Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 HSH 2PT CM Mahogany
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GUITARIST AUGUST 2021
CHARVEL PRO-MOD DK24 HSH 2PT CM MAHOGANY
1. The classic headstock
outline houses non-
locking tuners and a
slippery Graph Tech
Tusq XL nut
2. This unusual placement
of the output jack means
it’s easy to ‘lock’ your
cable through your strap
3. There’s plenty of
contouring on the
back of the guitar, not
least the very rounded
heel without the
usual neckplate
those glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side dots
with just small-diameter pearloid dots to the
face. The finish here is specified as ‘hand-
rubbed urethane’; it’s clearly a light coat that
has been burnished to a dull sheen, smoother
than the similar finish used on Fender’s
American Acoustasonics, for example. With
lightly rolled fingerboard edges, this finish
combines to create a guitar that feels nicely
worn in. It’s a great weight, too.
A 24-fret guitar – even with this full
648mm (25.5-inch) scale length – means
the three pickups appear quite cramped.
They all direct-mount to the body (only
the middle single coil has limited height
adjustment), the almost unfinished
industrial style of the pickup routs adding
to the vibe. Controls are rear-mounted, too,
so apart from giving the face a very clean,
unfussy appearance, it means that any wiring
mods you might want to undertake, not to
mention pickup swaps, are all dead easy.
Feel & Sounds
The all-steel Gotoh 510 vibrato should need
no introduction – it’s pretty much industry
standard – and here it’s recessed so the
bridge plate is virtually flush with the top, as
well as allowing an up-bend without tilting
the vibrato or having it sit proud of the body.
The only oddity is that a Floyd Rose-style
solid backplate is used to cover the spring
cavity. It should, of course, have an open slot
so you can change your strings.
The system is completed with the more
generic-style, perfectly functional rear-lock
tuners, while the nut is Graph Tech Tusq
Colour-wise, the caramelised or roasted
maple neck is a near perfect match for the
natural mahogany. And, in typical Charvel
style, buried under the separate fingerboard
are graphite reinforcing rods for stability
and a dual-action truss rod with its easy-to-
access wheel adjuster at the base of the neck.
The frets are big but not silly and sit on
the compound 305mm to 406mm (12- to
16-inch) radius ’board. Of course, we also get
2
3
UNDER THE HOOD
A closer look at the heart of this Charvel
T
he rear control cavity looks well-
crammed and, with a bit of poking
about, you can see the 500k ohms
EVH/Bourns low-friction volume pot and
what looks like a CTS No-Load tone (with a
.047 microfarads capacitor). As you’d expect,
there’s a four-pole five-way lever switch
handing the different pickup connections.
The Seymour Duncan Full Shred is classed
as ‘medium output’ with Alnico V magnet
and a measured DCR of 14.69kohms. This is
rather different from the Alnico II Pro APH-1N
humbucker at the neck with its classic rock
reference of Slash and a measured DCR of
7.2kohms. Wedged between these ’buckers
is a Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 single coil with
flush Alnico V rod poles, overwound with a
DCR of approximately 13k. However, that
pickup is only voiced in positions 2 and 4
on the five-way, never on its own.
Although the rear cover is
wrong, there’s a full-size steel
block under that vibrato
The control cavity is
stu ed with cable,
but remains very
functional
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