Orion | soldguitars

Carvin DC125

"Orion"

Look back through my collection of magazine adverts that I tore out of guitar-rags in the 80's and 90's (a primitive 'want' list) and you will see a lot of Carvin adverts. Mysterious and glamorous things, with fancy finishes, pretty wood and lovely through-necks. The main selling point for these has long been that Carvin operate as a Custom Shop ... you pick your exact spec, then the guitar would be built for you, then sent straight to you from the factory. No fuss, no distributor network, no middle-men, which kept costs to a minimum. So a combination of good and cheap? I like that combination.

So. A handmade American custom guitar for a Japanese production line price. But maybe that was their problem too ... no distributors meant that the folks who bought guitars couldn't pull one down and try it out ... you had to trust that they would feel, sound and play well, which are all prerequisites, right? So I never summoned enough 'trust' to order a new one, but my spec was always going to be a through neck, single hum rock-monster. So when such a thing became available, I couldn't believe my luck. This is a DC125, which comes standard with an alder body, rock maple through neck and a single humbucker with a volume pot and a coil split. Easy, basic 80's goodness.

The "spec whatever you want" vibe at Carvin means that lots of stuff has to be upgraded when you order. So this one got upgraded with diamond board inlays, stainless frets, a thick slab ebony board, reverse head (SO metal!), locking tuners and a German Floyd. I know that locking tuners with a Floyd is silly … I KNOW. But it all hangs together really nicely ... it's good and heavy with a really slinky finish to the neck. The neck joint is very comfy too. Beautiful. The combination of the thick slab of ebony, matte finished maple (oil finished actually) and stainless frets make this feel and play A LOT like my Jaden Rose guitars (Leaf and Lauren) ... which is a good thing.

The C22 humbucker has been a Carvin standard for donkey's years. The crazy pole pieces (11 poles per coil) are meant to smooth the output when you bend strings ... but I smell snake-oil. Whatever. This pickup looks like a C22, but is actually the upgraded M22SD, which Carvin says is “extra fat and gutsy”. It’s certainly good and meaty as a humbucker, if a little brighter than I’m used to, with harmonics jumping out all over the place. I’m not going to get all cork-sniffy and go overboard with the adjectives … simply say that this is GOOD TONE … and leave it at that. With the coil split engaged, you get a single coil at the bridge position, so it is as bright, snappy and cutting as you would expect. Not quite ‘Ice Pick’brightness … not QUITE. Great for Knopfler-esque fingerstyle.

Interestingly, the options list includes separate tick-boxes for a Floyd bridge and a Floyd lock-nut. You can have either of them OR both. I'd say that both was a sensible choice. What else? Ah yes ... the finish is called "White-White". They offer just "White", which is ... well ... just white. But this is significantly whiter. It's obscenely white. Like someone scrubbed the standard white with industrial bleach, or maybe turned on a little light bulb inside it to make it shine more. The result is that it is EXTREMELY white. Perhaps painfully so. Like my mate Graham’s new teeth. Hence "White White".

I'd recommend these entirely. Now that I know they're THIS good I might have to have another to my exact specs, but THAT guitar would be identical to THIS one, only red. Maybe "Red-Red"! The link takes you to Carvin's DC125 web page [Edit - they deleted the page]. Note that the white reverse headstock shown has a tiny crack in the top of the diamond abalone position marker ... as does mine, and a small flattened section tothe end of the truss rod cover ... as does mine. Looks like its a picture of MY headstock ...