Carvin C-550

This is a 2001 Carvin Cobalt Series 550 solid spruce top, solid rosewood back and sides 14-fret dreadnaught. Has a satin finish neck and a gloss body. X-bracing, bound body, fingerboard, and headstock. Headstock has an attriactive Carvin logo. All in all, an attractive though standard-looking dreadnought. It came with a Tusq saddle, which I almost immediately replaced with a bone saddle.

The sound of this instrument is good for the price. It tends to favor the high end, and sometimes sounds thin when played hard. Very bright sound, decent mids, but somewhat weak on the low end. Still, the guitar is loud and cuts through on the high end. Can definitely be heard when played against a quality Martin, but does have that quality sound. But, again, for the price, this is a nice sounding guitar.

The action on this instrument was great right out of the mail. Carvin has some deal where they garuntee low action. I admit I wanted to raise the action just a little to compete volume wise with some Martins I then played against, but had that not been the case, I would have kept the action just as it was. The craftsmanship in the wood was quite good, but the guitar smelled alot like glue, and still does a bit.

This is a well built guitar. I used to gig with it before I got my Martins, and it is a solid instrument. This thing will last as long as it is taken care of.

First off, there's only a 5-year warranty. That leaves something to be desired. Second off, I called cutomer support to ask if they'd give me another saddle to get the strings up a bit higher. I was put on hold for about 15 minutes, after which I was told that they would not give me another saddle. I suppose that's their perogative, but they treated me as if I had not just given them 500+ bones for this guitar, but rather that they were doing me a favor by talking to me. They get a 2 only because they have a warranty of some kind.

I've been playing for over 10 years, and in 2001 decided to go straight acoustic. I bought this Carvin because I wanted a solid wood guitar, but at the time could not afford a solid-wood Martin. This guitar was an excellent alternative for the money. I would recommend checking it out for intermediate players. It is an attractive guitar with a great sound for the price range. Since then, my wife is sad to know that I have bought three Martins (HD-28, D-17, SWDGT), so if this were lost or stolen, I'd just stick to what I have since the Carvin doesn't really compete, but, again, this is a great beginner/intermediate guitar.