Generally, a very round radius such as 7.25 inches is associated with vintage instruments, and flatter radii above 12 inches with modern design. Secondly: вЂfretboard radius.вЂ™ This is referring to how rounded the guitarвЂ™s fretboard is вЂ“ imagine the вЂboard continuing on either side, forming a cylinder with the stated radius. Keep this in mind as you look for your first guitar. However, if youвЂ™ve got larger hands, a super-thin neck can, counter-intuitively, be rather uncomfortable as thereвЂ™s not enough material to grip on to. Often, guitars with thinner necks are viewed as more approachable for beginners, especially younger players. Firstly, вЂneck profileвЂ™: this refers to the shape and thickness of the guitarвЂ™s neck. Other guitar makers (including Fender) should take note of what Carvin offers for such an affordable cost.ДЄll in all, the Carvin Bolt-T is an amazing guitar for the cost, especially if you can find a used one.YouвЂ™ll see some key terms come up in this list, and they might throw you for a loop if youвЂ™re new to the world of guitar, so letвЂ™s clear them up. We opted for numerous upgrades (including a flamed maple top), and the guitar was still less than a grand (shipping included).

The Carvin Bolt-T is a great playing and sounding guitar, but its ultimate feature might just be the cost. Amazingly, the Bolt-T was tuned to concert pitch and wholly playable when we took it out of the box, which is hard to believe! The guitar was shipped in a solid ABS case that is durable despite its lightness. Like all Carvin guitars we've ever played, the Bolt-T was smooth, fast, and silky. The guitar's 25.5' scale and 15' radius felt extremely comfortable, and the necks tung oil finish was super smooth and added to the playability. Carvin necks are some of the finest in the industry, and the Bolt-T is no exception. We ordered our Bolt-T with an ebony fingerboard and 22 medium-jumbo stainless steel necks. When you add the fine Wilkinson bridge and the locking tuners with the Graphtech nut, you've got a recipe for perfect tuning! Adding the optional Sperzel locking tuners didn't hurt the tuning, as you'd expect. We tried as hard as we could, but we couldn't make the Wilkinson tremolo to go out of tune, even with some extreme 'Van Halen' whammy work. So, the variety of sounds available on the Carvin Bolt-T are wide and helpful. There's also an extra mini-toggle that splits the bridge humbucker into single-coil mode. The instrument includes a mini-toggle that lets you to bring in the bridge pickup in positions four and five, something not usually found on a 'real' Strat. Regarding the layout of the electronics, our Bolt-T has a master volume and tone control along with a standard 5-way switch. We also replaced the hardtail bridge with a Wilkinson vibrato. We kept the single coils in the neck and middle positions, just to keep some of the sounds truly Strat-like. We decided on a black pickguard and a humbucker in the bridge position. With our custom Bolt-T, we chose an alder body with a flamed maple top. The Carvin Bolt and Bolt-T are just like other Carvin guitars (except for the Cobalt acoustic) in that they are available with literally thousands of different configurations due to the various options of hardware, pickups, wood, and colors. Since everybody and their grandmother offers a Strat-style guitar, the question then becomes, what does Carvin add to the market? As you'll see soon, they add quite a bit! Though Carvin is usually celebrated for their set-neck models, they remind us that they used to make bolt-on neck guitars several decades ago, so the design is nothing new for the mail-order only company.

The Carvin Bolt is the California music company's submission into the customizable 'Super-Strat' market.

Carvin guitars with bolt on necks