This is my current sweetheart.
I bought this guitar late summer 2003, again after my 375 and AE185 had
been stolen. Prior to this one, I had the Schecter and the DC200.
I made the mistake of just "checking Ebay to see what was out there".
Needless to say, I found this beauty. These pictures really don't
do this guitar justice. Aside from the good looks, this is without
a doubt the most versatile guitar I've ever played. The pickups are
a Holdsworth H22N in the neck, and an M22 in the bridge (I don't think
it's the SD model, but it may be). The real killer about this guitar
is the Fishman/Wilkinson piezo tremolo. I was really curious to see
if this would sound as good as my AE185 did 'acoustically'. With
a good sound guy, this thing sounds about as good as any acoustic with
a piezo. Of course, with the light strings and electric guitar feel,
it doesn't feel like you're playing an acoustic. The body wings are
koa, and the top is flamed koa. I think this is my new favorite tone
wood. It has the snap and smoothness of a wood like Alder, with a
nice resonance like mahogany, but with out the "raw" tone you get from
a maple/mahogany combination. The neck is a 5 piece lamination of
maple and koa. Too bad people don't see the back, as it's cool.
I'm glad the neck doesn't show through on the front, though, as that flamed
koa is just too pretty! It doesn't show well in the pictures, but
the top has a really eerie "glow" to it - sort of like a tiger's eye or
amber gem. I realize some people aren't into the brown tones, but
I think this is a beautiful wood. Besides the flaming, there's a
lot of other character to the wood. Because the wood is so beautiful,
it works out nice that the rest of the guitar is toned back - no inlay,
black lettering on the headstock, and the satin finish on all of the gold
hardware. This guitar worked out to be everything I ever would have
wanted in an Carvin electric, down to the standard (i.e. non-rounded) body
edges. It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but there's actually
a bit of a chamfer around the edges, so they aren't actually "square".
I think that somehow the standard body looks a little more agressive than
the rounded version. Of course, that's just a matter of taste.
As with every Carvin I've ever played, this one plays great. I love
the tone I get from this thing, and with all of the coil splitting options,
active electronics and piezo, I can get just about any sound imagineable.
I have a lot of fun with this guitar when I play it at church. I
run the magnetic pickups through my effects processor, and run the piezo
direct to the board. With both on, I can have a good distorted rhythm
going, and at the same time have an acoustic sound. People look around
for the acoustic guitarist!
