I love Guitar Center!!!--Charvel Custom Shop content

[WizardSouth-JP]

GC is good score sometimes, my best was an original ESP GL-56 (the 3 single coil version with chunky neck) less than 50 were made I hear, paid $650.00

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Love the sloped heel. Can't stand the fat heel that all Charvels/Fenders come with!!

Why don't they make all Charvels/Fenders like this?? Access to upper frets is just ridiculous without it

You can get any Charvel Custom Shop with a sloped heel IF that's how you want it. It's either free or at most a $50 charge. I don't remember, because no one orders them that way. Personally, that's not how I want it. I don't mind the traditional neck heel and yes, I have owned guitars with the modern neck heel. I just think of all the amazing music recorded by amazing guitarists with traditional neck heels.

And yes, those little paint cracks at the neck heel are pretty typical on bolt on neck guitars that don't have a very thick layer of paint on them.

The 'traditional' San Dimas, real ones, neck heels aren't intrusive to my playing. Charvel has produced some of the finest playing necks ever, imho!
Atomic Playboy

 

[Nodnarb25]

Nice job!

I always enjoy seeing someone get the better of GuitarMart.

 

[HighJinksInstruments]

I am the guy that ordered that guitar. I ordered it at my local music shop. Worked after school and during the summer to order it. They let me do payments at the shop. I was so excited to get it. I did specifically ask for the shaved heel, cause as you have all said it is a sweet upgrade. Those neck cracks happened in shipping from Charvel. Kinda surprised as I am in California so it really didn't go that far. If I remember correctly, the color is called tangerine sparkle. I did the matching head stock with black logo partially cause my birthday is in October. It finally came in.... she was gorgeous. The sparkle, the head stock. That little "Custom Shop" logo in the corner. In the sun this guitar is a show stopper. She needs a car in the same color. The case is a god dam tank. Red caps, and heavy. She was a tank too. Heavy body.

It wasn't my thing. I tried for a few years to figure it out. I turmoiled over it. I lost sleep over it. Different amps, pedals, holding it different, different music, stuff like that. I put that bridge pickup in it. Zebra alternative 8 by Seymour Duncan. I loved Charvels with the Strat head stock (the ones that filled the local guitar shop), but wanted that pointy head stock because its cool. I didn't know that changed the shape of the neck and I just couldn't make it work for me. It was a hard lesson for me to learn at 18. I wanted to play a guitar that inspired me to pick it up, and it just wasn't it for me. I felt bad keeping it in its case in my room. I knew someone else would love or at least appreciate this guitar, even if it's not my thing.

Sold it to Guitar Center for a Les Paul Studio (shitty trade but I was 18 and obviously dumb and very impatient) and really haven't looked back as far as guitar style. I played the absolute shit outta that Les Paul! Have since moved up to a Standard that is my home base.

I have always wondered where that Charvel went. It was a bad ass guitar and I have always hoped it went to someone who could appreciate it more than I could. I have literally looked for years to see if it would pop up some where. It knew it was to cool of a guitar to not make it up on the internet some where. I am happy to find it again. I hope it has brought you joy and if you have sold it, I hope it has brought them joy as well.

 

[311boogieman]

Pics or didn't happen and welcome to Rig-Talk

 

[HighJinksInstruments]

One of the reasons I look for it is because I bought it before I had a camera readily accessible to me like we do today. I bought it around 2009-2010ish. It was right after I graduated high school and got a job at that guitar shop I bought it from.

I didn’t have and most people I knew didn’t have cameras worth taking photos with in our pockets all the time lol.

I wish I did take pictures of it because it truly is an awesome guitar and I fully admit I was and still mostly am, a fussy little baby when it comes to my guitar.

 

[HighJinksInstruments]

One of the reasons I look for it is because I bought it before I had a camera readily accessible to me like we do today. I bought it around 2009-2010ish. It was right after I graduated high school and got a job at that guitar shop I bought it from.

I didn’t have and most people I knew didn’t have cameras worth taking photos with in our pockets all the time lol.

