Carvin TBH 60 Twin Blade Humbuckers

Direct strat replacement single coil sized humbucker. Ceramic magnet with 2 blade polepieces. Passive.

7.8k Ohms

Neck and middle position of a 2002 Carvin Bolt, original equipment on this guitar. C22T in bridge position. Laquered alder body, oiled maple neck with ebony fretboard. Spec'ed for use on stage, wanted quiet pickups and high output.

Output is relatively high, much more than stock singles and slightly more than some vintage or vintage style humbuckers.

Mainly run into a Carvin V16 or an Epiphone Valve Junior. Occasionally into a 68 Bassman or my ancient Music Man head. Used to play it through a Bel Air but that amp is sold. In all cases straight into the amp with no effects.

Tone is punchy, especially in the upper midrange. High end is softened. Good bass response, tighter than some similar pups. Can produce a wonderful clean tone with very forceful attack. NOT equivelent to a traditional single coil and NOT a traditional humbucker either. This lies somewhere between but has it's own character. Played together you get a fairly good approximation of that old "quack" sound, definately usable. These have enough outp[ut to drive a tube amp hard and goose some really nice overdrive out. I love the neck position clean, and I love the middle when I cut this guitar loose. Very satisfying through the EVJ, plenty of balls and retains very good clarity and string balance for such a primitive setup. My V16 loves these too. A lot of people have trashed this amp and said the only way to get good sound out of it is to retube and replace the stock speaker. Not so in my opinion. Still running stock on both. Secret, at least with the G12T speaker, is to break the damn thing in by playing really hard for a really long time. The tone will come. This guitar through that amp, neck position clean is very jazzy, warm but with some nice sparkle on the top end, and piano like forcefullness.

I play old rock, blues, and some jazzy improv. Works for me.

Suitable for all positions. Won't satisfy everybody for every use but it's a nice pickup.

I would definately buy another. In fact, I just picked one up on eBay to slide into the bridge position on this guitar because I was never happy with how thin the C22T sounds.

I've been playing about 20yrs now. I own a 66 Gibson SG Junior with a Badass bridge and Dimarzio soapbar sized SD (super chunky guitar), a strat made from spare parts, Guild B-302 bass, EVJ and V16 amps mentioned above, 68 Bassman, old Music Man 50w head, late 60's Champ, Musicmaster bass amp. All tube all the way every time and don't bother with effects. I want the shortest distance from my fingers connection with the strings to that speaker, y'know?

I love the tone I get with this pickup. Like I said it's got it's own unique character. I hate that Carvin keep raising their prices, but they're still a steal.

I've compared Carvin pups with Seymours and Dimarzios and frankly I never liked anything from Seymour. Probably just me. I see nothing wrong with their pickups and the price is right. Won't do that exposed pole Alnico sound but if that's what you want get THOSE pups, not these.

My only real gripe about these is that there is a bit of a lip around the bobbin edge, which in the neck position can actually snag the high E string and hold it there if you play way too hard like I do sometimes. I actually filed mine down slightly to rest flush against the coil tape and the problem went away. I do wish these would come in white or cream coils but as of now you have only black or zebra to choose from.

This pickup does exactly what I bought it for. Satisfied customer.

I did have one little snafu when the original set went dead after a month in this guitar. There must have been quality issues but as these were ordered right when the model was first released I'll forgive that. I called Carvin and they honored the warranty and got me replacements in just a few days, so no harm done.

Impedence load on these pickups is rated at 7.8K which is very good actually better than some full humbucklers. Slightly higher than Carvin's own C22J, M22V, and C22T full humbucklers. The AP-11 single coil standard pickup is 4.3 ohm, that in itself is higher than a lot of strat standards. The TBH 60 dual rail fits in a single coil space and is a 4 wire configuration for split coil switching if you like. It is a passive pickup. I had a unique opportunity to review these pickups against the standard Carvin AP-11 single coils and agsinst the better strats I have owned in my day custom set with the various stocks standards, custom Dimarzzio Fat Strats, EMG actives, and the Fender Lace Sensors on the Fender Signature EC Strat. In all honesty I loved the Lace Sensors, the Fat Strat and the EMG's especially dispite the pain in the ass battery under the pickguard. I am a Carvin maven and I love their stuff as far as amps or guitars I will own nothing else. I have a DC-400 beauty which is like a Les Paul type sound with Carvin's SD in the bridge and the hotter M22T in the neck, great sounding and looking guitar w split coil, phasing, and active clean preamp on push/pull. Having used the DC-400 for about 8 years in all it's glory, still looks amazing, if you are not familar with the heavenly finishes, neck quality and playability of a Carvin, really get on the wagon. Now on with the TBH 60 review against the AP-11 on a new Carvin DC-135.

