Guthrie Govan FM9 Rig Rundown & Article

Admin M@ said:
The vice president of design for EVH and Charvel was let go this week in massive layoffs at Fender ("hundreds" of people).
They're hiring "robotics engineers", so it looks like changes could be coming in how they produce instruments.
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This is in fact correct. He was actually cut a few weeks ago and I can't really speak here to it, however my inside thoughts are this.

-Cost - really highly paid and I do not thing it had to do specifically with quality to the customer necessarily as it did with customer/quality service once a product was in hand as well as redo's on the inside. In fact. a huge amount of EVH/Charvels have to go back into the pipeline for quality issues.

The other thing is flawed product to the customer - I can mostly talk to the Guthrie line since that is our instrument we use wit FMIC.

Along with just unreal things that show up on the customer's door.
 
Romo82 said:
I went to a large music store before the gig in Toronto and tried a bunch of high end guitars. I live rurally so haven’t been to a well stocked store in a long time and really wanted to check a few top shelf goods. One of the bunch I tried was his USA Charvel and it was disappointing. The set up on most of their high end, $4k+ guitars including Suhr’s, Tom Anderson’s, Fender Custom Shop, PRS, Friedman etc. were appalling, and I mean embarrassingly so. Actions were so inconsistent across them all it was hard to tell which came from the factory in that way (and if so, should fire the QC staff) and which ones had been “set up” by the store (who should be shown how to set up a guitar).

The Charvel GG wasn’t the worst of them but definitely underwhelmed in the state it was, I’d really like to try one properly set because the tones were good. Interestingly the best of the few I tried were a Phil Collen USA Jackson and a John Suhr Signature, the worst were a Suhr Classic S and a Tom Anderson Drop Top.

My buddy also paid $50 for a replacement Ibanez trem bar, $50!!!!!

Anyway, tangent aside, awesome gig!
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im just assuming that the shop isnt maintaining their guitars
 
Romo82 said:
Yup, the GG Charvel had huge amounts of deep pick marks on it. I bet that thing gets abused like a “you know what”.
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That is sad. However the finish on the GG is a bit fragile, on mine I have actually dug a hole in a weak spot in the extremely figured ash. Through the finish into the wood. It really does need a pickguard. But that doesn't detract from how awesome a guitar it is. Another thing; the neck resonance feels different from most other guitars I have; it took awhile to get used to it but I learned to love it now. I think that must be due to the carbon fiber reinforcement in the neck; that was the big reason I waited to get one as I have had bad experiences with carbon fiber in guitar necks. But the GG (as well as my Strandberg) are great with the reinforcement.

I just got the Govan Late Night Sessions set from JTC, and he gets mighty sweet tones from the Axe FX II, arguably as good as any other recorded tones I've heard from him (never seen him live though).
 
MKB99 said:
That is sad. However the finish on the GG is a bit fragile, on mine I have actually dug a hole in a weak spot in the extremely figured ash. Through the finish into the wood. It really does need a pickguard. But that doesn't detract from how awesome a guitar it is. Another thing; the neck resonance feels different from most other guitars I have; it took awhile to get used to it but I learned to love it now. I think that must be due to the carbon fiber reinforcement in the neck; that was the big reason I waited to get one as I have had bad experiences with carbon fiber in guitar necks. But the GG (as well as my Strandberg) are great with the reinforcement.

I just got the Govan Late Night Sessions set from JTC, and he gets mighty sweet tones from the Axe FX II, arguably as good as any other recorded tones I've heard from him (never seen him live though).
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That looks like a great set, on sale too.
 
Brucegregori said:
This is in fact correct. He was actually cut a few weeks ago and I can't really speak here to it, however my inside thoughts are this.

-Cost - really highly paid and I do not thing it had to do specifically with quality to the customer necessarily as it did with customer/quality service once a product was in hand as well as redo's on the inside. In fact. a huge amount of EVH/Charvels have to go back into the pipeline for quality issues.

