Another white Gary Moore inspired charvel

[Stew]

Hey guys! As some of you may remember, I purchased a red and white Gary Moore inspired charvel some months back, and I always had the intent of building the white on white one to go with it. Well, I've finished it! I've done all the work myself (granted, swapping necks over isn't the hardest task in the world but hey, we all start somewhere!). So in all, this guitar started as a San Dimas charvel with Seymour Duncans (TB-4 JB Bridge and '59 in the neck) and all chrome hardware. I removed all the hardware and neck, used the neck off the green S0-Cal I have (as I much prefer this neck - has sharper edges, where as the white charvel's neck had rolled edges), added the pickguard and EMG, in-keeping with the theme of the white Gary Moore charvel, I kept the black R3 Floyd nut rather than using the chrome one. I'm pleased with how it's turned out. And I know it is not an exact copy of Gary's, but it's good enough for me. Here's the 2 charvels together - seemed fitting to picture them together.

Oh, and to go with it, my new amp arrived today. A Jet City JCA100HDM

[stevoc]

Nice guitars. How do you like the amp? How is the gain?

[Stew]

Nice guitars. How do you like the amp? How is the gain?

Its really nice actually. Not had a massive amount of time with it yet, but it has a huge amount of gain. And with a tubescreamer or similar in front of it to boost, then I can't see anyone needing more gain than that! A guy called Drew did some demos of it when it first came out with all different guitars (Superstrat, Tokai love rock, and a Petrucci signature) and he had huge gain on it!

[Hellbat]

That is is basically an SLO isn't it? They like to roll at "kill small animals" levels on the master volume and middle gain settings.

Nice guitars, I just wish the red one's logo wasn't green, it kind of gives it a Christmas vibe hehe.

[Stew]

That is is basically an SLO isn't it? They like to roll at "kill small animals" levels on the master volume and middle gain settings.

Nice guitars, I just wish the red one's logo wasn't green, it kind of gives it a Christmas vibe hehe.

haha! LMAO. I've never thought of it like that. I too wish it was a black logo, but I'm not too worried about that.

Yeah, the JCA100HDM is based on the SLO100, has the same circuitry, but Asian components rather than Military grade US components. Sounds good though!

[Emerald]

Great work Stew!! You now own the Holy of Holies duo. Very awesome indeed!
How does the white one sound. You have the OFR flat to the body right?
Charvel (USA) need to add a single hum in this configuration to their lineup, it would be very popular indeed.
Do you notice the resonance with the guitar unplugged from the extra neck pickup rout?
Both of Gary's Charvels sounded different back in the day. At the Stockholm show he used primarily the red one with the white one on the encore, The Loner. Yet on the US leg of the tour he used the white one throughout the whole show, occasionally switching to his Jackson Soloist.
Emerald

[Stew]

Great work Stew!! You now own the Holy of Holies duo. Very awesome indeed!
How does the white one sound. You have the OFR flat to the body right?
Charvel (USA) need to add a single hum in this configuration to their lineup, it would be very popular indeed.
Do you notice the resonance with the guitar unplugged from the extra neck pickup rout?
Both of Gary's Charvels sounded different back in the day. At the Stockholm show he used primarily the red one with the white one on the encore, The Loner. Yet on the US leg of the tour he used the white one throughout the whole show, occasionally switching to his Jackson Soloist.
Emerald

It sounds rather good. As with Gary's charvels, I prefer the sound of the red one. A little less bright. There is no real change in the sound of the guitar unplugged to be honest. I have both the Floyd Rose units floating. I always set my Floyds up that way. I like to have movement in both directions. I had seen footage from detroit where he uses his white one predominantly and the red one for military man. I think he used his soloist for over the hills but could be wrong. When I saw him in 1989 at Edinburgh Playhouse he used the white charvel/jackson strat and the soloist. But the soloist wouldn't stay in tune so he tossed it over his head and it landed on the stage with a big thud. In a similar style to what he does with his fender strat after back on the streets on Emerald Aisles video. Every guitarist in the room whinced!!!

