Charvel has unveiled a pair of signature guitars for Guthrie Govan and Rick Graham, with Govan opting for a San Dimas in 3-Tone Sunburst and Graham a DK24 in Celeste. Both models are made in Japan and are classically Charvel, taking the Stratocaster format and giving it a go-faster spec.
The Rick Graham Signature MJ DK24 2PT CM has a compact basswood Dinky body, which comes in around 7/8ths the size of a Strat. It has a bolt-on caramelised maple neck with graphite reinforcement and soft satin finish. The fingerboard is a veritable autobahn, with rolled edges, 24 stainless steel frets, a 12-16" compound radius and 4mm crème dot inlays. Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side markers light the way down the side of the neck.
Graham has partnered with Bare Knuckle for the pickups, with his custom humbucker at the bridge position and custom single-coils at the middle and neck positions. The pickups are controlled by a five-way blade switch and two Strat-style skirt knobs for tone and volume.
As we'd expect from a 2021 Charvel, there are a whole host of player-friendly features throughout, like the heel-mounted truss rod adjustment wheel, Gotoh die-cast locking tuners, plus a scalloped lower back bout and sculpted "shredders heel" to improve upper-fret access. And Graham's signature electric guitar has a Gotoh Custom 510 recessed tremolo.
The Guthrie Govan Signature MJ San Dimas SD24 CM, meanwhile has a slightly larger San Dimas body. Here, Charvel tops the basswood with ash, with that 3-Tone Sunburst finish showing plenty of the grain.
It shares many of the same specs as the Graham model – the 25.5." scale, fingerboard dimensions and rolled edges, caramlised maple, the heel-mounted truss rod adjustment wheel, Luminlay side dots, Gotoh hardware, but the English shred and prog titan has a set of custom Charvel pickups arranged in an HSH configuration, with a five-way pickup blade switch, two-way mini-toggle for single-coil simulation, and controls for volume and tone.
What's really cool is the Luminlay is reprised on the dome-style tone controls. No more feeling around in the dark. Govan's San Dimas comes equipped with a Charvel recessed locking tremolo bridge system with pop-in tremolo arm and brass block.
Both models will be shipping from September and are available to preorder now. The Guthrie Govan Signature MJ San Dimas SD24 CM is priced £1,999, while the Rick Graham Signature MJ DK24 2PT CM is priced £2,099.
See Charvel for more details.
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