Any one have the new Charvel San Dimas? How do you like it?

[gbsmusic]

I've found a store that has a few of these on clearence and I played one Sunday and really liked the way it played. I just want to know if you have one how do you like it? I ask because if I take it home the sale is final. Let me know any likes or dislikes about the guitar. I'm about 90% sure I'm going to pick one up today, but just want opinions. Thanks for any input!

 

[Digital Jams]

Owned one for a year, best guitar for the money if buying new imo. I have the So-Cal and changed the bridge pup to a SD distortion and changed the switch, I did not like the way it felt. Neck just gets better as time goes on.

 

[gkinsingapore]

Played one, was tempted....a great fun guitar that screamed to be played with 2 hands.

Wasn't a fan of either pickup but especially the neck pickup.

By the time I factored new pickups in to the price it was no longer a great bargain so it stayed in the store......

 

[luxxtone]

Got a So-Cal.....fantastic guitar, especially for the price. Changed out the pickups and put a brass trem block in and it was ready to go! Probably one of the best playing guitars I own.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Owned one for a year, best guitar for the money if buying new imo. I have the So-Cal and changed the bridge pup to a SD distortion and changed the switch, I did not like the way it felt. Neck just gets better as time goes on.

If the Atlas is as nice as it looks and as solid as Mark says it is, then they give you a heck of a lot more for the money than Charvel does. The Charvels need a pickup swap right off the bat IMHO.

 

[glpg80]

call me crazy on this, but i dont like them.

i own a 1989 charvel that sounds 20x better and is worth 1/3 of the value. everyone around me that plays the new charvels loves them but i didnt like the way it felt OR the quality of sound.

i even brought in my prestige to the store and tried them out back to back, and the prestige just blew it away on tone and feel. even had a guy compliment on the guitar itself.

just feel like im missing out on the new charvel party

 

[Gainfreak]

I love the feel of the New Charvels but I have to agree with glpg80. The limited ones that I have played haven't even come close to the Tone of my 1983 Charvel and others like it. Now that's not to say that they can't...It's just that I haven't found one yet!!
As far as bang for the Buck goes they are pretty hard to beat when you buy them used. Ive already seen a few go for as little as $600 and that was also with a pickup swap

 

[stratotone]

I have three. Great guitars for the money. My Andersons are better guitars by far, but listed at 3-4x the price. With that in mind, they give imho 85% of the performance for 25% of the $. Not bad at all.

Totally disagree with the guy who said his 89 Charvel was better... I've owned around 40 or so Charvel Jacksons from real san dimas Charvels to Jackson custom shops to every model of the Charvel japanese guitars (yes, even a model 88, 7 and 5fx). All three of the So Cals I have smoke the jap charvels. Especially in tone, the stock Jap Charvel pickups were the suck except for the J95s. If your '89 that sounded better had pickups swapped, then it wasn't a stock for stock comparison. My So Cals were ok when I got them, but after a good setup they were each great guitars. I could gig with any of the three I own with no problems. I don't even think they sound bad - my biggest gripe was the cheese-grater volume knob. And the cheapass pickguard.

As far as an '83 vs the So Cal - yeah, we're debating a USA made guitar that is 25+ years old versus a new one. I'd hope the old one was better! The old SD Charvels were great instruments that varied a bit - I've never played two with the same neck profile, they varied a bit. Unfortunately a lot were built with those damned Kahlers... most of the floyd ones I've seen started life as strat style trems and were modded.

lastly, regarding the Atlas guitars - they look great, but I'm holding judgement until I play one. The problem I've seen with most import guitars is that the wood generally sucks... I have had some Ibanez guitars that played great and were built well, but the wood underneath was absolute crap.

Pete

 

[glpg80]

I have three. Great guitars for the money. My Andersons are better guitars by far, but listed at 3-4x the price. With that in mind, they give imho 85% of the performance for 25% of the $. Not bad at all.

