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Hi. First post. :-D
A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend and I stopped by the music store around the corner from our house to pick up some cables for her in-ear monitor system. While she was chatting with the salesman, I wandered around the store, and eventually ended up by the "Used Guitars" section.
There on the wall was the object of my teenaged lust was back in the late 80's: A Charvel.
It was a black Model 2, with the Kahler 2500 series tremolo, and the correct Jackson J-90C pickup. It was marked down from $300 to $250, and was currently tagged at $199.
I yelled over to Suzi "Hey, honey, I found a guitar you can buy me..." I was joking of course, but she said "Oh, right...how much does it cost?" I said "It's tagged at $199.", and she told me to bring it to her. She talked with the salesman a bit more, and ended up buying it (I still don't know what the OTD price was).
I got it home and it did need a few items.
First the pick up ring was missing. I was going to have one made from fretsonthenet.com, but his waiting list was a tad long. I managed to find one on ebay (not the AlienXNation guy, thank goodness), and picked that up for about $12 in excellent condition with the proper screws.
The next "issue" was that the Kahler 2520 was installed improperly. It was sitting on top of the stud screw, rather than where it was supposed to be. The studs were a bit boogered too, so I got a pair from Whammiworld for $9.
I installed the pickup ring, put the new studs in, restrung and leveled the tremolo, and prepared to set intonation. To my shock, I didn't have to touch a thing!. It was properly intonated....at least the previous owner had that right.
I was missing the tremolo arm (why are so many used guitars missing this item???), and the shop had given me a Strat style trem arm that, while it screwed in, it was the wrong height, and interfered with the volume knob. I ordered a 6mm trem arm from StewMac, and went about plugging the guitar up.
There was a horrible buzz, and the cord kept falling out of the jack. I took the football plate off, and yup, the ground wire had come loose. Bit of solder, and a quick bend of the jack, and it was good as new.
It plays like a dream! What a great neck. Not a huge fan of the 2520, having cut my teeth on Schaller and Ibanez Floyd Rose designs, but it did stay in tune relatively well.
Then Sunday, I saw a Kahler 2710 Killer on eBay for $50 buy it now, shipping included. Bingo. It's due to be delivered Thursday.
Anyway, it's my first Charvel, and it's pretty darn cool. In the late 80's when I first picked up the guitar, my first axe was a 1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom that I got for $535.00. I loved it, it played and sounded great, but I wanted a Charvel. My friend Anthony had a Model 3 in Ferrari Red that I lusted over. Later, my friend Jay had a Model 5 in Red that I lusted over. Sure, I had a Desert Sun Yellow RG550, and a Lipstick Red RG560, and even a Hamer Centaura and an Ibanez Vinnie Moore along the way, but I always wanted a Charvel. But back in the day, they were hard to find and expensive around these parts.
Anyway, here's some "before" and "after" pix of the guitar from the day I brought her home, and the day I cleaned her up, set her up, and attached the new trem arm. I'll post more pix when the Killer gets here.
Grimy and wearing the wrong trem arm.
Unstrung and wiped down
Shiny, and in it's tweed home...
Yup....she's an '86! SN# 747850
A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend and I stopped by the music store around the corner from our house to pick up some cables for her in-ear monitor system. While she was chatting with the salesman, I wandered around the store, and eventually ended up by the "Used Guitars" section.
There on the wall was the object of my teenaged lust was back in the late 80's: A Charvel.
It was a black Model 2, with the Kahler 2500 series tremolo, and the correct Jackson J-90C pickup. It was marked down from $300 to $250, and was currently tagged at $199.
I yelled over to Suzi "Hey, honey, I found a guitar you can buy me..." I was joking of course, but she said "Oh, right...how much does it cost?" I said "It's tagged at $199.", and she told me to bring it to her. She talked with the salesman a bit more, and ended up buying it (I still don't know what the OTD price was).
I got it home and it did need a few items.
First the pick up ring was missing. I was going to have one made from fretsonthenet.com, but his waiting list was a tad long. I managed to find one on ebay (not the AlienXNation guy, thank goodness), and picked that up for about $12 in excellent condition with the proper screws.
The next "issue" was that the Kahler 2520 was installed improperly. It was sitting on top of the stud screw, rather than where it was supposed to be. The studs were a bit boogered too, so I got a pair from Whammiworld for $9.
I installed the pickup ring, put the new studs in, restrung and leveled the tremolo, and prepared to set intonation. To my shock, I didn't have to touch a thing!. It was properly intonated....at least the previous owner had that right.
I was missing the tremolo arm (why are so many used guitars missing this item???), and the shop had given me a Strat style trem arm that, while it screwed in, it was the wrong height, and interfered with the volume knob. I ordered a 6mm trem arm from StewMac, and went about plugging the guitar up.
There was a horrible buzz, and the cord kept falling out of the jack. I took the football plate off, and yup, the ground wire had come loose. Bit of solder, and a quick bend of the jack, and it was good as new.
It plays like a dream! What a great neck. Not a huge fan of the 2520, having cut my teeth on Schaller and Ibanez Floyd Rose designs, but it did stay in tune relatively well.
Then Sunday, I saw a Kahler 2710 Killer on eBay for $50 buy it now, shipping included. Bingo. It's due to be delivered Thursday.
Anyway, it's my first Charvel, and it's pretty darn cool. In the late 80's when I first picked up the guitar, my first axe was a 1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom that I got for $535.00. I loved it, it played and sounded great, but I wanted a Charvel. My friend Anthony had a Model 3 in Ferrari Red that I lusted over. Later, my friend Jay had a Model 5 in Red that I lusted over. Sure, I had a Desert Sun Yellow RG550, and a Lipstick Red RG560, and even a Hamer Centaura and an Ibanez Vinnie Moore along the way, but I always wanted a Charvel. But back in the day, they were hard to find and expensive around these parts.
Anyway, here's some "before" and "after" pix of the guitar from the day I brought her home, and the day I cleaned her up, set her up, and attached the new trem arm. I'll post more pix when the Killer gets here.
Grimy and wearing the wrong trem arm.
Unstrung and wiped down
Shiny, and in it's tweed home...
Yup....she's an '86! SN# 747850
Welcome to paradise Pitbull.............and congrats on scoring a very nice axe, she's cleaned up sweet.
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