Carvin DC127

DC127 Year: 2001
My options: Mahogany neck, Mahogany body sides 2 humbuckers (standard) 2 single coil switches (standard) I had a phase switch added. Pickups: my choice: M22T and M22v Finish: Clear gloss Abalone block inlays (fantastic) Strat style body. Fixed bridge. Sperzel locking tuners. I ordered the vintage tweed case.

It suits my style very well. This guitar is a single coil sounding monster. I've played for 35 years. In the humbucking mode the neck pickup sounds full and good for jazz. The middle position of the 3 position switch produces a single coil sound. You would expect it to sound like a humbucker using both humbuckers at the same time. The sound, however, is exceptionally good. No guitar anywhere produces a better quality tone. I love the sound when both single coil switches are on. Killer tone. The hype about these guitars is justified. I've never heard a better sounding guitar in my life. The phase switch ( costing me only $7.50 to have added) produces sounds "exactly like a Fender Mustang" This might not have much use to me, but it didn't cost much. Mustang lovers would go crazy over this I believe. I have a Fender Deville amp and a Carvin MTS 3212 tube combo. The guitar sounds great through both amps. Quiet guitar. The guitar in general is quite bright. I wish the guitar was more humbucking-like, but the neck pickup nails the humbucking tone. Good variety in tone.

The guitar was set up well when it arrived. Way out of tune, that doesn't matter. The action is the best compared to any guitar anywhere. Again, they advertise this and they are right! The fretwork is perfect, and the best I have seen in 35 years. A small flaw on the beveled edge of the guitar, like a spot of laquer. Small and it's ok with me.

It's solid and will hold up well. The hardware is very good quality. All top notch. The finish looks good and durable, not thin like I have read elsewhere. I forgot, my finsh is clear gloss. Beautiful over the dark Mahogany. Strap buttons are solid. I can depend on the entire guitar. I would use it without a backup guitar.

My mistake was ordering it from a sound specialist. The regular guitar specialist was gone the day I ordered it, which was on a Saturday. He could not get the order right and I had to repeat what I wanted over and over. I called back to confirm what I ordered, and the order was still wrong. I finally got it straightened out. I've had the guitar for 5 days, so no repair now. I forget the warranty time. Other customer support was very good.

I've played for 35 years. I have a Telecaster and G&L Asat Classic. This guitar blows away the Asat Classic. The tones are the best. I love the single coil tones. There are none finer on any guitar anywhere. Devastating single coil tones. I don't know ANY guitar anywhere that could out-single-coil this one. At one time I had the feeling that a guitar must say Fender or Gibson on the headstock. After playing this guitar I found out I was so wrong. I wish the humbucker in the middle position sounded more like a humbucker and less like a single coil. That's the only minor complaint. But this middle position sound is fantastic. I welcome Email.

this thing is the bomb! i was saving up to buy a carvin when the exact model i wanted went up on ebay. the guitar has a hardtail string through body bridge that runs on graphite saddles, over 2 after market active emg-89's (basically emg 85's that can be tapped to emg sa's), past a real ebony fretboard with 24 jumbo frets, across a graphite nut and down to sperzel locking tuners. the body is all mahogany with a mahogany neck thru (no heel at all! the neck feels kinda like a gibson). mine came with a satin finish that really shows off the choice woods. the hardcase is amazing. i hate most hardcases because they fail to support the neck fully. this case was made for the guitar and it shows. mine was made in 96 and was well taken care of. it is beautiful and plays fluidly. sustains for weeks (makes me think of the scene in spinal tap where nigel brags about the sustain -- this almost lives up to that!)

i play heavy, aggressive rock music and some strange, noisy jazz stuff on the side. unlike my amp (a peavey 5150 half stack), this guitar is not a one trick pony. the guy i bought it from used it for blues and rock. i use it for metal, hardcore and noisy art rock. the sound is quite varied. i can get the whiny, screamy bridge sounds and the thick as sludge neck stuff. i play hardcore breakdowns on the neck and piercing octave chords on the bridge. in the clean channel i use both pickups and get a really full acoustic sound.

