CharvelPro-Mod So-Cal Style 2 24 2PT HH - Black Ash

This is one of the best buys right now for an electric guitar. With Fender consistently convoluting its high-end Mexico line to make it harder and harder to get 'good ones', Charvel has become a go-to for super high quality and affordable guitars. You get SO MANY mods on this thing that most other manufacturers will probably never give. For the record I'm comparing to Godin's, Gibsons both old and new, Fernandes Strats, etc. This thing is just such a good combo of so many good parts from other guitars, its meaty and clear and plays like a dream. Actually, getting Tele sounds out of it is probably one of the only real design cons since its a bit of a trick, but they are definitely there.Features: Gotoh bridge (Gotoh is very good quality hardware from Japan, I prefer it to almost everything else), fluence pickups which take some time to learn but are insanely versatile, unbelievably comfortable and fast neck with beautiful frets, super stable trem, locking tuners, multiple pickup voicings, high neck cutaways for easy access, contoured body, ash tonewood, lumilay inlays. Come on. Any other manufacturer providing all this would charge easily double (and they do). Sure you get a nick or two here and there or a bit of QA trouble on totally unimportant things (mostly finished or loose knobs, chips in the trem rout as the other guy pictured, etc.) but the actual quality of the guitar is super high. They basically sell this thing for parts. I get that lots of people say that, but they actually do. If you tried to build a comparable guitar out of quality used parts that had similar or same spec, you'd be hitting retail on these all day long.Charvel has been getting a bad rap from people used to their 'other' guitars being beautifully finished (i.e. coated in a pound of plastic sealer) and its really too bad. The series before this had some finish trouble and it got absolutely blasted for it 'for the money'. Its a total shame. I bought mine used and had to tighten down the pickup selector switch and un-modify the last guys spring changes in back (neither probably a factory issue). The trem is INCREDIBLE, super smooth, floating, and can do all kinds of subtle sounds you can't get on bigsbys or Fender Jag/Jazz trems that often have dead spots in the middle. The fluence pickups have modern and classic voicings AND single coil voicings and because they are active you can lower your volume without sacrificing tone, which takes some getting used to.The only problem I have are that the pickups output so hot it can clip digital pedals by approaching line level output.The necks on these alone go for about $400-500 used and they are just fantastic to play, makes everything else feel like a baseball bat. Its pretty hard not to want the hard tail version too and a DK 24 even though it doesn't have fluence. But I'd probably consider getting the fluence if I could. They are just 'the' guitar in so many ways without being campy or a product of their time. If it said "Ibanez" on the headstock they would be $2500.

For 1k you can do a lot better. The quality of craftsmanship is not what I expected at all and had a broken humbucker when it arrived.