Charvel DK24 2PT Side by Side with Guthrie Govan Models 

greekfreak1980 I agree, but limited colors and no veneers allows things like the Gotoh Bridge, Duncan Pickups and the roasted neck for $999. As the line expands they will likely be able to do that, but every finish means more spray booth time and the veneers, obviously are more manufacturing, etc. So they went for features over esthetics. But with the popularity how it is, it's likely the sales volume will allow for more of those features. 🤘🏻

Very welcome!

Eric Casper thank you so much!

Thank you so much! 🙌🏻

Trevor John Merrilees many thanks!

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that!

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! I appreciate that!

Jacob Ferguson thank you, I'm glad you like it.

David Tal thank you! I'm glad you liked it. And yeah, for that's a deal, especially for the money! I'm happy you found that guitar!

Thank you, I appreciate that.

@@RandyWillcox . . The pleasure was all mine Randy. . Take care.

Les Harrison thank you! I love it. I've made some mods on them both. Both received new Gotoh HAPM height adjustable post locking tuners. The orange one got the Graphtech Ghost Acoustiphonic system installed and the pink one got a non-fine tuner Floyd Rose. They're great guitars!

@@RandyWillcox Thank you for the response, Randy. I'm really blown away by your technique. You do so much with incredibly hand efficiency. I also appreciate the comments elsewhere about these MIMs compared to the Ibanez AZs. These are exactly what I'm trying to decide between. I've now heard the quality on the AZs is so hit or miss. Between that and their odd colors, I just need to figure out which Charvel is best for me. Thanks again. Best to you.

Ariel Lopez most welcome!

James Brock thank you. Yeah, I won't lie, I'd have easily paid more for these with ss frets, but I totally get the idea of wanting to meet the $999 price point for all the players who couldn't care less about the metal the frets are made from.

Thank you, I really appreciate that! And yes, King's X is 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

G Thank you so much! AND...killer name choice! I wish I'd thought of it first! I hope more people recognize the reference! 🙌🏻💕🎸

Lol. I just bought the DK24 HSS shell pink and the Infinity blue DK24 HSS. I named them Pinky and Leather Tuscadero.

Thank you so much! 🙌🏻❤️

Thank you so much!

TheGoldenChicken thank you so much! I used my Victory Amps and the Analogman King Of Tone. ❤️

Randy Willcox Nice! I really admire your playing and it was inspiring when I saw that you had become a Chapman artist! I hope to maybe also rock one one day, but anyways keep up the great music and I’d love to see more videos in the future!

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that!

Thank you! I appreciate that!

Triple S thanks man! Yeah, when they were first revealed I became immediately intrigued. I had to get my hands on them.

Yup! And thank you! You're getting higher output pickups. And you won't get locking bridge saddles, but you get a very comparable instrument and you won't miss the idiosyncrasies of the Govan. But...if you CAN swing the Govan, it's...🤤

Kevin James thank you so much!

Thank you very much!

Thank you so much!

Hugh Caldwell thanks! Excellent, you won't be disappointed!

Thank you so much!

beannie60 thank you!

ponsau thanks man! Yeah, I love these guitars. You won't be disappointed.

Thank you so much!

Kurt Vereecke you're very welcome!

Dan Stringer thank you so much.

I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed modding yours! I completely understand!

@@RandyWillcox Oh no Randy. I didn't enjoy it. Its was rather expensive actually. I did it to achieve optimal tone. Also to make it as good as it deserves to be. My bad. Should've clarified.

@@theariesexperiment4642 do you think the titanium saddles were worth the hefty price tag? also, were they the block style saddles or bent?

@@finlayfatknees Well. It kinda depends. If your guitar lacks that whole "sparkling highs" and that naturally compressed sound and you've already changed the nut, block, claw, and so on?? I'd say yes they are. And I chose the block ones just for the comfort. The bent ones are substantially less money but will dig into your palm. And I'd say there's a slight tonal characteristic difference. But one thing I did gett out of them I wasn't expecting was unmatched clarity. Like with distorted chords and double stop bends. The clarity rivals my custom shop guitars. It's kinda like J. Bonamassa said,..."were just trying to unlock or find that extra 10% in a guitar". I think that sums it up very well on expensive upgrades. I'll say this in closing. That Charvel DK24 I started with had a little something extra before I modded anything. So I felt pretty good about dropping extra coin to attempt unlocking that 10%. It worked out wonderfully and I technically saved thousands,...because it rivals much more expensive guitars I own. But you just need to start with one that has good bones to start with. Which is difficult to surmise sometimes. Hope my feedback helped you out my friend. And yes,...I think they are worth it(KTS saddles). Dont settle for the "knockoff" ones. Good luck with all you guitar modding adventures Finlay H.