[Hellbat]

The Irish temper could erupt from time to time. I was listening to the Blues For Jimi show and during Foxy Lady he changes the refrain from 'Foxy lady' to 'fuck you bastard' which I'm assuming was directed to somebody in the audience being a dick.

[doug]

Love em! especially the white, loved all of Gary Moore's stuff but the Live in Stockholm is Excellent. I'm planning a future build based on the white one, hopefully soon!

[Emerald]

Also Gary's action on his guitars was always quite high and the Charvel's were like that with light top heavy bottom strings in standard tuning, that helps make his sound massive. Gary was able to squeeze incredible sustain from those and all his guitars really.
Emerald

[4koa]

So was the white San Dimas actually rear routed??? ...You just added the pickguard to make it " look " front routed
I was curious if a so cal pickguard would fit on a pro mod body

[Emerald]

Both of Gary's Charvels were top routed, they both do not have any rear control access panels.
They both (red and white) had pick guards prior to their rebuild and the output jacks are on the side of the body.
That's why it's so hard to find a current Charvel to match these specs.
The white San Dimas was the double hum with a mirrored pick guard and the red one had three single coils I believe.
The conventional type vintage Strat route under where the three control pots would lie is where the single 500K volume pot and the EMG active pickup circuitry and 9 volt battery.
If you view the two guitars from the back their is only the opening for the tremolo springs, ect.
It is hard other than with the Adrian Smith Jackson to find a current Charvel/Jackson that is exclusively top loaded.

This pic shows Gary's three 100 watt Marshall heads with his 1972 Super Bass being the main amp and the other two Super Leads. Gary is using one 4X12" with each head and also the TS-10 or Super Tube Screamer pedal which was key to the Wild Frontier sound. I have a Maxon ST-01 Super Tube Screamer that was only issued in Japan and Europe in the mid eighties that I got in as new condition. These have the 4 controls and the double IC's.
The top mounting aspect is why it is so hard to modify an existing Charvel to the San Dimas specs of Gary's famous axes.

I'm trying to locate a pic of the back of one of the Charvels to illustrate my point:
Here is a description of Gary's stage rig from the 1987 tour from Guitar World in 1987:


Gary's Korg outboard gear in his mini rack including an SDE-3000








Here is the double hum silver pick guard Charvel with a vintage style Fender neck, this may be the neck that was changed according to Gary by Keith Page for the white painted headstock Charvel logoed black R2 nut one..This guitar has three control knobs fitted plenty of space for the one pot, EMG electronics and 9 volt battery.
More pics to follow:
Emerald

[Emerald]

If you watch the track "The Loner" from the Live at Stockholm VHS or DVD, one can see the back of the white Charvel and note that has no rear loaded anything!!

This kinda shows the back:


This modded Adrian Smith Jackson closely approximates the 1989 version of the white Charvel when it had it's Jackson logoed Strat head stock neck with rosewood board:

The double hum white with mirrored pick guard that has it's second neck fitted, the black anodized R2 nut and white Strat headstock:


First neck again:

Exactly on the money, but Gary didn't have the trem cavity cover fitted to either guitar:

Beautiful job:

Emerald

[Emerald]

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/davida54/Gary Moore Misc/792361_532665150091020_908881747_o_zpsc7b57f7d.jpg

From my first post with Gary's '72 Super Bass and TS-10 Tube Screamer.
Check out this video for the rear view of Gary's white San Dimas!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G-PtmcPyK0

Empty Rooms/So far Away:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDqaDqDpitU

My favorite track besides The Loner, the long intro is awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkL7niHy1-4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaCLhPziqyE

This Tokyo version is mega rare and a great version....
Military Man my other favorite, in the Belfast '89 version Gary does the improv around the first slow solo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYHtOOidaPU

The Stockholm version, if the first solo fails to bring a tear to an Irish eye you're not a GM fan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOo8x71axvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBkV7EI2uQA

Emerald

[4koa]

So was the white San Dimas actually rear routed??? ...You just added the pickguard to make it " look " front routed
I was curious if a so cal pickguard would fit on a pro mod body

actually emerald...... i was refering to "stew's " new white charvel, not Gary's original one