Charvel Model 5A

I would say this guitar was made about 1989. Its got 24 frets a laminated top, one volume control, one Jackson humbucker, it has a pink champagne finish, floyd rose bridge, jackson tuners, wide neck for more bending room, and a grey case.

It suits my music stlye very well, which is a jazzy kind of rock, I use it on a homemade amp with a boss distortion rack with 5 types of distortion and an equalizer so I can make the sound I want. I think it has a very birght sound since the pickup is very close to the bridge, it has a very nice classic rock sound. I kind of wish I could change the tone when i want with another knob, but everyone know that if you have many choices of sound you spend half your time switching everything.

Very good action the neck is very thin and easy to move along. Pickup is in a most ingenious place to give just the right sound.When I brought it home i notice that one of the back plates was gone and missing screws, it had stickers all over it, and the spot where the wammy goes in was loose and the whammy doesnt lock in but all of that was either repairable or fine for the price I paid.

This guitar has perfect durability, the hardware will last forever, the finish is great, the strap buttons are solid, and I would definitly go to a gig without a backup. No worries.

I have been playing for a year and a half I would definitley find anothe if mine was stolen or lost, my favorite feature is the pickup by the bridge.

Made in Japan circa '88 or '89. 24 frets on a rosewood board with some interesting variations in the shading of the wood, dot inlays. Neck through superstrat body construction with a single humbucker. Jackson licensed Floyd Rose bridge and behind the nut lock. Finished in sparkle violet, including the back of the neck and headstock.

I got it with a gig bag and the wrong set of allen keys. The whammy bar was missing in action.

I'll give it a five. It's a single 'bucker shred machine. Nowt more, nowt less.

This guitar sounds much fuller than my Charvel Model 3. I'll put that down to the neck-through construction. It cleans up nicely when turned down and it not the one-trick pony I originally had it panned as. I've so far been using it exclusively through a Pod running into the Fx return of a Trace Elliot Tramp and revisiting the low-down riff thumper and ham-fisted shredder that I was ten years ago.

I'll give it a seven. Better than I expected when clean.

This guitar had languished in a store in Bangkok for twelve years and up. Not suprisisngly, the neck needed a tweak when I got it home. The missing truss-rod key was slightly problematic, but a set of metric sockets and a driver soon set it to rights.

Fit and finish is great.

It'll do live (As though I'd play this in public. Man, I'd have died for this guitar ten/eleven years ago when I was 30 lbs lighter and playing lead guitar and leather trousers in a Rawk Band. Not in my current forty-something blues hack persona!), and the hardware will last (Well, the hardware on my much abused Model 3's still going strong). I'll give a thumbs-up to the oversized strap buttons.

No idea. What warranty? Twelve years old NOS bought in Thailand? Erm...

Playing over 25 years. Lots of other gear, well over 20 guitars, five amps and many effects.

Why did I buy this? Good question... It looked like it had been in the store for long enough and needed a break!

this is a 1988 charvel strat style guitar that just oozes pure brutal
sound. this baby is black with one jackson hum.,1 volume control,24
fret neck thru body and a jackson ( floyd rose style )locking tremolo
as far as i know it is japanese made.

i run this baby thru a crybaby wah and a digetech rp100 thru a
ibanez chorus then thru either a marshall mg100 or my mesa boogie
triple rectifier. its just pure shredding bliss could be a little more brown sounding but hey it kicks butt

the action is great. everything is good for me buying it 12 years old

this is a well built guitar that will hold up with the best of them.
roadworthy? you bet your ass!!! id definetly use it without backup.

never had to deal with jackson on this guitar. i have with my
jackson kelly and they were very helpful.

ive been playing for about 20 yrs. and this guitar is just as good as any u.s. made guitar i have ever owned or played. i wish jackson
and wayne charvel were still making charvels, hand down the best
metal shredding machines ever built

