PRODUCT REVIEW
CARVIN
CS6M
BY GARY GUZMAN
I opened the tweed case for the Carvin
CS6M not knowing what to expect. I was
immediately amazed at its beauty and sleek
looks. I was attracted to its flawless finish and
features immediately. In fact, I didn’t even
take it out of the case right away. Instead, I
chose to just look and admire it for a while!
The Carvin CS6M is indeed a thing of beauty. It’s made in the USA at Carvin’s Custom
Shop in San Diego, CA.
Features
This particular model features a premium
bookmatched 4A quilted maple top in a
deep antique brown finish, with a matching
quilted maple headstock overlay. It has gorgeous abalone block inlays on a 25” scale
ebony fingerboard, with medium jumbo
frets. The body is premium mahogany with
set-neck construction. The headstock features Sperzel locking tuners, and an attractive 24k gold-plated Carvin logo.
Although many of these
features are standard on
the CS6M, there are plenty
of options to customize your
own Carvin, which continues
the guitars-made-to-order tradi-
tion that Carvin is known for. You
can choose any combination of
high-quality woods, finishes,
electronics and hardware to
create your own custom
instrument. This guitar
came with two metal-
covered humbucking
S22 pickups by Carvin,
with a three-way pickup
selector. It also features
two Volume and two
Tone knobs with coil
splitters as an available
option, as opposed to the
standard one Volume, one
Tone knob configuration.
By the way, here’s a quick word about Carvin’s
nomenclature for this model of set-neck
electric guitars. The CS stands for California
Single, as in single cut-away. The CS6 is
their top of the line guitar in this series. For
those guitarists who desire the same high-quality features and construction as the CS6
but without the exotic top woods, Carvin
offers the CS4, which has a plain maple top
standard, and also the CS3, which features a
carved, solid piece of mahogany with no top
wood. The M in the name refers to Carvin’s
M bridge, which is a fully adjustable tune-o-matic bridge with strings fed through the
body for added sustain. You can also choose
Carvin’s S bridge (which is a classic tune-o-matic/stoptail bridge), a Wilkinson tremolo or
a genuine Floyd Rose tremolo.
Another cosmetic feature that I really like on
the CS6M is the natural body binding. It’s a
process where the edges of the maple top
are masked before the finish is applied. The
result is a natural, unstained wood around the
perimeter of the guitar top. It looks great with
the quilted top and adds a nice color contrast
to the guitar.
Playability
When you pick up the CS6M and play it, you
realize how well made this guitar really is. I
was impressed with the high-quality construction and attention to detail. The ergonomic
design felt good in my hands and was very
comfortable to play. One feature I noticed
right away was the smooth heel-less design
for easy access to all frets. Most guitars with
a set-in neck have a cumbersome heel, which
makes playing the high frets a difficult task. I
was able to play a B minor scale in 19th position flawlessly, which can be hard to pull off
on other guitars—or it puts my hand in an
awkward position because of the chunk of
wood I have to get around! The neck actually
sets five inches into the body and extends
underneath the neck pickup, which allows for
amazing sustain and greater stability. Carvin’s
