Carvin Bolt Plus

Carvin is a custom company, and I got exactly what I ordered. Mahogany body, maple neck and fingerboard, reverse headstock, sperzel machine heads, hardtail bridge, tung oil finish on neck and body, two humbuckers, five way switch. Very utilitarian, everything I wanted, nothing I didn't. I rate it a ten. Most people might think it underfeatured, no fancy stuff, but if you can play, you don't need fancy stuff. I went ten here, because I was able to buy a guitar with eactly all of the features I wanted, right down to fret wire size, fingerboard radius, everything, just by filling out an order form. Now THAT is a great feature!

The sound is nothing short of OUT OF THIS WORLD. I thought: "Carvin will be fine. They build quality guitars, all I'll have to do is replace pickups, and I'll have just what I wanted."

I was WRONG. These pickups are great. Very well balanced, articulate, smooth, everything. I like them better than the Duncans in my other custom shop guitar. I play lots of clean tones, and when I use OD or distortion, it's never over the top. I play alt. and roots country, classic rock (a-la Stones, Faces, etc.) songwriter stuff, blues, all over the map, and this guitar never fails to deliver the goods. The lows are huge, but not boomy or muddy, the highs are there, and very tight, and the mids are smooth as butter. Everything from smooth jazz to full out honky-tonk or rock-a-billy is totally do-able with this guitar. I love it for my studio dates. It covers so much ground, that I can now just take this one guitar to sessions that I used to haul 4-6 axes to. It is worthy of mention, that when I do turn up the gain, and go all metal head with it for kicks (and yeah, I can do that, played in metal bands for years before I decided to be a pro player for a living) it's not so hot. The tones are there, and the pickups are very punchy, deep, defined, the whole nine yards. They are also quite microphonic under high-gain conditions. Lots of feedback (not the good kind) that I do not experience with other brands of pickups. it doesn't bother me much , because I can count the number times in a year that I use metal levels of gain, and a high level of volume, on one hand. But if you play metal for a living, you might have a problem with these pickups feeding back in a rather un-musical way...

I have owned more than 300 guitars in the last twelve years. I buy, sell, trade, whatever. Constantly on the quest for the ultimate axe. For playability, and just plain ol' kick ass feel and smoothness, not to mention the insanely fast and comfy neck, this Carvin beats the more than 100 US made Fenders I have owned, including Custom Shop pieces, it beats my PRS, it beats both my vintage, and Custom Shop Les Pauls. I have never in 25 years of playing guitar for a living, seen or felt better fret and nut work. The fit and finish is absolutely flawless as well, but for one thing-

There is a slight overhang of the fretboard, leading up the neck pickup, where the 22nd fret hangs out there in space, like on any other 22 fret bolt-on neck guitar. The difference is, on this one, nobody saw fit to sand or finish the underside of that overhang. Just lazy if you ask me, but since it doesn't affect playability at all, and the rest of the guitar is perfect, I didn't see a point in bitching, or sending it back.

I have gigged this guitar both live and in the studio, since the first week of March, 3-5 times a week minimum. It stays in tune under insane conditions, doesn't break strings, and always sounds like a million bucks. I have not taken a backup out since my first gig with it. It's simply as close to perfect as I believe a guitar can get.

Carvin customer support sucks. Period. They are a PITA to deal with, and are generally not very nice to talk to. I had issues with an amp I bought from them, and swore I would never purchase again. I played a friend's Carvin bass though, and decided to give a guitar a go. I'm glad I did, but I sincerely hope I never have to talk to them again about a service or support issue.

Overall, this was a very worthwhile purchase. If you're on the fence, dive in. Carvin is a sketchy thing you know, you have to REALLY know guitars. I am convinced I was able to get what I got, because looks were a dead last concern for me. I have been playing for a living for 25 years. I know about the properties of different woods, I know how different woods interact with each other, IE: I know what mahogany sounds like, I also know all of the different things that every type of top they offer, and every type of finish they offer will do to that tone. I know what fret wire and radius works best for me, everything. If you are just going to go off pics from the website or catalog, don't be surprised if you hate your custom guitar. Not everything that looks good to your eye, will sound like you want it to. I own lots of guitars, this is my favorite electric of all time. I own lots of amps, tubes, digital, solid state, different tools for different jobs. This guitar smokes on all of them. If it were stolen, I would find it, and then use it to beat the thief to death. I am confident it would still be in one piece, and still soundnig great by the time I stood trial.

