Carvin DC127C

This guitar was made for me in USA between March and April 2002.
It is a 24 fret solid-body electric. I customised it with several options, so I'll do my best to discuss each in turn.
My guitar has 1 tone, 1 volume, 1 three-way selector, 2 coil taps, and 1 phase switch. The phase switch does not operate properly, when it is flipped down any position except the neck humbucker is silent. I assume this means that a solitary connection for the out-of-phase selection became loose in shipping (hey, it came all the way up to Canada!). It's a 7.50 option so I'm not going to send it back or anything gay like that. It lets you do cool toggle switch tremolo!
There are two Carvin Holdsworth H22 pickups. I had originally intended to order M22 pickups because I play a lot of metal, but I said the wrong option numbers when I ordered it. They are very good pickups... the straight 10's reviews in the pickup section do them justice! I'm quite glad that I made that fortunate mistake!
My guitar has an alder neck and an alder body. The fingerboard is ebony, with mother of pearl inlays. The finish is Classic White, a very awesome creamy color with just a shade of green. A lot like a Malmsteen Strat. My guitar has a painted back of neck, as opposed to tung oiled which is an option... And it's VERY comfortable.
The body style is of course a double cutaway, RG shape guitar, but the edges of the body are sculpted (and masterfully so!).
My bridge is an original Floyd Rose. Ten successive dive bombs cannot throw it out of tune... not joking!
Sperzel locking tuners are standard on all Carvins except the Bolt.
I got gold hardware. It's quite attractive.
I also got Mother of Pearl block inlays. They are very highly figured and frankly awesome... I must have spent 30 minutes just looking at them yesterday. The entire guitar is beautiful... The inlays build on it.
The neck is relatively round as compared to other shred necks, but still thin. The rounded profile of the back almost gives you the illusion that the extreme middle of the back is flat... This neck is extremely comfortable and I would recommend it to anyone looking to make their own guitar, you can get one from the Carvin catalogue. The fingerboard itself is quite flat, 15" radius, and the scale length is 25.0" as opposed to the common 25.5". That provides a bit more facility for bending strings and vibrato, an excellent idea!
Straplocks... Tres cool and I would highly recommend them.

I give it ten because you can order anything you want (anything reasonable... no LED inlays or dragons!) for a sweet price.

It sounds perfect. Honestly. I'll go through every pickup choice and describe its advantages. The single coils are one coil of the correct humbucker, the coil tap switches are standard.

In general, the guitar is very responsive to the volume control, which has a very smooth and linear taper. The tone control has a markedly different effect on each pickup selection... On some, it reduces the high band to almost nothing. On others, it warms up the tone, such as the front humbucker. On others, it has no effect on presence but a vast effect on the character of the selection.

Front humbucker: It is excellent for any and all distorted passages! Frankly I don't see how this pickup cannot be found suitable for metal. This humbucker crunches, and when you turn up the gain to obscene levels on your amp (I use a Peavey Prowler 2x6L6 1x12" beast with an active EQ +12dB that provides massive gain) the notes achieve a smooth, buttery quality similar to that of a certain DiMarzio Evolution used by Steve Vai. Of course this position is not suitable for clean. But it sounds very colorful and has absolutely limitless reams of thick, round tone... Which can be easily sharpened by EQ!

Front single coil: Absolutely incredible. It chops every Strat I've ever heard into pieces in two areas. A: The tone is amazing. Just like the humbucker, it's very colorful and round. B: It sounds like a true single coil. It carries a very sharp edge and has a distinct, almost wah-pedal like vowelly character when the string is picked. Think of the SC tone in "The Ocean" (Led Zep) and you won't be far off! Very fun for flamenco and other world styles when used clean.

I have not really explored the middle positions very much. The neck humbucker used in conjunction with the front single coil has a very sweet-sounding clean tone, and also sounds almost like a Strat and a JEM doubling a part exactly when used under distortion. The humbuckers together have boundless gain. The front humbucker and neck single coil used together are very powerful and colorful. The single coils used together have an absolutely incredible acoustic emulation... The front coil is defined with lots of attack and the back coil sustains forever with a warm tone.

