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Brian Bromberg Carvin Model Part 2

#62
Brian Bromberg said:
The one thing that still blows me away about these Carvin B2 basses is that I don't think there is anything else out there at this quality that are American made for the money?? Truly amazing............
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I really don't think there's anything made overseas that can touch these, and nothing US made out there that can touch these Carvins for the money. Or even double. I have never been as happy with a line of basses as I am with my 3 Carvins, with the B25P being my flagship.
 
#65
BobWestbrook said:
Not much market demand for that, I'm guessing.
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Agreed. So far Carvin has 3 six string models which includes the extended scale model and the Bunny model, I believe. I suspect they're not super big movers as it is. But I guess it can't hurt to ask, IronS, just don't get your hopes up. I think the most common bass request Carvin gets is for a P pickup option. You're likely to see that happen well before a 7 string.
 
#66
Brian Bromberg said:
What a beautiful bass! Post pics on the Carvin B2bass page on Facebook!

I need to find out why some of the basses have a push pull pot on the master? It's not that I don't think it's cool to be able to go active/passive, I just didn't want to have to compromise other aspects of the circuit board to achieve that. We are using an active blend pot so the volume levels are the same when you pan back and forth between the mag pick-ups.

It's all the little things that add up you know?

The one thing that still blows me away about these Carvin B2 basses is that I don't think there is anything else out there at this quality that are American made for the money?? I'm sure there are basses in the $3,000-$5,000 or more range that might have more features or better this or better that, but these Carvin B2's retail starting at a base price of $1,099. I don't even think you can build one with everything Carvin has to offer for more then $2,000-$2,500? If I'm not mistaken it's less then $2,000 maybe? For the same money you could get two or three of the B2's or any Carvin's for that matter for the same price of a boutique bass! Truly amazing............
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While I’m a great admirer of beautiful flame and quilt tops and I’m gaga for figured walnut; fancy tops are really more about cosmetics than anything else. And while the fancy top stuff gets all the glory I have to say the two best bang for buck bass items Carvin offers are the B40/50 and the Bromberg B24S/25S. These so-called “strip down” models offer most of the same options as their flashier brethren at much lower cost. What’s astonishing is that they’re made of the same materials with the same attention to detail and quality as Carvin’s more expensive models. I LOVE my humbucker equipped B24S and know there is no way I could afford the equivalent of this bass had it come from any other domestic builder; no way!

Word of advice, grab one of these basses soon before Carvin comes to their senses and start charging more! I’m considering another B24S with single coils set up with flats.
 
#67
Had a chance to play a 5 string model in the booth at NAMM. Very nice. Amazing access to the upper frets (not surprising if Brian designed the bass!), MUCH higher quality wood, hardware, etc. than you would think for the price, great playability, flat/fast board and neck. A bit on the heavy side (at least the one I played), but not really an issue.

I also enjoyed hearing Brian play on the little 'concert stage' at the front of the booth. Nice to hear 'chops' being used to play actual music at NAMM:p
 
#71
I had this wacky idea of putting a V-styled headstock on a SB4000. You can actually order a B40 with a V headstock for $30 but I didn't see this option for the SB. So I emailed Carvin for the heck of it. They said they normally don't offer that option on a SB but would do it for $100. Given this, I wonder if Carvin would put another headstock on a B24 for an extra fee. My gut says they probably wouldn't because the Bromberg neck is so unique and possibly incompatible with the other Carvin headstocks. But hey, it can't hurt to ask.
 
#72
dgce said:
I had this wacky idea of putting a V-styled headstock on a SB4000. You can actually order a B40 with a V headstock for $30 but I didn't see this option for the SB. So I emailed Carvin for the heck of it. They said they normally don't offer that option on a SB but would do it for $100. Given this, I wonder if Carvin would put another headstock on a B24 for an extra fee. My gut says they probably wouldn't because the Bromberg neck is so unique and possibly incompatible with the other Carvin headstocks. But hey, it can't hurt to ask.
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On the B24, I'm wondering if a different headstock would throw the whole thing out of whack visually. *The headstock swoops to match the body shape. Putting an SB headstock which is all round and bulbous (and not super attractive IMHO), might really look odd.

They seem to have 'option 50's' and 'option 100's'. I ordered a bass unrouted and it was an option 50 for $50. I wanted to get dual HB5 humbuckers (like the LB75) in a bolt on neck and it would have been an option 100 for $100.

If I had money to burn, I would own the weirdest basses...
 
#73
I get a kick out of coming up with bizzarro bass option combos to create a truly unique instrument from Carvin. Once you free yourself from Fender and resale value hang ups, you can really let yourself go with some very interesting ideas without spending $3,000+. But the hitch is that some of these ideas may not be very practical. The Bromberg basses are unlike all the other Carvins. As-is, you have tons of options to make it your own while still retaining amazing playability and tone. But if you change the headstock, you're now messing with the design. A) Carvin probably won't do it. B) if Carvin will do it, you're potentially messing up an amazingly functional layout. Why pay more only to risk screwing up a great thing?
 
#75
dgce said:
Agreed. So far Carvin has 3 six string models which includes the extended scale model and the Bunny model, I believe. I suspect they're not super big movers as it is. But I guess it can't hurt to ask, IronS, just don't get your hopes up. I think the most common bass request Carvin gets is for a P pickup option. You're likely to see that happen well before a 7 string.
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You're probably right. I actually hassled them on their BBS when I was in the market for a 7 a few years ago and that's about what I heard then. I gave in and got a Conklin GTBD-7 not long afterwards.

But although 7s might be a bit of a niche market, I think if Carvin were to make one they wouldn't have any competition in their price range.
 
#78
I'm going to email Carving when I get back to work, but anyone know of they would do a fretless with only the rear/bridge pickup?

Also, any clips of the fretless floating around? Search function on my phone with the TB app sucks......
 
#79
MikeBass said:
I'm going to email Carving when I get back to work, but anyone know of they would do a fretless with only the rear/bridge pickup?

Also, any clips of the fretless floating around? Search function on my phone with the TB app sucks......
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I would imagine that Carvin might do a brodge only version as an 'option 50' or 'option 100'.

Try the Carvin channel on the Carvin.com site. Lots of clips of Brian making us all feel like rookies! :D
 
#80
Grateful said:
I would imagine that Carvin might do a brodge only version as an 'option 50' or 'option 100'.

Try the Carvin channel on the Carvin.com site. Lots of clips of Brian making us all feel like rookies! :D
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Agreed. I've seen both an XB75 and a Bunny model with just one humbucker in the bridge. As long as they don't have to re-tool and if you're willing to pay the extra cash, they'll probably do it.
 

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