Mexican Charvel San Dimas Guitars

[lepard]

So I guess I've been living under my own "Made in USA" rock for years and had never picked up a Mexican Charvel San Dimas guitar. Was just at Guitar Center looking around and saw a candy apple red "Charvel" hanging on the wall. My first thought at first glance was "that thing must be fake". The headstock is shaped wrong, the 12th fret dots are spaced all wrong and it just looked cheap.

I proceeded to pick it up and take a good look and find it's a Mexican San Dimas model. Is this what Charvel has become ? What a complete and utter piece of shit ! Absolute junk with absolutely nothing in common with a real San Dimas Charvel. The neck was god awful, way too large, shaped all wrong, the 12th fret dots too small and spaced too far apart. The headstock shape was way off and the too large Charvel logo looked bad. It felt like crap, played like crap and the fretwork was crap. Do I even need to go onto the body with a recessed trem ?

Seriously Fender, is this what you're doing to the Charvel name ? You should be ashamed of yourselves.

[xenophobe]

I dunno... I'm a CS snob.

[vector]

Gotta admit, they are different. If you're buying with the objective to have a clone of the USA/MIJ Pro Mod SD's, move along. But on their own merits, they're not that bad.

My SD1 HH sounds great, plays well, the Floyd 1000 stays in tune but lacks a little finesse or refined performance, has superb resonance for a bolty and the fret ends are not bollocks-ed like the ones on the Jackson Pro DK2 LE Tiger I sold a while back. My biggest gripes would be the beefy neck and the shit placement of the volume knob. Almost as bad as the USA Soloists. But bought used (in my case, for 7 bills) and a half-decent set up, mine could be a good back up or no-worries gig ax. Or a drop tuned ax.

[gerryl98]

I love MIM EVH's and my two MIM Charvels. The Ensenada plant has been producing Fenders for over 30 years now. I doubt junk is coming out of that factory.

[artonsafari]

I love MIM EVH's and my two MIM Charvels. The Ensenada plant has been producing Fenders for over 30 years now. I doubt junk is coming out of that factory.

My MIM Strat was my go-to until I got my SDK.
I'm a MIJ Charvel snob.

[srommes]

I have five MIM Pro Mod's and love them. Your description sounds nothing like any of the five I own. Sounds like a bad one found it's way out of the factory. It happens...

[shreddermon]

Meh, I think they're pretty good, too. The MIM stuff overall has consistent quality.

Is it on par with a custom shop guitar? Of course not. But considering these go for about one-third of the price, they have waaaay more than that on the quality side of the equation. Mucho bang for the buck, IMHO.

[Catharpin]

Mucho bang for the peso, IMHO.

I see what you did there.

[shreddermon]

Don't quit your day job, bro. LOL

[MrBlues]

I've played a few and think theyre fantastic guitars, Comfortable and well put together. The majority of my beasties are Japanese but I have a Mexican Classic 70s Strat which I love and I'm Very tempted to pick up one of those hard tail San Dimas.

[mantis]

I have a 2013 MIM San Dimas Humbucker Single Hard Tail and it's awesome. I've owned very high end guitars and play many in the $500-$1000 price range. I will say that these MIM Charvels are fantastic for the money. They are not Custom Shop or USA model level but find something better for a Retail of $899. When you look at it from a price point, they are right on the money. I like them and I plan on buying a few of the new 2016 models.