NGD Charvel DK24/upgrades

Chewie5150 said:
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
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With a compound polish they will feel nice for your fingers; with a graduated abrasive like the erasers it will feel nice and smooth for your strings.
 
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
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I've never played or tried out a Charvel that didn't play awesome and I loved the tone and feel of them. That one is a beauty!
 
That is stunning! Congrats! One thing with the full shred, I also find it bright so I usually roll the Tone back to 7 or 8 when I play my HSS DK24. And it's great because when you want that 80s bright you can go dime the Tone again and it's right there.
 
chucma said:
That is stunning! Congrats! One thing with the full shred, I also find it bright so I usually roll the Tone back to 7 or 8 when I play my HSS DK24. And it's great because when you want that 80s bright you can go dime the Tone again and it's right there.
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True, its that brightness that actually really shines for that 80s rock and will experiment more with the Tone knob
 
I also forgot to comment on the neck...

After having owned the MIM for a few years and my USA Select for about a year, I can say that they are the best feeling and fitting necks I've ever experienced.

I don't have particularly large hands but mine love that neck shape and the silky feel.
 
unix-guy said:
I also forgot to comment on the neck...

After having owned the MIM for a few years and my USA Select for about a year, I can say that they are the best feeling and fitting necks I've ever experienced.

I don't have particularly large hands but mine love that neck shape and the silky feel.
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Following your lead from your thread detailing your experiences with tuning stability and just ordered the GraphTec ratio staggered tuners. Next gonna order some polishing supplies for frets. Think i'll go with those stewmac erasers. Down the road I can see myself getting the wilkinson locking saddles. With these relatively low cost upgrades , I cant' see it being all that different than the USA selects models that are 2K higher price tag
 
Speaking of fret erasers what are the essential grit ranges you figure I should use? @Andy Eagle you around here buddy? thoughts? stewmac has an set of 5 or 7. My guess is i'm not needing or shouldn't need to remove much metal of a relatively new guitar so likely the higher grits like 1200 +

Complete Set of 7 grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, 2000, 4000, and 8000.
Essential Set of 5 includes these grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, and 2000.

little pricey. I see fret erasers on amazon for much cheaper. Are fret erasers pretty much all the same? in terms of quality I mean
 
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Chewie5150 said:
Speaking of fret erasers what are the essential grit ranges you figure I should use? @Andy Eagle you around here buddy? thoughts? stewmac has an set of 5 or 7. My guess is i'm not needing or shouldn't need to remove much metal of a relatively new guitar so likely the higher grits like 1200 +

Complete Set of 7 grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, 2000, 4000, and 8000.
Essential Set of 5 includes these grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, and 2000.

little pricey. I see fret erasers on amazon for much cheaper. Are fret erasers pretty much all the same? in terms of quality I mean
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If you want to get technical there can be a difference in quality, but it couldn't hurt to try the cheaper option. Stewmac are notorious over-chargers, but most of their products are good quality. I think you would get nice results with either set but if you're spending the money I would just get more grits.
 
Chewie5150 said:
Speaking of fret erasers what are the essential grit ranges you figure I should use? @Andy Eagle you around here buddy? thoughts? stewmac has an set of 5 or 7. My guess is i'm not needing or shouldn't need to remove much metal of a relatively new guitar so likely the higher grits like 1200 +

Complete Set of 7 grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, 2000, 4000, and 8000.
Essential Set of 5 includes these grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, and 2000.

little pricey. I see fret erasers on amazon for much cheaper. Are fret erasers pretty much all the same? in terms of quality I mean
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The Baroque Fret Erasers 180-400-1000-1500-2000, pictured above, do a perfect job for just $19.72. I've been using them for several years.

I do not find myself in the need to use 4000 or 8000. 2000 leaves a smooth and shiny finish
 
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Nice. Have a trio of Charvel's myself. Have a San Dimas in the color you have there and a DK24 FR in root beer burst. Love them both. And yeah, Charvel's always just seem like they fit perfectly right out of the box. I couldn't get past the nasaly tone out of that full shred. So I yanked it out and had a Suhr Doug Aldrich put in place of it and have been very happy with it. My DK24 is my go to.
 
I am no expert, but I believe there is a difference between fret polishing, and using fret erasers (fret dressing). You can polish the frets with a lot of different items, and remove virtually no metal. Two examples would be a jewelry polishing cloth (one made for silver, not gold) and Gorgomyte (which is what I use to polish my frets and they feel silky smooth afterward and look brand spanin' new). The erasers, as inherent in their name, erase part of the metal to make it smoother. And of course the higher grit you go, the smoother finish you will get, but you are removing metal from the frets whereas with the polishing cloth or Gorgomyte, you are not AFIK! So I would say, for shiny and smooth, Gorgomyte. To actually "dress" the frets because they are inconsistent or have blemishes, fret erasers or in extreme cases, fret files!
 
Moondog Wily said:
I am no expert, but I believe there is a difference between fret polishing, and using fret erasers (fret dressing). You can polish the frets with a lot of different items, and remove virtually no metal. Two examples would be a jewelry polishing cloth (one made for silver, not gold) and Gorgomyte (which is what I use to polish my frets and they feel silky smooth afterward and look brand spanin' new). The erasers, as inherent in their name, erase part of the metal to make it smoother. And of course the higher grit you go, the smoother finish you will get, but you are removing metal from the frets whereas with the polishing cloth or Gorgomyte, you are not AFIK! So I would say, for shiny and smooth, Gorgomyte. To actually "dress" the frets because they are inconsistent or have blemishes, fret erasers or in extreme cases, fret files!
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You would have to rub very hard for a very long time to dress the frets with an eraser.
 
Chewie5150 said:
Speaking of fret erasers what are the essential grit ranges you figure I should use? @Andy Eagle you around here buddy? thoughts? stewmac has an set of 5 or 7. My guess is i'm not needing or shouldn't need to remove much metal of a relatively new guitar so likely the higher grits like 1200 +

Complete Set of 7 grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, 2000, 4000, and 8000.
Essential Set of 5 includes these grits: 220, 400, 800, 1200, and 2000.

little pricey. I see fret erasers on amazon for much cheaper. Are fret erasers pretty much all the same? in terms of quality I mean
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I don't use them. I use paper and finish with a dremol buffer and rubbing compound.
 
A dremol makes sense especially if you're doing fret work on a more regular basis. I'm just a regular schlump who will only do this a few times ever so I just went with the Fret Erasers. They're basically just little blocks with varying grit like paper. Will give it a go
 
Chewie5150 said:
A dremol makes sense especially if you're doing fret work on a more regular basis. I'm just a regular schlump who will only do this a few times ever so I just went with the Fret Erasers. They're basically just little blocks with varying grit like paper. Will give it a go
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Make sure you get something to protect the fret board and pickup pole pieces while you work. You don't want to mar the wood of the fretboard or have a bunch of metallic dust collect on your pickups. Painter's tape works well for both tasks, but those metal fret board protectors save a lot of time compared to taping off the whole board.
 
Andy Eagle said:
I don't use them. I use paper and finish with a dremol buffer and rubbing compound.
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Ditto, except that I swap out the Dremel for an orbital sander. On the sander, I swap out the sandpaper for a microfiber terry cloth with some rubbing compound. You can polish a whole neck’s worth of frets in about ten seconds, and the results are better than anything you could achieve by hand. There’s some cleanup involved, but it still takes less time than polishing each fret one at a time.
 
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