'04 Swamp Ash body, Koa top, Ebony fretboard, maple neck, Sperzel locking tuners, Fishman fixed bridge w/ piezzo, M22 bridge pickup(I think), h22n neck pickup(for sure), 3-way pu selector, 2 coil splitters, phase switch, extra output for stereo piezzo use.

I bought it off of eBay not knowing what to expect. Never played a Carvin before. I thought I was going to have to change the pick-ups, boy was I wrong. I was astonished at how amazing it sounded(after thicker strings and setup). Every pickup selection was great. Actually, I hadn't even plugged it in until my bandmates got there so the first I played it was in a blues jam. Not only was I as comfortable as I've ever felt on any guitar, but we were all amazed by the sound. Overdrive on or off, every selection sounded incredible. I didn't even hear it w/ the coils split until my friend played it and again it was awesome. I'm not one of these guys that thinks everything they buy sounds the best, or are easily pleased. In fact quite the contrary. I am very picky and am usually disappointed, and was very weary about a blind guitar purchase. I also understand that a lot of people on this site didn't like the way theirs sounded. Maybe its the wood or the pick-ups or both, but I don't see gow anyone could not like the one I got. Maybe I got lucky, and I hope so, but I know a lot of picky musicians, even some "Carvin-haters" who love this thing. I am done buying guitars for quite a while now.

Out of the box, being used and all, I was very dissappointed with it. The action was way low and it buzzed like crazy. Felt cheap. Then I read the booklet it came with which said that from the factory the neck is flat and needs adjusting. OOOH! I think the guy who ordered it never knew this, or knew how, and hated it. Even left the original strings on it and sold it. Thanks. This thing is as close to mint as they come. Ten minutes of TLC and this is the nicest playing guitar out there up there with any Les Paul or PRS. Some guitars with low action just play cheap. Not here. I don't like low action so I set it high and it still is incredible with great response.

Maybe I got lucky, but I got a steal on a gem of a guitar. I've played tons of nice guitars, but even if I owned A LP or PRS, I'd never pick them up as long as I had this. Maybe yours sucks, but I'm happy as a pig in do-do. I'm going to go play it now while you play your comparable $3000 Prs with crappy pick-ups and three tone options. It probably plays nice though.

Swamp Ash Body,Floyd Rose w/Locking nut, Tung Oiled neck, Birdseye Maple fretboard, 2 Humbuckers..

The C22B & C22N pickups are better than I had expected. I was convinced I would have to replace them when the guitar arrived but I doubt I will now.

This guitar is a rebuild.. I sent the original back for a few issues I had with it.

The rebuild is an exemplary instrument.. Couldn't ask for better I rarely give a 10 but in this caregory it is deserved

I've only owned it less than 2 months,, cannot reasonably say

I had some substantial problems in this area.. There is no other way to put it.. I don't care to go into the details but if it weren't for the efforts of Mike and Marco at Carvin this deal would never have been salvaged. Kudos to them..

None the less, the entire experience has left me somewhat hesitant to deal with Carvin again

I've been playing for quite a while.. I own quite a few other instruments.. I've probably owned 50-100 instruments over the last 30 years.. If it were lost or stolem I'd collect the Ins money and probably look elsewhere. I DO like the instrument,it IS growing on me but I can't ever see it becoming my main and I own many other instruments that were far less in cost that I view as better values.

As mentioned below, the Carvin board is known for it's Nazi type attitude. Carvin needs to take a hard look at the policies they've implemented there. I'm not sure it is doing the company any favors.

2004 Model Bolt Plus. Black finish, ebony fretboard, matching headstock, chrome hardware, sperzel locking tuners, and FT6 hardtail bridge. This was the standard alder body with maple neck Bolt Plus. 2 C22 humbuckers with 5-way pickup switch.

I thought the pickups sounded fantastic clean, and the neck pickup was great with distortion, but I didn't like the sound of the bridge pickup with distortion. People have said that this pickup was designed to sound like a Duncan JB, and I would agree....but I personally don't like the sound of the JB. With the hardtail bridge, ebony neck, tilt back headstock, and alder body I was surprised that the guitar didn't sound better unplugged. It was kind of dull and lifeless unplugged, and not really inspiring.

The fit and finish was really good. The neck was smooth as silk. The neck reminded me a lot of USA Jackson or Charvel with ebony board. Not the "best playing guitar ever" but very good compared to other stuff in this price range.