I wish I did take pictures of it because it truly is an awesome guitar and I fully admit I was and still mostly am, a fussy little baby when it comes to my guitar.

Thank you for the welcome

 

[311boogieman]

One of the reasons I look for it is because I bought it before I had a camera readily accessible to me like we do today. I bought it around 2009-2010ish. It was right after I graduated high school and got a job at that guitar shop I bought it from.

I didn’t have and most people I knew didn’t have cameras worth taking photos with in our pockets all the time lol.

I wish I did take pictures of it because it truly is an awesome guitar and I fully admit I was and still mostly am, a fussy little baby when it comes to my guitar.

Oh yeah. Neither did I. It was a forum joke. You're being hazed because you bumped a 13 year old thread to tell us this story. It is too detailed to be a bot or not believe you. This is one of the better necrobumps I've seen. Again, welcome to R-T

 

[HighJinksInstruments]

Oh yeah. Neither did I. It was a forum joke. You're being hazed because you bumped a 13 year old thread to tell us this story. It is too detailed to be a bot or not believe you. This is one of the better necrobumps I've seen. Again, welcome to R-T

Yeah I took a risk for a post in 2012. I am so stoked. I texted my wife and some of the people I worked with at that shop. “I found it!!!!” lol.

 

[Racerxrated]

Welcome!

Interesting that you felt the neck was very different than the Strat head Charvels. It was around the time of this thread that I joined here. I had I think my first Charvel, a 2008 pro mod USA. From there I would buy/try another 20 of them, and 5-10 custom shops as well. I did have a Custom shop pointy and to me, the neck profiles all were very similar if not exact to the 08/09 USAs.
Now, if you're talking OG 80s Charvel USAs then those necks can vary greatly. I've had 4 of those. I still have an 86 USA Jackson Strat, it has the same profile as the 09 Purple USA So Cal I still have.
Chubtone (Curt) told me long ago that the 08/09 USAs had the neck profile of the 82 pre pro Charvels.

 

[The~Kid]

Crazy and purely nuts.

Good stuff ^_^

 

[HighJinksInstruments]

Welcome!

Interesting that you felt the neck was very different than the Strat head Charvels. It was around the time of this thread that I joined here. I had I think my first Charvel, a 2008 pro mod USA. From there I would buy/try another 20 of them, and 5-10 custom shops as well. I did have a Custom shop pointy and to me, the neck profiles all were very similar if not exact to the 08/09 USAs.
Now, if you're talking OG 80s Charvel USAs then those necks can vary greatly. I've had 4 of those. I still have an 86 USA Jackson Strat, it has the same profile as the 09 Purple USA So Cal I still have.
Chubtone (Curt) told me long ago that the 08/09 USAs had the neck profile of the 82 pre pro Charvels.

I think the biggest difference I felt was actually a difference in nut width which then impacted the neck shape.

From what I remember it felt like a Jackson Soloist. Wide and flat. Rather than something a little more narrow and round. I had put a “Charvel” together for a high school project that had the strat head stock and a narrower nut width. Slightly rounder neck. I still have that guitar and have played the snot out of it lol.

The other factor was I got the guitar. Played it a bunch trying to get familiar with it. Then got really sick and couldn’t play a lot. For maybe a year I didn’t play very much at all. By the time I came back to it I think my taste had changed even more. I know my musical taste had changed quite a bit. Less hair metal and more Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

The Les Paul studio I got had a great neck on it. It was a 2012. Fatter than anything Charvel would do but nothing like an R8. The nut width and the roundness of the neck profile just clicked for me.

It was a very expensive teenage learning experience. In other ways it put me in the path to my current 2020 Les Paul Standard that is just an absolute monster. Got super lucky. Is a Gibson USA, but single piece body and neck. No weight relief and coming in at 9 lbs. got it from the MOD shop so it came with the black pickup rings rather than the cream. I out a set of custom buckers in it after goo bf through about 6 different sets. Vintage wiring and PIO caps from Emerson.

