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After an 8 month wait, my brand new Custom Shop Charvel has arrived. The inspiration for this guitar was the very first Charvel I ever saw in person in probably 1983. I was 16 or 17 years old and had heard of Charvels from articles with Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads having Charvel build him his white V that became the first Jackson. But, I lived in Chicago and all this cool stuff was happening out in LA, so these Charvels were just mythical beasts.
So one sunny day, my band was doing an outdoor gig at a small summer festival. The band we opened for was from Phoenix. We were all young and thought we were extremely bad ass to be playing the types of gigs we were getting. Then they came out and SAT US DOWN big time. The guitarists name was John and he had long, big black hair and had this whole Eddie Van Halen sort of look to him. At this point, I was having to battle my parents over every single inch of length my hair got, and I normally lost. But this John guys parents obviously weren't making him get his hair cut. :yes:
So anyway, he came out looking really cool, and running and jumping around and was a really, really good player. He had a Marshall half stack, a Boss Super Overdrive and a Boss Chorus. His tone was really cool too. But what I remember was his guitar. It was half black and half white, split horizontally down the center. He had a single humbucker, a chrome Floyd Rose, and this dirty, worn in maple neck with a strat headstock. I couldn't recognize the logo but in talking to him afterwards, he mentioned Charvel. We played several more gigs with them over that summer and that guitar became my dream guitar, mainly because of how kick ass his playing was.
So fast forward to August 2010 when I was coming up with the specs for my first brand new Charvel Custom Shop since 1984. I have thought of John's guitar 10,000 times over the years and always wished I would find it somewhere. Anyway, you can guess what I ordered. My only change from my memory of John's guitar was a single coil in the neck which makes the guitar much more usable for me.
I have never seen my Fed Ex guy move so slowly. COME ON DUDE!!!
So here it is:
And even cooler, I am friends with Joe in final assembly and setup in the Custom Shop and here is a shot of him finishing up my guitar before shipping.
I am totally thrilled with mine. It plays phenomenally and sounds absolutely killer. I had it loaded with an Arcane Brownbucker in the bridge and an Arcane '69 Experience in the neck. The only thing I keep going back on is whether I should have had that neck single installed because John's didn't have that, but when I flip to it I just smile because it sounds so cool.
So one sunny day, my band was doing an outdoor gig at a small summer festival. The band we opened for was from Phoenix. We were all young and thought we were extremely bad ass to be playing the types of gigs we were getting. Then they came out and SAT US DOWN big time. The guitarists name was John and he had long, big black hair and had this whole Eddie Van Halen sort of look to him. At this point, I was having to battle my parents over every single inch of length my hair got, and I normally lost. But this John guys parents obviously weren't making him get his hair cut. :yes:
So anyway, he came out looking really cool, and running and jumping around and was a really, really good player. He had a Marshall half stack, a Boss Super Overdrive and a Boss Chorus. His tone was really cool too. But what I remember was his guitar. It was half black and half white, split horizontally down the center. He had a single humbucker, a chrome Floyd Rose, and this dirty, worn in maple neck with a strat headstock. I couldn't recognize the logo but in talking to him afterwards, he mentioned Charvel. We played several more gigs with them over that summer and that guitar became my dream guitar, mainly because of how kick ass his playing was.
So fast forward to August 2010 when I was coming up with the specs for my first brand new Charvel Custom Shop since 1984. I have thought of John's guitar 10,000 times over the years and always wished I would find it somewhere. Anyway, you can guess what I ordered. My only change from my memory of John's guitar was a single coil in the neck which makes the guitar much more usable for me.
I have never seen my Fed Ex guy move so slowly. COME ON DUDE!!!
So here it is:
And even cooler, I am friends with Joe in final assembly and setup in the Custom Shop and here is a shot of him finishing up my guitar before shipping.
I am totally thrilled with mine. It plays phenomenally and sounds absolutely killer. I had it loaded with an Arcane Brownbucker in the bridge and an Arcane '69 Experience in the neck. The only thing I keep going back on is whether I should have had that neck single installed because John's didn't have that, but when I flip to it I just smile because it sounds so cool.
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