Carvin Bolt Kit

I purchased from Carvin an unfinished Alder body, hardtail bridge, standard tuners, two mini-toggle switches and a gibson style 3-way, volume and tone pots, a tone capacitor, an output jack, string ferrules, and two string trees. For the money, they had really cheap parts, and I just wanted to build a beater guitar using some spare humbuckers and a neck I had laying around. I also had Warmoth make me a pickguard for it.

Well, it's a cheapy beater guitar. The Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge spot really drives my Marshall JCM 800 head for a very full sound at low volumes. I can't say how much Carvin's parts have to do with this, so no opinion here. The tone pot is useless due to the bad sound of the capacitor, though.

I agree wholeheartedly with Gary H's review on Nov. 7th, 2002. These parts are seconds, no question.

The guitar body stopped just short of having a huge knot in the upper horn. It wasn't not easy to see until I started the finishing process, but the wood grain is all kinds of UGLY. I finished it with Minwax ebony stain and several coats of high-gloss tung oil.

The bridge and tuners have rough edges most of the way around. One of the tuners is really difficult to turn - I feel like I'm going to break it when tuning.

The volume AND tone pots are scratchy right out of the box and intermittently cut out on me. No matter how hard I tighten down the knob on the volume pot, it seems to fall off eventually.

One of the mini-toggles fell apart when I was bolting it to the pickguard.

Installing the output jack, I couldn't plug in a cable without chiseling extra wood out of the machine routed hole in the body.

The tone capacitor rolls off all kinds of extra frequencies, just doesn't sound good at all. I'm not sure what value they include with their kits, but I'd recommend anything else.

Overall, the quality of these parts is way below par. I didn't return anything because this guitar is a beater like I said before, just a sponge to sop up alot of spare parts I had laying around.

This guitar sits out in the living room. I play it when I have a free five minutes and want to strum a few chords. I used it for two gigs, a brief side project some friends of mine and I put together. I strung it up with 12's and tuned it differently and it did okay, but I was nervous about it falling apart or cutting out.

No direct contact - I ordered online and they shipped it to me, end of story.

Around the same time, I ordered and assembled a Warmoth Jazzmaster. I guess that's my basis of comparison. I've never had a problem with the pots or hardware I got from Warmoth, and everything fit together as it was supposed to (even with me doing all the aligning and drilling myself). The Carvin parts are no comparison. They're crap.

Overall: "1- What a hunk of junk!"

Save your money and buy a Carvin kit. It is an excellent guitar and blows away any Fender or equivalent higher priced piece of garbage. You can't touch a quality guitar like this for under $900. I got the Florida SwamAsh wood for the body. Try buying that at a guitar store. The guitar is so light compared to Basswood and Alder. Very sweet on tone. Recommend Carvin very highly. In fact, it's my second Carvin guitar.

Bright Sounding with Swampash body.

Difficult to polyurethane and tint with a smooth high gloss unless done professionally.

Hardware pretty well made. No complaints. Can't touch it for the money.

Never had to use them.

Owned other Carvin and Gibson and Kramer.

just finished my 2002 bolt kit.
I ordered it with the alder body,maple neck,ebony finger board,
gold hardware,red tortise pickguard,and 3 twin blade hummers.
Let say that Carvin necks are AWESOME!!!The only thing that I can be slightly critical about are the tuners,A little to much slack in them for my tastes...oh well should ordered the locking tuners.

the sound you say? well lets just say that Fender has the right to be jealous....the bolt out shines a strat by a mile,so many pickup combinations.Very good clean sounds,but if you crank the gain it will
scream.Also very good harmonics.

absolutley no flaws,the finish I did myself,which came out pretty nice seeing as how this was the first time I had ever stained any type of wood,gave it 3 coats of Minwax "cherry" polyurathane.
the neck was easy to do 4 coats of tung oil,steel wool it between coats then finish with a good coat of old english lemon oil.....do as Carvin says take you time...........be patient because at this point you will be wanting to get together and jammin on it.

I dont play professionally,but if I did I would use my 97 gold Wolfgang as my main axe,and the carvin bolt for a backup.

only talked to them to make the order.

The way I see it why big $$ for a "name brand" strat.
The Carvin will play circles around any strat that I have ever played.
The only strat you will get for the cost of the Carvin is the one from across the border....and thank you no I will pass on that one.
These are 100% made in the USA.

