Charvel Custom Shop wait time...bummer

[Chubtone]

The only mistake I can see in this thread is the original poster not getting his custom shop Charvel through Curt, WTF!!!

Thanks Tim. He may not know who I am or have much history here.

 

[Anonymous]

With the recent highly publicized return to 2006 QC levels, I think I'd steer clear of ordering a Charvel/Jackson custom shop instrument and stick to what I could find used or already in stock.

The several Charvels we have gotten in this year have been phenomenal. Ask barzini, ask jcmlespaul, ask voodoo rob on Trace's forum, ask quinnethan, ask Manuel on Trace's forum. These guys are big fans of what they have just received in 2013. Easily up to the quality, feel and playability levels of Charvel at ANY point in their history IMO. The unfortunate thing is I have to freaking babysit the build from the very beginning and check the specs at every stage because there is so much "spec drift" it is ridiculous, but at the end of that road is something killer. If your dealer is not babysitting your build like a hen sitting on an egg, you may have some problems.

There is a guy on the USA Charvels forum who just got a custom shop from me and he said it is the best sounding, best playing custom shop he has ever had and this guy goes way, way back and has had dozens and dozens of Charvels.

I don't know what to say about that 23 fret Jackson that everyone is going ballistic over. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad for the buyer.

The Custom Shop I got from Curt early this year and that I had Dan Lawrence paint is now my undisputed #1. Just killer! Once I settled on my normal Super D pickup it is my best sounding guitar!

Steve

 

[lessthanone]

With the recent highly publicized return to 2006 QC levels, I think I'd steer clear of ordering a Charvel/Jackson custom shop instrument and stick to what I could find used or already in stock.

Mine was built june 2013 and is easily the best guitar Ive owned... not 1 flaw can be found and Im ocd...

 

[the rossness]

Also, and I think this would be obvious, it doesn't take two years for them to build you a guitar. It takes about 18 months for your work order to get to the top of the pile so they can start building your guitar.

There are some solutions. Hire new, less experienced guys to make you that same Custom Shop guitar and make it more of a team built scenario. However, if I am buying a Charvel I want Red Dave and Mike Shannon with about a combined 60 years of experience building Charvels building my personal guitar. Which one of you is going to say, "I'd rather have the kid who just graduated from MI's luthier school build my Custom Shop guitar. Sure, charge me the same price that the masterbuilders get, but just get it to me quick."

You guys know Charvel makes about 100 guitars a year. That is pretty exclusive. And Fender Custom Shop masterbuilder John Cruz has a three year wait for one of his guitars or you can select a team built. Guess what everyone kept picking? That's right. John Cruz builds. They had to take John Cruz masterbuilt off the list of available builders because people kept selecting his builds anyways.

I'd like them to hire someone new. I remember a story that when Grover owned the company, he'd hire people who wanted to build guitars and teach them how to do so. With all the great luthiery schools and luthiers in the world, and the pocketbook of FMIC, I'd like to see J/C's legacy and reputation continue on with new talents to help them along the way.

 

[IndyWS6]

With the recent highly publicized return to 2006 QC levels, I think I'd steer clear of ordering a Charvel/Jackson custom shop instrument and stick to what I could find used or already in stock.

The several Charvels we have gotten in this year have been phenomenal. Ask barzini, ask jcmlespaul, ask voodoo rob on Trace's forum, ask quinnethan, ask Manuel on Trace's forum. These guys are big fans of what they have just received in 2013. Easily up to the quality, feel and playability levels of Charvel at ANY point in their history IMO. The unfortunate thing is I have to freaking babysit the build from the very beginning and check the specs at every stage because there is so much "spec drift" it is ridiculous, but at the end of that road is something killer. If your dealer is not babysitting your build like a hen sitting on an egg, you may have some problems.

There is a guy on the USA Charvels forum who just got a custom shop from me and he said it is the best sounding, best playing custom shop he has ever had and this guy goes way, way back and has had dozens and dozens of Charvels.

