Good ole' Carvin. Made in the USA. 24 frets, ebony fretboard, Wilkinson tremolo. C22N and C22B, volume, tone, 3 way toggle switch. Mini toggles for coil tapping. Sperzel locking tuners. Sweet mahogany neck with Tung-oil finish. I also had a mahogany body model with a reverse headstock. Very fast. This guitar is built to burn.

The neck has a GREAT feel. Overall "C" shape neck... not super thin like an Ibanez Wizard... but every bit as fast. Maybe with even a greater range of control for serious bends.. more thumb pivot. Access to upper frets is without parallel. Smooth as butter and prices that compete with imports. Very balanced instrument.. comfortable weight distribution for long sets. This guitar does get a nice sound right out of the box, but I did change the bridge pickup out. More in "Sounds"

This guitar should be able to suit anyone's style except for maybe die-hard Jazz guys. (and gals ) It can pull off ANYTHING. Funk, Metal, Blues, Hard rock, etc. Perfect for studio use. It CAN do jazz as well... make no mistake! It just may not suit someone who lives for that semi hollow body sound. You can achieve loads of styles, and the coil taps increase your options greatly. Really decent single coil approximations... not exactly Strat-like.. but close enough.. maybe even brighter! I needed a guitar that had a little hotter bridge pickup, and the C22 would have to be my least favorite aspect of this guitar. Not a great pickup. Not horrible... but a bit lifeless and low output.. hard to describe. The M22T pickup from Carvin is great.. don't know why they came up with this thing. Anyway... switched it out for a Seymour Duncan JB (which coil taps on a mahogany bodied guitar very, very well.) and had much more gain. The C22N pickup is nice... I guess they are trying to get a 50's guitar sound. Not sure it was a success, but the neck pickup was worth keeping. Taps nicely.. and responds to cleans extremely well. Distortions..mmm.. well, certainly good enough. Quiet. Not super fat with a lot of distortion, but it can hang.
Hard to pick a favorite sound.. the cleans are very nice.. but with the JB... it definitely lends itself to shredding.

Made in Japan, 22 frets (no fret markers...just side dots. Nice look!), maple neck, rosewood fretboard. Proprietary Yamaha piezo tremolo.. very smooth with great tone. A mix between an AM Strat and Wilkinson trem. Blend controls as well as tone and volume. Flamed maple top on alder body. Sweet. Sperzel locking tuners. Seymour Duncan JB and 59' pickups stock. Sculpted bolt on neck heel. I don't know what else you could ask of a normal electric guitar.

Neck feels GREAT. Very playable... playability of an Ibanez, with a bit more slight "C" shape profile. Love it. Great neck heel...easy,easy access to upper registers. Body weight is less than my Strat. Very manageable.

Heavy music is what I play in general, but I do like playing blues,funk,acoustic... this guitar can pull it all off. Smoking incendiary tones are where it excels, however. Nice balanced hi gain when I run it through my Voodoo Labs Preamp... with a Digitech GSP2101 running effects and parametric e.q., and a Keeley TS9 in front.. I get some decent proximity of Eric Johnson's early tones... (back when he wanted to rip and played with distortion).. fuzzy, but focused.. with a singing roundness to my notes. Honest.. this was the last guitar I expected to pull off that type of tone.
My favorite tones are thru the JB with high gain. Very rewarding.. the 59' is a bit muddy and unfocused..not crazy about it, but it is decent for soloing as well if I need a flubby Yngwie-ish tone. The piezo is great for cleans, chicken' picken' and live approximations of acoustic stuff. I am thinking of throwing in a new neck pickup.. but the JB in the bridge STAYS.

USA made Strat.. 22 frets.. 2001 model. 2 point fulcrum tremolo. 3 single coil pickups.."Deltatone" I think.. switched out the bridge for an HS-3... GREAT for lead.. but I will review the original pickup... which is very nice.. biting.. good single coil tone. 1 volume, 2 tone controls.. C shaped neck.. very sweet playability.

Very easy playing neck. Like a glove. There are better necks out there (Ernie Ball Musicman. Sooo simple, but unmatched.) but.. not being a huge Strat fan previously.. this was a really nice surprise.
Note access is good. I have had Ibanez, Carvin.. great bolt on and neck thru body guitars.. their access was better (obviously) but... this makes up for it in vibe. Just stretch that pinky!
Classic design. Ergonomic.. but even though there are certainly more balanced and ergonomic guitars... the vibe compensates!
Natural classic tones right out of the case. This is the guitar you have heard on thousands of albums.