Totally disagree with the guy who said his 89 Charvel was better... I've owned around 40 or so Charvel Jacksons from real san dimas Charvels to Jackson custom shops to every model of the Charvel japanese guitars (yes, even a model 88, 7 and 5fx). All three of the So Cals I have smoke the jap charvels. Especially in tone, the stock Jap Charvel pickups were the suck except for the J95s. If your '89 that sounded better had pickups swapped, then it wasn't a stock for stock comparison.

lastly, regarding the Atlas guitars - they look great, but I'm holding judgement until I play one.

Pete

to be honest i dont care if it is a stock for stock comparison. from where i come from respect for your own property and other people's property is just being polite. tone is just to subjective to be saying any guitar smokes anyone elses, regardless if you owned one simillar or not. for one, you havent played or even heard this one. this one guitar im holding onto can hang with equal amounts of other guitars and i dare say an ESP M-II is close if not equal in tone to this one. but never will i say my guitar is better than yours, regardless if i owned one like it. i find it hard to believe you can telepathically compare a guitar i have spent alot of hard work on to three of your own guitars regardless of price. i compared the san dimas' charvels to store quality and store setups. but even then the guitar itself lacked. i had high expectations for when they came out but just wasntfeeling it. still, i refuse to say any guitar is better than anyone elses. here is an example.

how do i know you dont have three of those awsome models that just have "it?"

glad you like them yourself but dont say they are better than someone elses personal guitar. especially without playing it. i have alot of hard-work both wood and electrical invested in this guitar in hopes to make it everything its supposed to be and it came out amazing. i have more work to do, but it will only make it better than what it already is. looking back, even the $3,000 ibanez jem i previously owned couldnt hang with it even before the work i did on the guitar. in general price has nothing to do with this. i respect every person's view and refuse to diss anyone elses guitars because again, tone is just too subjective. every person's hands are not the same. and i havent played yours just as you havent played mine. i judged the new charvels next to all my guitars if you want to get picky. i had high expectations in the new charvels and was very dissapointed. with that being said enjoy them. glad you find it an awsome guitar to invest

 

[thiswaythatway]

call me crazy on this, but i dont like them.

i own a 1989 charvel that sounds 20x better and is worth 1/3 of the value. everyone around me that plays the new charvels loves them but i didnt like the way it felt OR the quality of sound.

i even brought in my prestige to the store and tried them out back to back, and the prestige just blew it away on tone and feel. even had a guy compliment on the guitar itself.

just feel like im missing out on the new charvel party

+1. The one i owned sounded really weak and dull and it had the 500k volume pot. They can benefit from a pickup swap but for around the same price i think I'd rather go for a used Ernie Ball Axis.

 

[stratotone]

Ok, how about this:

In my opinion, formed by ownership of the above guitars, playing for 26+years, and being able to do work on my own guitars from minor setups up to and including refrets (which I hate and will gladly pay someone else to do) - I think the stock USA Charvel series are a better guitar than a Japanese charvel stock for stock. Especially the pickups. The old model series charvels (with the charvel guitar logos that had 6 in line tuner headstock) had those damnable JT6 trems and kahler behind the nut locks, that went out of tune left and right. The really old ones had *ugh* The newer 'toothpaste' charvels were an improvement as most had schaller trems and a correct floyd style locknut, but the pickups were still crap. I still own some old japanese charvels, and for the $ they are nice, but they aren't as good as the So Cals.

However, if you've reworked any guitar and customized it and compared that to a stock guitar, then you're changing the playing field by quite a bit. Wow, the guitar I customized TO MY SPECS/PREFERENCES is better than the new off the rack 'expensive' guitar. How unexpected!

The Three SoCals I have vary a bit in tone and playability, but even the 'worst' one plays well. All sound ok - could they sound better? Sure, but I don't like most stock pickups anyway. For comparison, I own two stock ESP M-IIs (and a very early ESP strat - SN#040x) and I don't think they sound amazing, either. Just a difference in opinion.

Oh, and before I'm blown off as a Charvel SoCal fanboy - I like my Anderson Drop top classic, Drop top and cobra better. Of my guitar collection, less than 10% are So Cals. I have no Charvel 'stake' in this, other than my opinion.

