Charvel vs Axis

[the rossness]

I've always been into two style guitars. One is the Charvel Promods since their relaunch in 2008 and the other are your EVH style guitars- at the top of that heap is the EBMM. I've played them all and that guitar rules! Having said that, a Charvel Promod is an EXCEPTIONAL value! I've used them as a base for experimenting with different pickups and pots and tremolos. The've been a great test best for me. With my last build, a red MIJ Socal, I finally nailed the tone I've been hearing in my head all these years. I put a Dean Baker Act pickup in the bridge and a Dimarzio Area 67' in the neck. And the guitar just wails! I think I'm in love with this pickup, the DMT Baker Act. Its a cross between an Axis/ Fred/ JB pickup. Its compressed but not. Big and ballsy and has grind. High output that sounds great distorted but that's really it. to get it to clean up, I need to combine it with the neck pickup which gives it some added treble and lowers the output slightly. But what it does do, it gives notes and chords clarity. Where the Axis is compressed, the DMT is big and open.

But that brings me to the EBMM Axis. Its my #1 guitar. I love the neck1 The PU's sound awesome and I really have no complaints. And its the best of the EVH models, Fender and Peavey included.

I recently sold one of my charvels and I want to replace it with something cool. I can do another promod or another axis and I dunno. The Charvel really is a test bed for me. But with my last build, I nailed it and don't want to change a thing. So maybe I get a different body wood and mess with the neck PU, but the Baker Act is a total keeper! But then for a few hundred more is the Axis, and its nearly perfect! But as someone who likes to tinker, I don't really need to change anything with the Axis. Its the most perfect stock guitar I've ever played. Decisions decisions.

How are the mexican promods? I've only owned the USA and MIJ versions.

 

[harddriver]

I wanted to love my old 2001 axis and I did play it alot but I eventually grew to dislike the 10" radius neck, it just felt cramped and I don't have big hands either. I prefer my old Kramer 12" radius necks. The new Charvel MIM San Dimas neck is 12"-16" compound radius and is also very nice, it has rolled neck and fret edges like an EBMM axis neck that make it very comfortable. I thought I would not adapt to the D shape but I have, it is not a super thinl D shape like an Ibanez neck, I could never bond with the Ibanez I had years ago. I always thought Charvel necks were big round C shaped profiles maybe the old ones were, I have never played a vintage 80's era charvel.

The 2016 MIM San Dimas I have is kind of a D shaped neck profile which is comfortable considering I like C shaped necks. The axis is more a C shaped asymmetrical profile. I also like the resonance of the Charvel alder body to the Axis basswood resonance, the maple cap helps but basswood is soft and I feel is a slightly less resonant tonewood but YMMV. I picked my 2016 MIM Promod up in a trade and I have grown to really like it when compared to my old axis(which has been sold for some time) and my old Kramers. My old Kramer's are my#1 go to players but I can rip around on the Charvel equally as well comfortably and I enjoy playing it. It has pickup splitting with the 59 and JB pickups, you almost can't build a warmoth or musikraft for the Charvel MIM prices.

Maybe hit a GC that has a MIM Charvel and EBMM axis and do a shootout.