The Watering Hole

I had been jonesing for one of the Lakland Skyline series basses, especially the 55-02, which has Lakland's proprietary electronics in it that makes it very flexible, tonally.

So poking around on Craigslist, I saw this Carvin B5 for sale, and decided to check it out. It's an American-made bass with basically the same pickup configuration (but nowhere near the quality, methought), and in a cool blueburst finish I always admired in the Carvin catalog.

I decided to meet the guy and play the bass, and because it was a little beat up for my tastes, I decided $375 was too much and said no. I asked him how much he wanted to get out of it, and he said, "at least $300" so I said, "well, I'd pay $325 for this bass" and he said, "Sold!" so I am now the proud owner of this slightly beat-up but beautiful beast.

It sounds pretty awesome, plays FAST, I can string it through the body or through the bridge so its 34" scale doesn't affect how great the B-string plays, which is a nice change, and it's extremely flexible in tone with its active/passive electronics, and coil-tappable bridge humbucker. It's as flexible as the Lakland that I so desired, but cost me literally $1000 less. There is a sweetness to the Lakland pickups and electronics that isn't really there in the Carvin (it's more aggressive-sounding), but it's not a $1000 difference. And that's for the IMPORT Lakland.

I might actually pick up another one straight from Carvin I like this thing so much. It truly shocked me.

Tripper

One more pic, up close...

Nice score Trip.  I don't mind pre-existing 'character' if the price is right.

Carvin's are very underrated.  We used to be able to drive to their only store in So. Cal. during our lunch hours.  Some really beautiful guitars and VERY decent prices back then.  

Nice score Tripper!  

I've always drooled over some of the beauties in the catalogs they've sent me for years, but always had a hard time pulling the trigger on an axe I haven't PLAYED.  I've played a couple used ones at GC in the last few years and they were EXCELLENT.  I would not hesitate to buy one now, even without playing it.  

Congrats!

I've had such a crap experience with my other Carvin gear (powered speakers) that I was sort of boycotting them, but I decided to relent for this particular piece of gear...and it made me pull the boycott, I think. I still am unsure whether I can trust any of their pro audio gear or amps (though my Pro Bass 300C is still kicking and it's probably 16 or 17 years old), but the guitar is just fabulous...and it's their bottom-of-the-line bass!

I might end up just getting a kit and building another B5 myself. We shall see...it might be fun.
Tripper

Just to clarify, when I was talking about Carvin, I was only talking about their guitars - I never used any of their other gear.

what was wrong with their powered speakers?  

Carvin generally makes quality stuff at decent prices. Good score Tripper

DreamTheaterRules — Sep 09, 2009what was wrong with their powered speakers?  

First, they designed the fans on the heat sink wrong, so they were vibrating, hitting the heat sink's fins and ripping the fan blades off. A few washers solved that problem.

Next, something went wrong with one of my speakers and the HF driver blew.

Thinking (oh so wrongly) that the internal amp wasn't the cause, I took the HF driver from my other one and hooked it up, and it blew it immediately.

Carvin was kind of a pain in the ass to deal with on all the issues, though I do give them credit for their initial handling of my heat sink/fan issue. They actually foolishly sold me a HF driver that wasn't designed for my unit, and I had to send it back (they refunded the money, but it was pretty stupid that their lazy service guy was dumb enough to sell it to me after I laid out my issue in explicit detail). Plus, they were pretty much dicks to me every time I called.

I'm going to fix the one PM15A - buy a new HF diaphragm and repair the driver (hopefully it'll work), and take the other one to the shop to have it looked at and see why it was blowing HF drivers.

Carvin just SUCKS ASS for out of warranty issues. Their bench fees are horrendous, making it utterly pointless to even have them look at their own products, especially if you're not near a Carvin store or the factory.

The whole experience left me wanting nothing to do with them as a company...and then I played this B5, and now I'm feeling a little frustrated, because it's great. Maybe I'll just stick to pre-2000 used Carvin gear.

I guess what really pissed me off more about the powered speakers was that the heavy, sort-of-piece-of-shit B-Stock Behringer B300s that I bought for $180 less EACH actually FELL FROM 4 feet up off a cart onto a concrete driveway (they were stacked on top of a bunch of other shit) and suffered no damage except a little external rash. And the Carvins sounded better, but barely - definitely not $180 better (mind you, they all sound good).

So that's my story on the Carvin powered speakers.
Tripper

desertbluesman — Sep 10, 2009Carvin generally makes quality stuff at decent prices. Good score Tripper

Thanks, man. The fact that it was a lot less than getting one for close to $900 (which is what new ones cost these days) was nice, too.

Tripper

that's disappointing... I was getting ready to order a mixer and powered speakers from them for a system I"m putting together for a new church.  They are WAY cheaper than the JBLs and Mackies most people use.  

DreamTheaterRules — Sep 11, 2009that's disappointing... I was getting ready to order a mixer and powered speakers from them for a system I"m putting together for a new church.  They are WAY cheaper than the JBLs and Mackies most people use.  

Well, as always, your mileage may vary. I think most people have no problems. I just happened to be the one who got a crappy one.

I will say that if you're looking for an alternative, Yorkville's stuff is truly great for the money. We have a bunch of their NX series speakers, both powered and unpowered, and they are AWESOME and can really take a beating.
Tripper