge is string through body, so the bass has a much more deep, fundamental tone. Comes with a hardshell case too! (100 bucks extra, but required for shipping). The bass has active treb, mid, and bass, as well as active volume (pull for passive if the batteries crap out). there is also a knob to blend the Hum pickup with the P/J Pickup, another knob to blend those picks with the piezo, and a switch to switch from J Pickup style to P style.

As a Jazz musician, this bass is great for me. It came with some greatt sounding, smooth flatwounds, but i recently changed to GHS Ground roundwounds (halfwounds) to get closer to that Jaco sound without destroying my neck. However, aside from Jaco, you can get a full range of tones on this instrument, from reggae to funk to straightahead ron carter style jazz. for rock you may want frets, but the active volume allows for a lot of headroom. Rich sound, warm and bright. soon as i get my SVT 3 Pro it will all be over. I use it with an AMpeg B3 and this baby rocks. I also have a Q-tron and the LB can make that pedal work. the slides are nice because of the fretless-ness of the instrument. i only give it a nine because i havent found my dream sound yet.

Action was perfect, as were pickups. maybe ill adjust them for fun sometime. bass was perfect for a while but i recently have been having trouble with the quarter inch input. 25 bucks to replace it. i called carvin and they sent me a new input and told me to solder it myself, but i dont want to go digging around inside the cavity of a 1200 dollar bass if i dont know what im doing (which i dont). No big deal, still havent fixed it and it doesnt screw up if you do the ole cord around the strap trick.

This bass is very reliable. Good enough to use with no backup for sure. Nothing ever needs adjustment, doesnt even go out of tune.

Great company, year warranty ( i think) and they sent me a free input cuz i wouldnt send them my bass

Ive been playing for about 7 years, and this is the best bass ive ever owned. after playing a smith, i'd say its a small step down from a ken smith bass. if i lost it or if it were stolen, id either replace it exactly or get a different high end bass. Nothing beats it for the price range though. I love the range of tones i can get out of this instrument, and if i could do it again i would buy it all over again. It won the coveted "Best Tone" and "Best Buy" awards From bass player magazine in a staff poll fairly recently. It is THAT good of an instrument.