Charvel USA Production Model Series

[Charvel Rocker]

It seems like...

To me I've tried several string.
GHS ate into my frets with in a few months....on a New Les Paul I was pissed.
D/A's are okay but lose their sound to easy...to me in MO.
E/B's I've had better luck with them and started using them ever since I bought my Ernie Ball Axis....but like I said that MO ONLY...

[ADR]

I already changed my strings,put on EB #9's. Semi-polished the frets. . feels slinky as hell now.Yes IIRC my 05 San Dimas had D'Addario's (colored ball ends)
I usually put them on (EB's)tune up to pitch,than hang it on the wall and retune next day,lock it down.Done!
Did I mention I tweaked the trem claws,Floyd is much flatter now.Still have plenty pullback too.

[piranhaguy2002a]

EBs do need a fair amount of stretching, but honestly, I always thought D'Adarrios would never stop stretching, even with minimal wrap on the post.

My black one from Nick was locked and ready, but the CT's nut wasn't locked. Dunno if Nick set me up right or if it came that way.

And the tool holder screw for my CT was also missing. No biggie, though, I don't plan to mount it.

Don't fret about the tool holder screw, mine didn't come with one either.

[Newc]

EBs do need a fair amount of stretching, but honestly, I always thought D'Adarrios would never stop stretching, even with minimal wrap on the post.

My black one from Nick was locked and ready, but the CT's nut wasn't locked. Dunno if Nick set me up right or if it came that way.

And the tool holder screw for my CT was also missing. No biggie, though, I don't plan to mount it.

[toejam]

Cool. Maybe the Ernie Balls don't need as much stretching. Jackson/Charvel use D'Addario, I believe.

[Charvel Rocker]

I'm so use to...

Ernie Ball .09's seem like they can be put on... stretch a little then lock'em down and your ready to go...but that my opinion.These on the New Charvel's need a little more care before being locked in place.

Of course you're going to have to tune a few times for the strings to stretch. I don't expect them to do that at the factory, even though they probably should.
You really need to stretch the hell out of the strings before you lock the nut down. Tune up to pitch, bend/pull the strings off the board, tune back up to pitch, repeat procedure until strings don't go out of tune, then lock the nut down, use the fine tuners as needed. Following that stretching procedure, you really shouldn't have to unlock the nut to tune again.

[toejam]

Set up was fine ...The strings streached a little so I to retune a couple of times ....

Of course you're going to have to tune a few times for the strings to stretch. I don't expect them to do that at the factory, even though they probably should.
You really need to stretch the hell out of the strings before you lock the nut down. Tune up to pitch, bend/pull the strings off the board, tune back up to pitch, repeat procedure until strings don't go out of tune, then lock the nut down, use the fine tuners as needed. Following that stretching procedure, you really shouldn't have to unlock the nut to tune again.

[Charvel Rocker]

Mine was Perfect

I had no issues on my Black USA Charvel 1-2H everything looked perfect on the guitar except they for got to put the allen wrench holder screw in with the candy...I called Fender and no problem it's on it's way.Set up was fine ...The strings streached a little so I to retune a couple of times ....FR is good,no scratches on it.SD are bad ass.Knob is I think is neat because it's different than anything else that I have...but that just me.Neck is fine and has that Mojo Meatie feeling to it .First song I played on it Vodoo Chile...so it's got it's on feel to it...LOL!!!!Get a chance give one a drive....

[ADR]

Nice review.

[DHardmanJr]

The wait is over ... 001269 finds a home

After what seemed like forever I got my CT SC today. Audiophile posted some great pics of his So Cal, so no reason to be redundant with more.


