Carvin AC175

The options I chose to customize the standard AC175 were: Lefthand model, standard koa top with a satin matte finish and no binding, ebony fretboard with no top fret inlay markers, stainless steel medium jumbo frets, black Carvin logo on the headstock, Dunlop straplocks, and form fitted ABS case. It is a very attractive guitar with a clean and simple look which is what I wanted. The AC175 in its ABS case is small, light, and easy to lug around; quite a contrast to my Larrivee jumbo in its plywood case which is bulky and heavy. Probably would have got the AC275 if Carvin had a form fitted ABS case for it.

I play rhythm guitar in a contemporary Christian worship setting (pop/folk/rock styles). I like the sound of the AC175 which is somewhere between an electric and acoustic sound leaning more towards the acoustic end. I?m currently running it through a Digitech RPX400 and into a Crate Electric Amp or to the soundboard depending on where I play. I have also run it into the Crate Amp and the soundboard directly. I like the sound better than my plugged in Larrivee and I have had no problems with feedback which required me to be careful with the Larrivee. The AC175 is very useable unplugged; it?s louder than a solid body electric but quieter than a regular acoustic. I?ve written several songs while playing it unplugged. It sounds best plugged it which is why I bought it. Some acoustic guitars are too loud to sing with when practicing alone at home; the AC175 plugged into an old Singing Machine (Karaoke) allows me to get a great full sound that is not as loud as an acoustic.

With the exception of a poorly cut nut, the guitar is flawless. The koa top with the mahogany neck and body is stunning and has drawn many comments. I played the guitar for several months (way too long!) before deciding that the E, B, and G strings were too close together to play clean. I?m sure Carvin would have fixed it for me, but I didn?t want to wait any longer once I determined it was going to be fixed. Len at a local guitar shop (Replay Music, Spokane, WA) cut me a new nut and adjusted the truss rod which has made a big difference in playability; money well spent!!! Great job Len! I figure very few companies have lefties to test their left handed guitars, so without a playability test they will miss some things. This is a reality of life for lefties. From my perspective the new nut was minor and easy to fix.

The AC175 is much sturdier than a traditional acoustic and is not as vulnerable to changing weather conditions, so I won?t have to bother with the hassle of a humidifier. I got the satin matte finish and really like it, but where my hand rubs the top it has become shiny which can?t be prevented. I have Dunlop strap locks which I never installed on my strap, works fine with out them. The stainless steel frets are amazing and are far superior to the frets on all my other guitars. Based on their performance the last six months I don?t anticipate replacing any frets for at least 10 years, maybe longer. Truly an awesome option from Carvin! My AC175 delivers the goods week in and week out.

I worked with multiple salesmen from Carvin over the phone and even via email before I determined exactly what was possible and what I wanted. Each salesman was friendly and very helpful.

I have been playing since 1978 and own a 1979 low end Alvarez (righty converted) acoustic and a 1994 Larrivee ?Larrivee Jumbo? Acoustic (took 9 months to get as opposed to 7 weeks for the Carvin!). If my AC175 were stolen or lost I would buy another one. It?s small, light, fun to play, looks and sounds great. It?s my favorite guitar to date. It?s been my main guitar since I got it 6 months ago and I use it to lead praise and worship at church every Sunday. Lefties don?t have the choices righties do and are looking at a special order anyway. Carvin makes ALL their factory guitars left-handed at no extra cost!!! Their catalogs routinely picture lefty versions of their guitars. (I won?t mentioned the names of the companies that haven?t bothered to respond to requests for left handed versions of their guitars. Or the company rep I talked to about a left handed version of one of their guitars that pretty much blew off left handers in general.) I wanted a high quality, unique, yet affordable guitar and Carvin delivered. I regularly get great comments about my AC175; the only thing guitar players don?t like is that it?s left handed, so they can?t play it! My Carvin AC 175 is the best guitar I have ever played, and I enjoy playing it almost every day.

I think it's an '02/'03
(I picked it up used, but looks brand new, as does the tweed case and strap)
Basic model sunburst w black locking Sperzel tuners.
24 nicely dressed medium frets on an ebony fretboard with pearl dots and silver side markers.
25" scale; medium "C" shape; mild curvature laterally (12" radius?).
Piezo type acoustic bridge with throughbody back-load ferrals (not pins).
Mahogany throughneck with a chambered thinline body (with soundhole), a bit like a hollowed out Telecaster style.
Solid spruce top.
Three pre-amp control knobs mounted on front lower bout; back 9-volt housing.

The only piezo equipped guitar I ever had that sounded better than this was a koa Tacoma Chief with a dual system (internal mic too), and it would feedback a lot sooner than this.
As this style Carvin has very limited acoustic response, feeding back is not a problem at loud volumes, and it still sounds very good.