Neck humbucker: Very full and warm tone. It is not at all muddy, and has a particularily unique singing tone. You don't even have to carefully EQ it like many other neck humbuckers. Brilliant.

Neck single coil: As good as the front single coil, but with less attack and more warmth! One quality I have noticed is that it works excellently as a rhythm pickup to the front single coil's lead... Wow. The single coil settings on this guitar are as flexible and responsive as any Telecaster. Absolutely awesome.

Overall, the guitar is not at all noisy. I again use it with a Peavey Prowler tube amp. I have no effects. The sound is very rich, but quite defined... I would describe it as being quite similar to that of a JEM under heavy gain and high treble, and very similar to that of a JS1000 with gain and treble slightly backed off. As you may have seen above it is very versatile. The single coil settings (taps) of course have some hum, but it is quite reasonable.

There is no part of the tone I dislike. Some of the middle selections are not immediately as good-sounding... You have to play around with the knobs and have your amp EQ'd right to really draw out their nuances. I am quite glad that I picked the alder neck (option) and body and the painted neck (standard), they contribute to an awesome tone.

Sustain... I could hear the low E for 20 seconds on clean, after playing it with my thumb... AWESOME.

Suffice to say that this guitar outplays anything I have ever touched. But for those who want more information...

The pickups were perfectly set up. Note that Carvin pickups have tilt and height adjustments, as well as 22 pole pieces... That's 25 screws per pickup... And they were all adjusted perfectly.

The bridge was perfectly routed, as you would expect from a CNC machine!

No flaws, anywhere, that I have seen, and I have gone over it with a fine toothed comb looking for them. There's a reason almost nobody ever needs to honor Carvin's 10 day money back guarantee... These guitars are masterfully built.

Note that the neck bow, neck angle, fingerboard, action (especially on the higher frets), intonation, tremolo, and finish are perfect. Not one part is loose or incorrectly installed. The fret tacks, although not covered, are perfectly filed all the way down to the wood, they are indistingushable to your fingernails!

It WILL withstand live playing. It is very solid and the tuning is unshakeable.

The hardware, although of course the gold will rub off (one of my intents) looks very tough.

The finish looks quite tough. Not sure if it will last, but I'm positive that It'll outlive me if it lives up to the standard of the rest of the guitar!

The straplocks (option) are very cool and seem quite invincible.

Yes. I depend on it highly. I would use it on a gig without a backup, although I will keep my old Ibanez and use it as a backup. I'm generally quite careful, but you never know if your audience is.

They were quite helpful. In fact they even asked me to phone after I got it and tell them what I though, the guy said he liked to here customers' stories about Carvin gear if they're happy with it.

Obviously haven't got it repaired yet.

Warranty is FIVE years. Awesome.

If it were stolen: I'd buy another one just like it.
I compared it to everything, specs-wise, and no other guitar for this amount of cash could stand up to my Carvin config... Nothing at all. They'd maybe have two or three of the Carvin's roughly 10 or 20 incredible features and sounds.
My absolute favorite sounds... Hard to pick, but I really like the front and back single coils and humbuckers. The middle positions are a little harder to make sound awesome.

I cannot find a flaw or any other little niggles in this guitar.
I wish the phase switch worked, but oh well it only cost me 7.50 and the rest of the guitar is goddamned perfect!
They even pay Canadian duties and GST for you.

Frankly, I can't avoid being glowing when I've bought a JEM killer for half of a JEM's price!!! Up here they're easily 3000 dollars and frankly this Carvin for 1422 is superior to every guitar of every make that I have ever played. As I said, some guitars have two or three of the ten or twenty amazing features that this Carvin does.

Email me if you'd like to see a few pictures...

