Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

always SD · Nov 29, 2014

hello

have you bought some San dimas or so cal with sh1 sh4 or 2 sh6 ?

your reviews!!

have you made a comparison with a strat ?

what about the clean sounds?

the precision when you play fast, the notes

and with a hsh +floyd, i only see some VIgier excalibur or ESP in ssh
with stk s4 /sh4

good to READ SOME reviews here too

Funkfingers · Nov 29, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

A friend of mine has a 2012 San Dimas with the '59n and JB pickups. IMO, the only way in which this guitar is comparable to a Fender Stratocaster is in its overall outline.

Arguably, changing the stock three-way toggle selector switch to a Freeway 3x3-03 six-way would open up possibilities for automated coil-splitting a la Fender Big Apple / Double Fat Stratocaster. Even after doing this, the CSD isn't going to replicate a true Stratocaster sound.

The Charvel is built for speedy Rock playing through overdriven amplification.

JOLLY · Nov 29, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

yeah, they are nothing like a Strat.

Archer250 · Nov 29, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

The clean sound is good. But if you want a strat, get a strat.

Archer250 · Nov 29, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

There are also Charvel Wildcards, several Yamaha, and several Ibanez guitars with SSH setup.

Lake Placid Blues · Nov 30, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

I have an original from the 80s "San Dimas" Charvel and several strats. Back then Charvel was a true custom shop. You could get a guitar built of any possible design, including SSS and the same woods as a vintage Fender and so forth. But there are some typical differences between a Charvel strat and a Fender Strat. Its not just the pickups. A Charvel will usually sound fatter with driving sustain regardless of pickups. Much of it has to do with the bridge.

A Charvel even without a Floyd has a different bridge than a Fender Strat. Charvel's original six point vintage design has a big fat brass block with brass saddles. A Floyd has big posts driven into the body like a tom, and a good Floyd has a big block.

A good Charvel has a perfectly matched neck body joint with more contact area and big heal neck. with plenty of wood in it.

A Charvel is usually a one trick poney but it does that trick better than any other. It is usually a no compromize instrument. A Fender Strat has a lot of versatility.

always SD · Nov 30, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

thanks
look at that too

and what do you think about this versatile guitar?
better than a strat and a san dimas?

http://www.espguitars.com/products/10044-e-ii-st-1-maple-aqm?category_id=1963536-st-series-guitars
Seymour Duncan STK s4
Middle PU
Seymour Duncan STK s4
Bridge PU
Seymour Duncan TB-5

always SD · Dec 1, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

in fact, i look for the most versatile super strat
= a vintage sound (and funk/blues) in the neck position

but good with sustain and disto too

+ the 2d and 4th position
+big power and harmonics for the bridge position

so

the choices are

HSH
sh1 (or sh2) +ssl1+sh4 + splits to single coils
=a san dimas +ssl1

SH
or a Ibanez js with a Satch track+ a humbucker + splits

OR SSH
= stk s4+ stk s4 + sh4/6

+Clapton boost for the first pickups (for example)

i don't know how sounds a stk s4: it seems to be a vintage boosted pickup

9k

a guitare like a San dimas/so cal with modifications

or some Esp
i don't know

i hope to try it soon

GuitarStv · Dec 1, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

I have a Charvel So Cal with the EVO neck and Tone Zone bridge. I swapped pickguards, stuck in a 5-way super switch and a push pull tone pot that's only connected on the single coil splits. It is very versatile with nice stratty clean sounds and retains all the original tones. This guitar works for everything . . . reggae, funk, blues, jazz, rock, metal.

greekdude · Dec 1, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

A strat can do metal. A metal-only guitar (HH) cannot do strat. But a strat cannot do LP either, and of course the LP is far from doing any strat. IMHO an HSH super strat could be the basis for a very versatile guitar, or maybe HSS with mid and neck being rails. My Aria strat has fast track2/fast track 1/the copper with push/pull for series/parallel in both bridge and neck (needed for switch between metal tone to rock tone), bridge wired to the tone pot (to do this Pink Floyd "shine on you crazy diamond" intro solo), and a toggle on-off switch to add bridge in every position (basically to bring all pups together in parallel or just have bridge and neck together giving this tele-tone). This guitar *is* the most versatile I have. The only thing it cannot do is the LP neck and mid positions (due to scale/geometry I guess).

