Angel Vivaldi 7 String | Charvel | DK24-7 NOVA | REVIEW
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- In this review I'll be taking an in depth look at a Charvel Angel Vivaldi signature series seven string electric guitar...the DK24-7 NOVA.
The look and tone of this guitar is an absolute knockout, which I'd expect nothing less from a collaboration between Charvel and the amazing Angel Vivaldi.
Featuring a custom Gotoh bridge, Dimarzio pickups, and locking tuners in a sharp gold this guitar looks the part. A five way pickup selector switch and a master tone and volume control keeps everything simple.
The only draw back of this guitar is that it does NOT have stainless steel frets and the tuning on my guitar wasn't very stable. I had to have a Guitar Center tech take a look at the guitar and file and grease the nut to improve tuning stability.
0:00 - Intro
0:40 - Demo Metal Riffage
1:06 - Solo #1
1:45 - Dagga Dagga's
2:02 - Solo #2
2:43 - Metal Riffage Reprise
3:04 - Signal Path and Background
4:34 - Features
5:56 - The Good
8:52 - The Bad
12:31 - The Verdict
#angelvivaldi #charvel #review
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Hello internet...my name is is Rob Craft and welcome to my youtube channel!
'A Minor Error' is the creative home for all things I do in music: instrumental progressive metal music, product reviews, tip videos and free music lessons. Leave me a comment or question, I try and reply to all comments within a day!
I'm a Berklee College of Music Grad and I've been based out of Philly teaching and gigging in music for the over the last 10 years in various bands. I play guitar, trumpet, bass, piano and ukulele and offer online private music lessons. Send me an email to aminorerrorrocks@gmail.com to book a lesson.
Stop by my bandcamp to buy tabs from my songs and videos.
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Instagram: / aminorerror
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Really nice demo and well done video. Wish you the best on your UA-cam journey. Thanks man!
Thanks dude, appreciate the kind words and thanks for the encouragement! Got SO MUCH more content in the works, hope you'll come back and check it out.
eyyy them new guitar day back again, glad to see some charvel in action, the inlays are beautiful.
Thanks for stopping back at the channel and watching/commenting!
Nice concise review
Thanks Jim! Appreciate ya stopping by and checking this out!
I just discovered your channel, great staff bro and i think I've a lot to learn here , you got yourself a new subscriber,greetings from Morocco
Thanks Anna, it's nice to meet you! Greetings from Philadelphia. Thank you for the kind words and the sub!
Maaan, i bought this guitar two months ago and it was a blast , had some tuning issues at the beggining , but after restringing the guitar correctly, zero tuning problems even if i abuse the tremolo.
And now i am waiting for a Strandberg guitar, thanks to your channel and all your tests, i fell in love with the brand and i can't wait to put my hands on it in a week !!!
So thank you for the very informative videos you make. Keep on rocking !
PS : Take care of the hardware, as the gold finish tends to fade if not taken care of !!
Thanks for watching and thanks for the kind words! Congrats on the new guitars, what Strandy did you go with? VERY glad to hear you didn't have the tuning issues I did, it really was a pain in the ass! Good tip on the hardware, I sold mine already (gotta cover the cost of all the new guitars I've got in right now to review for the fall). Stoked hear about how you feel about the strandy once you get it! They're killer guitars, I think you're gonna love it.
@@aminorerror Hey, thats so awesome to wake up and find your comment too ! well, i went for the classic Trem 6, a way to start my endeavour of a strandberg collector haha ! Well, about the tuning issues, i have just worked on stringing correctly my instrument : i gave it a very short amount of slack, then playing with the string by stretching it with my fingers before tuning it was the trick. Very solid tuning stability afterwards. And also, i made sure the tremolo was absolutely flat too !!
@@aminorerror Btw, i love your channel, it helped me a lot taking a decision whetret to go with a strandy or not : Your opinions are honest, your test drives are awesome and you seem to really care a lot about what you are doing. Keep going man, we can't wait for your new videos !
Solid choice! I really loved the Classic when I had it, only issues were IMO the middle and bridge pickups left a little bit to be desired. I'd recommend going with a great set of Suhr pickups maybe eventually, just an idea though!
Glad to hear you've had no problems with your Vivaldi, unfortunately I did all of those things and it was a total MESS. Taking to a guitar center and having the nut filed and greased helped a bunch but it still wasn't as solid as my 'berg and def not even close to my Ibanez J Custom (those damn things usually stay in tune perfectly for sometimes over a month).
