Review of my 2013 San Dimas HS HT

[mantis]

Ok,
So I have had this guitar now for a while and I figured I'd write a review.
I went into Sam Ash music years ago to buy some strings and Picks. As usual I always just peak at whats hanging on the walls just for the sheer hell of it. I noticed a bunch of Charvel Guitars and one stuck out more then all the others. A White So Cal with a Black Pick guard. Now back in the 80's I owned a Model 3A which was a HH White with a Black pick guard. I sold that guitar and regret doing so years later.

I sat down and played it and was disappointed. It has Dimarizo Pickups in it and I didn't like the mounted Floyd Rose. I'm a recessed kinda guy. So I didn't buy it but left with a taste in my mouth and wanting a Charvel. After playing a few of the San Dimas and So calls I gave up. None of them called to me to take them home so I didn't

Charvel changed the Pro Mod's configurations and now loaded then with Seymour Duncan Pickups and Recessed the Floyd's into the Guitar. I figured now is the time to go back out and test drive them. Well NO ONE in my area had ANY in stock. This pissed me off to no end as even Russo's Music in Trenton NJ which use to be a killer place to buy gear now sucks ass and is a Fend and Gibson only dealer. They use to be a High End music store and now they are just average with No Charvel.

I gave up again and figured it's not meant to be so Eff it. In my research I found the San Dimas HS HT model. I thought about it and thought this could be the perfect guitar to add to my collection. I've been wanting a hard tail so I can drop D when I want , I don't use my Floyd Rose Trem's other then the fact I like how the guitars Feel with one , I've been wanting to try out a HS configuration and I still had a soft spot to get another Charvel. Well for the sheer hell of it , I called my Salesman Rick who sold me my ESP M1 Tiger and just asked if he had any Charvel's in stock. He said I think we have 1 in Candy Apple Red but let me check and see if it's still here. He checked and BAM he said it's a Hard Tail with a Humbucker and Single coil in the neck position. I thought could this be true? The Exact guitar I would like to own is in stock and in one of my favorite colors? Honestly I would have preferred a White one but the Red was second on my list followed by the bad ass Blue they have.
After playing it I took it home.
The Guitar is beautiful. I love how it looks. I love even more how it feels in my hand. The neck is probably the best in the business. It's so comfortable and plays like how I remember my Old Charvel. One Volume knob , one Switch and thats it. Love it as I never ever use the tone control on my other guitars, full Wood and away I go.
Now After really digging into her , I noticed something I'm not exactly happy with. Overall the guitar IMO is on the bright side. With a Alter Body and Rosewood finger board. It's not so bad with the bridge Pickup, the JB is a wonderful pickup and has nice output. On my Jackson SL3 , it's down right scary how badass it sounds. The Jackson is more of a warmer darker sounding guitar. It has some of the fatness you would find in a Les Paul Custom Deluxe. The Charvel doesn't have any of this and I'm wondering if trying out different pickups I could dial this guitar to have a warmer sound?
The bridge Classic Stack pickup is nice IF you want to have tele Strat Mix type sound. With the brighter sound of the guitar overall, this pickup IMO is to bright .I find it to sound way to thin. It's cool for spanky stuff but I much prefer a warmer sounding bridge pickup. I'm actually wishing Charvel would release this model guitar in a HH HT configuration. Unless I can find a warmer more powerful single coil, this is what I'm gonna wait for or maybe even contact Charvel and go USA Custom Shop and have one built to my liking.
I do however think it's worth searching for a better warmer pickup as I just love playing this guitar. I dial my amp a bit deeper , back off the high's , richen up the bass and mid's and get a nice usable tone I can enjoy. I was thinking a Mini 59 or a Hot rail. I have Hot rails in my Jackson and they are very good pickups. In that guitar it's incredibly fat and warm for a single coil size pickup. Pretty amazing if you ask me but you never know how a pickup is going to sound in another guitar so I guess I'm gonna have to pick up a few and test drive them.

Here is some pic's of her and I'll throw in one of my SL3 since I compared them to each other. I considered selling the SL3 but after putting it down and picking it up again, it's mine forever. She is my baby and I can't believe I even considered getting rid of her.

[Radiohead]

Nice Review. I always liked the JB in an Alder guitar, but I use tube amps. I believe in general a tube amps is a bit warmer overall than a SS.

[mantis]

Nice Review. I always liked the JB in an Alder guitar, but I use tube amps. I believe in general a tube amps is a bit warmer overall than a SS.

Which is why I only play Tube amps. I never really found a SS amp I really liked.

[Predator1]

I want them to release this model with a Floyd.

[mantis]

I want them to release this model with a Floyd.

I'm surprised they haven't already.

[Matt_B]

Good write up and get some bore oil on that fretboard. It looks as dry as a bone!

[Radiohead]

Which is why I only play Tube amps. I never really found a SS amp I really liked.

Hey Mantis,

My bad, I thought the Krank stuff was SS. No offence intended.

[pickford1625]

you like the rev1?

[mantis]

Hey Mantis,

My bad, I thought the Krank stuff was SS. No offence intended.

It's cool man.

[mantis]

you like the rev1?

