Charvel Desolation Skatecaster SK-1 ST

The old Surfcaster was one of the strangest Charvel models. This is the modern version of that. Now that Fender owns Charvel they are using them to produce modern metal guitars for younger people to want. With this guitar they took the old Surfcaster design and spruced it up with metal appointments. It is now the Skatecaster. With this guitar you get a mahogany body with a mahogany neck through neck. The top is a flame maple veneer. The back of the neck is raw so you have no sticky gloss to slow you down. This is the hardtail version so it has a tune-o-matic bridge. The pickups are the classic EMG set. There is an 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck. The controls are super simple with just a volume and 3 way selector.

UTILIZATION

The Skatecaster design lends itself to good upper fret access. You can easily reach all the frets on this guitar. The unfinished mahogany neck has a unique feel to it. not many guitars come with raw mahogany necks they are usually maple. The fretboard on this guitar has the Jackson/Charvel compound radius fretboard. This means that on the low part of the neck the radius is more round to give you a more comfortable feel for chords. On the high part of the neck the radius is flatter so you can play leads easier without fretting out. The hard tail on this model provides good tuning stability and with it you can easily tune the guitar down for a heavier sound.

SOUNDS

In this guitar you get the classic EMG setup. 81 in the bridge and 85 in the neck. It was cool for Charvel to put Blackouts in some of these guitars and EMG's in others. It gives you a choice on the type of active sound you want. The 81 in the bridge is a grind machine. It is built for low tunings. It has a lot of top end so your riffs cut through super clearly. The 85 in the neck is a smooth lead machine. It has less grind to the sound and more body. When you play a lead on the neck position its smooth and the cleans are good as well since there is less of a harsh top end to the voicing.

OVERALL OPINION

The Skatecaster is a cool new design that older guys will recognize as being an 80s design. With its modern features of active pickups and whatnot it is right in the middle of the mid range metal guitar line up. This guitar competing with the likes of Schecter and ESP LTD guitars means its right where kids can afford them. Great pricing with the great playability and features means these Desolation guitars can take over the mid level Metal guitar market. If you are looking for a metal guitar around 600 bucks you should check out these Charvels before you settle on an ESP or Schecter guitar.