this is a dark sounding guitar. i can not get the fender strat style brights out of it, but that's not what i bought it for anyway. this guitar is such a match for me tonewise, that i am no longer looking for any other guitars. i think that speaks volumes right there!

this thing shipped via ups from portland, or to akron, oh -- and arrived IN TUNE! i have had it for 2 months and only needed to tune about 3 times (and i play very aggressively!).
there is absolutely nothing wrong with this guitar in this category. i have heard that the carvin 5-way switches can be noisy, but this has a 3 way and 2 mini toggles (another plus!). my only complaint is that the neck would feel better if it were unfinished. i will still give this a 10 because that is a factory option that was not selected (so it wasn't carvin's fault!).

i would never, ever gig without a backup. i have seen too many crazy things at shows to do something that silly. besides, a broken string is better fixed after the show - grab the backup.

that said, this is the closest i would get to not using a backup. the last show we played, i didn't tune my backup before the set because i knew i wouldn't need it. the construction is solid as a rock and i have not had even minor problems in the past 2 months with it.

dunlop straplocks were factory installed, so i doubt they'll slip anytime soon. those things pressure test at 800 lbs!

i am going to give this an N/A because i have not had it long enough to see if problems will develop, although i suspect it deserves a 10.

i emailed them once to get a key for my hardcase and the email wasn't returned.

i didn't buy it from them so i did not expect much. i have never spoken to them.

i have been playing for about 12 years. i have a washburn strat that became my backup upon receipt of this. i also play bass. i have had yamahas, a vantage (martin's japanese imprint), countless off brand clones and even a couple of fenders. this guitar tops em all.

i priced the features this has with other manufacturers. this thing would cost over $2000 (not list, but actually cost) if it were made by esp or jackson custom. carvin is by far the best manufacturer for the money. it is an added bonus that this was made in the USA. this is my first american made neck thru, and i love it.

if it were ever lost or stolen, i would cry like a 7 year-old girl with a skinned knee. then i would order an exact version of what i had. i would also order a backup at the same time and get a traditional headstock (instead of inline) and an unmarked fretboard. that's another thing about carvin's, it isn't a big deal to get exactly what you want.

if you like gibson necks with jackson soloist action, fender hardtail sustains, and custom shop options, get off of harmony central and hit carvin.com.


this is the best guitar i have ever owned or played for the money. i have spent a lot more on stuff i have liked a lot less. a lot of players will rave about their gear because they are embarassed by what they paid (a defensive reaction?). these definately warrant a tryout if you see one used in a store.

2000 Maple Neck through Mahoghany body. All made write here in the USA. 24 medium jumbo ebony frets with abalone block inlays. Two Carvin humbucking pickups with 1 volume, 1 tone, 2 coil taps, and a phase switch. I got the M22V vintage neck pickup for a sweeter sound. The Body is sort of a cross between a strat and an SG. It has outline of a strat but it has beveled edges and is a little thinner that a strat. Fits very comfortably, absolutely no neck heel! The bridge is a FT6 string through body bridge ressembling a Fender hard-tail. I got the cool looking blue-burst funish. Other options include tung oil on back of neck, chrome hardware, grah-tech string saver saddles, Dunlop straloks, engraved truss rod, and the kitchen sink! I give it a 10 because its a custom guitar, if you don't get what you want, its your fault. It came with a great Tweed case (for an extra 30$, it usually comes with a normal hardshell case), truss rod wrench, picks, and an allen wrench.

The sound is good. I play mostly hard rock/metal. I also do some classic rock and blues. These pickups are top of the line. Believe me, I usually change the stock pickups in my guitars to Seymour Duncans, but these pickups are just as good. My amp is a Marshall VS265R 2X12 combo. I run my guitar through a pedal board with a Boss tuner, Crybaby Wah, and a Boss 7 Band EQ. The sound is very smooth, with controlable feedback when you want it, and silence when you don't want it. With the coil taps, you can get a lot of different sounds out of it. I've got some nice blues sounds out so far. The phase switch is fun, I haven't had much time to play with it yet but I'm sure I'll get some cool sounds.

