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!
