Carvin Bolt-T

Hello all! I trully love this web site!! I was turned on to Carvin 3 years ago by my friend Angelo Jannotti here in Orlando. I have been playing for more than 20 years now and have gone through tons of gear. One of the things I have been on the hunt for is the perfect quacky strat tone. I went to Fender and tried everything from a $200.00 Japy to a $2500.00 Custom Shop........All of the guitars were great, but lacked the tone I was looking for. Angelo who had turned me on to the AE-185 said "Tri a Carvin Bolt-T, if you don't like it,send it back." I called Carvin and ordered the guitar, right out of the box with stock strings and pickups this guitar SMOKED the Fenders! This was my first Wilkinson bridge and it took some getting use to, but now I love it! The Bolt-T is my main guitar now........still with the stock pickups!

Carvin guitars are blowing my mind............You can find any tone your looking for from WFO Rock & Roll (WFO, wide freak'en open) to smooth Jazz & Blues!

There is no better finish or quality than Carvin! I own Fender, Gibson, PRS, Brian Moore, Steinberger, Gretsch......... You name it, it's hanging in my studio! I would put Carvin quality up against any of them!

I've taken them all over the U.S.A.............They are always ready to roll when the lights come up! One thing I've learned about Carvin guitars the hard way! Do not drop them! They will break what ever they fall on! TUFF AS NAILS!!

Awesome! They trully love what they do!

3 Years and going strong! I WILL be purchasing Carvin guitars for a long time to come! Pro Quality At Pawn Shop Prices! What more could you ask for?!

This review is for a 2002 carvin bolt-t. this is an american guitar with a bolt on maple neck and solid swamp ash body. The fretboard is maple with 22 medium jumbo frets. The pick up configuration is single(ap11), single(apll), and double(c22). There is a 5 position switch and a mini switch that splits the c22. The guitar has sperzel locking tuners and a graphite nut for tuning stability. The tremelo system is a wilkinson. It has a beautiful 3 color sunburst finish with a poly finish. The body style is an offset double cut similar to a strat. The case is a nice high quality tweed.

All the above features are high quality and certainly better than that found on the standard american strat.

I play mostly rock and blues and occasionally jazz. Ive played for about 20 years. This has become one of my favorite guitars (along with the carvin dc 150). This guitar is very versatile. I find it much more versatile than the fender strats I have had over the years. The pickups are hotter with more midrange. This gives the guitar more tonal range. The ash body and maple fretboard in my opinion is the perfect tone wood combination for this type of guitar. I believe that this combination creates good note compression and separation - much more than the ebony fretboard and alder body combo which to my ear produces some midrange mush in the first and fifth position. The first position on this guitar produces some nice lows and midrange great for that stevie ray sound. there is plenty of strat quack in position 2 and four. Position five is nice for heavier distorted tones. Overall sound is much richer than that found on fender counterparts.

I use this guitar with a carvin belair and peavey vintage 30. I have also tried it with a laney vc 30.

this guitar is well shielded with no unwanted noise.

Set up was good. I always reset up my guitars to my liking so this was not as important of an issue to me. There were however no issues on set up.
the quality of all the components is excellent. The wilkinson trem is a feature i especially like. There is unbelievable tuning stability in conjunction with the graphite nut and sperzel tuners. Even with extreme trem use the guitar just does not go out of tune.
The finish was really perfect and clearly done with pride.

I play live with this guitar and would not expect to have any issues. Carvin products seem to last and I would suspect this product will hold up just as well. I trust this guitar and never feel the need to gig with a backup.

I find customer support great. When I bought this guitar I bought the twin blade pick up option. I was unsure if I would like these pickups but I gave it a try. I was told that if I did not like them I could change them for ap11's. I just could not get into the sound of the pickups. I simply called carvin and in 5 days the apll's were in my mail box at no charge. Try to get that customer service from some of the other brands.

This is a great guitar. If you are looking for a strat but like me were annoyed by the quality issues inherent to fender then check out carvin. this is a better guitar and a great value for the money. I own fender and gibson and sure they have there role but the price of these instruments is getting out of hand. The quality of fender is also at times questionable. Carvin makes a great product at a great price.

