LeftyBassist.com

Hi Guys,

I saw this little beasty on the Carvin in stock guitars page and decided to pull the trigger. Just got her today and so far, quite impressed. Considering swapping out the stock guts with maybe some Nordstrand DC5's and maybe a John East U Retro 01 pre but what's in there now does not seem to be completely sucking. Gonna need some time to grow accustomed to this bass but the quality of the woodwork seems top notch to my eye and hands.

Walnut body wings, flame maple top, birdseye maple fingerboard with tung oil finish, walnut neck with maple stripes, stainless steel frets, single coil pickups and piezo bridge option with asymmetrical wide neck and 19 mm at the bridge spacing. A little heavy at 10 lbs but the body design is very ergonomic and comfortable.

This was one of their NAMM 2014 showcase instruments.

I know they don't tend to hold their value but maybe the newer higher end models like this are a little different... I'm starting to think so. Especially if I upgrade the guts. Hmmmm...

Beautiful Mark! I was eyeballing that one on the GIS page. Love the wood

Hey Brian,

So far, this is by far the nicest Carvin I've ever seen. I'll be taking some better photos soon and posting them. The birdseye maple board on the walnut is a very interesting look that you can't see very well in this stock pic from my first post. The single coil pickups aren't my thing either (noisy) so definitely looking at the Nordstrands or maybe some Barts. The pickup size is a Bart P2.

More detailed review coming soon.

I played that bass at NAMM, and was really really impressed with it. My only gripe about it was the thickness of the finish on the back of the neck. Kinda felt like I was rubbing a table top from Pier 1 instead of an instrument

You got yourself one heck of a bass!

@azwhofan: very cool. Thanks for saying that. I'm thinking I will at some point do a finish reduction on the neck with a bit of a de-glossify treatment so that I end up with a satin finish. Were I to order that bass I would have gone with the tung oil finish on the back of neck option.

I saw that too, beautiful bass, congrats!

Congratulations! That bass looks incredible!

My guitar player is a Carvin nut and has been using their guitars and amps for three decades. I think even now he designs guitars for them on the side. I also happen to live relatively close to the two southern California stores so I am able to check things out first hand. Over the years the only model that really seemed to pique my interest were the Bunny Brunel basses, although I never felt like I had to have one. But I must say that when the Icon series came out those basses really caught my eye and seem to have a lot of features I look for in a bass. Carvins seem to have a great quality & features-to-price ratio and perhaps its high time I give them a try.

You know, I think they would sell a lot more basses if they opened up the electronics choices to more custom options. IMHO. Does everyone agree here that that seems to be Carvin's one big knock?

That's one of the nicest combinations of wood - Carvin or otherwise - that I've seen a awhile! And yes, their electronics and pickups might be their Achilles heel, and as marcv suggests, being able to order custom pickups might increase their reputation, and resale value....

I walked through the Carvin booth from front to back and never saw that thing, dammit.

Very, very cool looking.

That is beautiful!
I love the walnut, and that top is very pretty!

Gorgeous!

I have two Carvins myself… great instruments, been very lefty-friendly for a long, long time (my first Carvin bass was purchased back in '93, and probably needs a complete revamping of electronics, but I have no know-how there).

It and the lefty guitars were kinda hidden away at what might have been considered the 'back' of the booth, kinda sammiched inbetween Carvin and the vendor behind them that had the EUB's (sorry, forget their name right now). It would have been real easy to walk by it and not even notice all of them.

Reminds me of the one lefty SR5 that I saw at the EBMM booth... hanging up behind a table where they had their catering with no access to it. Someone had a jacket hanging on it at one point.



It was a super sexy 70's looking beast with a tobacco burst finish, black guard and maple board... I would have loved to check it out, but didn't feel like asking anyone to climb over the fettuccine alfredo to grab it.

One of the things that does mystify me about the hardware choices on this bass... why chrome knobs and tuners when you have a black bridge?

Also, with the 24 carat gold plated logo, it seems to me that some nice 2 tone gold and black knobs and Hipshot Ultralight tuners would REALLY make this bass pop and tie in with the logo nicely.

So, I'm thinking of going with the Nordstrand DC5 pickups in parallel which will be splittable so I will still have the single coil option if I want. That and the John East U-Rretro Deluxe 4 knob version with the John East piezo buffer. Anybody have any comments or experience or recommendations?

There's always the all Bartolini option too...

...and what would YOU put in if you were upgrading this bass?

Wow. Nice.

Sorry for the delay. Here are some pics that were requested quite a while back. I took these on the bow area of the 120' motor yacht I used to run. The boat was inside a huge shed so the lighting is kinda so so.

Three more.

My plan in the next few weeks is to order that set of Hipshot Ultralite tuners I mentioned in an earlier post here in black and gold 2 tone to replace the chrome. Much like the tuners on my old Kinal. Also some sort of black and gold knobs. Also the strap buttons and the ferrules for a completely consistent look. I'll probably go with strap locks. And I have a chunk of walnut that I'm going to use to make a ramp.

To add to this, here's some sort of a very small review. I REALLY like this bass. The neck, which has the asymmetrical wide option, is super comfortable to play, in fact, it's quite similar in shape and feel to my F Bass. And honestly, the quality of the build is very, very close to the F Bass. ...at... ahem... less than half the cost. When I was buying the F Bass I was talking to Marcel Furlanetto and he was saying that he had no idea how Carvin could sell their basses at the cost that they do.

Anyway, my only real complaints are the gloss finish on the neck, which I still plan to reduce when I do the other work to the bass, and the chrome hardware. At this time I'm going to continue to stick with the stock electronics until I have a bit more cash to throw around, at which time I still intend to try some other preamp and pickup options. I'm also toying with the idea of figuring out some way to use the piezo bridge pickup as a sender for a Roland GR-55 guitar synth but I may use a different bass for that idea. I'm reluctant to make any major changes to the wood on this bass for an experiment because it IS so nice.

However, tonally, the piezo does very little for me sound wise and doesn't seem to possess anything that is different enough to go into "I have to have this" mode. I can get a lot of different tones out of the bass with just the magnetic pickups, hand placement, and EQ. I would also add that I find the bass to be very ergonomically designed, it balances well and, while heavy for some at around 10 pounds, I don't find the weight too excessive. Having a super nice quality Gruv Gear padded strap probably helps.

I like this bass so much that I'm toying with the idea of doing a "reverse of this bass's wood" build. So an Icon 5W with a Claro walnut top and a flame maple body (see F Bass pic), a flame maple 5 piece neck with walnut stringers, probably an ebony fingerboard.