It's an interesting story how I ended up with this amp. I'll tell you as short as possible.
I was looking for something that had some killer drive yet retained a good clean channel. I grew up on Marshall and Fender Twin reverbs so I wanted something that could combine the 2 into one amp but with a more modern gain sound.
The First amp I really liked was the Peavy 5150. I thought the gain channel was monstrous and had serious power and excellent mid hump. I really liked it until I tried to go clean and failed. The Clean channel isn't clean it's gritty. So I left that amp and went Mesa Boogie. The triple was awesome and had a better clean then the Peavy but still wasn't what I wanted. Played a Bogner but it was out of my budget but it had the cleans I could live with and a beautiful rocking drive channel. Excellent amp I must say. Tried a few marshals but no where near the Fender like clean I wanted.
So in the mean time I saw the Krank Distortion pedal and figured I'd try that out as a salesman told me it was amazing and almost had a preamp like tone to it. I took it home and put it in front of my Twin and it made my Twin breath fire. It was crazy how strong clean and clear yet brutal this pedal was. best Distortion pedal I'd ever used and I have had many.
So after a few weeks of just loving this pedal , I did some research and found they made amps and I had to play one. I went to Russo's Music and they had one in stock for me to play. I sat in front of a 1/2 stack and just fell in love.
Whats so amazing about the Krank is the clean channel. I would swear I was plugged into a Bassman 10 from Fender how clean and clear yet had some awesome bottom end. Dynamic as hell like my Twin was. Loud as the day is long and really took chorus and Delay very well. The drive channel was much like the pedal , I really liked it a lot. I didn't bring it home as I was not prepared to do so. I called Russo's not that long after and they told me they where not going to carry Krank anymore as they just had to many amp lines at the time.
So I ventured over to Sam Ash where they also carried Krank, They only had Dimes amp on the floor and no Revolution 1's but could get me one fast as they had a few combos coming in. So I ordered the Combo with the chrome grill and the rest is history. I purchased that amp in 2006.

Over the years I have played many other amps including a Peavy JSX which I kinda fell in love with when I connected to it. I took it home and really liked it a lot except it was kinda noisy. The krank is dead silent , it makes no noise at all, no ground loop issues or any Hiss. It's pretty fantastic as when your playing it , and you palm mute or cut in and out with hard stops , it's dead silent. It really helps when writing heavy cool cutting stuff.
The JSX I took back after a month of owning it. The cleans where very good but kinda Marshall like but a little warmer. The Drive channel and lead channel where awesome. Different then my Krank but had a very killer drive to it. I really liked that amp and if I where to have it modified to get rid of some if not all the noise , I probably would have kept it.

Honestly man I love my Krank. When Blackstar came to Sam Ash , I played a few of them and think they are nice amps but not on the same level as my Krank. I want to try out one of their new metal amps but no one has one in stock yet to try out. I'm a huge tone chaser and I haven't found another amp I want to replace the Krank with.

[pickford1625]

i have the rev 1 and the krankenstein. the rev 1 was never heavy enough for me so i always played the krankenstein. now i have a 5153 and just play that. when tony krank left the company he sold all his krank stuff off on ebay, i bought a prototype distortion pedal he made for schecter, i keep that on my tiny pedalboard for when i end up in a rehersal studio with shitty amps, sounds sick.

[mantis]

Good write up and get some bore oil on that fretboard. It looks as dry as a bone!

Bore oil, I'm gonna have to look that up. I'm assuming it's a wood oil for fret boards?

[mantis]

i have the rev 1 and the krankenstein. the rev 1 was never heavy enough for me so i always played the krankenstein. now i have a 5153 and just play that. when tony krank left the company he sold all his krank stuff off on ebay, i bought a prototype distortion pedal he made for schecter, i keep that on my tiny pedalboard for when i end up in a rehersal studio with shitty amps, sounds sick.

I'm assuming you don't have a need for a very good clean channel as well? The Rev 1's clean is much better then the Krankenstein's. That amp is a bit more on the brutal side, it's gain channel is amazing and I can see why you play that more. It's a badass amp man as you know.
I'm completely happy with the REV 1 and it's Heaviness LOL. My tone has a lot to do with my playing style and ability to dial the amp in not to mention my SL3 is just flat out badass. The JB pickup in the bridge sounds better on this guitar then any other I have played. Ok well the SL1 and SL2 sounded pretty badass driven . Monster guitars IMO.
Whats your setup dude?
My setup is pretty simply. I have the Krank with a Boss GT10 running in the 4 cable method. I also have a Sonic Stomp at the end of the chain. I don't use it all the time as I change my tone for different things and dial in the Stomp differently for different stuff.
The GT 10 I rarely use any of the Amp modelers unless I'm goofing around. I use it as a controller and Modulation. I run Chorus , Delay and Reverb in the effects loop. I use the volume pedal and thats about it. I have it setup to be a Amp channel changer with pre built patches I wrote for my clean and drive settings. The only thing I can't do is use the Kranks lead boost but I can't build a patch to amp up a few Db's when needed. I'm not a lead guitarist so I don't use Lead boost often.
I use Whrilwind, Planet waves and some other chords.

[mantis]

One thing I'm learning about the San Dimas HS HT is the 2 pickups are so very different to the point I think that changing out the Classic Stack is a need more then a want. I think it's output is far to different then the JB in the bridge that they really don't match up well. Not to mention I honestly don't need a Strat Tele type cleans in my Charvel. I want a more warmer closer tone to the JB which is why I think going after a Cool rail, Hot rail or a Little 59 should do the trick. The only problem I have right now is which one would be the right choice?
Really any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[Predator1]

I have a cool rails in my 2005 H/S pointy and it seems to work well with the TB 14 that is in the bridge.