Hi friend! thanks for joining me today! Let's Check this nicely spec'd Charvel "Super Tele" lol I hope your day keeps getting better and better! 💜 don't forget to like, comment and SUB!!
@@Itsjorgelanzas FYI, these fishman pickups are part of the open core series. These particular ones are "classic open core." There are also "modern open core."
Can't agree with you! I have the naural ash Version with the tremolo! This guitar is really really good, i love the variety of sounds you can get out of it. Rock, Pop, 80s pearly strat sounds, funk, high gain 80s lead and rythms... and so on. Yes the pickups are a bit hot but you can dail that in. Love that guitar, super stable tuning, fast neck. If set up correctly, the trem is near as stable as a Floyd Rose!!! This guitar should cost twice as much... never played a better guitar for sure! Highly recommended for everybody! You should do a lot more sound variations.
Your pulling the string off the neck has nothing to do with the rolled edges in this case. Your neck angle is off to the point that it's visible in the video. It happens with bolt ons but it's easy to adjust. Loosen the neck screws just a little and pull the headstock UP (towards the low e) until the amount of space next to both E strings is equal, then tighten it back up. Right now you have more room on the low than the high. If it won't stay put after adjusting it needs a shim.
Excellent, excellent review. Very, very informative. I've noticed your in-depth review has also solicited some very honest and perceptive comments from others ... which is a good thing. There are several reviews of this particular Charvel on YT, one by a guy called Darrell (Braun, I think), which happens to be very positive, so it's always of value having another player's insight and opinion. I believe both reviews highlight how guitars are still a product which is handmade, or at least assembeld by hand AND how guitars are dependent for quality on the nuances present in the wood - two "identical" guitars can be different, sometimes positvely and unfortunately, sometimes negatively. I am glad I watched YOUR review after watching Darrell's - not because one review is "better" than the other but because both are informative, detailed and honest.
Thank you for your super insightful and detailed comment! I think you definitely get it. Wood is wood, I like that perspective, there’s always going to be some artisanal aspect to its construction (unless it’s like Aristides, all aluminum). And of Course, your taste will ultimately be the only thing that matters! Ps. I love Darrel’s Review 🤣 that’s why I bought the guitar basically, his review pushed me off the edge! Anyway have a great week!
i love this guitar. its become my most used guitar over my 81 gibson custom, my jmjm jazz master, my hollow bodies...the minute i picked it up in the store the neck blew me away.. i specifically remember telling my girlfriend with an astonished look on my face "this is the nicest neck ive ever felt". as someone else mentioned, the string falling off the edge has never been an issue on this guitar for me but did happen alot with another charvel i bought, the pro mod dinky. i had to loosen the neck bolts and pull it over a bit and tighten them back down and that was gone. its my most versatile guitar but the only gripe i have is the matte finish. the obvious issues being the patchiness and shininess that come from playing it over and over... it also a very thin coat of paint before you hit the natural finish which started to happen on the edges within a few years of owning it. due to this i just sped up the process and did a relic job on it. added a flat black car vinyl wrap to the pickgaurd and i have to say i like it even more now. im looking for a natural one with the trem in place of my jmjm squier because any other guitar i pick up feels lacking in some aspect to these
Wow! Thank you for your nice comment friend!!! I think I might just do the neck thing, cause that’s the only playability issue I have, it’s such a nice feeling guitar, I even started to like the messed up look 🤣🤣 still I like i feel like in my ecosystem, it’s too different. I end un only using it when I want heavy heavy tones. But it does have tons of potential, I just don’t feel like changing all my settings every time I use it, but it is a killer guitar, at a killer deal! I’m not planning on ever getting rid of it, hopefully I never need to!, ps, I remember feeling the same about my other strat feeling like it was a bad guitar when I first got this one lol 🤣 I wasn’t until I got other guitars that I found myself and my tone and my taste! Incredible guitar!
