Product: Carvin AE185
Price Paid: US $900
Submitted
06/18/1998
at
09:36am
by
Mike Pisani
Features
:
10
1997 (made in USA) Flame maple top (clear / natural finish), 24 fret, neck throught the body (mahogany), semi-hollow body with single F hole and a single cutaway body style. I chose upgraded Carvin pickups for both the neck and bridge positions. (standard setup 2 humbuckers) The humbuckers are both splittable and can be set out of phase as well with toggle switches. In addition, this guitar features a carivn accoustic, active pick-up in the bridge. this allows you to switch from accoustic to electric or even blend both sounds. It features sepearate inputs for both accoustic and electric. If you use the rear input jack only, the sounds are blended and the blend is controled by a separate knob. The guitar has 4 knobs; Master volume, tone for the humbuckers, tone for the accoustic pick-up and accoustic/electric blend. The guitar has a traditional headstock (three tuners on each side) with self-l;ocking tuning heads. Hard shell case (large! lots of space for stuff!!!)
Sound
:
10
It is fantastic for Hard rock! I am lone guitarist in the band. It is great to blend an accoustic sound in the background under you electric sound. The sound is deep, full and rich with plenty of sustain. The accoustic sound adds a nice top end. I even leave it on for leads. I play through an ART DST eighty / eighty. and two ADA 2x12" cabinets running stereo. The accounstic side, I run through a 30 watt Dean Markley accoustic guitar amp ( I mic it for live shows) I use plenty of distortion, flange, reverb, chorus, ocassional tremelo. The pickups are quiet as a church mouse and quite powerful.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
The bridge is a fixed "accoustic style" bridge. I would have liked to have the option of a tremelo, but I guess it wouldn't work with the accoustic pick-up setup. You can't adjust the action, but who needs to? It is perfect! The neck is the fastest I've played. The only problem was with the master volume. I am a lefty. The lefty model had the volume knob wired for righty's. ( come on guys! you could have switched the wires around for me)
Reliability/Durability
:
10
Everything is highest quality. ( as with my other Carvin guitars) I rely on them!
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
As a lefty, I am limited to the few manufacturers of left handed guitars. Carvin makes every model left handed! And the quality is the best i've ever played.
