The 24-fret Strat exists, and it's a Charvel

"Gee, I wish Fender would make a 24-fret Strat..."

If you've ever wished that, your wish has come true in that you can get it with the Charvel DK24 seen above (also available in Satin Orange Crush and Satin Gray among other colors as you'll see from the link.)

In reality, Charvel has been making 24-fret Strat style guitars for a long time now. How can they get away with such a Fender-looking guitar? It's because the parent company of Charvel is, you guessed it, Fender itself. This basically means that Charvel can borrow designs from Fender. More importantly, if Fender were to ever build a 24-fret Stratocaster guitar, the Charvel DK24 is pretty much exactly what the guitar would be.

The DK24 is a Dinky alder body (yes, Jackson, whose parent company is also Fender) that has a "speed neck" with rolled fingerboard edges, 25.5" scale length, jumbo fret wire, TUSQ nut, 1.6875" nut width, Stratocaster headstock, urethane neck finish, "caramelized maple" fingerboard with compound 12-to-16 inch radius. Pickups are all Seymour Duncan with the bridge being a super-hot SH-10B and the middle and neck being "flat Strat" style. Standard 5-way switch and master volume and master tone controls. The knobs are literally the same as on the Stratocaster. The bridge is a Gotoh custom 510. Tuners are Charvel die-cast locking.

Something you probably didn't notice is the truss rod wheel at the butt of the neck. This makes for very easy adjustments.

The DK24 is totally a hot rod guitar, but done so in a very clean way. This is the guitar some guitar players (notably soloists) have been wanting Fender to build for years. Well, there's no need to wait for it. You want a Strat with hot pickups and a neck with 24 frets? There's no waiting because Charvel makes it right now.

Also, consider this: If this had a Fender decal on the headstock, it would be selling for over $2,000. But since it's a Charvel, it's way less than that. And bear in mind this Charvel is "as Fender as it gets" without being Fender-branded. Again, if Fender were to build a hot rod 24-fret Strat, it would literally be this guitar.

Published 2018 Oct 5