Charvel Model 1

Black basswood body, Strat style, 22 fret maple neck and board, pointy Jackson head with white guitar shape Charvel logo, Fender " go out of tune " bridge, one double coil pickup, one volume control and all hardware is black. The neck is like a flact Fender C crossed with a thin Fender U shape. Very nice feel. Nothing compares.

Stock it was good enough for me. Later on I put a Dimarzio Super Distortion in it and it improved the sound way beyond what I was expecting. When i first got it I was playing through my uncles old Marshall 50 watt half stack and using my BOSS DS-1 distortion, BOSS Chorus, BOSS Flanger and BOSS Delay. I ended up with a Marshall 65 watt Valvestate and it sounded just as cool. I added a 4X12 CRATE cab and it expanded the sound nicely.

As close to perfect as you can get without commiting harasy. It was and still is in damn good shape. No flaws and I still rip it up on this guitar. It will never leave me.

It withstood me and 5 brothers playing when I wasn't home. There were alot of bloody noses and black eyes. My mom almost made me get rid of it. She forbid my brothers to touch it. Now we all joke around about it and I let them see it, but not touch. It the princaple of the thing. HA HA HA.

Never talked to them.

I was and still am a huge RATT, Dokken fan. Every Meatl Mag had shots of Warren Dimartini with a charvel and George Lynce even had a few Charvels back in the day. I saw this guitar hanging behind the counter next to a red one. I liked the black one and have always planned to have the Skull and blood drips airbrushed on it. I procrastinate to much. It'll never happen. That was a special Christmas for me. My uncle came by with his half stack the night before and taught me a couple pieces of "Lay It Down" and "Back For More". He asked if I would take care of it for him. I went down stairs the next morning to find a large rectangular present that turned out to be my Charvel. I own a few Charvels and Jacksons as well as some other big name stuff. I have my own half stack now. I have kept every guitar I have ever owned as well as amps. Above them all, my Model 1 is the closest to my heart.

I was told that mine was from one of the last years that Charvels were made in Texas. Don't know if that's true or not--it's from about the early to mid 80s. This one has the small guitar-shaped Charvel logo, not the later Asian-made Jackson-style cursive logo.

22 jumbo frets on a wide-radius maple fretboard, neck fairly shallow with matte finish (though that polished rapidly with use). Pointed Charvel/Jackson style tilt-back headstock, six on one side tuners (Jackson tuners).

Standard strat-style tremolo/bridge.

Solid full-size strat shape body (quite heavy) no pickguard, single Jackson humbucker in the bridge position, volume and tone controls. Gloss black finish.

Very hot pickup--fairly bright, but with lots of body. Good sustain and dead quiet. This guitar doesn't do a lot of different things, but 90% of what people want a humbucker in the bridge position for, this guitar will do nicely.

I'd recommend it for rock or metal, no question, and you could probably use it for a lot of other things.

The action and intonation needed a little improvement, but nothing 45 minutes with a set of allen keys didn't fix. Needed no truss rod adjustments.

Pickup was way too low, easily adjusted.

Was a factory second, though the only flaw I've ever found after 9 years is where the music store sanded off the "2" stamped between the 20th and 21st frets under the E string.

This guitar is a rock. I've gigged with it for years, and it looks like the day I got it, except that I added a Jackson single coil in the neck position, and the neck is polished on the back from use.

Like all standard-tremolo guitars, I think it benefits from having the trem locked down and never used.

Used it without backup on paying gigs.

I've been playing for 20 years, and this is the best bargain I've ever gotten. Still have it, still play it. I've owned a lot of guitars, and this one is right up there.

I don't know if I'd buy another if it were stolen--the sentimental value of it makes it irreplaceable. I do know two guys that went out and bought the same guitar because of mine, though. One was a beginner, and one an experienced player with a ton of very expensive guitars.

As purchased, it's not all that versatile with only one pickup, but the quality can't be beat.

-strat style body guards red color
-1 solid black humbucker says jackson on pickup 1 vol knob standard black tremolo w/ bar
-all maple neck 22 x jumbo frets jackson black tuners sealed reverse headstock

-sound is EXCELLENT great sustain play thru vox ac-15 use johnson j-station

Great action easy bends fast neck no buzzing great finish since it was made in 1987

-will last if it has lasted this long i am 2nd owner

-been playing off and on for about 15 years bought his guitar from a friend he bought new in 87 so it is all correct have case also.
-this has to be the best guitar i have bought it sounds so good and plays excellent and it is very basic that is what i wanted to play my shred music.

I believe this Charvel was made around 1988-89 in Japan. The body is heavier than average (basswood, I think), with a solid "Ferrari red" finish. The fretboard is rosewood and the headstock painted black on the face. It has 22 medium-jumbo frets with white dot markers "Charvel spaced". The tremolo is one of the Kahler "lawsuit" models which is very much like a Floyd Rose except for the roller mechanism and lack of string locks. The tremolo is a very clever design and seems to work quite well, as long as it is well set up and lubricated (same rules apply with any mechanism). It had one Jackson model 2 pickup in it, which is a meat and potatoes metal shredder, but I swapped it for a Dimarzio X2N to be experimental. The neck contour on this guitar is very flat on the back which does not make it easy to wrap your hand around it, but it does encourage proper classical technique by making it very easy to back up your fingers with the pad of your thumb when soloing, which is this guitar's designated use. It has sealed "Shaller style" tuners (black) and only one volume knob. No switches, tone controls etc. This is the guitar version of the Soldano "beef it up and strip it down" mentality. Designed to do one thing: Shred!