If lost or stolen I would buy another the first chance I had. there is just nothing I dislike about this guitar.

construction/scale bolt-on neck, 25 1/2" scale
body Alder
neck Hardrock Maple, graphite reinforced
neck width 1.71" wide @ nut, 2.22" wide @ 22nd fret
fingerboard ebony (15" radius)
inlays standard dot
hardware Gold
Wilkinson Tremelo
frets 22 medium jumbo .103" wide X .048" tall
pickups 2 Ap11 single coil C22T bridge Humbucker with coil splitter
electronics master volume and tone, 5 way selector + mini switch
tuners Carvin premium 14:1 ratio
White Pearloid Pickguard
Color is Blueburst
guitar dimensions 38.75" long, 12.5" wide body, 1.75" thick body
weight 7.25 lbs

I own 2 strats and had my eye on a Fender American Standard Fat Strat Texas Special but decided to try the Carvin instead. Boy did I make the right choice. This guitar sounds like a dream. I play Texas Blues and this baby can purr, growl or squeal. This guitar is very resonant. The pickups have much higher output then my Tex-Mex trio in my Cali strat and sound as good as the Texas Specials I played in the Fat strat. Not to mention the coil splitter for the bucker, which I've never seem available from Fender. The single coils aren't as noisy as my Fenders. With the 5-way and coil splitter, the tonal possibilities are endless.

The the guitar can from California all the way to New Hampshire without a flaw. The action was perfect. The Blueburst paint job was better than I expected. The fret and nut work are top of the line. The neck is fitted perfectly and plays fast.

Everthing on this guitar says quality. No loose harware. The neck was installed with precision..no gaps or mis-alignments. This guitar can take a beating and come back for more.

Never had to call them.

I'm just sorry I didn't buy one sooner. I've been a Fender fan for 10 years but since I got my Bolt-T the Fenders have stayed in their cases. $682 with a HSC and all the features I wanted... best bang for the buck.

2002 Carvin "Bolt-T" (Strat copy). Made in USA. 22 frets. "Ferrari red". Basically exactly all the specs of a Fender Strat, except that it doesn't "hug" your body as much as a strat does. Got the "Allan Holdsworth" H22T bridge Humbucker. Alder body. Maple neck. "Wilkinson" Tremolo. Sperzel locking tuners. had to buy the hardcase (half off). Normally around $160 I think.

This thing sounds like GARBAGE. I was EXTREMELY disappointed, after hearing so much good stuff about it, when I finally got it, I almost cried. (Well, not really). It really does sound like trash. Ok, here's a comparison; I bought a $100 "Johnson" strat copy, which was totally trash anyway, so no one expected it to be great. My brand new Carvin Bolt sounds EXACTLY the same as it. Actually worse. The bass on this one (the neck pickup) sounds really muddy. I used it on an oooold "Peavey Stereo Chorus 212" which is a hunk of junk itself too, but I've heard some really nice sounds from other guitars on it, so it cant ALL be the Amp. The Bolt gets kind of a bluesy sound, and that's it. But it's not great. Also, when I strike a hard chord, (like a fast hard power chord) the Humbucker buzzes. Not the sound, but the actual pickup itself. To understand, imagine that it's unplugged. I strike a Power G chord. Now, from deep within the Humbucker, I hear a buzzing, like a piece of resonating tin-foil. Almost like a Bumble bee is inside the pickup trying to get out. This is a really dumb flaw and very annoying. I have no idea what it is, obviously some loose part of the pickup.

SCORE! Set up pretty well, the action was fine, (a little buzzing though). Pickups were all set up fine. The cloth to cover the humbucker (wound around the coils) was coming off though, and showing through the hole in the pickguard. I think this is one of the fastest necks I have ever played. VERY nice finish on the back of the neck. Flaws? Yes, a few, here you go: The "Wilkinson Tremolo" is one of the worst ones I have ever used. It takes VERY little pressure to bend a note, but then when you REALLY want to bend it, the MAX you can go it about 1 or two half nothes. (2 frets of so). So that's a huge pain. Also, when you bend a string UP, (not the tremolo)the other strings go DOWN!!! HUUUUGE FLAW!! I play blues, which requires a LOT of bending, so this is totally unacceptable. Meaning, if I bend the B-string at the 12th fret, then if I have any other strings resonating, like the Low E and A, then they go down in pitch. This is terrible. With this, the only way you can play and use the trem, is if you mute ALL the strings except for the one you are bending, which will never do. This trem doesn't lock, so you are stuck with that. Also, the setup on this trem is terrible, it has way to much slack. Meaning, I can pull the whammy bar up, and get all the strings to bend UP. I hate that. Let's see... What else... Oh, the Color. When I talked on the phone with the guy at Carvin, I told him I wanted a really nice, deep dark red, like Crimson. Except for that the crimson in their catalog, looked absolutely terrrible. So he told me to get "Ferrari Red" instead. I thought it looked fine... a little to bright, but fine. Then I get it, and I am so excited, I open the box, and see the "Vintage Tweed Case". I open the case, and there it is, much to my surprise, IT'S PINK!!! Well, not exaclty pink, but a way to pinkish color for me. I was SOO bummed. Also, the "White Pearloid pickguard" is actually grey. Anyway, I would have to say that the overall quality of the GUITAR itself, is absolutely outstanding. It really was very very nice except for those flaws. But, they were too much for me to bear.

