Opinions and quality of Charvel Pro Mod San Dimas HS??

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timeroo

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I know there's some serious Charvel fans in here and I was looking at a guitar and thought I would ask about it.

What's the story on the Charvel Pro Mod San Dimas HS? Worth $800 or so?

Is it a versatile guitar? Give me the info! I would in theory be swapping out the bridge pickup for something hotter.
 
I had one but it was refurbished/factory second. It was as light as a feather, I could grasp the neck by the headstock and hold it horizontally with one hand with little effort. The body wood did not sound great either, somewhat muddy and ill-defined, probably a lot of pieces glued together there. Otherwise, it was a good banger, you can find them used for less than that. It was nice having a hard tail for a change.
These MIM Charvels vary greatly from guitar to guitar so you just have to try many and find a good one for you.

The new ones they just showed at NAMM for 2016 are HH with the hard tail.
 
nigelpkay":xi3usp7t said:
I had one but it was refurbished/factory second. It was as light as a feather, I could grasp the neck by the headstock and hold it horizontally with one hand with little effort. The body wood did not sound great either, somewhat muddy and ill-defined, probably a lot of pieces glued together there. Otherwise, it was a good banger, you can find them used for less than that. It was nice having a hard tail for a change.
These MIM Charvels vary greatly from guitar to guitar so you just have to try many and find a good one for you.

The new ones they just showed at NAMM for 2016 are HH with the hard tail.
Click to expand...
That's been my limited experience with the MIM Charvels. The older USA, MIJ, and of course custom shops have been much better IMO.
 
I bought one of the newer San Dimas models, the necks are crazy fast but I have to echo the thoughts from the other guys by saying that the MIM Charvel stuff is very hit and miss. I went to a shop and played 7-8 of them before I bought one. For the dime, they're a great guitar though. Also as mentioned, it's nice to play a San Dimas without having to dick around with a Floyd.
 
I guess I've been pretty lucky in that I really haven't found a turd yet. The only issues I ever ran into were on a few MIJ that needed a neck shim to get the action low enough while not having the Floyd on the deck. I had a few USA models with huge variations in resonance too, but none that I would consider "bad" - just different. I've had a couple MIM, and they were pretty consistent. The necks on the MIJ were my fave. Rolled ledges and huge frets - almost a scalloped feel. Loved it!
 
I have one of these models. Like others have mentioned it is really light and feels a little on the cheap side. Tone is middle of the road, it doesn't suck but not killer either. Got mine for $449 with the Charvel case (had a chip out of it near the strap button-no biggie). At that price I'm pretty happy with it but wouldn't pay the $700+ price (without case) that they typically go for unless it sounded & felt a lot better than the one I got. I have a Mexican San Dimas model with the Floyd and really like it. Plays great, sounds great. Not a ton different than my Japanese model or my US models, just some slight differences.
 
I just got a DeMartini Pro Mod last weekend. I like how it plays, and the neck feels fantastic. Neck quality is great, too. Can't complain about a 1 piece quartersawn maple neck. The DeMartini is 99.999% spec'd out to what I was going to have a local luthier build for me anyway (but deal ended up falling through). Honestly I think the price is high for a MIM, but for the features and playability it's a good compromise on what a local build would have cost me.

A good friend of mine has an older USA San Dimas, and next time he brings it over I'll be able to have a more fair comparison of the two.

Here's mine

20160122_165716_zpse0snbf6i.jpg
 
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