Charvel has added to its top-tier Japanese-made range of high-performance electric guitars with the evocatively titled MJ DK24 HSH 2PT W. Yes, you read that right, the MJ DK24 HSH 2PT W. Try ordering that over the telephone.
But if Charvel’s less-than-poetic naming convention fails to get the pulse racing, the guitars will. Because these are pretty special. And all joking aside, Charvel’s naming convention makes sense; even if it looks as though the Charvel cat has walked across the head of product’s laptop as they were signing off the product launch, it tells us a lot about the guitars themselves.
The HSH designation might as well read “super versatile” because that’s the pickup configuration, with a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro APH-1N custom humbucker at the neck, a Seymour Duncan SSL-6 Flat Strat single-coil in the middle position, and a Seymour Duncan Full Shred humbucker causing havoc at the bridge position. Those pickups get an A-plus, no notes from us.
If its sibling brand Jackson skews towards metal guitars, Charvel is for the player who is looking for a less explicitly extreme instrument, albeit these would work just dandy for metal, too. The 2PT in the name stands for the Gotoh 510 two-point tremolo, which affords you plenty of wiggle room on the whammy bar without the setup particulars of the double-locking Floyd Rose vibrato.
Now for the W in the name. This one we wouldn’t guess – it’s for wenge, and that’s what the necks on these is carved from. It’s dark red-brown looks at first blush to be rosewood, but it adds a classy bespoke look to these, with the feel trademark Charvel, a Speed Neck profile with hand-rubbed oil finish. Graphite reinforcement keeps them super stable.
The edges to the fingerboards are rolled. There are Luminlay glow-in-the-dark fret markers along the side of the ‘board. Jumbo stainless steel frets are applied to all three models. They’ll feel slinky.
All of these new MJ models have solid mahogany bodies, with the Black model all mahogany, and the transluscent Antique Burst and Caribbean Burst models both featuring highly figured flame maple tops. There is no binding on the body. Instead, like on some PRS models, the flame top has been masked off and unfinished to serve a similar purpose.
It looks the part, especially with that licensed Strat headstock, reminding us that Charvel builds are just a hop, skip and a jump down the evolutionary path from Fender designs.
These MJ DK24 HSH 2PT W models don’t come cheap at £2,349/$1,999, but for a pro-quality shred platform they will be hard to beat. They ship in a a Multi-Fit Hardshell gig bag.