Really appreciate the support and the encouraging words! I've got big plans in the fall. Currently have 7 guitars in to review and I'm planning on doing a cover album with all my demo's next, gonna do an original take on most of the music from the original Doom and Doom II games lol Also, got new original single coming out in August and two EP's in the works in the next year. I hope you dig all the new stuff.
Great video! I've actually eyed these for a while. Never pulled the trigger on them though. Charvel has been killing the super strat game lately, just sucks that there's no stainless steel frets and the issues with the nut.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my newest video dude! It really is a great instrument, and I'm sure had I kept it I could have gotten the tuning problems really worked out but yea no stainless steel frets is a major bummer. At this price point I'd have to go stripped down Kiesel IMO.
Your playing is absolutely amazing
Thank you for the kind words! Got lots of new music and guitar reviews on the way this spring, hope you'll stop back!
@@aminorerror i will! I have subbed! And based on your review, I'm deciding not to go with this guitar. The Nickle frets are an automatic no go for me. Looking into an Ibanez 7 prestige now
That's probably a good call, stainless really does last a WHOLE lot longer. I'd recommend checking out a Kiesel too, there's a good chance you can find a solid one used and save even a couple extra, although any Ibby Prestige is a fantastic instrument too. Good luck, and I've love to hear what you wind up going with!
@@aminorerror thanks man! Yeah I'll let ya know for sure. I would love a keisel if I could find a nice deal. They look really high quality.
Hey man! I´ve the sage green one since the release of the line and I have to admit that I can´t second your "bads" here at all. My Nova stays in tune even after some very aggressive misusage sessions. I´m on 09-52. It´s indeed even the guitar with the best tuning stability I ever had (25 years+ guitar player). I´m sorry to hear that you had those issues.
Regaring the nickel frets: I actually have to say that I always enjoyed nickel over ss for some reason :). Bending etc is just kind of "smoother" (if that makes sense) and as long as the quality & the craftmanship is top notch (which it is on my model) it´s just a pleasure to play them. Even after 25 years, I´ve never really managed to wore down a guitar with nickel frets. So my guess is that the critique of fretwear is either just a myth repeated by everyone or just applies for more aggressive players than me. Don´t get me wrong: stainless steel IS of course the more robust metal. It´s just my personal reality check on the affective "eeewww, nickel" response nickel frets get :)
anyways, that´s just my experience. thanks a lot for the review though, very much appreciated!
Hi! I'm really glad to hear that your guitar is great tuning stability wise, mine really was unusable at first and still not really great even after I got it worked on. Sounds like the nut on your guitar probably works correctly.
I will disagree on nickel frets VS stainless as I've worn out MANY guitars with just nickel frets in my years of playing. I do play a LOT more than most people...I used to have two to three gigs a week on top of at least two rehearsals a week on top of teaching 7 days a week...so not your average work load for sure. Since I've switched to stainless I haven't had any problems wearing out frets, even with a work load that busy.
I do agree what you mean with nickel when it comes to feel and I DEF still prefer the tone over stainless, it seems to be less bright or hash IMO.
Really appreciate the feedback and you taking the time to watch my video and leave a comment! If you haven't already, consider giving the channel a sub. Got loads of guitar related content coming out each month.
Absolutely love Angel Vivaldi. Much respect for him and his career. Loved the leads in the demo! I'm personally not a huge fan of the style of Charvel guitars but I've played several that were great and heard lots of good things. Real bummer on the tuning stability. That neck/headstock joint pretty much solidifies that Ill never gig with one and you know why 😂😂😂😂
Hahahaha yea absolutely NO WAY this guitar would survive a Josh Kuhn gig! But in all seriousness, I think the nickel frets is the biggest problem with this guitar. I'm sure with enough tweaking and work the tuning stability would have been better, but the lack of stainless steel at this price point is a major bummer.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my newest video too dude! Got my Jason Richardson Sterling by MM review coming out soon!
@@aminorerror always man I love your stuff. Yeah nickel can really be a struggle. Stoked for the JR!!
Liked and subscribed .. just bought one of these.
Congrats on the new axe, glad you liked the review! Appreciate the support, rock on!
