Carvin LB76P

I bought this axe in May 2004 as a gift to myself on a notable birthday, and it's going to stand the test of time. The previous review covered the features (fretted 6-string with soapbar, humbucker, and piezo pickups, active electronics) pretty well -- mine has a quilted maple top and headstock and a clear finish, and black hardware. The sales guy on the phone helped me surf the Carvin website to find the type of maple pattern I wanted and he had the shop make that for me from a new shipment of maple. Cool. Rock maple neck and fretboard with the satin finish on the neck -- perfect to the hand. I got the hard case, and it's excellent. The previous reviewer didn't care for the way the pickup selection is set up. I understand the point, but I haven't needed anything this setup can't do.

I play in a Christian pop/rock cover band, so we do ballads to edgy rock. I can get almost any sound out of this instrument. The high end (well up the C-string) is amazing! Sustain from now til Sunday (when I'll need it). And a big, full bottom that makes me crave a better amp and cabinet!

I can confirm a strange factory setup -- maybe they shift in shipping. I took a few days with the truss rod to straighten the neck, but didn't do much at the bridge. It's really excellent now. Mine shipped without a truss rod cover, but they sent one (actually, two in separate packages) immediately after I called. The neck is a little wide, but six strings would probably be too tight if it were narrower.

I take good care of it and rarely work in tight spaces or travel, so it doesn't get much stress. Nonetheless, it seems quite robust. When I accidentally whack the headstock on something, it doesn't need retuning.

Excellent phone service when I ordered, with plenty of time taken to make sure I understood the options and got what I wanted. Quick response on the truss rod cover.

I've been playing about seven years. I just traded my four-string Fender Standard Jazz for an MTD Kingston I like much more, and I have an Aria Pro II Steve Bailey fretless. I don't have a decent amp. I would be heartbroken if I ever lost this Carvin bass -- it's a wonderful piece of work. The tone, playability, beautiful wood and finish, the great variety of sounds the three pickups and active electronics deliver... I can play it anywhere for any reason.

2003, custom made LB76P,
w/ 5 piece maple/koa/maple/koa/maple neck, koa body, black hardware, strap locks.
very feature filled: volume with push/pull active/passive switch, panning between neck and bridge pickups, panning between magnetic and piezo pickups, bass/mid/treble cut/boost and a switch for single coil/humbucker operation for the bridge pickup.
Individual trimpots for each string's piezo element, plus a "master piezo" and active/passive trimpot. 18V system with two easy to access battery compartments, screwless. Back plate has screws, but they go in to threaded brass inserts (no more gouging of wood).

There are some other features I'd like to see, but that's for later on when I make my signature model :)

Generally an excellent sound,
passive operation has a better sound than I ever could have hoped for. Even in passive there is a wide range of sounds one can obtain, simply by panning the magnetic pickups and toggling the humbucker. www.carvin.com has a "jamroom" with a P series bass, I was rather impressed (but it really does make sense when you think about it) but the sound bytes sound almost exactly like the actual bass, so that's a real good place to go to hear what you can work with.
I would recommend substituting the neck pickups (J99) for an H50... when soloed, it gets more buzz than I'm used to, as my old bass had dual EMG HZ passive humbuckers.

When active, the EQ is perfectly placed. Bass is around 100Hz (can't remember for sure, but it's nice and bassy, not too much boom, but enough to add bottom "thub"). The mid is where this module really shines. It's centered at 200 Hz, which is PERFECT for finger funk, especially with the bridge pickup as a humbucker.

Sound-wise, I had to adjust some of the trimpots, active is defaulted as equal to passive (which is a handy feature), but the piezo trimpots were set very... cursiously. Only affects the sound if you don't change it though, you lazy bum!

Carvin goes by measurements (which they publish on their website and in manuals), so I can't really fault them for always setting basses higher than I want them. At least they're consistent <<coughcoughFENDERcoughcough>>

After about two weeks of having this bass, I went to L.A. The humidity was 70% plus every day... totally freaked out my neck and revealed a nut problem... bad filing, the G and D were much too low to be able to play with low action. Sent it in to the factory from there where they kept it for five weeks before I finally got it back.

BAD = by the time I got my bass back, they had it longer than I
GOOD = when I got it back, I was able to readjust to my personal preferences, and it played wonderfully.

Other than the nut and the aforementioned piezo trimpots, everything was set wonderfully. Well intonated (did I mention the very hefty and wonderful bridge? -- quick note on the bridge, with the P series bridge, because of the construction, you may not be able to adjust the action to as low as you'd like... it works almost the way I'd like, but I still wish I could have the C string just a tad lower.)

All in all, a great setup and all of that stuff. It even still smells like a new bass :) especially the case. yummmm.

Well built, tough. Example, since I don't make a whole lot of money right now, I boil string over buying them.
Though I replace one at a time when changing, boiling necessitates all of the strings being off at once. I put the C back on first, and when I do, though this isn't really a "feature" but more of a testament to the 5 piece, graphite reinforced neck, the neck is still straight enough to tune the string to pitch (there isn't buzz that would keep you from tuning like on some of my other basses). I'm not worried at all about this thing falling apart.

They can be a bit slow by email, but by phone they are fantastic. I always got my problem solved with one call (though new problems would arise occasionally).
When I got it repaired (nut replacement) it was covered under warranty, and they covered the shipping charges since it wasn't exactly a "wear and tear situation" (bear in mind that I had only had the bass for 2 weeks, after a 5 week build time). After the five weeks of repair, shipping issues (I didn't live anywhere near where I ended up dropping it off) involving "where" were quickly solved with one phone call.

Awesome value... $1300 for all of this? Really, if this is your kinda thing, go for it. If it were lost,
no, I can't even think about that.
I would WANT to buy the same thing, but possibly with a few different features; I'd prefer the piezo pickups to work independently of the active electronics, like a toggle switch (on/off) and a master piezo volume (which would replace that piezo trimpot in the control cavity) as opposed to the panning control. I don't care much for that way of setting it up.
When buying, this was basically compared to EVERY six string bass I could find for under $2000. Beat out every last one.

Anything else I wish it had? hmmmm... a lifetime of fresh strings.