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This little thing called the Internet took off in
the latter part of the nineties, and Carvin started to fully exploit it in
1999. The original website, carvinguitars.com, was primarily a marketing
tool, used to collect catalog requests. But in '99, Carvin launched a fully
interactive site featuring all their models, reviews, on-line ordering and many
other features, and by the two-thousands, this would be a huge part of Carvin's
continued success.
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A big plus to the website was the
listing of "Guitars-in-Stock". Although Carvin is noted for
building instruments that are custom ordered, they also build instruments to
sell in their shops in southern California. So, there are usually a couple
of hundred pre-built and ready ship instruments for those who have "buy
fever", and don't want to wait the 2 months to have a custom built
instrument. I'm sure there are customers who have coincidentally found
exactly (or approximately) what they were looking for in the Guitars in Stock
section, as well.
The image at the right is from
Carvin.com, circa 2001.
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One of the most revolutionary features on the new
website was the Virtual Custom Shop. This was unique in the
industry, and gave guitarists and bassists the ability to see what each model
looked like, in any configuration of wood and finish. With over 50
finish/wood combinations, it was simply not practical to include pictures of
every feasible combination in the catalog, but the Virtual Custom Shop allowed
Carvin to show everything off.
1999
2000
2002
2004
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Click a pick below to see the models for that
year.
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