Very durable guitar. Everything was so TIGHT. The volume was great, the 5-way pickup selector was tight, like it should be. It was nice and heavy. Hardware RULED, but that's because I specially ordered everything. Locking tuners, etc... Very nice. Finish was WONDERFUL. Looked like it would withstand just about anything. I couldn't figure out the Dunlop Strap-Loks, until messing with them forever. NO INSTRUCTIONS WHATSOEVER came with this guitar. This is one dependable guitar.

OK. Here's where it really falls apart. I heard it best described as "Carvin people always sound like you're interrupting their four hour lunch". PERFECT description. I talked to Nick Acebedo. His knowledge of guitars was outstanding, but I asked ALOT of questions, (as I should before I spend $700 on a guitar from a mail-order company) and he really sounded like I was bothering him with my questions. Which is totally wrong for a salesman or support guy, like him. He also "accidentaly" charged me for weird things that I had said no to like weird nech finishes and "Bird's eye maple fretboard". When going over the final list of specs, I caught this and fixed it. "Oh we aren't going with bird's eye maple?". That was a pain. So, if you aren't a sucker, or first time buyer, then you could go with Nick. Otherwise, make sure you don't have him.
Helpful? Yeah, sorta. Friendly? No, not really until I got to the part of payment... You have a 10-day trial once you get it. If you don't like anything about it, even if it's your fault and you ordered wrong, then just send it back for refund or replacement. This is a VERY nice deal. Very rare in a Guitar maker. I think there's a 5 year warranty against defects.

Ok. So I ended up sending it back for a complete refund. A happy ending to a sad story. I also have a 1981 Ovation "1651" Legend, which totally rules ALL acoustic guitars. Maybe that's why I'm so fickle. I truly demand THE VERY BEST in a guitar, and Carvin fell short. Then again, I have so far, NEVER played a guitar that I totally truly liked. I don't think I'd ever order another one, just cause they are so different from standard shapes and feels. I loved the neck. I hated the flaws mentioned above. I wish it had a different style haedstock. The one Carvin's have are pretty annoying. So basically, in summary, Carvins are nice. But think twice before you get one and do your homework.

You probably already know all the features if you have a carvin catalog. I got mine with carvin's humbucker in the bridge position.

I think this is a very versatile sounding guitar. It is a little bright for my taste, but it covers everything from funk to metal really well. I'm glad I got the humbucker in the bridge for that extra gain and chunk. I have to adjust the tone control for different pickups, with the neck pickup being a little too bright. That pickup can get a great bluesy tone when adjusted right.

I actually had to adjust my action up a little for perfect intonation and playability. My guitar has a really bad cable input. It always gets loose and when you tighten it, the cable doesn't go in all the way. That seems really cheap. I also had a small problem with the locking tuners not opening when I tried to replace strings. I called carvin and they sent me a whole new set for free.

I have been playing this guitar with no backup for 5 years and it really has stood up. It does alot of styles relatively well, and I have had nothing but compliments about my tone.

Some of the people are really dumb sounding. They sound like you are interrupting their 4 hour lunch when you call them. But I have also talked to one guy who was very nice and helpful.

This is a great medium priced guitar which will kick the mex strats butt. And you can choose exactly how you want it too look. I personally wouldn't waste all the money to put the expensive finishes on this guitar, It is just a medium priced guitar. I probably would save and buy an american strat if this guitar was lost or stolen, but it rocks for the price range.

This is a follow-up to my review from May 29 - A few things to say now that I've had it a while...

1) The single coil P'ups turned out to be VERY noisy - the sounded good, but buzzed like crazy - - The Bridge P'up was a bit weak -- so I replaced them as follows: Duncan Vintage Stack in both the neck / mid positions, and a Duncan Alnico Pro II in the bridge. WHAT A DIFFERENCE. The bridge is much better - much warmer tone, better gain - - and the neck/mid is now dead quite. They sound "single coil" enough for me, still good "quack" but no buzz!

