# Forgotten NGD?! Carvin HF2 KOA content! (it's a FATBOY!)



## HighGain510 (Nov 5, 2011)

I picked this up a short while ago, had some work done to it and then forgot to post an NGD thread about it!  So yeah, I scored this Carvin Holdsworth HF2 Fatboy because a couple years back one day I was at Misha's apartment and as we were cycling through the rack-o'-guitars he handed me his ruby red HF2 FB and it blew my mind how amazingly well it played and how great it sounded. Thinking it must have been a fluke I vowed to someday find another one to try and see if it was just his that had the magic, but it appears that maybe it's just the way they build them because this one is several years old but it is just as fantastic! 

I kicked it up a notch by having Phil Jacoby (Philtone is the SHIT btw, if you're near Baltimore and need tech work done the dude is amazing, and I've had him PLEK a few guitars too - fretwork is top notch!) jam two 3-way DPDT on/off/on toggles, route for two more pots and a new DiMarzio metal 3-way (like the MM JP models get minus the PCB) so I could wire up a set of Seymour Duncan P-Rails! VERY versatile guitar now, even moreso than it was stock! Enough chit-chat, on to the pics of "The Fat Hawaiian"!


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## HighGain510 (Nov 5, 2011)




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## MaxOfMetal (Nov 5, 2011)

Congrats!


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## orakle (Nov 5, 2011)

I'm curious, why does it play so great in your opinion?

Koa looks so good


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## isispelican (Nov 5, 2011)

looks great!


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## TimmaethBoy (Nov 5, 2011)

That Koa top is..


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## technomancer (Nov 5, 2011)

That requires rosewood knobs 

Also I am heartily pissed that you will probably end up moving this before I have money to buy it from you


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## caskettheclown (Nov 5, 2011)

That is a real guitar players guitar! 

That guitar just looks beautiful. 


If you don't take good care of it, we might find you


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## Adam Of Angels (Nov 5, 2011)

I recently had one of these in my possession, although it was solid Walnut with a maple cap, and it was absolutely amazing. The acoustic tone of the thing was just spot on and fantastic.


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## Prydogga (Nov 5, 2011)

FUUUUUUUUUCK MATT!

I've been wanting a Holdsworth for so long! If they weren't so damn expensive down here I may even would have got one by now. Major GAS right now.

Congrats!


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## ArkaneDemon (Nov 5, 2011)

Holy crap that guitar is unreal! Congrats!


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## Mukersman (Nov 5, 2011)

Beautiful top! Can you explain the three strap buttons though? I never really understood that.


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## HighGain510 (Nov 5, 2011)

orakle said:


> I'm curious, why does it play so great in your opinion?
> 
> Koa looks so good



The radius might be part of it but it plays really fast and very evenly across the board. Harmonics scream out of this guitar in all positions and there are no dead spots on the fretboard (which is a little surprising for a Carvin IMO ). The neck is a little thicker than my other guitars but it is not uncomfortable. 



technomancer said:


> That requires rosewood knobs
> 
> Also I am heartily pissed that you will probably end up moving this before I have money to buy it from you



Yeah honestly the only thing I was considering letting this go for was that Private Stock Sevenstringer was selling but that sold on eBay before I could raise the funds so no reason to move this now!  



Mukersman said:


> Beautiful top! Can you explain the three strap buttons though? I never really understood that.



Yeah I don't know for sure but I've heard on the Tom Anderson stuff (since they do it too) it was so you could stand the guitar up without using a guitar stand, and I guess since the bottom is cut the way it is it sits lopsided on guitar stands so maybe that's why?  No major benefit other than adjusting the strap position but as you can see the stock neck button goes behind the heel of the neck and I moved that to a more standard position so it wouldn't hang awkwardly anymore.


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## chipsta21 (Nov 6, 2011)

that top...mmmmmmmmmmmm


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## Vletrmx (Nov 6, 2011)

Congrats, man. I remember seeing in an interview with Holdsworth that the headstock is smaller because it helps with intonation somehow, which seems apocryphal.


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## ShadyDavey (Nov 6, 2011)

Busted a nut.

Wanted one for ages (With a Yamaha DG-80 112!!) but I'll satisfy my love for them vicariously through your pictures - congratulations dude


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## mhickman2 (Nov 6, 2011)

Agree with techno. Rosewood knobs and pup rings would set off. This thing looks fantastic!


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## CapinCripes (Nov 6, 2011)

looks fucking amazing. how would you describe the sound of the P-Rails?


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## HighGain510 (Nov 6, 2011)

CapinCripes said:


> looks fucking amazing. how would you describe the sound of the P-Rails?