Yeah, I was blown away by how great it felt and played. I just didn't find a vibe in it so I sold it and moved onto the DK24s. Too many voices in this for me. It's more a swiss army knife for a teacher or gigger. And the reverse headstock means you can't bend the trebles behind that nut - that and hardtail tuning stability is why I love teles but they take that part away just to be weird. But either way, now I don't really want any guitar that doesn't have a neck heel like that, and also a rear jack to put the wireless transmitter. The only thing that stops me from buying more Charvels is the finishes are mostly awful for my tastes. They don't do a tried and true burst, they just direct coat the ash with polyurethane. Or they make it blueish-pink or something.
I had Fishmans in my Strandberg...and I got rid of them...went for Bare Knuckles Aftermaths. I don't regret the move. Still want to try this Charvel. Love the look of it.
Yeah!! I feel you. That’s what i think of doing if I don’t sell it first, getting some nice pickups. This Charvel is a Great feeling and playing guitar, but I don’t love the sounds that much!! Thanks for commenting!
the matte finish is very thin before you get to the wood below and like all matte finishes the chance of shiny spots is an inevitability. by i relic'ed mine,wrapped the pickgaurd in flat black car vinyl and i love it even more now.
My frets on mine were perfect. The neck is absolutely perfect. Much better quality control than my American made Strat. I almost traded mine in as I like a thinner 9.5" radius neck BUT every time I think about trading her in I have a great session and can't part from it. I'm reminded of how versatile these pickups are and the neck is oh so butter smooth and just so pretty. It's a pretty amazing guitar in my opinion especially at around $1k. I mostly prefer single coil sound and passive pickups but I think everyone should have one Active pickup setup and this one is super versatile. Also surprisingly the split coil sounds are pretty good and I usually hate humbucker split sound. Again very versatile. My only gripe is the weight. It's pretty heavy for a tele even if it is a super tele.
I’m so glad you’re happy with yours!! After owning mine for like two years, I’ve decided, Mine is dog! I got fret sprout AGAIN, I had to adjust the neck so the hi e wouldn’t fall off the fretboard, but, it’s still half ok, it’s like the bridge doesn’t align with the size of the neck, like it’s too wide😓😓 mine has great weight though, 7 pounds 12oz! But, like you said, I love playing that neck. Very smooth and easy to play. Anyway, thanks for your comment my friend!! I appreciate it and I’m glad you hit the Charvel Pro mod lottery! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
@@Itsjorgelanzas I'm not so sure my purchase was luck. The majority of people I've seen commenting on this guitar and other charvel's have been pretty positive and often say man I wish Fender America non custom had this level of quality control. Of course this could be anecdotal and happenstance of the choice of people and/or online communities I have looked into but I've mostly heard good things on their quality control. Regardless that a big bummer yours has had so many issues. I'd be pretty upset if I were you and would just about write this brand off if I had those issues. 🤷🏼
I know. Honestly, all guitars have issues. Some, we’re never even gonna notice and some we’re willing to overlook. I’m passed that phase, I think they’re a good option for a particular demographic, and I’m not in it. Under 1k, my demographic is better served with a prs se. But, I get that some people, depending on their demographic will prefer this Charvel. I’ve strongly considered changing the pickups and see if I use it more in the studio, but, idk., I don’t wanna throw money into a guitar that at this point I don’t wanna keep, but I sort of have to lol maybe I’ll just drop some 11s on it and turn it into my C# guitar and call it a day. Thanks for your nice comment my friend! You raise lots of valid points.
I have had great experiences with the charvel pro mod san dimas models. I have two of them now and they play and sound great. The rolled fretboards feel great and I love the no load tone pots. I do understand your issue wirh the high e string slipping off the fretboard. I had an evh wolfgang that would do that and all I could really do was be mindful of it when playing.
Thank you for sharing with us! If you still have the issue with your evh, scroll through the comments! There’s a very interesting one about how to go about fixing it! 🙌🏻 have a great one friend!
