2023 Charvel SoCal HARDTAIL #1 - 1st night, 1st improv session

I should be asleep. I really should be asleep. You know how it is when you get a new guitar though. This 2023 #Charvel #SoCal hardtail in PHARAOHS GOLD (love the color) arrived today and I spent about an hour or more breaking it in. I'll probably have another video or two coming from tonight.
Quick thoughts on the new guitar after just an evening of owning it: State of assembly was actually pretty good. Nothing loose. Fret ends are good with no sprout, neck alignment good. One of the better assembled MIM Charvels I've gotten. The setup could have been better. No big deal though. Tightened up the truss rod and lowered the action a bit and it's pretty good now already. I dig it.
Link to model:
charvel.com/ge...
(For the record, I have no affiliation with anyone at Charvel at this time)
The excellent backing track is by Elevated Jam Tracks.
• Deep Pounding Ballad G...

[@letthatsinkin7879]

Jaw dropping skill.

[@BigQueyrie]

Came for a simple Charvel HT demo, and stayed for the very pleasant playing! Really inspiring.

[@Gee-no]

That's the one I want. It's either this or an Ltd SN1ht. Can't make up my mind....

[@dmnguitarist]

Pretty similar guitars. LTD makes good stuff. Haven't played that model though. If you look around a bit you can find these Charvels for pretty good prices though. I paid I think $715 for this one and it's one of my most played guitars now.

[@Gee-no]

@@dmnguitarist ya the Charvels aren't bad but do they said good high gain like Periphery or Djenty type music. I saw some Charvels for 800$.

[@dmnguitarist]

@@Gee-no Any guitar with humbuckers can do that stuff with the right strings and tuning, assuming you don't need extended range like a 7 or 8 string.

[@belpack8989]

I've always been a fan of a good hardtail.

[@balddrummer8736]

I have the same model and color! These guitars are to me, very versatile, and they play phenomenal!

[@DavidAVest]

If someone told me this was a George Lynch track I'd not heard before, I'd have believed it... and I mean that as high praise. Great playing, and I'm a fan of the Charvel line.

[@dmnguitarist]

I appreciate the comparison. Lynch is a monster!

[@eljefe8564]

I have a floyd model and its a great guitar. Sounds great and the neck and frets are very comfortable to play.

[@Fafafohi]

Just got this as my new main. I was using an ESP LTD Eclipse with EMGs and I hated the sound. It’s just not my type of guitar or pickup. I guess I’m a Strat/Duncan kind of guy! I have not been able to put this guitar down and it’s been years since I’ve felt so inspired. Love this thing.

[@dmnguitarist]

Oh man. If this is your first Charvel I got some good and bad news for you. The bad news is these things multiply. You'll be compelled to get another one, then another one. They just do that. Not good for the wallet. The good news is, you'll have a bunch of awesome Charvels. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Fafafohi]

@@dmnguitarist oh no…sounds like a very bad problem to have…😁 thanks for the great video!

[@Heroesworkshop]

I literally made the same mistake. I got a Schecter Platinum C-1. It was a beautiful Guitar but couldn't stand the sound of the EMG pickups and the overall feel of the guitar. Felt clunky. I ended up selling. I am also a Strat guy. I am also looking to get a Charvel because the compound neck is really appealing and the guitar itself is basically a strat with a hardtail which I prefer. I'm just debating on this or the San Dimas in Platinum Pearl which is also a Hardtail. Can't decide.

[@dmnguitarist]

@@Heroesworkshop can't go wrong with either but one of the advantages of the SoCal is the ability to change the pickup configuration. They are all routed HSH under the pickguard so you can have any setup you want.

[@Heroesworkshop]

@@dmnguitarist I love HH. It's my go to but that's still good to know! Thanks.

[@YOSTINATOR]

Excellent phrasing and rad guitar!

[@darrinjackman804]

I’ve watched so many of your sessions This one really does it for me I really like your style man I want one of these hard tails Wheels are turning Thanks

[@jsfelts]

Wow! That sounds amazing

[@gscgold]

excellent!

[@sunnys3325]

I got one in Primer Grey recently. I've fallen in love with it. Feels great, sounds great and is simple and clean looking... no frills. I've played FR bridge guitars my whole life. The tone of this guitar blew me away. I'm assuming because it's a hardtail. It sounds massive to me. I think I'm gna ditch playing guitars with trems on them. They are fun but I realized I hardly ever the bar

[@dmnguitarist]

I think my Telecaster is what got me hooked on hardtails. They absolutely do have a different kind of thing going on from a guitar with a trem.

[@descent13]

I sort of agree but you can’t beat the tuning stability with a Floyd. And you can always just block the trem cavity and not use the bar

[@BrandonEht]

@@descent13 A hard tail Strat or tele with half decent tuners and a well cut nut is just as stable as a Floyd

[@guyincognito320]

Yeah I have it in gold. Shocked how much I like it. I'm used to Floyds so it feels like I can just abuse it and pick hard and it takes whatever I throw at it, like a Tele, except jumbo frets and a flat radius so it doesn't fight you at all.

[@dmnguitarist]

@@guyincognito320 Yeah you nailed it pretty much. It's nice to be able to play with as much dynamics in your picking hand as you want without the springs making noise and having it do that warble out of tune for a second thing when you hit a chord too hard. I love my Floyds but these hardtails are a really nice change of flavor. Nice value for the money too. Check out a SoCal Style 2 sometime. Looks like a Tele but it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Sleeper Shredder.

[@calvinfeng5357]

I see mastery here. It's amazing!