This guitar was made for me in USA between March and April 2002.
It is a 24 fret solid-body electric. I customised it with several options, so I'll do my best to discuss each in turn.
My guitar has 1 tone, 1 volume, 1 three-way selector, 2 coil taps, and 1 phase switch. The phase switch does not operate properly, when it is flipped down any position except the neck humbucker is silent. I assume this means that a solitary connection for the out-of-phase selection became loose in shipping (hey, it came all the way up to Canada!). It's a 7.50 option so I'm not going to send it back or anything gay like that. It lets you do cool toggle switch tremolo!
There are two Carvin Holdsworth H22 pickups. I had originally intended to order M22 pickups because I play a lot of metal, but I said the wrong option numbers when I ordered it. They are very good pickups... the straight 10's reviews in the pickup section do them justice! I'm quite glad that I made that fortunate mistake!
My guitar has an alder neck and an alder body. The fingerboard is ebony, with mother of pearl inlays. The finish is Classic White, a very awesome creamy color with just a shade of green. A lot like a Malmsteen Strat. My guitar has a painted back of neck, as opposed to tung oiled which is an option... And it's VERY comfortable.
The body style is of course a double cutaway, RG shape guitar, but the edges of the body are sculpted (and masterfully so!).
My bridge is an original Floyd Rose. Ten successive dive bombs cannot throw it out of tune... not joking!
Sperzel locking tuners are standard on all Carvins except the Bolt.
I got gold hardware. It's quite attractive.
I also got Mother of Pearl block inlays. They are very highly figured and frankly awesome... I must have spent 30 minutes just looking at them yesterday. The entire guitar is beautiful... The inlays build on it.
The neck is relatively round as compared to other shred necks, but still thin. The rounded profile of the back almost gives you the illusion that the extreme middle of the back is flat... This neck is extremely comfortable and I would recommend it to anyone looking to make their own guitar, you can get one from the Carvin catalogue. The fingerboard itself is quite flat, 15" radius, and the scale length is 25.0" as opposed to the common 25.5". That provides a bit more facility for bending strings and vibrato, an excellent idea!
Straplocks... Tres cool and I would highly recommend them.

I give it ten because you can order anything you want (anything reasonable... no LED inlays or dragons!) for a sweet price.

It sounds perfect. Honestly. I'll go through every pickup choice and describe its advantages. The single coils are one coil of the correct humbucker, the coil tap switches are standard.

In general, the guitar is very responsive to the volume control, which has a very smooth and linear taper. The tone control has a markedly different effect on each pickup selection... On some, it reduces the high band to almost nothing. On others, it warms up the tone, such as the front humbucker. On others, it has no effect on presence but a vast effect on the character of the selection.

Front humbucker: It is excellent for any and all distorted passages! Frankly I don't see how this pickup cannot be found suitable for metal. This humbucker crunches, and when you turn up the gain to obscene levels on your amp (I use a Peavey Prowler 2x6L6 1x12" beast with an active EQ +12dB that provides massive gain) the notes achieve a smooth, buttery quality similar to that of a certain DiMarzio Evolution used by Steve Vai. Of course this position is not suitable for clean. But it sounds very colorful and has absolutely limitless reams of thick, round tone... Which can be easily sharpened by EQ!

Front single coil: Absolutely incredible. It chops every Strat I've ever heard into pieces in two areas. A: The tone is amazing. Just like the humbucker, it's very colorful and round. B: It sounds like a true single coil. It carries a very sharp edge and has a distinct, almost wah-pedal like vowelly character when the string is picked. Think of the SC tone in "The Ocean" (Led Zep) and you won't be far off! Very fun for flamenco and other world styles when used clean.

I have not really explored the middle positions very much. The neck humbucker used in conjunction with the front single coil has a very sweet-sounding clean tone, and also sounds almost like a Strat and a JEM doubling a part exactly when used under distortion. The humbuckers together have boundless gain. The front humbucker and neck single coil used together are very powerful and colorful. The single coils used together have an absolutely incredible acoustic emulation... The front coil is defined with lots of attack and the back coil sustains forever with a warm tone.

