Incoming Carvin 5 string w/whammy

[7string]

G.A.S. is a terrible thing and recently I’ve been having a hankering for a fretted 5 string. I started window shopping through Gumtree and eBay, but nothing really stood out and that’s the way it stayed for the last few months. What I wanted was something different, maybe an older Jackson, Charvel, or Hamer. As I have a thing for ’pointy’ basses. Maybe something white as a contrast against the black instruments Maybe even a bass with a whammy, now that would be cool.

I also made a spec and went through the Warmoth and Carvin sites, which is good fun but the usual bass > budget equation came into play. I just kept looking at eBay and Gumtree and if something came up that would be great. No rush.

So last week, I’m doing my usual look on eBay and cam across this.







Blimey, I thought. It’s 5 strings pointy, white and has a whammy! That’s things got my name written all over it. Straight away I sent a message to the seller and asked how much shipping would be to the UK. The price was as expected, but then I looked at the other questions that had been asked. Shipping price requests from Russia, Spain, Canada, Thailand and China. Looks like they’ll be a bidding war. Damn.

With the shipping price in, I asked Mrs 7 what she thought. She knew I’d been after a 5 for a while and gave me a budget to stick to. All I had to do was wait and put a bid in at the last minute but only if the price hadn’t risen over-budget. The auction ended at 2am but the Winter Olympics is on so staying up wouldn’t be a problem.

So day-by-day the price rose, but only by a couple of bucks at a time. With 2 hours to go, it was near the budget and with 5 minutes to go I was still in with a shout. Now at this point Mrs 7 is [b]the[/b] person to have for those last-minute bids. She put in a bid which was registered with just 8 seconds to go. Needless to say, Mrs 7 won the auction and I am now free of G.A.S.

So here’s some more photos. A white thru-neck 5 string pointy Carvin bass with a whammy, exactly what I was after.








Before it gets here, the plan is to make a ramp just like I have on my Tyler. When it arrives, I play it for a bit then give it a new set of strings, a setup and any fret work that it may need.

Can’t wait

Edited March 11, 2010 by 7string

[cetera]

Superb bass! Carvin make quality instruments and are much underrated and not very easy to find....

Congrats

[Marvin]

I like that.
Congrats.

No more GAS, until the next is what you mean isn't it.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Marvin

[EBS_freak]

Love the thru neck join to the body in white. Looks the business. I likely! (But then again, I do have a soft spot for white basses)

[JMT3781]

nice bass, but i could see myself having a viscous accident with he wammy...

[7string]

Thanks for the kind words

I say no more GAS as the only bass I wanted was a 5. I've reached my limit with axes now

[budget bassist]

stunner! i'd really rather like something like that but a four-banger and fixed bridge

[d-basser]

I have to come try this some time! Needing some setup work done by your fine self some time anyhoo so I will be in touch soon when funds are on the up.

[josh3184]

I dislike:
Pointy bass bodys
Pointy headstocks
Painted necks
Whammy bars on basses
And not having control plates on the back

But I LOVE this bass

[7string]

'Tis a strange world

The lid for the control cavity is included, but not pictured for some strange reason.

[b]d-basser[/b] - No prob for a setup, just give me a shout.

[cgordonfreeman]

Nice! I love white basses myself. I've a newer model LB75 and it's a quality bass with a lovely neck to boot. Congrats to Mrs 7 for winning the bid:)

[7string]

VERY ANNOYED today

I got my expected letter from Parcelforce today and drove all the way across town to pay the bill and get the bass. When I got there Parcelforce said that not only was my bass not there (it's in transit from Coventry) but I couldn't pay the bill before it arrives either. The letter was signed from the Glasgow Depot manager as well. Humph.

I've written a complaint to Parcelforce which will probably be ignored but it made me feel a little better about it. Hopefully, it'll be there tomorrow.

Edited March 10, 2010 by 7string

[7string]

Parcelforce are officially a pain in the rear.

After an e-mail conversation which never answered my question and 3 phone calls (using SAYNOTO0870.com to get the landline number) Parcelforce have just deigned to call me back.

They're not saying it's lost, but they've started a search and hopefully it'll be trunkered to Glasgow tonight.

It's not the fact that there's a problem, it's the appalling customer service. The most irritating thing is the blame culture "well I've passed it to someone else and they were supposed to call you back".

Fingers crossed.

[Shockwave]

Nooooo my new fave bass ;-)

I still get first dibs right?

[EBS_freak]

I can't really see on this small screen but are the sides of the bass grey?

[Shockwave]

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='771885' date='Mar 11 2010, 05:43 PM']I can't really see on this small screen but are the sides of the bass grey?[/quote]

That made me look twice! Its a mixture of bad image compression and the bass is in the shade.

[7string]

[quote name='Shockwave' post='771896' date='Mar 11 2010, 05:48 PM']That made me look twice! Its a mixture of bad image compression and the bass is in the shade.[/quote]

Yup whatever he said

Status of the parcel has now changed to "sorted in hub".

Edited March 11, 2010 by 7string

[7string]

I got a call that the bass was ready for collection so I went over there this morning.

Not much time at the moment, but it looks in pretty good nick. Couple of dings but nothing serious. It needs the usual clean-up and setup but it's all positive.

Here's the 1st pic





The whammy has quote a bit of travel and I've found two 1/4" outs....

[yorick]

Lordy..........

[cetera]

Oooooh! V nice!

[7string]

Here’s a few photos of the Carvin. It needs some work, mainly cleaning, but an evening’s work should do it.

I also have to investigate the controls more fully, but it’s a 2 volume/2 tone arrrangement which I’m not used to. The switches look like coil-taps, but need more info. The bass also has 2 outputs. One of them is bridge pickup only and the other sends signals from both pickups. Pretty weird, but I’ll try and find out from Carvin owners and Carvin themselves.

Here’s the tale of the tape:

Total length: 117cm 46”
Total width: 33cm 13”

Scale length: 864mm (34”)

Nut width 46mm (1.8”)
String spacing at nut 8mm (0.3”)
Bridge width 71mm (2.8”)
String spacing at bridge 15mm (0.6”)

Weight: 4.7kg (10.3lbs)

[Shockwave]

Gurt lush, how you finding it playwise?

Thats a mighty tight string spacing, you sure its 15MM?

[7string]

Plays great.

The string spacing is tight at 15mm, but I have tight spacing on the 9, so it isn't too bad for me. There are suggestions from Carvin owners that the Kahler bridge can be adjusted to make the spacing a bit wider.

The neck's quite chunky, has square-ish shoulders and is comfortable to play. The weight's fine and there's no neck dive. It sounds huge as well!

I've found some more details though!

The bass is a LB75 from 1990 and is a maple thru-neck with either koa or (more probably) poplar sides. The pickups are Carvin's own H50B stacked humbuckers with bright/deep and phase switches.