"Official" Carvin Club - Part 2

[Kmonk]

I don't get the attraction to Carvin. In the early 1980s my band had Carvin monitors. They lacked clarity and always sounded muddy. A couple of years ago, I bought a used LB75. Same issue. Very muddy sounding, no punch, no clarity. I sold it one week after buying it and made $500 on the deal. Am I missing something?

[Showdown]

Originally Posted by Kmonk

I don't get the attraction to Carvin. In the early 1980s my band had Carvin monitors. They lacked clarity and always sounded muddy. A couple of years ago, I bought a used LB75. Same issue. Very muddy sounding, no punch, no clarity. I sold it one week after buying it and made $500 on the deal. Am I missing something?

Yes, you are missing something. I have two Carvin basses and one thing they do not lack is clarity or punch. The old J99 and the new J99A pickups both cut through a band easily. In fact, if I want a bass that is guaranteed to sit well in the mix no matter what the room is like I take my 10 year old B5 with J99 pickups. It has gotten a lot of compliments from band members over the years - in all kinds of bands from country to hard rock.

Their older speakers did tend to be pretty bad, but they are much better now. You can't judge them today by what they were like 25 years ago.

[WoodyG3]

Originally Posted by Kmonk

I don't get the attraction to Carvin. In the early 1980s my band had Carvin monitors. They lacked clarity and always sounded muddy. A couple of years ago, I bought a used LB75. Same issue. Very muddy sounding, no punch, no clarity. I sold it one week after buying it and made $500 on the deal. Am I missing something?

You are missing the last 520 posts of this thread, the 1000 posts in the Carvin Club part 1 thread, and thousands of posts in the SB 4-5000 and Bromberg threads. I suspect you missed them on purpose, and enjoy poking the bear.

[gumbynotpokey]

Originally Posted by WoodyG3

You are missing the last 520 posts of this thread, the 1000 posts in the Carvin Club part 1 thread, and thousands of posts in the SB 4-5000 and Bromberg threads. I suspect you missed them on purpose, and enjoy poking the bear.

Simply put, my LB70P and LB70PF are amazing in tone, presence, clarity, complexity across the register, and that's all before scupltability through strings, on-board eq, FOH engineering, blah blah blah.

Soloing the bridge MM style bucker is sufficient to kill off this worry. Read my HC review if you like (carvincustomer2004) of my LB70P. The LB70PF is a fretless with the epoxy board. Man, that thing SINGS.

And the carvin forums also tell the story.

[Grateful]

Originally Posted by Kmonk

I don't get the attraction to Carvin. In the early 1980s my band had Carvin monitors. They lacked clarity and always sounded muddy. A couple of years ago, I bought a used LB75. Same issue. Very muddy sounding, no punch, no clarity. I sold it one week after buying it and made $500 on the deal. Am I missing something?

I'm the same way with Camaros and Corvettes. I drove a U-Haul truck back in the 80's made by Chevrolet and it had no get-up-and-go at all. Don't see what people see in Chevy's...

[AudioDwebe]

Originally Posted by gumbynotpokey

Dig my A/B comparison clip with my fretted and new fretless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh_lhGZS9sM

Thank you.

I was hoping for a comparison of new/old Carvin fretless basses with different pups and electronics. My guess is it will sound really different, but am not entirely sure.

[jim777]

It seems like every bass I buy lasts as long as it takes for me to A/B it with my Bunny Brunnel 5 - then it gets sold or returned. They are outstanding instruments, period. No 'for the money' required.

[Grateful]

There are some new Carvin T-Shirts and whatnot in their gift shop. There are actually :gasp: bass and bass amp shirts.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/group/carvin_wear

[WoodyG3]

More and better pics of my spalted maple top Icon here:

New (Used) Icon with Spalted Maple Top

[MCS4]

Nothing is better than Carvin for the money, and possibly not otherwise. I have a custom Zon on order, so it'll be interesting to see if that can finally dethrone my LB70 as No. 1... nothing else has in more than a decade, at any price point.

LB70 in action last Friday (also used a B4 for one song in a different tuning):

\

[gumbynotpokey]

Originally Posted by MCS4

Nothing is better than Carvin for the money, and possibly not otherwise. I have a custom Zon on order, so it'll be interesting to see if that can finally dethrone my LB70 as No. 1... nothing else has in more than a decade, at any price point.

LB70 in action last Friday (also used a B4 for one song in a different tuning):

Very interesting. Let us know what you think, ok?

[Mike Sorr]

My favorite bass. I'm thinking about cutting down my collection by a couple of four strings to pick up another B50. I was originally thinking about getting a Fender Precision 5 string, but the Carvin blew me away. This one is completely passive and has the quieter H50A pickups. I love 'em.

Anyone else have the H50A's? What do you think of them?

[Dan B]

Alright, after deliberating on my next bass I'm probably going to Carvin, specifically the Icon model. I do have some questions though:
- How often do people use the Piezo pickup system? I'm asking this because it does tack on $100 but if people say it's integral to the "Carvin Experience" I'm wondering if I should consider it.