Neck humbucker: Very full and warm tone. It is not at all muddy, and has a particularily unique singing tone. You don't even have to carefully EQ it like many other neck humbuckers. Brilliant.

Neck single coil: As good as the front single coil, but with less attack and more warmth! One quality I have noticed is that it works excellently as a rhythm pickup to the front single coil's lead... Wow. The single coil settings on this guitar are as flexible and responsive as any Telecaster. Absolutely awesome.

Overall, the guitar is not at all noisy. I again use it with a Peavey Prowler tube amp. I have no effects. The sound is very rich, but quite defined... I would describe it as being quite similar to that of a JEM under heavy gain and high treble, and very similar to that of a JS1000 with gain and treble slightly backed off. As you may have seen above it is very versatile. The single coil settings (taps) of course have some hum, but it is quite reasonable.

There is no part of the tone I dislike. Some of the middle selections are not immediately as good-sounding... You have to play around with the knobs and have your amp EQ'd right to really draw out their nuances. I am quite glad that I picked the alder neck (option) and body and the painted neck (standard), they contribute to an awesome tone.

Sustain... I could hear the low E for 20 seconds on clean, after playing it with my thumb... AWESOME.

Suffice to say that this guitar outplays anything I have ever touched. But for those who want more information...

The pickups were perfectly set up. Note that Carvin pickups have tilt and height adjustments, as well as 22 pole pieces... That's 25 screws per pickup... And they were all adjusted perfectly.

The bridge was perfectly routed, as you would expect from a CNC machine!

No flaws, anywhere, that I have seen, and I have gone over it with a fine toothed comb looking for them. There's a reason almost nobody ever needs to honor Carvin's 10 day money back guarantee... These guitars are masterfully built.

Note that the neck bow, neck angle, fingerboard, action (especially on the higher frets), intonation, tremolo, and finish are perfect. Not one part is loose or incorrectly installed. The fret tacks, although not covered, are perfectly filed all the way down to the wood, they are indistingushable to your fingernails!

It WILL withstand live playing. It is very solid and the tuning is unshakeable.

The hardware, although of course the gold will rub off (one of my intents) looks very tough.

The finish looks quite tough. Not sure if it will last, but I'm positive that It'll outlive me if it lives up to the standard of the rest of the guitar!

The straplocks (option) are very cool and seem quite invincible.

Yes. I depend on it highly. I would use it on a gig without a backup, although I will keep my old Ibanez and use it as a backup. I'm generally quite careful, but you never know if your audience is.

They were quite helpful. In fact they even asked me to phone after I got it and tell them what I though, the guy said he liked to here customers' stories about Carvin gear if they're happy with it.

Obviously haven't got it repaired yet.

Warranty is FIVE years. Awesome.

If it were stolen: I'd buy another one just like it.
I compared it to everything, specs-wise, and no other guitar for this amount of cash could stand up to my Carvin config... Nothing at all. They'd maybe have two or three of the Carvin's roughly 10 or 20 incredible features and sounds.
My absolute favorite sounds... Hard to pick, but I really like the front and back single coils and humbuckers. The middle positions are a little harder to make sound awesome.

I cannot find a flaw or any other little niggles in this guitar.
I wish the phase switch worked, but oh well it only cost me 7.50 and the rest of the guitar is goddamned perfect!
They even pay Canadian duties and GST for you.

Frankly, I can't avoid being glowing when I've bought a JEM killer for half of a JEM's price!!! Up here they're easily 3000 dollars and frankly this Carvin for 1422 is superior to every guitar of every make that I have ever played. As I said, some guitars have two or three of the ten or twenty amazing features that this Carvin does.

Email me if you'd like to see a few pictures...

