NGD: 2014 Charvel Nitro Aged San Dimas Custom Shop Music Zoo

  • Thread starter Thread starter braintheory
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psychodave said:
Add in the nut weight, nut retainer bar, arm, springs and claw and it’s around a pound or more. We all know Charvel isn’t saving the lighter weight neck and body for hard tails. 🤣

This is with the stock block and no trem arm or nut. 16oz is a pound 😉

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What I meant more was about the thickness of sound vs the actual guitar’s weight. I know those things literally add up to a pound, but just meant that with my Dakota vs Sassafras Charvel which both weigh the same, the Sassafras one sounds denser/thicker (probably is?), but not by anywhere near a full pound, more like how I’d expect if it weighed maybe .3 lbs heavier of so, I didn’t mean what they literally weigh, but more of what my ears perceive, which of course isn’t always gonna correspond perfectly with the literal weight
 
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Racerxrated said:
Dave, it's your pics long ago here that piqued my curiosity with Charvels...I did have some MiJ model series (1, 4, 6) back in the late 80s but never picked up( or even saw) a USA version. Now I can't think of even gassing for anything else unless I luck onto a estate sale or pawn shop find with a vintage LP or strat..
You always have a great stable of Charvels.
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Actually, given that you said you don’t like paf or those style of pickups, maybe these charvel’s could be the best for what you like, but I definitely think it’s worth having a great Honduran mahogany set-neck guitar of some sort. Maybe the absolute best case hypothetical scenario would be if you had a real ‘59 Les Paul with high output pickups rather than PAF’s, but I bet no one has done that before with a real one lol (not counting R9’s)

I also love a good Strat and Tele though. With a good overdrive pedal boosting it, those Strat neck pickups can imo have some of the best lead or shred tones out there sorta like Yngwie
 
braintheory said:
Actually, given that you said you don’t like paf or those style of pickups, maybe these charvel’s could be the best for what you like, but I definitely think it’s worth having a great Honduran mahogany set-neck guitar of some sort. Maybe the absolute best case hypothetical scenario would be if you had a real ‘59 Les Paul with high output pickups rather than PAF’s, but I bet no one has done that before with a real one lol (not counting R9’s)

I also love a good Strat and Tele though. With a good overdrive pedal boosting it, those Strat neck pickups can imo have some of the best lead or shred tones out there sorta like Yngwie
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The PAF style that I've tried have a distinctive midrange; cool for what it is but they sound kinda small and compressed in just a certain frequency; not saying compressed overall but there's something inherent in their tone that I just don't care for when it comes to a hard rock tone. But, I'm sure a real deal PAF might blow me away. Who knows.
I had a 79 Greco, not Honduran Mahogany but it was supposed to be some species of Mahogany. After I pulled the Dry PAF clone and put in one of my MCPs that thing growled like nothing else, maybe similar to your 84 (my old one). But a deep dark rumble that I miss.
 
Racerxrated said:
The PAF style that I've tried have a distinctive midrange; cool for what it is but they sound kinda small and compressed in just a certain frequency; not saying compressed overall but there's something inherent in their tone that I just don't care for when it comes to a hard rock tone. But, I'm sure a real deal PAF might blow me away. Who knows.
I had a 79 Greco, not Honduran Mahogany but it was supposed to be some species of Mahogany. After I pulled the Dry PAF clone and put in one of my MCPs that thing growled like nothing else, maybe similar to your 84 (my old one). But a deep dark rumble that I miss.
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They are very different in feel and sound from hotter pickups. Might be worth revisiting in the future. I find whenever I get really used to paf style pickups, the hotter ones can come off comparatively sterile or lacking complexity/3D, but when I'm in a phase of playing just hotter pickups, the paf's can come off weak, not chunky or tight enough, but I think its about adapting/tailoring your rig/setup for them and either style pickup imo is capable of sounding equally great for hard rock or metal, except for some of the really heavy stuff. I feel like they're kind of both more growly and compressed than each other, just in different places if that makes sense, so they can both seem comparatively lacking or off if you get very used to one of them imo, but I'm always mixing things up (too much gear I have lol). They do generally have like you said a more bluesy, complex midrange

That Dry PAF clone I borrowed from you wasn't a particularly growly pickup. Most MCP's would have a lot more growl than that Dry. Next time I have one free (not loaded in a guitar) you can try the Tone Specific Bloombucker set. They are probably the most growly, rich sounding pickups I've tried and have the PAF tone pretty much dead on (I've AB'ed it with several vintage Gibson's with real PAF's). If you don't like them then I think it's highly unlikely you'll like any PAF's. The Virtuosos's I love too in the right guitar, but they're more similar imo to the '60's Gibson pickups I've tried than '50's PAF's, not as beefy or growly, but articulate and transparent. From my experience good Honduran Mahogany tends to have the most growl and complexity, but I'm guessing other varieties can still sound plenty good, just not that I've tried thus far. I actually in many ways find the old '50's P90's to be the most impressive pickups for me. They're very raunchy and have a snarl like nothing else
 
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psychodave said:
I did a search on Tone Specific pickups, yikes. Lots of drama on TGP.
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I think I heard there was drama there, but I only use that forum for buying and selling

All I can say is that I’ve been deeper in the pickup rabbit hole than almost all the other gear rabbit holes and the only pickups I use now are those and real deal vintage ones. All the others I’ve had are long gone and sounded comparatively uninspiring to me, but he hasn’t released yet any pickups suited for metal or hard rock other than the Protoype set I have. Some of his pickups of course weren’t a good fit for some guitars (like other pickups), but even then the quality of the pickup itself was still evident to me, just not a good match depending on the guitar and pickup model by him
 
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Pickups. you can change the magnet, the winds, or the wire. Maybe the way the wind works. Maybe the insulator on the wire.

What else is there?
 
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