Charvel Question!

[cfollano]

My great uncle gave me this 1983 charvel san dimas to me before he passed away. I'm not sure when or where he got it from. He used to play in a bunch of different local bands when i was younger. Over all the guitar is in good shape and plays beautiful. The only things wrong with it are is there are 2 little hairline cracks in the body by the neck and he must of had a sticker on it and peeled it off and you can see the discoloration from where it was. Here are some pics, I was just wondering if anyone could help me out to see what a guitar like this would be valued at. Its almost impossible or at least i cant find this same guitar on the net. Your feed back is much appriciated! thanks!

[dg]

Hard to say exactly, but explorers are very rare. If everything is original, and things look pretty darn good from what you've posted, figure over $3K. The only way to know exactly what the market is would be to put it up for sale & let collectors bid it up. Don't be surprised if you get a few PMs here.

[cfollano]

Thanks DG, one of my friends told me that it was a rare guitar. I was just wondering what i Had. And like i said its almost impossible to find this exact one on the internet. So i figured i would come here and ask around for some help.

[cfollano]

dg, Would you put it on E-bay or is the site that specifically deals with selling guitars that people can bid on?

[dg]

If I wanted top dollar, I'd put it on eBay. It can be a hassle, but it's probably the best bet because the widest audience will see it there. Be prepared for requests to end the auction early & sell offline.

[DonP]

+1 to ebay, but you are going to have issues if you don't have over 100+ feedbacks. Ebay has rules to protect buyers from new sellers that are out to scam people.

You can pay $20 to list it in the classifieds on this board.

I take it you don't play guitar? Hope you don't regret selling it someday.

[5074charvel]

IIRC there was a blue prepro Explorer in vg condition that fetched around 2.6K on the bay not long ago, so I would expect something under 2K here.

But you´ll never know which auction catches heat. Over 3K is always possible.

[JediHalen]

Jeez!!! ain`t seen one of these for years.. very rare if you ask me.. good luck with the sale.

[Code Red]

Yep that's the shit. I'd be interested to see what it goes for....

[cfollano]

Thanks for all the help guys its much appreciated!

[cfollano]

This is the only one that i can find that is looks close to my charvel. It is up on e-bay for $5000. looks a little beat up also. Beside it being an 81 and having the duel pick ups is it much different then mine ? Do you think he will ever see that for this guitar?

http://cgi.ebay.com/1981-CHARVEL-Explorer-with-Fender-Lawsuit-Headstock_W0QQitemZ370344648793QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item563a42e059

[cfollano]

I was also looking at that guitar on e-bay, When you look at the back shot, does it look like the neck is darker than the body? Or do you just think its the angle of the picture?

[Grandturk]

In some pics it does and in some it doesn't. The color probably moves around a little in sunlight. Also, the color was sprayed over two different types of wood and that might have an effect as well.

Either way, I think your strathead Explorer is killer and I wouldn't sell it unless I was putting the money into something equally cool and collectable - like another old strathead Charvel.

[chrisolson]

I'd hang on to that guitar. It a pretty special axe.

[dg]

Looks to me like the one on eBay has the neck painted black. Not unheard of. I seriously doubt he'll get anywhere near $5k for it. It'll either be relisted lower or get backdoored like most. Pretty sure that many of the ones you see listed so high are just trolling for backdoor offers, using eBay for advertising only. I'm having a hard time remembering the last super rare or interesting Charvel that went the distance to the highest bidder on eBay. That's a big reason it's so hard to know what the market value is.