The Webmaster's LB76A

I bought this 2003 LB76A from the In-Stock section of Carvin.com while I was waiting for my BB76P to be completed.  Ironically, they arrived on the same day.  This one is a real beauty, with the 3-piece body that's standard on the Anniversary Series - in this case, alder body, flamed maple top, with a thin walnut center.  The neck is maple and koa, and it has a matching flamed koa headstock.  Other features include black chrome hardware, and HB2/J99 pickups.

 

Mike Kelly's LB76
Carvin BBS ID: bassmunky
WWW: http://www.gripweeds.com

This is a very nice LB76 from the mid-1990's.  It has a clear finish of flamed maple with matching headstock, dual H50N stacked humbuckers, black chrome hardware, and no inlays on the fingerboard.  A classic 90's model.

On a side note, Mike recently wrapped recording on his 4th album with The Grip Weeds - well worth checking out at the site listed above.  Additionally, Mike was interviewed for Bass Player Online - read the article right here.

Grandon Westlund's LB76
Carvin BBS ID: Bass Kahuna
WWW: http://www.thebasskahuna.com

Out of the great state of Colorado is the Bass Kahuna himself, Grandon Westlund and his LB76.  Here's what Grandon has to say:

"My LB76 is from early 1993. It has Koa sides, a maple neck with an ebony fingerboard and abalone block inlays, gloss finish and gold hardware.

I replaced the original bridge pickup with an EMG active, removed the original wiring and pre-amp circuitry and replaced it with stereo wiring. I have absolutely no issues with their stock electronics in anyway, I just have to run my basses in stereo (I wish that they still offered stereo wiring from their factory!... oh well....), and just recently, in order to improve on the strength and sound of the low-B string, I took a router to it and installed new "soapbar" six string pickups (a Bartolini deep tone split coil in the neck position and an EMG HZ-45 DC in the bridge position). The resulting sound is nothing short of amazing, and the low-B string is DEADLY now!"
"I am currently running the bass through the following gear:

 High end signal processing (bridge pickup)
ACM Audio RT-1PC digital chromatic tuner & power distribution
Roland SPH-323 Phase Shifter
Roland GP-16 Preamp / multi effects processor
Roland FC100 midi foot control panel
BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer
Ashley 3630 stereo compressor / gate
Alesis RA-100 power amp
2 Custom built (by me) speaker cabinets, one 4x10 and one 1x15
Low end signal processing (neck pickup)
Art SP4x4 metered power distribution
Ashly SC-40 preamp
BBE 862 Sonic Maximizer
DOD R-831B 31 band graphic EQ
DOD R-825 compressor / limiter
AB Precedent Series 900A power amp
1 - SWR Big Ben 18" cabinet, & 1 duplicate cabinet I built and loaded with a
JBL 2240 18" speaker

Mark Foecking's LB76
Carvin BBS ID: Mark Foecking

Mark was one of the first contributors to the CBM, with his excellent SB60.  And Mark has added to the collection, with a very nice LB76.  Mark says:

"I bought this in April of 2002.  It is a "plain vanilla" LB76P that I got out of the in-stock section.  Tobacco Sunburst is its only option, and it cost less than a grand.  I have received NOTHING but compliments on it's looks, tone and playability.  It's a keeper!"

Very cool!  And take a look at Mark's rig below - holy cow!  Mark adds:

"The Sleeping Giant.  I had a friend tell me he could hear me a mile away one time when we were playing outdoors.  I seldom use the whole thing like that but it sure is nice to have when you need it."

Jonathan Fischer's LB76W

I really dig the Claro Walnut and Anniversary series basses.  The 3-piece body design (walnut top, walnut back, and maple sandwiched in between; alder back, flamed/quilted maple top with koa in the middle on the Anniversary model)) looks great.

Jonathan tells me this is the best bass he's ever played - no doubt!

 

Robert Black's LB76
 WWW: http://www.blackshole.com

After trading his LB76F (below), Bob picked up this tobacco burst LB76.   It has rounded body sides, black hardware, matching headstock, mother of pearl markers, and straplocks.  Very nice!  And I've been promised better photos in the future - check back!

Robert also has a very nice koa LB75 - be sure to check it out!