I don't know what to say about that 23 fret Jackson that everyone is going ballistic over. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad for the buyer.

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I'm curious... Why, once a customer places an order for exactly what they want, would it be necessary for anyone to "...babysit the build from the very beginning and check the specs at every stage". What is the ridiculous amount of "spec drift" that you mention? Can you give examples? I'm not trying to pick a fight or troll, but I'm having a hard time understanding why, if there are two people with the majority of responsibility for building a custom shop guitar, and each has (presumably) 25+ years of experience, the customer would get anything other than what they ordered? They have been building guitars for a long time. I know mistakes happen on occasion, but why should a dealer ever be forced to "...babysit your build like a hen on an egg" to avoid problems?

Respectfully...

 

[rupe]

With the recent highly publicized return to 2006 QC levels, I think I'd steer clear of ordering a Charvel/Jackson custom shop instrument and stick to what I could find used or already in stock.

The several Charvels we have gotten in this year have been phenomenal. Ask barzini, ask jcmlespaul, ask voodoo rob on Trace's forum, ask quinnethan, ask Manuel on Trace's forum. These guys are big fans of what they have just received in 2013. Easily up to the quality, feel and playability levels of Charvel at ANY point in their history IMO. The unfortunate thing is I have to freaking babysit the build from the very beginning and check the specs at every stage because there is so much "spec drift" it is ridiculous, but at the end of that road is something killer. If your dealer is not babysitting your build like a hen sitting on an egg, you may have some problems.

There is a guy on the USA Charvels forum who just got a custom shop from me and he said it is the best sounding, best playing custom shop he has ever had and this guy goes way, way back and has had dozens and dozens of Charvels.

I don't know what to say about that 23 fret Jackson that everyone is going ballistic over. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad for the buyer.

Let me correct myself...I was referring to Jackson as that's what where we've seen the issues again. And I understand that mishaps like these tend to be the exception and not the rule...your odds are likely pretty good that they'll deliver what you order. My position is simply that I would rather not take that chance when combined with an approximate 2 year wait time.

 

[Chubtone]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I'm curious... Why, once a customer places an order for exactly what they want, would it be necessary for anyone to "...babysit the build from the very beginning and check the specs at every stage". What is the ridiculous amount of "spec drift" that you mention? Can you give examples? I'm not trying to pick a fight or troll, but I'm having a hard time understanding why, if there are two people with the majority of responsibility for building a custom shop guitar, and each has (presumably) 25+ years of experience, the customer would get anything other than what they ordered? They have been building guitars for a long time. I know mistakes happen on occasion, but why should a dealer ever be forced to "...babysit your build like a hen on an egg" to avoid problems?

Respectfully...

I understand why you are asking. The customer and I will fill out a sales order sheet. The amount of options and "off the menu" things that can be done is huge. Once we nail down what he wants, I relay that info to the custom shop sales department. They don't want it in the form of the sales order sheet. I have to transfer it into a completely different format. Of course there is always a chance I will screw up here, but I am so into each build that it isn't common. Then the sales department will transfer my transfer to an official work order. Now this guy is working on dozens of different guitars at once with dealers all over the world so he is not as intimately attached to my customers build as I am. Mistakes happen here commonly. It normally takes several emails back and forth to get this all dialed in. Once it is to my satisfaction, I send it to the customer for approval. Before the guitar gets actually built, the official work order gets transferred onto something the builder uses called a "golden rod". This is the part that a dealer almost never sees. I always request to go over golden rod specs one last time before the build. Mistakes can happen at ANY point and a guitar can be "ruined" when the customer specifies "Non-countersunk trem cavity cover" and that doesn't make it through all the transfers, etc

Now keep in mind three guitars I am dealing with right now and just the placement of the volume knob on them. One guy specified exactly the same placement as on the Legacy series Charvels. One guy specified exactly the same knob placement as on the EVH Art Series. And another guy wants his placement exactly where it is on the Washburn N4. So you get a guy flowing on a build and he is just doing things as normal. He has some guys korina body routed and contoured correctly and he goes to drill the knob where he puts it 90% of the time. Damn it! Wrong location. Start over. Etc etc etc on every little possible detail on the guitars.