I ordered the Bolt kit with the strat body, Wilkinson tremelo and Sperzel tuners. The pickups are a Carvin M22 on the bridge, a Twin Blade humbucker in the center and a AP-11 at the neck. The guitar is made of Alder wood. I put 4 coats of tung oil on with a brush and the final 2 coats with a rag. Next, I ragged on a light coat of satin polyurethane. The guitar works and looks great. I couldn't be happier.

The sound is awesome. I play rock, blues, praise and worship, heavy metal-you name it and because of the pickups that I chose this guitar can do it all. The AP-11 in the neck is warm and the M22 has a nice heavy crunch to it, particularly when you activate all 3 pickups with the switch. Twin Humbucker is a nice comprimise between the two. I would say that its sound actually has some of the best qualities of a telecaster and strat.

The kit fits together great and I was able to get the action incredibly low. The rosewood finger board is actually beautiful. I was not expecting to be so impressed with the neck and have gotten several compliments on it. It is a very fast neck and feels good. I wish that they had the option of no fret markers.

I have only had this for a week now but it seems very durable.

Among my many guitars I have a Fender Strat, a '71 Les Paul Standard and a great Jackson DK-II. This guitar is now my favorite. I love it and would recommend it to anyone. I've seen comparisons to the Fender Strat but this is a totally different guitar. It feels different and sounds different. Plus-it's just better.

I purchased a bolt kit - alder body, maple neck with ebony fingerboard, 3 single coils, hardtail, black hardware, pearloid pickguard, and finished it as they recommend with tung oil.

it is as good as any strat type guitar I've played. The pickups are bright without being thin and give a wide range of harmonic content. The center pickup is reverse wound so it is hum free in positions 2&5 and when you add in the bridge to get all 3 pickups. The pickups alone are as quiet as any single coils I've encountered.

all of the parts fit together perfectly and all of the holes were pre-drilled. It couldn't be easier to put together

the finish... well, that is up to you.

it seems made for hard use

unknown

I've played over 35 years and have owned dozens of guitars including pre CBS teles and strats. This ranks with the best of them at being a good sounding, good playing, sturdy guitar... nothing fancy but it does the job.

2002 model Bolt kit with the following options: LEFT HANDED, white pearloid pickguard, twin blade mini-humbuckers H-H-H, sperzel locking tuners, swamp ash body. The rest of the features have already been listed before. There are plenty of features available for this kit. I especially like the fact that they will sell it in Lefty.

It seems to sound as expected. I will probably either add taps for the neck and middle, or swap them out for single coils. Carvin pickups are always lame, and these are no exception. The neck is excellent, as all carvin necks are. Fast and slim. I have used it with my Boogie subway rocket reverb and my 66 Ampeg reverberocket II, and it seems to prefer the boogie, which usually works better with hum's anyway. The pickups have too much midrange, even for humbuckers, so the neck and middle don't sound too well. The bridge sounds pretty good though.

Here is where my complaints lie. I suspect that Carvin is shipping out their "blemished" and "second" parts in these kits. The swamp ash body that I paid an extra $30 for had flaws in the grain as well as a chip in the neck socket. I successfully sanded the chip down to an almost unnoticeable state, but didn't notice the flaws until after I had applied the first coat of tung oil (when it was too late to return it.) Here is another major complaint: The instructions never mention the fact that Swamp ash is far too porous to take a tung oil finish easily. If I would have known this I would not have paid the extra $30 for it. My main purpose in writing this is to warn any potential buyers to this fact. If you get the swamp ash you will either need to be a pro at woodworking or take it to a pro to get a good finish. It requires wood filling to look really good. Mine is acceptable, but the denser (and cheaper) alder would have looked better and would have been easier to finish. It took me a week and about a dozen coats of tung oil to get a decent finish. Also, the sockets for the string routing holes were a pain in the ass for me, as well as the previous posters. I ended up putting a small dent in the back of the body on the first one. My advice here is to find a drift pin or blunt punch or metal rod that will fit inside the sockets and hit it with a hammer to drive them in.

The sperzels that I got in were dirty and greasy, which is another reason I think they are sending seconds out in these kits.

The pickguard was already wired when I got it, but someone must not have taught the idiot that wired this how to wire a left-handed guitar. When a lefty is wired, the pots have to be wired up backwards, or else the volume and tone knobs work in the wrong direction. This one was wired backwards, and after I spent an hour or so rewiring it, I discovered that the volume pot was bad. This is yet ANOTHER reason I think they are shipping reject parts in these kits. So I spent another hour on it, and by this time the wiring cavity is no longer well organized and neat. Also the copper shielding foil they sent was cut for a right handed cavity, so it didn't fit just right. The nut is very crappy looking and too tall; I hope is isn't like this on their production models. The bridge was intonated for a right-handed guitar, so I get to spend my free time tonight re-intonating it...

