review Hit The Gym Two recent releases from the Fender-owned Charvel and EVH brands remind us of the legacy and guitar design skills of Eddie Van Halen Words Dave Burrluck Photography Phil Barker GIT468.rev_charvel.
VIDEO DEMO CHARVEL & EVH http://bit.ly/guitaristextra review CHARVEL HENRIK DANHAGE SIGNATURE PRO-MOD SO-CAL STYLE 1 & EVH LIMITED EDITION WOLFGANG SPECIAL SASSAFRAS £1,519 & £1,089 CONTACT Fender Musical Instruments EMEA PHONE 01342 331700 WEBSITE www.charvel.com / www.evhgear.
review CHARVEL & EVH Contrasting the neck pickup, the Charvel goes for the classic Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge position. The Floyd Rose vibrato is slightly tilted for standard up-bends access to, the Floyd can be used in a highly creative fashion. With less palaver than restringing a Bigsby and then trying to keep the lightest of wobbles in tune, the Floyd is dead easy to set up and string – so long as you have the right Allen key, of course.
VIDEO DEMO CHARVEL & EVH http://bit.ly/guitaristextra review UNDER THE HOOD We inspect the circuits of the Charvel and EVH R emoving the tight-fitting, recessed backplate of the Wolfgang you’ll see a considered, simple circuit that combines an EVH/Bourns 500k volume pot with a 250k tone pot. By design, the volume is lower fiction (looser in use), the tone is higher friction. The tone cap value is .
review CHARVEL & EVH 1 1. The necks on both guitars are superb. The Henrik Danhage Signature features heavily rolled edges, a compound radius and a speed profile 3 2. Owned by Fender, Charvel is allowed to use that classic headstock outline. Here, of course, it’s reversed 3. While the EVH has a tapered heel join, the Charvel follows Fender protocol along with a chunky metal neckplate 2 scales – and feels it.
VIDEO DEMO CHARVEL & EVH http://bit.ly/guitaristextra 4 review 5 6 6 more depth – more ‘Gibson’ to the Charvel’s ‘Fender’, if you like. Here, the bridge initially sounds fuller with a little more cocked wah-like tonality and almost a little less hot‑sounding than that JB. But recording both – playing the same parts through the same gained Marshall, and with battering ram drums and bass – the overall tonality at the bridge is actually very similar, even when the tracks are solo’d.
review CHARVEL & EVH CHARVEL HENRIK EVH LIMITED DANHAGE EDITION WOLFGANG SIGNATURE PROSPECIAL SASSAFRAS MOD SO-CAL STYLE 1 8 treble bleed is certainly useful, allowing you to clean up heavier gains. However, to approach that Area 67 sound of the Charvel you’d need some coil splits, which, to be honest, would probably be very useful here when we have this much wire involved. Verdict We like our pigeonholes and the inclusion of a Floyd Rose vibrato instantly suggests a genre-specific instrument.
