NGD: 2007 Charvel Music Zoo "PrePro"

[Anonymous]

So I always wanted one of the "Grail" Charvels - the EVH Black and Yellow stripes guitars they did before Eddie got all pissed off at them. They never copied the exact stripe pattern of Ed's original one back in the day, every stripe pattern was unique. The idea of paying $7-10K for an original seemed ridiculous though, so I just put the idea out of my mind...

Then I saw this 2007 Charvel Music Zoo PreoPro spec for sale, which is much more to my current neck shape preferences:

Since it had never been painted, and hardly seemed played when I got it, seemed the perfect platform to roll my own "Grail". I enlisted the services of a painter who shall remain nameless at his request and voila! Only changes from the original was I replaced the tuners with NOS vintage crown heads and replaced the pickup with a '70s Dimarzio Super D...

Extra bonus points for anyone who can figure out what is significant or interesting about the guitar!

Damn... it's been a helluva week:

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Pickup spacing looks wonky

On the Black and Yellow??

Steve

 

[hammered]

The Bee makover looks very cool but man it looked so fricking killer the way it was originally , kinda like a sleeper with a big block .

 

[mooncobra]

Sweet guit man! Those Chubtones look great also!

 

[Crunchity]

Looks great! Love the neck.

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone ready to hazard a guess on what is interesting or significant about the guitar in it's current state??

Steve

 

[hammered]

Anyone ready to hazard a guess on what is interesting or significant about the guitar in it's current state??

Steve

I have no idea , the pickup ring is creme and not black is all I can think of but I don`t think you were building a clone of Eds Bee

 

[Anonymous]

OK, I'll spill it...

The stripe pattern is replicated from the Charvel that EVH played on "Entertainment Tonight" in 1982 - at least as close as could be done with the slightly different body shapes...

The guitar was one of 5 Charvel guitars that were given to EVH by Grover jackson as sort of a peace offering. EVH was very pissed at Charvel for selling the B&Y clones and labeling them with his name in ads. Grover stopped doing it at some point, but there was still a rift. The guitars were to smooth it over, although I'm not sure it really worked. This particular guitar was played by EVH when he was on Entertainment Tonight in '82 with Valerie. They did a profile on the two of them at home and Ed was sitting with Valerie playing it through some practice amp. Guitar sold recently for nearly $70K...

Here is Ed's receipt for this guitar. Note it is one of five:

Here is a verification that Charvel/Jackson did for a previous owner:

Here is the guitar when Neil's Vintage had it:

Finally, here is EVH playing it on Entertainment Tonight with Valerie sitting there. It's a bit hard to tell, but if you look at the stripe pattern, it is the same guitar that is now for auction:

Steve

 

[psychodave]

It came out great. Glad I was there to help enable you.

 

[Anonymous]

It came out great. Glad I was there to help enable you.

Really!

Three guitars in one week beats all my previous records...

Steve

 

[Stradazone]

That bumble bee came out pretty nice! looks like the real deal from the ET show haha

1 3/4 nut on that pre pro model?

 

[Anonymous]

That bumble bee came out pretty nice! looks like the real deal from the ET show haha

1 3/4 nut on that pre pro model?

Thanks, Al! Yes, 1 3/4"

Steve

 

[psychodave]

I'm still drooling over these pics. I'm glad it came out looking amazing.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm still drooling over these pics. I'm glad it came out looking amazing.

Cool! I'm really happy about the way this one worked out. Something about those older Zoo runs!

Steve