Carvin LB90

Passive electronics. Two stacked humbuckers. 2 vol knob one tone. Fretless. Small headstock. Gotoh tuners. Made in 1987. Sold to me as an LB40, but aftersome research on Carvin website, given all the variables, I believe it's an LB90F. Simple, easy to use. Set neck. Not fancy, but I don't need it.
I'm new to fretless. I have a Fender Musicmaster short scale. I also have a Peavey MicroBass amp 15 watter, and a Hartke 120watt 10" Kickback. Low rating bssed on lack of features--active electronics etc...--not on quality of features there.

Very nice. Thumpy and low with neck p/u only. Bright, but not brittle, with bridge p/u only. Tone knob goes from very dark--but not muddy to bright and cutting, depending on the p/u chosen. Both give a well rounded character. It currently has round wounds on it. I'd switch to flat, if it weren't for the fact I want to slap with it--ala Kim Stone of Rippigtons, and Spyro Gyra. Lack of active makes this a bit less versatile, but it sounds great for all that.

Bought it used. Deep blue finish. Gouldn't find the color in the Carvin catalogue anymore. Dings--I don't care. I bought it for the sound, not aesthetics. It's finish, otherwise, is very nice, and durable. Fit. Set neck glued on with heel-less neck jount is nice. Action is low, and beautiful down the entire neck. Intonation, even after heing shipped from NJ to CO via UPS, was exquisite. I'm impressed with Carvin products. They're right up there with the "big names" as to quality. This bass is no exception. Dings in tuhe finish and light corrosion in the hardware subtracted from the "10" in this category.

Solid as a rock. I'd be surprised if it weren't reliable. It's been giged with since 87, I suspect it's reliable as can be expected.
No rating due to lack of experience with Carvin guitars. My experience of their amps is great. I've knocked 16 and33 watt guitar amps, from Carvin, around for a couple of years, and I've gotten no complaints from the rigs. I'm optimistic

Carvin has been "verry verry good to me". I've had some problems with speaker stands and fx boxes and they've treated me very fairly. I'm a believer. I always reserve "10" for the last skater on the ice, however. So I'll demur from giving them a perfect score, in case they bobbole on the triple-axel.

Considering the simplicity, sound, fit/action/finish, and reliability of this instrument--not to forget it's beutiful sound. I'm giving this a rating that seems high. I'm rating it not on the prevous number, but for what it is--a passive, used, fretless, bass. It's great for a guy whose main instrument is electric guitar.
If it were lost/stolen, I'd weep, gnash my teeth, gash myself with sharp rocks and look for another bass. My chances of finding another one like this is slim to none.

My Carvin LB-90 was made in early 1988. This was the first year for the neck through construction/24 fret combination for basses. This is a pretty rare model, they made the LB-90 in 21 fret style for a year or two before but only 1 year(1988) with neck through. They restyled the body by making the cutaways deeper than previous LB-90 and LB-50 and Lb-70 bases. Made the body smaller and cool looking. My bass is made of maple but it isn't very heavy and painted in Deep Pearl Blue, a custom option that year as well. The neck is medium in thickness and has P bass width at the nut. It has the 2 on a side "V" style headstock which is small and not a problem with mic stands and stuff on stage. It has Carvin/Gotoh tuners, Schaller bridge, passive electronics with one volume,one tone and pickup selector controls. Pickups are Carvin's own H-13-B's with their own unique bezel and mounting. The finger board is ebony with dot inlays. A few years after I got the bass I installed a Hipshot "D" tuner. This was pretty easy except that because of the small headstock I had to machine the adjuster nob on the Hipshot smaller and also grind the "G" string tuner a little bit to get clearance. Excellent materials and workmanship over all.

We play a large variety of music in our sets, mostly rock and pop with some blues and even a little funk in there. I need a bass that sounds good without being overly complicated. I play through an Ampeg SVP-Pro preamp SVP-1500 power amp, ART Dual Levelar compressor and Ampeg 4x10-PR cabinet. The sound of this bass is wonderfully rich with a nice sounding midrange something that's not easy to get on a bass. The highs are not overly emphasised but clear. The lows don't boom like a P bass with a Dimarzio but they are nice. I set the pickups about 5/16-3/8 inch or a little more away from the strings, just seems to sound best. The string quality can really make or break you which is something that's sort of love/hate. Sound really really great when new, one night of playing and they've lost their spunk. Still sounds really good but not tremendous. I don't use a ton of eq on my bass or amp, doesn't seem to be very necessary for me. The pickups are not noisy and about the only mods I've done in this area is to change the volume pot which broke long ago. I've also jumpered the pickup selector and I play on both pickups all the time, usually with the volume all the way up. It seems to work nicely for recording and live work but I like it best through a good sounding amp, Ampeg B-15-N nice choice!

The action was too low for me when I first got the bass. I'd been playing a cheap short scale bass with medium action before getting the Carvin, so I had to make some adjustments. When I raised the action to my liking the strings wanted to break at the bridge saddles. This wasn't a huge problem but once in a while I'd break an "A" or "E" string. I fixed this by making a shim out of aluminum about .040 thick that fits under the bridge, you can't even tell it's there but it reduced the break over angle just enough to cure the problem. The truss rod needs an adjustment in the spring and in the fall when the weather changes here in Missouri, no big deal. The finish and fret work were all top notch when I got the bass. Now the finish has a small amount of check and I've worn through to the wood by the pickups, back of the neck, and back of the bass. It's got some chips around the back by the jackplate, do I care, not one bit!

My bass is a good one for a review because it's been played A TON! My hardware is all in good shape without much wear and tear except for finish and fret wear. The tuners and bridge work good and I haven't had to change the jack, just the volume pot. I don't worry much about reliability with this bass because it's so simple, very dependable, can be used for years with no backup.

I never had any real problems or any need to call Carvin. I don't know what it would be like to get a replacement pickup or something like that, a pain probably but I don't speak from experience in that area. I think they have about a year warranty and a 10 day free return policy if you don't like the instrument, since I'm about a dozen years past all that it doesn't concern me a whole bunch.

I've been playing bass for about 20 years or so. If lost or stolen I would greatly morn the loss of this bass. After years of playing it's never let me down. I love it's tone and personality and uniqueness. I like the shape of the body and headstock very much as well as the feel of the neck. If I could find another one just like it, I would buy it on the spot, but I've never seen another one of this model. Their new ones look nice, I like the LB-20 model quite a bit. I tried lots of basses and really could not find what I wanted, Fender at the time was terrible and I'm not too sure about Gibson. A friend had a Carvin V-220 guitar and I was impressed with the quality and value their instruments had so I ordered one. $469 was a ton of money for me back then but it was worth it when I think about all the gigs, both good and bad I've played with that bass.