The Slipknot man's Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH FR arrives alongside his existing lineup of Fender signatures, and retains the same minimalist aesthetic and control layout
(Image credit: Charvel)
The Jim Root Signature Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH FR – the Slipknot guitarist's first-ever signature guitar with Charvel – has officially landed.
Announced in June, the new six-string shares the same minimalist aesthetic as Root’s existing Fender signature models, and is available in either Satin White with an ebony fingerboard or Satin Black with a maple ‘board.
The guitar features a contoured mahogany body with a scalloped lower back bout for greater upper-fret access, graphite-reinforced bolt-on maple neck, and a 12”-16” compound radius fingerboard with rolled edges and 22 jumbo frets.
Root’s Charvel retains the same straightforward approach to electronics as his existing lineup of Fender signature models, with a pair of his signature EMG Daemonum active humbuckers controlled via a singular Strat-style volume knob and three-way blade switch.
Other features include a heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel, Luminlay side dot fret markers, black hardware, and for the first time on a Jim Root signature, a Floyd Rose 1500 series double-locking tremolo.
“[With] every guitar I ever had, I was really proficient with a Floyd Rose,” Root tells Guitar World in a new interview. “And then for 10 or 15 years I never touched a Floyd Rose [so I] kind of [lost] a little bit of that.
“In some ways [it’s] kind of like riding a bike, and in other ways it’s like, ‘I forgot about fluttering, dive bombs and [all the] cool things you can do with a Floyd. It’s just one more thing to have, instead of hitting a pedal, you know.”
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(Image credit: Charvel)
As the Slipknot guitarist explains, his new Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 marks the culmination of a near-lifelong infatuation with Charvel guitars, which began when he received one for Christmas one year as a teenager.
“I freaked out,” he recalls. “It was a Charvel Model One with the fulcrum tremolo, one humbucker and a hockey stick headstock. It was like a goal to reach, you know? I would always think to myself, one day I will have one of those Charvel guitars.”
On how his new Charvel signature model came about, Root tells Guitar World: “I have a really bad problem with buying guitars. For the past year, I’ve been buying a lot of Mexican Charvels, and they’re fucking great. So they offered me a signature model [and] I was like, ‘Okay, as long as I’m not getting kicked out of Fender I’m down.’”
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(Image credit: Charvel)
(Image credit: Charvel)
(Image credit: Charvel)
(Image credit: Charvel)
Jim Root’s current lineup of Fender signature models includes a Stratocaster, Telecaster and two Jazzmasters – the latest of which, like the new Charvel, features his signature EMG Daemonum pickups.
“For almost 30 years, Slipknot’s attention-grabbing, aggressive style of music and energetic and chaotic live shows have influenced and honored heavy metal and its impact on music culture,” says Charvel’s VP of Category Management Jon Romanowski.
“Jim Root is an innovative and ferocious player – we could not be more excited to introduce his new Signature Pro-Mod San Dimas model, continuing our long-standing collaboration with an incredible talent who has dedicated most of his life to his career.”
The Jim Root Signature Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH FR is available now for $1,499. For more info, head to Charvel.
Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