Robert Black's (former) LB76F

I'm really staring to dig these ruby red stained quilts.  I've had several sent to me, and they really are nice - and this one is no exception.  I really like the no-lined fretless neck - that, and the black hardware, gives this one a very sleek appearance, and the quilt is just the icing on the cake. Robert says:

"I find that I use my LB75F the most.  This particular bass has a nice deep sound yet still has clarity.  I believe that this is in part due to its all koa construction and also in part due to the tapewound strings which I really like.  My LB76F is quite a looker but it is heavier, so it gets less use.  It also is a bit of a strain on my relatively short fingers.  I string this one with roundwounds ATM, and it has great tone.  If there is one thing I wish I had done differently, it would be to have a natural satin finish on the back of the neck - it wouldn't look as cool, but it'd be nicer to play.  Not that the finish is hard to play - I just like the feel of a satin finish neck."

UPDATE: Bob recently sold this one, to facilitate the purchase of the tobacco-burst LB76 shown above. This one's such a beauty, I just didn't want to take it down!

Johnny White's LB76L
Carvin BBS ID: dawgstring6
WWW: http://www.angelfire.com/oh5/whitefamily/

It's about time the southpaw's stood up to be counted!  

Johnny says:

"This is my Carvin Blessings LB76...I found this bass on Ebay for $310.00, and have been hooked ever since, I was just graduating from a 4 string to a 6 string...it was frustrating and I nearly gave up the sixer, but I stayed with it and it has changed my world as far as bass playing goes, this model has the words "Blessings" on the headstock...I believe this bass was built for me, though I am the second owner. I use it only to serve the Lord."

Darius King's LB76P
Carvin BBS ID: darius

Another regular on the Carvin BBS is Darius, especially since he is the proud owner of a new Custom Shop LB76P.  Here's what he has to say about it:

"It’s simply beautiful, Carvin knows what they are doing. I got the 5 piece lamented neck made of maple with walnut strips, and tung oiled. The body is a neck through. I love the walnut body wings they chose and it’s just lovely the way grain pattern shows through. I chose to offset the Walnut theme with gold hardware. All knobs, switches, tuning keys, tuning posts, and strap posts are gold plated. The Fret board is ebony with the standard dot inlays and is a very consistent jet black. I also got the low wide fret option, along with the Dual HB6 option with a coil splitter for each Humbucker. Dunlop strap locks were also included with my order.

The setup on the bass is a little high for my taste but not outrageously high either. I feel it needs a little tweaking to lower the action. The B string is excellent, but has a bit of an issue from the twelve fret on toward the bridge. I get a weird double tone harmonic. This is the best that I can describe it. It sounds like two notes slightly out of tune from each other. I recall, I had a similar issue with my Washburn bass when I had a tapered B string on it. I like the low wide frets. They feel very similar to my old bass, and are Low but they are not as wide as on my previous bass, doesn’t bother me though. The neck radius is excellent for me because it feels very similar to my Washburn 6 string bass, so it didn’t feel foreign to me. The bass weight feels good, it’s also very similar to my Washburn so it’ll be no adjustment for me. It was hard to tell difference in weight while holding the two in each hand. The String spacing is about 1/16” wider across all strings then my Washburn. This bass is very playable all the way down to the 24th fret, which is something I cannot say about my Washburn. My LB76 is a joy to play in the higher registers. This neck is FASSSST and can only get better after I have the action tweaked. I plan to let it settle for a couple weeks or more before I have any adjustments made.     

 All I can say is WOW!!!. This Bass has Monster Tone. Dual HB6 Humbuckers are they way to go. I can get any sound I want from Monster BASS to that Jaco sound with a few turns and switch changes. There are so many options with two HB6/ coils splitters and Piezo bridge pickups. Carvins configured the splitter such that when the neck HB is split you get the section closes to the neck and when you split the bridge pickup you get the section closes to the bridge.  I could hear a difference in tone with all the combinations. I did have a bit of distortion on my E string coming from the Piezo bridge pickup, I found that this was due to not having enough downward force from the string onto the Piezo pickup. A slight tweak with the included Allen Wrench, providing more upward force from bridge saddle, solved this. P series basses are HOT signal wise and can easily over drive your amplifier’s pre-Amp section if your not careful with your adjustments. The D,G,and C strings where dead tone wise on arrival. It’s kind of weird because the B,E and A are nice and crisp."