Pete

 

[stratotone]

+1. The one i owned sounded really weak and dull and it had the 500k volume pot. They can benefit from a pickup swap but for around the same price i think I'd rather go for a used Ernie Ball Axis.

I loved the tone of the Axis I had out of the box, but the frets were too small for my taste. There are a lot of good used guitar choices nowadays in the $600-$1k range.

Pete

 

[Digital Jams]

Ok, how about this:

In my opinion, formed by ownership of the above guitars, playing for 26+years, and being able to do work on my own guitars from minor setups up to and including refrets (which I hate and will gladly pay someone else to do) -

What are you trying to say here?






I like mine and dont have the time to be chasing the dragon as I am trying to figure out how to do yngwie 3 string sweeps better. It is plenty good enough for me

 

[projectx102]

It all depends on the guitar. I played daneyo's and I didn't care for it, but I think mine flat out rips. I bought from the first batch because I figured they would be the best...quality control, etc. Mine is also a two piece center seam body. Granted, I did change out the pickups... but i change pickups on all of my guitars. Do I think it is the bes guitar out there...nope, but I am happy with it. Besides, I got it new from a forum member for a LOT less than the listed retail price, so after the pickup change, I am still below retail

Put that Mr. Scary clip up dude.I dare someone with an "old" Charvel to match it in terms of tone.I'm not saying all the new ones are this good but you can definitely get a great one.Plus part of the fun of owning one of these is upgrading to better pickups,big brass block,D-Tuna etc.

 

[Chubtone]

First off I am a Charvel dealer and sell these new Charvels so you can take all this with a grain of salt. I've sold a ton of them to guys on Rig-Talk. I am also a long time Charvel San Dimas collector. I have owned or had my hands on anywhere from 80-100 of the original, real deal, "holy grail", San Dimas era Charvels. For some reason they even considered me enough of an expert to be interviewed for the Charvel book that came out several years ago.

Here's some guitars that have gone through my hands. Included in the pic is the black strat head that Rowan Robertson used to record Dio's "Lock Up The Wolves". The black/green/yellow hot rod flame in the front row belonged to George Lynch and he was pictured with it on the cover of the Rhino CD "Best of Dokken". The blood-splattered one in the middle row is THE infamous "Redrum" guitar that was very well known in Charvel circles.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know Charvels. I'm not the world's foremost Charvel expert, but I know them ok? I lived in LA in the 80's and I started hunting for the US ones in 1985 as soon as production went to Japan. I have played a ton of the Japanese Charvels. Some of them have been decent guitars.

These new production Charvels with a little set-up here, maybe a pickup swap there are killer guitars that I would defintely put up "Tone-wise" against any of the original San Dimas Charvels I have ever owned. I own two old ones and I own two new ones. I love the new ones once I have done a little massaging to them to make them my own. The same sort of things I did to all my original Charvels and one of the guys in this has done to his Japanese Charvel. I have NEVER found an off the rack guitar to be exactly what I like. I would never compare something off the rack to something I have played for years and years and made exactly what I want out of it. What I feel in these Charvels right off the rack is potential. Tons of potential. And yeah for about $1000 brand new I think a guitar having potential to be exactly what I want is just about the right price.

 

[projectx102]

First off I am a Charvel dealer and sell these new Charvels so you can take all this with a grain of salt. I've sold a ton of them to guys on Rig-Talk. I am also a long time Charvel San Dimas collector. I have owned or had my hands on anywhere from 80-100 of the original, real deal, "holy grail", San Dimas era Charvels. For some reason they even considered me enough of an expert to be interviewed for the Charvel book that came out several years ago.

Here's some guitars that have gone through my hands. Included in the pic is the black strat head that Rowan Robertson used to record Dio's "Lock Up The Wolves". The black/green/yellow hot rod flame in the front row belonged to George Lynch and he was pictured with it on the cover of the Rhino CD "Best of Dokken". The blood-splattered one in the middle row is THE infamous "Redrum" guitar that was very well known in Charvel circles.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know Charvels. I'm not the world's foremost Charvel expert, but I know them ok? I lived in LA in the 80's and I started hunting for the US ones in 1985 as soon as production went to Japan. I have played a ton of the Japanese Charvels. Some of them have been decent guitars.

