OPINION: Newer Charvels are not very good. Neither are SD JBs

BigGuitars

BigGuitars

Active member
I don't know what it is. I bought a 2020 charvel pro mod last year. Just the regular black HH San Dimas model. I've had it for 7 or 8 months now.

Idk, is this the neck everyone jizzes their pants over? Feels horrible to me. It feels bulky and awkward. It's so hard to play. It fights and fights and fights you. The profile of the back of the neck is awkward. I think the JB has alot to do with the guitar feeling like it's "fighting you", as it's just a overly-harsh, brittle sounding pickup to my ears. It's all bite and distortion, no body or smoothness that makes shredding a bit easier. But the issue is certainly not all due to the pickup. I think its just a tough guitar to play. Maybe it just doesn't agree with my hands. I've got a $180 cheap Kramer that feels better to play (to my hands) than this Charvel. When I do wide vibrato, the Kramer reacts so well, and sounds so good. The Charvel never rings out the sound the way you want it to. It's so unfortunate because I love the look of the Charvel. I so want it to be the best guitar I own, but I really can't deny it, I just can't stand it. How this guitar is regarded as some hot rodded shred machine is beyond me. It's is one ill-playing SOB.

Also, it's not like I don't know how to set action or setup a guitar. I know how to do all this. I think it's just a tough guitar to play. Does anyone else have this experience?
 
ive not played a new charvel but i know what you mean when you say fighting a guitar. i think sometimes peoples hands just dont match with certain necks, certain picking motions dont work with certain pickups, ect... combine a few of them together and it can be an unpleasant experience
 
^^^^ as said,some hands just dnt fit the guitar.I recently scored a couple custom select usa dk24s and they just kill it.
Fit,finish, feel,sound,is spot on with the big suhrs,TAs,etc.i haven't played any pro mods tho.here's my current fav, 20201228_234617.jpg
 
I will also say. I hate jumbo frets too. I cannot for the life of me slide up frets with my pinky finger because of how bulky they are and how much they're just a hurdle to jump over. Can't do those Demartini licks with the pinky finger. Maybe my pinky is just weak, but this guitar fights every signle step of the way. There's no moment when I go "Oh yeah! This guitar sound/plays so great!" It gives back NOTHING I put into it. Versus the little Kramer I mentioned. There one lick I love to do that's got nice wide 80s-like vibrato at the end and it just sounds sweet on the Kramer. The Charvel straight up REFUSES to do this lick. I could make my fingers bleed trying and it would still not ring out the sound I'm wanting to hear. It's just a frustrating and painful instrument to play. I hate it.
 
I’m not a fan of the new charvels and the blade switch. They seem like mass produced junk. I even had two new SC-1 Charvels. The first one was absolute junk and the second one was better, but just never sounded good.

I much prefer the thicker prepro necks that are .830 at the nut and .880 at the 12th fret. I’m addicted to the aged nitros. They just sound and feel great.

As for fret sizes, I have to have jumbo or bigger. I don’t like the fret board drag created when using small frets. I refretted my R8 LP and Strat with jumbos.
 
Before I bought my Jackson, I was looking for a "shredder" style guitar and tried out a couple of the newer Pro Mods as well as quite a few other guitars. I was not impressed at all, just felt like any old cheap mass produced guitar to me.
 
Yeah, they just don't have that "WOW" factor I thought they were supposed to have. Don't get me wrong, I suppose the quality is there. It holds tune perfectly, but it's just such a SOB to play. You know how some equipment (guitars/amps) almost feel like the go above and beyond to make your job easier? Well this guitar does the opposite. Unless I put my fingers/hands through literal pain to play everything perfect, it will sound/play like garbage. It's HARD to play! Not a fun or enjoyable experience.
 
I don't like the blade switch either. You don't put a blade switch on the world's flagship super strat. Wtf? Their guitars are starting to look increasingly less hot rodded and metal and more hipster and gay too IMO.
 
You might be onto something about JBs. I just returned a new LTD mostly because the stock pickup, a JB, sounded awful in that guitar. I've had the JB in probably a dozen different guitars, and while there's some variance with a guitar's sound, it more or less always sounds like a JB. In this guitar it was weirdly muddy on the low-end, where JBs are usually tight, and scratchy and hollow on the highs/upper mids. It almost sounded scooped, sort of like having the tone control down at all times but for some reason extended highs still came through. It could've been something in the wiring that got screwed up, or a faulty pickup, but I decided to return it rather than put any time/money into a brand new guitar. I've had plenty of LTDs that were flawless out of the box. This was the first lemon I've gotten from them.

I also returned a hardtail lower-end Charvel a couple years ago. It was fine, but was too thin in the neck and just didn't feel quality worth the $1k price.
 
japetus said:
It's like you have a girlfriend who won't have sex with you, and argues with you constantly, but you keep her around because she's smoking hot. At some point, you'll get fed up enough.
Click to expand...
Well, I've got EXTREMELY conservative views on women and sex, so that analogy doesn't really mean much to me. :LOL:

But seriously, I understand why people would say sell it. Maybe it's just this particular Charvel? I'm not sure, but I think the radius of the fretboard, the wide string spacing, the awkward neck profile, and the shrill, lifeless sounding pickup are it's main issues. The Kramer necks are better IMO. They are narrower and just easier to play. The one I've got has smaller frets, which makes sliding easier. It's just a cheapo guitar and doesn't hold tune for shit. I really wish this Charvel had a normal strat neck width, regular frets, and 12" radius all the way up the fretboard. I think it would be getting much closer to a profile I like.
 
Don't let this video skew your perception. It took everything I had in me to play this. Plus I was using an amp sim that was a bit more..."forgiving"? It doesn't do this easily or regularly.
 
That's a lot of money for a bolt on neck..
To me a set or neck thru construction is a real instrument. A guitar that has a neck attached with wood screws is just cheap to me..
Sure I've had bolt ons, but time moves on and new things come along.
 
The MiMs I’ve tried have felt like a cheap copy of the the two 08/09 USAs I own. That said, the neck profile should be identical between all of them so clearly you aren’t a fan of those necks.
 
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