These questions are all dependent on your building ability. The parts that were correct seem sturdy enough.

I have been trying to reach them to send me a replacement volume pot, but they aren't very accessible. I am getting no answer in the cust service dept. I ended up using my own, which doesn't quite match their knob...

I've been playing about 8 years. I own a bunch of strat-types, but this is the first kit I've purchased. If you're looking to save money, do yourself a favor and spend the extra $$$ and get a finished instrument. This thing is only suited for someone who wants a project, and has a lot of patience. If you do buy one, don't get swamp ash unless you are prepared to deal with it. If you're a lefty, DO NOT BUY THIS!! It will be more headache than it is worth!

I purchased the kit in September 2002 and recieved it three weeks later. It was made in California. I orderd the alder body with twin blade humbucker and two single coil in the middle and neck position. It has a maple neck and ebony fingerboard. I ordered the stop tailpiece with Carvin tuners all chrome with a red pick guard. I also ordered the tweed case. All parts came as ordered and the quality of the work seems very good. Thumbs Up.

The sound is really very good. The single coils sound fantastic with the humbucker being slightly muddy for heavy distortion. I really love the single coils with a clean sound. The electronics are surprisingly quiet, I was very careful in my shielding process. The pickups are very loud and bright and the five way switch gives you a good variety of sounds.Another thumbs up for the sound. Very impressive Carvin!

The factory setup was amazingly close after I assembled the guitar. Intonation took about three minutes to correct, and the neck itself nearly had perfect forward bow. Getting a 1/16" action was a piece of cake. I never would have thunk it! All pre-drilled holes were dead on accurate and my alder body had nice grain and the tung oil procedure recomended by Carvin looks very nice. Only one problem occured. There was no pre-drilled hole from the jack cavity to the main electronics cavity, so I had to drill it myself, no biggie. All manufacturer work was top shelf quality and the hardware was of excellent quality. But I expect this from Carvin.

Strap buttons are a bit small looking so I purchased a set of locking strap buttons myself and installed them instead. The finish will not last. This guitar needs lots of TLC especially the neck finish. (tung oil) It will ding very easily, but it looks really nice.

I called them once to ask a question about the truss rod adjustment and got a quick response from some dude. So, it's okay, I guess. The one time I needed them they delivered. so I'll give a 10

I have been playing 17 years and own two Gibson LP's (custom and studio)a Crate Vintage Tube 50 combo amp, Peavy Max 100 digi processor, various DOD pedals, and last and certainly least, a Peavy Classic Chorus 130 combo amp. Overall it's a fantastic deal . This is a very good quality axe that I will put up against nearly any other. Especially any Fender. Quality controll at Carvin seems to be a top priority if my order is the norm. I am totally impressed. Since I have one I probobly won't buy another one, but I may, you never know. I never intended to get this one, it just happened. If you want to save about 50% on a high quality stratoid type guitar buy the Bolt Kit.

I bought the basic fixed-bridge Bolt kit with no extras/options at the Carvin outlet store in Santa Ana, CA. They were having a sale on the Bolt kits ($30 off).

Basic kit includes:
Two-piece unfinished alder body
25.5 scale unfinished maple neck with ebony fretboard
Carvin non-locking tuners
Strat-style stainless steel fixed bridge
Pickguard assembly with 3 AP11 single coil PU's
Hardware and instructions
Set of 9 guage strings (!)

I love the sound of this guitar. The materials are of very high quality and this is reflected in the Bolt's excellent tone. I have already written a review for the Carvin AP11 pickups. I feel that these are truly some of the best strat-type pickups available and are unbeatable for their price. I like strats to have a bright tone and the Bolt is right up my alley in this respect. I agree with previous posters who recommend changing the pots to 250k if you feel that the Bolt's tone is too bright. Also, the ebony neck and stainless steel bridge will certainly contribute to this guitar's bright tone. Its just a matter of taste. The 2 extra pickup combinations (activated via the small toggle switch near the tone control) allow for a total of 7 pickup combinations.

