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Every guitar has a story.

Carvin

Holdsworth

The guitar Allan Holdsworth couldn’t order, until Carvin built it: a flat board, a fat neck, hollow inside.

After the Gibson merger, Allan Holdsworth can’t get through to Steinberger, the company that makes the headless guitars he loves. Bill DeLap builds him wooden ones by hand. Then Bunny Brunel brings over a Carvin bass.

Introduced
1996
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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Allan Holdsworth playing a black headless Carvin guitar on stage
Photo: Chrisparks / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Allan Holdsworth with headless Carvin; CARVIN script on body.

The short version

  1. 1985

    The other signature

    Ibanez’s AH10, bolt-on basswood from Japan. Not this guitar.

  2. 1989

    “The most significant development”

    That’s what he calls the Steinberger.

  3. 1993

    Work starts

    As Mark Kiesel remembers it.

  4. 1996

    H1 and H2

    Chambered alder, a 20-inch board, and a small headstock. Fall catalog only. The H2 lists at $859.

  5. 1999

    The Fatboy

    2⅜ inches deep, and he names it. One account says 1998.

  6. 2012

    Headless

    The HH1 and HH2, under 5.5 pounds. The release itself carries a 2011 dateline.

  7. 2015

    Kiesel

    The guitars leave Carvin for Kiesel. Same model, new logo.

  8. 2017

    Vista

    He dies at home in April, at 70.

Side A

A1

A guitar he couldn’t order

Allan Holdsworth had found the guitar he wanted, and then lost access to it.

In 1989 he called the Steinberger “the most significant development in the last fifty years.” After the Gibson merger, he had trouble getting through to the company at all. So Bill DeLap built him headless guitars out of wood, on Steinberger hardware, with the fingerboards flattened.

The flat board was the point. “I like the neck to be absolutely straight,” he said. Most fingerboards curve across the width, so chords sit comfortably in the hand. Holdsworth played wide, stretched legato lines across all six strings, and he wanted the board flat under them.

What he didn’t have was a wood guitar a company could just build him.

A2

Twenty inches, and new tooling

Then Bunny Brunel brought over a Carvin bass. By 1996 Holdsworth said he had “just recently” switched. None Too Soon, from that time, is mainly Steinbergers. The switch came after.

Mark Kiesel remembers the work starting in 1993. Nearly everything on the Carvin line got changed for him. Alder instead of their poplar. A chamber inside. A fatter neck, for tone and feel. 24 frets. A 25½-inch scale, where the other Carvins were 25. And a 20-inch radius where the others were 14, which meant new tooling. The pickup was new too, the H22, wound with plain-enamel wire.

It came out in 1996, Carvin’s 50th-anniversary year, as the H1 with one pickup and the H2 with two. Set alder neck, ebony board, one volume, one tone, and a compact headstock. It made the fall catalog only, with the H2 at $859.

Nearly everything on the Carvin line got changed for one player.

Yes, it had a headstock. The headless one was still sixteen years off.

A3

Put your hand right through it

The H was a solid guitar hollowed out under a cap. In 1999 came something hollower: a top and a back, 2⅜ inches deep against the H’s 1¾, with a maple neck and birch top and back. Two I-beams run inside it, and the top touches wood only behind the bridge. “I could put your hand right through it,” Holdsworth said. One account puts it at 1998. Mark Kiesel says “in 99 or just before.” He named it the Fatboy.

He explained what the hollow does. It “slows down some of the attack; it doesn’t slow down the initial attack. It slows down everything else.” That’s the thing to listen for in his playing from these years: the front of the note arrives on time, and the rest of it takes its time.

Around the release of The Sixteen Men of Tain, he put himself on the Carvin about 80 percent of the time, and a Steinberger the other 20.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 20″

    Fingerboard radius. The other Carvins were 14″, so it needed new tooling.

  • 80%

    How often he said he played the Carvin around the turn of the century. A Steinberger got the rest.

  • 2⅜″

    Depth of the Fatboy. The H was 1¾″.

  • $859

    List price of the H2 in the fall 1996 catalog.