Personally right now I'd say I'm preferring the tone of the bridge set to "humbucker" and the neck as a "P90". The single-coil rail position is good, not quite as quack-ey as a strat but it does thin it out enough to be more convincing than a humbucker normally would. The P-90 mode is pretty sweet, thicker than the single but not quite as hot as the humbucker. Humbucker mode is super-ballsy (I bought the "hot" version of the P-Rail bridge) and works very well with higher gain without getting muddy. Overall very pleased with the swap! The neck pickup didn't sound QUITE as nice as Misha's did but when I yanked the pickups it turns out the previous owner(s) had swapped out the Holdsworth pickups and put a set of the C22s in there.


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## TimothyLeary (Nov 6, 2011)

i love this guitar! congrats, she's gorgeous. But I always question myself if they are heavy?


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## HighGain510 (Nov 6, 2011)

TimothyLeary said:


> i love this guitar! congrats, she's gorgeous. But I always question myself if they are heavy?



No sir, not very heavy. I don't have an accurate scale at home anymore but you have to realize that although it looks thick, the guitar is a FULL hollowbody so the entire inside of the guitar is hollow except for the twin "I-beams" running through the center.


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## soliloquy (Nov 6, 2011)

sexy! 
i really should get a koa guitar soon, before the price jumps even higher... 

where did you get this? ebay? guitarcenter?


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## TimothyLeary (Nov 6, 2011)

HighGain510 said:


> No sir, not very heavy. I don't have an accurate scale at home anymore but you have to realize that although it looks thick, the guitar is a FULL hollowbody so the entire inside of the guitar is hollow except for the twin "I-beams" running through the center.



Good point! Thanks!


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## Mysticlamp (Nov 6, 2011)

body looks great


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## HighGain510 (Nov 6, 2011)

soliloquy said:


> sexy!
> i really should get a koa guitar soon, before the price jumps even higher...
> 
> where did you get this? ebay? guitarcenter?



I bought it from a guy on another guitar forum. I think this is one of those 3+ Carvin-owner guitars, I believe the original pictures from the first owner are still up on the Carvin Museum site.


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## yellowv (Nov 6, 2011)

Man Matt you barely took any pics  I love that thing.


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## HighGain510 (Nov 6, 2011)

yellowv said:


> Man Matt you barely took any pics  I love that thing.



Damn, you're right Joe!  I'll have to shoot some more, this is an embarrassment to HG510 NGD threads everywhere!


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## soliloquy (Nov 6, 2011)

highgain, just wondering if you ever played the other holdworth guitar (the first one you played), did it by any chance have an alder neck?

never heard of alder as a neck till that guitar :s


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## Empryrean (Nov 7, 2011)

Matt this is unfair


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## noob_pwn (Nov 7, 2011)

looks so good man!


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## Alberto7 (Nov 7, 2011)

Damn it, I've spec'd this guitar on the Carvin site like a million times, day-dreaming about it , and it usually ends up having a flamed koa top, too! Yours looks fantastic, congrats! I really must get one of these at some point.


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## SYLrules88 (Nov 7, 2011)

not a fan of this body style but that koa sure is hot!!


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## HighGain510 (Nov 7, 2011)

soliloquy said:


> highgain, just wondering if you ever played the other holdworth guitar (the first one you played), did it by any chance have an alder neck?
> 
> never heard of alder as a neck till that guitar :s



Nope Misha's has a mahogany body and neck like mine, that's part of why I went for this one, the specs match other than the maple vs koa top.


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## Alberto7 (Nov 7, 2011)

A question here, since you've tried both a koa-topped and a maple-topped HF2. Would you say the difference in tone is remarkable? Given that it's a hollowbody, I'm guessing that, since the the top constitutes a bigger portion of the overall mass, it contributes more to the tone.

I'm very curious. Whenever I have the money, and if I'm still GAS'ing for it as hard as I've been for the past few months, I might as well get one of these.


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## technomancer (Nov 7, 2011)

You know Matt next month is my birthday


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## HighGain510 (Nov 7, 2011)

Alberto7 said:


> A question here, since you've tried both a koa-topped and a maple-topped HF2. Would you say the difference in tone is remarkable? Given that it's a hollowbody, I'm guessing that, since the the top constitutes a bigger portion of the overall mass, it contributes more to the tone.
> 
> I'm very curious. Whenever I have the money, and if I'm still GAS'ing for it as hard as I've been for the past few months, I might as well get one of these.