Elliot Killian Music cool, I'm glad. Yeah, I live for the "boring" bits myself, so I appreciate it when others do too.🤘🏻

Thank you!

reacteur84 thank you so much!

It looks pretty sick!

Thank you so much!

Emre Emre thank you. As for the tone difference, I'd say the bulk of it lies in the pickups. The Full shreds are a high output pickup and it's evident. The Guthrie pickups are custom made by Michael Frank Braun and are lower output and much more open. They love nuance and take well to boosting later in the signal path. The basswood is definitely a flatter eq, which is why it's such a great tone wood. Also the differences in he Birdseye and Flametop (blue) Govans is also noticeably different. And that is the fact that the Birdseye is the very first run. The Flametop has a baked basswood body and the Birdseye does not. The baked body is lighter and noticeably more resonant. Overall, the Govans win. They'd better at 3 times the price. But I could EASILY play one of the DK24s instead without feeling I was missing out. Thought the Govans are superior, the DK24 2PT models are absolutely stellar and if you didn't HAVE the ability to compare the two, you wouldn't need to. I highly recommend the DK24s...unless you can swing the Govan, in which case...DO IT! 🙌🏻

Valantis Kitsakis thank you so much!

Thank you, I appreciate that! You're most welcome!

Yeah, the Mexican plant is making incredible stuff. When I had these, I'd considered keeping them and just refretting with stainless steel frets and swapping out the pickups. As I didn't like the stock Duncans. But because I have the Guthries, I never played them, so it didn't seem viable to invest that much into them. But if these had stainless frets, nobody would need to even try out an Ibanez AZ. When those came out, I was so excited, then I played them at NAMM. I've played them at NAMM every year and they still do nothing for me. They're "fine". "Well-made", even. But the prestige models don't feel like $2000+ guitars. And the premium feel like entry level guitars. The Mexican made Charvel dk models feel way better to me. A couple months ago I got the Rick Graham MIJ model. I love it. It's what I'd have wanted to do to the dk: stainless steel frets and the Bareknuckle pickups in it are stellar.

@@RandyWillcox Not really true is it? There's a ton of guitar players - many of them some of the best in the world playing AZ guitars - if the necks sucked they wouldn't do that. Even if you think well Ibanez, Charvel etc make an offer Guthrie or Tom Quayle can't refuse they're still not going to play something that's bad. A lot of Suhr owners struggle with the idea that Guthrie plays a Charvel now and have to convince themselves the Suhr was better and Guthrie somehow sold out. Here you're doing the same as them. You're deluding yourself a little bit to suggest a guitar is better when you give a long list of things you have to change to the supposedly better one, like changing frets and pickups on top of the other changes you've already done in the video. All you're really saying is someone with an illness to habitually keep buying variations on exactly the same guitar is going pick up a different guitar brand and the neck will feel different to them. The same would be true if you were obsessively buying Ibanez AZ models. The bottom line is : you know SS frets are better. They are on a plethora of guitars now at price points from £600 upwards (e.g Cort G300, Yamaha Revstar standard) as well as all Ibanez AZ - and that makes these guitars less attractive because there is no saving money buy buying one - in a few cases you're paying more. The only real reason, perhaps, is that Fender haven't got the Mexicans the equipment to use SS. Charvel had an opportunity to make the MIJ SS frets - at least then there'd be a few models at a middle price range you could pick. But they didn't, except, again for Guthrie's sig model (which, like the Rick Graham one are vastly overpriced and not that available anyway) So you're left with a guitar brand that there's a big premium to pay for SS frets. Which seems to have made you convinced that SS frets must be considerably more cost to work with but that's simply not true. What is more typical is that guitar techs that buy cheap tools find they're not up to the job to do SS frets. But why would you use a tech that bought cheap tools? With good tools the job is the same. Bear that in mind before you start getting these guitars fretwork done - if the guy is trying to charge you more or complains that they ruin his tools he's a cheapskate - find a better luthier.

Jon Authier thank you so much!

larry dickman thanks! Yeah, I was crushing on a shell pink Anderson and when I saw this I got all squishy!

Don’t do it, poor quality.

Imagine8 thanks so much, man! Much appreciated!

I got the pink pro mod. Worth every penny.

@@morky_mork also on the wall about the HH lmao so hard when there is such good gear lmao

@@DiegoHenaoV lol you can't really go wrong buddy, I want the new HH one as well haha

@@morky_mork lmao touche my dude

Thank you so much!

Lee Logan thank you! Yeah, I needed to add a little color for the stage. I'm thinking of redoing it a little more turquoise. Time will tell.

