Charvel 750XL Soloist Archtop

I have a 1990 Charvel 750XL Soloist Archtop.
It's got 24 frets (neck thru), EMG81 (bridge), EMG85 (neck), Jackson Floyd Rose (all black hardware), one volume, one tone, five way pickup selector, toggle for EMG boost.
The color is a very very dark metallic green (most people assume it's black, even on a close inspection).
You can see pictures of it at http://jimosity.tzo.com (then choose "Guitars" -> "Jim's Guitars"

I'm into progressive metal as well as plain old hard rock, my grandpa plays in a church band and has used this guitar.. It rules above all in any style of music.
I play through a Line 6 Flextone II HD, Laney 4x12 cabinet with floorboard, no effects.
There is nothing I don't like about this guitar because among my 19+ guitars in my collection, this is the best (even with several custom shop ESPs in the $3500+ price range!!)
I record in a digital studio and this is the main guitar that I use 99% of the time and it is so perfect it's unbelievable.

I bought this guitar used (for next to nothing!!)
There are no flaws anywhere on this guitar as it's the best all around guitar I have ever owned.

Perfect in every way, I couldn't find a flaw if I tried!

The model of this guitar was not quite evident since the previous owner didn't know and there is very little internet documentation on finding out a model. I tried to contact Jackson guitars to find out and they didn't return my e-mails or calls.
I tried to contact Wayne guitars (Wayne Charvel) and they told me the guitar was built after he parted ways with Jackson.
You would have thought that Jackson would have put a model number SOMEWHERE on the guitar to make identifying a little easier!!!
Since this guitar is so killer, I want another like it, but until today didn't know that it was this exact model!
There are a few other models that are pretty damn close to this, but just not exactly the same. Makes it hard to identify.

On a 1 to 10 scale, I give this guitar a 20.
I've yet to play a better all around guitar (and I have played hundreds in my 19 years of playing!)

As the Les Paul, but five way switching, giving some moderately useful stratty sounds. Mahogany and maple (with a nice, deep flame), set neck. Previously passive pickups, but I've thrown a GX-10 preamp into the control cavity, which has improved sustain, definition and clarity. Not that it needed it in the first place.....

Shreds like the best of them. Does a great impression of my '99 Les Paul Standard but cost almost a third as much. Great, powerfu; ;ead tone, with the 'woman tone' on demand. Very nice. I've owned more guitars than I care to remember (played 'em for 20+ years), and I WILL ALWAYS KEEP THIS ONE. Gigged it a lot, normally get through a full set without having to change it. Tuning stability is perfect, tones are way versatile.

Factory set up was good, although the fret ends are a little sharp.

Put up with it! The rest of the finish is perfect, apart from a SLIGHT mismatch between the red-stained mahogany and the amber-stained maple. Then again, the finish is MUCH better than my Les Paul.

Had it for ages, never needed to do any work to it. Battery goes flat, but that's my fault for making it active. Very solid, dependable guitar. The trem (a Jackson Floyd) is FAR better than the original Jackson Floyd on my Charvel model 6.

Never had to deal with 'em.

Own a couple of Gibsons and a few Charvels, Kramers etc.

I want to say that my Les Paul is my favourite, but I just can't. The 750XL is my 'Desert Island' guitar. There - I've said it. The Charvel is better than the Les Paul. I still wouldn't want to be without the Gibson though, I tried a 70's Gibbo with a Floyd and it was nasty. The 750 is the best of both worlds. Lovely, lovely guitar.

This is a Japanese made Charvel. Beautiful construction through and through. This is arguably the best Japanese Charvel ever made, archtop "super strat" body style Circa 1990.

True Blue Satin finish, really one of the nicest finishes i've seen on a non custom shop guitar. 24 fret mahogany body solid top with neck set into the body just like a Les paul. Rosewood frestboard with jumbo frets, reverse fret inlays and a compound radius neck. one volume knob, one tone knob. H/H pickup configuration, originally a 3 way selector. My guitar originally used the semi-active Jackson pickups and the double locking Jackson tremolo system, Jackson tuners.

