Carvin Ac30

[paulo]

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/ms ... 31386.html

[markcv]

Weird. Not your fault Paulo but I thought that was an AC40... did Carvin make an old model called the AC30?

[Matt R.]

Are these good basses? I've always wanted to grab one of these and rip the frets out.

[bhunt1]

There are a couple of demos of them on youtube. Carvin has a fretless 5 string AC 50 in their guitars in stock section - jet black unlined fretless but w dreaded gold hardware:

http://www.carvinguitars.com/guitars-in-stock/114552

[markcv]

Funny, I was checking out some of those demos. It seems they're just average people demoing their basses. Unfortunately, I haven't seen or heard one yet that seems to do the basses justice. Have you Brian?

[MCS4]

I used to have a fretless AC40 and loved it. Surprisingly fat tone. I played it live regularly in a loud hard rock band, although never as my main bass. I'd have kept it, except I eventually decided that I needed to buy backup fretted bass and couldn't afford both.

If this one were fretless I'd probably have already bought it.

[bhunt1]

I have not seen great demos on these. They are interesting though

[gravesbass]

That's an AC40.... UNLESS the 2 treble 2 bass side = AC30. I had a fretless AC40 a few years back. It was 2 treble 2 bass side tuners like this. That fretless was a great bass and played wonderfully. You could even hear it acoustically.

As far as a AC50 with a B string, I don't think you'll really be able to hear the B unless its amplified. the E was a little thin in the volume to begin with.
--> My 2 cents...

[MCS4]

That's an AC40.... UNLESS the 2 treble 2 bass side = AC30. I had a fretless AC40 a few years back. It was 2 treble 2 bass side tuners like this. That fretless was a great bass and played wonderfully. You could even hear it acoustically.

As far as a AC50 with a B string, I don't think you'll really be able to hear the B unless its amplified. the E was a little thin in the volume to begin with.
--> My 2 cents...

I'm pretty sure "AC30" is a typo. The two-by-two headstock is an option on most all Carvin four-string basses, so it doesn't have anything to do with the model number.

Also, Carvin's website itself says the AC40/AC50 is not intended to be played acoustically, but rather is designed as a more ideal way get an "acoustic bass tone" while amplified to gig volume. So yeah, it is unlikely that you'll get a ton of volume out of a low B string without amplification.