The action is great, very low, very easy to play. Some people might not like it, but it fits me like a glove. The tung oil on the back of the neck feels awesome. The finish on the body is absolutely beautiful. You can see the grain of the Mahoghany and Maple through the Blue-burst. I haven't found any flaws yet. The switches were a little noisy at first, but thats going away now that I've used them a bit.

I've only had it for about a week. Its lasted so far. The chrome hardware lookes tough. The finish is kinda thin, but still seems durable. It came with strap-locks, so I don't have to worry about dropping it.

I don't know why everyone else complains. I didn't have any trouble at all with the people at Carvin. The employee that talked to me, Scott, was very helpful and answered all of my questions. I haven't talked to them since I got the guitar. Its got a 5 year warranty and a 10 day return policy if you don't like it or if somethings wrong.

I have been playing for over 2 years, and this is the greatest guitar I've ever played. It plays great, sounds great, and looks better! A guitar this quality from someone like PRS or GIBSON would cost three times as much if not more! Great deal and a great guitar. Do yourself a favor and go get one of these made for yourself. My next guitar is definitely gonna be a Carvin. If you wanna see my guitar, as well as read more about it, go here:
http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/carvin/index.htm

Carvin DC127, made in 2000. Alder neck-thru with alder body sides, tung oil finish. 24 frets, ebony fretboard. Lightweight. Cool abalone dot inlays -- a subtle touch of class rather than those big 'ol abalone blocks. Sperzel locking tuners, Wilkinson tremolo, passive H/H pickup config with a master volume, master tone, coil taps for each pickup and three-way pickup selector. Nothing fancy, just a simple tone machine. Gets an eight because it has everything needed to play great and produce useable sounds without loads of unneccesary stuff.

I play mostly progressive metal and rock in the vein of Fates Warning, Dream Theater, etc. The fast neck and low action lend themselves well for this kind of technical playing. Makes you want to shred (I pick up the Strat when I want my playing to be a little more subdued). I play it through a Legacy half stack or an MTS3200 half stack. The only effects I use are a BBE Sonic Maximizer and some basic chorus/delay effects. The guitar is very quiet, even when using the coil taps. The alder neck and body sound great - the tone is bright and lively without being harsh and the guitar is very light. You can feel it resonate in your hands. The bridge pickup is solid-sounding and articulate, the neck pickup is round and smooth and punchy. The coil taps allow fairly convincing sounds. I must say that I can't find anything to dislike about this guitar.

The factory set up of the guitar was near perfect top-to-bottom. A few tweaks and I was ready. The cavity routing is absolutely flawless - none better at any price. Even the insides of the cavities are smooth. The alder wood is beautiful in it's simplicity. All controls are tight and function properly.

This guitar feels substantial to me, although some others have said it seems fragile. The hardware is top-notch and should last forever. The tung oil finish is more easily damaged than the clear finishes, but what's a few dings? It won't affect the sound or playability and just adds a little personality (I am of the persuasion that guitars should be played and not maintained flawlessly in someone's bedroom). The tung oil has a great feel and looks classy. Everything is solid and I can certainly depend on it.

Good guys, Urvan hooked me up and made sure everything was correct. Overall great CS.

Been playing for about 8 years and have a good deal of gear, a lot of it from Carvin. I would replace it without hesitation if it were to befall a gruesome fate. I don't have any complaints with it, and love it's simplicity. The only other axes of this quality that play this well are gonna cost you big-time. Play one if you get a chance, then order one from the factory for less than 1/3 what you paid for that PRS.

This is a follow-up to my earlier post. While I am thrilled with my guitar, I am less than enthusiastic about Carvin's customer service. As I mentioned before, the second page of my invoice was not shipped with the guitar. While my salesman, Carl, was helpful when it came to rectifying that matter, I still think that it is less than stellar performance on Carvin's part. More significantly, two days after placing the order, I called Carl and asked to add the $15 phase switch option to the guitar. He said that they would do that, and bill my credit card. Well, I wasn't billed, but I also didn't get a phase switch. When I called Carvin I was shunted from one salesman to another, and left voice mail for Carl, with no answer. Carvin makes great guitars (based on mine), and I would buy from them again, but their customer service leaves much to be desired, especially considering that most of their customers deal with them by phone, as I did.