I originally bought it in 1990 new and have had it ever since. I had an Original Floyd-Rose tremelo installed along with a new heavy duty input jack, a heavy duty 5 way selector switch, a Dimarzio Fred in the bridge position and a Dimarzio tone zone in the neck position.

This thing positively shreds. Period. I am a big metal/prog metal guy, and this is easily as nice as a custom shop Jackson Soloist. I say that because a friend of mine has one and whenever we get together we switch guitars and argue about which one is better. The necks are totally different and the pickups make an obvious difference in sound, but it's really just a matter of taste. Impressive....

My rig is currently a Mesa Boogie Tri-Axis, BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer, TC Electronic G-Major, and a ADA Micro-tube 200. This thing gets MAJOR SUSTAIN with the mahogany neck-thru design. The coupling of the Fred and the neck through is really wide and deep, thick and rich. Not edgy at all, really warm and sort of dark. Killer metal tone, an awesome combo, picks up harmonics through the whole audible frequency range. Tons of overtones no matter what kind of amp I use. Nice high output from both pickups. I have the center position wired backwards so it gets a really great transparent Alex Lifeson "Hold Your Fire" type sound so I do have a better that factory range of sounds I can get from it. The bottom line with this guitar is definitely metal though. Made to shred on.

The guitar isn't gonna replace your Gibson semi-hollow or a Rickenbacker, but it excels at what it was created for- Metal.

When I got the guitar it wasn't really set up very well. The action was too high for the kind of neck that it has and the tremolo needed to be adjusted up some. But, after a basic setup it played perfectly. The finish was flawless. Ten years later this thing is rock solid. I have witnessed many of my friends guitars live and die in this time but the Charvel continues to amaze me. I have had the action adjusted to just above fret buzz and this guitar is like butter now. anyone can pick this thing up and sound good. A good player can rip, and a really good player won't want to put it down. It makes the job of getting the notes to the amp much easier and thus frees up your mind so that it can concentrate on just expressing yourself. Damn thing practically plays itself.

I will say that the original Jackson liscensed tremolo didn't hold up very long before the knife edges began wearing out and inevitably I began having 2 different tunings for the guitar: in tune and a quarter tone sharp. Also, the Jackson pickups were pretty weak. Low output compared to the Dimarzios and very "narrow" sounding.

There is no doubt in my mind this is the most solid guitar I have ever owned. From top to bottom, 10 years later, through constant use and abuse, besides a few paint chips and scratches this guitar has remained the one thing in my life that I could depend on. Seriously, For the money I paid, this was the deal of the century. I would use this on a gig without a backup with no second thoughts, if the gods of broken strings could be appeased.... This guitar is a bank vault.

I tried to contact Jackson regarding the specific history if this guitar and got no response. I haven't contacted Charvel directly yet.
I have had to pay for the mods myself of course, but nothing really went wrong with the guitar until the tremolo died, and that was 6 years into it's lifespan, that's to be expected. I've never dealt with repairs through Jackson/Charvel.

Ive been playin' stringed insturments for 23 years in some form. I have owned various guitars throughout my life but this is currently my only electric. If someone stole this thing I would find them and make them pay. This is seriously the only material posession that I can't replace. If I could find another one, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Instant purchase. I really love the arch top neck thru body. I've never seen another one like it. Very rare design from Charvel.

This guitar stand out in my mind as a really amazing value for the money. You could pay 3 times as much for a custom shop Jackson but really the law of diminishing returns is gonna kick in and the Jackson guitar will only be slightly more solid for WAY more money. I really bought this guitar on accident because I couldn't afford a Jackson and at the time and it was on sale for 1/2 price. Lucky accident, it turned out to be the best made, best playing stringed insturment I have ever owned. If you can find one anywhere (good luck!) Think about investing, because that's what you'll be doing. Investing, It'll last forever.....

Made in 1989 in Japan
Arch quilt top
1vol and 1 tone 2jackson humbuckers J80 bridge, j50 neck 5 position switch. Which has been changed to a 3 for a Les Paul pickup selection.
Dinky strat body
Set in neck like a Lespaul Mahogany back like a Les Paul
Jumbo frets
floyd rose Tremolo
Paid 450.00 for it
Get one of these guitar's instead of tearing up you Les Paul for a Floyd. If you love gibson pickup's install them

The sound is great it's like the best world's A Les Paul sound with a floyd.

