Finished project - Wildcard Pro-MUTT!

[Evol]

Finally got a chance to knock out a couple of projects this weekend, one being a Strat, the other being this Charvel. When they released the wild cards with recessed Floyd's I was stoked, until I found out NONE of the models have maple fretboards. What kinda crap is that? Anyhow, in lieu of Charvel making a regular production model with a recessed Floyd (which boggles the mind) I took it upon myself to put one together that was to my liking.

I picked up a new one at Sam Ash for $530, here's the before even though we all know what they look like :






So first off, things I don't like about this guitar -

1. Grover tuners. Sorry, but they look like little pecker heads.

2. Knob O' Death. It works fine and all, but looks and feels weird to me.

3. Rosewood fretboard. Meh, I'm a maple guy.

4. The "OFR". Yes, I'm one of *those* guys. I don't like it, I don't like the feel, and I don't like the sound. Since I'm a fairly heavy whammy abuser, this is a must fix.

5. Black Hardware. For some reason on this guitar it looks like ass to me.

6. Stock pickups. Bleh, these will be replaced at a late date.

So, that's all that needs to be changed in my opinion.

And, here we go... the new version :














I got most things on it that I wanted, flamey maple fretboard (I can't take pictures for shit, so you really can't see the flamey goodness), Schallers, better knob, gold hardware (which in my opinion really complements the guitar over black)...

And a real damn OFR. The sound is a tad bit brighter, (a pickup change should bring this out better) and the feel with a real OFR on it is 100% better. Other than pickups a gold jack plate, and if I could find gold screws for the switch somewhere they would be a nice touch. Anyone know where to get gold ones?

Now to the cost.

Total out of pocket for everything was a little under $1100.

After I sell the neck and the Floyd I'm looking at a total cost of just under $800 or so. A sub $1k guitar like this, crap if they only made a similar model I would be in hog heaven!

[The Poolman]

Sweet looking Charvel and Fender.
I changed the neck on my wildcard number five as well, I prefer maple or ebony over rosewood. Personally I don't like direct mount pickups, so I changed the humbucker to a ring, and had the pocket routed out a bit, changed the JB for a Screamin' Demon. Much better tone now, compared to the stock version. I kept the stock hardware though. That gold is a nice match.

[RacerX]

Hi Evol!

[Evol]

Wassup Ron, long time man!

[MODEL5FX]

I'm typically not a fan of gold hardware but that looks SICK man. Nice work!
How about high shine brass for the switch fasteners?

[CowboyFromHell]

Looks great and glad you're happy with it. Maybe this is a noob question but I'm gonna ask anyway. You swapped an OFR for a"real damn OFR"? Unless I'm mistaken the O stands for original right? How can you get more "real" than the original?

[Devotee]

Because he probably means a Korean OFR rather than a German one.

[Evol]

From the FR website :

The Floyd Rose Original is produced in Germany and is our flagship model.
The Floyd Rose 1000 Series is made in Korea. An excellent unit mirrored after the Original and is only available OEM.

[toejam]

Hey, Love! Looks great with the gold hardware.

[Chad]

Both of those guitars look great!

I switched the neck on my Wildcard #4 from rosewood to maple as well. If you could let me know your thoughts, it would be appreciated:

http://www.jcfonline.com/threads/126495-Charvel-Wild-Card-4-Dead-Calm-Aqua-with-maple-neck

[Evol]

Chad, that looks awesome too, my thought was if I liked this one, then I may do all the recessed Floyd wildcards with maple necks and gold hardware. I think the #4 would look super sexy in gold!

[Chad]

Thanks, Evol. If I had any gold hardware laying around, I'd give it a whirl, but I don't so I'll probably hold out on that one until I see somebody else do it.

BTW, I've kept the Grover tuners, but they do look a little weird. However, my main problem is how grindy/non-smooth they are. I have both this MIJ Pro Mod and also a MIA San Dimas Pro Mod and the Grovers on both are like that. I've had Grovers on other guitars and they're smooth and nothing like these. These are functionally fine, but they feel so cheap.

I don't understand the knob choice either. I agree very weird. People pay decent money on Ebay for them, though.

Question: are the pickup routs shallow on your #5? I have zero range of pickup adjustment, which makes it very difficult to balance the humbucker volume with the single coils. I may install a ring and rout the humbucker deeper like Poolman mentioned doing.

[SausageofPower]

Looks great. Curious though, what issue do you have with the FR1000 units? I've got one on a PRS SE that I own, and a real OFR on my Model 4, and I can't tell any difference myself.

[Chad]

Looks great. Curious though, what issue do you have with the FR1000 units? I've got one on a PRS SE that I own, and a real OFR on my Model 4, and I can't tell any difference myself.

I don't have any problems with them either. I've read that they're machined to a bit tighter tolerances because the Korean tooling is newer than what is used for the German OFRs. I will say that when adjusting the intonation, the Korean saddles and everything do indeed seem to fit tighter.

[SausageofPower]

I noticed that myself, but I didn't really think much about it. Fit and finish are as good as my German made bridge, stands up to abuse just as well...I've upgraded a lot on that guitar and have things I still plan on doing, but the FR1000 is fine in my book.