Built in San Diego in July, 2001. Mahogany neck-through-body with mahogany wings and quilted maple cap, ebony fretboard. 25" scale, 24 frets, 15" radius, flat neck profile plays beautifully. Stock controls were 1 vol, 1 tone, 3-way switch, 2 coil taps. Rewired to 2 vol (one is p-p for coil tap), 2 tone (added), 3-way, 2 kill switches. H/H config. Original Carvin C22 humbuckers replaced with EMG 89 and 85. Originally all passive, now with active pickups. Floyd Rose trem with Sperzel locking tuners instead of locking nut (major plus for convienience). Came with ABS plastic hardshell case (piece of junk, get the tweed case instead). The original coil-taps were not a choice. I didn't really want them but I couldn't get rid of them. Now I'm stuck with two extra holes/switches in the top. For a custom guitar, there was a lot that wasn't customizable.

I play everything you would have heard on a rock station in the last 40 years, as well as some traditional church music. I usually play through a Line 6 Flextone for clean and a Marshall JCM 800 2204 for crunch. Effects are minimal. The original pickups were a little noisy and very muddy. It was fine for crunchy rhythm, but I could really get the crisp tones I wanted for leads, so I switched to EMGs. Now it's my perfect guitar for blazing leads (I still prefer my Les Paul for rhythm). Clear, bell-like cleans and distinct overdriven leads. Rating is for original configuration. If I were rating it with my upgrades, it'd be a 10.

Factory setup was immaculate. Action was low and sweet, pickups were at just the right height. The quilted top is wonderful, possibly the best I've ever seen. I've had to reset the Floyd after changing strings (I guess the strings I use require less tension than the stock Carvin strings) and the clearcoat has started to chip off of the side of the nut and around some of the fret ends, but everything else is perfect. The control cavity has threaded inserts for the screws, which is a nice touch. Original hand wiring was beautifully done.

It seems to be holding up well except for the aforementioned clearcoat peeling. I've only had to adjust the truss rod once, when I changed string brands. There were no issues with the original wiring in the 8 months I played it stock before upgrading it. I have and would again use it without a backup.

Carvin was great to deal with. I decided to change something after I'd placed the original order, and it was smooth as butter. Never a single hitch.

In ten years of playing, this is the best lead guitar I've found. I still prefer my Les Paul for rhythm, mostly due to the hardtail bridge and thicker bottom end, and I prefer my Strat for blues and really clean tones, but for any leads with decent gain, this is the axe. My biggest issue is with the pickups. I just didn't like them. It would have been nice to get EMGs from the factory. The other problem is that I had to route more wood out of the pickup cavities and buy new mounting rings because Carvin uses their own sizes and mounting screw configurations. But if you're going to stay stock that's not an issue. It would be nice if they didn't force the coil taps on you, or at least used push-pull pots for the switches. But bang for the buck, this guitar can't be beat.

How can you give it anything othe than a 10? This one I ordered with a Floyd Rose, Active Electronics (bass and treble controls for picks ON THE GUITAR) as well as coil splitting and phase switching. Sperzel tuners on headstock to avoid the annoying clamp on all guitars with a floyd...never goes out of tune. 24 frets and a neck thru construction...

This guitar I would say could suit ANY music style, im not saying it is the best for everything, but you can play anything on it. The active electronics let you adjust treble and bass on the guitar itself so there ya go. Can go from that Malmsteen fender single coil fast sound to that Vai thick tone. Can go from Jazz to Metal.

The action is the LOWEST YOU CAN GET!!! I go to guitar stores and try out 2000 dollar Jacksons and Ibanez, and nothing compares to my 900 dollar Carvin. The Pickups were great Finish is beautiful, custom sapphire blue on flamed maple, with an alder body and maple neck and fingerboard. You get a good 1/2 inch of flame which beats most other finishes.

This guitar would withstand anything, very solid. Hardware is emmaculate. 5 YEAR WARRANTY!!!!!

Carvin is always very helpful to me anyways...If you get an asshole on the phone, call back and get a different person. 5 year warranty.

Ive been playing six years and I play stuff from Cole Porter to Jason Becker. These guitars are simply elite. If it were stolen lost damaged I would probably cry first, and then replace the guitar. For a custom made guitar 900 bones is KING!

Ebony fret board, Floyd Rose, (even though I ordered the Wilkenson), Spertzel tuners (leaking grease), one tone, one volume, 3-way(works like shit), and two mini coil splitters.

