Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

[Mr. B]

A couple of years ago, I bought a Carvin Kit guitar (their Bolt "strat" model). I have a Duncan JB tembucker and two fender american strat pickups in it. Love the pickups. Thing is though, this thing absolutely sucks sustain from the strings for some reason, the sound just immediately dies through every amp I have. I have 2 Squier strats that I use at school that spank this 400.00 carvin sustain-wise. What gives???

A few observations. The neck pocket is so tight I could leave the screws out and it wouldn't fall off, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. The nut is finished well. It doesn't have string trees, but that shouldn't matter if I'm fretting a not up the neck??. The body is alder, finished in tung oil, and pretty light weight compared to other cheaper strats, could that be it?? Is this Wilkinson tremolo a piece of crap??

I can't figure out what is sucking away all my sustain.

 

[Mephis]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

How close are the pickups to the strings?

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

How close are the pickups to the strings?

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! We have a winner!

 

[tone4days]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

'zackly - those two strat single coils might need to be backed down a coupla turns ... the magnetic pole pieces are likely damping the vibrations

i doubt the jb is causing the sustain to die (the magnet is too far awy to cause that)

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

Using a precise guitar set-up ruler from stewmac, I have the pickups set
1/64th below the factory specified height. They are also modern flat polepiece fender pickups, not the older height staggered ones. I may try lowering them more, but if that IS the problem it looks like it would be affecting my other strats too, I have the same pickups in them.....???

The magnet pull does make sense though....

 

[big_black]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

How tight is the pocket at the neck joint? If there is finish in the neck pocket or on the butt end of the neck you could have issues. I don't expect they would be huge though. Maybe give them a good sanding so you have nice flat wood to wood contact.

You may just got some bad wood there.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

What Wilkinson is on it? If it's Carvin's specially made one, it shouldn't be pulling out much sustain. The Carvin Wilk is probably the best Wilk out there. Last I knew they used a solid heat treated steel block. I hav'nt found the Carvin Wilk to have poor sustain. I also built a guitar for someone who wanted to use a Wilk and we used the Gotoh one. It had a brass block, but that guitar had good sustain.

Try lowering all the pickups some and see what happens.

A freiend of mine had a hardtail American Standard strat once that wouldn't sustian well at all. Numerious pickup changes didn't help. It turned out to just be a bum alder body.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

There are several people that have this complaint about the Carvin bolt kits. I don't think it's your pickups or your setup. I think it's the neck on it. Those necks have to graphite stabilizing rods in them and they tend to have an adverse affect on the tone of the guitar.

Try swapping that neck w/ one off your other guitars or a buy a cheap mighty mite neck off ebay. I'm betting you'll solve your problem real fast.

Hardware and wood quality is normally pretty good w/ Carvin. But I've heard several complaints of the neck adding hollow, wonky type tone and them killing sustain.

 

[Gary Ladd]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

There are several people that have this complaint about the Carvin bolt kits. I don't think it's your pickups or your setup. I think it's the neck on it. Those necks have to graphite stabilizing rods in them and they tend to have an adverse affect on the tone of the guitar.

Try swapping that neck w/ one off your other guitars or a buy a cheap mighty mite neck off ebay. I'm betting you'll solve your problem real fast.

Hardware and wood quality is normally pretty good w/ Carvin. But I've heard several complaints of the neck adding hollow, wonky type tone and them killing sustain.

***DING-DING-DING***

We have a winner!

That's why friends don't let friends buy Crapvins

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

The thing about those graphite rods is that they are supposed to add sustain, and I think they do it, but in a very negative way. What happens is the initial attack and early envelope is squashed to the point that it sounds dull and lifeless. So even though the neck is stiffer, and therefore the note sustains for a long time, it sustains at a very low plateau. Perhaps this is the best way to describe it:

No graphite rods: BOOOIIIINNNGGGGGggggggggggzzznnn
Graphite rods: BOingggggggggggggggggzzzznnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

 

[Jester700]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

To each his own, as always. I dig my Carvin necks, in quality, feel, and tone. Actually, I can't say I PREFER the Carvin's tone over my Ibanez originals, but I don't like it any LESS either.

One thing's for sure - "sustain sucking" is atypical for a Carvin neck IME, so you may want to see if it can be swapped. All wood is different...

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

I never used the Carvin neck that came with it. Its too wide and flat for me. I put a licensed Fender replacement neck on it and the neck pocket is so tight I could almost leave the screws out and it wouldn't budge. The only finish it has on it is tung oil so the wood to wood contact should actually be better than normal. I tried lowering the pickups even lower than they already were, to the point of losing their tone, and it made little difference, sustain-wise, that I could tell. I guess I will give up on it and use it as a clunker. I have two cheap Squier fat strats that sustain much better. Shame really, it plays as good as my American strat, and stays in tune well. Thanks for all your helpful advice everyone!

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Sustain sucking Carvin guitar

How old and what guage are your strings?