trying to gather some info on this "prepro" charvel!

[xenophobe]

A whole bunch of guitars like this were parted together a decade or more ago. A whole bunch of guitars were built like this back in the day too.

Back in the ezboard days, all the Charvel guys were combing all the music stores looking for all that prized new old stock parts they could use to build their prepro fab fakes.

I don't trust anything I see. Has to have provenance. Kinda like 48th Street stuff. Some of it is high $$$ shredders, but a lot of them are just meh parts pieces guitars.

[Tbro239]

It is a black neck plate, and im going to pop the neck off soon, got a bummed hand atm. In a cast. Got in a fight with a fridge. Lol

The route is reminiscent of a 79 route like the old boogie bodies route. Wayne started out as a parts supplier before a builder.
The pickup obviously is not original.
As Matt stated remove the neck, take picture of the pocket and the neck heel and post them here.
Hard to see but is the neck plate brass or black?

[Tbro239]

What exactly am I looking for when I pop the neck off? Markings wise?

[Tbro239]

there was nothing in the pocket

[Tbro239]

Anyone ever seen these markings?

[Tbro239]

By the way, im trying to mostly try to figure out this info for personal and insuring purposes. Not to sell.

[dg]

Like everything prepro-related, and especially with that Boogie rout, it's going to boil down to faith.

Are the marks real? If so, they would seem to match the body to the neck and give us a date of 1/80. There are prepros from that time that have the correct San Dimas rout that are known to be made from in-house manufactured bodies & necks, but then somebody might argue that Grover held on to the stock of bodies & necks from before the buyout, and may have painted, assembled, and sold this guitar as exactly what it is claimed to be. The only way to verify it is like xeno said, through provenance. Maybe you could get Grover or Mike Eldred to take a look at it and tell you what they think, but that's probably a long shot.

Are the marks fake? Could be, and they are just the type of thing somebody might use to link the body and neck, and to put the guitar into that fuzzy transitional period. It's pretty interesting to google this site for "Boogie Bodies" and read through some old threads. Most folks seemed to be pretty set on the clear cutoff, but some pretty well-respected guys weren't so sure. Is that because they "wanted to believe" or were things really not that cut & dried?

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Back in the ezboard days, all the Charvel guys were combing all the music stores looking for all that prized new old stock parts they could use to build their prepro fab fakes.

That is simply not true Xeno....condemning "all the Charvel guys" for the actions of a few = not cool....

[lepard]

Anyone ever seen these markings?

That one is a "leap of faith". No way you will ever get a definitive answer but it's quite possible the entire guitar was built by Grover or Mike Eldred in the old San Dimas Charvel shop from Boogie parts. Just absolutely no way to prove it. You could always email those photos to Grover Jackson at his new shop and see if he remembers anything.

[jacksonluvr]

Very cool markings:

B/W= Black and white
V/H= Van halen

THose are factory markings indicating it was painted the black and white VH stripes at the factory.

[Tbro239]

Well let's hope so. Im trying to get into contact with Grover and I even tried to contact evh. Just too see if by chance it could be a long lost
guitar

[Tbro239]

Damn, this was the response from grovers new company


Hi Tyler,

It sounds like you have a great guitar but unfortunately we cannot help you. Grover left the Jackson/Charvel company in 1990 and does not have any of the old records. I know that Fender, who have owned them since 2002, do not have the records either. I do not believe that anyone can give you the information you need.

Sorry we can't help more, please check out the guitars that Grover makes today here at GJ2.

Regards,

Jon Gtold - CEO
GJ2 Guitars by Grover Jackson

[xenophobe]

That is simply not true Xeno....condemning "all the Charvel guys" for the actions of a few = not cool....

Yeah, that's not completely fair. It wasn't all of them. I'd say more than just a few though.

And some of the fake pre-pros that were floating around as real... nobody trusts anyone which is why there are dozens of you people out there who track serials and where they go. A lot of guys were complicit in keeping fab fakes secret because if you called fake on it you'd bring down every other previous owner who sold it as real. Don't tell me there wasn't a lot of that bullshit going on because you damn well know it was. :p

[Tbro239]

The CEO of GJ2 is going to get the pictured of my guitar to Grover guys! Wish me luck!

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Yeah, that's not completely fair. It wasn't all of them. I'd say more than just a few though.

And some of the fake pre-pros that were floating around as real... nobody trusts anyone which is why there are dozens of you people out there who track serials and where they go. A lot of guys were complicit in keeping fab fakes secret because if you called fake on it you'd bring down every other previous owner who sold it as real. Don't tell me there wasn't a lot of that bullshit going on because you damn well know it was. :p

Yup a "few" unscrupulous characters did some shady shit....but not "dozens"....I (& others) would call out ANY guitar I knew was a "fake"....