Mine was as basic as it gets. Hardtail bridge, locking tuners, solid body. I think it would be durable and hold up fine. I don't really abuse my guitars like some people though, so I have never had a guitar that I would consider "unreliable." I only kept the guitar for about a month though, so I didn't have it long enough to know if it would hold up well.

I actually bought this guitar used on ebay. I got it from a guy that buys these brand new and then turns around and sells the parts or sells them on ebay, so it was basically brand new and unplayed when I got it. Customer support must be pretty hit and miss with Carvin. People either love them or hate them. I have heard some real horror stories, and I also had some bad experiences myself on another guitar that I ordered before this one. Some of the people that answer the phones don't really seem to have a clue. I also had them tell me they would call me back and then never call. They also tend to promise your guitar by a certain date but then go way past that date. If you know that going in I guess you will be ready, but don't think that you are going to get a custom built guitar in a hurry, especially if they are busy. If you want one quickly then you are better off to find something from the in-stock section.

The worse thing about Carvin guitars are the people that play them. Most of them have a chip on their shoulder, and many seem to have this "we play Carvin because we are smarter than all you stupid people that play PRS, Gibson, Fender, Jackson" attitude. For the money I think Carvin makes nice quality guitars, and they are definitely better than the stuff you get from Korea and China, but let's not get too carried away.

I have played guitar for 18 years. I have owned over 100 guitars from just about every brand. I always wanted to try a Carvin to see if they lived up to the hype. This was a nice guitar, but it just didn't do it for me. I think it would have been much better with a different bridge pickup, but pickups are very individual. Dimarzio and Seymour Duncan make 100 different pickups because everyone has a different idea of what sounds good.

For those of you that live on the Carvin BBS.....lighten up. Not everyone is going to fall in love with Carvin. If they do, then great, but if someone likes a Fender, PRS, or Jackson better than Carvin.....don't take it so personally. They are not stupid or inferior to you just because they don't share your love and passion for a particular product. Some people think Pamela Anderson is hot, and others think she looks like a cheap, skanky scumbag. People have different views and opinions. Just deal with it.

after using an brian moore i9f, w/ a floyd, & coil splitters for a couple of years, i wanted something simpler. so 2 humbuckers, no coil splitter & no tremolo; mahogany body, flamed maple top.
the sperzels are standard so i didn't have a choice about those.

the C22's are warm w/ a lot of midrange. it came w/ .09's & was flat, dull & didn't want to be played. i switched up to .10's because the sperzels didn't seem to hold unto the .09's that well & it became much livelier. both pickups have more dynamics.

this guitar was several weeks late & every week after it was supposed to be complete, i'd ask how the progress was. i think they thought it would be a good idea to rush me a guitar.

fantastic. the frets stick out the side & there's glue every where. it's still the nicest neck i've ever felt, but c'mon. don't talk about what a bargain your guitars are if you're going to send me this.

plus due to the nature of my job, i couldn't return it w/in the set time.

didn't have it long enough to say.

the first guy i talked to couldn't seem to get the order right. & i already mentioned the problem w/ the guitar

think about it. would u order a mail order guitar from a company that's notorious for bad customer service?

this will be my last carvin.

I ordered this by phone as an in-stock guitar in March of 2004. It was black with ebony neck, two C 22 Humbuckers's with a Wilkenson Tremolo. The pickup can be switched into single coil in the 2nd and 4th position.

I have to say when I ordered this guitar I was very excited and could hardly wait to get it into my hands. I remember playing one years ago and was very impressed with its feel and sound, hense my excitement while finally ordering one some years later. When it arrived I quickly pluged into my Peavey Classic 30 (which I love) and I could not have been more disappointed. The guitar was pretty to look at and the neck was very nice but I could not get over how bad it sounded. The single coils we very loud (hissy) and muddy. The humbucker bridge was ok but seemed very thin. The neck humbucker was the best of the bunch but was too bright. I have owned many single coil and humbucker guitars (Fender Strat, Earnie Ball Music Man to name a couple) and in my opinion this guitar completely sounded trashy, certainly not worthy of the Carvin name.

The fit and finish was very nice. The neck is fast with a nice finish. The one thing that seemed quite stupid to me was the back plate. It was solid and there were no holes to run the stings through when replacing the strings. You have to totally take the back plate off to replace the strings. I hope this was a quality check oversite because this just seems stupid to me.

I am sure the guitar would stand up to regular playing, but I will not have it long enough to find out. This is going back as soon as I finish this review.