2) If you use 10s or 11s for strings, you will need an additional trem spring - - it came with 2, so that was a bit of a hassle.

3) The locking tuners are tricky - I think I have a couple that are defective (they don't quite pinch the E/B string) - I may take it back to RB to have them fix it, I may not.

4) In my previous review,I had stated that the wood top was NOT book-matched - - I was wrong! I had been looking at it from an angle, and the finish tricked me - - looking at it dead on, it is fully book-matched. My mistake.


So to summarize, I'm still very happy with this guitar - looks, plays and sounds great. I do wish that Carvin offered different neck profiles when ordering, but I can see how that'd drive the price up...

Year 2000 USA Ebony fretboard, maple bolt-on neck to an alder Strat style body. Beautiful translucent Cherry honey burst, black pearloid pickguard, gold hardware, Sperzel locking tuners, 5-way selector and single volume and tone controls. Wilkinson Tremelo bridge that is locked without the tremelo bar. Pickups are Seymour Duncan Texas Specials in the neck / mid positions and Pearly Gates in the bridge. This is an equivalent configuration to the Fender Lone Star Strat. 22 frets neck width is 1.71" (great width for my hands).

Sound is awesome. This guitar is definitely well suited for SRV & ZZTop tones. Yet with the 5-way selector and humbucker splitter, it is a very versatle guitar. It works well for Surf, Classic Rock and some grunge styles of music. My amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and it sounds great. The hot rodded pickups sound great on both the Clean and Overdriven channels. I highly recommend this guitar/amp combination.

I acquired this guitar used and the original owner had it set up by a highly regarded professional shop when the SD pickups were installed. The action is slightly higher than my Epi LP Std. but I am adjusting to it very quickly.
I really like the overall feel Carvin's neck for its satin finish, thickness and width. My hands are fairly large (typically XL glove size due to my long fingers) and the neck is close to perfect for me. The finish on the guitar is outstanding and is very attactive looking.

I know that this guitar was gigged at least once or twice a month for over a year. Carvin's guitars seem very well built and should last a lifetime. This unit has locking strap buttons and has been very well maintained.

I have emailed Carvin with questions about other products (I have Carvin pickups on another guitar) and they were very helpful. That is the extent of my experience with Carvin Support.

I have a total timespan playing experience of about four years. I played electric guitar in my early teens during the 60's, Acoustic off and on in the 70's, and just recently started back up inspired by my son's desire to play bass. It has been a blast and I am determined to never give up playing again.
Overall I am very pleased with this guitar. It sounds great both plugged and even un-plugged! Since guitars are very personal and my exposure to other guitars is somewhat limited. But over the last 6 months I have picked up numerous guitars at various shops. During a recent visit to a Carvin in So. Cal. picked up a Bolt, played a few chords and then grinne and though wow I have got to get one of these. It fit like a glove. Shortly thereafter I was fortunate to run across this guitar for sale owned by a friend of friend. The upgrade to the SD pickups combined with its superb finish and quality hardware makes it a tremendous value and investment. I think I really scored on this find. Carvin obviously does not have the same legacy of Fender branded name in its favor, but I from what I experienced so far with this guitar it deserves to be rated in the same league.

Carvin strat clone w/humbucker in the bridge pos.
The options I ordered were...
Swamp ash body, figured maple top with "blueburst" poly finish, birdseye maple fretboard, sperzel locking tuners, Wilkinson trem.
Gotta say, I had every option available to me except one: Carvin does not give you the option of specifying pickups other than their own - - so I was "stuck" with their pickups. Otherwise, the features offered as great, particularly for a strat clone.
I deduct a point for no P'up options...

This is more or less a strat clone, so let's do it buy P'up position:

Bridge (single) - thin, like a strat. Not much character, but not bad. Like a strat.
Bridge (both coils) - good - basic humbucking tone, but not much... "oomph". I was expecting more, so this P'up may get replaced
Bridge/Middle - Nice. Sounds like a strat, you know - - and with the bridge p'up in humbucking mode, it sounds warmer but still with that funky out-of-phase tone.
Middle: NICE. Real nice. Wide open, pretty thick - - I was shocked.
Middle/Neck: Real REAL nice. That great strat sound but with optimal definition and funk - - good quack!
Neck: Wow. I mean wow. It sound great. Huge, open sound, articulate yet warm. I am WAY shocked how good the single coil p'ups Carvin provided sound. These I will keep, but the bridge may go...
Overall, I'll give it a 9 - - it'd be a 10 if it wasn't for the bridge p'up...

