Hot or Not - Charvel Matte Black San Dimas

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
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Includes: Hardshell Case, Tremolo Arm, and Paperwork

They say if it ain't broke, don't fix it... and we say if the first run was awesome, we should do it again. A few years ago, the Music Zoo did a run of San Dimas guitars from the Charvel Custom Shop that had a great matte black finish. They were killer guitars, and this second batch is no exception.

Besides the "stealth bomber" look of the matte black finish, this guitar features an alder body, a quartersawn maple neck with 22 jumbo frets and a beautiful rosewood fretboard, a Floyd Rose tremolo, and all black hardware. To give the guitar the greatest range of tones with the simplest setup, we decided on two of Seymour Duncans most popular pickups, a JB humbucker in the bridge and a Quarter Pound single coil pickup in the neck position, with a single dome-style volume knob to control them. This guitar is a workhorse, with both excellent playability and tone.

Charvel®, San Dimas®, and the distinctive headstock design commonly found on Charvel® guitars are registered trademarks of FMIC under license to JCMI.


  • Matte Black Finish
  • Alder Body
  • Quartersawn Maple Neck
  • Rosewood Fretboard
  • 25.5" Scale Length
  • 1-11/16" Nut Width
  • San Dimas Neck Shape
  • Gunstock Oiled Neck
  • 22 Jumbo Frets
  • Seymour Duncan JB Bridge Pickup
  • Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder Neck Pickup
  • 3-Way Toggle Switch
  • NOS Brass Strap Buttons
  • Single Volume Control
  • Non-Recessed Floyd Rose Tremolo
  • Gotoh Tuners
  • Black Hardware
Not sure why this came up in the image search for the guitar, but I need to share it.

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I'm not normally a fan of matte finishes, but really like that guitar. I would rock the living shit out of that axe.
 
Super hot.

I dunno what the hell happened to me, but lately I've been gassing for super strats and shred machines like nothing else. :messedup:
 
I like that one better than the Suhr yesterday. Works for me! Reminds me a bit of the MusicMan Sub-1 guitars -- I'm still pissed I never picked one of those up...
 
Matte black paint job reminds me of the kid in high school with the souped up car that was painted in primer because he couldn't afford a paint job.
 
I prolly wouldn't like the radius which is guessing is just about none. Think that matte finish is urethane? Those finishes never sound crisp to me.
 
I kinda like the San Dimas models, despite the fact that Super Strats usually do nothing for me. Assuming the price is right (I'd expect a matte black guitar to cost less [due to less need to buff things out finish-wise] than different colored versions of the same model), I could see getting this one.
 
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