Haha! Thank you so much! I'm always glad when someone picks up the King's X tunes. 🤘🏻

@@RandyWillcox first vid - spotted straight up. Transcribed the solo years ago and Ty was quite interested in it. Most underrated band in history… great video - will check out more… x

Joe Heisler I had a luthier do the paint because I needed some color in my gig. 😁

CAMERON!!! Thanks man, I didn't see you had seen this vid!

Sorry I didn't see this comment before. Thank you so much!

Riley IoAcura aw, thank you so much, I appreciate that!

Macaroon thank you! 🤘🏻

Western rider 100 thank you! Yup, you get it! 🙌🏻

Thank you!

LifeisGuitar thank you so much! I'm glad you dig it! I hope you find the one for you!

Let us know which config you went for hsh or ssh .

Haha, thanks man! I'm definitely NOT rich, just really different priorities. I have a roommate, I almost never buy takeout food. I don't smoke so that saves me almost $6,000 a year (my parents were smokers who could never understand how people could afford vacations. They were mad when I pointed out that their cigarettes annually equalled a vacation AND new car payments). I don't have a Playstation or online gaming addiction (again, I mention this because I have friends who don't realize what they spend a month in games could get them a Guthrie Govan in a year or less). My clothes and shoes come from places like Century 21 and Burlington. So it's just about choices. My "vacation" every year is the NAMM show in LA instead of Greece, or Italy, or... So it's just choices I've made. Rich would be nice though, then I could still go to Greece and Italy and... :)

D. Szarko thank you! King's X is my favorite band. Summerland or Goldilox will always appear here and there. 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

@@RandyWillcox then you have good taste! Mine too! Been listening to them since I was born lol

Excellent! That whole Charvel line is fantastic!

ConspireToConspire my favorite band! They usually sneak into my videos. Haha. 🙌🏻

Summerland in my past...

mistrcoffe thank you, it feels really great to hear that. Love you, brother.

🙏🏻😉

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

Yeah, it's a remarkable line.

robert powers good choice. I can't imagine you won't be pleased!

Troy Frost thanks man! 🙌🏻🤘🏻🙏🏻

Thank you very much!

@@RandyWillcox Also enjoyed the King's X quotes in there...

Haha. Thank you, I'm glad you like it. And I agree!

@@RandyWillcox I haven't made up my mind which pickup configuration to go for, but I am definitely getting one of these DK24s. Or possibly the HH. Or possibly the DK22 with the Hot Rail in the bridge ;-) I am sure they are all fantastic!

Neth BT thank you, I really appreciate that. I freely admit though that I haven't attacked creating and posting content as much as I want to yet, but I went from 73 subs when I posted this video to almost 250 now and I haven't posted anything since so I need to step it up. The burden is totally on me. But it feels good to hear that. Thank you again.

Philip Bellew thanks! I'm glad you like it!

I’ve just ordered a Pro-Mod DK 24. This video really clinched it for me, so thanks again, Randy.

Thank you, I'm glad you found the video useful. As for the upgrades, yes, that estimate is based on features: Having stainless steel frets installed, perhaps staggered tuners, that sort of thing. The neck on the Guthrie is, of course, highly figured and the body is also roasted basswood vs. Alder. That certainly affects the tone. Basswood is a much more even tonal response and the roasting process affects the way the wood resonates. I would definitely recommend less aggressive pickups for the DK since the Guthrie doesn't use particularly hot pickups. The fit and finish will never come close, BUT, if you DO have the stainless frets installed by a really good tech, that's most of the battle right there. People don't realize how much a really well performed fret level and dress improves the overall feel of a guitar.

Agreed. That's why I made the video. I think the bang for the buck is ridiculously good.

Elliot Serrano yeah, that's how I feel. At this price point it's ridiculous! And with a few bucks worth of mods it closes the gap even more. The Full Shred HBs certainly are hotter. They're definitely edgier than the Guthrie also. Those have much more sensible and dynamic pickups. But I'm happy with the articulation of the Full Shred for being so hot.

Luey Sixty-six thank you! The Blue Guthrie started its life as a natural Guthrie. I spruced it up.

Randy Willcox Ooh! For realz?! Extraordinary job, Man!! Looks like you put binding on it. Did you just colour it not quite to the edges?

Thank you so much! I'm writing and recording a project now, but I need to produce more music. If you go to the "About" section of my RU-vid channel, there are links. Soundcloud probably has the most material to listen to. Thank you again!

paulcuban they're unbelievable! I can't wait to see the new ones at NAMM! 🙌🏻

@@RandyWillcox wish i was goin had an invite last year but its a bit of a trip from here in the UK . I was looking at a GG a few years back but ended up getting a MM JP15 .

@@RandyWillcox Forgot to mention Great playing ....

the radical kindness lightly finished guitars resonate better than unfinished guitars. That said, there is a lacquer finish on both. The "unfinished" model is just a hand-rubbed gel application that prevents the finish from feeling like a shell. It's basically satin. The "raw" feeling is an illusion. But yes, having just that extra little but of a sprayed finish makes a difference. And they do outshine the DK24s. But at 3x the price, they absolutely should.

