This is the same Dinky-shaped platform covered in our Charvel DK24 HH 2PT CM writeup, minus one humbucker and plus two single coils. The spreadsheet data attaches the same four legendary names to this listing — Eddie Van Halen, Warren DeMartini, Jake E. Lee, and Guthrie Govan — and the same caveat applies here as it did there: all four have their own dedicated Charvel signature models built on the San Dimas platform, and none is documented playing this specific HSS-configured Dinky. Rather than repeat that history in full, we’ll point you to the HH article for the deep dive on Charvel’s origins and each artist’s actual signature guitar, and focus here on what makes the HSS variant a genuinely different instrument to play.
One Letter, a Completely Different Guitar
Swapping the neck humbucker for two Seymour Duncan single coils changes what this guitar is for. Where the HH model is built around thick, humbucker-driven tone with a series/parallel switch as its main versatility trick, the HSS model leans into genuine Stratocaster-style quack and spank in positions two and four, while keeping a hot bridge humbucker in reserve for lead and rhythm work that needs more push. It’s the more chameleon-like guitar of the two configurations — genuinely capable of covering funk, blues, and clean pop tones that the HH model simply isn’t built for, without sacrificing the ability to shred when the bridge pickup gets called on.
Who Actually Plays This One
The most directly documented player of this specific HSS configuration is Elliot Coleman, a Brooklyn-based vocalist and guitarist known for his work fronting Good Tiger and Sky Eats Airplane, and for a brief, widely discussed stint as TesseracT’s touring vocalist in 2011. Coleman has posted Instagram footage of himself playing a Shell Pink DK24 HSS 2PT CM, tagging Charvel’s official account directly and calling out the pickup configuration by name — a small but genuine, artist-confirmed connection to this exact guitar, in contrast to the four historic names attached to it by association rather than documentation.
More on Elliot Coleman
Coleman’s career reads like a tour through the busier corners of modern progressive and post-hardcore music. Before fronting Good Tiger — a band formed in 2014 by former TesseracT bassist Amos Williams and guitarist Dan Briggs (also of Between the Buried and Me) — Coleman had already logged time as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist across Sky Eats Airplane, Zelliack, and the short-lived project Of Man-Not Of Machine. His brief 2011 run as TesseracT’s touring vocalist, stepping in after Daniel Tompkins’ initial departure, made him a familiar name to progressive metal fans well before the Charvel connection surfaced. Given his background across bands that blend clean, atmospheric passages with heavier riffing, the HSS configuration’s split personality — Strat-clean one moment, humbucker-driven the next — suits his musical range better than a straightforward HH guitar would.
Construction
- Body: Alder, Dinky shape, scalloped lower back bout, shredder’s cut heel
- Neck: Bolt-on caramelized maple “speed” neck, graphite reinforcement, hand-rubbed urethane back finish
- Fingerboard: Caramelized maple, 12″–16″ compound radius, rolled edges
- Frets: 24 jumbo
- Inlays: Pearloid dots, Luminlay side dots
- Nut: Graph Tech TUSQ XL
- Pickups: Custom Seymour Duncan Full Shred SH-10B (bridge), Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 single-coil (middle), Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 RWRP reverse-wound single-coil (neck)
- Controls: Five-way blade switch, 500K EVH Bourns low-friction volume pot, no-load tone control
- Bridge: Gotoh Custom 510 recessed two-point tremolo
- Tuners: Charvel-branded die-cast locking tuners
- Scale length: 25.5″
- Finishes: Satin Shell Pink (chrome hardware), Snow White (gold hardware); ash-body variants also available in Red Ash
- Launch price: $1,199.99 (alder), $1,299.99 (ash variant)
The RWRP (reverse-wound, reverse-polarity) neck single coil is a detail worth calling out: paired with the middle single coil, it cancels 60-cycle hum in the two “in-between” switch positions — the classic Strat quack — while the middle and bridge combination stays true single-coil-plus-humbucker rather than hum-canceling. It’s the same wiring trick Fender has used on Stratocasters for decades, applied here to a guitar that otherwise has nothing else in common with a traditional Strat.
An ash-body variant of the same HSS configuration also exists, built by World Music International Corporation (WMIC) in Korea — the same manufacturer long responsible for PRS’s SE line — rather than the standard alder version’s Mexican factory. Owners who’ve compared the two report the Korean-built ash model arriving with exceptionally consistent fretwork and setup, occasionally rivaling guitars several tiers above it in price, though the two versions are otherwise built to the same core specification.
