Love at First Site?... She's a Looker, But Can She Play?... Wired... Moving on to a Mesa Dual Rectifier, I dial up my clean tones. I love the clean channel of this amp. With the Carved Top pickup setting in the middle position allowing me to utilize both the neck and bridge pickup together, this tone really put a smile on my face. This tone is surprisingly clean for humbucking pickups. I can't recall playing through a humbucker that was capable of this clean of a tone. Great clean bottom end, especially on full strumming patterns. When I added a bit of chorus to this setting, it literally knocked me out, spacious and airy, with a well balanced bottom end with just the right amount of sparkle on the top end. I then experimented with the coil tap option. The tone control actually is a push/pull pot to engage this feature. And as you can well expect, the sweet just got a little sweeter! More spank and a little less spunk, not quite a Strat, not quite a Tele, but something in between! In the overdriven channel of the Dual Rec. the Carved Top produced a huge, balls to the wall tone, which was very enjoyable to try and tame. Ample sustain and overtones were a breeze to produce, without all the unwanted barking from over the top output pickups. Bottom Line... Information: |
||||
Back
to the review chamber we gather to test-drive our latest hot rod.
Our fine friends at Carvin have submitted their new "California
Carved Top" solid bodied guitar for review this month. In my
opinion, Carvin guitars and basses have been severely under rated
for the past several years, so as a fan of Carvin guitars, I am
really excited to check out the Carved Top. One of the companies
higher end solid bodies, the California Carved Top is the companies
mission to establish itself into the more boutique line of guitars
that have become overwhelmingly popular over the past several years.
After a thorough test, here is what I have discovered about the
Carvin California Carved Top... 
Plug
in time. My favorite. My usual array of weapons of tone is available;
a Marshall JCM 800 Dual Channel 50w half stack, a Mesa Dual Rec.
and a 5150 Block letter early model half stack. I plug into the
5150 first, simply because it has been awhile. Testing at moderate
volumes. In the overdriven channel of the 5150, I have my pregain
on 4 1/2 (you know how 5150's can get a bit carried away in the
gain department). In the bridge position of the Carved Top, the
tone is instantly and undeniable sweet, thick and heavy without
the unwanted mush of over saturation, a nicely balanced EQ with
a warm midrange. Power chords are right, low end seems very well
balanced even in lower drop "D" tunings. Ya know I had
a Carvin C22B pickup that I had put in a neck thru Kramer Barretta
years ago. Although I had traded that guitar several years ago,
I do recall I really liked that pickup. So this was somewhat of
a De JA Vu experience with the carved top. Leads are cutting and
chimey without harshness, compiled with strong singing sustain.
It's all about warmth to me, either a guitar or an amp, and this
tone is exactly that...warm. In the neck position, this tone is
not as hot but doesn't lack any balls either. I do not like pickups
that are "too" hot; I personally prefer to let my amp
provide me with the additional saturation if I need it.
Return to:
