Charvel Pro-Mod Joe Duplantier San Dimas Style 2 - Natural Mahogany Reviews

I'm a massive Gojira fan and this guitar does not disappoint. The one I picked has a beautiful 2-piece Mahogany body with some amazing figuring that has a nice depth to it. The ebony board is smooth and finished well and is black with no noticeable streaks. The pickups are amazing and have a soulful voice that sings no matter the style you're playing. I had Sweetwater do a setup for D Standard with NYXL 11-52 strings and install a bone nut. The did a fantastic job and it was well worth the extra money. Don't hesitate to pick this guitar up if you're on the fence. It's a very well-made guitar worth well more than its asking price. I'd like to thank Matt Subers for always going above and beyond for me!

I typically don't write reviews, but wow am I impressed! The medium output DiMarzio Fortitude pickup (based off of Gojira's album Fortitude!) provides clarity, but can also sound beastly at high gain as well! My favorite guitar by far!

First to sweetwater's credit, they shipped lightning fast as always.
The guitar:
I love the tele body but love the Les paul growl. And I always upgrade to hot pickups.
This is literally the best of both worlds in one.
Nothing about this guitar feels cheap.
Between the feel, the look, and the tone… I feel like someone made a custom shop guitar just for me.
I mainly play rock and blues and I never played a Charvel, so I hesitated as this is geared toward metal…
But once I plugged in and started playing I knew I made the right choice. If I could afford it, I'd buy a second one in case something ever happened to this one… it's that good.
Setup out of the box is excellent.

This guitar is a thing of beauty! It has wonderful playability and versatility. The DiMarzio pickups are amazing for metal. I would recommend this guitar to anyone looking to make some of the heaviest music in the universe!

I just tried this guitar today, and if I had not already purchased a different Charvel last week, I would have bought this on the spot. Why?

The neck and set up were PERFECT right from the box. Low action, ZERO fret buzz, even calibration from string-to-string and in all registers.

The pickups are clear bright and articulate, but not overly powerful. You can always add grunge and distortion with pedals, but if your pickups don't have clarity, you can't get it back without adding NOISE. These pickups are well suited to all styles.

Tuning machines and bridge hardware is pro class.

GRAPHITE REINFORCEMENT RODS are an important component of the Charvel quality. The current trend is "roasted" necks. The correct term for oxygen-free baking of wood is "Torrefaction." Properly torrefied wood is more stable, but that feature is USELESS if the grain is not quartersawn. Who wants a neck that is permanently wrong?

Also, wood with normal moisture equilibrium transmits sound faster than dried wood. Look up "speed of sound in wood" for more details.

SO, the IDEAL WOOD for a stable straight neck is quartersawn wood with graphite reinforcement rods.

THAT is the "not so secret sauce" that makes Charvel necks superior to ALL major brands. Even the low price jackson guitar have graphite reinforcement and that is FAR superior to necks on guitar at ten times the price.
I have ONE complaint about this particular model: The BODY is WAY TOO HEAVY. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that heavy guitar bodies sustain longer, are more "resonant" or have "more tone." So all the marketing claims of tone woods are false. Do the research and perform your own experiments as I have during FIFTY YEARS of professional playing. Use sophisticated harmonic analysis tools. You'll see, LIGHTER woods have just as much sustain and far greater resonance.

SO, other than that single gripe, I think this is one of the best guitars I have ever played in over five decades of professional experience. The price is fair. If you can handle the weight GET ONE!

I got this because it seemed like a sweet spot--Charvel leveraging its relationship with Fender for great materials and build, ebony fretboard, nice inlay, a tune-o-matic bridge, and some sweet DiMarzio custom pickups. Some of my favorite components all in one machine. On top of that, I got this for its intended purpose: tuning down to an open D on heavy strings, turning the gain to 12, and playing Flying Whales until the neighbors call the cops.

I don't know if it is because of the 55-step inspection or whatever, but the action is perfect. (This is not my first purchase from Sweetwater, but it is my first guitar from them, but they do a great job with the setup, and Jeff always does great by me re: service). With the guitar's very light, matte finish on the neck and the relatively flat, medium-width neckboard, this thing is a pleasure to play. Know that it definitely plays like a Fender (whatever that means), but it is a really easy player.

One reason I got this instead of the less expensive Nova wood version (even though I like the white look) is because of the mahogany body. Love mahogany and I read and reports that the white axe likes to neck dive due to the light weight. No worries with this guy: the mahogany body is substantial, and I feel like I can hit it as hard as I want. And for the price of this, you couldn't hope for more value.

At first, I wasn't sure how I would feel taking a natural-finish, T-style guitar as my weapon of choice of the dark and heavy stuff, but I get it, now. It's unadorned and ready to gaze in the abyss or something. You know, like its namesakes, Joe Duplantier and Gojira.

This is a 5-star guitar 80% of the way haha. Mine came from the factory (via Sweetwater HQ) in obvious need of work on the nut. It was a bit of a hassle but still a great value. I went into Sweetwater (and every guitar store between there and Cleveland) and this was the best guitar for me, despite the one problem. It was WAY better than the other Charvels in the price range. I preferred it to Reverands, Fender, G&L, Schecter, Yamaha, Squire, ESP/LTD, Jackson…everything up to double the price or more. The wood grain on mine was particularly well-matched compared to others. I think it's understated and beautiful. Everything besides the nut is spot on. I love it.

I bought this guitar as a demo model, and called my rep AJ with questions before buying it. He never returned my call and I decided to risk it and buy it. Their main shipper, FedEx, also did a terrible job which always makes me regret ordering a guitar by mail.

I do not think they put a guitar back through the 55 point inspection before shipping a demo out because this one had a terribly screwed in saddle, the bridge not screwed in at all and only held in place by string tension, the volume know completely unscrewed and loose in the box, very rough neck dive, unbelievably dead strings, and a very gross fretboard.

After I removed the strings, tightened everything up, cleaned and polished everything, and replaced the strings; this guitar is amazing. The sound and playability are amazing. If you are buying this brand new, I doubt you'll have to do the two hours of set up that I had to do to get this in playing condition. It's absolutely gorgeous and plays incredibly well.