I'd love to have a PRS Santana III, but there's no way I would pay three grand. I've been toying with the idea of buying something and putting the Santana pickups in it. I've been leaning toward doing this on a Carvin California Carved Top. My budget would be around $1500. Does anyone have any ideas, or is this just a waste of time?
I'm with ya on the concept. I think you would be doing a disservice to the Carvin by trying to "make it" a PRS... My two suggestions...
#1 - take a PRS SE flametop and upgrade the tuners, electronics, bridge, and pickups with those on the Santana. You'll save yourself $750 over the Carvin option and you'll actually be close to the Santana.
#2 - get the Carvin CT6 designed FOR YOU and swap out the Carvin pups with Gibsons or Duncans. The Carvin CT6 is an amazing guitar by itself.
-=- Steve
"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"
Great advice, thank you. Please allow me to pick your brain a little more.
Regarding option #1, would it still be worth my while in terms of price if I paid a tech to do all of the work you suggested? I wouldn't trust myself to work on it. What do you think that would run me?
Regarding option #2, if I have a CT6 built, should I forgo the coil tapping option, or could I have the pickups swapped out without any further work?
Hi there...
Well, the PRS SE flametop is $499 new, and the hardware upgrade are probably $100 (when you sell the old stuff that came with the guitar) and the pickups are $200. You could swap everything out yourself, but if you wanted a pro to do it I'm thinking you could get the upgrades and the setup done for $150. So... 500+100+200+150 = $950. If you use ebay to buy/sell the stuff, you could get away with $700 total, easy.
On the Carvin. I'd do the coil taps and everything if they could do it without the switches. If they could built with the push-pull pots to mask the tapping (and avoid having little switches on the guitar) I'd do that, and whatever pups you decide to upgrade to (or even keep the Carvins) will have the ability to be coil-tapped, so no worries. Plus, with the Carvin you can get the tremolo as a Wilkinson trem unit, which I think is superior to the PRS tremolo. A custom CT6 will run you $1400 - 1600.
Another option would be to pick up a used PRS CE for $900 and upgrade the pups to the Santana pups. Then you have a USA PRS, with the beautiful top, and PRS Santana pickups.
-=- Steve
"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"
Great. Thanks for your time.
They sure make nice looking guitars. I haven't heard one in person, but Joe Walsh sure makes it sound sweet on the Carvin DVD.
Here is your Carvin with a Floyd Rose - $1200
-=- Steve
"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"
Are the carvin a decent guitar? My problem is here in australia we dont have alot of these guitars to try out etc, I mean where I come from in australia
Are the carvin a decent guitar? My problem is here in australia we dont have alot of these guitars to try out etc, I mean where I come from in australia
Since Carvin is online shopping only, it's hard for most of us to play one in advance, even in the US. However, a lot of people like the Carvins, and they keep selling them...
I have a Carvin CT-6, it's a great guitar.
Regarding option #2, if I have a CT6 built, should I forgo the coil tapping option, or could I have the pickups swapped out without any further work?
First of all, I think the pickups on the CT6 are excellent. You can play them for a while and see how you like them. If you want to understand how exactly you should have it built so that you can easily replace the pickups, I suggest you go over to the forums on the carvin website and ask. There are some serious Carvin fans there who can guide you on every option available, including a variety of "unlisted" options.
(For example, there are colors that are not on the website, but available by request.)
--vink
"Life is either an adventure or nothing" -- Helen Keller
Thank you for the tips. :)