These new production Charvels with a little set-up here, maybe a pickup swap there are killer guitars that I would defintely put up "Tone-wise" against any of the original San Dimas Charvels I have ever owned. I own two old ones and I own two new ones. I love the new ones once I have done a little massaging to them to make them my own. The same sort of things I did to all my original Charvels and one of the guys in this has done to his Japanese Charvel. I have NEVER found an off the rack guitar to be exactly what I like. I would never compare something off the rack to something I have played for years and years and made exactly what I want out of it. What I feel in these Charvels right off the rack is potential. Tons of potential. And yeah for about $1000 brand new I think a guitar having potential to be exactly what I want is just about the right price.

 

[Digital Jams]

First off I am a Charvel dealer and sell these new Charvels so you can take all this with a grain of salt. I've sold a ton of them to guys on Rig-Talk. I am also a long time Charvel San Dimas collector. I have owned or had my hands on anywhere from 80-100 of the original, real deal, "holy grail", San Dimas era Charvels. For some reason they even considered me enough of an expert to be interviewed for the Charvel book that came out several years ago.

Here's some guitars that have gone through my hands. Included in the pic is the black strat head that Rowan Robertson used to record Dio's "Lock Up The Wolves". The black/green/yellow hot rod flame in the front row belonged to George Lynch and he was pictured with it on the cover of the Rhino CD "Best of Dokken". The blood-splattered one in the middle row is THE infamous "Redrum" guitar that was very well known in Charvel circles.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know Charvels. I'm not the world's foremost Charvel expert, but I know them ok? I lived in LA in the 80's and I started hunting for the US ones in 1985 as soon as production went to Japan. I have played a ton of the Japanese Charvels. Some of them have been decent guitars.

These new production Charvels with a little set-up here, maybe a pickup swap there are killer guitars that I would defintely put up "Tone-wise" against any of the original San Dimas Charvels I have ever owned. I own two old ones and I own two new ones. I love the new ones once I have done a little massaging to them to make them my own. The same sort of things I did to all my original Charvels and one of the guys in this has done to his Japanese Charvel. I have NEVER found an off the rack guitar to be exactly what I like. I would never compare something off the rack to something I have played for years and years and made exactly what I want out of it. What I feel in these Charvels right off the rack is potential. Tons of potential. And yeah for about $1000 brand new I think a guitar having potential to be exactly what I want is just about the right price.

HOLY SHIT!

How come you never posted that pic before???

I agree with off the rack new guitars, it is very rare that I get one ready to go with zero things that needs to be done. The only guitars set up awesome out of the box were the 2 GMWs that I had made and my Hamer. Everything else something had to be done to get me to like it. You and George have done me quite well instead of some crackpot on the internet or mass store.

Ah Curt never fails to bring the good stuff to the table

 

[thenine]

First off I am a Charvel dealer and sell these new Charvels so you can take all this with a grain of salt. I've sold a ton of them to guys on Rig-Talk. I am also a long time Charvel San Dimas collector. I have owned or had my hands on anywhere from 80-100 of the original, real deal, "holy grail", San Dimas era Charvels. For some reason they even considered me enough of an expert to be interviewed for the Charvel book that came out several years ago.

Here's some guitars that have gone through my hands. Included in the pic is the black strat head that Rowan Robertson used to record Dio's "Lock Up The Wolves". The black/green/yellow hot rod flame in the front row belonged to George Lynch and he was pictured with it on the cover of the Rhino CD "Best of Dokken". The blood-splattered one in the middle row is THE infamous "Redrum" guitar that was very well known in Charvel circles.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know Charvels. I'm not the world's foremost Charvel expert, but I know them ok? I lived in LA in the 80's and I started hunting for the US ones in 1985 as soon as production went to Japan. I have played a ton of the Japanese Charvels. Some of them have been decent guitars.

