[brutusbuck45]

For those with a good sense of color and design... would you consider a Carvin equivalent color match to Wolf to be 'Vintage Yellow", "Umber Stain" or "Clear Quilt"? I am having a difficult time deciding which one... The time is drawing near.

Thanks.

~Brut

Wolf


Vintage Yellow


Umber Stain


Clear Quilt

[milobender]

If I'm not mistaken, the Wolf photo is a pretty recent one... do you have a good photo from when Wolf was first made? The color may well have changed with age... but, given the choices, I'd go with the Vintage Yellow or the Clear... however, to my eye it looks like the maple Carvin is using is more towards the 'white' side, rather than the 'golden' side, so for the 'instantaneous gratification' I love so much, I'd go with the Vintage Yellow... it's a stain trying to capture the naturally aged look... as you probably don't really want to wait to almost 40 years for the natural golden color to mature

Brian

[brutusbuck45]

Thanks, milobender. That is a good point about the aged-ness of the finish. I see from your thread, you are of similar mindset. So what "tone" will your finish be, original or aged?

[jdsmodulus]

I like the VIntage Yellow.

[milobender]

My favorite is to use Boiled Linseed Oil first... it brings out the golds a bit and makes everything 'warm'... but you have to let the oil dry for a good long time before applying the final finish... weeks of drying (if not a month) depending on your climate etc... I don't mind stains that are blue, red, green etc... but for a natural look, I prefer the oil and finish. I never cared much for the golds/yellows I've tried. I use the cutouts for finish experiments. The current quilted Wolf Inspired project looks a bit dark, compared to the light maple in the neck, so I'll try one piece skipping the oil, and see if it's gold enough without it; try to lighten it just a bit.

Brian

[brutusbuck45]

+

I like the VIntage Yellow.

Thanks, JD. Was leaning there myself. I have been scanning the galleries at Carvin's site and some tops look darker (or lighter) with the Vintage Yellow. It may just be the luck of the top (whatever is selected for this build).

[brutusbuck45]

My favorite is to use Boiled Linseed Oil first... it brings out the golds a bit and makes everything 'warm'... but you have to let the oil dry for a good long time before applying the final finish... weeks of drying (if not a month) depending on your climate etc... I don't mind stains that are blue, red, green etc... but for a natural look, I prefer the oil and finish. I never cared much for the golds/yellows I've tried. I use the cutouts for finish experiments. The current quilted Wolf Inspired project looks a bit dark, compared to the light maple in the neck, so I'll try one piece skipping the oil, and see if it's gold enough without it; try to lighten it just a bit.

Brian

Well... I have to say that I love the warm tone that you showed in the cutout pic. Will applying the gloss finish bring out some of the natural yellow/gold?

[milobender]

It's really hard to tell how much gold is in the wood before you apply the finish... you can use alcohol or solvent and get a pretty good idea though. I'm sure there is a fair amount of variation in Carvin's final products. Each piece is unique. And it seems the white maple is easier and cheaper to get than the gold maple, so for production stuff like this, I'm sure they go for the cheapest they can get, within reason of course... I've never heard anything really 'bad' about Carvin, and I've heard plenty of good things said.

The gloss finish doesn't really change the color much (if it's a clear finish "o); it deepens the color a bit, but mostly just creates the illusion of depth, and brings out the contrast and detail of the grain.

Brian

[JonnyBoy]

I like the vintage! i think that's a nice color. Are you doing this yourself?

[gr8fulbluz]

I think the vintage yellow is supposed to look slightly different under different light, like when on television, maybe TV yellow I dunno?
look at this yellow quilted bass>> tiger like?
vintage yellow Bass

Send them a picture example or any other info as an example. That is what i did. I wanted a darker green and I pointed to an example in the catalog and it was exactly like the picture i wanted from the catalog.

here is my greeny flame top
new and in the case green

good luck

Edit: from a Wiki on Gibson les paul' about TV yellow . . . "in 1955, Gibson launched the Les Paul TV model[15], which was essentially a Junior with what Gibson called a natural finish. This finish was actually more of a translucent mustard yellow through which the wood grain could be seen, and was not unlike the finish that competitor Fender called butterscotch yellow. The idea behind this TV Yellow was that white guitars would glare too much on early black and white television broadcasts, whereas TV Yellow guitars would not cast a glare"

[brutusbuck45]

Actually, I placed the order last week for a DC-127. I chose the Walnut body with clear gloss finish with a 5 piece maple/walnut neck. It sort of has an MC feel to it. While that is a good look and I thought that is what I wanted, I have been thinking about it often over the weekend and feel like maybe a made a mistake in my choice (personally). So, by biting the $50 bullet (order change fee), I am going to try to make the change if the build progress will still allow it. The order was just placed last week and Carvin is a 8-10 week build cycle right now; business must be good. If I can make still make the change today I am going for it.

That's probably what I will do, gr8tful. Email them a Wolf pic to try to get close to a color match on it. They definitely do vary from build to build, it appears.

Thanks for your input, y'all. Carvin doesn't have a "rendering" tool to view your creation. So I made a few renderings using MSPaint. They aren't perfect but they give an idea of what they might look like.

dc127_Walnut.jpg

dc127m-vintyellowquilt_TH.jpg

[brutusbuck45]

Just called Carvin... too late to make a change. I'm not totally disappointed. I didn't dislike what I initially chose. But if I could still have made the change, I would have. Thanks again to all for your input.

[gr8fulbluz]

Wow I like the racing strips. The walnut is a good choice, should have nice tone. I have often thought I should have gotten walnut. Like the DC400cw But i was happy with the result of my Dc127.

They used to have a renderer.

I think ya still have 10days to return it after delivery, if it is at all wrong for you.

[Pete B.]

fwiw, Having had two Carvins with only two humbuckers (with split coils), my reccomendation would be to get one with the three pickup option (a single coil in the middle position).

[brutusbuck45]

Hey Pete... trust me that was a huge struggle of a decision, as well. That is the DC-145. I selected the 127 because it was the only way that I would be able to purchase the Active option. I considered the 145 with two coil splits and a phase switch. I also considered the 135 which has the H-S-S setup with a coil split. In the end I thought that I could get more tonal options from the 127 setup. But you say the 145 with the AC11 single in the middle would have been the best choice?