I have always loved a maple neck single coil strats and have owed many such configurations. Not using for about 8 years I got the fever recently for another strat as even the split coils are not quite the same and I miss the Trower maple neck. I wanted three sigle coils again and after throwing my hands up at Fender and the prices for a good quality custom shop I repented and looked to my Gods at carvin again. I designed a new DC-135 with three single coils, using a mohogany neck through the body 24 fret Birdseye grain figured maple finger board on a mohogany neck piece.
I asked for three dual rail TBH60's for my pickups, because I wanted a special cut three pickup body not using the DC-135's standard bridge humbuckler they mixed up and sent it with the AP-11's. OK I was puzzled at which to get in the first place because I wanted really good classic strat tones. I called Carvin and told them they goofed and they shipped me a set of the dual rails asap. They offered to return the guitar and do it for me but I did not want to subject the wood to the temperature changes and shipping again. I hyper tuned this guitai setting up the proper neck forward bow intonation and height for my tastes. the neck was perfectly straight with no bow so it buzzed on the low frets, the intonation was off slightly and strings effect this as well. I put my usual 10's on with my desired full step detune and ajusted everything it.

I put the AP-11's through the paces from clean to smoking tubes and my high end pedal board effects. They were truly great sounding pickups, they and great low end clarity, muscial mids and mellow highs. One of the best single coils I have ever heard. Very little background noise, some indications of s light hum as all strats will do except the EMG's. Nothing bad, and less than a lot of Fenders I have fought and tried to shield better. The AP-11 was a great tonal pickup, I would have not bothered to replace them but Carvin had already shipped the dual rails and I wanted to here the difference.
These are wood mounted pickups on the DC-135 and really with the mohogany wood and maple neck having the pickups right into the wood probably gave this guitar a really incredible tone the pickups were icing on a sweet cake. I sat down and made sure I had done my homework and had the proper wiring diagrams before open heart surgery. In about 2 hours I had these babies in place wasn't hard at all, I used solder wick and thin silver solder with a pinpoint pencil gun. Readjusted everything and plugged in, as I had hoped the TBH had a much higher output it solved the need for extra drive in the bridge and the neck became without a doubt the most defined and well toned neck pickup possible. The tones were very, very clean and warm, the wood of course helping even already an exceptional tone. The lows were cleaner on the TBH and the AP-11's were bloody good. The mids were classic strat tones but with an output like you had a clean booster preamp on them like EMG's. The highs were musical and the bridge now had a better push and bite that the Ap-11'a could not do. The woods and pcikups on this guitar were better than I could have imagined, no Fender could sound this good, the wood mounted pickups just further put it over the top.

Tremendous single coils, none better, I have nothing bad to say about these pickups they have no weak points. The tones were like the best strat you could imagine totally clear, noiseless, and just dripping with tone. Carvin again exceeded my expectations. if you are not up on Carvin do check them out. I am using their V3 and 4x12 and I would not take any two amps for it. The guitars and amps are just the best and the price is just silly, not paying the store mark up is the way to go. I will own nothing else. At any rate the THB60 rails are the best single coils I have ever heard, they are like EMG's but high impedence passive and you are not going to find any pickup that will out do these in power clarity, punch, presence, and power. I looked into a lot of pickups and there is a lot of crap out there and deceptive potato head comments. I was concerned about alnico verses ceramic and Bill Lawrence set me straight on that myth. These pickups are priced great and there is no better sound for my opinion, they give you the silence of humbuckling with the cool tones and plunks of the strat, a steriod single coil but really clean, it functioned extremely well with all my pedals and high end gear. I have no trouble getting even fusion sounds out of them Vai like and Satch, also heavy distortion saturation was cool and tonefull without loss of nuance and touch, love them, with the Carvin DC-135 wood mounts I have heard nothing better. Bottom line AP-11's great, TBH60 rails even better.

Passive Single Coil sized Humbucker
It has a 7.8k impedance.

I used this in a 1989 Charvel Model 3.
Neck Position
A Stock Single Coil.
A stock middle single coil and a stock Humbucker in bridge .
Dont know if any artist use this.
I wanted a bigger sound in my neck pickup. More output.

It is pretty loud.
Boss DS-1 with Monte Allums Rectifier Mod.
It is Middy.
Anything for the Beatles to Shred. Alice in chains alot lately.