@@michaelvaldez5453 I miss my wolfgang, it was an absolute tone machine. I did a straight trade for Kramer baretta vintage and it wasn't even close in terms of build quality, playability, and sound.
If your string is slipping off the board that's a skill issue. You need to work on your fretting, simple as. I used to do that when I had a heavy hand. Play spirit of radio riff over and over with those pulloffs and that won't happen.
I think you are A MILLION PERCENT CORRECT!! For you and me, I think that’s the way. I’ve been contemplating that idea lately. I have a pair of PRS se pickups laying around, I feel like that would fix it for me. These Fishman pups are just not my vibe. Thank you for your nice comment!! Definitely I feel you are giving the key for whoever feels like we do! Let me highlight your comment 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Thank you so much for your nice comment!! I think you definitely need to play both of them, they share like the same shape, but the sound and materials are so different!! On its own, I love the sound of this one but I hardly use it in recording, it doesn’t give me the sound I need except when playing downtuned heavy metal riffs, then, it’s my favorite 🤣🤣🤣 but to play the music I make, every song I try to use it there’s always something off putting about the tone so I end up replacing it with a LP or my PRS. Which saddens me, I wish I would use it more for my job and not just for fun at home playin like deftones and stuff 🤣 anyway, thanks again for your comment friend
Your animations for the pickups selection you were on were incorrect half the time. You highlighted the bridge humbucker when you were playing on the neck position for most of the time towards the end... And secondly when you were like "is it me or the vintage paf voice sounds better?" . It's cause you confused voice 1 for voice 2.... It sounded better cause you were actually on the modern voice , but you thought you were selecting the vintage voice. You were basically confused almost the entire time. Which definitely lends to your dissatisfaction overall. Smh
I know, when I did the modern Vs vintage I left it on the bridge ring and forgot to switch to the neck. But, the mode is still what the animations say. That toggle down is modern and up is vintage! So I stand, vintage sounds better in this example and I’m still disappointed with the sound of this guitar, i think it’s a metal guitar with split coils. Feels great, plays really nice but the pickups even though called the “classics” they’re definitely METAL PICKUPS I was hoping that they would have more character, but they’re too compressed for my taste. 🙌🏻 have a great day my friend!
@@Itsjorgelanzas I don't know what you're setup is , but this guitar isn't just a "metal" guitar . Btw yes you're right the toggle was correct despite the animation display . That being said, when vintage voice sounded better than modern ( I thought so too but ONLY in your demo ) , it was definitely the opposite of what I've heard from all the demos on RU-vid AND my own tone testing ( again, I own this guitar ). Your demo and whatever setup you have is the only time I've ever thought the tones sounded better on vintage voice. Besides that, the modern is clearer , a bit more scooped, and has LESS compression . So the fact that you got MORE compression out of the modern voice selection makes no sense. When the vintage voice is definitely more compressed and low mid /mid heavy which makes it sound more compressed and honky cause the lows and highs are cut and therefore you get a squished tone . Modern voice on the fishmans does NOT have that whatsoever . Again, this guitar sounds so good, and sounds WAYYYYYY better than what we hear in this demo . You would've liked it more if the tone wasn't crap . Some people just don't know how to EQ and apply compression to their signal properly. And when you don't, you end up with awful tone, regardless of how brilliant the pickups were . As the owner of this EXACT guitar, it sounds great for classic rock, modern metal, fusion etc. I can dial in an amazing jazz tone on the voice 3 single coil neck. A proper tele /split coil tone on voice 3 for Midwest emo/mathrock . Twang on the single coil bridge. Classic rock on the neck and bridge humbuckers on classic voice. And progressive and fusion on voice 2 modern. That "character" you're lacking is due to your signal chain, EQ and compression settings which I can obviously see. But I know for a fact since I literally own this guitar, fishamans has a lot of character out of the box. But it can get even more character and more brilliant tone if you know how to EQ, compress, EQ amp settings, and run a proper signal chain and not stacking drives or something improperly . Alot of people have crappy tone because they don't know how to dial it in. And they always think it's the pickups fault . You can make stock squier pickups sound incredible if your signal chain is on point , your amp EQ is on point, you eq , compress and properly gain stage the guitar before it hits the amp ( doesn't matter if it's real amp or modeler or plugin) . It's the users fault. Not the guitar . Not the pickups.