Lake Placid Blues · Dec 1, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

I think a Charvel So Cal with an HSS (or HSH) pick guard is what you want. A Fender strat with the same pickup combination would be fine, but I recall from previous posts you also want a Floyd. Well the So Cal comes with a recessed Floyd right from the factory.

I also think your trying to make pickups compensate for your amp's gain limitations. You won't need onboard boosts and/or high output pickups in the neck position if you have the right amp. Its always interesting to see debates if EVH used a Super Distortion or a PAF on the early recordings. It wasn't the pup it was the Plexi. A neck humbucker can be split for a notch position tone with the middle pickup, but a neck humbucker can't do a neck single coil by itself. You have to decide which tone you want from that position.

You need a high gain amp for what you want to do (based on other posts), not an onboard pre-amp or a hot neck position pickup. Jet City amps are Soldanos priced for the masses as one option.

koshikas · Dec 1, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

a worthy mention to get any SSS setup into HSS territory would be the SSL-5 in the bridge. that has enough mids and bottom to get humbucker like sound while maintaining clarity of single coils.

Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

treyhaislip · Dec 1, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

I would say the HSS with the JB and Hotrails combination would work very well–I've used that in 3 different guitars and loved it–a Charvel, a Jackson, and a LTD. They are very hot pickups that can handle metal while also getting some great Strat tones with a bit more "power" feel, IMO.

IMENATOR · Dec 1, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

I got myself a SoCal because (1) It is the most similar the most desireble superstrat for my taste, yet bein able to mod at will by changing pickguard (2) I wanted to try the distortion set, I had already tried JB, Jazz, STK-S10n and a few other. (3) I already had a strat that imho had a few weak features that I really wanted to improve with the Charvel.

Playability. the fretboard is slighly wider. This can be a good thing if you have fat and short finger tips like me but it makes hendrix-like thumb on string a bit more dificult, I was not able to do that with my strat anyway. But the most noticible difference is the fret radius and size, Charvel has bigger and flatter frets which allows you for a better grip on the string when bending and avoid string buzz that I would sometimes have with my strat on big bends. Ah, I almost forgot, this is a non-gloss maple neck and fretboard, very comfortable and I always wanted to have a maple freboard, it feels as comfortable as the rosewood fretboard of my strat.

Tone. The distortion set is a killer set! It is absolutely great for those who want to play metal. I compared the sound of my Charvel with the sound of my Strat and definietly it has more power. The distortion set however lacks on versatility, imho the neck is so great for high gain soloing but it is kind od a dark neck tone for clean, similar comment for bridge pcikup, I found myself using the middle position every time I wanted to play clean tone with the Charvel SoCal, not as brigth or sparkly as the JB/Jazz middle position but still nice and very usable for clean tone.

Bridge. The Charvel has an OEM Floyd Rose which is very for my needs since it is a recessed one. My MIM strat has an old FoyldRose II bridge that does the job but the fine tunnig was not very smooth even when it was new. The fine tuning for the OEM FR in the Charvel is smooth and I really enjoy it.

22 vs 21 frets. I wanted a 22 fret guitar to reach a high E with bend and still allow the neck tone to shine but now I learned changing the pickguard requires unbolting the neck. If you don't need that extra fret and make frequent pickguard changes then stay on 21.

ehdwuld · Dec 2, 2014

Re: Charvel san dimas, so cal / fender strat

Wait a minute

Doesn't Fender have a hsh floyded blacktop
At half the price of the Charvel

*(Sent from my durned phone!)*

greekdude · Dec 2, 2014