The Baker Brother's Collection

Here is an incredible collection of guitars and basses, owned by brothers Collin & Perry Baker.  In addition to the excellent pictures, Collin sent detailed descriptions of each instrument.  He says:

Perry and Collin Baker have been musicians since their early teens, and over the decades have owned a wide variety of gear from guitars, basses, and associated amplification to keyboards, outboard gear, and professional recording equipment. Originally bassists in rock bands, they now primarily record music in their own in home studios while maintaining careers as a professional sound reinforcement engineer (Perry) and semiconductor engineer and part-time recording engineer (Collin).

Perry's DC400TA (above and below)
Perry’s first Carvin guitar was a DC400 that sounded amazing, but the guitar had problems returning to pitch after any use of the vibrato. Several returns to Carvin failed to resolve the problem. Perry finally drove from N. Hollywood to Escondido with the guitar to consult with the factory techs and found this DC400AT in the showroom. It was love at first sight (and listen) and arrangements were made to trade the troublesome DC400 for this Anniversary model. Owing to Perry’s trouble with the first guitar, he was able to negotiate the upgrade for little more then he paid for the original DC400. To date he considers this the finest guitar he has ever owned and it is his main recording guitar. A couple years later the neck needed adjustment, but the wrench provided with the guitar didn’t fit the truss rod. Perry had never seen the end of a truss rod that looked like this one. So he went to the Santa Ana store to get the correct wrench and was told he already had the correct wrench. .The problem was that the end of the truss rod was broken off. How, when, where? Nobody knows. The guitar was sent to the factory for repair, where not only was the truss rod replaced and the neck steam heated to straighten it perfectly, but Carvin even re-crowned the worn frets so that neck was as good as new and polished out some finish scratches on the body. All at no cost to Perry.

Collin's LB76F (left and below)
This is a mid-90’s fretless LB76F, black on black, with the fret-line inlays, H50N’s and the midrange knob option. This bass was originally purchased used by Perry for $600. He found the neck was too large (or rather his fingers too short) and his playing intonation on fretless not up to his standards, so he decided to sell it. Having always wanted a fretless bass I decided to buy it, and I’ve had it ever since about 1999. However, I agree with Perry that it is a relatively hard instrument to play well or maybe we’re just not good enough! Still, the active electronics and midrange/contour pot give the instrument a wide variety of sounds, plus it’s a rock-solid Carvin.

Perry's LB75 (below)
Having liked the sound of the black LB76 he sold to me, Perry then bought a new LB75 that was very similar. This bass is a fretted 5 string with the tung-oiled neck, but otherwise the same as his previous LB76F. He says this bass can do it all, and has no need for another bass in his collection.

Collin's TL60 (above, left and below)
This was the first Carvin guitar I bought new. I stopped into the San Diego factory to take a look at what they had, and after playing every guitar in the showroom several times, I found I really liked the way this guitar played and sounded. Since I was buying two guitars at once (see "The Green Monster”), I was able to get Carvin to knock off even more $’s from the showroom prices. I still favor this guitar most in my collection perhaps because I spent so much time picking it out. It’s a regular TL60 w/ maple fretboard and DC127 electronics (passive), C22’s w/ splitters, and gold H/W, with the interesting Cherryburst finish.

Perry's Bolt (below)
I bought this guitar for Perry in 1999 at the same time as my TL60. He already had his DC400TA, so I think the bolt-on-neck with the single coil pickups had him wondering if this was a worthy instrument. The translucent green finish, which some like and some don’t, earned the label "The Green Monster”, which has stuck. Perry initially used it as a platform for a Roland GR-30 guitar synth system, which he bought to replace a stolen Roland GS700 guitar synthesizer. While the newer Roland tracked much better Perry didn’t really like the sounds - instead he found he preferring the natural pickups of the guitar, and today appreciates the contrasting tonal qualities these have compared to his DC400TA.

