SisterAbdullahX

[quote name='marcus bell' timestamp='1355750201' post='1902111'] Anyone had this? Since the status kingbass was unveiled 11 years ago I've wanted one, anyways last night I finally got one! After hearing mark king amongst others play these and hearing how great they can sound, I knew its be good, but since I've had it I haven't put it down except for food breaks haha It's just magical! Anyone else had an experience like this? [/quote] Yeah, my Carvin SB5000 knocks my t*ts off every time I play it!

pics! [url="http://s1070.beta.photobucket.com/user/SisterAbdullahX/library/Carvin%20SB5000?#/user/SisterAbdullahX/library/Carvin%20SB5000?&_suid=1353277494670043116387657072075"]http://s1070.beta.ph...116387657072075[/url]

My lovely new Carvin SB5000 arrived last week. I intended to give it a full review but thought it would be better to wait till I'd gigged with it before doing so. Well, tonight's the night! I'll get a review and some more piccies up tomorrow night. Early thoughts on it are it's lush! Well, thought I'd start with the specs; Swamp ash body, clear gloss finish. Maple neck with birdseye maple fingerboard, both with tung oil finish, abalone dot inlays, "wide flat" frets, Graph Tech nut, black logo, Carvin J99 single coils, standard active/passive preamp, vol-vol-tone-bass/treble stack knob, Dunlop straplocks. I'd already received a few pics from Phil at Bass Gear before the bass arrived, so I knew it was a looker, but when I opened the case I have to say I was knocked out by the looks! I know the outswept horns have divided opinion but I like them. At least Carvin have had the courage to do something different with the Jazz design and I have to say the top horn makes perfect sense when the bass is on a strap. The quality of the finish is absolutely impeccable. The laqcuer has a glass-flat finish with not a single hint of sinking into the grain of the ash and, as the pics show, the piece of ash Carvin picked is gorgeous! The grain is big and bold and I just love it! The tung oil finish on the neck is silky smooth and the birdseye on the fingerboard is quite subtle, which I was pleased about. Some birdseye boards can be a little over the top, I feel. Taking the bass out of the case and having a close inspection of the fit and finish revealed a super tight neck/body joint with not a hint of a gap on either side of the heel. The join between the scratchplate and control plate is also perfect. The first things I noticed when I sat with it on my knee and played the first few notes on it were that the action was quite a bit higher than I like and that the string spacing at the bridge was less than the 19mm I was expecting, or so I thought. I was a little disappointed about the spacing as I was used to the wide spacing I had on my Pedulla Pentabuzz. That was set so as to be the same as the spacing on my CIJ Jazz 4 stringer, and I thought that was 19mm. What I liked about that was not having to get used to having two different spacings when switching between 4 and 5 strings. I took a tape measure to check the spacing on the SB5000 and, blow me, it was 19mm! My mistake! The Pedulla was obviously set wider, even though it had "19mm" on the back of the control panel. I then put the SB on a strap and found it balanced perfectly, not a bit of neck dive, just stayed exactly where I left it. Great! Also, the neck was super comfy with a flat D profile on the back and a flat-ish 14mm radius on the fingerboard. I also found that the string spacing made it really easy to play, the whole thing just felt quite compact and, well, easy! The sound acoustically was big and deep, yet the top end was there as well. I knew it was going to sound good plugged in but first of all I wanted to drop the action. This was a doddle as the truss rod is adjusted at the nut so it could be done with the neck on and strings up to pitch. A quarter turn on the truss rod and a few turns on the bridge saddles and it was spot on in no time at all. I'm pretty useless at describing the sound of a bass in any kind of technical way but plugging in to my Promethean (at bedroom volume) with the amp and bass eq set flat with the active on the bass on, both pickups full up all I can say is it sounded great! Full, deep, throaty, great balance between all strings. Nudging a bit of bass and treble on gives it some real "meat" and the top end has a lovely rich sparkle to it. Gigging it for the first time last night was just a lovely experience! The room was awful and the keyboard player next to me too loud so I knew I wasn't hearing the best it could do but, man, I didn't care! The best comparison I could give to the sound, fingerstyle with both pickups (and I know not everyone will be familiar with this) is the sound James Genus gets from his Fodera on the "Return Of The Brecker Brothers". Lush, lush, lush! Then there's the slap sound! Glorious Marcus Miller Jazz! Rolling to the back pickup and cutting the treble and rolling back the passive tone (or even better, switching to passive and rolling the tone back, although the passive level is lower than the active) and there is your basic Jaco growl! The neck pickup sounds great on it's own as well, doing a very good Precision imitation. It's all there! I got a review from Luke FRC of an SB5000 which he checked out in a shop in Glasgow (I think) and have to say I was a little worried about what he wrote as I had already ordered mine. He found the B string on the one he tried floppy and indistinct to the point of being useless. He also said he didn't care for the preamp, although the one he tried had the optional mid control. I have to say, with some relief(!) that neither issue affects my bass. The B string sounds and feels as good as any I've tried, not floppy at all. And, for me anyway, the preamp does exactly what I would want it to, providing a variety of USABLE tones (I put that in capitals as I've tried some in the past which have had more variation but also provided tones I would just never want to use). Overall, the best way I can describe the SB is it just sounds great! It's thick and fruity, the mids are rich and the highs don't go into that horrible cutty territory that some preamps go into. I'm one happy bunny! Cost wise, spec'd up as it is this SB5000 would have been £1265, including the great hard case and delivery. That's still less than a Fender Jazz Deluxe 5 and obviously way way less than any Sadowsky Jazz. As it turned out I got it in a straight swap for my Pedulla Pentabuzz, which I was asking £1295 for. I would call that a good deal! Finally, I've said all along since ordering that the whole process was made that much easier and altogether pleasant by the great service I got from Phil and Barrie (Molan) at Bass Gear. Not only did they take my Pedulla Pentabuzz as full payment when nobody else wanted to buy it, but they have just been great all along. They gave my by far the best deal of any of the UK Carvin authorised dealers and made the whole process a breeze. They even gave me a free t-shirt! Cheers!

