Carvin V220

No other company will give you more bang for your buck than Carvin. This custom Carvin V220, entirely built according to my specifications, costs about the same price as some generic, imported guitars on the market. It took four months to build. Carvin's factory is located in San Diego, California.

Sperzel locking tuners are standard on all Carvin guitars, even the ones with a Floyd Rose system. Contrary to popular belief, it's unnecessary to have a triple-locking system. The Floyd Rose locking nut fully locks the strings, making the locking tuners irrelevant. But the locking tuners help expedite the tuning/stretching process.

Carvin's C22 humbuckers have a brutal, powerful sound.

The guitar had two issues when it arrived from the factory: (1) Faulty fret leveling. Some notes were fretting out, and there was some buzz across the fretboard with low action. (2) The tremolo cavity was too narrow. The bridge was rubbing against the wood when I used the tremolo. Yet, unlike most guitar companies, Carvin has excellent customer/warranty service. I shipped the guitar back to them (they paid for the shipping cost), and they reworked the frets and expanded the tremolo cavity. They sent the guitar back to me within three weeks at no cost.

Neck-thru construction, alder body and Dunlop strap locks

I set the action on my Floyd Rose very low. My only suggestion to Carvin would be to deepen/widen the tremolo cavity a bit more. If I lower the action too much, the bridge touches the wood when I dive.

The guitar comes with a beautiful hardshell case - also made in the USA.