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My SB5000 finally came! Very excited about it. Tone for days. Very bright, with an amazing slap sound. Neck plays super smooth, and I really like how the satin painted neck turned out. I wanted all white, kind of like the Yamaha Nathan East, and it turned out perfect. Takes some adjustment slapping with the old school pickup cover, but hey, Marcus has done it for years. I am easily as impressed with this bass as I am my fretless. Yet again, Carvin does not disappoint.
It's really awesome!
And it's mine
A number of posts back, I mentioned that Carvin rebuilt my 6 string (I originally had a ruby quilt maple unlined fretless that I traded for a tobacco sunburst fretted that had the truss rod broken and the neck all messed up). This is the current bass:
Any AC40F players try roundwounds? I love the Labella tapes it came with but I wonder if rounds would give it more punch. It's got the ebony fingerboard so I assume it could resist wear from the rounds, but it's neither an electric nor an acoustic really, more inbetween right? Would it not have much punch regardless of the strings?
Without the tough as nails finish Carvin offers, or a epoxy finish, round wounds will eat into even ebony. I had an AC50F at one time, and currently have a BB-76F. I found that on both you get more "mwah" by using the round wounds. The tapewounds have a nice mellow feel, but I wasn't quite getting the sound I was after. Even regular flat wounds didn't do it for me. All depends what you are wanting out of the instrument. If you are looking for a mellow, almost upright tone, stick with tapewounds. But if you want the notes to sing out, rounds are the way to go. To help protect my fingerboard, I have applied tru-oil gunstock finish on it about once a year. Hardens the ebony up a bit without losing as much of the warmth as having an epoxy coat. I owned a Pedulla and a Zon with coated fingerboards, and while they sang, they sounded a little thin. For what you have, I think the round wounds would be fine, so long as you don't mind seeing some small lines over time in the wood.
I love everything about the bass. The weight and shape of it. The neck feels perfect in my hands. It feels like home. I just wish it was more versitile so it could be my main player.
Might as well jump in then. I'm afraid I suck at the glamour shots, but here's my 1994 LB76. Back then, we didn't order the interwebs, we filled out a form in a catalog, or called the manufacturer with our order. I don't remember what I ordered for wood, but it's most likely whatever they had stock since I didn't know anything about anything, but I wanted an ebony fingerboard, no dots, gold hardware, and a detuner on the B string that I don't know that I've ever used. Still love everything about this bass and will never get rid of it.
Posted in a different thread, but being my second Carvin, I figured it deserved to be in here too. 
My first fretless! I play a jet black 2004 Carvin LB70P, so I went with a wood look and eased my transition to no lines/no dots with a fretless version of the same model. So, it's a 2012 Carvin LB70PF.
This is a 3 piece body (walnut, maple, Claro top), 5 piece neck (walnut with 2 maple stripes), a birdseye maple board with no lines/no dots and "Hard As Nails" epoxy finish, and J99A single coils, piezos in the bridge saddles. Plays and sounds GREAT.
Hope you all like it.
My first fretless! I play a jet black 2004 Carvin LB70P, so I went with a wood look and eased my transition to no lines/no dots with a fretless version of the same model. So, it's a 2012 Carvin LB70PF.
This is a 3 piece body (walnut, maple, Claro top), 5 piece neck (walnut with 2 maple stripes), a birdseye maple board with no lines/no dots and "Hard As Nails" epoxy finish, and J99A single coils, piezos in the bridge saddles. Plays and sounds GREAT.
Hope you all like it.
Gumby, that fretless is gorgeous. Did Carvin do the hard-as-nails fretboard finish or did you have someone else do it?
Carvin did it. Looks from their info that it's now a regular option.
The surface of the epoxy I can only describe as marble. It's absolutely rock hard, and the strings glide across it with zero resistance. And yet, it's totally smooth. Wonderful.
Hmm. I tried Carvin's builder using a fretless on a couple different models - the SB bolt-on eries, the LB neck-through series, and even just a plain neck (no body) and I never saw anything about epoxy mentioned.
I know Carvin tung-oils their maple fretboards. Perhaps that's what you meant? Or am I missing something? Which section of the builder allows you to select a fingerboard finish on fretless basses?
I know Carvin tung-oils their maple fretboards. Perhaps that's what you meant? Or am I missing something? Which section of the builder allows you to select a fingerboard finish on fretless basses?
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