Fun with the Carvin

[Ken]

I've been having a ton of fun lately with the Carvin.  Possibly since getting used to the Thunderbird for so long, I wanted more girth in the tone.  I was looking into swapping out the J99 (Jazz style) pickups.  Not sure what exactly motivated me, but I came to an epiphany and found its sweet spot for tone and I'm loving it.  Not changing the pickups now.  I don't know if it's wired stock (it's from 1999), but the bridge pickup soloed is nothing like the common burpy Jaco tone.  It sounded better to me than the neck soloed.  So I put on a set of Dunlop Standard series (black box) nickel strings in an attempt to warm and thicken it up, and they made a big difference.  Then I rolled off the neck pickup slightly, leaving the bridge at full, and boom.  Thick(er), ballsy, grindy, etc., dialing out everything I didn't like about the tone with both on full.  Kind of a Thunderbird light tone.  Single coils can only get you so far. I tried a set of GHS Bass Boomers since they're supposed to be similar to the Dunlops.  Even warmer, but really kind of one-dimensional on this bass.  The Dunlops are a lot livelier.  Also a lot cheaper.  Really happy.  And now it sounds great through both my GK at home and the B-15 at the practice space.

I keep coming back to this bass for sentimental value, and the neck is fantastic.  Only thing I think would improve it is a 1.5" nut width.

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[Dave W]

Sometimes all it takes is an adjustment.

[Ken]

I love when it's simple.

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