- Are the radiused humbuckers worth it? How do they compare to the normal humbuckers?

- What's the best wood combination for the Icon? What I had in my head is ash body, 1 piece maple neck, and ebony fretboard. Reason why I am choosing that is because looking at Carvin's pickup guide the normal humbuckers have a lot of low range response, and I'd like to counteract that if possible.

Thanks much!

[dgce]

Originally Posted by Dan B

Alright, after deliberating on my next bass I'm probably going to Carvin, specifically the Icon model. I do have some questions though:
- How often do people use the Piezo pickup system? I'm asking this because it does tack on $100 but if people say it's integral to the "Carvin Experience" I'm wondering if I should consider it.

- Are the radiused humbuckers worth it? How do they compare to the normal humbuckers?

- What's the best wood combination for the Icon? What I had in my head is ash body, 1 piece maple neck, and ebony fretboard. Reason why I am choosing that is because looking at Carvin's pickup guide the normal humbuckers have a lot of low range response, and I'd like to counteract that if possible.

Thanks much!

I’ve heard wonderful things about the Icon. But I think the one negative critique I’ve come across a few times were regarding their humbucking pickups. I don’t recall the details but generally some folks out there just don’t like them. Fortunately there are options, the Radius (Bromberg) pickups, or the J9As or H5As in a soapbar shell.

I have Radius humbuckers on my Bromberg B24S. I think they sound great and I was able to adjust to the shape quickly. Oh, and they’re quiet. I haven’t tried the J9As but almost everyone raves about them. The Radius single coils (which are based on the J9As) seem to get a lot of respect as well. But as you know, that sweet single coil tone comes at a price: noise when soloed!

As for body wood combo: maple/ebony neck with either ash with flame top or alder with flame top; you can't lose. Great tone and pretty to boot.

I’m also curious about the benefits of that piezo pickup.

[Eggman]

Didn't want to start a new thread for this, but need some help.

I have been hearing a lot of noise out of my SB4000. Thought it was my cable. More noise when I jiggled the cable. Switched cables. Same staticky noise.

Does that mean its the input jack? Anyone replace their own?

Thanks

[Eggman]

Originally Posted by Eggman

Didn't want to start a new thread for this, but need some help.

I have been hearing a lot of noise out of my SB4000. Thought it was my cable. More noise when I jiggled the cable. Switched cables. Same staticky noise.

Does that mean its the input jack? Anyone replace their own?

Thanks

Called Carvin - they said to clean out the inside of the jack with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol. Seems to have done the trick.

On another note - why does this thread and a couple others - not show up chronologically with I do an advanced search for Carvin? Is it just me? I found this on search page 9.

[MCS4]

Dan B,

I've been playing Carvins almost exclusively for more than a decade, and have frequented the Carvin message board for much of that time, and I don't believe I've *ever* heard anyone complain that a Carvin's sound was too bass-heavy. If anything I've gathered their reputation is for being brighter than average, although I don't know if that remains true of the newer models. That being said, I do prefer the sound of Carvin's single coil pickups to their humbuckers (though I haven't used their newest humbuckers), and that J99A's have indeed being getting rave reviews.

[Handyman]

Originally Posted by MCS4

Dan B,

I've been playing Carvins almost exclusively for more than a decade, and have frequented the Carvin message board for much of that time, and I don't believe I've *ever* heard anyone complain that a Carvin's sound was too bass-heavy.

The ceramic soapbars that are stock in the Icon actually are quite dark, and that seems to be the most common complaint about them. I didn't like them for that reason, and swapped them out for some of the Bart classic bass series pickups.

As you mention, the J99A and the radiused single coils are anything but. Anyway, I know some people swear by the Carvin ceramic soapbars, but they just weren't for me because of the massive treble rolloff.

Anyway, Carvin offers plenty of Icon pickup options for itty bitty upcharges. I think just about anyone can get something they'll like.

Here's Carvin's chart of the ballpark frequency response of all their bass pickups (scroll to the bottom). You can see that the SPN and SPB pickups have pretty significant treble attenuation relative to the J99A or RAD-J pickups.
http://www.carvinguitars.com/pickups/

[WoodyG3]

Handyman, thanks for the link to the pickup info. It has been updated since I last looked, which was quite a while ago.

The darkness of the soapbars is what I like, and dislike at the same time. In a band mix they can really sound great. They are not as good as the J99s for some of the higher note melodic stuff I do, though. The soapbars do the low grindy thunder kinda' thing really well for me, but I'd say the J99s are a little more versatile.

[Dan B]

Thanks for the responses. At this point I am looking at the radiused soapbars since they look a bit more even across the board. I did listen to some sound samples of various Icons and yes, they do sound very dark but at the same time "alive" (if I have to put it that way), which I like. I'll keep the RAD-Js in mind though; I'm typically a humbucker person but if the Js get good reviews - and they are - it's another option.