First impressions:

• I love it
• The paint job is killer ... unlike XSSIVE's black one, mine had a finish like a mirror ... no light scratches or swirls ... perfect
• The neck is a little thicker than my 84 SD pointy, but still very comfortable to play
• The setup is perfect. The guitar arrived mostly in tune ... just fine tuned a couple of strings and it was off to the races. The pickup heights are adjusted just like I like them ... the action is just like I like it ... proper neck relief ... nut is the right height ... trem is at the correct angle wrt the neck ... no buzzing ... just great
• The dimarzios sound good. Not what I usually use ... but I will give them some time to see if they grow on me.
• You can tell the Floyd is different than the made in germany ones. The tone sounded fine and the feel seemed pretty darn close to me but the fine tuner screws are not as smooth turning and the trem arm wobbles even when the collar is fully tightened. I put on an arm from an MIG OFR and the wobble was gone ... so it seems like the screw collar on the one that comes with the guitar that is the culprit. Others have mentioned that the arm seems to come loose easily. Someone please post if you find a fix for this. If there's no fix I'll be ordering a replacement from stewmac.
• I was wondering if other reviewers were just being overly anal about the frets, but they do in fact need some polishing ... there were more tooling marks on them than I would have expected for a made in the USA guitar. Seems like to cut costs less time was spent on the frets. That said ... the fret ends were very good ... no sharp edges or anything .. the shapes of the frets were good ... just a little rough on the crown of the frets.
• Cosmetically the guitar was perfect except the frets needing polished and one other thing ... there was some white residue next to probably 8 frets ... probably something left over from the finishing process and just needs to be cleaned out
• The 1-ply pickguard is actually very very thick ... so even though it's 1-play it feels very solid & sturdy
• The guitar seemed to have great sustain and tone when played unplugged
• The knob ... well ... like the pickups ... I'm going to give it some time to see if it grows on me ... but it is like a porcupine knob. I had to check to see if it drew blood when I first turned open the volume. It's got some serious knurlage.
• Other odds and ends: the gig bag is nothing to write home about ... very cheap and cheesy. It's nice they throw in the wrench holder. It's nice it comes with straplocks, but I would have preferred Schaller straplocks. It's cool that the back trem cover is metal instead of plastic. That said, I would have preferred to have no cover and a painted cavity (springs exposed).

All in all ... great guitar .. am very pleased. The looks are great, the setup was great, plays very nice ... just some fret polishing to take care of and some residue cleanup where frets meet the fretboard.

[Newc]

Mine came while I was asleep - woke up to the sound of the driver beating on the door (had to sign for it), dragged the box in the house and went back to bed

Once again, I'm pleased as punch. No problems with the bridge, pickups, or anything else that's been (mis)reported.


Serial # 001193

[busdriver]

Mine is delivered!
The first thing I did was swapping out the volume-knob and strap-buttons for brass ones. I didn't like the stock knob... felt like a curled up wood rasp

[DHardmanJr]

Out For Delivery!

Mine is OFD as well. Finally!

Dave

[beachjammer]

To each his own, but my SoCal doesn't feel anything like the 2 MexiStrats I've owned, or the USA FR Strat I had, or the USA "EVH" Strat I had.

There are only so many electric guitar neck profiles out there, and they're all based on Fender's original designs. The difference with these is the compound radius fretboard.

There's also the mental blocks: "it's got a Strat head, a Strat body, FMIC owns Charvel, it's not going to wisk me back to 1981 like I'm Marty McFly", and lo and behold, that's exactly how it happens.

I think many people had too many expectations of these, namely the "time machine" effect. Even if you had the same people that built #1001 building these in Glendora on the same machines and using the same tools they did before, they would still not be just like EVH's original. Those days are gone forever. Everyone move on.

I'm not saying that I'll never get one but like you stated, I think my expectations were a little high I guess. The difference I felt in the necks were that some were rougher or sandy feeling as compared to the other guitars. The tangerine I played the store owner had been playing it and had obviously set it up and showed it some love so it was pretty nice.

[Newc]

WOOHOO! O.F.D.!

Out For Delivery!

And it appears F'edEx now has a local facility, which means I should get it this afternoon like my UPS deliveries, rather than early in the morning the way F'edEx used to be