AND....... when a guitar languishes that long in the "to be built" pile, the customer starts changing his mind on little things, OR big things. I contact the sales department to try and make the changes for them and then it has to go through all the channels again. It truly is a nightmare. I oftentimes get pics of our builds during the process and I see things like Floyd Rose trem routes on a guitar that he wanted a vintage trem, or snow white paint jobs when the customer had put in a request to change from snow white to ivory.

You get guys requesting body contours like "They used in 1980" or whatever. It's almost too much choice. I won't even go into neck shapes and contours and measurements. Arghhhhh. Why am I a custom shop dealer again? Oh yeah, because I think they make the best guitars in the world, but man do they make the customer and I work for it
Etc etc etc

 

[thiswaythatway]

Well, they need a few months time to hang the raw bodies in a room with hairspray so they allow the 80's smell to seep into the guitar.

 

[Little B]

Id have to agree w/ chubtone..theres just a million areas for anything to go wrong and a million different ways to order a charvel.I couldnt believe all my options.waaaay beyond the paper options sheet..Im very happy with mine..even though the wait was long..what i did was pretty much forget i ordered it, focused my time and energy on other things and one day it came to my door.All is peaceful and happy on the homefront.

 

[IndyWS6]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I'm curious... Why, once a customer places an order for exactly what they want, would it be necessary for anyone to "...babysit the build from the very beginning and check the specs at every stage". What is the ridiculous amount of "spec drift" that you mention? Can you give examples? I'm not trying to pick a fight or troll, but I'm having a hard time understanding why, if there are two people with the majority of responsibility for building a custom shop guitar, and each has (presumably) 25+ years of experience, the customer would get anything other than what they ordered? They have been building guitars for a long time. I know mistakes happen on occasion, but why should a dealer ever be forced to "...babysit your build like a hen on an egg" to avoid problems?

Respectfully...

I understand why you are asking. The customer and I will fill out a sales order sheet. The amount of options and "off the menu" things that can be done is huge. Once we nail down what he wants, I relay that info to the custom shop sales department. They don't want it in the form of the sales order sheet. I have to transfer it into a completely different format. Of course there is always a chance I will screw up here, but I am so into each build that it isn't common. Then the sales department will transfer my transfer to an official work order. Now this guy is working on dozens of different guitars at once with dealers all over the world so he is not as intimately attached to my customers build as I am. Mistakes happen here commonly. It normally takes several emails back and forth to get this all dialed in. Once it is to my satisfaction, I send it to the customer for approval. Before the guitar gets actually built, the official work order gets transferred onto something the builder uses called a "golden rod". This is the part that a dealer almost never sees. I always request to go over golden rod specs one last time before the build. Mistakes can happen at ANY point and a guitar can be "ruined" when the customer specifies "Non-countersunk trem cavity cover" and that doesn't make it through all the transfers, etc

Now keep in mind three guitars I am dealing with right now and just the placement of the volume knob on them. One guy specified exactly the same placement as on the Legacy series Charvels. One guy specified exactly the same knob placement as on the EVH Art Series. And another guy wants his placement exactly where it is on the Washburn N4. So you get a guy flowing on a build and he is just doing things as normal. He has some guys korina body routed and contoured correctly and he goes to drill the knob where he puts it 90% of the time. Damn it! Wrong location. Start over. Etc etc etc on every little possible detail on the guitars.

AND....... when a guitar languishes that long in the "to be built" pile, the customer starts changing his mind on little things, OR big things. I contact the sales department to try and make the changes for them and then it has to go through all the channels again. It truly is a nightmare. I oftentimes get pics of our builds during the process and I see things like Floyd Rose trem routes on a guitar that he wanted a vintage trem, or snow white paint jobs when the customer had put in a request to change from snow white to ivory.