I just received my Carvin DC127 in the mail today. I placed the order on July 7th, and it was shipped on August 14th. Carvin offers many options as far as guitar woods go. My DC127 is a maple neck-thru guitar with alder body sides and a quilted maple top. It has two humbucker pickups (Carvin C22's), a three-way switch, and a coil-tap toggle. I also paid $15 extra for a phase switch. The guitar has Sperzel locking tuners and a solid looking hard-tail bridge. I chose to appoint my guitar with gold hardware and abalone dot inlays.

The neck is a 15" radius, with a 25" scale. This is wider and shorter than my American Standard Strat, which has been my main guitar for the last 10 years. I was worried about how it would feel, but I should have saved myself the trouble. This is the best playing guitar I have ever touched. Compared with the Strat it is slightly longer from top to bottom, but it is narrower all around. It has much less of a bevel for the side and arms, but as a thinner guitar, that is not a problem. The Carvin is also significantly lighter than the Fender. I wanted a lightweight guitar (one of the reasons I went with maple/alder, as opposed to a Les Paul like mahogany body and neck), and Carvin has delivered.

The guitar also came with Carvin's HC11 case for free. This case is wonderful. It is small and light, fits the guitar like a glove, and is very sturdy.

I play blues and rock, usually straight into my Fender Princeton Chorus Amp. The guitar sounds very good, and VERY loud. Having only played for a few hours, I have not discovered all of the tonal options, but I am very impressed by the sustain. An open E chord sustains for over 60 seconds, and decays in a very nice way. The guitar is not as loud acoustically as my Fender, but it sounds very nice unplugged, and is not quiet by any means.

The action is perfect! I have never had such low action, but it suits my playing wonderfully. The pickups are set up well, but I plan to play around with them soon. They have extra polepieces, and I am wondering what raising and lowering the "inbetween" polepieces will do to the sound. The quilted top was a $300 option, but I splurged as this is my 30th birthday present. The top is the most beautiful I have ever seen, and is almost perfectly bookmatched. I chose the "Vintage Yellow" finish, and it was a great choice. Besides being beautiful, the guitar has a great "new guitar" smell. This axe has a very "PRS" vibe, for lots less money.

On the con side, the switches were pretty loud for the first 20 minutes or so, but the noise has worked out of them. Also, there are two pin size pits in the abalone dot at the 15th fret, and a small "something" on the back of the headstock (I haven't determined what). The alder sides have a nice grain, which is visible on the back of the guitar, but I don't think I'll spend much time looking at the back.

The guitar is wonderfully well balanced, and has a good sound. I will not bring a backup to my weekly practice sessions with my band, but I may bring the Strat to gigs in case a string breaks. But this guitar is so comfortable to play, and so light, that it will be my main guitar from here on out.

My sales person, Carl, was quite friendly, and was very enthusiastic, and he offered some good advice. It helped that I came to the phone prepared, having done lots of research on Carvin's website, and on Harmony Central. The guitar came without the extra sets of strings I ordered, and without the free t-shirt that Carl threw in for me. When I called tonight, he remembered me and the guitar, and promised to mail the stuff out today. I will call back during my 10 day trial period to ask about the slight imperfections on the abalone and the headstock mentioned above. I will submit an update later on the customer service.

I've been playing for 14 years. I have the aforementioned Strat, and a Guild acoustic. For more info on why I chose this guitar, and eventually for pictures and more feedback, check out http://www.empire.net/~lewisec/gtr00/index.html
If anything happened to this guitar (and I had the money) I would replace it in a heartbeat. I only wish that Carvin would offer a built-in guitar synth setup, like Roland used to do.

