The company was founded in Southern California in 1946 as the L. C. Kiesel Company. Around 1948, it moved to Baldwin Park, California in 1949, where the company name was changed to Carvin, from Kiesel's two eldest sons, Carson and Gavin. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, Carvin manufactured guitars and bass guitars, largely from bodies and necks made by Höfner. Carvin developed its own niche in the musical instrument world in the 1980s by offering guitars and basses built to a customer's specifications, based on available body shapes, woods, colors, electronics and other features.