The other thing is flawed product to the customer - I can mostly talk to the Guthrie line since that is our instrument we use wit FMIC.

Along with just unreal things that show up on the customer's door.
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I can attest to this. My Charvel from 3 years ago is great. In the past year I have sent 2 brand new Charvels back due
to really flawed quality control. Sad.
 
I had a 2014 Guthrie Govan for several years that was just amazing. I had to sell, unfortunately for financial reasons. I regret it. Need to get another one. Killer guitar.
 
Romo82 said:
Yup, the GG Charvel had huge amounts of deep pick marks on it. I bet that thing gets abused like a “you know what”.
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That's why I NEVER buy wall hangers at big box outlet music stores. They should be sold as "used."
 
la szum said:
I can attest to this. My Charvel from 3 years ago is great. In the past year I have sent 2 brand new Charvels back due
to really flawed quality control. Sad.
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To be completely honest - the quality is still fairly high. Much if it had to with a personnel/management and some things happening on the afternoon shift more than anything. We took in about 10 Guthrie's last year and with the exception of an instance, the quality and set up was incredible. FMIC is a big big company and they have, at times, some issues. Bob Benedetto was rumored to take a Hammer to the guitars being made there when he inspected them...I never asked him - but maybe I will..lol.

The MJ models were flawless - but that is typical from the Ibanez plant (usually).

It is amazing sometimes to thing that everyone knows Fender and Fractal and the size difference is so great.

With Covid, the factory had to take every piece of equipment out, clean the empty factory and the equipment and put it all back. Some of that equipment was placed there when the place was first opened. It took months - in fact some necks on the new guitars are still dated 2019....crazy.
 
hippietim said:
So I've got one of Guthrie's signature Charvels and an FM9 - now all I have to do is learn to play!
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Yeah, that is "all", lol. I have his Creative Guitar Series in actual old school book format. Incredible amount of things I wished I'd learned years ago. Those Charvels are nice, I'm jealous. I went with a Suhr HSH which was actually less expensive. So I can't blame anything on my gear that's for sure! Good luck and have a great time playing man!!
 
Brucegregori said:
To be completely honest - the quality is still fairly high. Much if it had to with a personnel/management and some things happening on the afternoon shift more than anything. We took in about 10 Guthrie's last year and with the exception of an instance, the quality and set up was incredible. FMIC is a big big company and they have, at times, some issues. Bob Benedetto was rumored to take a Hammer to the guitars being made there when he inspected them...I never asked him - but maybe I will..lol.

The MJ models were flawless - but that is typical from the Ibanez plant (usually).

It is amazing sometimes to thing that everyone knows Fender and Fractal and the size difference is so great.

With Covid, the factory had to take every piece of equipment out, clean the empty factory and the equipment and put it all back. Some of that equipment was placed there when the place was first opened. It took months - in fact some necks on the new guitars are still dated 2019....crazy.
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Wow! That sounds totally unreasonable and non-sensical.
 
la szum said:
Wow! That sounds totally unreasonable and non-sensical.
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Probably has to do with the the air/sanding/buffing/blowing, etc machines used to catch airborne stuff and other things. Almost all of the 2022 guitars have a 2021 date and two of them we got in this spring have 2019 dates. Maybe started, shipped out to where ever and brought back in to get finished once things opened up. Still, a lot of fall out and it is not over yet...!
 
la szum said:
It does seem like stores and on line retailers have stock in hand now, which is not something
I have seen in the last 2 years.
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For sure. The MJ models were announced in July 2021. Expected out Fall of 2021. Re-announced in Feb 2022. Expected out March 2022. They finally hit the US in June 2022. England got them in mid May. Almost two full years from announcement to in store. The other thing is Fender's policy now is different than it used to be. They have a model more like PRS. You have to buy the product to order vs when it comes in. That is a big change and one that could have prompted some "management" revisions at FMIC and their production levels.
 
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