Guitar was made in japan in 1988 89
It has 24 frets
Neck thru construction
1 jackson humbucker was changed from a j95 to a j90
1 vol pot
Jackson Tremolo which wiil be replaced soon with a floyd because you can't find mint jackson tremolo's from that era :due to just normal ware and tear.
Color is Pink metallic. I know not a manly color but what can I say this model is hard to find

the sound is great I'd prefer the original j95 pickup but the j90 is great also This guitar is Played through a marshall JCM900 great amp!
No noise at all
sound is full and crispt when running clean
Love the guitar

guitar was set up great

justin was Great to deal with super in every way i hope to due more business with him down the road

I have to give it 8 because it is used and it did not have the oem Pickup

1988 Charvel Model 5A. Made in Japan in Charvel/Jackson's japanese plant that began production in 1986 with Charvel guitars and then switched over to the Jackson(Professional) line in 1990-1991. 24 frets, neck-through construction, maple neck, not sure what kind of wood is used for the body. It's just as heavy as my USA Jackson Soloist so it's some pretty decent wood. The neck is a little thicker than on my Jackson Soloist but by no means would be considered thick, about like a USA Kramer. The Model 5A is kind of rare, it's a real basic neck-through guitar with only 1 humbucker and one volume knob with dot inlays in the neck. The standard Model 5 had 2 humbuckers, the Model 6 had 1 humbucker and 2 single coils. The Model 5A was like an upscale Kramer Baretta, just the basics with a Jackon Floyd Rose liscensed tremelo. The Model 5A came with a Jackson J95 pickup which was specific to the Model 5A only. It seems to have a fuller sound than the standard J90's and J90C's Charvel/Jackson was using at the time. Came with orginal hardshell silver Charvel case.

If you're into heavy rock or metal, you understand the purpose of this guitar. The Jackson J95 pickup actually sounds pretty good for a stocker. The neck-through construction and quality wood in this guitar give it a thick yet full heavy sound. There is no tone control so plug it in, crank the volume knob and shred......there's no other way to play this guitar. I play it through a Digitech Valve FX/2112 into a Marshall 100W 6100 series Aniversary full stack. As you can imagine, the sound is incredible.

I just got this guitar(12/99) and really lucked out getting it. Apparently, this guitar was a contest giveaway that was signed by the band Ratt in 1989. Whoever won this guitar obviously wasn't a guitar player because this thing had absolutely zero playing wear on it. It is like brand new. I own more guitars than I can count right now and it was really cool pulling this one out of it's original case in pristine condition and checking out the quality of it's construction. They just don't make 'em like this anymore people! This thing just oozes with quality. To get a guitar like this today you would have to fork over around $1500 for a USA custom shop Jackson. Picking up this guitar and playing it makes you realize what piles of junk all these new Korean Jackson/Ibanez/insert brand here guitars really are. Everything about this guitar is better than what's available today. The neck destroys anything under $1500, the wood is better, the pickup is much better, the Jackson Floyd is better than these potmetal pieces of junk on the newer guitars, and the neck-through construction is a joy to play on.
It was obvious that the neck had never been adjusted before on this guitar after 12 years as the truss rod cover still had part of the original plastic on it. After a quick truss rod adjustment, new set of strings, string height adjustment on the Floyd and a little wax to remove the slightly worn signatures, I was time warped back to 1988....what a joy!

From what I can tell, this thing is built as solid as they come. Everything works perfect and there is no oxidation anywhere on this guitar. The finish however, which must have started out as a creme white with heavy pearl, has slowly yellowed over the years and looks really cool. Under the pickup and inside the cavities on the back is the exact same color so I guess it's perfectly normal. The quality of the finish is top notch.

I've never had to deal with Charvel/Jackson, no problems. I imagine the parts for this Jackson/Floyd tremelo may be impossible to come by since they only made this version for 2 years.

I own a bunch of old USA Dean's, Kramer's and Jackson's. I have a few Charvel's and Jackson's from the same Japanese plant that built both. These Japanese Charvel's and Jackson's are the only import guitars that I feel possess any quality. These really are quite good guitars and for the money can not be touched. I would buy 100 more of these neck-through Charvel's at the price I payed for this one. Some day real soon, people are going to wake up and realize that these $200-$400 Korean/Chinese/Indonesian/Tawainese guitars are piles of junk and start looking for these high quality neck-through guitars from Charvel and Jackson. This one is a keeper and a joy to play.