That Carvin is beautiful. Isn't the 100 a Kiesel? I play bass and only play Jacksons now (with super-high action) I love the new Jacksons n switched from Schecter, but Schecters practically play themselves they're so smooth. I remember the old Carvin ads with Craig Chaquico (a very under-rated player) in GPM and Guitar World. I have Scarified tattooed on my arm btw lol
Well, yes, Carvin is Kiesel, Kiesel is Carvin, there was a split in the family a while back, one brother and his family went with Carvin amps, the other brother(and his son Jeff) went with Carvin guitars, they changed the name of the brand back too their surname(Which was the original name of the brand back in it's inception) a little while ago.
Hands down, best custom shop in the world. Dozens of options, so many categories, can get any color scheme you want, chrome, black or gold hardware to compliment it, various headstock shapes, pretty much any body and neck wood combo, save Basswood(but I have three Ibby's already with that) they do 5 and 7 piece necks, they give yu a choice of 10-12-14 or even 20 inch radius in some cases, any finish you want, they have a bunch of base models that go for around a grand or so starting out and then you click on their guitar builder option to the right and you're in a land of possibilities.
I've played Ibanez guitars most of my life as a musician, but, after I get my first Kiesel, judging how I like them(and given how much I've looked into their specs and how their guitars are basically designed for fast, technical and ease of playing) I see myself sticking with them for the rest of my life.
I like Schecters aswell, played a 7 string Damien once, felt great. Wouldn't mind having a Blackjack SLS one day, gotta try that Sustainiac pickup.
I like Jackson's aswell, I've always had a thing for the Kelly KE2 and the RR1(although, V shapes aren't my thing anymore). Only problem is, their cucstom shop is crazy expensive and their USA made guitars are more expensive than a pretty spec'd out Kiesel, so I might look at Ran Custom Guitars to build me a Kelly shape with my own custom features, judging on the price. I've heard their guitars are great and that they're very affordable aswell.
Funny thing about Jackson is, about a year and a half ago I took a look at their custom shop and thought I'd get a custom Kelly. After I realized the insane price(6K for the kind of build I was looking at, you can get a Kiesel for 2500-3K with the kind options I was looking at) I decided too take a look at other custom shops, remembered Kiesel/Carvin had one and the rest is history.