These new production Charvels with a little set-up here, maybe a pickup swap there are killer guitars that I would defintely put up "Tone-wise" against any of the original San Dimas Charvels I have ever owned. I own two old ones and I own two new ones. I love the new ones once I have done a little massaging to them to make them my own. The same sort of things I did to all my original Charvels and one of the guys in this has done to his Japanese Charvel. I have NEVER found an off the rack guitar to be exactly what I like. I would never compare something off the rack to something I have played for years and years and made exactly what I want out of it. What I feel in these Charvels right off the rack is potential. Tons of potential. And yeah for about $1000 brand new I think a guitar having potential to be exactly what I want is just about the right price.

Good GAWD! I am drooling. What am awesome pic!

 

[Chubtone]

Put that Mr. Scary clip up dude.I dare someone with an "old" Charvel to match it in terms of tone.I'm not saying all the new ones are this good but you can definitely get a great one.Plus part of the fun of owning one of these is upgrading to better pickups,big brass block,D-Tuna etc.

Exactly man. My original Charvel has had probably 20 pickups in it over the years. It had a brass bridge. Then it's had 3 or 4 different Floyds on it.

It's funny a lot of guys say these guitars are ok but aren't really "good enough for them". Well, they are capable of this below. I'd say that they can cut it.


psychodave ripping and achieving great tone with his Charvel and a $30k amp rig:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j52t-a_o ... re=channel


and here is JMR the guitar teacher at my store doing a Bogner Fish demo for Tone Merchants. He's in a store surrounded by Suhrs and Tylers and instead chooses to play this "crappy" Charvel of his. Skip to about 5:30 in to here him bring the rock. Then a little later at the insistence of those around him, he switches to a Suhr Modern a guitar that store actually sells :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFRvPjN ... annel_page


And here's some hack named Chubtone fumbling, bumbling and stumbling his way around on a Charvel So Cal:

https://www.soundclick.com/util/getplaye ... 58212&q=hi


So yeah, all in all I'd say these guitars are junk and unplayable and crappy sounding and you should avoid them at all costs.

 

[Gainfreak]

First off I am a Charvel dealer and sell these new Charvels so you can take all this with a grain of salt. I've sold a ton of them to guys on Rig-Talk. I am also a long time Charvel San Dimas collector. I have owned or had my hands on anywhere from 80-100 of the original, real deal, "holy grail", San Dimas era Charvels. For some reason they even considered me enough of an expert to be interviewed for the Charvel book that came out several years ago.

Here's some guitars that have gone through my hands. Included in the pic is the black strat head that Rowan Robertson used to record Dio's "Lock Up The Wolves". The black/green/yellow hot rod flame in the front row belonged to George Lynch and he was pictured with it on the cover of the Rhino CD "Best of Dokken". The blood-splattered one in the middle row is THE infamous "Redrum" guitar that was very well known in Charvel circles.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know Charvels. I'm not the world's foremost Charvel expert, but I know them ok? I lived in LA in the 80's and I started hunting for the US ones in 1985 as soon as production went to Japan. I have played a ton of the Japanese Charvels. Some of them have been decent guitars.

These new production Charvels with a little set-up here, maybe a pickup swap there are killer guitars that I would defintely put up "Tone-wise" against any of the original San Dimas Charvels I have ever owned. I own two old ones and I own two new ones. I love the new ones once I have done a little massaging to them to make them my own. The same sort of things I did to all my original Charvels and one of the guys in this has done to his Japanese Charvel. I have NEVER found an off the rack guitar to be exactly what I like. I would never compare something off the rack to something I have played for years and years and made exactly what I want out of it. What I feel in these Charvels right off the rack is potential. Tons of potential. And yeah for about $1000 brand new I think a guitar having potential to be exactly what I want is just about the right price.

Which is the reason why I said I haven't found one yet!! I'm pretty sure I eventually will find one that is as good as my 83

With that said, The guitar 4th in from the right looks like mine only with a Maple neck!
Mine is a mutant and I had so many people offer me rediculous amounts of money for it