Side B

B1

Headless, finally

In 2012 Carvin gave him what the DeLaps had been: a compact H2 or Fatboy with no headstock, one he could simply order. He had played it on the road first. The HH1 has only a bridge pickup, which he’d long favored. The HH2 has two. Chambered alder, a white birch top, under 5.5 pounds.

He didn’t want stainless frets at first. Mark built him a guitar with them anyway, and he kept it.

Put the neck pickup over a hollow and the bridge pickup on solid wood, and he heard the difference: “it’s more dynamic… it’s snappier and quicker.”

In 2015 the guitars left Carvin for a new company, Kiesel. Same model, new logo. The strap button still sits off the horn, where he wanted it.

B2

You’ll never want to go back

Allan Holdsworth died at home in Vista, California, in April 2017. He was 70. One account says Saturday the 15th, of a heart attack. Others say he was found Sunday the 16th. His last listed show was April 10, at Ten Twenty Prime in San Marcos. Nobody wrote down which guitar was on the strap.

Kiesel still builds the HH2.

Days before he died, he put it plainly: “Once you play a headless guitar, you get used to the fact that there is no headstock. You’ll never want to play a regular guitar again.”

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • Allan Holdsworth

    Carvin H2, Fatboy, and HH headless

    Co-designed all three. Wanted the neck “absolutely straight.”

  • Mark Kiesel

    The builder

    Remembers the work starting in 1993. Built him a stainless-fret one he didn’t think he wanted, and he kept it.

  • Bunny Brunel

    A Carvin bass

    Brought it over, and Holdsworth switched soon after.

  • Bill DeLap

    Wood headless guitars on Steinberger hardware

    What Holdsworth played when he couldn’t get through to Steinberger. The Carvin headless was built to answer them.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Holdsworth’s Carvin, not his Ibanez or his Steinberger: a 20-inch board and a chamber, headed in 1996 and headless from 2012.

Body
Chambered alder, plain maple top. Headless. 31" long, 1.75" thick, 11" wide
Neck
Set, tung-oiled maple; two-way truss; dual carbon-fiber rods. 0.82" at the 1st fret, 0.94" at the 12th
Fingerboard
Ebony, 20" radius, 24 stainless medium-jumbo (.103" × .048"), white pearl dots
Scale
25.5"
Pickups
Two bezel-mount passive Kiesel Holdsworth humbuckers
Hardware
Hipshot fixed bridge, .4125" (10.5mm) spacing; black. Mix flagged
Electronics
Master volume, master tone, 3-way mini switch
Finish
Custom. No single catalog color. Hardware black on the current sheet
Nut
1.69" wide. Material not on the current sheet
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current production typical = Kiesel Allan Holdsworth Signature, 6-string HH2, read 28 September 2026. Same page: prose says chambering is optional and about 5.75 lb; the table says chambered alder and 6 lb. Keep both. Not the 1996 H1/H2, not the 1999 Fatboy, not the 2012 birch-top HH. HH1 is one pickup. HH2X is the tremolo. HF2S is the 2009 MIDI Fatboy. Mix flagged: the bridge line is the only place this sheet prints millimetres, .4125" (10.5mm). MusicRadar’s 2012 review is millimetres throughout. Do not convert one into the other.

Construction

The job was a wood guitar he could not order: a straight neck, a fat profile, and a chamber that still let a distorted note be quiet.

He had already called a Steinberger “the most significant development in the last fifty years” (Guitar World, 1989). Guitar Shop, 1995: after the Gibson merger he had trouble getting through to them, so Bill DeLap built wood headless guitars on Steinberger hardware, boards flattened. TCG interview: “I like the neck to be absolutely straight.” That preference is this 20" board.

The first Carvin still had a headstock. Guitar Techniques, 1996: None Too Soon was mainly Steinbergers; he had “just recently” switched, after Bunny Brunel brought over a Carvin bass. Mark Kiesel, 6 August 2024: work from 1993, as he remembers it, guitar out in 1996. Alder instead of their poplar. A chamber. A fatter neck, for tone and feel. 24 frets. 25½", where the other Carvins were 25". A 20" radius against their 14", which meant new tooling. Plain-enamel pickups, no micronics: the H22. The current sheet says Kiesel Holdsworth humbuckers and does not say the wind is the same.