You get guys requesting body contours like "They used in 1980" or whatever. It's almost too much choice. I won't even go into neck shapes and contours and measurements. Arghhhhh. Why am I a custom shop dealer again? Oh yeah, because I think they make the best guitars in the world, but man do they make the customer and I work for it
Etc etc etc

Thanks for the response, sir

It sounds to me like you are doing everything you can as a dealer to ensure that the customer knows the available choices and gets what they order. Kudos... But it sounds like the custom shop order system is horribly flawed. From your description there are numerous places in the process where the order is either recreated in a different system, or otherwise disconnected from the build process. Combined with the fact that there are "off the menu" options that can be selected, it's no wonder that someone has to babysit the process. Charvel is incredibly lucky that they have dealers willing to manage that level of involvement. Without that, the number of errors (and unhappy customers) would likely be substantial. Someone at Charvel should consider implementing a PLM system that has configuration management at the core and supplier (dealer) portals to streamline the process. It wouldn't speed the actual build cycle, but the order management flow would certanly be improved. Fewer mistakes = better throughput = happier customers = more profit.

P.S. Charvel can thank me for the suggestion by shipping me a free Custom Shop guitar - 18 months from now when it is completed

Cheers

 

[tripstan]

I want a san dimas, mahogany body with quilt maple top in aqua, scraped maple binding on the body loaded with evh pup's,flush mounted dive only floyd,Museum grade birdseye maple neck in the evh art series carve with an ebony board and the same stainless steel frets that my cs has. Fender headstock of course and all black hardware...O man O man I want!
"

"You'll shoot your eye out kid"


At least that's how I read it

 

[metalmaniac93]

I have GAS for one of these after playing a couple over a month ago, but the wait time is absolutely ridiculous. The Wild West relics are tempting, but I prefer a slimer neck profile. Maybe I just go with a Luxxtone again.

 

[RedRider]

I have GAS for one of these after playing a couple over a month ago, but the wait time is absolutely ridiculous. The Wild West relics are tempting, but I prefer a slimer neck profile. Maybe I just go with a Luxxtone again.

Its not like Jerry and Dave cant knock it out the park...you just gotta know exactly what it is that you want...hell, you can throw a bitchin Joe Morris paintjob on there too...and still have it a year and change before you would get your Charvel....but hey...it STILL wont be a Charvel....

I cant tell you how many guitars I bought, saying it will be just as good, if not BETTER than a LesPaul...and most were...but they were still never an LP...you just gotta figure out if you buy a custom made alternative, if the name on the logo is gonna have you looking down the Charvel road 6 months later anyhow...

When I bought my one off custom made guitar, it took 4 years (I knew it was going to be a long time, didnt know it would be 4 years, but I didnt care...its a 1 of a kind guitar that blows everyones mind when they see it or play it)....I bought a used one without all the fancy crap I threw on mine and played it for years while I waited for mine to be done, and when I got word that mine was almost done I sold it to pay off the balance...so if it was me, and I was going to buy acharvel custom shop, and nothing else will do, I would order it, grab an in stock Luxxtone or a used charvel and play the crap out of them until it was time to sell to pay the balance off on the one I ordered...been there, done that, got the Thorn T-shirt...

 

[metalmaniac93]

I have GAS for one of these after playing a couple over a month ago, but the wait time is absolutely ridiculous. The Wild West relics are tempting, but I prefer a slimer neck profile. Maybe I just go with a Luxxtone again.

Its not like Jerry and Dave cant knock it out the park...you just gotta know exactly what it is that you want...hell, you can throw a bitchin Joe Morris paintjob on there too...and still have it a year and change before you would get your Charvel....but hey...it STILL wont be a Charvel....

I cant tell you how many guitars I bought, saying it will be just as good, if not BETTER than a LesPaul...and most were...but they were still never an LP...you just gotta figure out if you buy a custom made alternative, if the name on the logo is gonna have you looking down the Charvel road 6 months later anyhow...