I don't think that Carvin could have made it any easier for someone to build a guitar. Everything was measured and drilled precisely. The pickups and electronics came pre-assembled and wired (no soldering required). The neck was flawless and the frets did not require leveling. I would have prefered a fatter neck with a slightly rounder radious, but that's just my personal preference. The instructions were comprehensive and easy to follow. The only thing that I had some trouble with was applying the copper shielding to the pickup cavity. This is difficult with any guitar. I followed Carvin's advice and applied a tung oil finish. As long as you follow the finishing instructions and take your time, it is quite easy to get a great looking finish. Also, one advantage of a tung oil finish is that it is very thin and, therefore, allows the wood to "breathe". The result is better tone. Repairing scratches and small dings is also easy. My rating is for the pre-assembled kit.

Being a strat clone, this guitar can take a beating. Everything is of high quality. Don't worry about a backup.

I've never had to deal with customer support.

Check out Tom Wheeler's review of the Bolt kit in Guitar Player (I don't remember which issue). I agree with his review almost completely. For $300, I got a guitar that sounds and plays as well as any guitar that I own. This is truly a complement because I own a number of more expensive guitars (Gibsons, G&L, Rickenbacker, Parker, etc.). The Bolt is truly superior in every way to the 3 American Standard Strats that I have owned. I am in no way affiliated with Carvin, I just really like the Bolt kit.

2002 Bolt Kit, Strat Body type, Maple Neck with Ebony Fret board, 22 Frets, Alder Body, H with coil splitter/S/S, Thru the body tail piece, sperzel tuners, 1-Vol, 1-Tone, 5 way blade switch, Carvin Pickups and the neck is 25 1/2" scale. I got the optional usable features. All the hardware is black.

The sound is very good Position 1 with the C22 humbucker, I think sounds better than the JB in my USA Hamer Custom, Position 2 and 4 are very straty. I play in a Contemp. Church band and also occasionally play in local Rock bands. Overall the sound is very good, quite suprised.

This is where it is feast or famine. You have to set the guitar up yourself since you built it. All the pieces were predrilled and went together extremely well. I decided to paint it instead of following the tung oil suggestion...BIG MISTAKE...it totally looks like a VERY unprofessional job, wich it was...I'm not overly concerned because I am a function over looks type of player. BUT...the neck has been nothing but problems, I have to adjust the relief about every week to other week, I have to constantly adjust the intonation and the strap locks were on the verge of being wheels off, one slightly wrong move and the strap would come off the guitar, the buttons are way too small. One other thing...the neck is just slightly to wide and thin for my taste...its a shredder type of neck with a little more meat.

Everything on it is built to last. Strap buttons sucked. If the neck wasnt a problem it would be a solid 9 but this particular neck just cant decide to be still.

I called three times, the guy that took my order was very helpful even when I called back for an update. The other guy didnt give a rat's orafice.

If you like 1 11/16th necks and strat sounds its a very servicable guitar and plays like a $800-$1000 guitar. I consider the neck problem to be and exception and not the rule but you know what I'm basing this rating on my guitar, crappy neck and all. I have been playing for 25 years and have played/owned 76' Les Paul, 97 Hamer custom Archtop, various Strats, 64'/73' Mustang, Ernie Ball Silhouette, Wolfgang (regardless of being a Peavey one of the best tone/playability guitars no matter what the price), 61' Duo-Sonic, Hamer Chaparrel, Charvel, Washburn (very good guitars), Warrior for a shot while, blah blah blah. If it were lost or stolen I would only feel bad being out the cash...It you want to get the experience and build a guitar this is your deal, if you want an excellent guitar built to last at an exceptional price buy a used Ernie Ball Silhouette. What a mistake.

Being reviewed is my new Bolt Kit from Carvin. Received it the second week of June after 8 weeks of painful waiting (I understand the maple fretboard is a special item not in stock). I ordered:
Swamp Ash strat type body
Black pearloid pickguard
Black hardware
Maple fingerboard
Twinblade Humbucker in bridge position, AP11s in middle and neck pos.
Sperzel locking tuners
Strap locks

Everything else was standard. When I first opened the box I couldn't believe the quality of the kit materials, especially the wood. I ordered the Swamp Ash because the grain pattern is more condusive to a natural finish, and that's what I wanted. I couldn't have picked a better piece of wood myself. Since I customized it myself, I got everything I wanted. But the quality of the features blew me away.