Mike Corey's LB76 & LB76F

Now here's a great pair of LB76's.  Why have one bass when you can have two, right?  Mike says:

"They were both made in late 1993 and I got them early 1994.  The LB76F fretless is plain, nothing fancy, all black with matching hardware and the LB76 is AAA flamed maple, sapphire blue with matching headstock & gold hardware, both feature the Sperzel locking tuners and the Wilkinson bridge.  I sure do love my Carvin's, everyone always go nuts over them, they both sound & play fantastic, I am sure you know all this already."

Graham Shackelford's LB76P

Graham's 2003 LB76P is the quintessential Carvin bass.  This is what most people think of when they think of Carvin - very nice wood (in this case, koa), and the prominent and classy 5-piece neck - maple and koa on this one.  Simple and elegant.  Black chrome hardware, Dunlop straploks and the J99/HB2 pickups with piezo bridge round out the package.

Unfortunately, this bass ended up being the victim of a broken truss rod - it sometimes happens.  However, it was covered under warranty, so Carvin did a complete rebuild, and the result is below...

 

Graham says:

"Carvin bass 1's sad sad story: so I'm adjusting the truss rod one day, when the truss cap (the piece that has the hex bit on it) snaps off.  Knowing I can still play it, but just can't adjust it, I start looking for local repair options to avoid having the bass in the shop for 5-10 weeks. I called Carvin to ask about local authorized repairs, what to ask for, etc. when I am told that, since it's still under warranty, the "repair" by Carvin is a full rebuild!

The first Carvin was made with koa/maple/ebony, and although it was great, there was a little something missing. As well as this, there was at that time a four month wait on koa. Taking this as a cue to get a bit more than my money's worth, I asked if I could change a few options and treat them as rebates/upgrades and pay the appropriate amount.

That said, the new Carvin is better than I ever could have hoped.  It's absolutely gorgeous. Walnut body, mahogany/maple 5 piece neck, P series w/ 2 HB6s and dual coil splitters, birdseye maple fingerboard, black hardware, straploks and detuner make this the perfect bass for me. The walnut/mahogany combination make the sound huge and full, and the fingerboard helps to compensate by adding a really crisp top end.  I really like the dual HB/splitter setup; it's so versatile and allows me no fewer than 8 distinct sounds in passive mode. The low B is even tighter than on my last Carvin, and is still plenty solid to be able to hold down the low A when I'm detuned."

Radical's LB76F
 Carvin BBS ID: radical

Here's an LB76F that was a recent eBay score.  It's most likely a late 90's model, and has a nicely figured maple neck with koa body wings.  It has a lined fretless fingerboard, black painted headstock, and black chrome hardware.

Sebastian's LB76
 Carvin BBS ID: relic
WWW: http://relicshow.com

This is a '93 model, which Sebastian has used extensively with the band Relic (be sure and check out the website).  It's finished in tobacco sunburst on flamed maple with matching headstock, and has abalone block inlays, gold hardware, and H50N pickups with phase switching.  Sebastian was lucky enough to have John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin sign it (on the upper horn) in November of 2002.  That's cool!

 

Evan Phinney's LB76
 WWW: http://photobucket.com/albums/l290/evan_phi

Evan picked up this 2001 LB76 from a friend of his who was headed off for college.  It has a walnut body with a 5-piece maple/walnut neck, and finished in tung oil.  Other features include gold hardware, no inlays and a pair of J99 pickups.

 

Pres Dyer's LB76P
 WWW: http://www.sacredecstasy.net

Here's a super nice 2006 model LB76P.  It's finished in Ruby Red stain with blackburst edges on quilted maple with a matching headstock.  Other features include an ebony fingerboard with abalone dots and gold hardware.  In addition to the piezo bridge, electronics consist a pair of HB-series pickups with Carvin's new 18V preamp.

Pres says:

"This is my first Carvin of many to come. I've played other basses and nothing compares to the playability, sound quality, and most of all "price". I decided to get this one fully loaded since I was updgrading from the bass that I played for 7 years. I went with the two humbuckers and the piezo bridge. This bass is loud! I have no problem being heard especially through my R1010 and 15" cabinet. I went with the quilted ruby red finish with the black burst edges. I still get compliments on my bass. It is simply a great looking bass!"