CHARVEL HENRIK DANHAGE SIGNATURE PROMOD SO-CAL STYLE 1

review
CHARVEL & EVH
92
GUITARIST FEBRUARY 2021
Feel & Sounds
Both guitars share the same scale length
and overall neck construction, and our
calipers suggest the same-width jumbo
fretwire (the EVH’s wire is very slightly
lower) on the same 305mm to 406mm
(12- to 16-inch) radius fingerboard. But the
different profiles, depths and widths create
a markedly different feel. The Charvel’s
‘speed’ profile is a relatively thin depth’d D
(19.3mm at the 1st fret and 21.2mm by the
12th) with its back feeling flatter than it
actually is. The EVH isn’t a million miles
away, but the additional depth (19.9mm
at the 1st fret and 23mm by the 12th) feels
a little more classic, and it’s marginally
scales – and feels it. The small three-a-side
headstock adds to the compact style, but
it’s not just a size thing that differentiates
the two: the EVH just seems more finished,
particularly the rounded nose of the tiered
heel join, the screws passing through
individual domed washers as opposed to the
Charvel’s chunky cast metal neckplate and
standard squared-off Fender heel. While
both necks are maple, the EVH’s is roasted
and quarter-sawn, which adds to the very
contemporary specification.
The drive is very simple here, too, but we
get a proper tone control and a shoulder-
placed three-way toggle to select the dual
direct-mount EVH humbuckers. We’re not
done yet. Plating aside, we have the same
Floyd Rose, but while it’s slightly recessed
into the top, here it sits flat with no up-bend
– typical EVH style. It also features that
D-Tuna to drop the low E down a tone. It’s
such a stable guitar, something that’s helped
by the neck construction: a quick tune-up
using the fine tuners when we started the
test and that was it.
thinner in width, too: 41.5mm at the nut and
51.24mm at the 12th fret compared with the
Charvel’s 43.1mm nut width and 52.63mm
dimension at the 12th fret. Both have nicely
rounded fingerboard edges, especially
the Charvel. With its ‘dirty’ maple face, it
certainly creates the look and feel of being
heavily played.
Getting used to each guitar and playing
unplugged also gives us a hint of the sonic
differences. There’s a little more snap to
the very Fender-y sounding unplugged
voice of the Charvel. The EVH has slightly
less zing and is less snappy, but both have a
wonderfully fulsome sustain development.
These similarities in build belie the
rather different sounds they produce.
The Charvel’s voice comes across as lighter
in the low-end and brighter, too. The
JB at the bridge has power and quite an
upper midrange attack that’s completely
contrasted by the Area 67 at the neck,
which has the sort of spank you’d expect
from a brightly voiced Strat’s neck pickup.
The EVH seemingly has a fuller voice with
There’s a brutal
simplicity to the
Charvel that was so
much a part of Van
Halen’s original vision
1. The necks on both
guitars are superb.
The Henrik Danhage
Signature features
heavily rolled edges,
a compound radius
and a speed profi le
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
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GIT468.rev_charvel.indd 92 17/12/2020 17:57