1992 Carvin DC 127 Made in the USA. 24 Fret Ebony board with dot inlays. Strat style neck-thru body, maple with poplar sides (I think). H-H Passive stock Carvin pickups with 1 volume, tone and 3 way toggle. The finish is pearl red with black hardware. Carvin licensed Floyd Rose with a Kahler locking nut, Carvin tuners. The was the last year Carvin featured the 24.75 neck scale (Gibson style). The neck is your basic thin-wide profile featured on most guitars of the late 80's early 90's. I bought this off of ebay and the guy threw in a Carvin strap and cable. I'll give this a 9 because it has everything you need for your basic Metal guitar. I would have ordered a few things differently, tung oiled neck, mahagony wood, but hey I didn't pay the $700+ a new one would cost.

This was meant to be your basic Metal/ Hard Rock guitar, and it does that really well. The distorted tone is full and rich. The neck-thru construction really makes the guitar very dynamic. The highs and lows are both really well defined. This is the first neck-thru I've ever owned, and I really think this is the only way to build a guitar. There are no "dead spots" on the neck and the Gibson scale lenght really gives this guitar that meaty Les Paul tone. Everyone thinks that the thick Mahogony body is what makes the Les Paul sound, but the scale length has just as much to do with it. I only with Carvin still offered this scale, now they only offer the crappy PRS 25 inch scale on their neck-thru's. The clean tone is also very good on this guitar. You could use this guitar for almost any style of music. Even bluesy SRV riffs come out sounding pretty good on this thing. The only real complaint I have is the stock pickups. They tend to be a tad noisy in high gain situations. I think I will replace them with EMG's. I'm playing this through a Mesa/Boogie DC-3 with a Boss Super Overdrive.

I bought this used although it was hardly played so I can't really complain about the setup. I did change the strings to 10's so I had to re-setup the guitar anyway. Everything on the guitar was flawless. Being 8+ years old, I was suprised to find no chiping or flaking on the finish or the hardware. The frets are in perfect shape, and the action is super low.

I assume this guitar wasn't really played that much, since it's in such good shape. Everything has held up fine and I don't anticipate any problems. I would take a backup just in case you break a string. The Carvin Floyd Rose takes a while to re-string.

This is the 2nd Carvin I've owned and I've never had to deal with customer support.

I've been playing for over 10 years now and I've owned 5 or 6 guitars over the years ranging from Les Pauls, Strats, G&Ls and Yamahas. I currently have a Fender "Frankenstein" Strat and a Gibson Les Paul DC Standard. For the money, you can't beat a Carvin. No one makes a better guitar under $1000. This is also the easiest playing guitar I've ever owned. This things blows aways anything Ibanez, ESP or Jackson is making these days. The beauty of all of this is that Carvin's don't have a good resale value since they sell direct. This means that you can pick up a used one dirt cheap. Check out ebay and you'll always find a few gems out there.

My DC127 was made in 1999. It has a string thru body bridge, standard Carvin humbuckers(passive electronics) and Sperzel tuners. The body and neck are tung oiled mahogany. The tuners, bridge and knobs are black. It's a gorgeous guitar! I also had a phase switch added. It came with a case, combo allen wrench/screwdriver tool and a few picks. I rate the features a 10 because it has everything I want.

I play classic rock, stuff like Hendrix, Santana and AC/DC. I own a Carvin X-60 amp. My wah-wah is a Dunlop Cry Baby and all my other pedals are Boss'. The guitar makes a little noise when I use the coil splitter, lots of gain and a compression pedal but is much quieter than my standard Strat. The Carvin's sound is thick and the has lot of sustain. I play with the coils split for Hendrix, Rolling Stones and Zepplin. The humbuckers are great for Santana, ZZ Top and Satriani. They scream! The phase switch is useful for "Ain't talkin' bout love", "Fly by night" and "Rock an' roll hoochie koo".

The setup was great. The action is perfect for me, I asked Carvin to set it a little higher than normal. All the controls work fine but after a year the pickup selecter will occasionally make a crunchy noise. Dust perhaps? Another ten because it was set up the way I liked it and everything worked the way it should.