I love this guitar. It is like scream therapy to play it. It is outrageous and loud and just makes you want to play old judas priest and slayer tunes. Take no prisoners sound and attitude. It is a one-trick pony, but it does this trick better than any other guitar. My current setups include a Mesa Boogie DC-5 combo with a Boss GT-5 processor or just a Metal Zone pedal, a short rack with Digitech Valve FX processor, BBE sonic maximizer and a Mesa Boogie 50/50 power amp and a Line6 AX2 amp. The Charvel works fabulously on all three setups when I select the meanest chunkiest settings. It is a raging bull. Please don't try to make it do what it is not supposed to do! I have read other reviews where this guitar gets thrashed for not being able to do nice clean sounds, jazz, country etc. If you try to tame this mustang you will ruin it's spirit. It is made to do one thing: Shred. If you want versatile, buy a PRS. Try getting this kind of meat out of a PRS and you will be disappointed. This guitar lives at a far end of the spectrum and does not play well with others! Not much variety, but totally kick ass!

When I got the guitar from e-bay, the action was horrible and it looked like it had spent a lot of time in a kids room. I cleaned it up and rebuilt it from the ground up (except the neck, I never took it off because it was on straight and tight). The wiring in it was twisted together like lamp cord, as if it had been worked on by a teenager, so I do not believe that the Jackson model 2 pickup is original for this guitar, but it is a very nice JB/Super distortion hybrid which I intend to keep in my pickup collection. The construction is very solid, reminiscent of the 80's Japan Fender strats which were giving the domestically made ones a run for their money. It is tight and beautiful and heavy. The wood on this one is a few grades more dense than other Charvels I have played, which is quite lucky for me since I did not play it before I bought it. It is a sex machine from a lost era of articulated penis-rock. I named it "Pussy Galore".

This thing seems pretty bullet proof. The hardware is all good. The only concern with Charvel/Jackson type guitars is the pointy headstock. You can hit golf balls with a fender headstock and it will not budge, but if you whack this pointy little thing in a ceiling fan you will be lucky if you only lose the tip. I have seen many of these with the headstocks broken off. Fortunately mine is not one of the early floyd-rose equipped guitars with the drilled-through string clamp. Some of the old Floyd equipped charvels have a pair of screws that can be seen on the back of the neck where the nut is. This drilling makes the critical bend area behind the nut very weak and they tend to crack a lot. I try to avoid these models because I have seen them crack even when they have been babied. My guitar came to me with some of those goofy looking Dimarzio straplock things that look like suspenders from Oktoberfest. I gleefully trashed those things as soon as I blew all of the styrofoam peanuts off of the guitar and installed a set of real "Charvel style" buttons. The pickup and the buttons are the only things I have added to the guitar, and the original pickup and buttons would have been fine if some ninny-poo had not installed the strap insanity. I would never do a gig without a backup, this guitar is no exception.

Never called them. I don't think I'll need them either. This thing is a tank!

I have been playing on and off since about 1983. I own about 15 different flavors of solid body electrics and three unique amp/effects setups to match my mood for the moment. If this guitar were stolen I would miss it very much and would begin my quest for another one. It is a Charvel, although made in Japan, it encompasses everything that Wayne set out to do. It is a very solid and practical rock guitar that will last a long, long time.

Probably made in Japan, althought the neckplate says Fort Worth, Texas. I guess the guitar was made around 1984 or 1985. Basswood Strat body, maple neck & fretboard, medium jumbo frets, standard tremolo bridge, Jackson tuning machines. Red mirrorlike finish.
This model seemed to be one of the first known as the EvH setup, that is one loud pickup and one volume control, that's all. The original pickup however was missing so I mounted a DiMarzio X2N with a coil split pot, the world's biggest loudmouth when it comes to pickups.

I own quite a few guitars and the benefit is that my style somewhat changes with each instrument. This one is made for lead guitar and powerful rhythm guitar, the well known 'brown sound' is easy to achieve. Clean it sounds nice, very funky indeed but using it with a tube amp going insane it's unbelievable. A lot of variety can be achieved by playing on different positions, different ways of striking the strings. It's not just a loudmouth, it can do a lot of sounds.

I adjusted the guitar myself after rebuilding it and the action is unbelievable. This neck is one of the best I have ever played, very smooth and silky. No fret buzz, no flaws at all.
Finish is great too, the guitar is already quite old and has been the #1 stage guitar of the previous owner but he could have fooled me, the guitar still looks as if it has been hardly used at all.

Very well built professional instrument, I do not expect any problems to occur in the future. I would definitively gig without a backup if I weren't such an asshole that would like to show off with all the other beautiful guitars I own.

I did ask Jackson a question and they answered within 24 hours, unfortunately they could not be of any help since this model is out of production for over 10 years. Well, I guess I won't need them anyway with this guitar.

I play 23 years, own quite a few other guitars, I would definitvely try to find another if it were stolen. I love this guitar for it's very basic setup and the fact that it still gives you a lot of different sounds if you know how to play it.