They seemed to be alright, but not overly informative. I guess I am used to pushy sales people and this guy was certainly not pushy and during the ordering, at times in the conversation I was even wondering if he even wanted to sell this instrument. To me it seemed as if I was bothering him. I have to say that I was misinformed on the features of this guitar and on ordering information as I was an international customer. I had asked about taxes/duty charges and he confirmed that the price of the guitar covered all charges and of course 3 days after it arrived at my house I recieved bill in the mail for another $187.00 for Canadian duty. Not at all impressed with that.

I may sound a little harsh with this review but I was very excited about owning a Carvin but that almost made the dissapointment seem that much greater. This is not a bad guitar but I cannot imagine many people saying that this guitar sounds great because it doesn't. Overall, to try this guitar, after Carvin refunds my money less original shipping charges, it will still cost me another $55 to return shipment and I still have settle the duty charge. Nice.

This is more or less a standard Bolt+ T. I'm sure you all know the features if you're reading this - C22N humbuckers, Wilkinson tremolo, alder body, ebony fretboard, Sperzel locking tuners, etc etc. Transparent blueburst, Dunlop low-wide pickups. Carvin is a make-to-order company, so you can choose from a variety of different options. My only gripe is that you cannot get third-party pickups installed in your guitar at the Carvin shop. Some options not available online - you must call and talk to a real person to get them (stainless steel fretwire, special pickup switching/wiring, so on). What the deuce? Very cool of Carvin to load their guitars up with fresh nanoweb Elixirs, though.

This is where the guitar truly shines. The body is made of alder - the typical Strat body. Maple neck, ebony fretboard. Combined with the C22N pickups and 5 way switching, you can get a variety of different sounds ranging from hard, smashing rock to warm blues. The C22Ns give the guitar a distinctive vintage vibe, but not so much that you'll stick out like a sore thumb when playing thicker progressive-style music. Definintely not as bright as a for-real Strat. The bridge pickup is understandably wound a bit hotter than the neck pickup, thus introducing a gap in volume when switching over to another pickup. When played clean, the bridge pickup sounds like an annoyingly honky, mid-boosted mess. When overdriven, it is very chunky and expressive to touch - also feeds back easily if you're into Vai-like experimentations. I play a lot of Pink Floyd, so I find the 2nd and 4th positions on the instrument to be suited to that kind of music. The 4th position may be the only worthy clean position on this guitar - the others need some serious EQing to get rid of the insane amount of midrange frequencies. When I want to rock out to some Dream Theater, the 1st and 3rd are great. The third position gives me a nice round Petrucci-like sound. The electronics are passive, wired and shielded properly - no noises. Due to the fact that the pickups are direct-mounted, this sucker can sustain for days. Very much meant to be a hard rocker.

Ugh. Here's where the bad news starts.

Individual string volume was terribly unbalanced - I could bearly hear the B and E strings. My finish is a transparent blueburst, and it's apparent that they gave me a very shitty piece of top wood - there's a big knot right below and to the left of the bridge. But it doesn't affect playability, just cosmetics. Still, I find it strange that this guitar was able to leave the Quality Assurance department (if there is any?) Annoying buzz on the E string. Adjusting individual saddle height didn't fix the problem. Ended up taking the guitar over to a tech to slightly adjust the truss rod and raise the overall action of the guitar. Tuners should have been a bit tighter than they were from the factory - a screwdriver fixed that problem up right quick. Input jack was loose - again, a simple wrench fix.

The Wilkinson tremolo stays surprisingly well in tune in a controlled enviornment at consistent temperature - don't be a fool and expect it to stay in tune if you just got to your band's gig/practice and haven't given the guitar a few minutes to acclimate. After the adjustments mentioned above, I can completely rely on this instrument.

Well fuck me up the ass and call me Charlie. Here's where the serious troubles began.

The customer service story of ordering this guitar was an epic one. This guitar was originally ordered on December 08 of 2003 via the web. It shipped, after some delay, on January 16th of 2004, and was recieved a week after. Upon recieving and inspection of the guitar, it was missing the Wilkinson tremolo which it was specced for. The guitar also had only 3-way switching. How this missed Q&A and the builder of the instrument astounds me - WILKINSON was clearly printed on all of the invoices. In any case, I phoned up Carvin and got a pleasant chap by the name of Carl on the phone. I initially demanded that a Wilkinson trem be mailed to me, so that a professional luthier could install it. He countered with the fact that the luthier would probably ruin the finish by routing the body, and that we would just have to send the guitar back. Carvin would build a new guitar, with a 'high priority' tagged on it, since it was a rebuild. Carvin would also pay for the return of the guitar, and send out UPS to pick it up. This was on a Friday. Carl also promised certain concessions on this new instrument, which did not appear on the new guitar, - those being 'zebra' pickups, and strap-locks.

