Michele Witts' Collection
WWW:
http://www.myspace.com/michlkwitz
Carvin Museum Forums ID: Michie

This is a beautiful collection of contemporary Carvin guitars, with some great tops and lots of features.  Definitely a collection to be proud of!

Fist up is Michele's 2003 AE185.  It has a stunning figured walnut top , with a tung-oiled mahogany neck and body and birdseye maple fingerboard.  Electronics consist of zebra C22 pickups with coil splitters and phase switching.

Michele says:

"I was no stranger to Carvin when I ordered my first custom in 2003. My first electric guitar was a used Carvin DC200 I bought from a friend in '89, which I later sold to finance something far inferior. I regretted that decision for many years, until I finally saved enough money for my AE185, a guitar I'd been coveting since it's first appearance in the catalog. Funny thing, for years I'd been planning on a flamed koa top with an ebony fretboard - that is until I saw a DC127 in the catalog with a figured walnut top and birdseye maple fretboard. Sold! I hope one day to manage to take a picture that will do this beauty justice. The top is absolutely amazing! This guitar has the old thinner neck profile and 15" fretboard radius. I replaced the original C22T in the bridge with a C22B and replaced the black plastic truss rod cover with a cheap maple one I got off of eBay. I'm going to get one that matches the fretboard better and have it engraved with her name - 'Sable On Blond'."

Next is this 2004 TL60, finished in Carvin's retro Seafoam Green on swamp ash with a tung-oiled maple neck.  It's got chrome hardware, and a maple fingerboard.

Michele says:

"A year and a half after my first custom build, I was ready for my second. One of my color choices, Baby Blue, had just been discontinued, and being worried about the future of Seafoam Green, since you just don't see many Carvins in that color, I had to pull the trigger. As luck would have it, I ordered just in time to get the new neck profile and very short-lived compound radius fretboard, which is a sheer joy to play. Although I did love the sound of the C22s, they didn't have the jangle I was looking for in this guitar. I saw the GFS Dream 180s and thought they looked cool, so I gave them a try -- on the clean channel they jangle for days; turn up the gain and these things will peel the paint off the walls! Exactly what I was looking for! Other mods were the pearl-topped chrome knobs, white pearl Sperzel pegheads and the white pearloid truss rod cover, soon to be engraved with the name 'Venus Envy'."

This is Michele 's latest addition - a 2006 Holdsworth HF2 she picked up at the Hollywood store in January of 2007.  It's a real looker, with a cherry sunburst finish on quilted maple.  Like her other guitars, this one has a very nice birdseye maple fingerboard.  Additionally, this one has an unusual control layout for a Holdsworth, with phase switching and coil splitters - not unheard of, but not that common.  It's also equipped with cream H22 pickups with cream bezels and gold hardware.