Collin's Bolt-T (left and below)
I worked in a small office with a few other guys that played guitar, and everyone started bringing in a guitar to have handy. I had a trip to Orange Country to pick up a new car for my wife, and since I was in the area I stopped into the Santa Ana store to buy myself a bolt-kit to use as my office guitar. I guess you could call it a sympathy gift to myself! The guitar is the standard kit with Wilkinson bridge, and bridge humbucker & pearloid pickguard upgrades. I completed the guitar with a simple tung oil finish. I figure it’s a stealth guitar, as it has no name on the headstock it doesn’t look valuable, yet it plays better than any Strat I’ve ever picked up. Plus the AP11 single coil pickups sound sweet, much better than a split humbucker.

Collin's DC127C (above, left and below)
Well, since I was already in the Santa Ana store buying a bolt-kit for the office, I had to check out what else was hanging on the wall. This DC127C was marked down and had a further red-tag mark down on it. As I prefer maple fretboards, this guitar really stuck out. Since Joel Kiesel was trying to close up the store (I got there just before closing), I didn’t spend a lot of time checking out the guitar, but as he was already ringing up the bolt-kit purchase and some other stuff I told him I’d buy it if he threw in the case and knocked off another $50 --- which he did ($700 for guitar & case). As you can see, it has a lot of good stuff: flamed maple blueburst, flamed maple headstock, gold H/W, original Floyd Rose, M22’s w/ splitters, rounded body sides, maple fretboard, no inlays. However, when I got home (400 miles later that evening) I found Joel had given me a left-handed whammy bar, plus I was having problems playing the 1st string cleanly, it kept flopping off the fretboard. After playing the guitar off and on for a couple of years, I finally got frustrated enough to proclaim: a) this guitar wasn’t going to stay in tune if I used the whammy, and it was because of nut hangup b) my playing issues had to do with string location over the neck, i.e. the 1st string was located right at the edge of the neck. After calling the factory we arranged to get the guitar back to the shop manager to be looked at. They agreed with my concerns, and disassembled the guitar, relocated the bridge, touched up the paint, rebuffed the entire guitar, put on a locking nut, reassembled with new strings, replaced the lefty whammy with a righty whammy, and shipped the guitar back to me. My total cost was just for the locking nut, about $40. The guitar now plays great, though I still don’t especially like the Floyd Rose bridge. And the story is another example of Carvin standing behind its product.

Collin's DC127T (right and below)
I purchased this guitar on eBay in 2005, my guess is it is a 2000 2002 vintage, in showroom condition. It’s a fairly standard DC127T with the mahogany body and two piece mahogany neck option, tobacco sunburst, gold H/W, C22’s w/ coil splitters. The mahogany body does make it sound darker than either of my DC127T or TL60.


In addition to their Carvin’s, the Baker brothers have the following in their collection:

Perry: Rickenbacker 330-12 in Sunburst w/R tailpiece; Danelectro U-2, Gibson Chet Atkins CE, Tayor 610 acoustic, Washburn (unknown model)

Collin: Yamaha BB1000S 3 piece neck-through-body 4 string bass; Ovation Breadwinner w/ DiMarzio PAF’s; Martin DM acoustic 6 string


Honorable Mentions

B3000 Perry’s (the first Carvin experience for the Bakers)
Perry bought this head new in 1973 or 1974, and still going strong 30+ years later. The only update has been a 3 prong (dedicated ground) power cord.

FH950 Collin’s (see 1976 photo below)
I bought these new in 1976 as the showroom demo pair at a deep discount (they were discontinued in favor of the single EV 18” FH980). A W-style folded horn with 2 15” speakers, but the generic units Carvin supplied. I sold them a few years later in favor of custom-made boxes w/ JBL’s. These were big and loud, but not particularly accurate, especially at very low frequencies probably because of the relatively lightweight 15’s in them.

DC150 Collin’s
I bought my first Carvin guitar via the Recycler (newspaper) for $300, and it was in perfect condition.  I sold it to my band ("Hypnosis”) guitarist several years later. I should have bought it back from him when he sold it, but I didn’t have the money.

SX100 Perry’s
Perry bought this amp used in the early 80’s. He sold to a friend of mine, and wishes he had it back!