A little extra processing really puts the finishing touches on the sound (through a Tech 21 Acoustic D.I.), though dedicated "acoustic" style amplifier would probably not need it, as the on-board controls offer a lot of range.

Due to the piezo type sound source, the bass strings are hard to get the "grit" out of, but maybe different strings will tone that down (flatwounds).
Overall this guitar sounds very good, given the application, and is THE solution to on-stage "acoustic" volume needs when playing with drummers.

Perfect.
The neck feels GREAT!!!

Action is nice, and I really like the scale length. It's perfect.

Looking inside the soundhole some "construction grade" lumber is visible (meaning not sanded smooth), but that doesn't detract in any way from this package, which is finely finished in gloss, with some fade staining on the body and neck.

Everything fits and lines up perfectly.

Did I mention the neck is like a dream?

Much sturdier than any acoustic. More like a tele thinline.
No complicated neck joint to worry about.

I keep a spare 9-volt battery handy in the car though, just in case.

I could depend on it without worrying about a backup, but it is more usually the backup itself (for acoustic songs).

No experience with the company reps, though I have had other Carvin gear occasionally.
Trouble free stuff.
My son swears by their PA stuff.

Playing since 1960.
I have a Ibanez Jazz guitar (af120), and a Strat.
Marshall amp, and an acoustic guitar.

I love the way this guitar plays! And it sounds good, for a piezo style.
Definitely solves the acoustic volume problem.

Please note: There is a review below features a major inaccuracy - I e-mailed Carvin and they answered within minutes: "The tops are all solid. Every purchaser of a Carvin guitar is given a 10-day trial period out of our Custom Shop!!! No other custom shop offers that. If it was so bad, then why was it not returned???"

My solid-topped guitar had a very solid bottom end, crisp but not bright top end. Standard German hard-alloy frets, mahogany body and bookmatched spruce top.

I bought this at the personal recommendation of Will Ray of the Hellecasters.

Rock riffs to jazz chords and bumkin music. Clean electronics and it even sounds good through little A-class amps like my Vox AC30.

Everything was PERFECT. Crowning, fret level, neck, bridge it even arrived in tune!

Withstands falling off the stand and staying in tune! Elixir Nanoweb strings are also hearty. I am very impressed.

They know more than the guys at every store I've been to.

I've been unhappy with the other "acoustic-electrics" since they all feedback badly. The Carvin design is superior and doesn't have that quackiness that other piezos have.

Great feel to the neck too!

This is a 2001 model. Pretty much summed up in previous comments. Laminated top looks cheap. Nice neck profile.

I'm not sure whhat went wrong, either the previous reviews are over rated or I got a lemon. Mine sounds thin and brittle. I've tried it through several setups and its just not going to cut it for gigging.

The guitar is put together really nice, but the fake looking laminated top is pretty cheezy. The setup was way off and there are some permanent finger smears in the finish.

I more than likely will be giving it to my 14 year old.

This is what will keep me from ever buying Carvin again. The proeple there are rude, onoxious, and stuck up to put it mildly. They really freak out on you if you dare say something is wrong with their precious little product. I now see why they're over 50 years old and still a small rinky dink company.

I would pay someone to steal it. Well, maybe not, but I wouldn't buy another if something happened to it.

About one month ago, I had Carvin build me an AC175 custom guitar. The options that I chose were: standard koa top, 24 fret ebony fretboard, ebony bridge with a standard acoustic ribbon-type pick-up. I chose all black satin hardware and a satin clear coat over the whole guitar. The electronics were a standard active volume, bass, treble that are fed by a 9 volt battery. Neck and body are standard mohogany.
Everything promised was delivered as far as features go. And all components seem to be high quality and top notch. I even had the trust rod cover engraved with my name. At the time I ordered the guitar, all options were at half price including a hardshell case. The guitar came with: trust rod adjuster, picks, and the SNAGG microchip tracing system. Elixer strings were also included. Carvin really delivered on the features. I really got a lot of "bang for the buck" on this deal, as far as features go.

I play mainly finger style music. And the acoustic sound when plugged in was amazing, even when played through a cheap combo amp with a 10 inch speaker. No noise, no grit, exellent EQ, loads of bright, barrels of low end, and tons of volume. Literally, this is the best sounding guitar I have ever heard.