I am paranoid about this guitar because of it's tung oil finish and neck thru body construction. If I have to bash a rowdy drunk over the head I would prefer to use my Strat. Unfortunately the band I was in fell apart shortly after I purchased the guitar and it has only left the bedroom a few times. Everything is solid on this guitar but since I haven't really tested it in the real world it would be unfair to rate this category.

I've has no problems with this axe and have not had to deal with Carvin so I can't make a rating.

Been playin' since 1984. I would buy another one. I love the feel and shape of it's neck. It has a flatter radius than a Strat and is very smooth. A few years before I bought this guitar I thought Jacksons were the shit. I hated the prices, $2500 for a custom ordered guitar with the features of the Carvin. Also if I didn't like the Jackson I was stuck with it. I think PRS guitars and Carvin are the best out there but again the price factors into it. Screw the resale value argument, when I buy something I keep it. Do yourself a favor and try a Carvin. If you don't like it will only cost $20 to ship it back.

I got this guitar used a few days ago. I'm not exactly sure of the model number or the wood it's made of, but I can make an educated guess with the help of this very useful website: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/9455/cvnmenu.html. I think it's a 1989 or '90 DC127. Made in the USA. It is neck-through, and I think the body wings are either koa or poplar. The fretboard is 24 medium, high frets on a beautiful slab of ebony. I believe the scale is 25.5". The fretboard radius is probably 15", as it has always been on DCs. The guitar has a nice natural finish, which lets you see the maple neck running all the way through the body. The neck is really comfortable - not too thick but not too thin either. The tuners are Carvins; they don't lock, but they seem to hold the tuning perfectly fine. The headstock is a cool "shredder" shape, sort of like a Jackson but not reversed. The bridge is a hardtail type thing, and the nut is graphite. I'm happy about this because I was getting tired of having to adjust the floyd rose and locking nut on the ibanez rg 470 I used to own.

My guitar has two humbuckers, and I have no idea what model they are. The electronics are all active. There is an incredible number of tones you can get with this system. There are a whopping 4 knobs (volume, bass cut/boost, treble cut/boost, and blend (when both pickups are engaged)), 3 toggles (coil tap for each humbucker and a phase switch), and a 3-way switch. These are all arranged so that they can be easily reached, but don't interfere with your picking. The active electronics are powered by a 9-volt battery, which is sort of cool, but also sort of weird. I'll just have to get used to that fact.

Basically, this guitar has all the features I've ever wanted, and everything seems to be really high quality. And it only costed $400! And it cam with a case! This guitar definitely deserves a 10 here.

I like to listen to lots of music styles: rock, metal, jazz, jazz-fusion, and blues in particular. I'm not so good at playing them yet, though! I use my trusty Marshall Valvestate 65R. My only effects right now are the amp's gain and reverb, but I would like to get a multieffects unit (like the Korg ax1000g) sometime in the future.

First of all, the clean sounds are really nice. You can get everything from a full jazz humbucker sound with the neck pickup to a Fender-type single coil sound with bridge pickup coil-tapped. I haven't played with all the controls much (yet), but there is an amazing amount of variety you can get in the tone.

With distortion, the guitar smokes of course. This guitar was designed in the shred era, so it definitely has those capabilities. The neck HB is warm and expressive, and the bridge HB is bright and cutting. And this can be tweaked ad infinitum with all the tone shaping controls. I will say that distortion with the coil taps engaged sounds especially interesting.

I should mention that there is some hum present in coil-tap mode, but that is probably to be expected. Also, out of my amp it's impossible to get that full blown 80's hair metal lead tone, but that's definitely because of my amp (and also because I play with the volume set very low), not because the guitar can't do it.

Even though it's a neck through, it's not overly treble or shrill. And because it's a neck through, it has great sustain. I think I'll give it a 10 here.

From the store, the guitar was set up for very thin strings (I can't tell if they're .008's or .009's). I'll change them to .010's or .011's somewhere down the line. Everything seems to be just fine, except there are a bunch of little dents on the body wings on the front and back. It's because they used a softer tone wood there like koa or poplar, and there isn't a thick coat of gloss over the body to sheild it. I'm not too worried about this. I bought this guitar to play rigorously, not to put in a museum. The dents are very small anyway, and they almost blend in with the grain of the wood.