I play heavy music... with the stock pickup... Mmmm.. I could certainly get heavy sounds, but they were accompanied by 60 cycle hum. I switched the bridge out with a Dimarzio HS-3 (Yes, kiddies.. I DID a review on it) which has served me quite well for balanced, noiseless hi gain tones. If you are using this guitar for medium gain or clean stuff... I would keep the original bridge pickup. Functions better with the middle pickup (sweeter) and certainly has much more character than the HS-3.. I just needed something upon which I could heap gain and get metal tones. The stock bridge is great for up to medium gain stuff... The mid and neck pickup stock are quite sweet. Relatively quiet for singles, and do their job... which is deliver sweet Strat tone. I got this guitar for 600 bucks... and honestly (and this is sacrilege.. lol) I like it more overall.. tonewise and comfort/playability than my 2500 Les Paul. (Don't shoot me) Using it thru a Voodoo Lab preamp, Digitech GSP2101 for effects.. Carvin T100 poweramp. Eminence Cannabis Rex cabinets.
Favorite tones are hi gain (with HS-3) BUT I liked my hi gain tone with the original bridge as well.. truly.. a lot! The tones I still like with the stock p/u's are cleans. They reveal the complexity of tone available here.. I used to think "I would only buy either a Deluxe American or a cheapo Squier".. I thought everything in-between was not worth it. I consider myself proven wrong. Got a great piece of wood on this one.. and I would be heartbroken if I lost this guitar. "9" for solid, classic vibe, great tones, look and feel. Olympic white. Jimi would approve.

This is a 21-fret, standard vibrato bridge, maple neck/rosewood fretboard Fender Stratocaster -- but one with a humbucker. As you may expect this series is made in Mexico. The controls are the same as usual: one general volume knob, two tone controls (one for each of the single coil mics) and a 5-position selector which allows to combine the mics (from top to bottom: neck pickup only, neck+middle, middle pickup, middle+split humbucker, humbucker alone).

The presence of a humbucker makes this guitar suitable for many more styles than a "normal", three-single coils Strat -- don't expect the stock humbuckers to lead you through metal/thrash though.

This is a well-made Stratocaster so as far as playibility is concerned I think this says it all... The SSH configuration brings polyvalence, so finding a suitable sound is easy, just tweak the tone knobs a little while and here you go -- too bad the humbucker originally doesn't have a tone control...
Some people will tell you that a Strat with standard vibrato just can't be kept in tune: do NOT believe them, if you take your time and tune it properly then these variations will hardly be noticeable at all.

First of all let me tell you that the fact this guitar has a rosewood fretboard DOES matter. I once A/B-ed it with a 1991 US Fender Strat with a maple fretboard and guess what -- I preferred the sound that this cheap Mexican provided (both through my SansAmp GT2 and a friend's Marshall Valvestate). Even in using only the single coils, this guitar provides smooth mediums but can also deliver darker sounds, while a "classical" Strat will always keep that brilliance in sound that has made the legend of the model -- but which makes it less suitable for modern distorted rhythm sounds.
I wanted a guitar that could do the job for a variety of rock styles including blues, pop-rock, hard rock and (mostly) alternative/grunge rock. Even with the original configuration this guitar was well suited to my expectations. Then, I had the idea to have the humbucker (which was a bit too bright-sounding for me) changed for a Seymour Duncan SH-4 (the Jeff Beck one) and connected to a tone knob -- now the guitar sounds even better and metal sounds are no longer out of reach (provided you have what it takes). I mostly play power-chords rhythm so I also changed the strings for 10-52s.

I usually play it through several distorsion stompboxes and a Small Clone chorus into a SansAmp GT-2 & ISP Decimator noisegate, then direct to the mixer (yes, I use no "real" amp, and so what?), and I definitely LOVE the way it sounds. I can get from Clapton to Nirvana or even more "modern" metal sounds with no real effort, and the sustain is more than acceptable (hey, don't expect miracles though, this is a Strat, not a Les Paul!).

The single coils are noisy (as usual) but provide a very mellow sound (especially the one in the neck position) which will get you through the most beautiful sounding and/or country-like ballads -- a compressor, a chorus, a good reverb and here you go!

As said earlier the stock humbucker sounded a bit too bright to me, but it really is usable for vintage hard rock. With the proper mics installed on it I can hardly think of a style on which this guitar couldn't take, by the way...