Action on this guitar is another story. I have been playing guitar for 30 years, and I have played a wide variety of manufacturers and models. I was suprised to find that this guitar had very stiff action. The action was not necessarily too high, but the strings were hard to bend while the guitar was tuned to concert pitch. I can think of several things to remedy this, but the fact of the matter is that a custom built guitar should play perfect out of the box.
I could not find any finishing flaws or funky woodworking on this instrument. It appears to me that whoever inspects these guitars before they leave the factory only looks at them, and does not play them. FYI: I ended up tuning the guitar one step lower than standard concert pitch. This seemed to work for me because there are times when I do tune down. It really loosened the action. Of course, I had to adjust the trust rod to compensate for the different tension. Now, if I want to play in concert pitch, I just capo it at the second fret, and everyone is happy. It would have been nice if Carvin had raised the heel of the neck, and the height of the saddle so I could make some personal adjustments in this area. Sorry, Carvin. I have to give you a 2 in this area.

I would use this guitar as an Army Ranger survival tool before my next gig, and have no back-up. Everything in this instrument is of the highest quality, and cosmetically attractive.

When calling Carvin to order this guitar, everyone seemed nice. I would expect a 5 year warranty on a custom-made guitar, which this comes with. My only complaint about customer service is that is would have been nice if they would have given me a call before they shipped it, so I could be ready for it, and it wouldn't have sat on my front porch in sub-zero temperatures.

I wish I could have had them put the output jack in the back strap button. I am comparing this guitar to my last guitar, a Parker Fly. I hate magnetic pick-ups, never used them, and hated the light-gauged strings, so I thought that Carvin could make me what I wanted. If I had to choose this guitar by pulling it off the rack, I would have put it back, only because of the stiff action. I think that when you pay this much money for a guitar (custom-made or not) it should be easier to play while in concert pitch.

Unknown year Carvin AC175. Purchased used off Ebay. Jet black gloss finish, Ebony fingerboard, dot inlays, neck thru, gold plated parts, locking Sperzels, string thru body, shell body binding, Fishman bridge pick up, strap locks. Just by luck, the added features (body binding, strap locks, gold plating) are just what I would have ordered had I gotten Carvin to make this guitar for me. Indeed, I'm having them make me an a/e 12 string and these are the extras I'm paying for with the exception of getting block inlaid MOP fret markers.

Sound is everything to me and this guitar has it in spades. I'm a guy that has always played the electric on stage & in the studio but played acoustic in the house. I'm now doing acoustic on stage but I needed an a/e that had electric feel and acoustic sound. This guitar meets those criteria. I have made some recordings with it and played them for people and asked them if the guitar is acoustic or lectric. Even some very good ears just couldn't tell. To this set of ears, the sound falls perfectly in the middle. The bass and treble controls are knobs...and that in itself is about 1000% better than faders to me. But more than that they are very linear with a center detente. The volume pot is also very linear. Only thing they could have done to improve it for my style was move the volume dial closer to the saddle so I could manipulate it for pedal steel or violin effects. Bass to treble the guitar has excellent balance. I use two different types of pedal boards; a Digitech RP-1 (yes an RP-1, don't be jealous) and a Zoom 504 acoustic, depending on the gig. The guitar works beautifully with either. It sounds excellent with overdrive, chorus, flange, etc. Probably because it's neck thru and string thru, the instrument has excellent sustain. Feedback is not an issue and I don't use a feedback buster. I play it through a Crate acoustic amp and send a line out to the PA. The Crate acts as my monitor. The guitar sounds incredible even through the small acoustic amp. The sound of the guitar through the main system Mackie speakers is excellent..cutting through the sound mix when I tweak the treble for a lead. I know I'm supposed to be critical here but I wouldn't change a single thing about the sound. I use 12's by the way.

Since I got this guitar second hand, I don't know what work was done by the prior owner or by the Carvin factory. I can tell you that there were no finish flaws that I could find anywhere. The ebony fingerboard perfectly radiused (for me anyway) and the frets are comfortable, well polished, and high enough to allow bending. All the frets are accessible and the spacing is wide enough for finger picking even on this small guitar (the body of the ac 275 is about an inch and a half wider..I don't know if the neck is the same). In a word..perfect.

I perform live 3-4 nights a week and use this guitar at every job. I still get called for an occasional "electric" job and I'm thinking about bringing the Carvin anyway. I've heard the gold tarnishes after a while. I used to do gold electro-plating. That's what gold does. If it ever gets tarnished, I'll clean it. I use this guitar on gigs without a back up 6 string. If I break a string I can just pick up my 12 string or mandolin. It does not seem to be a battery hog. The finish is outstanding and should outlive me. All the hardware appears to be first rate and should last the life of the instrument.

I have not had to deal with Carvin about this instrument. I did call them a couple of weeks ago to have them build me a AC275-12 based on the quality of this guitar. Their staff was friendly and competent.