Fast-forward to Monday, and there's no UPS truck. Called Carl back, said he'd put in another request, and that the UPS guy would be here on Tuesday. On Wednesday, UPS arrived to pick up the guitar... at the wrong address (billing and shipping were different). Called Carvin, got another guy on the phone, whose name I don't remember - he put in another pickup order. Nothing for the rest of the week. Called Carl back again the next Monday, who put in yet another request for pickup. We also asked about the status of the new guitar. He could say nothing other than it was 'in production'. UPS finally picked up the guitar on a Thursday.

On Feburary 12th, another call was placed to Carl, requesting a status check on the order. He said that he would e-mail me with the status of the instrument by the next day. Nothing.

Between the dates of March 13-16, numerous calls to Carvin, requesting SOME sort of status report on this instrument. My girlfriend, who originally paid for this instrument, had now gotten involved and started to call Carvin as well - Carl was spoken to at least twice, and his demeanor had changed. He was now acting quite arrogant and rude (I guess since he wasn't getting a comission, he really didn't like dealing with the problem?) during both calls he said that he would call back either within an hour or the next day with some sort of status on the instrument. Never recieved a call back. Called back yet again, got another man on the phone, who said that the guitar was COMPLETE on the 9th, but was concerned that there was no ship date listed in the file, and they were going to call back with some more information.

Well, they didn't call back. So... I called back again the next day.

Apparently it was slated to be done on APRIL 9th. Not March. the fucking thing wasn't complete yet.

This guitar was originally ordered on December 08, invoice # IN069233. I was given an incorrect, re-order number of 0940049 by Carl. The correct, new invoice number, is 2075171.

Now, this is a bolt-on neck guitar, which, let's admit it, is about as custom as a Standard MIM Fender Strat. It is not a $10,000 guitar. Robert Benedetto is not in the back shop churning these things out. There is no excuse for a wait of -4- months for a guitar like this, especially when the original order was expected to be complete in 4 weeks, and Carl assured me that the new guitar, since it was a re-order, would only take about 2 weeks to complete.

The 'correct' guitar arrived on April 10th, lacking the zebra pickups and strap locks - I got plain black pickups instead, but hey, at least I got the fucking tremolo that I paid for, right? Called up Carvin one last time and spoke to a mana

Been playing for so long that I can't remember. Far too much gear has passed through my hands over the years. As I've stated above, this guitar is basically a solid, hard rocking Strat with a warm, contemporary timbre. If it were lost or stolen, I would refuse to feed the Carvin Machine and take their shit by buying another instrument from them, despite the fact that this guitar is pure heaven to play. I might be willing to change my mind if they ever called me back and at least apologized, sincerely, for their negligence. How unprofessional. You shit on me, Carvin, so I'm shitting on you right back.

This is a recent Bolt+ which I aquired second hand. It is a very standard model. It has the standard maple 25.5" scale neck with ebony fingerboard (no inlays on this particular guitar), bolted on to an alder body sporting a black finish. The headstock has a matching black face, and the hardware is black to give this guitar a stealth look. This guitar also sports a Wilkinson bridge which is an excellant vibrato bridge. What attracted me to this guitar was the fact that my Carvin DC727 has a similar look and now they make a matching set. The previous owner switched out the pickups for a pair of zebra coiled Seymour Duncan humbuckers. There is a Jazz in the neck and a George Lynch Screamin' Demon in the bridge. Special features include the comfortable ergonomics of the guitar, which includes a smaller neck joint and small body. The best feature on this guitar is the electronics. It has a 5 way switch and also has a phase reverse switch, and this gives the guitar 6 very usable sounds that are easily accessible. I give it a 9, because I wish it had a piezo bridge like my DC127