1996. H1 and H2. Museum: probably the significant new guitar of the 50th-anniversary year. Chambered alder, alder set neck so the body could be chambered, ebony, compact 2×4 headstock, one volume, one tone. H1 one H22, H2 a pair. Tune-o-matic and stopbar; Wilkinson optional. Fall catalog only that year. H1 $809 / $879 with trem, H2 $859 / $929. In 1997 the H2 base fell to $769. List price, not 2026 street. On Carvin’s film the H is a hollowed solid with a cap. The Fatboy is a top and a back: “I could put your hand right through it.” Two I-beams. The top touches wood only behind the bridge.

1999. Fatboy, HF1 and HF2. Same outline, 2⅜" against 1¾", maple neck instead of alder, birch top and back. Harmony Central, 17 April 1999, also says alder under the birch. Mark: “in 99 or just before,” and Holdsworth named it. The Guitar Column says the HF2 arrived in 1998. Keep all three; this plate uses 1999. Catalog: HF1 $849, HF2 $899. Harmony Central’s lists are $1,799 and $1,949. Do not average. Museum, 2003: H2 $879, HF2 $979. 2009: the HF2S adds the SH575’s MIDI. Not this table.

2012. Headless. A compact H2/Fatboy he could order, after the DeLaps. Premier’s release is dated 4 January 2012 and prints “4 January 2011” in the dateline. Museum year-page and Winter NAMM say 2012. Keep the printed 2011. HH1 is bridge-only. The Guitar Column calls that his long favorite. HH2 is two pickups. Chambered alder, white birch top, Eastern hard-rock maple, under 5.5 lb, 25.5", 20", nickel-silver medium-jumbo on the release. He didn’t want stainless at first; Mark built one; he kept it. JCustom hardtail, double-ball strings; XS-Trem optional. MusicRadar, 9 October 2012, on the review guitar: 785mm end to end, 648mm scale, 44mm thick, nut 42.8mm, neck 21.3 / 24.7mm, 22 poles per H22. Vintage Guitar: 11 poles per coil, base $1,199, tested $1,703, “just a hair over five pounds.” Mix flagged. Those millimetres are not this table.

Two quotes, two guitars. Kiesel’s page, 2013, neck pickup in a hollow and bridge pickup on solid wood: “it's more dynamic… it's snappier and quicker.” The Fatboy film, 4 June 2024: a hollower guitar “slows down some of the attack; it doesn't slow down the initial attack. It slows down everything else.”

2015. Guitars left Carvin for Kiesel, Escondido (San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 January 2015). Same model, new logo. The table is the guitar they sell now: maple top, not birch; carbon rods; Hipshot, not JCustom; the humbucker no longer named H22. Prose: optional chambering, about 5.75 lb. Table: chambered, 6 lb. A 10" or 14" board on a used one is an option. Strap button off the horn, where he wanted it.

The Fatboy returned as a 2024 limited run. Kiesel, 4 June 2024: orders closed. Mark, 6 August: reissued a few months earlier, selling. Bigfoot lists serial 171142 as a 2025 Fatboy; the woods on that card are not the 1999 birch recipe. One order, not an open page.

The Ibanez AH10 (1985–87, Japan, bolt-on basswood, 22 frets, 17" radius) is the other signature. Not ibanez-jem. Not a Steinberger, a DeLap, or the SynthAxe on Flat Tire.

Players

One signature, one player. Vai’s amps, Gambale, Becker’s JB, Walsh’s carved-top: other Carvins. Not this guitar.

