August 2011 \ Features \ Builder Profile \ Builder Profile: Carvin

Builder Profile: Carvin

Max Mobley

The company has carved its niche in the industry as a manufacturer of US-made instruments and amps that can be had at a fraction of the cost of their counterparts.


Premier Guitar August 2011
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Carvin's San Diego facility.

The guitars are made in San Diego?

Every solidbody, including the basses, are made here. We offer some semi-hollowbody guitars and hollowbody acoustic-electrics that are also made here.

How many people in the factory?

 There are a 140 in the company. The guitar factory itself is not as large as people would think. We've had some people here for decades, and that is really key. They do important jobs like handpick and book-match the flame and quilt tops. We turn away a lot of wood because we have certain standards. Other companies may have a private stock or figured wood stashes they charge a huge premium for—for us, that's our everyday top.

How many people just working on guitars?

There are 30 to 40 people working solely on guitars. We have two people doing final setups so we can keep quality control down to two guys, and really focus on the attention to detail. During the difficult economic times, we had some tough choices to make—do we make someone wait another couple weeks for their guitar, or do we add another shift and run this place 24/7? In order to keep the quality under control, we did not add a second shift. In my experience, when you get someone who stays up all night, you kind of wonder about them. I prefer to have my guitar built by someone that dwells during the day. [Laughs.]


Unidentified Carvin employees operate the fretwire press (left) and sand the body of a guitar (right)
in the San Diego factory.

And your pickups are made here as well?

Every single pickup is wound and assembled in San Diego. We wanted to maintain that because that was how this company started. We have three or four people making our pickups and each of them knows how to make every single pickup we offer, which is currently about two dozen. That's tight quality control.


Carvin factory workers wind pickups (left) and spray finish (right) in the San Diego factory.

What is the most popular electric guitar you make?

The California Carved Top—and it comes in different models. There is the original CT6 with a deluxe flame top, which can be upgraded to quilted maple or other deluxe maple tops like spalted or burl. There’s also the CT3, which is all mahogany, and the CT4 that comes with a standard maple top. The CT6 is actually my personal guitar—the neck on that thing plays so beautifully, and the sound of that guitar is astounding.

Our semi-hollow electrics are also popular because they are not quite as hollow as an ES-335. It is a nice hybrid between a semi-hollowbody and a solidbody. We start with a solid piece of mahogany and core it out. It's simply a cored-out solidbody—no laminate or veneer sides—with an added maple top, so you don't have the feedback issues you often find with traditional semi-hollowbodies.

