Charvel Model 3DR

Not too sure when it was made, 80's piece for sure made in Japan. 22 Frets, maple(cleared) with a rosewood board. Firecrackle finish. 5 way selector, H slant single(jackson pickups).

Somewhat thin neck(I scuffed the clear off with a little steel wool to give it that San Dimas feel) and very good playability.

I had the JT-6 removed and retro'd a chrome floyd(early 80's) installed. It also received a shim in the front of the neck pocket to remove the neck angle coupled with a grind and polish to the frets.

I have several Charvels(u.s.a) and Jackson(both u.s.a and import) and it is honestly my second in line for favorites(2006 san dimas single hum candy blue takes the cake for #1 axe). Very smooth player, fast and has a great tone acoustically or plugged in through the marshall!

This guitar was won off ebay from a pawn shop. It is true, one mans trash is another mans treasure. I absolutely LOVE this guitar and would be VERY upset if it we're stolen or something happened to it.

I usually play 80's rock, so it suits that sort of music quite well. It goes through a marshall mode four 4X12. Quiet operation with a diverse sound clean or distorted.

All around, two thumbs up. With the chorus on and the front pickup being used, it can do jazz type or mellow type music simply.

I have no idea how well the factory set-up was done as I won it from a pawn shop. It was instantly dropped off to have the frets adressed along with the floyd install. It came with a gig bag which I have replaced with a chainsaw case.

It shows a little character with a ding here or there with a scratch...but for a near 20 year old guitar, it looks very good to me.

I haven't gigged it yet, but I'd do so in a heartbeat!

The hardware seems pretty good...hey, it's lasted this long! :)

The finish again has some picking scratches, a scratch here or there along with a body ding...but it's not a pebble beach ferrari!

I would depend on it if it we're my only guitar for sure!

Never dealt with Charvel.

I have several sources if I need repair work, major or minor that'd probably perform the jobs I need as good or better than the factory.

No warranty.

I've been playing since I was about 15. I have a few other Charvel imports and U.S.A.'s along with a few Jacksons.

I like how light it is! It feels almost like a toy, but that's a good thing. I can't think of anything I don't like, well, LOL the action could be a TICK lower ;)

Made in Japan in the mid-late eighties. One of the last Charvels before the logo went all Jackson-font and the guitars went downhill...
22 fat frets on a rosewood fingerboard and a lacquered maple neck, basswood dinky-strat body and reverse raked headstock. Fitted with a Jackson Floyd Rose a Jackson J90C pickup in the bridge and a single coil in the middle-neck position.
Mine was finished in a metallic candy apple red, although there were some tragic multi-coloured lava crackle finishes?

Excellent sounds and very flexible. It's great to have a five-way selector on a guitar with two pickups. This gives lots of useful combinations including a lovely out-of-phase strat sound. In fact, I thihnk it is more useful than the usual H-S-S superstrat configuration.
Although this guitar is clearly designed for Metal, it has some lovely clean sounds. Indeed I'm sure that 90% of the people who use this guitar only use 10% of the sounds it can produce.
The J90C was the highest output passive Jackson pickup of the time; although no Seymour Duncan Invader, it is capable of overdriving from Rock to extreme metal.
I've used it in combination with loads of amps: More Marshalls than I care to remeber and Laneys, a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Mark IV and Triaxis, even a Snarling Dog and a PodXT and it has sounded great through all of them.
I've used it to record on a couple of records and I am still pleased with the results. I only wish I would get the opportunity to use it to play funk as it has got a lovely bright "spong" to the clean sounds as well as the usall superstrat sounds.
One thing it has that hordes of well specc-ed (and more expensive) guitars do not have is personality.

Action was excellent: low, but not too low; fast, but with enough room for the strings to breathe.
Pickups are matched very well, unless you want a heavily overdriven neck-pickup sound.
Tremelo was well set up and the machine heads are pretty good, which is a waste because they only get used when I change strings. It is not the best Floyd Rose licenced trem in the world, but neither is it the worst.
Frets were nicely finished and even. Fat enough for legato and two-handed hystrionics and thin enough to stay in tune when an chords more complicated than a bar-cord is fretted.