Action is great in my area i have a good tech and the guitar plays great.

Have not had any troubles

Well I could not get much information from Jackson so I went to Charvel himself and Mike was wonderful to deal with

I have owned many guitars in my time and this is a Keeper!!!
Get one if you can find one not many were made from the factory with a Floyd Most were string through body fixed bridge

This guitar was made in about 1990 in Japan, back when Jackson were making good guitars in Japan under the Professional name. It has 24 Jumbo frets and came with two Jackson humbuckers, master volume and tone knobs and a 3-way pickup selector switch. I believe this also had the Jackson active mid-boost installed when new (I got it in '93 with an EMG 85 in the bridge and two EMG SA single coils in the neck position so have never heard or used the Jackson pickups, though I still have them). It's built like a Les Paul in that it has a Mahogany body with a carved flame maple top and a set-in maple neck with a rosewood fretboard and reverse Randy Rhoads sharkfin inlays.

The paint is transparent cherry sunburst with a bound neck and headstock. It's exactly the same body shape as the Soloist Archtop only the Floyd Rose isn't recessed into the body at all which I haven't seen before. It has black Jackson tuners and the Floyd Rose is a Schaller, made in Germany and very good at what it does.

It comes with a very nice custom Charvel case which I am lucky is in great working order and I'm going to keep it that way.

This guitar is great for pretty much any style of playing but excels at Hard Rock/Metal, though it looks so classy it wouldn't look out of place at a Black Tie function. I play in the Hard Rock vein so it suits me fine.

I play it thru a Marshall Triple Super Lead head and one or two Marshall 1936 cabinets and I have various effects pedals, but it sounds great just going straight into the amp. Just recently I changed the EMG's it had when I bought it for different ones, it now has an EMG 81 in the bridge and a new 85 in the neck and it sounds awesome!!! It's a very fat sounding guitar, thanx to it's woods and construction and sustains really well, it's great to play. It's not noisy at all and I think this guitar, the EMG's and a good tube amp are a great combination.

My guitar tech changed the switch to a better quality 5-way 'super switch' but I only use the 3 basic Les Paul type sounds, bridge pu, both pu's and neck pu.

I didn't buy it new so I don't know much about the factory set-up but I do know that I've had it set-up very well and it plays great. This guitar was made rock-solid and with a very high standard of finish, no complaints here.

This is a guitar that will stand the test of time, I've had if for 7 years and it's about 10 years old and it still looks awesome, but a bit of care and maintenance never go astray of course. The hardware and finish are built to last, the Floyd plays like new and keeps perfect tune, it has the cool, oversized Jackson strap buttons of old, so no need for a locking set.

I can depend on this guitar totally, but as always, you need a backup when using a Floyd, at least until the next set break.

Have't dealt with them much, have asked them a few questions about other things and they've gotten back to me pretty quickly but I don't think I'll need to contact them about this guitar, it's way out of warranty and I have local guys to do the work for me.

I hadn't been playing long when I bought this guitar (I started late dammit!!) but as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. Nowadays I have very high standards regarding guitars and this guitar (and my others) meets them all.

My first guitar was a second hand Fernandes Les Paul (next up for some EMG's) and I also have a 1994 Gibson Flying V bought new and a Jackson Randy Rhoads PCS original bought new this year. My amp is the above mentioned Marshall TSL100 and I have a Maxon analog delay and chorus, MXR Phase 100 and Micro Chorus, a Snarling Dog's Super Bawl Whine-O wah, Rocktron Hush pedal and a Tech 21 XXL for practice sessions.

If it were lost or stolen I'd be devastated cause they are hard to come by in Australia, I saw a guy in a band that supported Machine Head (in '95 I think) who had one without the Floyd Rose, but have never seen one since. Not many people know much about these guitars, they are top-of-the-line and are pretty hard to find, you see more older Model 5's and 6's on Ebay.

I love that it has two humbuckers and not the H-S-S config of the Model 6, but I wouldn't mind that it had a 3-way toggle like a Les Paul, up on the upper bout, but I can handle it.

All in all, I'm so glad I bought it all those years ago, get one if you can.