Charvel Custom Shop wait time...bummer

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lessthan12

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Well, I was so impressed with my recent charvel custom shop guitar I decided I would order one to my specs. Had everything planned out in my mind as to what I would want. I figured to be around 6-7month wait at the most, Kind of like Suhr.... boy was I wrong. Called my local Charvel dealer today(Matts Music) and was totally blown away...16-24 months...bummer
 
Same here...I spoke to a woman at the Music Zoo yesterday and she told me 18-24 months. I'm dying for a Carbonized San Dimas.
 
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!

As a side note, Its nice to see that they are doing so well in the Charvel custom shop. It was nice to see the love for Charvels in the "show your blue guitars thread"
 
Took 1.5 years to get my MII imported from Japan with a thinner modern C neck and snow white colour scheme. I can relate to the long wait times. You have to really want the model to wait that long and keep yourself to a maximum of every few months calling in periodic check-ins with your dealer to make sure everything is on track once it starts getting close.
 
Rezamatix":qqb731ze said:
See to me this is bullshit. They have hundreds of bodies ready to go, necks can be contoured and set up for you in a few hours. Fuck these guys.
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Is why ESP changed how they did things. Now if they dont sell it on the floor it is considered a full custom. Currently mine is a custom special but labeled as a standard, however the serial number starts with SS for MIJ models.

Wait times over 2 years or more is getting a bit out of hand literally speaking. You would think they would curtail the demand with paying proper talent to knock out the demand.
 
Rezamatix":21x1u936 said:
See to me this is bullshit. They have hundreds of bodies ready to go, necks can be contoured and set up for you in a few hours. Fuck these guys.
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And that would be totally incorrect. They build each and every body once the work order for that specific guitar hits Red Dave's work bench and do not stock pile bodies. Unless of course the factory tour you took of the Charvel/Jackson Custom Shop is different than the one they give to their dealers. I've been on that tour three times. I've seen Red Dave holding a work order and selecting a long plank of wood for that particular guitar down in the wood storage room himself. I've seen my customers body woods being glued and clamped by Red Dave right in front of my eyes. I swear I have mentioned this 9 dozen times, but one guy, Red Dave builds each and every Charvel body himself and then roughs in the neck for that same guitar. Then masterbuilder Mike Shannon finishes and shapes every single Charvel neck (and lots of the Jackson necks)by holding it against some "spindle sander" and then feeling it for correct contour over and over again until it is right.

Of course maybe when the tour ends they run out and grab a Squier body off of the defect pile and that's really what they use. :D

I know you are a big Diezel fan. Did you know that all Diezel does is gut four separate Bugera's to build the VH4 and just stick each one in as its own channel? Come on now, I can throw out some inaccurate silliness too can't I? :)
 
Chubtone":h47yw4k8 said:
I've seen Red Dave holding a work order and selecting a long plank of wood for that particular guitar down in the wood storage room himself. I've seen my customers body woods being glued and clamped by Red Dave right in front of my eyes. I swear I have mentioned this 9 dozen times, but one guy, Red Dave builds each and every Charvel body himself and then roughs in the neck for that same guitar. Then masterbuilder Mike Shannon finishes and shapes every single Charvel neck (and lots of the Jackson necks)by holding it against some "spindle sander" and then feeling it for correct contour over and over again until it is right.
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Oh, that makes heaps more sense, because the process as described would obviously take two years.
 
lessthan12":3al3gnht said:
Well, I was so impressed with my recent charvel custom shop guitar I decided I would order one to my specs. Had everything planned out in my mind as to what I would want. I figured to be around 6-7month wait at the most, Kind of like Suhr.... boy was I wrong. Called my local Charvel dealer today(Matts Music) and was totally blown away...16-24 months...bummer
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"Hey Charvel, hire some more people"

Jeeez,

If you walk into a restaurant and they tell you it's going to be an hour wait, what do you do?

Go to another restaurant.
 
IntenseJim":r215jgqi said:
Luxxtone baby..Luxxtone
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:rock:

Mesa\Kramer":r215jgqi said:
Jeeez,

If you walk into a restaurant and they tell you it's going to be an hour wait, what do you do?

Go to another restaurant.
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If I want to eat there? I put my name in, go to the bar and have a drink. An hour isn't that much of a wait out here :lol: :LOL:
 
2 years is ridiculous. I have owned several custom shop Charvels and a 2 year wait for them is crazy. You could buy a USA PRo Mod and upgrade it for less $$ and in less time.

I think I would go the Luxxtone route anyway these days.
 
And that would be totally incorrect. They build each and every body once the work order for that specific guitar hits Red Dave's work bench and do not stock pile bodies. Unless of course the factory tour you took of the Charvel/Jackson Custom Shop is different than the one they give to their dealers. I've been on that tour three times. I've seen Red Dave holding a work order and selecting a long plank of wood for that particular guitar down in the wood storage room himself. I've seen my customers body woods being glued and clamped by Red Dave right in front of my eyes. I swear I have mentioned this 9 dozen times, but one guy, Red Dave builds each and every Charvel body himself and then roughs in the neck for that same guitar. Then masterbuilder Mike Shannon finishes and shapes every single Charvel neck (and lots of the Jackson necks)by holding it against some "spindle sander" and then feeling it for correct contour over and over again until it is right.
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Sounds like they should have ole Red train a few people on how to hold a work order and select a plank of wood. Seriously.....2 years is just stupid..... :doh:
 
I've ordered 2 guitars from the Charvel custom shop - yes, the wait was excessive and one they had to do over but for me the end result was worth it - they are 2 amazing guitars. I will never sell them.
 
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.
 
The only mistake I can see in this thread is the original poster not getting his custom shop Charvel through Curt, WTF!!!
 
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.
 
You could have Grover Jackson or Wayne Charvel build you one. It will take FAR less time. I'd really like to get my hands a GJ2.
 
rupe":kihbknpt said:
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.
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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.
 
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