This is a great little pickup. From what i heard it is not much different than the Seymour Duncan version. I replaced a stock single coil in the neck of my 1989 Charvel Model 3. Man does this guitar kick even more ass now. The pickup actually sounds like a regular humbucker. It has alot of sustain for distortion and leads. It also has a beautiful clean sound. I recommend this pickup to anyone wanting a single coil size humbucker for the price and the amazing quality.

It's a single coil sized humbeucker with rails instead of polepieces with 4 conductor wiring so you can split or tap the coils, there's not much else to a pickup.

I installed this pickup in the bridge of a Peavey Predator (Strat copy) with a Carvin T60N (single coil with blade) and Carvin AP11 (single coil with 11 polepieces)

It has a good output level and sounds great. In single coil mode it's pretty weak sounding, but as a humbucker it's great. Many humbuckers sound tubby (too much lower mids and somewhat muddy, but I generally like single coils) but this has a humbucker sound (strong lows, mellow highs whem played through a clean amp) that is pretty tight and well defined. The trick is to split the coils in PARALLEL (both coils are used but they're not in series, it still doesn't hum). WOW! Nearly as much power as a standard humbucker, with single coil clarity and tightness in the bass.

I'll probably be buying more of these soon.

Pickup features: passive humbucker
Impedence or other specs: 7.9K

Model of guitar or bass: Cort Viva
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: MightyMite strat single coil
Other pickups on guitar: MightyMite humbucker (stock bridge) and Carvin S60 (middle)
Artists using this pickup: Does it really matter ?
You musical style(s): Eclectic
Reason for pickup change: Mainly because the stock pickup was very noisy and it was part of a hot rod project to customize my old Cort Viva (kind of Ibanez S series copy)

Perceived output level: Slightly higher than my American Deluxe Stratocaster with SCN pickups
Tone: More bassy and less trebly than my strat's SCN neck pickup
Sonic evaluation: My Cort Viva hotrodded guitar either direct through my Traynor YCV20 or via a BOSS MT2 Metal Zone distortion pedal. The guitar has a maple neck and body with rosewood fingerboard, a wilkinson tremolo and strung with 11-43 strings. This guitar has been customized for metal playing.
This is a very versatile pickup for the neck position. It handle very well high gain distortion. Clean it is a dream, very jazzy and creamy with good note definition. I did not tried other twinblades pickups so I don't know what to expect but I am very pleased with it. I would not use it in bridge position since it does not have that grit and biting agressivity that I enjoy from full size humbuckers in the bridge position. For high gain leads it definitly cut through very easily with a lot of definition compared to my SG with 57s.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: At neck position, I will mainly use it for clean jazz and metal with distortion

Comments: I have been playing for four years. If ever damaged I would probably look for another model of twinblade from Seymour Duncan or Dimarzio but I would still seriously consider Carvin because of the low price and quite impressive quality of their products. The four wires are a must on any humbucking pickup.
Keep in mind that my rating is based on the fact that I was hotrodding this guitar for metal purpose. For the price, you can't go wrong. My references for evaluation were my Strat with 3 SCN noiseless pickups and my SG with 57s.

Pickup features: single coil size passive humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: squier strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: stock bridge, stock neck
Other pickups on guitar: stock mid
Artists using this pickup: no one I know of
You musical style(s): Rock
Reason for pickup change: wanted something hotter than stock

Perceived output level: better than sock pups for sure
Tone: very good good highs good lows good mids
Sonic evaluation: squier strat through a Boss DS-1 through a Peavey 212 stereo chorus.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play 80s and 90s rock. I tend to think it's a good match for my styles

Comments: Anything carvin makes is worth paying for. I never been unsatisfied with any product of thiers that I've owned(which has been one guitar) and a bunch of pickups. If you're on a budget Carvin products are the way to go.

Pickup features: Twin Blade Humbucking
Impedence or other specs: 7.9K DC Resistance/Ceramic Magnet/4-Wires plus Shield

Model of guitar or bass: Fender MIM Strat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar: Carvin TBH-60 Middle/Dimarzio Tone Zone Bridge
Artists using this pickup: ???
You musical style(s): Rock/Blues/Jazz/Fusion
Reason for pickup change: Needed a Noise Free single-coil replacement pickup

Perceived output level: Higher than Stock
Tone: Extremely Well Balanced
Sonic evaluation: These pickups are exactly as described by Carvin: "Higher output with more midrange than stock Strat pickups. Tonally, the Carvin Twinblades are ideal for punchy clean tones and for hot overdriven leads."
They won't give you a vintage Strat tone...more of an overwound Texas sound. The low-end on this pickup is amazing!
I have them wired for series/parallel via a toggle switch. In parallel mode, the bass and midrange output drops and they sound more like single coils. You can also wire them for coil tap.
These are my favorite low-cost pickup. They are great for the neck and middle positions. I haven't tried one in the bridge.
You won't find a better sounding hum-cancelling single-coil replacement at this price point!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Sounds great for neck and middle. It would be good for all styles, especially with its wiring options.

