Charvel ST Deluxe

Thick glossy transparent sunburst finish with pearloid strat pickguard. Finish is very nice, pickguard kind of gaudy, but has character.

2 Jackson single coil and a combination 2 single coil set on an angle to make a "humbucker". Combiner switch for this pickup, as well as your standard blade pickup combiner switch. 22 frets, rosewood on maple neck, odd-ball "tele"-type plain-Jane headstock with Charvel toothpase logo. Abalone dot inlays. Roller "pins" set at end of neck. No string trees. Guitar is light. Finish is pretty.

Gotoh tremelo, I believe they're Gotoh tuning heads as well. Foreign made guitar, foreign parts.

Neck is Very thin, fretboard width is quite thin as well. No skunk stripe. 4 bolt main plate.

Well, I bought this new in '90. Over the years, I've beat on her pretty good.
I just swapped out the entire pickgaurd / pickup assembly for a pre-manufactured one.

The stock sound is very clean. A little too clean for my tastes these days, hence the change (I still have the original setup, though).

This guitar takes some getting used to due to the small fretboard width. Very easy to learn on and play bar chords with. Upper end soloing is a little tougher, due to closer sptring spacing.

Sound is bright, clean, and what I would describe as "chang-ly". Very "strat", but with a little "tele" flavor. Interesting, to say the least.

(Now it is a bit heavier and muddier due to pickup replacement, much more to my liking. Heavy strat, now.)

The stock setup would be very good for clean Texas blues, or possibly country. For rock it would sound great for some clean songs and solos, but it was never designed to give "crunch". So, not very versatile, I'm afraid. However, if one of the above suits your tastes, the splitter switch is a nice feature.

The rollers make string bending super-easy, and I find the guitar stays in tune well, even with the trem. Probably due to replace the stock tuners soon, though. But hey, 17 years of use isn't bad out of a stock set of tuners.

I have tinkered with this beast a lot, so everything is right where I want it. It's quite easy to work on, and always dis-assembles and re-assembles without any problems. Make SURE you have tightened the roller "pins" with an allen wrench before stripping off the strings or neck. They tend to pop out and can get lost easily.

As it sits, it is one of my favorite guitars of all time. Can't use it for everything, but it is quite comfortable to play. I should say EASY to play. I love the neck. The frets are silky smooth and remain in excellent condition to this day.
Neck is still straight as an arrow as well.

Finish is thick, glossy and very pretty. Wood grain is nice and pronounced.

I really cannot remember how good the setup was from the factory, as that was many moons, and several changes earlier.

I did shim up the roller, which lowered the action to a pretty uniform distance for the entire neck. Lowered the tremelo a bit, and she's right where I want it. I think this mod is a matter of taste, not a necessity. I actually cut a very thin pick to use as the shim, so it's not like it needed it. Just did it because I want the action really low up at the 12+ fret marker.

This guitar was designed to be played live. A real treat on your fingers. Gotoh trem is a winner in my book, although finding a replacement arm has proven to be difficult.
Finish is great.
After almost 20 years, the tuners could stand to be replaced (I never liked the tuners very much. Very close together as all "minis" are.)

The roller nut has a tendency to fall out, so make sure it's tight before you change strings.

This is a very good guitar.

Never dealt with Jackson.

I've been playing since the early '80's, and this was my first "NEW" guitar I ever bought. I've had several over the years, but this one has stayed around.

It hasn't let me down yet. Although I replaced the pickups and pickgaurd, I would rate this very highly.

It is a treat to play, the neck is very thin, action is very low, fingerboard is quite fast. Fretboard is dense, dark and powerful. Not for heavy metal, but great for clean.

I love this guitar. It has served me well, and I would never sell it.
I would love to pick another one up, actually.
You can get them fairly cheap when they come around on Ebay (nobody seems to know what it is, so nobody bids too highly on them!)

If lost or stolen, I would be trully upset. Kind of like someone shooting my dog.
I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

Not many of these were made. I found info stating that they were made for 2 years, 90 and 91. Strat copy, easily identified by an unusual (for Charvel) headstock...not pointy, not strat-like and curvy, but sort of a rounded triangle with the 'toothpaste' logo. Typical strat pickup arrangement other than 2 separate strat-type p/u's wired as a humbucker at the bridge, a phasing mini switch in the center pickguard pot hole with one vol and one tone control. Rosey neck on the two I've seen.

These also came with a spring-type tremelo system which isn't worth a damn. After blocking mine tight with a piece of oak, she's rock solid and stays in tune forever. That's the only complaint I've had. Excellent playing guitar, and has held up well for over 10 years.


I'm giving it a 6 because the tremolo sucks and because I've replaced the humbuckers at the bridge with a single JB Jr. Seymour Duncan. With these mods, I'd give it a 9.

It's a pretty versatile sounding guitar. It sounds great clean, dirty, grungy, through a stack, through a tube amp, all around nice piece of wood. With stock p/u's, she's a little lacking in bite. She came with a very 80's looking style, matte black pickguard, black hardware, cool when it was new but bo-ring now. When I replaced the boring pickguard with an orange mother of pearl (on a vanilla body) it looks like a big dreamsicle. The single hole at the bridge of the pickguard required that I get a JB Jr. Seymour Duncan (which is a humbucker stuffed into a single strat pickup), and that killed two birds with one stone, as it now has bite to boot. I play it primarily through a 1965 Magnatone M-15A Custom. I'll give it a 7 as stock and a 9 as it's currently configured.

If you like low action, this guitar is for you. I've never seen lower action without buzz problems. Fit and finish was very good, and it has held up well over 10 years. No noises, wiggles, weirdness has developed.

If you block the tremelo tight, it can withstand hours and hours of playing. Else, it's not worth 10 minutes. A 50 cent piece of oak will solve this problem and turn this guitar into a very reliable, rock solid axe. I'll give it a 2 without the mod, and a 9 with.

Charvel is out of business, Jackson has dropped the nameplate, to my knowledge.

I would pick up another of these if I ever found one. Only have seen one other on Ebay in 2 years of looking. Someday, I'll replace the rest of the lame 80's black hardware with something more vintage looking, and eventually will drop a Bigsby on it to cure the lousy tremelo and my block of oak.

I'll give it an 8....but only because of the mods. Without them, well, just buy one and make the mods, k?