With just about every aspect of the model designed from the ground up, this is an intricately spec’d high-performance SuperStrat for Aswani, who has worked with everyone from Greg Howe to Christina Milian, Justin Timberlake and Ronu Majumdar
Charvel has announced a new signature guitar for session guitarist and virtuoso Prashant Aswani, and one that offers some of the highest levels of attention to detail of any model in the production-line Charvel catalog.
Assembled in the Ensenada, Mexico factory, the Prashant Aswani Signature Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 1 PA28 is pretty much designed from the ground up.
Sure, on face value, it’s heavily indebted to the Stratocaster, but the lightweight alder body hides a scalloped lower back bout and shredder’s cut heel. That’s teamed with a graphite-reinforced bolt-on maple neck, which packs a 12” radius rosewood fingerboard and 42mm Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut.
Intriguingly, Aswani has also spec’d the neck to taper from 42mm at the nut to approximately 42.9mm at the heel, making for a wider surface area up at the widdly end.
The pickups were a fresh design, too: armed with a set of alnico III magnets, the humbuckers promise everything from “crystalline cleans” to “fiery distorted leads”.
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(Image credit: Charvel Guitars)
(Image credit: Charvel Guitars)
Other Aswani-specified tweaks include Luminlay side dots, Dunlop Super Pots, plus a Wilkinson WVS 130 CR two-point locking tremolo bridge, which promises Floyd Rose stability without the need for a locking nut.
The whole package is wrapped up in a rather dashing Inca Silver thin-skin nitro lacquer finish with parchment pickguard.
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“Guitar is a tool for me to express the music I have inside of me. Once you plug it in, the tone of my signature model will take people on a journey of their own,” says Prashant Aswani.
“All the specs on the PA28 were meticulously implemented because I felt the guitar had to be expressive and easy to play. From the neck profile to the vintage inspired modern pickup set, Charvel nailed the specs and tone I was after. This might be my signature model, but it has the ability to be the signature instrument for whoever creates music with it.”
The Prashant Aswani Signature Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 1 PA28 is available now for $1,399. Head over to Charvel Guitars for more info.
Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and over a decade's experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.
