NGD Charvel DK24/upgrades

Chewie5150

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
Well after lusting for a Charvel for the last few years and engaging in various Charvel threads here I finally did it! Picked up this beauty for a great price used at my guitar shop. They brought in from another city location as I found the deal on their website. It's a Charvel DK24 MiM HH Carmelized maple neck, Quilt maple top in Chlorine burst finish. My first impressions were just wow! This neck feels incredible. Its not perfect but damn near perfect. It is just butter to play and I dare say it plays the easiest out of all my guitars ..maybe?.

The neck- it's made for my hands. I don't know the dimensions off hand but for my large hands this neck just feels like it was measured for me. It feels very close to my Music Man JP15 and it could be honeymoon effect here but it may even have the edge over the MM neck...minus the Stainless Steel frets of course on the JP15. I wish this Charvel had SS frets , then it'd be perfect. The action is so incredibly easy to play. My fingers are dancing around like ballerinas floating around.

The pickups - Seymour Full Shred SH-10b. I have not had this pickup ever before. Threw on my go to Marshall preset and started rippin. It's got that 80's mid range thing happening. Nice low end to it...but the midrange/highs are maybe a tad more than my usual liking. I need to give it more time before considering a possible pickup swap.

General: Finish is great. Weight is very light. Guitar feels very resonant. Tuning stability...ah yes the tuning stability. Too early to tell as I'll need to let the guitar acclimate to my basement after being down East.

I have a feeling this might be my go to guitar. CharvelDK24.jpgCharvelDK24b.jpg
 
Congrats, Chewie! Love my DK24 HSH. I agree on the neck. :)

My only beef with mine are the direct-mounted pickups and
the inability to adjust pickup height. I'd like to back that
Full Shred down a bit, but without routing the body it's not
gonna happen.
 
Of all my guitars this has the largest frets also. They are Jumbos and I believe my JP15 are medium jumbo. It's taking some adjusting especially when sliding as my finger hits those little speed bumps in a hurry. For bends the jumbos are great. Been playing pretty heavy last hour and this thing has some tuning issues. I suspect the nut so will either do some graphite or nut sauce. The G string in particular goes bad easily ...i yank on the trem up and down a bit and can get it back in tune so it must be catching at the nut
 
I have done a lot of mods to guitars and replaced all sorts of components but I'm embarrassed to say that I've never polished frets or done any kind of fret work. It's time I do, i'm sure my other guitars could use it as well. Pretty sure I'll be putting staggered tuners on this guitar and ditch the trees
 
By the way, that finish is gorgeous! I had a Washburn Steve Salas designed by Grover Jackson with nearly the same finish; makes me miss it.

And speaking of gorgeous, that window! Man, I love uncommon and creative architecture.
 
I've had mine for going on two years and it is bone stock. I have had ZERO tuning issues
with mine and I tend to be heavy handed.

Then again, I am a guy who also has 3 Gibsons in regular rotation and don't have any tuning
issues with those either. Go figure!
 
Chewie5150 said:
Well after lusting for a Charvel for the last few years and engaging in various Charvel threads here I finally did it! Picked up this beauty for a great price used at my guitar shop. They brought in from another city location as I found the deal on their website. It's a Charvel DK24 MiM HH Carmelized maple neck, Quilt maple top in Chlorine burst finish. My first impressions were just wow! This neck feels incredible. Its not perfect but damn near perfect. It is just butter to play and I dare say it plays the easiest out of all my guitars ..maybe?.

The neck- it's made for my hands. I don't know the dimensions off hand but for my large hands this neck just feels like it was measured for me. It feels very close to my Music Man JP15 and it could be honeymoon effect here but it may even have the edge over the MM neck...minus the Stainless Steel frets of course on the JP15. I wish this Charvel had SS frets , then it'd be perfect. The action is so incredibly easy to play. My fingers are dancing around like ballerinas floating around.

The pickups - Seymour Full Shred SH-10b. I have not had this pickup ever before. Threw on my go to Marshall preset and started rippin. It's got that 80's mid range thing happening. Nice low end to it...but the midrange/highs are maybe a tad more than my usual liking. I need to give it more time before considering a possible pickup swap.

General: Finish is great. Weight is very light. Guitar feels very resonant. Tuning stability...ah yes the tuning stability. Too early to tell as I'll need to let the guitar acclimate to my basement after being down East.

I have a feeling this might be my go to guitar. View attachment 102520View attachment 102521
Click to expand...
Sweet!
 
Chewie5150 said:
Yeah those are nanoleaf light panels. @la szum have you thought about replacing the pickup(s)?
Click to expand...

I haven't, Chewie. It's kind of my 80's/hard rock/metal guitar and that Full Shred is the only pickup
in any guitar I have that is that hot. So I decided to roll with it and let it be what it is. :)

The 2 and 4 positions are surprisingly good for some borderline Strat-like quack, too.
 
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