Actually I'd disagree with you there. Between my guitar and Bulb's guitar they actually sound REMARKABLY similar. I'd attribute this much more significantly to the neck, and to a lesser degree the body, but absolutely not the top. The tops on these guitars are actually fairly thin and since it is hollowed out inside you're looking at way less influence on the tone than the solid wood of the neck and I-beams and the body wood has a greater surface area than the top does as it covers both the back and the extra thick sides. 



technomancer said:


> You know Matt next month is my birthday



Well save up some cash and we can let you "borrow" it for a little while!


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## gunch (Nov 7, 2011)

My favorite Carvin model. Too bad Bulb doesn't flash his around anymore.


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## shredguitar7 (Nov 7, 2011)

that top...


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## JPMike (Nov 7, 2011)

OMG, looks so nice!!! 

Actually, I got one too like a week ago and forgot to post an NGD about it. 

NGD thread coming soon!


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## s_k_mullins (Nov 7, 2011)

Very nice guitar Matt... you always have some quality gear! 


*waits for it to be posted to classifieds


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## Alberto7 (Nov 8, 2011)

HighGain510 said:


> Actually I'd disagree with you there. Between my guitar and Bulb's guitar they actually sound REMARKABLY similar. I'd attribute this much more significantly to the neck, and to a lesser degree the body, but absolutely not the top. The tops on these guitars are actually fairly thin and since it is hollowed out inside you're looking at way less influence on the tone than the solid wood of the neck and I-beams and the body wood has a greater surface area than the top does as it covers both the back and the extra thick sides.



Aaahh ok, interesting! That seems to make sense; I hadn't thought of it that way. Thanks for the information!


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## ShadowFactoryX (Nov 8, 2011)

whats the word on those p-rails?


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## HighGain510 (Nov 9, 2011)

ShadowFactoryX said:


> whats the word on those p-rails?






HighGain510 said:


> Personally right now I'd say I'm preferring the tone of the bridge set to "humbucker" and the neck as a "P90". The single-coil rail position is good, not quite as quack-ey as a strat but it does thin it out enough to be more convincing than a humbucker normally would. The P-90 mode is pretty sweet, thicker than the single but not quite as hot as the humbucker. Humbucker mode is super-ballsy (I bought the "hot" version of the P-Rail bridge) and works very well with higher gain without getting muddy. Overall very pleased with the swap! The neck pickup didn't sound QUITE as nice as Misha's did but when I yanked the pickups it turns out the previous owner(s) had swapped out the Holdsworth pickups and put a set of the C22s in there.


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## Jason Spell (Aug 31, 2012)

Sorry to necrobump, but I just saw this thread for the first time.

This guitar was mine before Matt bought it directly from me. I sold it in a fit of Parker gas. I made out really well on a couple of flips resulting from that, but I was sad as a player to see this Fatboy go. 

I really missed this guitar, so I found another Holdsworth - an H2T that I pulled the trigger on a couple of days ago. I hope I dig it. I talked to Matt awhile back and he told me he sold the guitar, so if the person that bought it from Matt sees this, message me and let me know how she's doing.


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## yellowv (Aug 31, 2012)

Coming into a NGD thread started by Matt over 6 months ago 

Matt's never kept a guitar that long.


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## Jason Spell (Aug 31, 2012)

LOL. I know the feeling!

I was just searching "Carvin" in the forum, and I saw this thread, with a big pic of her in all her Koa glory, yet with those Duncans and new electronics. It's a cool job; I'm sure she sounds great with them.


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## technomancer (Aug 31, 2012)

yellowv said:


> Coming into a NGD thread started by Matt over 6 months ago
> 
> Matt's never kept a guitar that long.



That's actually not true. Matt has several guitars that have been with him for a long time, he just tends to buy and sell production stuff... He's also gotten a couple of things recently that if he decides to flip are going to make my credit card cry... but I'll wait until he posts a NGD


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## yellowv (Aug 31, 2012)

technomancer said:


> That's actually not true. Matt has several guitars that have been with him for a long time, he just tends to buy and sell production stuff... He's also gotten a couple of things recently that if he decides to flip are going to make my credit card cry



I know I was just giving him shit. Were all gear whores.  He already sold one of those PRS's.


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## technomancer (Aug 31, 2012)

yellowv said:


> I know I was just giving him shit. Were all gear whores.  He already sold one of those PRS's.



Indeed... but I also know what he sold it to pay for, he definitely made the right call


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## Jason Spell (Aug 31, 2012)

HighGain510 said:


> The neck pickup didn't sound QUITE as nice as Misha's did but when I yanked the pickups it turns out the previous owner(s) had swapped out the Holdsworth pickups and put a set of the C22s in there.



