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The best Carvin bass

#61
G On Bass said:
They lost/ran off a lot of their long time old-school endorsers. You can still get the Bunny bass, it's just made by ESP/LTD. FWIW, I did once order a Carvin unrouted and dropped in my own electronics.
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I remember that they used to do that, but I'd be surprised if they still did.
I know about the ESP Bunny. The headstock is a dealbreaker*. I wanted Carvin's traditional HS on a 4-string.

*I have basses to gig already and I haven't done much electric bass gigging in the last 15-20 years, so this would be just to own/mod. They do have to suit me aesthetically because they aren't necessary.
 
#62
mikewalker said:
Wow, I just had a look at 'basses in stock" - they seem to be asking crazy money there. Eleven hundred bux American for an [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] w/ hardcase? Is that really the going rate? A mexi-fender is half that price, and they are only made a few miles away....
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Sorry but this is not an equitable comparison. The Kiesel is US made with Hipshot hardware (and includes a hardcase according to your post)
The FMIC Mexi-P will have Pac-rim harware and no case, generally not even a gig bag.

The I've played some Mexi-Stats that are great- some not so much untill you deveote the resources to setup & perhaps upgraded appointments.

Compare the Kiesel to any of the US made Fender / Music Man / G&L instruments at new dealer selling price and I believe you'll find their prices are a worthy value. Resale takes a big hit, so if that's a comcern for you shop used and let another buyer take the depreciation, just like buying a car.

I have 2 Carvin/Kiesel at this point, bought both of them used.
 
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#63
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Can I nominate the Vanquish series as a whole? I love my V49K.
 
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#64
jefff100 said:
Sorry but this is not an equitable comparison. The Kiesel is US made with Hipshot hardware (and includes a hardcase according to your post)
The FMIC Mexi-P will have Pac-rim harware and no case, generally not even a gig bag.

The I've played some Mexi-Stats that are great- some not so much untill you deveote the resources to setup & perhaps upgraded appointments.

Compare the Kiesel to any of the US made Fender / Music Man / G&L instruments at new dealer selling price and I believe you'll find their prices are a worthy value. Resale takes a big hit, so if that's a comcern for you shop used and let another buyer take the depreciation, just like buying a car.

I have 2 Carvin/Kiesel at this point, bought both of them used.
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Totally agree with buying used, out of my last nine basses only one was purchased new. It just seems that Carvin prices went up 30% since the last time I looked. I must be way behind the times!
 
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#66
mikewalker said:
Wow, I just had a look at 'basses in stock" - they seem to be asking crazy money there. Eleven hundred bux American for an [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] w/ hardcase? Is that really the going rate? A mexi-fender is half that price, and they are only made a few miles away....
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Actually the US Fender equivalent costs 50% more than that.
Invalid Link Removed
 
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#67
jefff100 said:
Sorry but this is not an equitable comparison. The Kiesel is US made with Hipshot hardware (and includes a hardcase according to your post)
The FMIC Mexi-P will have Pac-rim harware and no case, generally not even a gig bag.

The I've played some Mexi-Stats that are great- some not so much untill you deveote the resources to setup & perhaps upgraded appointments.

Compare the Kiesel to any of the US made Fender / Music Man / G&L instruments at new dealer selling price and I believe you'll find their prices are a worthy value. Resale takes a big hit, so if that's a comcern for you shop used and let another buyer take the depreciation, just like buying a car.

I have 2 Carvin/Kiesel at this point, bought both of them used.
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To be totally fair, that model and the J model don't use Hipshot hardware. They are generic. But the quality is in the wood, the fit and finish, and the setup. They do all of that extremely well. The hardware works fine and the pickups are good, but all of those things can be swapped if you'd prefer something else just like any other J or P style bass. I swapped the pickups in both of my PJs, but not because they weren't good electronics. They're just not the flavor I wanted.
 
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#68
Marc DLarosa said:
That's the one. I had actually taken it it down, for a couple of months, as the Guy who bought My Schecter 004, said that He wanted it. After I gave Him a couple extra weeks, His wife nixed it. I relisted it, and it was gone, 3 days later.
I've been getting rid of stuff, for the last year, or so. Getting down to the nitty gritty, and almost done clearing out 36+ years of collecting...
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Here is how it worked out....

I had seen it and fell in love with it. I had to play that evening and while I was at the gig I talked the wife into letting me buy it. When I got home from the show, you had taken it down...I was like "ish!" :banghead:

...missed it by >< that much...