Amazing review and wonderful playing! I was wondering how you got the flutters to sound so nice...What gauge strings are you using? Do you use only 3 springs or something to get it to flutter that well? I really love to flutter so I'd love to be able to use that technique on a 7 string. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for watching and thanks for the kind words! God, I honestly can't remember how many springs were in the guitar, could have been 2 or could have been 3. I didn't have to do anything special with it to get it to flutter though, it was like that right out of the box. I think it's because the Gotoh 510 bridge has locking studs and pretty much only Ibanez consistently uses a locking stud too. It creates just a rock solid pivot point that IMO that's why the bridge flutters well. It's also got a good size tone block and high quality metal used...the bridge isn't light and the added mass with locked down pivot point is why it flutters well. There are tolerances with any mass produced product, but of the two Gotoh 510 bridges I've played in person they both fluttered great. Hope that helps, thanks for watching!
Sorry its late, subbed. Cheers.
Thanks for watching and thanks for the sub! Rock on.
Tuning stability is all on the setup. This happens with a lot of brands. I always end up resetting up just about every guitar I’ve ever bought. Stainless steel is no big deal IMO. Never have I had to get a guitar refretted and I’ve been playing and Gigging heavily for like 15 years. I guess everyone has a different touch.
Thanks for watching! I def agree, I always change the setup on my guitars but this one was VERY different. The nut wasn't properly installed and even after having it filed and lubed by a luthier it still wasn't the greatest. If you haven't already, consider giving the channel a sub for loads of guitar content!
Would love to get this guitar as a blacked out guitar! Maybe I will get one swap out the gold hardware to black and put window tint over the gold logo!
Great demo. After you had it looked at by a tech and the nut filed and greased we're the tuning issues taken care of?
Thanks the kind words and thanks for watching Sean. Sadly, it wasn't 100% after the tech worked on it. I'd say it was 80% better, good enough to teach and practice on but I wouldn't have felt confident playing on it at a gig. It's a shame because I really liked the guitar overall too and the Gotoh bridge was so freaking smooth and fun to use. If I had been planning on keeping it (I don't keep almost any of the guitars I review) I would have taken it to a better tech than guitar center (I got it through musicians friend so that was how to get the work done for free). Hope that helps!
I think I’m going to pull the trigger on one of these at the weekend. Guitar-Guitar in Glasgow has a black one in stock…..but they also have a DK24 with an Amber quilt maple top🤔🤔🤔. I’ll need to play them both, but I really need a 7 string for the collection. Thanks for the heads-up on the issues. Subbed!
Thanks for watching and commenting, the amber quilt is def a beautiful guitar too! Once you get the tuning stuff sorted I think you'll be pretty happy with the guitar, and supporting Angel Vivaldi and buying one of his signature guitars is probably the best thing you can do too. Best of luck and thanks for the sub, I've got a LOT of material on the way for the summer and fall. Hope you'll stop back and check it out. Rock on!
@@aminorerror I got the Nova! I initially didn’t like the way it felt to play, but I took it anyway. BUT…. By the end of day one I had fallen for it. It’s perfect! It blows my EC1000 out of the water. Intonation bang on everywhere, and the neck is a joy. Setup from the factory was perfect, and it holds tune really well. This is guitar no. 1 now!
Congrats! I'm glad to hear your experience has been much better with tuning stability. Rock on!
Yeah I bought a Dinky and had exactly the same issue with the tuning stability, everytime I bent the G string there was a creaking sound. I eventually needed to get it serviced and lock the trem
Bummer to hear you had a similar issue, but doesn't surprise me. Non-double locking fully floating systems can be hard to get dialed it and blocking off the trem kinda defeats the whole point of having one. Thanks for watching!
what does your spring orientation look like?? I messed with the claw screws and have 3 in mine... not sure if i love it, but I put 10-59s on it...going back to 9-56
I haven't had the guitar in years so I can't remember but usually my guitars only need 2 springs and I play 9's. 10's are too heavy of a gauge for standard tuning for me personally. Make sure you're stretching the strings out right away after they're on the guitar too, that should help. Good luck!
I’m actually wanting to sell mine (sage green) because I can’t figure out the bridge. I’ve always been a hard tail guy, and this is my first tremolo guitar.
Any tips on where I can learn to deal with that beast of a bridge??
The tuning issues I had when I was reviewing this one was definitely nut related: it wasn't filed well enough to let the strings slip the way they needed to and like I said in the video, getting it cut and lubricated helped, but it still wasn't as good as it should have been. I'd recommend upgrading the nut to something very low friction, talk to your local shop and see what they'd recommend and then have a pro install it. I know that's a lot of a hassle to deal with something that should have been right from the factory, but it is what it is. Keep in mind that anything you do to any other string will effect how another string responds ie tightening the 6th string will loosen the 1st string and vice versa. Be sure to give the strings a good tug and get them all stretched out and keep as little slack as possible on the locking tuners. Good luck!
