Left-Handed Guitars

Carvin Bolt Kit (2004)

Status: For sale, £200.00

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Carvin appears to be little known outside of the USA. They make a full range of quality music-related products and their guitars are crafted to the finest tolerances via computer technology.

I got this Bolt kit a few years ago. It arrived with all the necessary first-class components, with the pickguard being pre-assembled ready for insertion into the body. All the bits and pieces fitted together perfectly and it was great fun watching the instrument take shape over the week or two it took to put together. Most of the time was spent in 'watching the paint dry', with actual building time being very short.

A few months after initial assembly I refinished this guitar in a blood-red natural wood colour but I've now gone for a mixture of many coats of boiled linseed oil and thinned polyurethane varnish mixed together. The result is a cool looking semi-glossy natural wood look. I've also replaced the original HSS pickguard with a plain white SSS one fitted with Irongear Smokestack stacked humbuckers, which give a terrific mixture of real Srat sounds when tapped and humbucker thickness when not. Absulutely stunning sound.

Body is swamp ash, neck alder with an ebony fingerboard and Sperzel locking tuners. Controls are currently master volume, master tone incorporating push/pull switch for built-in GuitarFetish chorus control and depth/speed stacked control for chorus, which uses a rear-mounted 9-volt battery. If you don't want to use the chorus, no battery is required.

The action is very low and the guitar plays like a dream and sounds just as good. The following additional-cost options are currently installed:

• Swamp ash body
• Sperzel locking tuners
• Black hardware
• Set of 3 Irongear Smokestack stacked humbucker pickups wired for tapping (cost about £80)

Sadly, Carvin won't ship to overseas destinations from the USA, but they do have a British distributor if you're interested in any of their gear. Apart from that, you could always make me an offer for this beauty if you fancy it. In it's current configuration you'd be getting a considerable discount.

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