BnB
 
#70
PotsdamBass8 said:
To be totally fair, that model and the J model don't use Hipshot hardware. They are generic. But the quality is in the wood, the fit and finish, and the setup. They do all of that extremely well. The hardware works fine and the pickups are good, but all of those things can be swapped if you'd prefer something else just like any other J or P style bass. I swapped the pickups in both of my PJs, but not because they weren't good electronics. They're just not the flavor I wanted.
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True. I've gone to swap bridges on one of my Carvin 5's and the holes are offset compared to Fender and other 'hot swap' bridges. Kiesel is big on appearances, with hardware/electronics still firmly seated in the 'meh' category for the most part IME. If they offered options to use 3rd party electronics, that might entice some. By the time you buy thebass and swap the electronics and/or hardware, it's not as much of a deal as they used to be pre-Kiesel. I hear of people swapping electronics in their Carvin/Kiesel but rarely about someone putting those electronics in another brand of bass. People may take from that what they will...
 
#72
HeavyDuty said:
I know I'm even happier with my AW5 since I swapped out the factory tone for EMG.
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Did you go with the full EMG pickup and preamp swap?

I agree. However, I did really like the tone of the stock humbuckers in my Vanquish mulitscale pictured in my avatar. I just REALLY wanted coil splitting (which Kiesel doesn't offer for their radiums) so I went the EMG TWX route. Body needed routing though. I am completely floored by how good this bass sounds in both single and dual coil mode. I should have a complete tone demo by the end of March. My first adventure into such endeavors.
 
#73
I don't know if you can really make a statement about the "best" Carvin/Kiesel, because a lot of the bass depends on 1). The options selected and b). The year of manufacture. Case in point, I have two LB75s and aside from body shape and both having hipshot bridges, they are largely two different instruments. The first one was made in or around 2000. It has the older J99s and the older, straight forward three-band EQ. It has a thinner neck with an ebony fretboard. Even in active mode, the sound is very indicative of a passive bass with lots of grindy mid-range and a slightly more relaxed top end. The low-end is very warm and rolled off like a passive bass. It fits much more in the Jazz Bass genus of bass sounds. The other LB75 was manufactured in 2010 and has a newer J99 and MM-style humbucker with the newer preamp that has sweepable mids. The neck is much thicker and it has a birdseye maple fretboard. The sound is unmistakably active with lots of airy to snappy highs and a huge and tight bottom-end. It's much more in the tonal genus of an Alembic or Ken Smith.

Some basses obviously have some distinctive and unique features (i.e., XB75 being 35" length, BB used to only come with MM humbuckers in the rear), which seems to become more present now that the company has become Kiesel.
 
#75
For what its worth - and to be clear: I'm not nominating the Vader as the best Kiesel or anything, its a nice little bass and like their other instruments is well made.
There's little details here that just add to the overall quality that you don't find on allot of other instruments unless you pay for premium appointments.

Case in point: I just restrung the Vader with a set of DR Legends flats. While I had things "opened up" so to speak, I thought it would be a good time to find out just what I bought.
Opening the control cavity I find very neat & tidy wiring, and a fully shielded & bonded control cavity lined with copper foil. Solder joints were neat & professionally done. Additionally, the cavity cover screws are not wood screws set in wood, rather they use small machine screws and threaded inserts installed in the body.

Pulling a pickup, I find that the pickups are fully potted in epoxy. The cavity where the Radium soapbar hum-bucker goes is hand signed by someone at the shop. There are people there that take pride in their work and it shows. My B4 that was built back in 2001 has similar level of detail in the cavity, so from my experience their standard level of quality is simply much higher than many of their peers.

Oh, and the little 30" vader sounds awesome with the DR Flats. I wasnt crazy about the D'Addario round wounds it came with. Now I get old school P-bass thump from the split coil neck pickup or a growling snarl depending on how you drive the tone. If you want clean tone, keep the volume knob rolled back about 1/3 and use your amp. If you have the volume on full its like a mild overdrive. The Bridge hum-bucker can add more modern tones and bite and the blend knob gives you an amazing amount of tonal range. Its a pretty impressive setup for a passive bass.

In a few weeks I'll try and put together a full review with some sound clips and will create a review thread for it.


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#78
RBrownBass said:
I remember that they used to do that, but I'd be surprised if they still did.
I know about the ESP Bunny. The headstock is a dealbreaker*. I wanted Carvin's traditional HS on a 4-string.

*I have basses to gig already and I haven't done much electric bass gigging in the last 15-20 years, so this would be just to own/mod. They do have to suit me aesthetically because they aren't necessary.
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Pl ll
BassJuju said:
I am sure I will draw some fire for this and I understand, but I feel I must say it. I have two Kiesel basses-- a B25 and a Jazz-- They are OK. I don't regret buying them, but I would never buy another.
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