Guthrie Govan Officially Joins Charvel

Charvel welcomes U.K. guitar virtuoso Guithrie Govan to their stable of artists, with future guitars already in development.

It is no secret that Guthrie has been playing with a Charvel prototype for quite a while now, so him officially joining was only a matter of time.

If you haven't heard of Guthrie Govan, then you would be doing yourself a favor by checking out his tracks and videos. He is the guitarists' guitarist and a real wizard of the instrument. And because of his expertise, he is currently busy travelling the world both as a performer and clinician.

Guthrie Govan started making a name for himself by winning the 1993 "Guitarist of the Year" competition of Guitarist magazine. He then went on to work as a transcriber for the U.K. magazine Guitar Techniques and played with GPS, Dizzee Rascal, Asia and The Young Punx. What made him quite popular with the "guys" is his diverse playing style. He can comfortably switch from classic shred to jazz-fusion to blues-rock and everything in between with great ease and amazing soulful feel.

His solo album, Erotic Cakes, was critically acclaimed and showcases the many sounds and technique that this wizard can pull out of his hat. As his popularity grew, demand for his playing also grew as well, so aside from his solo gigs, he also performs with his rock/fusion trio - "The Aristocrats", and he also tours with Steven Wilson's band in support of Steven's latest album.

After playing with Suhr guitars for a while, it became quite a buzz when he suddenly started playing with what he calls as a Charvel Prototype. And so it was expected that sooner or later he would be either releasing a new guitar or joining their stable. Here is a cool demo of him playing and discussing his prototype electric guitar:

Michael McGregor, product manager for Charvel Guitars, said "Guthrie Govan is one of the best performers playing today, and we’re proud to welcome him to the Charvel family. He is currently road-testing a few Charvel models, and we are in the research and development phase of some possible future Charvel guitars."

Guthrie commented: "These guitars sound great, and the necks are just ridiculous. The good people at Charvel are encouragingly keen to hear all my feedback about their instruments. Whenever I share an idea with them, it feels like they’re really listening – so I’m very excited to be working with these guys and I look forward to seeing what we can do together in the future."

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