I was looking at a plum Charvel So-Cal Strat, but the only Charvels I've played are the old japanese Charvels.

How are the new ones and what really sets them apart from my Fender strats? It's honestly the colour that is making me gas the most.

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These things are cool, I understand that they change colors every so often

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

I get that they are H-H and have a Floyd Rose, but other than that if I closed my eyes would it still feel like a strat? Or are the contours and weighting different.

And how is the routing? Would it be easy to do a pup swap for HSS or would I have to do some coil-tap craziness?

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Not sure about all that....

But they look cool...

http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/

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08 American Strat - Blizzard Pearl
04 MIM Strat - Black Maple Neck
07 Gibson SG - Heritage Cherry
11 Gibson Les Paul Studio 60's Tribute GT
Martin Acoustic - 00CXAE
Marshall Class 5 Head
Blackstar HT5 Combo
Mustang V Head
Behringer AT108

This is a great review here, this guy really knew his stuff:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144683
A little lengthy, but nothing is overlooked ^^

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

I played a so cal and a San Dimas a few weeks ago.. First off let me say the florescent Green looks killer. Some great colors offered on these guitars, sure wish fender would spread that out across the rest of their lines..

Played each model for around 30 min and thought they sounded pretty good. Build quality was right on or maybe just below that of American strat. That being said in my opinion the quality is nowhere near what it was in the 70’s when Wane Charvel built his guitars, and well below the quality of how Grover Jackson was building them in the 80’s (in my opinion, nobody can build a neck like Mr Grover) hence the reason he has ghost built necks for everyone out there at one time or another.
I would compare them very equally to the Japanese built charvel and jackson guitars prior to Fender buying the company. Except they were half the price then….

On offence intended here!!!!!!!

Thing that gets my goat is that Fender bills these as 100% made in the USA guitars….assembled in the USA is more like it as it has parts on it made overseas. Not that that is a bad thing it’s just misrepresentation. I also do not like the Licensed under floyd rose tremlo from Korea on the thing..I would gladly pay more for a real Floyd Rose tremlo ( yes I know there made in Germany) but an authentic floyd is indestructible and the Licensed ones are crap, trust me I have them on a couple of my axes.
Over all these are good guitars at a fair price, comparable to a lot of the competition out there . I did not think (to me ) if felt or played any different than my Ibanez RG 550. So other than the cool colors and a better set of pickups I could not see buying something a virtually all ready had. In fact I thought they were so much like the Ibanez that I would probably just buy the Ibanez if I wanted another guitar like that and get off 2 to 400 bucks cheaper (depending where you shop)

Over all I though the so cal and a San Dimas were nice guitars….maybe someday if I ever have a disposable income ill pick one up and do a Jake E Lee tribute shrine..

Cheers
Bill

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!

Awesome review. Did not cure my GAS. Only thing is I think I would end up doing heavy mods to it=\ I'm not a metal guy or a shredder at all.

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