Charvel Guthrie Govan HSH
first play
CHARVEL GUTHRIE GOVAN SIGNATURE
20
Guitarist october 2017
off a tuned-to-perfection vibe that’s like
an instrument you’ve owned for a while,
gigged, modified and tweaked. Which in
reality is exactly what it is only Charvel and
Guthrie Govan have done it for us.
The big surprise here is the neck which,
certainly in Fender terms, feels skinny with
a depth at the 1st fret of 19.9mm and 21.1mm
at the 12th. Yet it has a very comfortable,
flattened ‘C’ profile with nicely rolled
fingerboard edges that is hard not to like.
No, it doesn’t feel like a big necked old-style
Fender but it’s great for thumb around left-
hand styles unlike some modern shapes
which seem overly flat-backed. The big
frets (approximately 2.79mm wide x 1.3mm
high) keep the strings (and your fingertips)
just off the face of the fingerboard and make
for superbly slippery bends. It feels like its
strung with .010s and has plenty of fight.
The compound radius is far from vintage
but just doesn’t fret out anywhere – it just
lets you play, effortlessly. For someone like
Guthrie there’s plenty of money up the
dusty end and the tapered heel and rear
contour on the back of the treble cutaway
allow effortless access if you need.
How you drive it, of course, is up to you.
But don’t dismiss this as a virtuoso rock
shredder axe. Yes, if your technique is up
5
6
to it, you won’t have a problem there and
using just the bridge pickup you’ll probably
have all you need: big and ballsy, a hint of a
cocked wah-like high end it’s certainly in
the JB area. But it’s offset by a pokey PAF-
like neck voice, tube-y and soupy but far
from one dimensional. If that was it, we’d be
smiling. But there’s plenty more...
The ‘single coil’ switch barely drops any
volume and gives a subtle but sonically
significant Fender-esque texture that
moves the guitar into a different space
and style and with some light crunch fits
right into that powered Stones-y raunch,
especially if you pull back the volume.
Position two, and especially four, certainly
suggest a Strat, position two being a little
more steely perhaps that again loves clean-
boosted crunch. It holds up well to other
Strats we had to hand but none matched
this one’s playability, string-to-string
balance or indeed even response right
across the board.
But we’re not done yet. Switch to a clean
Fender amp, knock the edge off the tone and
the neck pickup does a more than usable
jazz box. Switch back to position two and
there’s pedal-steel like sheen.
Clean, crunchy or gained we couldn’t find
an unusable sound; throw in the effortless
5. The Tremol-No means
you can lock the
vibrato as a hard-tail
bridge or limit it to just
down-bends for those
country-style dual
string bends
6. Based on the original
Floyd Rose the strings
lock into those big block
saddles but there are no
fi ne tuners and there’s
no locking nut. Despite
the huge travel, tuning
stability is exceptional
7. Designed by ex-Fender
guru Michael Frank-
Braun, the HSH layout
pickups controlled
by a 5-way, 4-pole
‘Super Switch’
playability and really wide stylistic voice
and this is a real blues-to-rock-to-metal to
wherever you want to take it journeyman
guitar that is so hard to put down. We’re
completely absorbed.
Verdict
Guthrie Govan’s vision for an all round
workhouse that’ll stand up to the rigours of
professional touring is superbly realised in
this signature. Every detail is wonderfully
considered: the over-sized strap buttons,
the Strat-like dished output jack placement,
the hugely intuitive drive, that secret
‘single coil’ switch, the impressive tuning
stability (and startling range) of the vibrato,
not to mention the wood choice, graphite
reinforced neck and a really unposh
working player’s vibe. Is there anything
Guthrie hasn’t considered?
Well, at £3k, a Fender style bolt-on in
far from classic livery won’t wash with
everyone. There are certainly other top
makers out there that would at least allow
you a choice of finishes with a similar
specification at similar or lower prices –
Vigier, for example, springs to mind.
So, no, it’s not a cheap date but it’s an
astonishing guitar: a player’s tool of the
highest calibre.
GIT425.rev_charv.indd 20 07/09/2017 12:52