Sounded shrill with the Carvin M series pickups so I added some real pickups from Duncan. Now it sounds about like most Korean guitars. Not sure if this Carvin is USA or Korean since they started manufacturing overseas recently,

The action was way too low, and I can't get it any higher without the neck acting up. The finish sides of the neck is screwed up. Some of the frets appear to be working loose and its brand new. Like I mentioned above, the switches and knobs suck!

It won't even play right, so how the hell can it withstand live playing?

Bunch of rude punks. I called several times trying to get a return number and they jacked me around and tried to say the guitar was fine and I was an idiot.

Never again. Worthless warranty. They tried to get me to send it back at $55 round trip to work on it after several weeks of trying to talk to a manager. I don't think they have managers or supervisors there. The people answering the phones have free reign and will talk to you like shit. Read some of the other reviews about Carvin Service. Its obvious they stink.

Just recieved my second carvin. this time in white, tung oiled neck, black hardware, holdsworth pickups, reverse headstock. came with sperzel tuners (couldnt live without them). its a custom shop, you have practically no limit to your options.

i have another carvin, this one isnt any better, its different. i wouldnt say its better, cuz the old one kick ass, but this one is a lot different.

set up perfectly.

had it for about 2 days now

This fits my music perfectly. insane guitar for an insane price.

This is a Carvin DC-127C (2000). Maple neck-thru body with Alder body sides and ebony fingerboard (scale 25"). Finished in natural wood with Clear gloss finish. Reverse in-line headstock. Original Floyd rose, black crome hardwear, Two humbers with coil taps on both pickups. sperzel locking tuners Strap lock's installed, and 24 jumbo dunlop frets.

This guitar ROCKS! This guitar and all Carvin guitars play absolutly great. I have 5 Carvin guitars and I love these guitars. I also use Carvin amps and my main rig is Carvins Quad-X pre-amp running a Carvin Tube-100 for power. effects processor in the rack is a DigiTech TSR 24S. I use a Snarling Dogs Super Bawl Whino, A Snarling Dogs Mold Sore Wah, and a Voo Doo labs Micro Vibe. I also have a Carvin X-60 head that I use somtimes. I ordered this guitar with the C22 classic humbers and I must say I prefer Carvins M22 series pick-ups much more. The C22 series are a little bitey for me. The M22 series are much more fat sounding.

What can I the action, fit, and finish of this guitar is awsome! All Carvin guitars are just great made and great playing guitars. No flaws on this baby. Carvin guitars are set-up at the factory before they ship them and let me say that they do a awsome job setting them up too. I know a guy who has a PRS and after playing my Carvin said that the Carvins neck up and down is more even than his PRS. Carvin guitars just seem to have a perfect blend of vintage/modern vibe to them. I love the tonal qualities of the maple neck thru with alder body sides really nice balance of sound.

I have been a dedicated Carvin user since the later eighties. I have never had a problem with any of my Carvin guitars. I have played lots of hours, live shows, recording sessions, rehersals and my Carvin guitars always come through for me 100%. I still use my first Carvin guitar i bought and it still plays and sounds great, and the finish is still good. I have used my Carvin's with out a back up and never had a problem. What can I say I have played the rest and to me Carvin is the best.

Customer support is top notch with Carvin, always helpful and always friendly.

I am 34 now and have been playing guitar since 12. The only thing different I would of done on this order is to have gotten the M22 series pick-ups instead of the C22 classic series pickups. There are other good guitars out there so dont get me wrong but, I have played alot of different top brand guitars and to me nothing compares to Carvin. I would forsure replace this guitar if somthin happened to it. I have 5 Carvin guitars: DC-127C, DC-127T, DC-135F, Ultra V, DC-727C. And my next I think will be a AE-185 acoustic electric hybrid.

