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My first Carvin guitar was a brand-new 1985 V220T; clear maple with a Kahler Pro tremolo. In the 20+ years I've been
playing Carvins I've previously owned three V220's. Two were bought new but were stolen (they can be seen in Bundy's Photo Gallery on this website), and the third was purchased used and I made the mistake of selling it at a time when I thinned
the herd to purchase another Carvin. Lesson learned--- never sell Carvin guitars, make arrangements to acquire more!
Enter Carvin V220T number four...
It is a 1989 V220T I bought used. Sadly, it was in poor shape and I went to great lengths to restore it to a stageworthy
condition. It has several custom options that were added to the guitar before it left the factory. For one, the Pearl
Blue color is a custom paint job. Next, the inline headstock shown here was only offered in that shape in 1988-89 and
was not the stock V220 headstock. Mother-of-Pearl block inlays are also a beautiful extra. Last but not least, this V220 has
a phase switch which was not standard on any model V220 during its 5-year production run. It also happens to be an obvious
neck-through; all previous V220 models were set-neck.
When I received this guitar, every screw was either the wrong one or stripped out. The control cavity was a mess of mismatched
pots and switches, and there was about 2 feet of electrical tape holding wires together. One of the mounting screws for the
Kahler Pro tremolo was snapped off inside the body, and the rollers were locked up. The truss rod nut was stripped and non-functional,
and the frets had massive wear and dents. Although it had a new set of Grover locking tuners (those are not stock and never
appeared on Carvin's production guitars), the screws holding the tuners were not tight or even installed properly.
I took every damn part and piece I could off of this guitar and started over.
I soaked the Kahler trem in WD-40 for a day or two and then cleaned it up and freed all jammed mechanisms. I installed
a completely new Carvin pickup set (C22B and C22N) and all new pots and switches. I bought a new Kahler Deluxe stringlock
and nut. Having no experience with frets I turned the guitar over to a local luthier with the intention of a re-fret
job. Luckily he was able to redress the frets to a playable condition and also replace the stripped truss rod nut with a Fender
Bullet-type nut.
Here's a pic of the V220T after my new electronics were installed:
Upon getting it back from the luthier's shop I intonated it for Eb tuning with a 10-46 gauge string set, and set the
action as low as I could without audible fret buzz. I had a few issues with the tuning stability due to a bum set of D'Addario
strings (not my preferred brand, but I'll use them in a pinch if they are all that is available) but am happy to report that
this guitar is now stable and ready for the stage!
As the V220 was once my "Ultimate Weapon," my main stage guitar, this V220 is poised to become a staple of my arsenal
and will definitely be getting some time in the spotlight very soon. It has been over 10 years since I've wielded a V220 on
a Rock and Roll stage and now the time has come once again for Hell and sonic mayhem to break loose...
Click the "SoundClick" banner below to hear this 1989 V220T and 1988 X100B amp!
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