Charvel Model 4

Made in Japan in 1988, bought 12/88 at Lavonne Wagener Music in Savage, MN. 21 fret "super strat" with one volume, one tone, one midrange boost. The pickups were Jackson active with the S/S/H configuration, a Jackson Floyd Rose licensed trem, and a Jackson locking nut and non-locking tuners. Basswood body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard with large frets. Back of the neck was finished with tung oil. Body shape was that of a Fender stratocaster. Finish was a somewhat repulsive orange "fire crackle" finish with a clear coat over the top. It was not my intention to get into a custom graphics guitar but the neck on this guitar was better than all of the other model 4's in the store I bought it at. Neck was rather wide and thin (made to Holdsworth's specs essentially). Guitar included a hardshell case. After the first eight or nine months, the Jackson tremelo was replaced with a real Floyd Rose, and the Jackson pickups were replaced with two EMG S active strat pickups and an EMG 81 at the bridge, and the Jackson midrange boost was removed and replaced with an EMG SPC (FAT) control. This improved the quality of the sound and improved the reliability.

Again, I play progressive jazz rock fusion (with an emphasis on the rock part, I guess) so my sounds range from quiet drones to raging distortion for power chords and solos, to quiet pastoral jazzy diads. Amps and effects used: Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp with Roland JC-120 amplifier, Chandler Tube Driver, TC Electronic Booster-Line Driver, MXR Blue Box, Boss OC-2 Octave Divider, Boss DD-3 Delay, Ibanez Swell Flanger, ART SGE, Lexicon Vortex, etcetera. The Jackson pickups installed with the guitar were rather un-distinctive and were noisy (one gig in particular I remember where the flourescent lights of the bar were causing the thing to buzz like a swarm of angry bees in single coil mode). This lead to my replacing the Jackson pickups with EMGs which are far quieter and had a much more distinctive tonal voice. In retrospect, the EMG S single coils I had installed at the time were a tad on the thin side (think of the Jamie-West Oram compressed, clean, chorused strat sound on the tune "Outside" on the "Reach the Beach" CD and you get the idea of how this guitar sounded in clean single coil mode) and if I had to do it all over again I would go with the SA which is a bit warmer. The FAT control did help this considerably, however. The lead tones were a bit more searing than singing (think of the Joe Satriani lead tone on "Lords of Karma" and you get the idea). Even with the FAT control cranked, it took some special EQ'ing to get the guitar to get out of the thin lead thing, although with the right strings and tone settings I did once nail a convincing Les Paul/SG style tone for a recording project. The guitar seemed to have a personality all its own and would change subtly from day to day, which was both annoying and endearing at the same time. Perhaps the basswood was prone to moisture or had absorbed moisture prior to being sprayed and sealed, I can't really say for sure.

Action was excellent as shipped from the factory, the pickups were set-up as well as they might be - the bridge and all fittings were just fine when I received it. Frets filed correctly, finish was pretty much spot on (for an intergalactic puke design) and I had no complaints initially. See the reliability section, however. All is not as it seems.

I played this guitar at the majority of the gigs my band played between 1989-1992, which was probably 20 gigs if not more. It withstood live playing, but some of the components as shipped were weakly designed or inadequate for the task. The Jackson tremelo of the time used bushings to keep the whammy bar stationary instead of flopping around - a bad design all around as the bushings required frequent replacement. The replacement bushings only delayed the inevitable and finding more was next to impossible so using cut up some audio cassette labels proved necessary. Also, the bar itself broke on one occasion, surprising myself and the band members I was with at the time.. When some of the saddles in the tremelo cracked, I finally buckled down and replaced it with a real Floyd Rose and those problems stopped. I always thought it strange because I was never a neanderthal guitar player, yet the guitar acted as if it was being hit with hammers or something. The original electronics really let me down on one particular gig - at one point the humbucking pickup simply stopped working - the only pickup that worked was the Jackson single coil at the neck - it was HORRIBLE because I rely on different sounds for many of our tunes. I was not in a position to try and fix it on the gig.. Everything ended up sounding like a mediocre single coil for the duration of that gig - awful. Later I found that the wiring for the humbucker was being crimped internally, once this was corrected the sound came back but my opinion was soured and quickly replaced the original pickups with EMGs (my preferred pickup of choice anyway) and then the guitar sounded a lot better. After I dumped $ on a Floyd and EMGs the guitar itself was pretty stable for four or five more years. Then the tuning stability problems happened. I replaced the original Floyd with a different one (long story) once and I could not get the tuning to stabilize - after discussing the issue with Gary Brower it was found that the barrel shaped housing that the whammy bar fits into was bumping into the edges of the tremelo cavity - I had to sand the edges of the trem cavity to keep the housing from hitting the edges and preventing the tremelo from going back to its original position.. Since then, no problems but occasional intonation and tuning stability issues continued to plague this instrument. Also, after five or six years, a very obvious dent was to be seen at the second fret on the B string - normal wear and tear I imagine. The bottom line is - for a nearly $600 instrument I should not have needed to replace the bridge, pickups and electronics at all, but in order to have a decent instrument I did. And to be fair, Jackson has come a long with with providing better hardware on their guitars since 1988. I actually traded this guitar last weekend in on a current made in USA Jackson Soloist and the build quality is significantly better - electronics are Duncans, all metal parts (bridge, locking nut, tuners, switches, knobs) are significantly more solid and robust.

Never had to deal with them, mostly dealt with the dealer. Warranty was for one year I believe.

20 years playing. Own other guitars, amps, fx, synths, drum computers, etc. If it had been stolen I would have replaced it with something more robust I imagine. At the time I bought it, the action was great and I always wanted a guitar with a whammy bar. It did eventually sound pretty great and I had a lot of fun gigs and jam sessions with it and the weird paint job did get a lot of attention. The unreliability of the original hardware in conjunction with the on-the-gig sound problems has given me pause as to whether I'd buy another Charvel 4 of the time. I compared it against Fender Strats, similar Kramers, and Washburns of the time when I originally bought it. In retrospect, I should have bought a good Gibson SG or something and left it at that.