Setup: great - very low, but no buzz.
P'ups adjusted fine - sounds real even.
Top - - The top was NOT bookmatched, but I'm not too bummed - - but the wood is real nice - just a hair less nice than on my Lakland bass. The finish is real nice - that is a Carvin strength, right? It looks to be routed, shaped and finished without flaw. And this axe is LIGHT. Real easy on the back. Since the top wasn't bookmatched, I'll give it a 9 - - but it is a 10 in all other aspects.

hard to say, since I've only had it a little while... but everything looks hardy and well built. But... since I've never had a carvin instrument, I'll opt not to chime in here.

Odd combination of things - first, how much support does one need with a strat clone? That said, they were great when I ordered it (in person in the RB store) - - but when I called to pick it up, they were very lame. The guy how answered the phone sounded loaded, and he transfered me to another kid who sounded equally loaded. Not good. However, after a few transfers and holds, I was told to come get it. So my experience is mixed.

Okay, so I'm mostly a bass player who wanted a decent, good locking axe to knock around. While I really am just a learner on guitar, I have been around good gear, bad gear and everything in between - - and this appears to be good gear. The neck is very even and nice - - though I prefer a bit more of a shallow '70s fender feel... It comes with what appear to be thin frets - which I prefer, and like I said, it sounds great (particularly in the neck, which is KEY on a strat). And... while it isn't the most important thing, it is VERY pretty, particularly with the birdseye fretboard. In my opinion, Carvin could do only a few things to make this a better axe: ONE: offer pickups from some premium makers, like Rio Grande, Aero (right down the street!) or Duncan. TWO: Offer to bookmatch the premium wood for an extra fee (for those who really care) and THREE: Offer different neck shape profiles. I know they C&C all their wood, so that would be way easy to do. Heck, it might ad $10 cost per axe, but if you could choose the neck shape, wouldn't that be cool?

That all said, this is a very cool instrument - and given that a brand new, VERY plain US strat costs about this much, the choice seems clear. In fact, I compared this directly with several new Strats, some used ones, and a few other bolt-on guitars (G&L, Music Man)and Carvin won my business. So, given the price, and all things considered, this really couldn't be much nicer. I'll give it a 9.5 and round up.

See update of my review from 4/2000- Story with a happy ending?

I finally reached the CS Manager to talk about my past experiences- almost a year after e-mailing Carvin with my complaint. He said had he known about the Swamp Ash becoming available just after my trial period, he would've taken back my guitar and built me a new one with the wood of my choice.

As a consolation (and much to my satisfaction) he gave me his direct number and said that anything I order in the future should be done through him and he'll give me a deep discount.

Once I reached someone at Carvin who could help, the customer service was the kind I had come to expect from Carvin. But it seems that 1) they don't have an efficient way of handling e-mail, and 2) it's sometimes hard to get a hold of exactly who you need to rectify a problem.

Thankfully though, Carvin came through in the end, albiet a little late.Raise the CS rating back up a notch....

I have the first all Walnut Bodied Bolt produced by Carvin w/ matching headstock, black hardware, black pearliod pickguard & TWEED Case (great case!). The Options are great! I wish Carvin would offer more in & better blended burst panitjobs! By the way the Wilkinson trems Carvin uses KICKs THE EVER LIVING LIFE OUT OF THE SUPER CRAP fender uses for a trem.!!!!!!! (Take a hint Fender!)

Well, rather high but vesitile enough to have something for almost everyone (guess the Walnut body doesn't help, but it's beautiful!)

High score!!! Carvin is so far past Fender & Gibson! PRS & Carvin are on the same playing field in quality but Carvin Kills them on price! Action fit & finish is EXCELLANT!!!

No problems but mines a june 2000 model, but it all seem top notch!

Little lacking after the sale!

I haven't been playing long but I have several Carvin & they all are excellant! I Love the neck (WARNING: die hard Fender player do not normally like the feel of the Carvin necks!). The only thing I should have gotten that I didn't was the Sperzel locking tuners(my fault) Don't get me wrong it stays in tune extreamly well with the premium Carvin tuners (way better than Fender again!)