CHARVEL GUTHRIE GOVAN SIGNATURE

92
GUITARIST JULY 2022
CHARVEL GUTHRIE GOVAN SIGNATURE
C
harvel has been owned by Fender
Musical Instruments Corporation
since 2002 and it’s been a good
fit, sitting between the more-rock aimed
Jackson line and the modern fringes of
Fender, such as the Ultra range. In fact,
if you simply consider Charvel to be the
‘modern’ Fender, you’re just about there.
Another way to view the brand, particularly
this latest Guthrie Govan signature, is a
souped-up and pimped version of what
once may have been a Stratocaster.
Whichever way you view it, the GG
is built for pro-level use and, as Guthrie
himself tells us, despite having another
pair of US signatures, this more affordable
Japanese-made model is actually his No 1
currently. If it’s good enough for Guthrie…
The guitar centres around a standard
Fender scale length, but it has a 24-fret
neck that sits on a lightly chamfered heel
with a palm scoop on the back underneath
the treble cutaway. As with numerous
Charvels instruments, including the US
GG signatures, the neck is caramelised (aka
roasted) maple, rift-sawn, with dual carbon
graphite rods either side of the two-way
truss rod with its spoke wheel adjuster at
the base of the neck. Frets are stainless steel
and they’re big. There are numerous subtle
changes compared with the existing USA
models, too: the nut, for example, is Tusq
XL (not bone), the locking tuners are by
Gotoh, not Sperzel, but still retain staggered
height posts, and the fingerboard inlays
are simple ‘crème’ dots. As ever, the side
dots are those glow-in-the-dark Luminlay
types; the same fluorescent material is
used around the base of the control knobs
to highlight the numbers.
The major change here, however, is not
only the sunburst finish to the face but also
that the body material is basswood topped
with what Charvel calls an ash ‘top’. On
removing the neck, though, you can see in
the cleanly-cut pocket that it’s just a thin
veneer – a visual effect, let’s say – and the
top face is also perfectly flat, unlike the
current trend for more open-pore style
finishes, especially those over ash. The
edges are less radiused than you’d find on
a vintage Stratocaster, the forearm and
rib-cage contour less dished. But with a
CHARVEL GUTHRIE GOVAN SIGNATURE
MJ SAN DIMAS SD24 CM
£2,449
CONTACT Fender Musical Instruments EMEA PHONE [phone] WEB www.charvel.com
What You Need To Know
Haven’t we seen this guitar before
in a different colour?
Yes and no! The main difference with
this latest Guthrie Govan signature
from Charvel is that it is manfactured
in Japan, which recalls where the
brand was actually made from
1986 to 1991.
So it’s a copy of the USA model?
As Guthrie explains in our interview
later on, this new model retains
many of the US model’s features
and is currently his ‘No 1’. It uses a
basswood body with an ash veneer
facing, and it’s quite a bit cheaper
than the USA models, too.
This is clearly a guitar for Guthrie
wannabees only, then?
That’s the interesting thing. Guthrie’s
wide-ranging style – is there
anything he can’t play? – means
that he needs a guitar that can
produce a very wide range of sounds,
pristine cleans to very saturated and
everything in between. His signature
model is the epitome of workhorse.
1
2
3
This perfectly aimed
working tool could just
as easily be used for
your jazz sit-in gig as
your arena rock tour
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
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