[@RaisingTiger777]

Beautiful playing. I have a SSS olympic white fender strat ,epiphone lp with p90s and a chrome red fender Hss strat for classic tones and lofi type of music. Yet, im interested in prog rock and prog metal. This is def on the list of guitars Im looking into. Others is the epiphone custom Lp, HH fender FMT telecaster, ESP 256 with coil split, ibanez prestige or S series,and the gretsch Jet baritone series. Yet, out of all of them, the finish and headroom I am hearing from the charval is intoxicating.thanks for demoing! Edit- I meant to describe the tone as fat or round not headroom,I get the terms mixed up sometimes lol

[@heydadplayguitar]

Awesome playing

[@seanlinder4086]

Sick

[@keithheaneypercussive]

This one rips! Great jam brother!

[@ace-rob71]

😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫🤙🤟

[@samueltractorton2088]

Kickass!

[@spiralespirale5355]

Excellente impro, ça donne envie. ❤‍🔥

[@danfitzpatrick4112]

😯 AWESOME!

[@McLeanAB88]

Nice work as always...

[@OblivionJones]

You're really making me fiend for one of these, my friend.

[@richardnja]

Dynamic...uplifting. Loved it

[@slimsantilli4476]

If I didn't have Jake E Lee. I would be ordering this sucker now. Awesome playing btw

[@dmnguitarist]

Thank you and yeah it does kind of have bit of a Jake vibe. Love the simplicity of these.

[@BrandonEht]

Love the gold. Can’t make up my mind on if I want to buy this with the hardtail or the hss with the Floyd. I love the simplicity of a hardtail, but don’t wanna end up regretting not getting the Floyd. Somewhat prefer the hss, but the hardtail is also cheaper. Decisions decisions…

[@dmnguitarist]

My two cents, if I had only one I would want a Floyd. But, the hardtails have their own advantages. No spring noise no matter how hard you hit the strings is really nice and they're noticeably lighter if that matters at all. I've always had trems but I've been reaching for those hardtails when I play more than the trem equipped models for a little while now. Both are great options so you can't really make a wrong choice. Grab one and let it rip.

[@BrandonEht]

@@dmnguitarist Ended up ordering the HT. I already have an EVH Wolfgang and a Jackson Adrian Smith to satisfy my trem needs. Thanks for your input

[@dmnguitarist]

@@BrandonEht Awesome and congrats on the forthcoming New Guitar Day! Mine is on the bench soaking up some fretboard oil right now. 👍

[@gorantrtica2521]

Awesome guitar, sound, video, and 100000x more awesome skill and playing. Keep rockin’ Just ordered the same guitar with Floyd Rose and HSS ☺️

[@dmnguitarist]

Thanks dude and congrats on the HSS you'll love it.

[@KENJi-rr8nk]

Love your improv vids! and that color is just awesome. How does it compare to your DK24 HH HT in terms of playability? Is this one's neck chunkier?

[@dmnguitarist]

Thanks! The neck shape and fingerboard radius are the same. The extra couple of frets on the DK24 make upper neck area a little easiest to access. San Dimas/SoCal have slightly wider neck. Action and playability other than that are pretty similar. The difference in the way the larger Strat body feels is more noticeable.

[@KENJi-rr8nk]

Cool. I own a DK24 2PT with roasted maple, but I want something with hardtail for drop tuning stuff so I was wondering which one would be good. I think I’m getting another DK24, thanks!

[@calvintu4868]

Really nice! Btw which country made this guitar

[@dmnguitarist]

Made in Mexico. Thanks for commenting!

[@milotin2755]

Don't let the made in Mexico scare you off these guitars are made flawlessly, they look and feel amazing

[@aleksanderkalland9215]

Nice! First!

[@wce74wce15]

anyone know about the pots, input jack eletronics quality ect, on these?

[@dmnguitarist]

It's all good quality stuff. Pots are usually CTS with the tone pots being No Load and the volume pots are push pull for coil splitting. Switchcraft output jacks. If you're worried about them being full of cheap generic parts like a lot of the Chinese imports, you can rest easy. They don't do that.

[@wjdavey3]

❤️🎵🎶🎸🎵🎶👍🎵🎶🙏❤️😎

[@angryjoegaming]

Sounds awesome, how'd she play out of the box?

[@dmnguitarist]

It was setup for a half step down so I think it might have been purchased and returned. When I tuned it to standard there was too much relief in the neck from the extra tension and the action was almost 2mm at the 12th fret at that point. I tightened up the truss rod which lowered the action a little bit but it was still a little high. I lowered it to just under 1.5 on the wound strings and closer to 1.3mm on the plains. Haven't intonate it yet. The saddles aren't wanting to move freely with all the strings under tension so I'll deal with that when I re-string it. You never know what you're getting with these open box deals but I'm pretty happy with this one. I even got all the original packaging this time around.

[@rudybigboote3883]

I have this exact guitar in this same color. This guitar looks jaw dropping cool, plays great and sounds even better! My only complaint is the screw plate on the neck heel feels awful!

[@ereimul1444]

hows the neck profile? thin wizard neck or slim profile or medium c like fender? love your playing.

[@tommy_1629]

It’s like a thinner fender neck but it’s not quite wizard thin

[@ereimul1444]

@@tommy_1629 thank you bro.

[@dmnguitarist]

What Kirk said. Very comfortable. The compound fretboard radius is very nice also. No fretting out on big bends.

[@ereimul1444]

@@dmnguitarist thank you. as long as its comfortable should be okay.

[@bdubberz]

Just purchased this model in the gold color🤌🏻 can’t wait to get it here!

[@dmnguitarist]

Congrats on the new guitar!