Unboxing and Review, Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style2 24 HH 2PT 

Thanks a lot for your comment - have fun 🎸😎

Thanks a lot.

Thanks a lot for your comment!

You can get this in either a whammy or hardtail. Looks killer. Might be my next guitar. I have 1 other charvel with a floyd rose and it never goes out of tune.

Wow, thanks!

Thanks so much for your positive feedback!

Thanks a lot - feel free to bring em' on ;-)

Hope you like it a much as I do.

@@RockGuitarVibes I think I do! Great playing and sounding axe. I do wish the 2pt model came in antique white or some other colors but the satin black finish is actually quite nice with the wood grain visible. I also bought it mainly for the Fluence pickups which are very versatile.

How did the Plek thing work out for you. I was debating but have also heard the fretwork is nice to begin with

@@kane6529 it is pretty awesome. The fretwork is definitely good already but its even better after the plek. I recommend.

Many thanks for the positive feedback - means a lot to me. Wish you the best!

Sounds pretty interesting - I love watching such videos...

Oh, thanks a lot - maybe I should go to Hollywood to start a career 🤣 Anyway, you made my day!

Thanks a lot for your great comment - yeah, these Charvels are really good!

May I ask what about the trem made you not like it? I’ve been eying this guitar for a while and have been torn between the white hardtail and the natural one with the trem. I like the look of the white one more but I’ve always thought it’d be awesome to have a trem on a tele. I’m currently selling most of old gear trying to save up for this and plan for it to be my main guitar, so if the trem is gonna cause me too many problems I’ll should probably go with the hardtail I suppose. I tend to be play pretty rough, strumming hard and tons of bends. I don’t want to have to be retuning every few minutes when I’m trying to jam out

@@Im_alex_h The trem system itself is the Gotoh Custom 510 and is great quality. It functioned well and held tune with no issues at all. The guitar comes with 9's from the factory so when I moved up to my preferred 10's on restring I made very slight adjustments to the spring tension screws to compensate and again had ZERO issues. It really boiled down to me not being a huge trem guy. That's all. I much prefer the feel of the hardtail. The reason I went with the 2 point trem model initially was because I really liked the rustic sort of finish on the ash body over the smooth alder hardtail, but after owning both, I can say tone, resonance and sustain are equally great on both instruments. They are both fantastic guitars and for the price point you can't go wrong with either. The versatility of this instrument is off the charts. The hardtail in white is gorgeous and although I went with the black on both of mine it was a hard choice and not without much debate. I hope this helped and that I didn't add to the confusion. I would fully recommend both and the choice really comes down to your play style and preference. Please feel free to ask additional questions and if you would be so kind, let me know which one you chose!

@@kriegwulfe8083 Let me hijack this comment with the additional question if you don't mind :) I just asked my local store to get me the hardtail version (the blue one, I'd prefer the "natural ash" finish but the alder hardtail version doesn't come in that color so blue is the next best thing). I don't like owning a lot of gear and I was looking for a main guitar "that could do it all". With that in mind, I have a question about the pickups. I do a fair bit of direct recording (straight into the interface or via my HX Stomp) and I've read conflicting reports about Fishman Fluence pickups when it comes to noise. Some say they are quieter than passive alternatives, some say they suffer less from interference but produce more white noise. What is your experience with them? Thanks in advance for the answer.

@@Lynx33PL This instrument would be a solid choice for main if you were looking for versatility and playability at a price point that can't be beat. I play through a Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 40 with two H&K 112's stacked and I find these pickups to be as close to noiseless as one can get. To be fair, I haven't recorded with it through an interface yet so I'm no expert. Wolfgang is a much more qualified person to ask. His reviews are honest, unbiased, and spot on in my opinion. I very humbly defer to his expertise.

Hope you'll get it soon it's really worth every penny.

Thanks a lot!

I hope so too!

Hi. I was wondering what your longer term impression is with this model? Is there any hum when in bridge and neck split coil mode? Cheers

Congrats you've picked the only real tube amp - for the crunch sound I've used the König combo with a BOSS OD-200 in X-Drive mode. A review of the OD-200 is in progress and will be released soon. For all other sounds I've used an Axe FX III.

that's the power of the Fishman pickups... I don't know what sort of magic goes into their fabrication but they just sound "fuller" and "richer" than any other pickup I tried and seem to be sooo versatile.

I bought this guitar last week because of the fishmen. I read about them before hand and heard that they are the most innovative since the invention of the single coil in the 30s

@@zynosgd9982 they use a different sort of make up. It's a relatively new concept from what I understand. Makes the transitions between notes pretty much seamless

@@PaulWhite-rc3zn Can I ask what your longer term impression is with this model? I was thinking about a purchase. Is there any hum using the bridge or neck single coils? Cheers

@@keithb5612 best guitar i have ever owned. I never experienced an issues. Quiet when it needed to be. Played 4 or 5 venues with this guitar and it never disappointed. Very lightweight and packs a punch.

Thanks for your comment. It's the same - means same neck profile, nut and frets.

From the specs I clearly prefer the Charvel - the pickups provide more tone options, a roasted neck with 24 frets and a tremolo. Both are made in Mexico.

How's the routing for the pickups? I want a 24 frets HSS tele, this is the closest one I found...