The two things I care about most, the frets and the action, are both great. The frets are nicely polished and level with no visible wear. The action is very comfortable with no buzzing. I can play comfortably all the way up the neck, by virtue of the neck through design.

I'll take a point off here for the little dents, and a couple points off the durability rating.

I don't play out, but if I did I would definitely trust this. The only things that would concern me are the the "dentibility" of the finish, and the fact that the pickups run on a battery. Other reviews have stated that the battery lasts up to two years, so that makes me feel a bit more comfortable.

I've never dealt with Carvin. If something had to be fixed/replaced/upgraded, I would just take it back to where I got it.

By the way, the people at Bills Music were really nice. They answered all my questions as much as they could, even though they aren't very experienced with Carvins. Thanks to Don, especially.

I've been playing for about 2 years now. I'm not bad for the time I've been playing, but I still waste too much time noodling around. I vow right here to practice harder and more intensely and not waste so much time.

I've already mentioned what kind of music I like, and my other equipment.

I think Carvins have always been way underrated. From any other company, this same exact guitar would have costed me well over $1000. There's not another company that makes an affordable, high quality, US made, neck-thru, active electronic guitar like this. Even brand new from their factory, this kind of guitar would only cost about $600.

I guess I wish it had some kind of tremelo. Wait! No I don't!!! That would mean taking a chunk out of the body. I think it's got everything I need for now. I love how I can feel the body resonate along with the strings. I don't really hate anything. My favorite feature is the smooth ebony fretboard.

I compared this to several Strats, a Jackson neck-thru, and a no name arch top. I played some other nice guitars that day, but this won, hands down, because it was exactly what I wanted. I am really glad I found it!

I hope I didn't forget to include anything. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

I purchased this guitar in 1995. I ordered it with a mahogany neck and body with a natural transparent finish and black hardware. Like most Carvin solid-body guitars it features a neck-thru-body design with a very nice 24-fret ebony fretboard. I sent the first one back because it had a small, dark knothole on the front of the guitar that was very visible (they don't make trees like they used to). As I recall, carvin replaced the guitar without complaint, although I had to pay return shipping on the defective guitar. The second one didn't have this flaw. It has two Carvin humbuckers (with coil taps) that are slightly hotter than PAFs, a Wilkinson "tremolo" bridge (non-locking), and locking Sperzel tuners.

I play mostly rock, jazz, and fusion, which this guitar is well suited for. Its on the heavy side (about the same as a Les Paul), and it has a lot of sustain. The pickups are clean, warm and fat sounding, although the coil taps don't really give a good Strat sound. Tapped humbuckers never do, so I can't blame this on Carvin. One minor complaint is that the pickups are missing the wire necessary to wire the individual coils in an out-of-phase parallel configuration.

The guitar was setup at the factor with extra light strings, which I promptly removed and replaced with D'Addario jazz lights. The action on the guitar is very good, although the strings were a little close to the fretboard (and buzzy) as setup from the factory. The fretboard is about as close to perfect as I've seen on a mass-produced guitar. I've owned three Carvins (not counting the one I sent back), and they've all had fantastic necks. The neck itself has 25" scale, which is right between a LP and a Strat. The Wilkenson bridge works well, and it stays in tune very well for a non-locking bridge. This is helped considerably by the locking tuners. I don't really use the wammy bar much; I plan to go back to a fixed tune-o-matic style bridge on my next guitar. The guitar has a couple minor cosmetic flaws, but the overall the workmanship is impressive. The wiring was a bit of a mess, however.

This has been a very reliable guitar, although I have not used it extensively for live preformance. I have had some minor electrical problems; a scratchy picking selector switch, and a wire that cracked.

Carvin CS is good in my experience.

Keeping with previous established pratice on this forum, I'll talk about myself and mention that I've been playing guitar for 21 years. :-) All the the Carvins that I have owned have been great guitars. The only other electrics that interest me much are PRS and Parker, and both of them cost twice as much as a Carvin. I can't imagine that I won't buy another one someday.