Charvel/Jackson guitar & accessory database project

[Mechayoshi]

EDIT: I can't change the title, but as of now this is an actual database building effort.

First of all I am not a web designer, I just happen to have a janky little website I maintain for my various hobbies. It's been a concern of mine for a long time the lack of a good database that is both 1. complete 2. actually updated. Yes I've seen the other two threads here about it and no ideas ever really fall through it seems. For now I have this web page up.

https://mechas64castles.net/CharvelJackson.html

That page is going to be continually updated, but post suggestions and extra links, info, whatever here. I'll keep this thread watched.

[Number Of The Priest]

A great start. Will be watching for updates!

[Mechayoshi]

A great start. Will be watching for updates!

Thanks. I think I might start with a plain text chart of all the models, along with collecting a picture example. I have quite a bit saved already.

[tanpsi]

I'm not selling it (or buying it, too much $$$) but there is currently a mislabeled Dinky HX with great pics for sale on "Room Sound" dot com.

[tanpsi]

Duplicate, sorry!

[Mechayoshi]

I'm not selling it (or buying it, too much $$$) but there is currently a mislabeled Dinky HX with great pics for sale on "Room Sound" dot com.

Links? The Dinky HX i found was on eBay. There previously appeared on reverb as well.

[Mechayoshi]

Just a bump. I'm working on the actual database part starting with Soloists. My head is spinning with the amount of information and it's pretty scattered about too, made even worse when the configuration of a particular model changes at random. My descriptions won't be the most thorough ever but I will list basic specs down as a minimum. Look at the site now. This was sort of a trial run to see if my formatting would work and it really isn't! As you can see the information is super dense.

SO i'm going to work on some custom formatting just for this page on my site so it's not so hard to read.....

[Mechayoshi]

Just a bump. I'm working on the actual database part starting with Soloists. My head is spinning with the amount of information and it's pretty scattered about too, made even worse when the configuration of a particular model changes at random. My descriptions won't be the most thorough ever but I will list basic specs down as a minimum. Look at the site now. This was sort of a trial run to see if my formatting would work and it really isn't! As you can see the information is super dense.

SO i'm going to work on some custom formatting just for this page on my site so it's not so hard to read.....

[Mechayoshi]

UPDATE: Soloist section done. Are their any models I missed? Working on Dinkys now.

[Number Of The Priest]

I like the description format. It reminds me of the format that Tony Bacon uses in the Appendices of his guitar books to describe and distinguish various models and sub-models.

Off the top of my head, some missing Soloists include: SLSMG, T-1000 Scott Ian Soloist, Chris Broderick Soloist, Mick Thomson Soloist, and other artist production models I may be forgetting.

[Mechayoshi]

I like the description format. It reminds me of the format that Tony Bacon uses in the Appendices of his guitar books to describe and distinguish various models and sub-models.

Off the top of my head, some missing Soloists include: SLSMG, T-1000 Scott Ian Soloist, Chris Broderick Soloist, Mick Thomson Soloist, and other artist production models I may be forgetting.

Thanks. I'm going to have signature guitars in its own section. I will add the SLSMG, can't believe I missed that one.


UPDATE: I have some of the Dinkys up. There are several I need more info about as marked on the weblink in my OP.

[CaptNasty]

Here are some links to information I shared over on TGP:

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...osts/29060836/

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...osts/29099151/

The information you have on body size is not accurate. Dinkys are 7/8 size. Soloists are 7/8 size. Just because a guitar is a bolt on and a Jackson does not mean it is a Dinky. Jackson has had the strat style and the Dinky Style. Strat style is full size. Dinky Style is 7/8. I explain this with the history in the second link above.

Soloist have always been 7/8 size... unless there was a one off commissioned where the buyer specified full sized. In the 80s catalogs they refer to the Soloist having a “sleeker and thinner” body. This was a reference to the 7/8 size.

Understand this: the Rhoads Concorde was the first Jackson ever built. Grover did it because he feared confusing the Charvel line with what he saw as radical, untried shapes and features. Jackson was a playground for new ideas. Charvel was a safe haven with classic style tried and “conversion style” super strats. Grover did not want to risk the fledgling Charvel brand that he was just starting to get real traction on.

Mike Shannon told me that the Soloist (7/8) body came from taking spare full sized strat bodies and trimming the edges to create a harder, squared off edge. He said they were initially just going for the look, but people liked the smaller, less wieldy body size. Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback they went with it. Later the 7/8 body was stylized with its own carve. (DiMartini brought the squared off smaller body over to Charvel with some of his endorsement builds).


