My First Charvel - Pic Heavy

[Radiohead]

After playing a Jackson Sustainiac in a local music shop I am seriously jonesing for a sustainer guitar big time, but not for $1,100 Ouch. So for the past several weeks I have been looking for a good guitar to make my own sustainer. I found some cheaper Ibby's and DX's for sales locally but they all felt very stiff and cold. Finally my patience paid off BIG TIME, I picked up my first Charvel from Craigslist. Got it at a steal in my opinion
Sea Sick Green USA Production San Dimas. It has been very well used by the previous owner and consequently has a few nicks and bumps. The neck needs a real good cleaning which I will get done this weekend. I plan to hit it with 0000 steel wool and re-hydrate with lemon oil.

I will order either the Sustainiac or Fernandes Sustainer in a few weeks. Does anyone have a particular recommendation for the Sustainer? I will likely switch out the stock JB for a matching bridge PU to the Sustainer.

Here are a few pics of the Charvel:











Here's the family...

[Grandturk]

nice. Congrats on the score.

[Robert Hendrix]

Congrats, welcome to the wonderful world of Charvel. Keep us posted on the sustainer progress. I've been thinking of doing the same thing myself but wasn't really sure of how big of a project it would turn out to be.

[dannyr]

Congrats! I love the seasick green and have been keeping an eye out for one myself. Saw one that the owner had put all chrome hardware and double creme colored pickups and it looked great.

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

Nice one, and nice set too/ The Kramers are bad-ass!

I can't help on the sustainers. I almost bought a sustainer model DK2 when I was shopping, but went with the plain old DK2 instead. Good luck.

[Radiohead]

Thanks for the comments.

dannyr
Congrats! I love the seasick green and have been keeping an eye out for one myself. Saw one that the owner had put all chrome hardware and double creme colored pickups and it looked great.

After spending some time with the guitar I agree that the hardware should be chrome. I plan to switch it out. If anyone is willing to trade chrome for black please PM me.

Nice one, and nice set too/ The Kramers are bad-ass!

I love Kramers as well. I am a bit, Ok huge, EVH Fan. The cream colour Baretta I scored on Craigslist for around $125. It was close to dead and I saved it. Completely restored it. The White Kramer is a YoMusic 1984 which is an extremely close replica (spec wise) to Ed's 5150. Kramer is relaunching this model in May 2011 along with some other Hair Metal 80 Shedders. Finally Gibson is getting their head out of their A**.

So I got some time today and cleaned the heck of the Charvel. It may not have shown in the photo's but it was filthy. Every time I played it I felt like I was exchanging DNA with the previous owner

I hit the neck with steel wool and oiled it with Ernie Ball Hydration Wipes. (basically Orange and Linseed Oil).









All the research I have done points to the Sustainiac being the better product then the Fernades Sustainer. From what I have read, the Sustainiac is stronger and more natural sounding. It is also more flexible on installation options.

I will place my order this week and if people are interested I will keep posting the progress and build updates.

Thanks,

[The Rossness]

The charvel would look great with some cream hardware/ pups. Nice 1984

[maltomario]

wait, you're supposed to clean your fretboard? LOL. the dirtier they get the better I like them.

[Grandturk]

You've wiped all the MOJO off!!!

For all that play dirt - the frets seem to be in pretty good shape.

[GuerillaPete]

Nice score indeed! Jealous of all the 'wall space' you have. My fiddles have to stay in their coffins until the night time. Then the freaks come out.

On the topic of cleaning the board. I got that purple dinky a few weeks back. It's from 1994 and has some dirtiness/mojo on it. I'm torn between cleaning it or leaving it.

On the SUSTAINER: I'm in the same boat. I want one so bad - specifically the PC1 sustainer system. My issue is that middle single PU. Or else I'd buy a PC-1. As far as the sustainer systems: I've heard they're different from the 'sustainiac' system as well as being different from the Fernandes aftermarket ones. Been trying to do a 'Limited run' PC-1 with just a hum and sustainer in all black with a matte black finish, but no one here is interested.

The quest continues.

[Radiohead]

Hey Guys, hear you on cleaning off the Mojo. While, I was kinda grossed out by the previous owners filth, years of build up of my hand sweat and oil is A-OK...

[Radiohead]

So I am about to pull the trigger and order from Sustainiac. Great information on this site. http://www.sustainiac.com/

I plan to go with 2 separate toggle switches. One switch to turn the Sustainiac on/off and the second to set the Mode of the Sustainer. I am debating two things and would love input from any of the builders / luthiers out there:

1 - Tone Control - Add one or leave it. The Sustainiac requires a pot to control the intensity of the sustainer effect. If I add an extra tone control, I may need to move the pick-up switch to the upper horn to get it out of the way or replace it with a blade switch. The current holes in the electronics cavity may not allow me to add a 3rd hole and line the controls up.
2 - Add a Quick Change Battery Compartment or leave the battery in the main electronics cavity. I do not want to remove tone wood unnecessarily but the it would be more convenient as I Sustainiac will eat batteries and the extra compartment would help reduce electrical interference.

Any Thoughts or Suggestions?

[Radiohead]

Pulled the trigger and ordered the Sustainiac Friday afternoon. Alan at Sustainiac.com was great and really helpful. After speaking to him, I decided to pass on the tone knob as it's not part of my current playing style and it actually distracts from the sustainer's harmonic effects. After studying photos of PC1's I think I will lay out the controls in a similar manner with the quick change battery compartment.

Should have the parts in a few weeks.

[JZ06]

I feel "Sea Sick" cool axe!

[Radiohead]

So my weekend is planned out for me. I got my Sustainiac parts in today. I am super stoked... Can not wait to get started.


Everything was packaged super well...