I’m glad you like your guitar friend! 🙌🏻🙌🏻 enjoy it, play it! Keep getting all your AMAZING sounds! I hope you reach all your goals with it!! 😊 so good to see a happy Charvel costumer!!
Had this guitar, with the 510 style trem, and hated everything but the neck! The QC was absolutely TRASH!!! Loose tuners, one of the string trees actually fell out, nut was cut way too low, truss rod wheel was missing, input jack and selector switch were missing a screw, the screws to adjust the pickup height were stripped, and the frets were ABSOLUTE ATROSCIOUS!!! After addressing the majority of the issues and set up "properly" the tuning instability was HORRIBLE and the final straw to be sent back. Was my 3rd attempt at a Charvel and my LAST!!!
I feel you man. It seems that’s a serious issue then. I’ve heard of 3 other similar cases. I’m thinking a lot of it may have to do with wood procurement. Analyzing it closely, I kinda want to say that the woods are not cured enough by the time they build the guitars. I hope you have a couple other good guitars that you love to make up for it! Good day! 🙌🏻 ps. I was thinking about buying a different Charvel hahahaa but you scared me hahahaha
@Now, We Break It DOWN I've had this one, the regular Pro Mod HH 2PT, and a So Cal Style 1 HH M. ALL of them had major QC issues. The So Cal Style 1 was even missing the shims under the locking nut! To me, IMO, Charvels are DEFINITELY NOT worth the price! Look into Schecters, Kramer Vintage, or hell even a Cort G300 Pro are better priced and have better QC. 🤘✌️
no scientific data, so I can say: they are not, it is word against word why would they, these guitars have nothing in common except headstock and front body shape A good Fender Vintera MIM in same price range sounds a lot different, may have quite a bit different neck profile, finish etc I like some modern ergonomics on Charvel body, input jack placement, belly cut, good hardware Yet neck feel weird to me, the shape is weird, kind of slight D, it is a preference thing, but I prefer many guitars to that one, and the neck finish is bad, just gets stained easily, like in old Peavey Wolfgang guitars, lacquered neck is much easier in maintenance, and you can make it satin if needed. I've also had one with exposed frets as it dried in the shop warehouse. I hope they will offer lacquered necks eventually, swamp ash body, ebony fingerboard, modern fret markers or none, lately you can get ash but in quite different finishes
Yessir!!! I’d say is without a doubt a better than “good” guitar! And it’s a nice option at the price, range if that’s what you’re looking for! Thanks for your comment!
They’re great in many different ways! I love to play this guitar unplugged, it really has a great feel I’m not a fishman pickup I guess, super amazing for metal and hard rock though!
Great guitars, for the price, it annoys me that they almost nailed this guitar, they need to align the necks better, I hate that hi e getting off the fretboard 😅😅 but, I’m loving it for hard riffs and metal downtuned sounds, as long as I don’t try to solo with that high e 🤣 thank you for you’re comment friend! 🤘🏻🤘🏻
Yeah, I stand by what I say here, that it’s amazing if you play metal or something that needs ultra high gain and a nice feeling neck, but it’s a little hit or miss, I’ve heard of a lot of people having that issue with the high E jumping off the neck and so, and the sound, I just think I’m not a Fishman kinda of guy, I like passive pickups for the most part, this one is a little too foreign of a tone, I need to tweak several things on my rig everytime I wanna use it for anything that is not metal. And then, go back 🤣🤣🤣 so I end up just using it like my toy, I downtuned it and have a blast playing early 2000s nu metal 🤣🤣🤣 anyway thanks for your comment friend!! 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
