Locating all Charvel 475 Ltd Edition Platinum Crackle models

[maddogmcewam]

For general interest, would love to see how many of the 350 are still around, serial numbers and where in the world they are...

Charvel 475 Ltd Edition Platinum Crackle. 350 worldwide and 50 made it to the UK, 2 to South Africa. I bought my one about 1989, could have been early 1990... Anyway serial number is 349793




need to take better pic... but found this one in same forum

[Cyuonut]

The one with serial number 346314 can be found in Finland. I bought it here around 1987 or so.

-agb

[Johnnyryche]

Here's one for sale on Detroit's CL with an asking price of $450.

http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/msd/3702925088.html

[Jimbokahn]

342312 Hope, British Columbia Canada.

Unfortunately I have a wiring issue with it, brought it in once and they couldn't figure it out. Considering tearing out the whole active wiring and making a a passive setup.

REALLY liked this guitar and played it for ten years. Great player, but slightly neck heavy.

[RobRR]

The 475s had a JE1200 active midboost preamp circuit... pretty easy to wire and repair, search for je1200 wiring schematics and you should find everything you need to repair it! They sound great, would be a shame to rip it out.

[Jimbokahn]

Thanks for the info, I had never seen the circuit described in any detail. I did not even know the model name until recently seeing a post on the charvel Facebook page, when I searched it, I found this post, and realized I was already here trying to figure out why my guitar went booooooooop if you moved the volume knob
until then I had only seen my guitar once before, in a pawnshop in Vancouver BC. I bought mine second hand in '90 for 300 bucks.

[RobRR]

Ah yeah the pot is going bad. Just need to replace it with a 50k pot. Must be 50k! Probably won't find one locally, but can be had online for fairly cheap!

[Jimbokahn]

Just the pot ya figure? The very disappointing thing about my efforts to get it repaired was I brought it to long and mcquade for repair and got it back and didn't play it except at very low volume to verify the boooooooop noise was gone. A year goes by and I decide to restring it and bring to a jam. I noticed immediately that it sounded like crap, even with the brand new battery. Later I looked inside and there was a blue wire coming off the circuit board that was tucked out of site. I managed to find out were it was supposed to go and soldered it on, plugged her in, turned it up and BOOOOOOOP! Bastards. Being over a year later I figured it was no use complaining, plus I had to travel quite a ways to bring it there in the first place. Strange thing is the volume pot did look brand new, so I thought it was a circuit board issue. I also notice that examples of this circuit show the volume pot soldered directly to the circuit board, mine is wired to it, wonder why?

[Jimbokahn]

Btw, here is a clip I made previously, of the BOOOOOOP
oh, ALSO, the volume always had a pull push switch built into it, but it never did anything before, I assumed it was to turn the active circuitry off but it didn't seem to do that ??

[RobRR]

Yeah that's totally not the correct pot for that system. The pot should actually be connected directly to the circuit board as well. Couple pics here you can see what Im talking about: http://www.jcfonline.com/threads/382...0-help-neededI would get a new 50k pot and start from there. Im pretty sure that should fix all your problems. No idea why they would use a push/pull either as its useless in that system.

[charvel750]

A 25 K ohm pot will work, with excellent results. If you're afraid of soldering on the circuit board, just attach wire leads to it, and then install the pot to the wires, it doesn't have to be on the circuit board. OP: how did you know there were 350 of those colors made?

[Jimbokahn]

I imagine at some time before I got it the pot was replaced with the wrong one, then when I brought it in they just put the same type in with no research, then when it was still buggered they just disconnected the blue wire, which basically just made it a weak passive system. Still gets me riled up, argh.
Thanks guys, I am going to get a new pot, install the pot, and then if it works maybe I should smoke some pot, lol.
I will yet y'all know if it works out, if not I'm tearing it down!

[Jimbokahn]

Oh, so 25 or 50? What is the difference? Does playing style matter? If so I am more into classic/ alt rock, and even blues these days.

[RobRR]

Factory is 50k and that's what it was designed for, but I'm sure 25k would work too. Though if you're ordering the part anyway, might as well get the correct one.

[Jimbokahn]

Agreed, thanks again