This is probably the nicest looking LB90 I've ever seen.  It's an '87 model, and it looks to be as close to mint as possible for a 15-year old bass.  Extraordinary!  And Mike tells me he got a killer deal on this, as well.  Way to go!

"The model I'm using was only offered in 1988, I ordered mine on Dec 31, 1987 in deep pearl blue and it took about 4 or 5 weeks to arrive.  While Carvin offered the LB90 for a few years, they only built the ones with a 24 fret neck like I've got for one year.  Having 24 frets is no big deal, but the body was restyled and that's what I like.  It's much smaller with longer horns, the older ones look more like a Fender bass.

Mine has been modified with a hipshot tuner, a shim under the bridge and the pickup selector has been bypassed.  I just use both pickups all the time and I shimmed the bridge with a .040 piece of aluminum to cut down the angle and to reduce string breakage.

I've now got two of these basses, both blue, one deep and one light.  The light one is in very good condition I got it for about $200 from a place in New York, it hasn't been played much.  Mine is worn through the finish on the back of the body, neck and by the pickups.  The edge of the neck is worn and it's going to need to be refretted before too much longer, but it still sounds and plays great!"

"I spent some time this morning taking a few pictures of my LB-90 basses.  Most of them are of my old reliable Deep Pearl Blue bass that's I've used for everything since early 1998.  I tried to get some detail shots of the headstock, body shape and unique features of the bass.

I wanted to get some details of where the finish is worn through to the wood on the neck and stuff.  It is a little hard to see in the photos, but the finish goes from clear to pearl blue to black, to filler and finally to the wood.  Since the pickups are different than the ones used in Carvin basses of different eras, I got some details of them too.  They are a nice feature of this bass, I think they sound great."

"I also took a few pictures of my other LB-90 also from 1988.  I bought it from a shop in New York after Myles spotted it in an online classified add.  He said it was just like my bass and since I had NEVER seen another one I had to snatch it up!  It's finished in the other Pearl Blue with black hardware.  In my opinion this combination is not nearly as nice looking as the one on the other bass and probably part of the reason I was able to buy it for about $250.  It's not been played much and is in really good condition compared to the dark colored one.  After some minor adjustments and new strings it plays and sounds good, but for some reason it just isn't quite as good as the dark one tone wise when played back to back through the exact same rig, not sure why.  It seems brighter and not quite as nice, still good but somewhat different.  The vast amount of difference in mileage is probably the largest factor."

"I hope you enjoy these pictures and can use them and any information I can provide on your website.  Hopefully they will be of interest to other Carvin bass owners because in my opinion, Carvin basses are VERY underrated for both quality and tone and are rather unknown by the general music public."

Right on, Dave!

And as much as I like a nice, pristine bass, I dig this "relic" look.  Basses are meant to be played, and this one has been.

Finally, here's both of Dave's LB90's.  Having one of these models is cool enough, but having a pair is very cool.  Like Dave, I like the darker blue one better (and it's about the same color as my V440) - but the light blue one is not without it's charm.  And the black hardware stands out nicely.  Whichever you prefer, they're both very sweet basses!

"I'm the original owner and she's not got scratch 1 as she's a studio lady only. I left the Hofner in the pic circa 1965 also original owner due to the fact that so many vintage Carvins sport Hofner necks. I let my Aria Pro II Cardinal do the road work. No so, with the 90+% Carvin wall of deaf.  You'll note the bass rig (late eighties R600 w/ 4-10 /1,2 or 3 18s depending on the need)."