I've been playing the guitar for 37 years. For all of those years I have played acoustic and electric. I also play bass, keyboards, mandolin, and 5 string banjo. My work forced me to play electric but I never had the same love for it as I had for an acoustic anything. This guitar is without question the most versatile steel string guitar I've ever owned and I've owned some good ones (Gibson John Lennon, Gibson B-45-12, etc). It's difficult at best to compare an acoustic electric with an acoustic only guitar. But I'd have to say that this guitar brings a lot more to the table. I bought it on reputation only since I don't live near a Carvin store and never met anyone that had one for me to try. After playing it the first time my wife asked me what I thought. I told her that I wanted to play this guitar every day for the rest of my life. If it get lost or stolen I will order another one exactly the same as this one.

2001 Carvin AC175. Natural gloss finish. AAA quilted maple top and headstock overlay. Ebony fingerboard and fixed acoustic-style bridge. Mahogany body and thru-neck. Graphite nut. Gold hardware, locking Sperzel tuners. F60 piezo bridge pickup, supposedly made by Fishman. 9v active electronics with volume, bass and treble. Strung through the body. I didn't get the binding, and I'm glad I didn't; it wouldn't have matched. Hey Carvin, what about some all-white binding?

With the quilted maple top and the gold hardware, it looks a little pimped out. But that's my fault. You can get whatever options you like.

Keeping in mind that the body is only 1 7/8", this instrument does a very convincing job of sounding like a true acoustic through an amp. (Don't get this if you intend to use it acoustically; its unamplified sound is scarcely louder than a solidbody electric.) I was worried that the guitar would be weak in the bass, but it sounds perfectly balanced when amplified; very little tweaking of the onboard EQ is required to get a good, useable tone. There's plenty of sustain, too. All in all, I'd say it's one of the best sounding piezo-only guitars I've heard, in any price range.

Okay, this guitar can't cheat physics; it does lack a certain amount of harmonic complexity, and doesn't move much air. If you like the feel of a bouncy, vibrating top, you won't find it here. But the tradeoff is acceptable, as it sounds crystal clear, sufficiently "woody" and there's absolutely no feedback to worry about.

Despite the fact that everyone does it now, people single Carvin out for using CNC to make parts. If this is what machines are capable of, I say bring it on! As I said, the guitar looks a little pimped out, but that's my fault. The quality of the quilt maple is excellent; with the gloss finish, the top and headstock look almost three-dimensional. The blondish top also contrasts nicely with the warm orange/brown of the mahogany. The neck feels very electric, but the spacing at the bridge, surprisingly, is fine for fingerpicking. All 24 frets are accessible, since the instrument has neck-through construction, and Carvin doesn't even bother with simulating a heel. Fretwork is terrific; everything's polished and rounded, with no file marks. This is easily the best fretjob I've seen for about $800. The gold hardware looks solid, but we'll see.

Glitches? I have to look very hard. Nut slots look a little deep. Some glue bleeding onto the fretboard under some frets. One small knothole in the back. Some streaking in the ebony bridge. (Of course, a lot of people don't consider this a fault at all.) Also, it needs some airing out; I'm getting high on glue fumes. I'm nitpicking, though. In this price range, there's very little I feel comfortable complaining about.

The guitar is ostentatiously pretty, which gives me pause about playing it out. I've also heard that Carvin's gold hardware tarnishes easily; like I said, we'll see. Still, it's very well put together: the gloss finish looks fairly protective, there are no loose or moving parts, no play in the strap buttons, and no tremolo to go out of tune. The Sperzels seem to hold their tuning well. Just keep a 9v handy and you're good to go. As this is more likely to serve as a "specialty" guitar rather than an all-the-time workhorse, why bother with a backup?

Carvin seems to be staffed with a bunch of fairly nice and responsible guys, which already puts them miles ahead of others in the biz. You can actually talk to a live person on the phone! The problem is that they're still old school. I bought this as an "in stock" guitar off of their website, and I had to call them with my confirmation number to remind them to send it. The website's really nice, and reasonably informative, but it's not yet integral to their operation. Moral: pick up the damn phone if you want service!

Despite an absolute lack of collector's cachet, Carvin always offers great value for the working stiff or casual player such as myself. The AC175 is the ultimate plug-and-play guitar. The electronics (just three knobs) are considerably less fiddly than the ugly and obtrusive EQs that come on standard acoustics; there's no feedback to worry about; there's no bloody tremolo to worry about; there are no mag pickups to switch or tap; and you don't need to be an amateur electrical or acoustic engineer to get a useable tone.

The only competition in this market and price range, really, is Godin. Tonally, they come up about even, but I think the Carvin is cosmetically superior. Also, I can't think of another company that lets you have an SKB-style hardshell for $40. The only reason I give the AC175 a 9 is because I don't ever give 10s.