This Article Was Originally Published On: December 15, 2015 #Issue 17.
The Company Line
We’ve done the company line on Carvin previously, but as of February, 2015, a change has occurred. The guitar-building company that started out in 1946 as the L.C. Kiesel Company – later becoming Carvin and expanding product lines into other areas – has returned to its roots and is now called Kiesel Guitars. Currently, all Kiesel and Carvin guitars and basses are made in the San Diego location by a staff of around 50 people. Mark and Jeff Kiesel run the show, protect the heritage of the line, do all the designs and day-to-day business, and generally keep the fire alive. In fact, the bass we’re reviewing here was designed by Mark Kiesel.
Details
The JB model borrows from a rich lineage of prior Carvin models inspired by the Fender Jazz Bass, and features some recent improvements. This is not just a repackaging of the previous models. In fact, there are multiple significant new features to the JB. They include dual carbon fiber rods in the neck, a 5-bolt neck plate, JVA vintage plain enamel-wire single-coil pickups, a new preamp design with a cleaner signal path, better balance when strapped on, and optional ’60s position pickup placement (moves the bridge pickup about 1/2 inch closer to the neck).
Let’s talk about some of those improvements, specifically. First, their necks have always been great, simply through careful wood selection, but they took it to a whole new level when combining that with not just one, but two carbon rods – increasing the neck strength by up to four times. The enamel-coated wire in the new JVA pickups is expensive, but it was the only way they could hit the tonal bulls-eye they were shooting for, compared to the lesser expensive poly-coated wire used more commonly. The preamp changes are proprietary, but can be summed up by saying they’ve made the signal path much more efficient, which translates to a more pristine tone being preserved from the pickups as the preamp does its magic. Carvin previously offered their J-style basses with only the ’70s position pickup placement, but many players out there still prefer the ’60s position, and Kiesel Guitars listened, now making that an option for a very small upcharge.
The 18V preamp comes standard as a two-band, but a three-band with a “sweepable” (semi-parametric) midrange control is optionally available. The controls start out as either volume and pickup blend (or optionally individual pickup volume controls). The bass is 20dB boost/cut at 30Hz, the treble is 20dB boost/cut at 10kHz, and the optional sweepable midrange control is 15dB boost/cut at anywhere from 100Hz to 2.2kHz (the center click position base frequency is 550Hz).
The hardware is familiar territory, which is a good thing. The tuners are Carvin premiums, which are lightweight, smooth, and have a 20:1 ratio for easy precise tuning. The bridge is Carvin’s high-mass locking bridge with individually adjustable saddles and through-body stringing supported (there are ferrules on the back of the body). The strap buttons and knobs are typical widely used button and metal dome respectively.
When it comes to woods, you have many options available, but this model came with the stock wood combination. This means the neck is eastern hard rock maple, with a tung oil finish (my favorite neck finish), a rosewood fingerboard, and the body is hand-selected alder. The neck is a slender, what I call “shallow C” profile, sporting 22 medium-jumbo nickel silver frets, and a 14” fingerboard radius.
Fit and finish
This is an area where I must say Kiesel (and Carvin before) was always very good. I’ve checked many of their various models out over the years with a fairly fine-toothed comb, and it’s damn hard to find a flaw. They’ve had this down for a long time. The paint is flawless, the neck joint is tight and consistent, and the fret work is top notch. There are no sand/file marks visible on the fretboard, the fret level is excellent, the nut work is just right. I cannot find a single flaw in the construction of this instrument.
On the gig
This bass is a bit on the heavy side for me, at 10.6 pounds, but balances well on a strap, so neck fatigue is really not bad at all. For those who need a lighter-weight bass, you can select an ash body, or even have the bass chambered to reduce the weight. It was set up just right out of the box, so I didn’t have much to do there. The J-style pickups do just exactly as you’d expect on the gig. They provide a big round Jazz Bass sound: fat on the neck, burpy on the bridge, and funky when blended. The preamp controls work very smoothly and offer a wide variety of augmentations to tone using the blend control and EQ. The treble and bass are very musical and voiced perfectly for these latest editions of their single-coil pickups. The bridge pickup has burp and growl for days, and if you want to fatten it up, add a little bass. To narrow its focus, take some of the treble off. The neck pickup is big and bluesy. No need to add bass to it, but if you want to drop some treble, it goes classic on you real fast (in a good way). The electronics are well designed, grounded, and shielded. This is one of the quietest single-coil pickup based basses I’ve played. Passive mode is not just for backup, either. It’s a strong member of the tone family on this bass, backed up by the vintage tone control, which of course also works in active mode (a feature I really like, in particular). The bass plays like a dream, and is highly resonant; very little in terms of dead or dull spots. It’s very alive all over.
The Bottom Line
This bass is Carvin’s latest take in a long successful lineage of basses based off the venerable Fender Jazz Bass. Carvin’s continual improvements in every aspect of these instruments shows … aesthetics, function, and tone. I know there are a lot of J-style basses out there these days, but if you’re in the market for a particularly good value – especially considering a fully USA-made instrument – you owe it to yourself to check one of these out before you decide. You may find yourself done with the search.
In-hand
| Features: | 4 |
| Tonal Flexibility: | 4 |
| Ease of Use: | 4 |
| Aesthetics: | 3.5 |
| Ergonomics: | 3.5 |
| Tone: | 4 |
| Value: | 5 |
In-hand Score 4.00average
TONE-O-METER:
This bass is yet another take on a J-bass. It does all a Jazz Bass will do, and then some. Considering the quality, versatility, and especially considering the price, it’s extremely hard to beat.