Cheers, guys. It'll be here when I get home from work tomorrow! Will do a full review in the next few days.

[quote name='geoffbassist' timestamp='1352194317' post='1859800'] I have wanted one of these for ages! I just love the shape. Congratulations! [/quote] Cheers, Geoff. If you ever want to try it out, I'm just down the road in Barnsley.

My Carvin SB5000 arrived at Bass Gear today! Phil kindly took some shots to keep me going until it arrives at my door on Wednesday. I have to say I think it looks absolutely fabulous! I actually phoned them to pay for delivery just as they were opening the packaging and had to laugh at the collective "woaaahh!!!!" that I heard when they opened the case! Just can't wait to get my hands on her now! [url="http://s1070.beta.photobucket.com/user/SisterAbdullahX/library/Carvin%20SB5000"]http://s1070.beta.ph...Carvin%20SB5000[/url]

[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1351079093' post='1846980'] Take a look at Marcus' bass...especially the picture on the back of the 'Tales' album. The Fender logo on his is high up and slightly under the string tree.That's probably why it's like that on the Marcus signatures,and shows that it's not really a Japanese problem,because Fender were obviously doing that (possibly in error?) in '77. [/quote] Ahh! That might explain it, then. It's not a great look, though.

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1350641344' post='1841544'] Headstock looks loads better actually. [/quote] Yeah, I agree! One of the things that really put me off the MIJ MM's is the way the Fender logo looks like it was applied by a blind man in the dark. I've seen some where it is under the string tree leaving a massive expanse of bare wood underneath it. How did they allow them to go out like that?

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1344335339' post='1762860'] I'd like one of their new Jazz basses...odd looking body but great tone, and kinda cool that they went with a different shape. Thing is, they are like £800 custom made over in the USA. Once you get it here, its more like £1300... [/quote] My SB5000 should arrive end of this month. Got a gig up at Beamish Hall on 17th November, could possibly bring it over so you could have a try, if you're interested and not too far away from Beamish. Personally, I wasn't in the slightest bit bothered that it costs £800 in the US and £1300 (actually, mine is £1265) over here. If it plays, sounds, feels and looks like a £1300 bass I'll be well happy!

Carvin SB5000! Choose the colour, body wood, neck wood, fingerboard wood, hardware colour, fret size and some other features, then have a massive night out with the 200 quid you have left over!

Apart from the fact that mine arrived from Thomann slightly damaged and it is a bit hissy (only notice at low volumes) my Promethean hasn't missed a beat.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1345541871' post='1778535'] I'm actually in the shop today and just received a request for a quote on a Carvin - better get back to 'work' [/quote] That'll have been me, then!!

Specs finalised and order going in tomorrow! Specs below. [url="http://www.carvinworld.com/cart/cart.php?id=3570d29a0d93c4b839035f4d584d5fe6"]http://www.carvinworld.com/cart/cart.php?id=3570d29a0d93c4b839035f4d584d5fe6[/url]

What was your opinion?

Rather excited to say that this week I'll be putting in my order for a Carvin SB5000. Like quite a lot of you out there I've read the rave reviews they get in the States on Talk Bass and seen the vids on You Tube and decided it's time to pull the trigger. I know there's recently been a bit of interest on BC, but no one has gone for one. I'll let you all know what I think when it arrives in a couple of months time! I would also be very happy for anyone who also is interested in them to come and have a try out. I must also take this opportunity to big up the guys at Bass Gear, who are taking care of my order and have given great service and a great deal. Particular praise to BC's very own molan, a true gent and absolute top man! Anyway, here's a link to one that is pretty much identical to the one I'll be ordering. Forward to 4:50 to hear what it sounds like. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWprlDDLoO8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWprlDDLoO8[/url]

Indeed!

Deal agreed! Specifications decided! As soon as I can get down to Bass Gear with my bass it will be countdown to lovely new SB5000 time! Very happy with the service so far! I'll be happy for anyone to come and try it out when I get it. Form an orderly queue!

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1345414142' post='1777323'] I'm covering for Phil the owner of BassGear for 2 days this week whilst he's on holiday Hope it's Ok to post as I'm just trying to keep people up to date and not specifically trying to flog anything. The core Carvin business model is to make each customer's bass individually. However, with such a low 'installed base' in the UK it's near impossible for people to try one out so it's unsurprising that people won't order them blind = a bit of a vicious circle Phil is planning to get about 4-5 in stock for demo purposes (of course they will be for sale as well) so that people can really test them out and he can now quote on any of the Carvin range in any sort of custom spec anyone might fancy. I've spoken to the Carvin guys in the last week, on Phil's behalf, and they are really keen to put more effort into increasing their UK business. They now have a much better distribution hub over here that will stock a lot of the different amps & cabs (because these aren't made to order) with really fast delivery times. They do make some pretty impressive amps, amazing price for 'Made in USA' kit with valves in the pre-amp stage etc. A couple of us were trying a BX500 through a little Bag End 1x10 this week. Sounded huge for such a tiny little rig! I have to admit that I'm really quite excited to try some of the basses as well. I promise to give Phil a swift kick about these when he gets back from holiday at the end of the week [/quote] Currently in discussions with a view to ordering an SB5000 in the next week or so. Very stoked!!