Charvel - Guthrie Govan USA Signature HSH Flame Maple

It's impossible not to have heard the name Guthrie Govan circulate during a conversation between musicians.

This guitar genius is a jack-of-all-trades who has played in many (many) projects with different horizons, whether it's the Progressive Rock supergroup Asia, his virtuoso project The Aristocrats or even within the impressive group of the legendary composer Hans Zimmer.

This virtuoso is capable of playing in all musical styles with astonishing ease, and he needs an instrument capable of providing him with an expressive and versatile sound, ranging from Jazz to Hard to Blues and Funk.

The American manufacturer Charvel has teamed up with the six-string player and created a line of signature instruments of breathtaking quality.

Based on the San Dimas superstrat format, the model features an American basswood body enhanced by a flamed maple top for a sound full of brilliance, precision and balance.

With playing comfort being paramount and to meet the needs of modern players, Guthrie commissioned a bolt-on caramelized flamed maple neck with a compensated radius and on which is affixed a caramelized flamed maple fingerboard for surgical precision, magnified presence and a super silky touch. The expression "like butter" has never been truer with this neck that will make your life easier on all your most technical plans.

As an accomplished lead guitarist, Govan is a fervent fan of vibrato effects and Charvel understood this well by installing a homemade vibrato embedded in the top with an oversized counterweight to perfect the transmission of vibration and thus, the sustain. But the artist also thought of guitarists who are less of a fan of vibrato or of all those with a fairly frank attack, he installed the Tremol-No system which, with a simple turn of the wheel, blocks the vibrato.

To guarantee stability of the tuning, and also to facilitate the changing of strings, the manufacturer installed a set of Gotoh MG-T Made in Japan locking tuners, as smooth in the note climbs as solid as a rock in their hold.

Capable of going from its crystal clear sound to an epic overdrive via thick crunches, Guthrie opted for specific microphone combinations via its 5-position selector: in addition to finding the full humbucker positions, the intermediate positions call for paralleling of one coil out of two of the humbuckers coupled to the central microphone. In addition, a mini switch allows you to engage a single coil simulation on the neck and bridge pickups, thus adding to the sonic possibilities of the beast which is driven by Charvel Custom MF pickups, specially wound to meet the needs of sound opening and dynamics sought by the artist.

To protect this monster of versatility during incessant tours and to preserve all the shine of the natural satin finish, a hard case is included for total peace of mind.