Jealous!

[Johnny Robbo]

One of my students has just bought himself a new guitar. He's gone from an Epiphone Les Paul to this...



His is in a slightly different colour, but other than that it's exactly the same. I'm always trumpeting the quality of cheap guitars... I really don't see, feel or hear much difference between my Harley Benton Les Paul & the genuine article costing over a grand more, for example.

But... oh my word! This Carvin guitar is what all guitars should be like. It is in a different league to any guitar I've ever played before, including Gibson, Fender, PRS etc. It is AMAZINGLY good... I'm going to have to put one of my kidneys up on eBay!

The worst part is he only paid £900 (they're thousands new) for it and he's only using it to strum barre chords, plugged into one of those little battery powered amps that clip onto your belt. That poor, poor guitar!

[Pete C]

I'm never really sure what I think of these type of guitars - a beautiful figured wood finish.  I'd be scared of using it in case it got scratched or dented. The thing with a paint or sunburst finish is that if it starts to wear off or gets dented or whatever, it adds to the history and character of the guitar. Bet they don't make a relic version !

It does look beautiful though !

Pete

[Blooby]

I think if I saw an Allan Holdsworth model come up on the cheap, I'd leap on it like a mad dog. There are certain Carvins I definitely covet.

Blooby

[Groundy]

Beautiful,
You shouldn't show me things like this,
The GAS is starting again...


 

[bruno]

Looks like an awesome instrument - perhaps he/she will grow into it in due course???

[Johnny Robbo]

An update...

I got rid of the HB TE40... the black twin humbucker tele-type guitar as I wasn't finding myself wanting to play it. Nothing "wrong" with it - lovely low action and a great sound, but I just never "connected" with it if you know what I mean?

Anyway, I've got one of these on order (mine is the non-trem version though):

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_cst_24_paradise_flame.htm


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cyGMmWEDPw

And I'm getting a loan of the Carvin (which is quite PRS-like) to do a comparison video between a £160 Harley Benton & a £1600 Carvin. Should be interesting  

[ODH]

It's a thing of beauty and desire for sure, and I'll be intreagued to read you compare-and-contrast with the Carvin.

The thing I always wonder though with the super pretty, super expensive guitars is why do you only ever see guitarists in actual bands only playing Fenders and Gibsons (and sometimes Rickenbackers)?

[Johnny Robbo]

The thing I always wonder though with the super pretty, super expensive guitars is why do you only ever see guitarists in actual bands only playing Fenders and Gibsons (and sometimes Rickenbackers)?

Yeah... those "boutique" guitar do seem to be the preserve of the rich middle aged bloke as opposed to the working musician. Having said that, PRS have a pretty full roster of endorsers... Santana, Bernie Marsden, John Mayer & Mark Tremonti spring to mind. I know what you mean though, compared to the number of big name artists who pick up a strat or a Les Paul, it's small beer.

[bruno]

Funny thing - watching bands live, you see all kinds of guitars. To be honest - a cheaper guitar for the road makes a lot of sense - as live, its very hard to tell the difference. I don't play live hardly at all these days, but when I do, it always makes me nervous using the 'expensive' ones - cheaper one's, you are less worried about the occasional dink or so. When you record, you want the best possible sound.

Interestingly, my brother Bob was working around Blackbird studio in Nashville a couple of years back - he said they have a vault in the studio with £6M worth of classic instruments for recording (you know, classic Gibby's and strats), which are specifically used to get the right sounds! If you are recording there, you can simply pick what you want! He also had fun playing with the desk controlling the reverb room (yip - a real room, which you can change the size and shape of from the desk, to get that 'infinite' verb' - now that is attention to detail!).

B