Everyone's first guitar was a Charvel, Right?

[Bigfknbang]

mine was a piece of crap airline acoustic. the action was an inch off the neck and it didnt have a truss rod. it used to make my fingers bleed n stuff aaaaaaaaah! lol. next my brother gave me a morris les paul copy. it was nice wish i still had it. i bought a bc rich nj bich after that which was also sweet wish i still had that one too.

[veniculum]

It's really cool to hear everyone's stories of their first guitars...I think we all had pieces of shit to begin with...sort of a right of passage. I hope you continue to post your first guitar stories. That said...it's funny, because it really wasn't what I was going for when I started this thread. I was really just being a bit sarcastic. Being a player for many years, knowing a lot of players, and being a member of a number of enthusiast sites/forums, Charvel always seems to come up as someone first (or maybe not first...but definitely one of their first guitars)...and interestingly enough, they're not always revered...which definitely surprises me, because they were and still are an icon in their own right.
To use a cheesy cliche, they're the Rodney Dangerfield of all guitars....they get no respect. Only now are they starting to get the press/respect they deserve...people are finally coming out of the woodwork and admiring these instruments...the current models, and the old classics. Perhaps some people confused their old Charvettes...considering them Charvels...which they were not. Just like some Kramers...particularly the $99 Kramers were in no way like their $1000 brothers...I know because i had one of each and there was a very distinct, vast difference.

So do you think that's the case here. I'm not even really sure I know the whole history of Charvette. Maybe someone knows more about these guitars. I was always under the impression they were the dime store models. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Thanks for all the replies...it's really cool to hear about what got you into this whole thing...especially the stories of fingers bleeding...I know all about that!

[GTarman68]

My first Electric Guitar was a Cheap POS Strat Copy Crestline.It was cream color w/ a fake tortoise shell pick guard. I was bored one night and took off one on the knobs and w/ a pencil, drew polka dots all over it. It was repainted a few years later. I still have it somewhere. My second was an 87 Black Model 3A, also have it. I gigged it for many years, Plays great. Then there's all the Charvels I acquired through out the years. My Fav is still my first year SRV

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

To use a cheesy cliche, they're the Rodney Dangerfield of all guitars....they get no respect. Only now are they starting to get the press/respect they deserve...people are finally coming out of the woodwork and admiring these instruments...the current models, and the old classics.

Ah, yeah, pretty much whenever I mention Charvel or Jackson people are like "Oh, yeah... <snicker> I used to play "hair metal" in the 80's... Blah blah blah but these days there are a lot of choices for example Tom Anderson blah blah Suhr blah blah other respectable guitars..."

As if Charvel/Jackson is not "respectable." Well in some ways I can see where they are coming from, I mean, there were some silly make-up wearing fucks playing Jacksons back then, but then again Cinderella played Gibsons, so how are they still "respectable"?

Anyway, fuck those guys. I mean, not literally, but, I was never into "hair metal" or anything remotely like it, I dig Charvel and Jackson super-Strats because I like how they play and sound. What the Charvel Custom Shop cranks out these days is more than "respectable" - or they can do silly hair-metal shit, too, if you want that.

[veniculum]

Ah, yeah, pretty much whenever I mention Charvel or Jackson people are like "Oh, yeah... <snicker> I used to play "hair metal" in the 80's... Blah blah blah but these days there are a lot of choices for example Tom Anderson blah blah Suhr blah blah other respectable guitars..."

As if Charvel/Jackson is not "respectable." Well in some ways I can see where they are coming from, I mean, there were some silly make-up wearing fucks playing Jacksons back then, but then again Cinderella played Gibsons, so how are they still "respectable"?

Anyway, fuck those guys. I mean, not literally, but, I was never into "hair metal" or anything remotely like it, I dig Charvel and Jackson super-Strats because I like how they play and sound. What the Charvel Custom Shop cranks out these days is more than "respectable" - or they can do silly hair-metal shit, too, if you want that.

You make a very valid point...there were plenty of guys in that era who played Les Pauls (not so many Strats...but I guess that's because the Charvel/Jackson/Ibanez were "super strats"...or so they're called). But hell yeah..plenty of Les Pauls. Lets not forget...Guns and Roses...while a bit edgier than a lot of the bands of that era...were hair metal. (So was Kiss and Ozzie for that matter...at that time anyway). Slash's, Zach's ,etc guitars were just as iconic as the players.

I mean...I look back on that time fondly. Yes..these guys did look pretty fuckin silly...but they were all players. It was cool to know how to shred on your guitar...it was cool to know scales, chord progressions, etc...When the 90s hit, most of that garbage they played on rock radio at the time were three cord new-punk (otherwise known as grunge). Very few of those guys were accomplished players. I suppose that's a generalization, but can anyone argue with that? None of those guys played Charvel/Jacksons. I suppose, the one constant, has always been the true heavy metal/thrash guys. They've never put down their Jacksons (I don't think too many of them played Charvels...probably because that was before their time)...but can you ever say that that shit is cheesy...or not give it respect, in regards to musicianship.

Anyway...I thought you made a great point...if you go back an look at the hair band heyday, there were plenty of Les Paul players...even before Zach and Slash...and some of the guys to come out of the later part of that era.

[drixll]

squire bullet bass in february 1986 - BIG SPENDER!

[rstites]

My first guitar was a Kramer Striker. It wasn't a bad starter at all, but was a long ways from a Charvel. At that time, US made San Dimas Charvels were the only ones available and were way out of my price range. I bought a 2nd hand Gibson Explorer a year later once it was obvious I was going to stick with it. I also played several Robins and an ESP before I owned any Charvels or Jacksons, sometime in the 90s. I have had nice(r) instruments since that Explorer which I bought when I was 16, so I've actually been pretty lucky, now that I think about it. (By nicer here, I mean either US built or higher end Japan, like early Robin and ESP.)

[Robotechnology]

My first Charvel or Jackson guitar was a Charvel Fusion Deluxe (toothpaste logo). It happened to be my 5th or 6th guitar purchase at that time (maybe 3 years after starting).

[RacerX]

The ol POS Strat copy here, probably a sunburst who knows what brand! This would have been around 1984...I had one of those coily cords and played it through my Mom's Cordovox amplifier system (electric accordion amp which Mom later gave me after she retired from the biz). Later I got a Guild RR copy (& Gorilla amp ha ha)...then finally around 1988 I got my San Dimas Rhoads (out of the Recycler for $ 575!). I didn't get a Charvel until 1990:


Supermullet!