I play it through a home built Trainwreck Express. Just picked up that roto vibe a few weeks ago. So much chewy tone. Heavy, warm, gainy, sensitive.

What trip down memory lane.

 

[Rev]

I am the guy that ordered that guitar. I ordered it at my local music shop. Worked after school and during the summer to order it. They let me do payments at the shop. I was so excited to get it. I did specifically ask for the shaved heel, cause as you have all said it is a sweet upgrade. Those neck cracks happened in shipping from Charvel. Kinda surprised as I am in California so it really didn't go that far. If I remember correctly, the color is called tangerine sparkle. I did the matching head stock with black logo partially cause my birthday is in October. It finally came in.... she was gorgeous. The sparkle, the head stock. That little "Custom Shop" logo in the corner. In the sun this guitar is a show stopper. She needs a car in the same color. The case is a god dam tank. Red caps, and heavy. She was a tank too. Heavy body.

It wasn't my thing. I tried for a few years to figure it out. I turmoiled over it. I lost sleep over it. Different amps, pedals, holding it different, different music, stuff like that. I put that bridge pickup in it. Zebra alternative 8 by Seymour Duncan. I loved Charvels with the Strat head stock (the ones that filled the local guitar shop), but wanted that pointy head stock because its cool. I didn't know that changed the shape of the neck and I just couldn't make it work for me. It was a hard lesson for me to learn at 18. I wanted to play a guitar that inspired me to pick it up, and it just wasn't it for me. I felt bad keeping it in its case in my room. I knew someone else would love or at least appreciate this guitar, even if it's not my thing.

Sold it to Guitar Center for a Les Paul Studio (shitty trade but I was 18 and obviously dumb and very impatient) and really haven't looked back as far as guitar style. I played the absolute shit outta that Les Paul! Have since moved up to a Standard that is my home base.

I have always wondered where that Charvel went. It was a bad ass guitar and I have always hoped it went to someone who could appreciate it more than I could. I have literally looked for years to see if it would pop up some where. It knew it was to cool of a guitar to not make it up on the internet some where. I am happy to find it again. I hope it has brought you joy and if you have sold it, I hope it has brought them joy as well.

I just happen to jump on RT today and saw this thread bump.

I still play this guitar weekly and you’re right it does have a slightly different neck profile but I get along with it nicely. The paint finish it remarkable and I always get compliments for it. I always wondered what bridge pickup it had but just assumed a Duncan custom or something. When I was shopping it I asked Chubtone if it was legit since the price was so low at GC. He confirmed with his Charvel reps and I pulled the trigger.

The white one in the picture I bought from Chubtone and it was a neck from the custom shop and body from another charvel. Curt said the neck came from the same guys who build in the CS even though it doesn’t say CS on the logo. Honestly it’s my favorite neck and has a slightly different profile. The fret distance between each is little wider than the tangerine and my other CS Charvel that I had built back in 2012.

 

[HighJinksInstruments]

I just happen to jump on RT today and saw this thread bump.

I still play this guitar weekly and you’re right it does have a slightly different neck profile but I get along with it nicely. The paint finish it remarkable and I always get compliments for it. I always wondered what bridge pickup it had but just assumed a Duncan custom or something. When I was shopping it I asked Chubtone if it was legit since the price was so low at GC. He confirmed with his Charvel reps and I pulled the trigger.

The white one in the picture I bought from Chubtone and it was a neck from the custom shop and body from another charvel. Kurt said the neck came from the same guys who build in the CS even though it doesn’t say CS on the logo. Honestly it’s my favorite neck and has a slightly different profile. The fret distance between each is little wider than the tangerine and my other CS Charvel that I had built back in 2012.

I am happy to hear it found a home!!! I felt so guilty not playing it!

Yeah the pickup is a Seymour Duncan Alternative 8. Is a hotter version of the Custom 5. The price I saw was an ABSOLUTE steel! Congratulations.

If you have any newer pictures I would love to see them. I ordered that neck so it would age with playing.