Charvel Joe Duplantier Pro-Mod SD S2HH

For 20 years I hated the floyd rose with regards to tuning and the volume knob that gets in the way of playing. I frankly don't know why I suffered for this long.

After purchasing this guitar, my playing technique got way better and I can shred cleaner because of the right hand position that comes to me more naturally at an angle with straight fingers, which I can now do due to the lack of the damned knob in the vicinity of the bridge pickup. A real relief, I must say. The sound is quite good, though I could wish for more sustain. The guitar is also quite light compared to other guitars I played, which is a plus for playing for hours while standing, although I must say it does have a bit of a neck dive. And due to this lightness, it may kind of wobble if you are playing aggressively, but nothing that you can't handle with a bit of more focus. Easily accessible thrust rod adjustment near the neck pickup is such a great feature! These are my first locking tuners on a guitar, and I am pretty satisfied, though the guitar doesn't hold tuning that perfect it holds it good enough. I use 56/11 strings in standard D tuning. Still haven't used it live, though. The looks are fu**ing amazing, I love it! Plain and simple, no bullshit stuff, although the paintjob is kind of cheap. My first impression was a bit disappointing, but after playing it for a month or so, now I think the guitar rocks! I will not buy other guitar any time soon, and this one is definitely worth the purchase, though it could be somewhat lower in price in my opinion. I don't care that it is a signature guitar.

Overall, having in mind that no guitar will ever be perfect, and if you can live with some of the cons (which you might not find as cons), I do recommend the purchase. :)

I bought this guitar more than one year ago and this is what I can tell you after playing it almost every day during that year:
The guitar sounds very good, it's suitable for metal. So if you want a heavy and fat sound it's for you. Idk what else to say about advantages, but basically I like it very much, and don't regret about this purchasement.
However there are some disadvantages and they are related to the quality of assembly:
1. After about 9 month the volume potentiometer died.. it started to crunch and I even couldn't disable the volume... so I have to buy a new one and to change it.
2. One of the locking washer on the bridge that is used for adjust the scale length somehow felt down and got lost, so I had to but a new one and change it as well..
3. and there are some minor visualisation things, like paint drip, but they are not well visible, so I don't think it matters a lot.

Hands down most beautiful guitar I ever touched.
Wonderful output on bridge pickup. Cant get enoguh of it.

Now to the bad side.

Was a little bit disappointed with "shakey" neck pickup. I know that pickups are mounted on 2 mounting screws and they are subject to moving. But they should not move while you play guitar. Bad look for guitar that is suposedly checked and "set up" prior to shipping.

I know that it is possible that bridge pickup got damaged in shipping but i thik that is unlikely because rest of the guitar and package did not have any damages.

Overall, I am very happy with the guitar, but for that price i should not have to fix anything.

Please note that when I say "that price" I mean that standard in my country is low so this mid range guitar is actually quite expensive for me.

Please excuse my bad english.

Straight out of the box i noticed the paint job had black dots in it, some were a little speckles of black on the front and the back.

But, the guitar played like a dream and for me, its sounds great. It played so well i didnt want to return it in case it didnt compare to it. I play metal only and i love playing with this guitar. i wasnt expecting to like the neck as much as i did.

Negatives: Black Speckles on the guitar finish, the bridge is too straight to the strings on my guitar, dent in the neck, small split on fretboard, had to bring guitar to a shop to get frets levelled.

Positives: Sounds great for me but i only play metal, the neck feels great, great guitar for the price but has since gone up, aesthetically looks killer, and plays like it too.

So far I'm very happy with this guitar - it's even better then I expected. Locking tuners, volume knob and switch seem to be of a good quality. The neck is very smooth and in reality looks much better then I saw in the video reviews, honestly it looks like it belongs to a much more expensive guitar. Also it is pretty thin so it's very comfortable to play fast aggressive riffs or solos. After playing on a Les Paul it feels like playing on another planet. The action is very low which is great and there is no fretbuzz. The black fretboard looks fantastic. I was a bit worried about playing without inlays because they give a good visual indication and help a lot but it actually didn't feel uncomfortable at all. The pickups are decent, the sound is very clear and focused. The guitar is pretty light and it feels very comfortable to play both standing and sitting. It also has a bevel on the neckjoint which makes reaching the higher frets extremely easy and comfortable.
The only issue that I've noticed is a scratch on the plastic cap (the one which covers the slot with wires) at the back of the guitar - but it's definitely not a big deal.
So the verdict is that it's an excellent instrument, very good quality, great price/value ratio.