Charvel Guthrie Govan Signature MJ San Dimas SD24 CM Guitar, Caramelized Maple Fretboard, 3-Tone Sunburst
Player's Perspective
Holy Guthrie. This guitar should be nominated for knighthood. Smoothies, city blocks and new species of mammals should be named after it. There should a free app that calculates your proximity to the nearest one. Pictures of it should come standard as a background choice for all laptops.
This stunning Guthrie Govan Signature San Dimas in a wonderful Three-Tone Sunburst courted and wooed us before we even conjured a single note out of it. The first thing you'll notice is the neck. It's just the right shape: not a baseball bat, not paper thin. When you play with your hand flat and your thumb directly in back, it'll really let you open up and get into a full stride. But when you reach your thumb around the top for a big bend, there's still plenty of neck to dig into.
Tonally, this guitar sports a all-encompassing set of pickups and tonal options on tap that provide supreme flexibility. The pickups are some of the best-sounding we've heard. They're clear, responsive, and always very honest in reflecting your playing without getting in the way. Single-coil jangle and chime, full-on saturated humbucker leads, warm neck pickup jazz tones - it's all in there.
In short, the Guthrie Govan signature is one of the best electric guitars we've played. The build quality is outstanding. It's perfect for the Guthrie disciple or simply any player looking for a super high-end, no-nonsense workhorse shredder.
MANUFACTURER'S DESCRIPTION
Harkening back to the late '80s when Charvel guitars were manufactured exclusively in Japan, Charvel proudly introduces the Guthrie Govan Signature MJ San Dimas® SD24 CM. Exquisite in style, this MJ signature model blends Charvel’s unparalleled legacy of designing high-performance instruments with an assortment of Govan’s preferred top-end features.
This 25.5" scale guitar features a San Dimas® basswood body with an ash top and specially contoured heel (sans neck plate) for easy access to the upper reaches of the fingerboard. The bolt-on maple neck has a "caramelized" heat and drying treatment that makes it sound and feel much older, along with graphite reinforcement, satin finish on the back of the neck and a conveniently located heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel. Most unusually for a San Dimas model, the 12"-16" compound radius caramelized maple fingerboard features 24 jumbo stainless-steel frets, as well as crème dot inlays and Luminlay® side dots.
Other premium features include three specially wound Charvel custom pickups arranged in a versatile HSH configuration with five-way switching for the expansive tonal openness and dynamic sensitivity that Govan demands, along with a two-way mini toggle switch to engage single-coil simulation in bridge and neck humbucker positions. This instrument also comes loaded with two Luminlay numbered dome control knobs for volume and tone, recessed Charvel locking tremolo bridge with pop-in tremolo arm and brass block, Gotoh® die-cast locking tuners and Graph Tech® TUSQ® XL nut.
Specifications
Body
- Body Finish: Satin
- Body Shape: San Dimas® Style 1
- Body Material: Basswood
- Body Top: Ash
Neck
- Neck Material: Caramelized Maple
- Neck Construction: Bolt-On with Graphite Reinforcement
- Neck Finish: Satin
- Neck Shape: Speed Neck with Rolled Fingerboard Edges
- Neck Binding: None - Rolled Fingerboard Edges
- Scale Length: 25.5" (648 mm)
- Fingerboard Radius: 12"-16" Compound Radius (304.8 mm to 406.4 mm)
- Fingerboard Material: Caramelized Maple
- Number of Frets: 24
- Fret Size: Jumbo Stainless Steel
- Nut Material: Graph Tech® TUSQ® XL
- Nut Width: 1.6875" (42.86 mm)
- Position Inlays: Crème Dots
- Side Dots: Luminlay®
- Truss Rod Nut: Heel-Mount Truss Rod Adjustment Wheel
- Headstock: Licensed Fender® Stratocaster®
- Neck Plate: None - 4-Bolt Sculpted Heel
Electronics
- Bridge Pickup: Charvel® Custom Humbucking
- Middle Pickup: Charvel® Custom Single-Coil
- Neck Pickup: Charvel® Custom Humbucking
- Pickup Color: Brown
- Controls: Volume, Tone
- Pickup Switching: 5-Position Blade: Position 1. Full Bridge Pickup, Position 2. Bridge Inner Coil and Middle Pickup, Position 3. Bridge Outer Coil and Neck Outer Coil, Position 4. Middle and Neck Outer Coil, Position 5. Full Neck Pickup
- Auxiliary Switching: 2-Way Mini-Toggle to Engage Single-Coil Simulation in Bridge (Pos 1) and Neck (Pos 5) Humbucker Positions
- Pickup Configuration: HSH
Hardware
- Bridge: Recessed Charvel® Locking Tremolo Bridge
- Hardware Finish: Chrome
- Tremolo Arm: Pop-In Tremolo Arm
- Tremolo Block: Brass
- Tuning Machines: Gotoh® Locking
- Control Knobs: Dome-Style Luminlay® Numbered
- Switch Tip: Black
Miscellaneous
- Strings: Nickel Plated Steel (.010-.046 Gauges)
- Case: Hardshell
- Instrument Weight: 7.7 lbs
- Serial #: JFC2100344
Overall Condition
Music Store Live is proud to be an authorized dealer for Charvel. This Guthrie Govan Signature MJ San Dimas SD24 CM is 100% brand new and is being sold with a full manufacturer's warranty. Photos are of the exact guitar you'll receive.
Our in-house guitar tech will inspect, test, set up, and clean all of our instruments on site prior to shipping. All of our instruments are guaranteed to be fully functional upon arrival.