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Comments

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Joel Schlecht
on 06/30/2012 		The question is, is carvin a good brand. Lots of people have said they never heard anything bad about carvin so here is an alternate view point. Keep in mind that I bought my equipment 20 years ago but if the company is still run by the same people things won't change much. I bought a complete sound system from them a 16 channel mixer, 4 monitors, 2 dual 15" 3 way speakers and all the cables and 2 amplifiers. A couple weeks after I got the board (a $1200 board in 1992) I noticed crackling on a few of the channels. I packed up the board and sent it back to carvin at my own expense (this board weighs 70+ lbs and is huge) and they said there was nothing wrong with it and sent it back to me. A couple years later, these chanels were so bad they would send loud pops through the system and peak out the channels so they were not usable. Now I have a 13 channel board. You MUST use the eq. If you turn it off it buzzes. Less than a year after getting the system I blew out the high drivers (2) on one of my speakers and one of the midranges. I thought I must have over powered the system but they were 1000 w speakers (2000 w peak) and I only had a MAXIMUM of 500W going to them. I called carvin and they said that if I blew the speakers it was my problem. After a while I figured out that the problem was that the crossovers would spontaneously stop "crossing over" sending the full range to all the speakers and thus instantly blowing them up. I figured this out playing at low levels in my home and all of a sudden the speaker would sound "wrong" and sure enough it was not crossing over. Blew up a second set of highs before I stopped using them. Having 4 monitors and out of a band for a while I used them as stereo speakers and noticed that the frequency response and SPL were quite different for each one. Not from an audiophile point of view but anyone without a hearing aid would be able to notice this. Later I bought a large diaphragm conde
Rob
on 06/18/2012 		Carvin's are great guitars for the price!!!! There is nothing else to say. There necks feel and play just as good or better than most other high end boutique builders like Suhr and Anderson. The only flaw is the pickups and electronics, but that can be easily fixed.
Coopster
on 08/24/2011 		Schnell, what I mean is, more often than not, when I've heard someone bring up Carvin at a music store, inevitably someone says that Carvin products suck but they'll happily tell you why the Marshall over in the corner rules. So, I agree that Carvin loses out on the buyer being able to demo side by side and make that call. But the retailer won't lose a minute of sleep talking down the Carvins. And I'd never compare Briggs or Collings to Carvin. That's apples and oranges. Small scale, intimate production staff versus a large factory. Carvin will stand side by side with a Fender, Ibanez, even Gibson and be just as good or better with a better price point when taking into consideration the ability to customize and the made in America promise. From that perspective, Carvin is a win. At least to me.
Schnell
on 08/18/2011 		Coopster, when you say "They get a bad rap because they scare the big box stores" what exactly does that mean? I know several owners of local stores and franchisees of larger "box" type stores. Never heard anyone say anything about Carvin scaring them and rarely even hear Carvin mentioned at all. That's mainly because Carvin does not deal with regional/local stores. I think that's to their benefit for having great priced instrument, but downfall for the average person not being able to demo their product side-by-side the "other guys". That also means local stores do not push or speak about Carvin products so Carvin misses the face-to-face discussions. That means brands with a lot less quality get sold more than a Carvin. I do agree with you about certain guitar and tone snobs (they get a little too stiff shirt for me), but I have access to guitars like Collings & Briggs, and nothing Carvin makes can compare IMO. Is it worth the price difference? Eh, that's a decision only the buyer can make. Not worth it to me.
Coopster
on 08/17/2011 		Carvin doesn't have any more or less QC issues than anyone else and Calling them out on it is like saying your grandma's old. Redundant. I had a bolt neck strat kit from them that just absolutely rocked until I screwed it up retrofitting a Floyd on it. Never had to tweak the neck, never had to mess with intonation, stayed in tune no matter what. And I tore it down, stripped it and rebuilt it several times. They get a bad rap because they scare the big box stores and the gear snobs want to believe you have to pay $4000 for a great guitar. It's all BS. Carvin is top quality stuff and reasonably priced for what you get, custom guitars, pro level amps and pro level sound equipment made in the USA.
JoJo
on 08/17/2011 		Not a fan of Carvin. Tried a few Carvin products over the years and I didn't like the amps nor guitars. I did like a few of their pro audio mixer amps for home use. Plus I guess I'm the only one who'll admit it, but part of playing live is getting some looks & questions about your gear. That never happened with my Carvin stuff which quickly was sold away for something better.
Spanky
on 08/17/2011 		To Jimmy: Since you addressed my post directly, I find it interesting that you end your statement with "Do people just ENJOY losing $?" yet you begin your statement by saying who cares about resale value? Um, resale = money. What you might save on the front end could be more than lost on the back end. I'm neither a Fender nor Gibson guy, but I'm very confident I can resale a good Fender amp for much more than a comparable Carvin. But to Fender/Gibson's defense no one forces people to buy their product. Carvin produces some really nice instruments but they kept to the marketing idea of selling direct. That hurt them even though it kept prices down; just my opinion of course but I think if people could step in all stores and play a Carvin and comare side by side it would help them tremendously in all areas (guitars, basses, amps, pro audio, etc). Plus it is more than building a fine guitar; Gibson and Fender brought historical innovations to the market that changed the whole idea of guitars from the 50's. Their name is worth a LOT of money (intangible asset). There's a lot of rock history on a good old basic Fender Strat and Gibson LP. Why people buy what they buy is a hard one to define, but just like cars, some buy Hondas & some buy BMW's. It all depends on what is priority.
Raven
on 08/17/2011 		30 years of playing, on the road and in studios, 90% of everything made in the US, Europe, and Asia. Everything I use has Carvin written on it, the rest, I got rid of.
Jimmy Wisconsin
on 08/16/2011 		Carvin has no real resale value? True, but who cares? Most modern Fenders aren't worth buying in the first place, so resale value is a moot point. Buy Carvin's equivalent and rest assured you'll get that Fender tone and none of the poor quality. I've seen many, many NEW Fenders (60 year old technology with no upper fret access and a horrible heel) where you could fit several picks in between them and the bodies, with action so high they were ridiculously uncomfortable to play. I have NEVER seen this on any Carvin. I buy the quality no matter WHO builds the product. Sometimes a prestigious name and quality at a fair price coincide, as in Warmoth, Fractal, Eventide, Carvin, Suhr, etc. For the life of me I cannot understand why people think the emperor (Fender/Gibson) is still wearing clothes. You can get a Carvin or custom luthier built instrument that will DEVASTATE a Fender or Gibson for the same or less dough. Do people just ENJOY losing $?
Spanky
on 08/16/2011 		Carvin stuff is solid, but just doesn't get much respect in my area of the US. Rarely does anyone gloat over a Carvin guitar and the amps are good but not great. Also no resale value. To have been around that long you would have expected Carvin to be a leader that others copy. But the old Marshall's and Fender are still the tone benchmark.



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