Review: Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2 HH HT M Ash Guitar

PLATINUM AWARD

I’ve always been a huge fan of Charvel Guitars for their unapologetically streamlined guitars geared for high-speed playability, unbridled power and peak performance.

In fact, I actually own two Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 1 models (because everyone should have at least two), which I frequently use for my Eighties-inspired, “shred-tastic” bands.

Charvel recently released a huge collection of new models and I received the no-nonsense Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2 HH HT M Ash guitar, which is their Tele-shaped model in a hard tail bridge, and now I must admit, I might have to bump up my Charvel collection to three.

FEATURES
The Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2 HH HT M comes with a beautifully grained natural ash body coupled with a two-piece bolt-on maple neck. What’s cool is the body is contoured with a generous belly cut to hug your mid-section, a contour on the cutaway and heel for unfettered access ahead of the 15th fret, and a slick contour behind the lower bout for the output jack.

The guitar’s neck features graphite reinforcement rods (for steadfast stability); 12- to 16-inch compound radius maple fingerboard, 22 jumbo frets, and a thumbwheel truss rod butt-adjust that makes straightening the neck a conveniently quick and easy adjustment. The guitar also includes Seymour Duncan JB TB-4 (bridge) and ’59 SH-1N (neck) humbuckers screwed directly into the body and controlled with a three-way blade switch.

The volume control hides a push/pull coil split and the No-Load tone control operates like a standard tone control until you feel the indent when fully throttled, which effectively removes the circuit for transparent sound. The guitar also features black hardware, a HT6 string-through-body hardtail bridge, and die-cast locking tuners.

PERFORMANCE
The Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2 HH