Tone Recipes
Funk and Clean Rhythm
Position 2 or 4 (the hum-canceling in-between positions), tone rolled back slightly, into a clean or lightly compressed amp channel — this is the tonal territory the HH model simply can’t reach.
Blues and Classic Rock Lead
Middle single coil alone, moderate gain, EVH-style volume swells via the low-friction pot for expressive dynamics between phrases.
High-Gain Rhythm and Lead
Bridge Full Shred humbucker, tone near maximum, into a mid-to-high-gain channel — identical territory to the HH model once you’re on the bridge pickup, since it’s the same Full Shred unit in both configurations.
DK24 HSS vs. the Competition
Within Charvel’s own lineup, the closest sibling is the three-pickup DK24 HSH variant, which adds a middle single coil to the humbucker-humbucker pairing rather than swapping a full humbucker out entirely — a genuine third option for players who want maximum flexibility and don’t mind the added switching complexity. Outside the brand, the natural comparison is Fender’s own American-made Stratocasters: the DK24 HSS delivers a meaningfully hotter bridge pickup and a faster, flatter compound-radius neck than a standard Strat, at the cost of the vintage-correct single-coil voicing purists expect from Fender’s own instruments. Against Ibanez’s HSS-configured AZ models, reviewers generally find the Charvel’s neck thinner and faster, while the Ibanez leans toward a more rounded, vintage-adjacent neck profile.
Where the HSS Fits in the DK24 Family
Charvel offers the DK24 platform across three pickup configurations built on the same body and neck: the HH (dual humbuckers with series/parallel switching, covered in our companion article), the HSH (humbucker-single-neck/middle-humbucker, the maximum-flexibility option), and this HSS. Beyond pickup configuration, the platform also splits by bridge type — the 2PT tremolo covered here, a hardtail string-through-body “HT” option for players who never touch a whammy bar, and Floyd Rose-equipped variants for dive-bomb-heavy styles — plus a higher-tier MJ Series built in Japan rather than Mexico, which serves as the launch platform for several artist signature builds. Knowing where the HSS 2PT CM sits in that matrix matters most if you’re comparing used listings, since the same “DK24” name covers a genuinely wide spread of configurations, materials, and price points.
Buying Guide: HH or HSS?
Choose the HSS if you regularly need genuine single-coil tones for funk, blues, or clean pop work alongside occasional high-gain lead and rhythm playing. Choose the HH (covered in our companion article) if your playing lives mostly in humbucker territory and you’d rather have series/parallel switching on both pickups than a true single-coil voice. Both share the same body, neck, hardware, and price-adjacent positioning — the choice comes down entirely to which pickup configuration matches your actual playing.
Ownership Notes
Owners consistently rate the compound-radius neck and factory setup as standout features at this price point, echoing feedback on the HH model. The single-coil positions are reported as bright and occasionally shrill on some units straight from the factory, though this is easily tamed with the no-load tone control or a light EQ cut. As with the HH variant, satin finishes are prone to scuffing with heavy strap-buckle contact, and the guitar doesn’t ship with a case. Several long-term owners specifically praise the pickup switching’s clarity and note that the Flat Strat single coils avoid the thin, brittle top end that can plague cheaper single-coil guitars, retaining enough body to sit well next to the Full Shred humbucker without an awkward volume or tone jump between positions. As with most Pro-Mod-series Charvels, a used market exists across three build tiers — Mexican-made Pro-Mod, Korean-built ash variants, and Japanese MJ Series — and it’s worth confirming which factory built a given used unit before buying, since fit, finish, and resale value vary meaningfully between them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s different between the HH and HSS versions?
The HSS swaps the HH’s neck humbucker for two Seymour Duncan single coils, trading series/parallel switching for genuine Strat-style hum-canceling tones in the middle switch positions.
Does Eddie Van Halen or Warren DeMartini play this guitar?
No — see our companion article on the DK24 HH 2PT CM for the full explanation of why these names appear in gear databases despite no documented connection to this specific model.
Is the HSS version good for metal?
The bridge humbucker is identical to the HH model’s, so yes — switch to the bridge position and it performs the same for high-gain rhythm and lead work. The single coils simply add versatility the HH model doesn’t have.
Why does the neck pickup say “RWRP”?
RWRP stands for reverse-wound, reverse-polarity — a wiring trick that makes the neck and middle single coils cancel 60-cycle hum when blended together in the switch’s in-between positions, the same technique used on traditional Stratocasters.