ICON PICS-OPINION-VID
After a bit of controversy - the new ICON 6 finally showed up this weekend.
I created a 10 minute video going over a few aspects of the bass - if you're really interested I've loaded it up on
YOUTUBE.
DETAILS:
ALDER BODY
BIRDSEYE MAPLE FINGERBOARD
MAPLE x3 -KOA x2 5 PIECE NECK
QUILTED MAPLE TOP
GREEN BURST FINISH
PIEZO EQUIPED
I've restrung the bass as a piccolo A,D,G,C,F,Bb
REVIEW: Let me disclose my biases.
I had an
unsatisfactory experience with carvin service people.
I admit to be spoiled by my MTD and Pedulla basses.
I have owned LB75s (fretted and fretless before) and sold them.
I don't play in a band context - only as a soloist so my needs are different than 90% of the people reading this.
I don't need a "regular bass" with regular bass sounds. I'm looking for something different.
Also - I'm not really a reviewer, nor an expert and don't feel obligated to being objective - just giving my opinion. Take my opinion for what it's worth to you.
Ok - nuff BS - on with my thoughts.
Overall the bass is very attractive. I like the icon body style better than the other carvin styles.
It's very comfortable on the lap and with a strap - feels solid without being too weighty - the neck is lean without being thin - and has mass without being chunky.
Electronics - the soaps still sound like carvin. If you like that sound you won't be disappointed. I'm not a fan - but I will say that the carvin sound is fairly benign and can be molded into more favorable sounds if you know how to blend pups, eq , pres and compression.
Since I play mostly solo - the voice of the instrument is pretty important to me because it's the only thing you hear. That's why I ordered the piezos - and they did not disappoint.
In fact- without the piezos I would certainly send this bass back. It's not that it's a bad bass - it's just that there's nothing distinct or special about it's sound. The piezos are the one thing that gives the instrument a sonic distinction. It makes the bass for me.
The carvin magnetics just don't cut it for me.
Note to Carvin - please please please please - offer options with Barts, and other pick-ups made by pick-up experts. Please. 
String spacing as you can see in the pic above is 16 1/2 mm
I'm used to 19mm so that is taking some serious getting used to. If it were truly a "custom shop' you could choose the string spacing that best suits you.
Seems to me that string spacing is a pretty dumb issue to have to use to choose 1 bass over another. But I digress.
I re-strung the bass as a piccolo pretty much the minute I pulled it out of the box. But I did play it as a normal bass for about 5 minutes. The B was a little soft (but I'm not a B string fan anyway) so I can't really guide you on that.
Action and playability out of the box was pretty bad - but I did a set up on it and got it to where I like it without much trouble. The neck is still settling in from the truss adjustment I made - another 1/8th of a turn and it should be golden.
Like I say in the video - it has good basic bass sounds and if you have effects, pres and other tone shaping gear I'm sure you can find the sound you want. But there's nothing like boutique sound - and obviously this bass doesn't do that.
As shown on the video I think they wired the pick-up pan backwards - the coil splitter seems to put the pickups out of phase when both are used.
Also there's a nasty clicking noise that intermittently pops up when the instrument cable is moved - like when you're walking around with the bass on stage.
Will I send it back to have carvin fix these issues?
Hmm. That means having to call customer support . . .and I think we all would probably rather avoid each other at this point - so I'll probably just pay a local tech to deal with it if I decide to keep the bass.
I paid $1,800 for this. My 535 cost twice that - and my pentabuzz each cost 1K more. If carvin offered nicer magentic electronics, and a choice of string spacing it would totally belong next to those basses.
btw- the blue pedulla penta-buzz is for sale.
Linear Mode