I have played this guitar almost every day for more than 15 years and have not had a problem yet with it. It's been on tour across Europe and dropped by god knows how many roadies (an me of course) and not so much gone out of tune. Electrics have remained in tip-top condition.
One issue is the Jackson Floyd Rose, the holes for the Alan keys to clamp the strings on the tremelo are starting to burr a little.
The strap locks are tighter than a Yorkshireman's wallet and the paintwork has been very solid. A couple of dents, but what do you expect if a Marshall head falls on it!

The great things that this guitar has are personality and versitility.
It's a shame it has a pointy-headstock as this might preclude people using it onstage in non-Rock bands.
If you want something for all kinds of Rock, from AOR to Thrash metal, this guitar can do it, but it can do so much more.
It's the second nicest Japanese Charvel I have played (the best was an orignal Model 3, with the Kayler fulcrum trem on) and it beats the faceless assemblies of high-spec parts that pass as superstrats.
I have never played an Ibanez or ESP guitar that I prefer, indeed even many of the US Jacksons have had trouble coming close. The only guitar I prefer the feel of is my Kramer Nightswan (although the 3DR is better than all the other Kramer models IMHO) and that only has two humbuckers and a 3-way switch so not much cop for much else except hard rock and heavy metal.

Made in Japan, even thought the neck plate says Fort Worth, Texas. 22 frets, five way control, one volume, one Jackson humbucker and one Jackson single coil at a weird angle. Also has reversed headstock and smaller strat style body (3DR, Model 3, Dinky, Reverse, geddit!). Has a Jackson Floyd Rose on it, apparently at the time a Kahler trem was an option.

Apparently its a basswood body, but the rather nasty metallic finsish obscures that...

Single coils are a bit nasty sounding (and very noisy), bucker is ok but a bit flat sounding esp when you wack the volume right up. Quite a versitle guitar though esp considering that it has no tone control. Dees a cool Metallica sound though, very metal!

Cant fault it really. Its a fivteen year old guitar and the frets have hardly worn. Not bad at all

Looks a pretty solid guitar allthough it does have one of those mad Floyd Roses where you have to remove the ball ends on the strings. Not good for quick changes !. Finish has lasted fivteen years, so can't fault it there. Strap buttons are very good, nice and large.

No idea. Jackson seem to refuse to acknoledge the existence of the Jap made Charvel/Jacksons these days...

I also own a Gibson SG Standard, thing with that guitar is that allthough its 100 times the guitar of the Charvel, I'm terified of dropping/scratching it, so the Charvel is getting a lot of use at the moment.

If it was nicked I'd probably get an RG550 with the money.

I think it looks pants, esp the colour (metallic blue). It plays really well though and teh neck is wonderful.

I wish it had better pickups, but for free, who cares!

Made in 1988 in japan. 22-frets. 3-way selector vol. & tone. s/h custom pickups EMG 81 and some single coil, both are active. I think the original pickups sucked because they were changed. Body is strat type, no pickguard. Bridge is FloydRose. Jackson tuners.

I play metal with it and im satisfied so far... Sounds just like i like it. I detuned it down to H. Sounds still good. The pickups arent that sensitive, good for hitting. I'm not even going to try make any rock sounds with it .. only metal. I like lead also.

Bought it used. Had trouble with the tuning but shop guy helped me work it out. We had to adjust the bridge a bit. Everything was ok cuz i demanded them to fix everything.

Kicks ass. from 1988. no prob. The paint might crack off.. but its for sound not vision.

I used ezboards charveljackson forum yhey know their shit. And lotsa stuff on the web. more then i can read. I never contacted Jackson.

If it was stolen... i dont want to think of such. It's the King of metal. I love the neck it has an old feel to it,... not too wide or something.