I ordered this guitar in May 8th of 2000 and recieved it today, July 5th, probably would have recieved it yesterday if it weren't the 4th of July. I ordered it direct from the Carvin website, which i thought was better since you could see all your options in front of you. It was made in USA, 24 frets, blueburst on maple top(the blueburst looks a little darker than it did on the color generator on the website but i actually like it better) 1 volume, 1 tone, 3 way selector, coil tap for all 3 positions. I changed the pickups to M22's. I heard they gave a thicker sound than the C22's. I chose against the active electronics and stuck with the passive. the body is alder and the neck is maple. Another thing i like about it is the original Floyd Rose. No liscenced. It came standard sperzel tuners, it came with a free hardshell case. I give it a 10 mainly cause you can pick any features you want.

I play anything from metal, blues, and virtuoso type music such as Satch. It suits all that fine, it's a very versatile guitar. I was leaning towards and Ibanez RG before i ordered this and i'm glad i got this. I'm not that experienced of a player, only for about 2 1/2 years but this guitar sounds a lot better than my old epi. I play it through a fender champion 110 solid state amp, soon to upgrade to a tube amp. It sounds fine through the solid state, must sound like heaven through a tube. The neck pickup is nice, good clean tone and smooth with overdrive on. the neck pickup is allright but i wish it could have more gain on it. I'll probably replace it. I'll give it a 9 just because the of the bridge pickup.

The guitar was set up fairly well. I thought the action was a little on the high side, but nothing taht can't be fixed. The rounded body sides were done real nice. The only other flaw i noticed was that inside the routed space for the Floyd Rose(don't know a technical term for it)the paint was a little unfinished in the corners, but i don't think anyone is gonna come looking in my floyd rose. I'll give it an 8 just because of the action.

I've just had it for about a day so i wouldn't know.

I can't say more about how helpful Carvin was. i e-mailed them many times from the adress i got off of their website and they were very responsive. I would suggest contacting them by e-mail considering the horror stories i've heard from people who have done it by phone. I give them a perfect 10.

Like I said, I've only been playing for 2 1/2 years but i know a good quality made american guitar when i see one and this tops my Epiphone all the way. I got it exactly how i wanted it. If it were lost or stolen I would deftinately buy another one. Maybe try another color, not that I don't love the blueburst. I love all the features you can get. The carvin website is excellent. Before i bought it I was about to get an Ibanez RG or an S series but loved all the features you could get on this. It was also neck thru, which is really nice if you can get an american made neck thru for only $800 bucks with features, you could get it with out any added features for $569 and it would still be a great guitar. I don't wish it has anything else cause everythign i wanted i got it. I plan on my next guitar probably being another carvin.

Great options. Too many really. Everything i wanted, i couldnt afford tho. I got a ebony fretboard, floyd, blueburst, sperzels, neck-thru, black hardware, strap locks, reverse headstock, matching headstock, tung oiled back of neck (insanely comfortable and fast), and no inlay on the fretboard. I wanted one of their quilted finishes but their a little on the pricey side. Beatiful guitar, great options.

Great sound. However, there could be a little more bass. I have a Peavey T-60 and the pickups on that have awesome bass.

Excellent finish. Like before, i wanted a quilted but couldnt afford it. Floyd was well set up. No problems.

I wanted to change part of my order. I called and told them what I wanted changed. So i figured they changed it. So a couple of weeks later i wanted to add a tung oiled back of neck. So i called and told them what i wanted and made sure my order was right. The person i had talked to got the switch messed up. I wanted to cancel the rounded edges and add strap locks. So when i called to make an addition, they cancelled the black hardware and kept rounded body edges. That really pissed me off and added extra time talking to someone who i really didnt wanna talk to for too long. They actual ordering went really good tho. No complaints there.

Awesome guitar.

