Head to head
Which one sings the prettiest tune?
The playability of the Ibanez, Schecter and Jackson guitars is remarkably similar. Each has a super-slim neck profile that gently fattens as you head towards the 12th fret. The Charvel is slightly chubbier at the first fret, and the profile is pretty much the same as you travel up to the body end. We love the rolled fingerboard edges and the way the neck gently flattens out on the back. It’s supremely comfortable, and a good choice for those that don’t do the super-slim stuff.
The Charvel’s tonal range is old-school, too. The classic Seymour JB offers plenty of grunt and punch in its bridge position, but you get some excellent clarity, even when the extreme dirt is dished. The neck pickup offers warm bluesy tones to complete a versatile package. Anybody who reckons Floyd guitars don’t do tone needs to try this.
The three remaining contenders pump out a more modern tone. The Ibanez brings forth
razor-sharp top-end from its Dimarzio pickups. It’ll do clean, but it’s way happier welding eyeballs to the back of skulls. We didn’t miss the tone control, and can’t see many shredders mourning its loss, either. Likewise, the single-coil mode will probably see little action, but it’s there, just in case.
Schecter has a great reputation for building pickups, and we like the ballsy output of the aptly named Decimator humbuckers. They clean up well and actually sound glassy and sweet in single coil mode.
The Jackson is versatile too. Hot Rails are underrated as clean machines and that clarity translates to great definition when you switch the distortion pedal on. None of these guitars went out of tune once while we lived with them – that’s the Floyd Rose effect in a nutshell for you.
When you figure in the build quality and tonal range on offer here, it makes this group test the closest one to call yet.
Anybody who thinks Floyd guitars don’t do tone needs to try the Charvel