@@aeg_music It is a HH config. To be honest, if you want this guitar for metal/hard rock i would stay away. You will not get a well focused, tight, snappy tone. Its airy, soft, suited for other genres. Might be other style 2 version with a hard tail, alder is better.

Glad to hear it! Yes, it comes along with locking tuners - they work great. Tuning stability is pretty good but not as good as a double locking tremolo like the FR - anyway, for me it's good enough.

No, but a spare battery can help - before having a gig I would put in a new battery. Also a battery indicator LED can help - see my tweaking video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hnmVJD6zwwI.html

Yes, you have to tune all strings - you can also install a trem blocking system like the Tremol-No to avoid this issue. For the springs I'm using the default setup - see ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ecycPMo72lY.html

@@RockGuitarVibes Thank you sir for the insights!

The neck profile is small but not too small - the scale length is 25.5 inch. If you are used to play guitars with a shorter scale length you'll possibly need some more time to change. The neck width at the 12th fret is 52.3mm - which is around 1mm more than on a regular Strat. Some players prefer those wider necks. Just give it a try and don't give up - it should be doable.

Fantastic, I measured up my gretsch 5655gt and it’s almost identical in scale and width at the 12th fret so that wouldn’t be a problem. Thanks very much for your response :)

Rock Guitar Vibes just one more question. Is the guitar well weighted or neck heavy?

It has to be screwed in - these Gotoh trems are pretty good.

Definitely not fat. On the lower frets it's more a flat C on the higher frets it's a bit slimmer.

I've also considered to install these saddles but because tuning stability is already pretty good I'm not quite sure if it is waste of money - will see... AFAIK it should work but no guarantee, sorry.

Tuning is pretty good but double locking can only make it better...I will install them on mine when they become available. I'm not to big on the one point locking...Makes no sense to me... The neck is truly amazing but frets are gritty and need some attention...

A $1000 guitar?

Yes, its a floating tremolo.

@@RockGuitarVibes Ok, thank you for the response.

The neck feels absolutely smooth, no fret sproud or anything that hurts - however, fret ends are not rolled off.

@@RockGuitarVibes great wolfgang, many thankz.!

Thanks for watching - I'm from Germany.

@@RockGuitarVibes cheers. Nice video and you breakdown the review with no nonsense. Keep up to it!!

The Suhr sounds different and for most amp settings I would prefer the Suhr. However, don't expect that the Suhr is twice as good if it costs twice as much - that's not the case. The Charvels are very good but if you want to get the last 10% in perfection of sound and quality the Suhr is possibly the better choice. For me playability is superb on both guitars.

Sure - 1st fret 19.5mm, 12th fret 21mm, wood only - measured without fret height.

Yes, of course - because no battery means no sound!

I would say the neck shape is identical to the DK24.

@@RockGuitarVibes daaamn i was hoping it was beefier, you seem to know a lot about charvel guitars. Which neck seems beefier to you from same price range 700-1000?. I searched that guthrie govan charvel is beefier but cant afford that. Thanks a lot

@@juankmarte4046 The neck of the Ibanez AZ series is beefier and worth to give it a try.

Ja sicher, hängt aber auch vom verwendeten Amp ab.

@@RockGuitarVibes Gehe direkt ims audio Interface. Und wenns da schon zerrt ist einfach eklig.

Also a good choice - I wish they would offer more colors. Anyway, the satin black looks better than expected and is perfect for a minor modification which will be shown in one of the upcoming videos.

For me it's not a big issue - these frets are made pretty well. The only thing is that they are not as durable as stainless steel frets.

Thank You for the information ❤ Are the new Fishman Fluence Active Pickup Just jike EMGs Or have more versatile tones?

@@RockGuitarVibes Thank You So much for the Info ❤ Great videos U have🤘

Thanks for the addition.

Yeah, that's a matter of taste - for me it already looks better in reality than I would have expected from the pictures. Anyway, thanks for your comment.

Yeah, possibly - I think it's a matter of personal taste. Some people prefer the tone of silver-nickel frets. However, it's a fact that stainless steel frets live longer. Thanks for your comment and keep on rockin'

Yeah, that's guitar players life.

True - my Dinky is almost there...

@@RockGuitarVibes yes. That's what I felt when I tried the DK 24 2pt when they first came out. However, I'd rather have the fret work done right, than have stainless frets not installed and dressed properly. I've heard to many complaints about the Ibanez AZ and Sterling JP having dead notes and messy fretwork. I'll stick to Charvel; haven't heard any complaints about them except some of the earlier finishes having a bit of an orange peel effect. But the so cal style 2 finish looks flawless.

I'm pretty sure the intention of Charvel was *not* to build a Tele clone - I think the focus is on heavy rock.

Having the tonal options is an amazing thing. I have an ESP Horizon with coil splitting humbuckers and the sounds are insane I can get out of it. But when it's all said and done, this guitar isn't meant to be a Tele as Wolfgang said.

Take a look at my Charvel GG comparison video, the neck dimensions are equal to the Charvel Dinky MX.

@@RockGuitarVibes is the GG neck fatter than CalStyle2?or viceversa? I don't undestand your answer. Thanks

@@marysini1391 The GG neck is slightly fatter - you can find the exact values here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8OXTAuL4L8s.html

@@RockGuitarVibes oh thanks a lot for your patient and kind...

Glad you enjoyed it!