Allan Holdsworth (Bradford, 6 August 1946) co-designed it. Guitar World (6 April 2025) keeps the earlier ones off this plate: Strat, SG, Strat again, Charvel, Ibanez by the mid-’80s, Steinberger by the late ’80s. The AH10 is that Ibanez. None Too Soon is the Steinberger record. In the archived TCG interview, with The Sixteen Men of Tain as the new CD, he put himself on the Carvin about 80% of the time and a Steinberger the other 20%. Wikipedia’s Tain personnel (late 1999, out March 2000) credit guitar and SynthAxe. Not a track sheet for an H2.

Premier, January 2012: Carvin sold the headless after he had played it on the road. Guitar World, days before he died at 70: “Once you play a headless guitar, you get used to the fact that there is no headstock. You’ll never want to play a regular guitar again.” Kiesel’s page has a shorter, undated line: “once you get used to playing a headless guitar, it's really hard to go back.” Two wordings.

He died at home in Vista. New York Times, 18 April 2017: Saturday the 15th, heart attack, via former manager Leonardo Pavkovic. Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune: found Sunday the 16th. Last stand the Union-Tribune names: 10 April 2017, Ten Twenty Prime, San Marcos. The guitar on the strap is not named.

Kiesel still builds the HH2. No second player is pinned to this model in the sources read here.

Rarity

You can order a new HH2. On 28 September 2026 the 6-string variant was marked available for sale. Custom shop, not a numbered run. Not rare the way a first-year Strat is rare.

No H, HF, or HH total has been published. Wikipedia’s “almost 4,000 custom made instruments per year” is the whole company after the split, not this model. None invented. A serial dates a guitar. It doesn’t count a year.

Thinner, without a census: a Fall 1996 H1. The 2024 Fatboy reissue, orders closed 4 June 2024, edition size unpublished. His own guitars, if one is documented, are single objects. They are not a used HH2.

Value

Informal estimate, 28 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask versus sold, labeled. Catalog figures are old money. No factory count and no invented median. A signed pick or a memorabilia lot is not a comp for the guitar.

New street. Kiesel’s product data, 6-string HH2, SKU HH2: $2,099, available for sale (28 September 2026). Options move it. In-stock serial 167502 was $2,299 (from $2,399), soft case, sold out — one built guitar, not the base. No open Fatboy price. Period lists live in Construction (1996 H2 $859; 1999 catalog HF2 $899 against Harmony Central’s $1,949; Vintage Guitar HH2 $1,199 / $1,703 tested; MusicRadar 9 October 2012 £1,426 and $2,599 on one review). Old money. Do not average them, and do not turn the pounds into dollars.

Used modern. Clean 2024–26 solds are thin. Flag: thin sold-comp access. Reverb’s Poland guide for “Allan Holdsworth Signature 6” shows two orders, 27 February 2025 and 5 April 2026, in zloty only, and says the estimate is drawn from US sales. Not converted here. Named asks, not hammers: a 2021 natural HH2, excellent, $1,700. A red-flame Fatboy, excellent, $1,749, listed about eight days before this plate. Blue Book’s Reverb feed, also asks: a 2026 pink/black-crackle HH2 $2,200; a 2017 clear-gloss HH2 $2,100. Don’t average those with a 1996 H2.

Older solds, not a 2026 band. A 2017 deep-honeyburst HH2, serial 135470, excellent, sold at $1,400; the listing was about seven years old when read. A 2023 guitar the seller calls an HH1 — the title says HH2 — delivered 18 August 2023, sold at $1,500. A racing-green HH2 that sold at $1,299 had Lithium pickups, not the Holdsworth pair. Not a comp.

Vintage / collectible. No separate published guide band. Nineties H2s and Fatboys trade as used American customs. Blue Book’s feed, asks not solds: a 1996 H2 $2,220; a 1997 ruby-red H2 $1,699; a 2005 HF2 $2,250. An HF2S is the MIDI guitar. Price it on its own. His personal instruments are not a market level until one of them has a published hammer. None captured here.

See also

  • steinberger-gl — the graphite headless on None Too Soon; not this wood Carvin
  • strandberg-boden — another current headless solidbody; a different neck and a different job
  • gibson-sg — an earlier Holdsworth guitar, “reputedly” his favourite when the Ibanez AH10 was reviewed in 1985; not this signature

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.