When I bought my one off custom made guitar, it took 4 years (I knew it was going to be a long time, didnt know it would be 4 years, but I didnt care...its a 1 of a kind guitar that blows everyones mind when they see it or play it)....I bought a used one without all the fancy crap I threw on mine and played it for years while I waited for mine to be done, and when I got word that mine was almost done I sold it to pay off the balance...so if it was me, and I was going to buy acharvel custom shop, and nothing else will do, I would order it, grab an in stock Luxxtone or a used charvel and play the crap out of them until it was time to sell to pay the balance off on the one I ordered...been there, done that, got the Thorn T-shirt...

Yeah I agree!!! Jerry and Dave can knock it out of the park and I have one to know that!! I was trying to mix it up going with a different brand and going the basic paint job etc with a Charvel order. I am sure Jerry and Dave can do this with no problems and get me where I want to be. I do not care about the logo though since I know Luxxtone means a fine crafted guitar with the upmost quality with a turn around time of about 3-4 months tops!!! I have already been conversing with Jerry on this so it looks like I am almost there!! Just wanted to try something different!! Oh well!!

 

[metalmaniac93]

I have GAS for one of these after playing a couple over a month ago, but the wait time is absolutely ridiculous. The Wild West relics are tempting, but I prefer a slimer neck profile. Maybe I just go with a Luxxtone again.

Its not like Jerry and Dave cant knock it out the park...you just gotta know exactly what it is that you want...hell, you can throw a bitchin Joe Morris paintjob on there too...and still have it a year and change before you would get your Charvel....but hey...it STILL wont be a Charvel....

I cant tell you how many guitars I bought, saying it will be just as good, if not BETTER than a LesPaul...and most were...but they were still never an LP...you just gotta figure out if you buy a custom made alternative, if the name on the logo is gonna have you looking down the Charvel road 6 months later anyhow...

When I bought my one off custom made guitar, it took 4 years (I knew it was going to be a long time, didnt know it would be 4 years, but I didnt care...its a 1 of a kind guitar that blows everyones mind when they see it or play it)....I bought a used one without all the fancy crap I threw on mine and played it for years while I waited for mine to be done, and when I got word that mine was almost done I sold it to pay off the balance...so if it was me, and I was going to buy acharvel custom shop, and nothing else will do, I would order it, grab an in stock Luxxtone or a used charvel and play the crap out of them until it was time to sell to pay the balance off on the one I ordered...been there, done that, got the Thorn T-shirt...

Yeah I agree!!! Jerry and Dave can knock it out of the park and I have one to know that!! I was trying to mix it up going with a different brand and going the basic paint job etc with a Charvel order. I am sure Jerry and Dave can do this with no problems and get me where I want to be. I do not care about the logo though since I know Luxxtone means a fine crafted guitar with the utmost quality and a turn around time of about 3-4 months tops!!! I have already been conversing with Jerry on this so it looks like I am almost there!! Just wanted to try something different!! Oh well!! Plus supporting a small business over the larger giant Fender is a plus too!!

 

[Shawn Lutz]

I wouldn't wait 2 years for anything.

3 letters to assist you in a custom order Charvel style guitar - GMW

I doubt Lee will take 2 years. I think I got mine in 10 months to a year, Charvel CS, Suhr, Anderson type of quality instruments and a good bargin.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't wait 2 years for anything.

3 letters to assist you in a custom order Charvel style guitar - GMW

I doubt Lee will take 2 years. I think I got mine in 10 months to a year, Charvel CS, Suhr, Anderson type of quality instruments and a good bargin.

Lee built me a replica of the Sandoval V and I got it in less than three months from when I ordered:

Steve

 

[metalmaniac93]

How could I forget about GMW? I will look into it.

 

[Shawn Lutz]

very cool Steve...

 

[Anonymous]

very cool Steve...

I have to say - it's the best GMW guitar I've ever owned and I've had a few…

Steve