I briefly owned this guitar but ended up letting it go. Nice overall, very good in several aspects. I personally loved the neck profile and neck joint, both up there with the best I have tried. My main issue with it, which led me to eventually selling it, was that the pickups sounded terrible for me. They had like a boosted mids tone to them that always had me wondering if my wah pedal was on. Eventually I got tired of trying to tweak my amp to make it work.
Thanks for watching and commenting, I can def understand why you didn't like at least the bridge pickup. IMO I found the neck Air Norton 7 to be a great pairing but with a Tone Zone 7 in the bridge...that pickup has such a pronounced mid range bump that might not work for everyone. In the end, I really liked the bridge pickup for leads, it had great presence and the mid range bump helped it cut in the mix but if you're doing mostly modern metal rhythm work that tone might not be best. What did you end up getting to replace it?
@@aminorerror ha! Not sure, man, I have a bad case of GAS, must have got several guitars since I sold that one and can´t remember which one came in exactly after... Trying to remember, I think it was a Legator N8FX, insane guitar, best sounding guitar with Fishman fluence moderns to my ear.
That's sick dude! I feel ya on the GAS...we've all been there! I've heard great things about the newer Legators...the one that I reviewed recently was an older model and was pretty bad. Glad to hear you're digging the Fluence Moderns in that Legator, I've got a new Strandberg Original 7 Poplar Burl in for a review now and it's got those pickups and they DON'T sound good to me lol I think it's the woods of this guitar, they just don't pair well IMO.
@@aminorerror Yeah, I think it depends on whether you catch one of the earlier legator builds, they obviously learned a lot from mistakes made back then. I feel they get a lot of slack that's unjustified these days. In my experience, they currently sit with the best production models out there, think Ibanez prestige quality or better.
As for the Fluence moderns, I completely understand, I personally have not liked them more times than I have when I tried them. I think the choice of woods is important, but more so the scale length. Those legators go from 26,5" to 28", and that helps a lot clearing the tone and giving it some tightness those pickups require, I think. Without it, they sound 'plasticky' to me.
fast neck that is! misha juggernaut , this one or an esp 7 string ?
Thanks for watching! Unfortunately I don't have any experience with the Misha or an ESP 7 string right now, although the two ESP's I have played I really liked, but they were ESP LTD Les Paul style models. The neck on the Vivaldi is very thin, great for shreddy stuff. Hope that helps
No case and nickel frets is what I would expect at like 1k not 1.8k as this is now priced. Not worried about the volute as its a 3-piece neck, but they probably should have done a scarf joint as they do on many Jacksons.
Thanks for watching, I disagree strongly about the case but that's IMO. I'd be very concerned about the neck at a gig too, it'll def break if it falls over.
I lowkey want that demo song on spotify lmao
Thanks for watching and thanks for the kind words! I was pleasantly surprised with how this demo track turned out, I might revisit it and develop it into a full song in the future. In the mean time, you can find all my music on Spotify already actually, just search for A Minor Error or hit the link below. I'm also working on 3 new EP's of music and 11 new guitar reviews so I hope you'll stop back and check them out! Rock on!
open.spotify.com/artist/7Ijy3f0QODs7qwo7NeoCNA?si=ZriwBwA3S0yRXu3vW_8UCw
@@aminorerror That'd be so sick! I've listened to this countless time it's actually scary haha Oh and btw I really like your yt and spotify channel as well ;) Good stuff man keep up the awesome work!
THANK YOU! The support really means a lot, and I'm very flattered that you're enjoying my music that much. Keep on rocking!
That was some creamy riffs 😍
Thanks for the kind words! I just put out a new single you might really like too, if you've got a few stop on by and lemme know what you think :-)
hypeddit.com/link/y9x7e8
What was the song at the beginning?
It's an original demo I wrote and tracked using just the guitar. If you like it and how I play you'll really like my music, you can find it here on youtube or on spotify. Thanks for watching!
ua-cam.com/play/PLNUjjLE1KBylwdWyw_VOJXku17eyR7tIP.html&si=f_ymOdhMgVL7msnT
open.spotify.com/artist/7Ijy3f0QODs7qwo7NeoCNA?si=A2ivg-kzTAyYA-SUJMEV4w
You do guitar lessons?
Hi! Thanks for watching and commenting, yes I do give lessons. Either through Zoom or if you happen to be in the Philly area, I do teach in person at Rockdale Music south of the city. Send an email to aminorerrorrocks@gmail.com for more info. Rock on!