I have two other Carvins a DC727 and DC127 respectively, and since this guitar has a bolt on construction instead of the neck through construction it sounds different. Bolt on guitars don't sustain as long but have a very sharp attack, resonate very well, and sound very clear. There is a reason why lots of professional players use bolt on neck guitars, its because they just have a sound all to themselves. The Seymour Duncan pickups are perfectly matched for this guitar. Don't let the names of the pickups be deceptive. I'm a very conventional rock player, and the jazz is not wimpy with distortion and at the same time the screamin' demon is not some cheesy distortion pickup with way too much output. They are well balanced, sound great, and make zero noise. This guitar bridges the gap between my strat and my two other carvins. The 1 and 5 positions are very sweet full humbucker sounds. 2 and 4 are tapped versions of 1 and 5 and provide an even more convincing stratty sound than my DC's, and without the ugly mini switches. Position 3 provides a very clear combined sound reminicent of the John Petrucci middle position. The phase reverse also sounds very funky. To my ear this guitar has a little less bottom end than my DC's, but in exchange there is absolutely no muddiness even with distortion on the neck pickup. I would liked to try this same guitar with one of the other wood bodies that Carvin offers but I will keep this guitar thank you very much

Out of my three Carvins, this guitar has the best action of all. The previous owner had it setup before shipping it and the tech did a great job. Its pure heaven playing up and down the thin Carvin neck. The neck is fastened very tightly to the body and there is not one flaw in the guitar

I play Carvin guitars nearly exclusively and they are rugged guitars built for players. I trust this guitar even more than my DC127 because it has passive electronics and a bolt on neck, which makes it even sturdier

Carvin has great support which I can depend on

This is my third Carvin and my 7th guitar and this is an excellant addition to the lineup. It has a very simple layout, simple cosmetics and its made for playing.

Bolt Plus C
Bolt onMaple neck with Ebony Fretboard, abalone dot inlays.
Swamp ash body w/ translucent crimson finish.
Sprezel locking tuners & Floyd Rose bridge. Two C22 humbuckers with coil tapping 5 way switch.

Just got it still checking out the sounds. Bridge humbucker is bright; lots of mid and treble. Neck humbucker nice and fat. Split neck p/u is great for clean. This guitar sounds nothing like my Strat or LP Studio. I'll be experimenting quite a bit

I bought mine at a red tag sale at the Carvin store in Santa Ana CA.
It was set up great and in tune. I played it for a few hours the night I got it and it stayed in tune even when testing out the whammy bar.

This guitar is quality built especially compared to other guitars at the same price. It is under warranty and the guys at the store told me they would set it up for free the first year whenever I like (this is great as this is my first floyd rose gtr and could use some pointers).

I bought it from the store which is 15min from my place. The sales man was cool and gave me his card. Said to call him if I have any issues. THis is much better than having to call the corp. HQ if I have a problem.

Been playiing 12 yrs and own an LP Studio and USA Fat Strat. This guitar was a great pick up for the price. It sounds different than my others. I love the neck especially. It is also a great looking gtr. I was considering Ibanez and Dean. Couldn't find the dean model in stock to try out. And I feel the Carvin provided much more for the money. If I'd ordered this gtr from the Carvin site it would have been about $800.

Mine is a gorgeous quilted maple blueburst with matching headstock, locking tuners, all black hardware, Duncan strap locks, ebony fingerboard (very rare in this price range), medium frets, dual humbuckers with a middle single AP11, 5 way switch (neck humbucker / neck split - middle / middle alone / middle - bridge split / bridge humbucker), sturdy black hardshell case.

I play mostly rocks and blues with this, straight into a Roland Blues Cube 30, for gorgeous tube-like tone. Versatile range to be had with both single and dual pickups, which are quite good for this price range. I may upgrade to Seymour Duncan pickups after the warranty on this one expires.

Among the best fit and finish of any electric guitar I've seen. The only other guitar I've seen this well put together was a Heritage -- at double the price of this one though. Tung-oiled narrow neck with ebony fingerboard is quite fast. Fret work is absolutely precise. Action was set extremely low when guitar first arrived, yet no buzzing from pickups. Came with an adjusting tool for truss rod, haven't ever had to adjust the neck though.

Never had any problems, nor do I expect any. Except for maybe the 5 way switch which feels a bit flimsy, but if it ever breaks I'll just put in one of those rock solid 5 way Fender switches. Locking tuners work well, I check occasionally with a chromatic tuner and this guitar never goes out of tune.

5 year warranty and a reputation for standing behind their products even after the purchase, which is damn important to me when I spend this much money. The person who answered the phone was helpful when I asked a few questions about ordering.

There's a reason Carvin has been in business this long, selling directly to their customers -- quality at competive prices. You can find other American made guitars this well put together, but you'll spend 2 to 3 times as much. If I had to replace this guitar, I would definitely buy another Carvin without hesitation.