sakeido
Contributor
well, I had ordered one of these awhile back through Matt's Music and was all excited to get it. Then, three days before they are released, he sends me an e-mail saying that he had a falling out with Jackson/Charvel and isn't going to carry either brand anymore, so I get shafted out of the tangerine orange So Cal I had on order from him.
That was somewhat crushing, but no big deal. I changed my order to something else that has yet to show up. Today, I go to the local music store just to see if they do have one of these in and also to cancel my order for a Nova since I picked one up from a different store across town awhile back. It turns out they have three of the production models left, one So Cal, one gold Tele, and one normal one dunno what they are called. I play one just to see if it would have been worth it and... my god.
These things are an absolute steal. $999 for this? Unbelievable! It is a USA made guitar and I thought they would have cut a lot of corners, but it definitely doesn't seem that way. The frets are fantastic - perfectly level and smooth across the neck, and the neck has almost exactly the same profile as my SLSMG, which is my favorite guitar of all time. The pickups - a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge and an Air Norton in the neck - sound absolutely fantastic in this alder body.
The guitar looks deadly. I ended up with a black one, which is actually pretty good because the orange one looks a little bright for me now that I've seen real pics of it. The flat black pickguard really sets it off, and the flat black control knob is sweet as well. It is the most spiny solid dial I have ever seen on a guitar and coupled with the nice firm pot, it fixes my one niggle about most Jackson/Charvels.. the real greasy volume knobs.
It has a Ping floyd which feels pretty good to me so far. I don't use Floyds at all and will be locking this one with a Tremol-No as soon as it comes in, but it for all intents and purposes seems to be just as good as a normal one to me. The fine tuners are a little stiff, but that's about the only difference I have noticed so far. The logo is even almost exactly the same.
The only problem with the whole thing is the pickguard and tremolo spring covers were put on when the paint wasn't fully dry (so the store was telling me) so if you pull them off, the paint peels. No big deal.
But all in all, I am very happy with the guitar. It sounds wicked, and I think it'll do very well in low tunings.. but more on that later, once I change the strings to my usual elixirs and play it some more.
Compared to the Charvel Natural Mahogany I had before, one of the slightly older custom shop models, this one is a little bit more my style... it is much lighter, it is not as muddy sounding, it has a neck humbucker, it somehow plays better, and it cost basically half as much once duties and shipping is figured in. It is every bit as good, for far less money.
Make no mistake - this is one of the absolute best deals going in music right now.
As usual, my big orange cat (Nash) had to check out the new toy.
gratuitous picture of my whole flock plus my friend's G10 5 string bass, and my fucking sweet wallpaper
That was somewhat crushing, but no big deal. I changed my order to something else that has yet to show up. Today, I go to the local music store just to see if they do have one of these in and also to cancel my order for a Nova since I picked one up from a different store across town awhile back. It turns out they have three of the production models left, one So Cal, one gold Tele, and one normal one dunno what they are called. I play one just to see if it would have been worth it and... my god.
These things are an absolute steal. $999 for this? Unbelievable! It is a USA made guitar and I thought they would have cut a lot of corners, but it definitely doesn't seem that way. The frets are fantastic - perfectly level and smooth across the neck, and the neck has almost exactly the same profile as my SLSMG, which is my favorite guitar of all time. The pickups - a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge and an Air Norton in the neck - sound absolutely fantastic in this alder body.
The guitar looks deadly. I ended up with a black one, which is actually pretty good because the orange one looks a little bright for me now that I've seen real pics of it. The flat black pickguard really sets it off, and the flat black control knob is sweet as well. It is the most spiny solid dial I have ever seen on a guitar and coupled with the nice firm pot, it fixes my one niggle about most Jackson/Charvels.. the real greasy volume knobs.
It has a Ping floyd which feels pretty good to me so far. I don't use Floyds at all and will be locking this one with a Tremol-No as soon as it comes in, but it for all intents and purposes seems to be just as good as a normal one to me. The fine tuners are a little stiff, but that's about the only difference I have noticed so far. The logo is even almost exactly the same.
The only problem with the whole thing is the pickguard and tremolo spring covers were put on when the paint wasn't fully dry (so the store was telling me) so if you pull them off, the paint peels. No big deal.
But all in all, I am very happy with the guitar. It sounds wicked, and I think it'll do very well in low tunings.. but more on that later, once I change the strings to my usual elixirs and play it some more.
Compared to the Charvel Natural Mahogany I had before, one of the slightly older custom shop models, this one is a little bit more my style... it is much lighter, it is not as muddy sounding, it has a neck humbucker, it somehow plays better, and it cost basically half as much once duties and shipping is figured in. It is every bit as good, for far less money.
Make no mistake - this is one of the absolute best deals going in music right now.
As usual, my big orange cat (Nash) had to check out the new toy.
gratuitous picture of my whole flock plus my friend's G10 5 string bass, and my fucking sweet wallpaper
... BAD ASS .. quess i can congrat you on that also 
whatever floats your boat 