@@RandyWillcox Totally agree on the finishes and thickness. I have a Novo and a thin skin tele and they both resonate for days. Sadly, I haven't played any of the Guthries yet, although that caramelized one has been calling my name.

Alfie Bowers I think you're going to be plenty happy with it. I sold my DK24s last year. But the pink one went to a friend of mine who still absolutely loves it! In fact, I installed a non-fine tuner Floyd Rose on it before selling it. Basically, if I didn't have the Guthries, they'd have been great. But I never played them. They were great, but with the Guthries hanging right alongside them, I just always played the Guthries. So I'm spoiled that way. I sold the DK24s to help fund my Tom Anderson Guardian Angel Player. I needed the HSS fix, so I had to get a guitar that was on par with the Guthries. But had I not had the Guthries, I'd still have those DK24s. The pink DK24 when I sold it: reverb.com/item/27213646-charvel-pro-mod-dk24-hss-2pt-cm My Tom Anderson. It made their Guitar Tales feature in December just before they shipped it to me. www.andersonguitarworks.com/guitar-tales/2019/12/9/december-9-2019

@@RandyWillcox thanks for the reply man! Really looking forward to getting my hands on it. I've head some mixed reviews in regards to tuning stability, did you have any troubles if you can recall? Any tips on how I can dodge them if so? Thanks man 🤘

Alfie Bowers sorry, I didn't get a notification about this. The tuning stability was as good as any non locking tremolo. That's just life. But I'll say this, for mild trem usage from subtle to Jeff Beck, I had no issues. It wasn't until you went pretty far in one direction or another. My advice would be to get the Wilkinson tremolo with the locking saddles. They are the same saddles used on the Suhr Pete Thorn model. I have them on a strat and they're phenomenal. You can't put the saddles on the Charvel bridge because the string spacing on the Charvel is slightly narrower. But you can order the Wilkinson bridge with locking saddles from the Wilkinson Reverb store. Email them for eta. But I always stretch my strings plenty. I've played for 33 years and I can tell you, most people swear to me they stretched their strings and when I pull on them, they go out. So stretch them well and use Big Bends Nut Sauce. You'll be fine.

ConspireToConspire I've reached out to Duncan, but my experience is that for most OEM use, especially guitars made in mass out of the country, the pickup is made as an OEM part for the guitar manufacturer. It is likely it was done for either cost (not having both solid slugs and flat head screws means just making two identical bobbins and using all the same hex head poles vs having to differentiate the two) and for esthetics (both pickups match). But those are just examples of what I've encountered in my experience. I'll follow up when I get a response from Duncan.

Hired Goonage thank you very much!

matmartinelli thanks! I'd replace it. The full shred is a different animal. I'm not as familiar with the custom custom, but I'd definitely go with something less aggressive. The full shred is definitely for more aggressive tones. But yeah, I always think of pickups very clearly, they're easily swappable. The structure of the guitar is most important, the rest you can tweak to your heart's content. I'm thinking about swapping the pickups in the pink one. I actually put an original, non-fine tuner Floyd Rose on it and routed the recess. I'm thinking about a JB in the bridge and a more classic strat style Duncan single for the neck and middle.

​@@RandyWillcox You're right! This sort of things are no where near a deal-breaker characteristic. I'll do some research on other pickups and if I find anything interesting that fits my needs, I'll post ir here.

thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

Chris Flabouris thanks Chris, I really appreciate that! I'll take measurements at home. I made the demo with the guitars set up as they were out of the box. They played fantastic. However, I have set them up with 9.5s after that as I made some of my intended mods. I even installed a non-fine tuner Floyd Rose on the HSS. But I can send you the measurements (I think my machinist's ruler has mm on it) tomorrow.

Thanks Randy, I really appreciate it! C Ya! @@RandyWillcox

Chris Flabouris sorry for the delay. I just remembered you asked about action. Since the video, I installed a non-fine tuner Floyd Rose on the HSS and I installed the Ghost Acoustiphonic system in the HSH which meant new Graphtech saddles. I measured the action at the 12th fret and on both guitars, it's very close. The HSH is 1/16 inch on both E strings which converts to 1.5875mm. The HSS is 1/16 inch on the low E side and is slightly lower on the High E so roughly 1.5875mm on the low E and 1.19mm on the high E. And thanks again.

Randy Willcox Hi Randy, thanks so much for taking the time to measure the string action for me, it gives me a better idea of how to set up a 12”/16” radius neck as there’s not much info on this out there. Thanks again and enjoy your new mods. Hopefully we’ll see some video on these mods in the near further? Cheers!