Weird. That honestly pissed me off a bit, because the guy I bought it from told me they were the Holdsworth pickups.


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## yellowv (Aug 31, 2012)

He sells everything to pay for more Thorns. Dude is the world largest Thorn whore


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## Church2224 (Aug 31, 2012)

yellowv said:


> He sells everything to pay for more Thorns. Dude is the world largest Thorn whore



Having played one of his...I can understand why 

I got the same issue with ESPs, and you got it with Music Man guitars. Gear whoring is a problem we all "suffer" through


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## yellowv (Aug 31, 2012)

Church2224 said:


> Having played one of his...I can understand why
> 
> I got the same issue with ESPs, and you got it with Music Man guitars. Gear whoring is a problem we all "suffer" through



You don't have to tell me. a couple of days after getting the Alexi I already have a real ESP on the way. I hope it doesn't start again


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## HighGain510 (Sep 1, 2012)

dingaling said:


> Sorry to necrobump, but I just saw this thread for the first time.
> 
> This guitar was mine before Matt bought it directly from me. I sold it in a fit of Parker gas. I made out really well on a couple of flips resulting from that, but I was sad as a player to see this Fatboy go.
> 
> I really missed this guitar, so I found another Holdsworth - an H2T that I pulled the trigger on a couple of days ago. I hope I dig it. I talked to Matt awhile back and he told me he sold the guitar, so if the person that bought it from Matt sees this, message me and let me know how she's doing.



Ahhh one necrobumped thread that actually isn't a bad one!  This is Jason S., right? If so, shoot me an email, the current owner pinged me a while back saying he was looking to sell and wanted to use my pictures (seems to happen a lot ) to sell it and I said no so I think he still has it since I haven't seen it on eBay yet.  If you want I can ping him and if he still has it I can put you two in touch to work something out.  



technomancer said:


> That's actually not true. Matt has several guitars that have been with him for a long time, he just tends to buy and sell production stuff... He's also gotten a couple of things recently that if he decides to flip are going to make my credit card cry... but I'll wait until he posts a NGD



Haha yeah the production stuff is always iffy (although that 513 RW is likely not going anywhere now that I have the height adjusted on the middle pickup! ) but I've had several of my Thorns for quite a few years.  That semi-recent German piece is likely to hang around as well, again... QUITE custom. 



technomancer said:


> Indeed... but I also know what he sold it to pay for, he definitely made the right call



Yarp, and I'll be posting an NGD thread for that in the next few weeks as soon as he wraps up the build and sends it my way, can't wait!


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## technomancer (Sep 1, 2012)

HighGain510 said:


> That semi-recent German piece is likely to hang around as well, again... QUITE custom.



That is the one that threatens my credit card, so keep it  You need to get some good pics of that up too (we need a smiley tapping it's foot impatiently and checking a watch )

Well that and the one that should be done in about a week...


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## yellowv (Sep 1, 2012)

What is this German piece you speak of? Don't think I've seen that one.


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## HighGain510 (Sep 1, 2012)

technomancer said:


> That is the one that threatens my credit card, so keep it  You need to get some good pics of that up too (we need a smiley tapping it's foot impatiently and checking a watch )
> 
> Well that and the one that should be done in about a week...



Yeah and OF COURSE it's cloudy, rainy and storming as far as Wednesday this week down here!  NOT ideal picture-taking weather. I'd rather wait for a good sunny day to take some quality pictures than rush it, but they're coming, don't worry!  Maybe I'll do both at the same time once Goldie arrives. 



yellowv said:


> What is this German piece you speak of? Don't think I've seen that one.



Haha you might have missed it, but I posted the pics on my FB page a while back... when I needed... a hug.


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## Jason Spell (Sep 1, 2012)

Matt, thanks for the tip. I sent you a private message here.


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## HighGain510 (Sep 1, 2012)

dingaling said:


> Matt, thanks for the tip. I sent you a private message here.



Cool, sent you his email.  Good luck dude, that was a great-playing, killer-sounding Carvin!  Definitely one of the best I've owned, there are a few Carvins I would love to have back and that one would be one of them, too many guitars and not enough cash!


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## technomancer (Sep 1, 2012)

HighGain510 said:


> Yeah and OF COURSE it's cloudy, rainy and storming as far as Wednesday this week down here!  NOT ideal picture-taking weather. I'd rather wait for a good sunny day to take some quality pictures than rush it, but they're coming, don't worry!  Maybe I'll do both at the same time once Goldie arrives.



Shame I can't send you some of our weather, it's been warm and sunny here for days


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