Carvin total custom?

[S-H]

Peeps,

Does anybody know if Carvin do a 100% custom guitar line that they don't promote on their website and is available outside the US?

I know it's a long-shot but I just wondered if it's possible.

My guitar wouldn't deviate too much from an alder body, maple neck 7-string that you could build on the site, the additions/changes being:

* Set neck or as they call it- "set-in neck" (like their California Carved-top line)
* Reverse, pointed in-line headstock (like Becker's sig but reverse obviously lol)
* 20" fretboard radius

I would also change the pickups but I know Carvin only put their own into their guitars (the biggest stumbling block imo) so I'm not gonna even ask if that's possible. Ha

As far as I can tell, it's not possible to have all of that on the same, DC series, guitar.

I've e-mailed them but thought I'd ask on here in case it's a while getting a reply.

Cheers

- Steve

[Blue]

No they don't. I would personally don't even bother with them. While they make good guitars they aren't the most collaborative company to deal with.

I know from experience.

But hey, you can always ask them. Your specs is not that alien so they might do it.

The pickup issue is not a big deal, any luthier or woodworker can fix that very easily or you could always buy a custom made pickup, or rewind/rebuild the original pickups (which are horrible unfortunately).

By the way since you are in the UK, have you checked out Jayden Rose? Seems like he makes decent priced guitars with good quality.

[Raj]

I don't think I've heard of set in necks on a DC series. But why do you want that anyhow? It's much clumsier than the nice neck through feel that adds to the Carvin comfort and playability.

Reverse pointed headstock is available for any DC model if you call in and order on the phone. Some of them they've even put it on the online website options when building it.

The Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy has set-neck and 20" radius. Also the people on this thread are talking about other 20" radius stuff
www.carvinbbs.com/viewtopic.php?t=9729&sid=5fa23cfd0977c549fda9a459e7fed826 , but it looks to be on the 7 string models on the DC series, which are not set necks.

[Blue]

As far as comfortability goes I agree that neck through is much better. I've had both a DC727 and a Fatboy but the tonal aspect is another thing. If you have neck through the "body" which is not really a body it's just "wings" doesn't contribute much to the sound so you basically only have the tonal characteristics from the neck.

Most Carvin's tend to be on the bright side it doesn't really matter if it's neck through or not IMO. Unless it's all Mahogany then.

[S-H]

@ Blue- I'm still yet to receive a reply from Carvin so not the best at customer service at all. Yeah, my point was that the specs are what they have on guitars already so shouldn't be difficult for them to assemble.

I know people have put DiMarzios in without much trouble so that's not an issue, it's just the fact Carvin put their own terrible pickups in a nice guitar regardless of how many and how often people say they ***.

Jaden Rose is very well known in the UK. They do an excellently priced "Original" model but unfortunately Alder is not 1 of the 3 body woods and would require an extra charge. Not a lot in all likelihood but I'm shocked that Alder isn't a standard spec.

I'm also wholly unimpressed by their site. I mean that in terms of information not the design etc. For their original series spec, they do not state what the neck is made of, only "3 piece", "1 piece" etc- 3 pieces of what?! Or other important things a player considers such as neck radius and fret size. I have no doubt their guitars are very good but there are more local custom luthiers I can check up on.

As superficial as it sounds, first impressions count for a lot when there's a lot of competition out there. Jaden Rose comes across (in a business sense) as very amateur. I'm not ruling them out but I would need a lot of information from players to convince me to give JR a whirl.

----

@ Raj- Neck thrus are most definitely the nicest to play but my specs would be alder body with maple neck. On a neck-thru guitar, it'd sound like a maple bodied guitar due to the pickups sitting on the neck. I find maple bodied guitars to be limiting plus a well made set-neck is still easy to play (especially coming from an RG. lol)

I know of the H2 and HF-2 as well as the 7-string having a 20" radius. I would like a HF-2 one day but I don't think it would fit the bill, tonally, for what I want atm.

[Blue]

Send them a mail again, sometimes they don't even answer or your mail maybe got caught in a spam filter or something. They should respond within three days, they have always done that to me. But they might have been busy now with the NAMM show so thats maybe the reason they haven't got back to you yet.

To fit Dimarzio you'll need to rout out the cavities a bit if you don't want to completely go berserk on the Dimarzio baseplate. Which I don't recommend since it won't fit great anyway. I did that first but then I routed. Some people just sands down the inside of the cavity but I wouldn't recommend that either. It takes a long time and it will look nasty if you make a mistake. It's just better to take it to a luthier and let him rout it for let's say £50. The size difference is actually very large even with Dimarzio's. With other brands like Lundgren and Seymour Duncan etc it's huge.

I know of a few good pickup builders who make custom sized pickups. But I highly recommend routing new cavities because then you can change pickups until you find the pickups you want.