TL60 Electric Guitar

as featured in the February 1996
Guitar Shop Magazine.

"If you mentally compare that price tag with the neck of this baby, feel free to let your jaw drop and your eyes bug out a little."

Carvin necks are probably one of the best-kept secrets of the guitar industry. Super-low action mixed with a comfortable neck contour, a smooth neck heel, and a really flat radius to create a guitar that's custom-made for fast picking. You generally run into these kinds of uber-necks on $1000+ brand-name or luthier-built axes, but Carvin somehow manages to pack these features on a guitar costing relatively little. Don't ask why - just enjoy the ride.

The Carvin I checked out was a hardtailed Tele-style TL60, outfitted with an M22 humbucker with coil-split at the bridge, and a pair of S60 single-coils in the neck and middle slots. Add Sperzel tuners, chrome hardware, and a snazzy "greenburst" finish, and you've got a good-looking gee-tar. For the record, the added pickup options (based on their DC135 model) pushed the price of this axe to $629. But sound and performance is where an instrument must strut its stuff and the Carvin delivered here on all counts. The S60 pickups were nice and straty, even in combination with the split humbucker. The M22, for its part, really screams and comes up with all the hard-rock goods. There's no need for a replacement here - this pickup packs a lot of muscle, without being overbearingly distorted. It's just clean and punchy, the way a lot of players like it.

Playability, again, is pretty remarkable. If you mentally compare that price tag with the neck of this baby, feel free to let your jaw drop and your eyes bug out a little. It almost doesn't make sense that a neck this slick could cost so little, but who's complaining. The 24 frets and ample cutaway will give any player room to explore the upper ranges, while the lower end is perfect for digging into bassy bends with edge-of-the-pick harmonics. The only adjustment I had to perform was to raise the action a little, since it's super-lowness precludes a lot of bending. Bottom line: if you get a guitar and you have to raise the action because it's just too low and fast for you, chances are you're playing a winning neck.

In all, just file the Carvin TL60 in the "no complaints" bin and then keep your mouth shut. If word of this good thing gets out to much, the only thing Carvin will be raising is the price!

- Pete Prown, Guitar Shop Magazine