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Topic: Carvin Pedal Steels? |
Jim Walker
From:
Headland, AL
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Posted 16 Apr 2007 2:02 am |
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I was shopping at Wal-mart today and a quite elderly gentleman commented on my Sho-Bud t-shirt and said he played steel before arthritis set in. He said he still had his double neck Carvin PSG. I never knew that Carvin made steels. I found some info online but it was just basic info and a few pictures.
Who built Carvin Steels and where? Were they any good? Just wondered.
JW
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Show Pro D10, Session 400 |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 16 Apr 2007 4:42 am
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Do a Google search for "Carvin" and you will find their website. Go to the history section.
They are a "mailorder" place as we use to call them and have made instruments since 1946. Seems that I remember the Carvin PSG being a cable style guitar like a Fender.
Their insruments and amps were and still are a good value. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 16 Apr 2007 9:56 am
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Carvin made pedal steels for about 10 years, big, heavy, clunky things, based loosely on the Fender design (with the wrap-around cast frame). Their changers were huge things, though, nowhere near as compact and light as the Fenders. (They used thick castings where the Fender parts were all sheet-metal.) The Carvins reminded me somewhat of the Domlands, except the Carvin, to my knowledge, never went to a non-cable design. Carvins were very cheap instruments, in their day, and I once even contemplated getting one, as it was the only new pedal steel I might afford. Instead, I stuck with my well-used Fender 1000.
Like the Domlands, they were interesting, from a historical standpoint, but never acquired any real collector value. |
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Clyde Mattocks
From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 16 Apr 2007 10:58 am
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| I had a music store call me last year and ask if I was interested in buying a double eight Carvin pedal steel for $800. Back in the 50's, they ran ads in Country Song Roundup magazine selling parts to build your own steel (non pedal). |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 16 Apr 2007 10:45 pm
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| I'm pretty sure Chuck Wright had a hand in designing Carvin pedal steels. Some of the early Sierras are very similar and have matching parts and features. |
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Roger Shackelton
From:
MINNESOTA (deceased)
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Posted 17 Apr 2007 12:36 am
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| Carvin sold their changers too. I believe an 8 string changer sold for $80 & a 10 string changer sold for $100. They may have been double raise and double lower.??? |
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Quesney Gibbs
From:
Anniston, AL
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Posted 17 Apr 2007 4:39 am Carvin
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In the seventies the first pedal steel I had was a Carvin Double Neck eight. As I remember it was just fine for someone just starting out on pedals but I soon moved on to a Fender 1000.I only have one photo of it.
I was doing a thing with Carl and Pearl Butler at the time (remember them). If I knew how to post the photo I would.
Ques |
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Larry Phleger
From:
DuBois, PA
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Posted 17 Apr 2007 10:17 am
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Back in the 70s I built a pedal steel using their pickups. I parted it out, but kept the pickup. Last year I built a 10 string lap steel, and used one of the pickups on it. IMHO, it sounds really good  |
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Gary Walker
From:
Morro Bay, CA
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Posted 17 Apr 2007 9:09 pm
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| Jussi, I agree with you. The early changers on the Carvin were quite similar to my '63 Wright Custom that I had. I never asked Chuck if he had a hand in it but assumed he had supplied parts for the Carvin. |
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Lee Jeffriess
From:
Vallejo California
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Posted 18 Apr 2007 10:16 am
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I have two Carvin ten string changers, they are definitly Wright custom.
Lee |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Alan Harrison
From:
Murfreesboro Tennessee, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2007 4:15 am My First Steel Was A Carvin
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In 1969, I ordered a single neck ten string from Carvin. It was a clear lacquer top like the one in the first picture.
At that time the factory or place it was built was in Escondido California and I was living in Camarillo California.
They called me when it was finished and I went down to pick it up.
They gave me a tour of the factory, where they built all the cabinets for amplifiers and speaker cabinets as well as where they built the electronics.
Barney Horn, a good friend and great steeler from the Oxnard area helped me set it up. I later traded it in to Larry Petre in Bakersfield for a D-10 ZB.
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Mullen (Black) Pre G-2 9x7, B.L. 705 PUP's, Evans SE 200 Telonics NEO 15-4, BJS Bar, Peterson Strobo Flip, Steelers Choice Seat, Folgers Coffee and Hilton Pedals.
"I Steel Without Remorse" |
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Hap Young
From:
Yuma, AZ, USA
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Posted 22 Jun 2007 6:58 am Carvin Guitars.
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| My first steel was a D 10 Carvin. It came with cables of which none were connected, and being a nubie I didnt have the faintest Idea how they were suposed to be hooked up. It also octived on the thirteenth fret so I sent it back for them to fix that problem. I paid 750.00 for the guitar (not sure what year that was, but it was a new guitar) I had it for about a year and traded it in for an MSA. I think Rees gave me 700.00 for the trade in. IMHO it wasnt much of a guitar. No knee levers. 8 on the floor.Was I happy to get the MSA. |
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