Charvel USA Select San Dimas Style 1 HSS FR - Torred Reviews

I have bought, sold, traded, destroyed a bunch of guitars over the last 30+ years. I was always looking for that perfect super strat guitar. I achieved that goal a few times, but not without having to make mods to a few of my "keepers" to finally get to that place with them.

Now with this Charvel, I have found perfection with a new guitar straight out of the case. It comes down to the action/feel of the neck on this high performance guitar. Low action, slinky, fun to play. No buzzing, fretting out, no rough sharp fret ends. It allows for more expressiveness in leads/solos IMO, even if you are not a crazy dive bomber/string bender. A stiffer feeling guitar makes me want to bang on it (which is cool), but this guitar makes me want to go full-on liquid melodic phrasing.

Fit & finish was flawless. The paint is an unusual 'dry' feeling that I am not used to, but I can roll with this because I think the less glossy paint looks good with the metallic red color. I never considered a hot red guitar before as my kind of color, and it might be a bit much for me if it was super shiny/reflective. The neck is unfinished (or if it is, you don't feel it). So super slippery feeling when sliding your thumb accross the back.

The Floyd Rose original - this is a no brainer minimum requirement for me. I have been playing on FRs since the 80's, and the current "original" model has the same feel of quality as my old school Floyds. Actually, it is improved with the easier to adjust trem arm versus the origional (you gotta use two wrenches to tighten the old ones to stay in place).

Pickups - sound good ot me, but I can't give a detailed review since I am playing now direct into a DAW. I acknowledge there are compromises with modeling software. But they sound good through a UA Apollo with Marshall plugins. Sorry guitar folks - my old amps from my gigging days are stored & not convenient to set up. One of these days I'll dust them off & crank 'em up again.

Also, thanks Adam for taking the time to discuss with me before I ordered, and for the professional follow up to check in a few weeks later if I was satisfied with my purchase. Yes I am!

I have played a Jackson professional for most of 30 years. I have always wanted a charvel. I finally purchase this guitar and let me tell you I was completely blown away. The neck is incredible and the body resonates as I expected from the alder. I could go on forever but every aspect of this guitar is nothing short of incredible. I purchased the black and I love it.

This Guitar is impeccable in design and build quality.
It"s built like a tank . The satin finish is flawless.
Lots of pickup configurations and just a volume knob.
This Guitar sounds great through any amp and is very comfortable to play.
The frets are highly polished and edges are smooth.
This instrument is a rock machine.

The guitar looked good online but when I opened the case upon arrival, all I can say is "WOW". A purchase that I do not regret. Worth every penny and the quality was second to none. Even though seeing online pics and youtube videos, I was skeptical about the satin finish but was nothing but impressed in person. The Torred is not your normal red guitar. The satin finish gives it a unique shine without being the typical gloss finish. Best part is it resists the usual finger prints and marks left behind by your arm when playing. I highly recommend this guitar to anyone that wants a ultra high quality USA made guitar.

When I took mine out of the box, my first thought was the color looked brighter than the photo, more of a raspberry red. The finish looks fantastic, however if you have not had a guitar with a finish like this, it feels a bit rougher than I thought it would, like a very fine sandpaper. This would be my only semi-complaint, otherwise it would have gotten 5 stars. I own two other Pro-Mod San Dimas' and the neck on this guitar feels superior to those two. In fact, it's the nicest feeling neck I've played on in 35 years of playing. Out of the box, the strings were so close to the fret board it was almost too easy to fret notes, I raised the bridge a bit just to make it feel a little closer to what I was used to. The Dimarzio humbucker sounds incredible, more definition on the high strings than my Seymour Duncans in the Pro Mods do, a big G chord has a nice hot rodded snarl to it. The neck pickup has great bluesy tone without too much twang which is exactly how I like it, but I opted to order a Dimarzio Satch Track to upgrade it for more output as there is a very noticeable volume drop when going from humbucker to the neck pickup. Dimarzio's website shows the Satch Track having nearly identical tone characteristics as the stock neck pickup with three times the output, so it should be perfection. Once I install the Satch Track pickup, this guitar will be my main weapon for as long as I continue playing guitar unless I accidentally break it. It just feels and sounds next level.