[John Matrix]

Hi there

I'm going to be buying my first seven string soon (hopefully) and I'm looking at Carvins at the moment. Since I'm in the UK I need to get a quote from a dealer so I need to give him some specs to work off of. Here are the specs I chose but I need help deciding on a few things, plus it seems like there are a few oddities in the order form (to me anyway).

WAL - Maple Neck & Walnut Body
CG - Clear Gloss Finish (Standard)
BST - Blackburst Edges
5MW - Maple Neck w/ 2 Walnut Stripes
MF - Maple Fingerboard
NIN - No Top Inlays - Side Dots Only
FR - Med-Jumbo Frets .048" H .103" W (Standard)
C26B - C26 Bridge Pickup
C26N - C26 Neck Pickup
400 - Black Coils w/ Black Bezels (Standard)
AC - Active/Passive Electronics w/ Coil Splitters, Phase Switch
BC - Black Hardware

First of all, on the order form why do you choose the Neck and Body in the first step, then choose the neck again later on (4th step)? For example what if I was to say Walnut Neck and Body in the first step then later choose a Mahogany neck... how does that work This must be something stupid I'm overlooking.

That aside I'm not quite sure about the woods. Do they seem alright if I'm looking for tone which is something like Petrucci on Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence? The Carvin website describes walnut as "warm with a growling low end and a bright top end" which sounds good to me and I think the JP7 has a maple neck too.

I'd also at some point down the line want to install a piezo system, probably the Graphtech Ghost bridge. Would I be able to do this on a Carvin bridge without too much modification? I could hopefully cope with a similar amount of work as on the RG7321 GHOST install tutorial on here. I would ideally want a Floyd too but this would really make it difficult to install a Piezo later on wouldn't it? I'd rather go without a Floyd in order to fit a Piezo more easily than make it much more difficult to fit a Piezo in order to get a Floyd (I hope that makes sense).

Also I'd rather not have all the active/passive/coil splitter switches clogging up the guitar, but would having these make it easier to install a GHOST bridge since it needs a few switches anyway?

Finally, looking through the guitar gallery on the Carvin website there seem to be two different electronics options but the order form only has one. If I only need some of the switches how the heck do I differentiate between the two when I'm ordering?




The main problem with all of this is that I could more or less afford this if I were to buy it Direct from Carvin but with a middleman involved it's probably going to double the price and it might not seem like such a good deal then. I suppose that's what I get for living in the UK

[yevetz]

Sorry too much words to hard for me to understand.

But

[ShawnFjellstad]

not all of the options carvin offers are on the website, and sometimes the are inconsistencies in what you can actually order. for those reasons, i would much rather call and talk to a carvin sales rep than worry about anything online. when you talk to an actual person it will be much easier to figure out what options you have and the sales reps usually make sure that all of your options work together.

as far as electronics, carvin will do almost any electronics layout you want, you just have to ask them for it and be willing to pay a little extra.


edit: also, walnut is a great wood for a seven. its bright and articulate, but not thin or tinny. its a very "deep" sounding wood. however, you are aware that a pickup change is pretty much necessary for carvins to sound their best, right?

[John Matrix]

Cheers for that. I guess that post was a bit long winded, if anyone can tell me how easy it would be to install a Piezo (Graphtech probably) in a Carvin and if having a few switches on there already (eg. the phase shift one) would help then I guess I can take it from there when I speak to the dealer.

[Jongpil Yun]

If I were to call and ask for a different pickup layout would they do that?

[shredder777]

I highly doubt it, i asked if i could get a different headstock shape on my 727 and they gave me a firm no, im guessing because they would have to reprogram their cnc's which makes sense, but it doesnt hurt to ask. Also make sure you ask about the options that arent listed on their site, i didnt know they had hidden options until after my guitar was built and ready to ship.

[amonb]

This is an awesome thread, I had a look at the Carvin that Ryan was moving for someone and it looked like it had options definately not on the website, like three switches (one probably a phase switch) when the website does only two switches (the coil splits).

Does anyone know if they do piezos in a 7?

[shredder777]

I asked carvin about piezo's for my 7 and they said that the piezo's are only offered for their ns-1 midi guitar, sucks.

[amonb]

Originally Posted by shredder777

I asked carvin about piezo's for my 7 and they said that the piezo's are only offered for their ns-1 midi guitar, sucks.

Bugger.