Comments: I would buy these again in a heartbeat. They cost about 1/2 as much as other twinblades I was considering and the four-wire connection really sold me. It allows for a lot of wiring options.
I wish Carvin would sell pre-wired pickguards using these pickups as they do with their AP-11 single-coils. I think it would be a great seller!

Pickup features: Single coil size twin rail humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Carvin Bolt-T swamp ash reverse
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: part of custom kit
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: unknown
You musical style(s): heavy acid rock/metal/blues
Reason for pickup change: Heard about Duncan Hot Rails and thought I'd try these.

Perceived output level: Medium Hot output compared to strat single coils, much less than full size humbuckers
Tone: middy tone, loses a lot on high and low end, very weak when split, annoying drainpipe sound
Sonic evaluation: Crate MX120 with the custom Bolt-T. The through a drainpipe sound got to me, so I switched to Fender single coils which are too trebly on attack and too bell like and glassy, Bill Lawrence L-280 set on order along with WD pickguard w/reverse bridge (for reverse headstock). If the guitar doesn't get a good sound, I'll sh*t. Maybe put the twinblades back in and sell it, they weren't THAT bad.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I do a lot of extreme bends and no dead zones on rails. Really I've never gotten dead zones, anyway. The range just isn't there. I should have gone 2 AP11s and C22.

Comments: If these were stolen--no big deal. Tried to sell them on ebay and couldn't for even half-price. I've been playing 28 yrs. 10 other guitars, 1 full stack, 3 combos (one 3 12AX7, 2 6L6 tube) I saw how the range wasn't that great on the charts, but the output hotter than the AP11s. Not satisfied with this pickup, wish I had the 2 AP11 and C22 setup when I bought the prewired pickguard. It was an experiment out of curiosity, that failed. I bought a double fat Squire strat that had that drainpipe sound, too. Switched to EMG-ZWs and it is fantastic. My 4 other double humbucker guitars of various types sound great, no drainpipe sound. So probably just the cheapos sound that way.

Pickup features: humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass:
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: stock no name toaster
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): rock
Reason for pickup change: The stock pickups were noisy. They didn't have the balls for screaming, sustained leads, either.

Perceived output level: Hot . . and just right
Tone: Series -- bassy; Parallel -- trebly
Sonic evaluation: Rick 330 thru crate vintage 30.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This pickup is good in both positions

Comments: These twin bladers are a great value. The are comparable in tone to Duncan's vintage rails, but they are half the price. I set up both pickups with switches so that they can run parallel and now I am able to get a nice warm jangle from the Rick. In series, they provide great tone for leads and crunchy rhythm.

Pickup features: passive humbucker, single coil size
Impedence or other specs: check out the website

Model of guitar or bass: Early 90's Fender HM Strat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: stock Fender Single Coil
Other pickups on guitar: DiMarzio Super 3
Artists using this pickup: none that I've ever heard of
You musical style(s): Rock, Metal
Reason for pickup change: I wanted a stronger sounding rhythm pickup when overdriven, without giving up the clean SC sound.

Perceived output level: much louder than the stock pickup, balances nicely with the DiMarzio at the bridge
Tone: Clean tone is not too much different than the stock pickup, which is a good thing. Distortion tone is awesome, very clear for a neck pickup, and can give you anything from blues to metal.
Sonic evaluation: I'm using a Fender HM strat with rosewood board and a Floyd original. My amp is a Fender Deluxe 112 (65 watts, 12" speaker). I also use a Snarling Dogs Blue Doo distortion pedal, which also sounds great with this pickup. Can't wait to run it through my Gibson GA 25 RVT!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I think this pickup will be very versatile, has a wide range of great tones from clean to mild overdrive, to high gain distrortion-all without the noise!

Comments: I bought this pickup for several reasons: A) it costs half as much as a Duncan Hot Rail B)I've always read great reviews about all of Carvin's other stuff C) I didn't have to go to a music store and deal with any salespeople. I've only had it for half an hour and am kicking myself for not buying it sooner. If you order one, make sure you ask for a wiring diagram, or you can look one up on the website. Any one with a basic knowledge or wiring can put this in without a problem.