I want my t5...

Dave Matthews.

Low bandwidth

I don’t know Mike, I’m not all that fond of the “T5”. What I heard on the various high bandwidth video recordings of it didn’t sound all that amazing. Fact is that it looks like a mistake; f-holes and a glued bridge. If I was going to buy an acoustic/electric of that type, I would go for one of these or one of these or even one of these with the Fishman acoustic saddle pickup option.

Carvin has been offering them for years and they sound (and more importantly play) really nice. Plus, you can have it custom made to your specs.

Just my $.02

Mike

Oh - I’m probably not going to buy one (remember I already have a Taylor 814ce that I saved up for & love). But the T5’s are all the rage these days, so I thought I share the video when I saw it.

I haven’t played one but I’d like to ASAP. They’re all sold out in the local GCs.

I don’t have a good opinion of Carvin stuff. I’ve heard their amps are poorly made. A friend bought an electric & it had some cheap hardware on it. I looked at their cobalt acoustics & they were nothing special. I just couldn’t see how they can make a rosewood guitar for that low a price.

Hi Mike,

I’d be curious to see what “cheap hardware” the Carvin had on it. Bear in mind that I have not played or seen the bolt series “their cheap guitar” up close. But I believe that their neck thru guitars (practically all the others) are very well made.

Ebony fingerboards standard
Sperzel locking tuners standard
2-way truss rod standard
Custom wound pickups standard
Graphite/teflon nut standard
Hand-buffed finish standard
1/16" action standard
Machine screw cover
plate for electronics standard
Hand-wired soldering standard

As far as the electronics/amps goes, all companies have some issues with quality. I do own a PA amp/mixer from them and have never had any trouble with it. I have had many students buy their guitar amps and none of them has ever had a problem. That is not to say that Carvin equipment never has problems. I am just saying that Carvin often gets a bad rep because there are so many Gibson/Fender fans that want to believe that you can’t possibly sell such a nice piece of equipment at such a low price cause if you could Gibson/Fender would do it.

As far as the Cobalt acoustics go, I wouldn’t bother with them. They are not like the other Carvin equipment in that they are not made in america. I believe (I am not sure of this) that they are made in Korea. Keep in mind that I own a couple of Korean guitars that are nice, but Carvin is known as being American made. If I want to buy a Korean guitar, I will look to Crafter or Cort Earth guitars. I certainly won’t turn to Fender or Gibson or Carvin or PRS if I want to buy Korean. If I do that, I will be paying a premium just for the name on the guitar.

By the way, if you are looking for a really nice, CHEAP, f-hole jazz box, check this out. They are made in China and are really very nice to play and sound very sweet also.

take care,

Mike

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I’d be curious to see what “cheap hardware” the Carvin had on it.

He got a +$1,000 guitar & the 3-way switch broke on it because it was cheap.

I look at Carvin’s PA speakers when I was buying a PA, and they looked good & cheap. They’re cheap because they don’t have a real horn in them, i.e., a piezo horn.

I just don’t have a good impression of their stuff.

What Carvin owned by a bunch of righties? Jus’ jokin! Put down the flamethrower!!

I have and use a TON of their gear and LOVE IT! Extremely well made and durable, great sound, fantastic value. Their PA power amps are friggin’ bullet proof!! Have you plugged your LP into a Carvin BelAire amp? Sheer magic. Their cabinets don’t feel hefty and weigh a ton because they are not made of crappy particle board. They use Birch plywood.

A friend of mine had an AE185 for a while until he got the itch for a big body jazz box. The AE185 was super sweet though, NOTHING cheap or second rate about it. If I had the cash, I’d order myself a California Carvetop (CT6). I’d have to eBay all my other axes to pay for it though… :(

TG

EDIT** New data: Carvin is now using Poplar plywood for cabinets. I guess Birch got too expensive? Still it beats 100 lbs per square foot MDF or particle board…

Quote (Mr Soul @ May 16 2005,18:48)
Dave Matthews.

Low bandwidth

Thow shall not covet they neighbors possessions.... :angry:

But I can pray one day to be blessed with better gear for myself. ANd thanks to the many post in this forum, I will have a good idea of what I need to ask for! :laugh:
Thanks guys...

jerm
Quote (Mr Soul @ May 19 2005,14:25)
I'd be curious to see what "cheap hardware" the Carvin had on it.

He got a +$1,000 guitar & the 3-way switch broke on it because it was cheap.

I look at Carvin's PA speakers when I was buying a PA, and they looked good & cheap. They're cheap because they don't have a real horn in them, i.e., a piezo horn.

I just don't have a good impression of their stuff.
Hi Mike,

One 3-way broken switch does not equal all cheap hardware. If I had a nickel for every cheap 3-way switch that Gibson installs, I would be the new Gibson owner. And what about those beautiful quality bent metal tremolo bridges that Fender makes with the bent metal saddles....

As far as the PA equipment, maybe all their cabinets do not use separate horn/driver arrays, but I have used their most expensive and their cheapest cabinets. I can tell you that they all sounded great, even the cheap ones.

I know that some people don't like Carvin. I do not know anyone who owns Carvin equipment that doesn't like it. I guess using the equipment helps you appreciate it.

Take care,

Mike

I seriously looked into Carvin stuff because I’d hear that people liked it. What Ii hear is that people like their price more than anything else.

I live close enough so I went right to one of their stores. But after Lord Valve (the guy I reported to the FBI) trashed their amps, I started looking more seriously at their stuff. I found their PA speakers didn’t use real horns. When I pointed this out to a guy who had their speakers, his reply was: what’s a horn?

IMO - if you pay over +$1,000 for an instrument that it should not have cheap hardware on it. I would guess that many of the new Fender strat’s now being offered at $1,200 - $1,400 have pretty darn good hardware on them.

I’m confused Mike. I checked the Carvin catalog and their speaker cabs use Titanium diaprhagm horn drivers. ???

FWIW, a buddy of mine had the toggle switch crap out on his $3K Gibson. Poop happens I guess.

TG

I’ve used their pickups and they are fantastic. the c22n and the c22 I have in a Washburn nuno and i’ve said this before…It has great tone and is a very hot pickup. I like their stuff…Peavy has some of the same problems with image but I find their stuff can hold their own with fender, marshall, Mesa in amps and tone and best of all Customer support. I’ve owned all those amps and now I’m down to an Ampeg reverberocket a Peavey C-30 and a Peavey Bravo and a rack job that has a Peavey Rockmaster 3 channel preamp that can take on anything. 2c :blues:

Cheers
Cruiser