I play blues and rock. This guitar suits my style well. I play it through a Peavey Classic 30. The AP11s pickups are fairly warm and bluesy. The Twinblade is pretty punchy and twangy, almost Tele-like in its bridge position sound. Although the guitar is a strat type body, it has a sound a little different than the strats I've played and the strat that I owned. It has a couple close strat-type sounds, but it really is its own animal. Positions 2 and 4 are not as quacky as I remember my Fender being, but I think the Carvin has a richer smoother sound to it. This is a high quality instrument that has a high quality sound, but it has its own sound for the most part. I've heard a lot of people say that Carvins tend toward the bright and trebly end of the spectrum, but I wouldn't say that this one is overly bright. This guitar has the only tone control that has ever done anything of value for me, so I see the guitar has having some bright bite when I want it with the ability to mellow it out when necessary. The Bolt comes standard with a mini switch that turns on the bridge pickup. When on this allows the bridge and neck pickup configuration in the first position and all three pickups in the second position. While this theoretically gives more versatility to tonal possibilities, the differences are so slight to my ear (and with my equipment) that I rarely use the neck and brige pickups together and I never use all three. A more discriminating ear may disagree and find some value here. I didn't buy it to copy the sound of another guitar/player, so I'm completly thrilled with the quality of tones I can milk from this guitar.

I had to finish and assemble the guitar myself, but everything lined up exactly. And I mean EXACTLY. The neck fit into the pocket perfectly. Every pickguard screw lined up perfectly. The only problem I had was hammering the through-the-body string eyes into the back of the guitar. I used a rubber mallet and I still dinged my finish. I tung oiled the neck 6 times. I just slathered as much on as I could, waited 10 minutes to wipe off the excess, then let it dry for 6 hours, then did it all again. Easy. The body finish was a lot more work, but not hard. I've never done anything like this before and the details (and my excitement) challenged my patience, but it really was pretty simple. I sanded the body down, sprayed on a wood sealer, let it dry, lightly sanded it again, rubbed black pigment into and across the grain, let it dry, sanded the pigment off just enough to leave black in the grain and lacquered it with three cans of Deft lacquer in aeresol cans. I sanded between every three or four thin coats. It turned out awesome. I can't believe I actually made it look that good. It is not just "good for a homemade guitar," it looks like first class quality.

I had to adjust the intonation. They gave good instructions and it wasn't far off. The action was about perfect for me--fairly low (mine was a little more than the claimed 1/16 of an inch) and no buzzing--but it took me a while to get used to the neck. It seemed wide and flat to me, compared to the guitars I've been used to (epi lp and a kramer striker)--almost like I was playing a 1x4. They say that it is supposed to be a fast neck, but I can't comment on that because I'm not a fast player. I did get used to it and it is comfortable for me now. I've never had a maple fingerboard before either, so that might be part of the initial weirdness. I'll ding Carvin a point for the action being higher than advertised.

I didn't find any obvious shortcuts that Carvin might have taken that will end up being the weak link of the guitar. I think this guitar can be a workhorse for someone on the road, although I don't use it that way. The kit comes with two wirenuts so that no soldering is necessary, but if I were going to depend on it I would go ahead and solder the wires to the pots. Just like the gold wore off my Epi LP hardware, I would expect the black hardware to wear a bit with time, but I have no indication that it has started already (only been playing it for a month now).

I called several times to check on the status of my order. I was originally told to check the status in about 2 weeks, since orders like mine take about three weeks. My wait was almost triple that. They were friendly when I called though. I ordered an extra pickup, and that got left out of my order. I got so carried away with my kit that I forgot that I ordered it, but when I remembered and called they sent it right out. One thing that irked me was that they charged my credit card right away and had my money for over 8 weeks before I even got to look at my guitar to see if I liked the quality of it. Maybe they make all their money on the interest from other people's money. I don't know. They sure don't overcharge for their guitars though. I ordered a cataloge from them online and it took over six weeks to get here.

I'd definately buy another kit. It was a lot of fun to make and I'm amazed at the final product--the quality of the materials as well as the finish (if I don't say so myself). I've been playing guitar for over 25 years. I'm a "value shopper," so I look for the best quality I can find at an affordable price without respect for brand names. If you gotta have a Fender or Fender strat tone, don't buy this guitar. But I honestly can't imagine being able to get a comparable Fender for twice the amount of money. This is a great quality instrument. I also like the fact that buying this guitar isn't putting money into some multimillion dollar promotional campaign to make some Freddy Van Weenie rich. Instead Carvin can make their profit and send me an awesome guitar at a very fair price.