You can get the guitar built with whatever features you want!! I currently have 3 Carvin DC127's. A red quilt top with a Floyd Rose, a blue quilt top with a Wilkinson bridge and my newest, a purple flame top with a Floyd Rose. Be aware that if you order yours with a Floyd Rose that it does not include the locking nut, you must ask for that separate. I ordered each of my Carvins with the tung oil finish on the neck, and I can't recommend this option enough. It increases the playability immeasurably. The guitars are all maple neck thru alder body sides. The fingerboard is ebony (although on my purple one I got a maple fingerboard). The guitar has two humbuckers, each of which can be coiled tapped, a tone knob and volume knob. Active electronics are available if you want, I stuck with the passive. I don't think you can find a guitar with more features, as they build it anyway you want it.

These guitars absolutely scream!! I run my Carvins through a rack set up consisting of a Rocktron Piranha, a digitech 2120 (effects only), a Mesa 2:90 power amp out to 2 4x12s. I also own a Peavey Wolfgang and 2 Ibanezs, but the Carvins definately get the bulk of my playing time. I did not care for the Carvin bridge pickups and swapped them out. The pickups seemed to be geared towards versatility, but really didn't suit my style. The pickups seemed to lack the low end punch that I like. I tried the M22T, the C22T and the M22SD bridge pickups in my different Carvins. I liked the M22SD the best, but it was very hot and it fed back a lot even at moderate volumes. I swapped them out for Dimarzio Tone Zones and a Seymour JB. In the neck pickups I tried both the M22V and C22N and I definately liked the M22V better as it was sweeter sounding and had a slightly hotter output. I also thought the M22V sounded better when coil tapped and it gives you very Stratty sounding single coil tones. Having the coil taps really adds to the versatility of these guitars. The guitar is slightly noisy on the single coil setting with high gain sounds, but dead quiet when using the humbuckers. These guitars have a really full sound with a lot of sustain. My Wolfgang has more of a mid range punch to it, these have a more full bodied tone (especially since changing the bridge pickups). Only rates a 9 since I had to change the bridge pickups

My guitars all came from the factory playing great. Those who have never played a Carvin neck don't know what they are missing. One of the bridge springs on my blue quilt top had popped off during shipping and I had to pop it back on in when it was delivered. It played perfect as soon as I put the spring back on. My others had no problems and they were set up flawlessly. They are all gorgeous guitars, but the red quilt top really stands out from the others. The red stain REALLY shows off the absolutely gorgeous quilt top (the best of my three). However, being a stain, the stain did bleed slightly where the body finish ends and the natural wood of the back of the neck begins (this is not an issue unless you get the tung oil finish on the back of the neck as otherwise the back of the neck is finished the same as the body). It is not noticable from a few feet away, but if you look very close you can see it (a very slight imperfection at most). This is common when using stain versus paint and quite frankly, the guitar is so stunningly gorgeous on the front, nobody is looking at the back of the neck. This was not an issue for my blue or purple guitar as these colors are translucent paint, not stain and did not bleed. One of the toggle switches went bad after about 6 months and I had to replace it (most likely a bad switch and not really Carvin's fault). Again, I highly recommend the tung oil finish on the neck. I'll only give them a 9 here due to the toggle switch, bridge spring and the very slight imperfection due to the stain bleeding. If I'm basing this solely on how my guitars play, they get a 10.

I've been playing for about 15 years and play club gigs regularly. I got my first Carvin in '96 so I've really had a chance to test them in live situations and they hold up great. I never gig without several backups due to broken strings, Murphy's law, etc.

Never really dealt with them after placing my orders. They were great when taking my orders. Others have said once they charge your credit card that customer service goes out the window. I don't know about that and it has not been my experience, but I haven't really dealt with them much. I'll give them an 8 based on them being very helpful when I placed my orders.

These guitars are an incredible deal for the money. I ordered mine with the exact features I wanted, and you can too!! These guitars sound and play GREAT. They are extremely versatile due to the coil taps and I use them to play everything from VH to Rage to Creed to Rush to 70's funk. My Carvin's handle any style I need to play. I can't recommend them enough based on versatility and tone. I was nervous when I placed my first Carvin order since you can't try one out. Ever since I received my first Carvin, they have gotten the bulk of my playing time. These guitars play the best of any of the guitars I have ever tried.