Charvel Model 5FX

A 1988 Guitar, Neckthru Body Maple and 2 pieces of Poplar, it have a schaller Floyd Rose and Seymour Duncan JB on bridge. Neck pickup unknow. I pu ta booster on the body that turns easy my solos. Heavy guitar.

FAntastic for Heavy Metal, Blues, Hard Rock, a Full sound, have a nice clean too, works well to all styles.

Simple finish, nice "crystal color" blue I can`t name, confortably, good shape, make fell as part of me. :D

More than 20 years and still sound great, pretty, 100% working. They dont made more guitars like this.

I`ve never try contact the company, never need it.

I`ve been playing with Charvel 5 FX about 3 years, live, recording, and it aways is what I need, more that I hope for.

Same as written below.
I miss the possibility of coil splitting the humbucker (eg. by push-pull pot) but otherwise this axe has all the feature I need.
Its colour looks like pink, cool :)

The neck pickup sounds good, however output level is moderate, and a bit noisy.
The bridge pickup is also good, however a little bit lifeless and glassy sounding, so I replaced it. At first I put EMG85, and this guitar became a killer when tuned down to B. Very good combination, but I did not want to convert this guitar to active. therefore, I decided to go for a more traditional sound, I put Evans Eliminator to the bridge, and I can get sounds like Empire by Queensryche or Rush !
Because of the neck-thru design, I would expect more sustain (at higher frets), however I suspect the sustain problem caused by the JT-6 bridge...
Overall, this is a bit darker sounding guitar, therefore very versatile for many styles.
If I could improve the sustain somehow and maybe replacing the neck pickup, then it would be perfect guitar, and I would give 10.

Action can be set very low.
Neck is not so thin, but still very comfortable. (a bit thicker than a Peavey Tracer, but thinner than a Kramer F2000)
JT-6 is not a recessed type at all, actually this is the highest profile tremolo I have ever seen, but I can live with it. It keeps the tuning very well, but you can not do whammy tricks like Satriani or Vai.

Never had any problem, very well built.

Never contacted them.

This guitar is a very good one. Pickups worth to change, then it will be close to perfect. The bottleneck could be the JT-6, not bad but very different than a standard Floyd Rose.
Otherwise, this guitar sounds like a dream, suitable for many styles, overall I love it very much.

This guitar was made in 1987 to my knowledge, an import charvel from japan. 24 jumbo frets, the body is made of poplar and the neck is maple with a dark rosewood fretboard, standard MOP dot inlays. Neckthrough style, the color is called burgundy mist and has metallic sparkles. Pickups are one j-95 Humbucker in the bridge and one slanted J-100 single coil in the neck position, both passive. The body style is a superstrat, popular 80's body style with one volume knob and a 3 way switch. The bridge is a JT-6 Jackson Tremolo made in germany so i suspect that it is a schallar, double locking as well. tuners are just standard jackson tuners. The guitar came with a chainsaw molded case.

The J-100 is one of the HOTTEST single coil pickups that have ever reached my ear. I would absolutely compare this with a texas special.
The J-95 is what knocked this down to a 9, its hot... but not anything to be excited about. This guitar picks up harmonics show up just fine with the humbucker but again, arent anything special. the J-100 has the perfect twang the warm perfect sound that i have been looking for in a single coil, this guitar is very versital and would be perfect for someone looking for a really good 80's shredder.

you couldn't fit a piece of paper between the strings and the neck, the action is so low. Has no buzz what so ever, the guitar is comfortable it has a very thin neck, perfect for shredding. This guitars playability is by far one of the best superstrats of the 80's, no flaws.

This guitar has survived 21 years of playing and is still in mint condition, the guitar has a thick clear coat so you cant really hurt the paint without nicking it. everything is solid on this guitar nothing wiggles nothings loose, it is incredibly sturdy for 21 years old.

this was not the best at all what so ever. i cant find anything about the serial, not even a little information about my guitar. i had to scour the net for hours just to find the information i have put in my review. i contacted fender(the current owner of jackson/charvel) and recieved no reply. not the best support...

i bought this guitar for about 2 hundred in a pawn shop and after painstaking research i have found that there were lots of model 5's and model 5A's. The 5FX's werent put into production at all (hence the rarity) they were originally model 5A's but were sent back to the factory to have the slanted j-100 installed. only 300 were sent back to the factory at all. i cant find for the life of me anything about my serial number, so i cant give every single detail about the guitar. i wont change anything about this guitar, so i can keep the value as high as i can. i love and cherish this guitar and wouldnt trade it for anything in the world. if you find any information at all about the Charvel Model 5FX then please email me at jak_jak5916@hotmail.com thank you.