Back in the early to mid-eighties, there was
nothing that could touch the cool factor of a
Charvel Strat. Played by a who’s who of metal
guitarists ranging from Warren DeMartini to
Jake E. Lee to George Lynch, the bolt-on,
superstrat was king of the hill. I used to watch
MTV and drool over the killer paint jobs, Floyd
Rose tremolos and Duncan pickups that dominated the videos of the day, fantasizing that
one day I’d be playing one on stage with my
hair as high as the rafters.
An incredibly simple guitar by design—just one
volume knob, one humbucker (maybe two) and
a bolt-on maple neck with maple fingerboard—
they were functionally solid and built to rock.
Most bodies were constructed from alder or
swamp ash and painted with wild custom colors
and graphics, though to me, some of the cool-est ones were the most basic, reminding me of
an old Strat or Les Paul. Mind you, owning one
of these guitars for most junior high students
was just a mere dream—we tended to have
guitars more like Memphis Les Pauls and Arbor
or Hondo Strats. Owning a Charvel was being
part of an elite and exclusive club for rock stars
and that seemed worlds away from us kids in
suburbia. I never did get one, but from time to
time I was able to play a few that came through
our local guitar shop for a setup. Damn, I wanted one of them!
Fast forward to October of 2002, when Fender
Musical Instruments bought the Charvel/
Jackson brand, and all of their existing inventory—and began building US-made instruments, and custom guitars for the brand in
Ontario, Canada. Over the course of time many
variations of the original Charvel Strats were
brought out, including the EVH-style guitars in
three different color schemes (black/white, red/
white, black/yellow). Then, one of the larger
dealers of Fender and Charvel, The Music Zoo,
put together an exclusive deal with Charvel
to create the “Natural Series” Charvels. These
guitars are a no-frills affair with either one or
two pickups (H/S, H/H), a volume knob or two,
Floyd Rose or NOS Charvel bridge and—as
noted by the name—no paint! In place of the
wild colors and graphics is a simple, oil finish
applied to either a mahogany, koa or swamp
ash body. And of course it goes without saying
that the fastest profile neck in the history of
the guitar is bolted right onto that oiled body,
duplicated directly from the original and now
infamous early-Charvel necks.
The Natural Series model reviewed is a two
pickup shred machine. Mahogany body,
maple neck, chrome Floyd Rose, two Seymour
Duncan humbuckers (Custom 5-bridge, PAF-neck), single volume knob and 3-way toggle
switch. Simple and effective. In a somewhat
bizarre twist, this particular model has both
chrome and gold appointments. While the
tuners, Floyd and jack are chrome, the knob
and strap buttons are brass and the selector
switch is chrome with a gold tip! I’m not too
sure what the thinking was behind that, but
aside from the somewhat odd look it certainly
doesn’t affect the tone—it’s just an appointment issue. The neck is bolted on and seems
to have a very tight neck pocket that doesn’t
slide around or show any visible signs of shimming or unnecessary voids. The guitar comes
set up with 10’s ready to rock, with uber-low
action and enough float in the Floyd to pull
back at least a step and a half. Nice! Sadly,
the original detail of necessitating a neck
removal for a simple truss rod adjustment is
present in this model, which is too old school
for this reviewer’s taste. Then again, with the
locking nut at the top of the neck and a humbucker right up against the 22nd fret, it seems
unlikely that there would be any other place
to put the truss rod adjustment. As long as the
strings stay at the same gauge it’s pretty much
a set-and-forget detail anyway. Moving on…
I found the guitar to be a bit body-heavy due
to the significant chunk of mahogany that it’s
built from. Long recording sessions seated at
the console tended to fatigue my leg a bit, but
that’s sort of a cop-out considering this guitar
was meant to rock, and rock it does. The set of
Duncans really captured the spirit of the original models, even though the Custom 5 pickup
didn’t exist back in the day. According to the
Seymour Duncan website, it was developed
by replacing the ceramic or Alnico 2 magnet
in an SH- 5 Custom or SH- 11 Custom Custom
with an Alnico 5. It turns out that it sounds like
a PAF with more lows and highs and a bit more
output. Plugged into my Lee Jackson-modified
’ 73 Superlead, I was immediately brought
back to the days of shred and found myself
playing “Round and Round” and “Mr. Scary”
with a grin you couldn’t wipe off my face. The
tone was at once searing, sweet and cutting
without being shrill. Thanks to the mahogany
body it was almost like the best of a Les Paul
and a Strat but with the added bonus of being
able to dive bomb for hours without going out
of tune! Surprisingly, when rolling back the
volume knob I was able to clean up the grit significantly, and switching over to the neck pickup
I pulled off a convincing clean tone that was
both warm and defined without farting out on
the lowest notes. Perhaps the lack of a tone circuit helped keep the rolled-off tones from getting muddy. Either way, I never missed having a
tone knob since this is a rock and roll machine
that has no need for that kind of subtlety.
Probably the best part of the guitar was the
killer neck. It took a bit of adjusting at first
because it’s so slim and wide ( 1 11/16” at the
nut), compared to a Les Paul or U-shaped Strat
neck, but over time it began to show good
reason for its design. The flat radius of the neck
and speed of an unfinished maple really let me
tear into everything from alternate to sweep
picking, and bends to the moon. It was obvious
why so many of the great metal players of that
era were playing Charvels. In a way it bummed
me out to see how much easier it was to dig
into that style of playing—if I had had one of
these back in the day, it would have pushed
my playing ahead quite a bit faster due to the
low action and ease of access to the notes.
What would be near impossible to pull off on a
Les Paul was second nature on the San Dimas
model—kind of like somebody pulling the governor off a go-kart at Malibu Grand Prix!
I like this guitar a lot. Aside from a few things,
like the mixed brass and chrome hardware,
the heavy chunk of mahogany and lack of easy
access to the truss rod, this guitar is all rock.
Since there wasn’t an original Charvel Strat to
compare this model to I can only speculate on
how close they got to the original—but suffice it to say that the guitar plays and sounds
fantastic, and is certainly in an affordable price
range for what it accomplishes. Music Zoo did
us a favor by teaming up with Fender and putting a unique spin on the Charvel San Dimas
model by stripping the paint and letting the
guitar breathe. The only thing I need to do
now is start putting my favorite band’s bumper
stickers all over the guitar to give it my own
custom finish.
Buy If...
You wish it was 1983 and want
an absolute no-frills shredder
Skip If...
You like pretty “ten tops”
and don’t miss the eighties
Rating...
4.0
ONTHEWeb
Head to premierguitar.com
to hear sound samples of the
guitar in action.
premierguitar.com
Charvel
Street $1695
charvel.com