Grover added a neck through design to the squared of 7/8 body style and fielded it as the Soloist under the Jackson brand as an evolution of the super strat. The body size and neck-through design were differentiators from Charvel and he deployed it under the Jackson brand precisely because it was new, different, and untested. This is all well documented in interviews with Grover that are readily available on the web. View the early catalogs through this lense and they make a bit more sense.

As time wore on, Jackson designs found their way into Charvels. There was always a lot of cross pollination from Charvel designs to Jackson. Charvel after all was the genesis of the company.

Regarding horn shape, most of the horn differences are due to the number of frets. With 24 frets, the neck joint can be repositioned ~1.5 inches closer to the bridge resulting in an elongated horn shape. The fewer the frets, the shorter and fatter the horn.

There are some models in which the horn was lengthened too. One of DiMartini’s early endorsement Charvels exhibit this (I think it was the snake skin). Many models have horns that end around the 14-15th fret. A couple of models extend the horn all the to the ~12-13 frets.

[Mechayoshi]

Here are some links to information I shared over on TGP:

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...osts/29060836/

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...osts/29099151/

The information you have on body size is not accurate. Dinkys are 7/8 size. Soloists are 7/8 size. Just because a guitar is a bolt on and a Jackson does not mean it is a Dinky. Jackson has had the strat style and the Dinky Style. Strat style is full size. Dinky Style is 7/8. I explain this with the history in the second link above.

Soloist have always been 7/8 size... unless there was a one off commissioned where the buyer specified full sized. In the 80s catalogs they refer to the Soloist having a “sleeker and thinner” body. This was a reference to the 7/8 size.

Understand this: the Rhoads Concorde was the first Jackson ever built. Grover did it because he feared confusing the Charvel line with what he saw as radical, untried shapes and features. Jackson was a playground for new ideas. Charvel was a safe haven with classic style tried and “conversion style” super strats. Grover did not want to risk the fledgling Charvel brand that he was just starting to get real traction on.

Mike Shannon told me that the Soloist (7/8) body came from taking spare full sized strat bodies and trimming the edges to create a harder, squared off edge. He said they were initially just going for the look, but people liked the smaller, less wieldy body size. Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback they went with it. Later the 7/8 body was stylized with its own carve. (DiMartini brought the squared off smaller body over to Charvel with some of his endorsement builds).


Grover added a neck through design to the squared of 7/8 body style and fielded it as the Soloist under the Jackson brand as an evolution of the super strat. The body size and neck-through design were differentiators from Charvel and he deployed it under the Jackson brand precisely because it was new, different, and untested. This is all well documented in interviews with Grover that are readily available on the web. View the early catalogs through this lense and they make a bit more sense.

As time wore on, Jackson designs found their way into Charvels. There was always a lot of cross pollination from Charvel designs to Jackson. Charvel after all was the genesis of the company.

Regarding horn shape, most of the horn differences are due to the number of frets. With 24 frets, the neck joint can be repositioned ~1.5 inches closer to the bridge resulting in an elongated horn shape. The fewer the frets, the shorter and fatter the horn.

There are some models in which the horn was lengthened too. One of DiMartini’s early endorsement Charvels exhibit this (I think it was the snake skin). Many models have horns that end around the 14-15th fret. A couple of models extend the horn all the to the ~12-13 frets.

Thank you for that, for some parts I was just going by the Wikipedia page. I will revise that part, the fact that Jackson had 'vintage style' and 'dinky style' is where I was trying to get at. I put 'Dinky' in quotes because I was emphasizing that it wasn't actually a Dinky, just a bolt on guitar. But again, I will revise for clarity and accuracy.

Is there any other errors? Point them out, even if small please, and thanks for checking the project out so far.

EDIT: I checked my catalog collection again. Is the Strat style bolt on or neck thru? Know I know where my confusion comes from. The 89 Catalog has 'vintage style' and 'dinky style' and I got mixed up there. Oh well, I've cleared up the description on the website. It'll be live later.

[Mechayoshi]

BUMP: Dinkys done. I need help with a couple of models as scanning catalogs (that we know aren't always accurate) and searching around online only got me so far. I'm not sure about the Phil Collen PC2 for example.

[Mechayoshi]

UPDATE: Added several newer Soloist and Dinky models I'd missed. Added the Fusion guitars. Added some obscure 90s stuff, and got started on Rhoads guitars. Cleaned up the presentation a bit. Feed back appreciated!