Help ~ Charvel '89 650XL - sparkly finish?

[jahosy]

Picked this up today from the local gumtree.

Any idea if this is a stock finish? It's sparkly gold, but couldn't find any specs of the exact finish.

Much appreciated!

[john.w.lawson]

Probably factory, nice axe by the way.I have never owned one either..

[ralph]

i thought that finish was called 'Platinum' as far as specs go, i have no idea,

http://audiozone.dk/guitargallery/?c...9Imports06.jpg

[warlok]

Probably Platinum with clear coat aged (yellowed) a bit to make it look gold-ish. Nice guitar!

[jahosy]

ah thanks for the info guys! Sounds like a 'platinum' finish!

The previous owner broke the neck and got it fixed by a luthier, so its a pity that the finish around the neck was damaged. Intended to strip the finish off and put a veneer / maple cap on but the sparkle finish looks so much better in person that i might just clean this up and upgrade the hardwares (all rusty), and sand down the neck finish.

[Rich#6]

if you are taking the trem just us wd40. not going to get better then those old schaller trems.

[VitaminG]

that's nice if it has aged to a gold-ish colour. They often age to a kind of yellowish green

[DonP]

Too bad about the neck repair, that is a great color.

And don't downgrade the hardware

[jahosy]

haha thanks for showing great faith in me guys! LOL

Pictures:









I suspect the guitar was placed in storage for ages ... as most of the guitar is cover in ... RUST. Saying that, all the controls / circuit / knobs work perfectly!

Oh and it's my first time playing a 3 string guitar \m/









Applied wd40 to the trem but might need to change the saddles.





Tuners are F'kd





Broken Neck





Lots of work to be done....

You guys reckon i should leave the neck as it is? It's a bit uneven so thought about stripping down the neck finish and leave it natural.

[Rich#6]

I bet those tuners clean up. dirt andoil sometimes protects stuff from more damage.lol

[VitaminG]

yea, Rich might be right. I'd be completely dismantling that thing and giving it a really thorough clean. It should only cost you time & effort. All of those fiddly bridge parts are easier to clean/oil when they are apart. I'll bet she looks a treat once tidied up and put back together.

As for the repair, I'd try lightly sanding it first to see if the surface can be smoothed out. If it doesn't feel bad, don't worry too much about it. If you end up stripping the neck, you could give it a stringer so that it looks good and you can keep that sparkle finish & logo on the headstock

[jahosy]

^^ Thanks for the advice mate. Will definitely give this a thorough clean.

Don't mind me asking ... what's a 'stringer'? Like a false body binding?

[DonP]

Nasty! Almost looks like water damage. Hope you got that for a real good price.

A Stinger is when you paint the back of the headstock black to hide damage. The paint forms a curved \/ on the back of the neck, hence it is called a stinger.

[VitaminG]

sorry, stinger, not stringer. I was trying to find a good picture of one for you to illustrate. Best pic I found was on Sully Guitars site. Check the back of headstock pic in this gallery. http://www.sullyguitars.us/photo-gal...-neck-through/

If you strip the neck & oil it, you could still make it look nice with a defined paintline if you wanted to keep the paint on the headstock. Sully is painting his guitars to the line, but I wonder if you could scrape the paint from your neck to get a similar tidy look, rather than a rough sanded edge

[jahosy]

^^ Yeh seems like water damage! The rust in the tuners were pretty bad. Other than that, most parts can be salvaged! Well got a good price for it i think... will probably break even if i sell the hardcase LOL Purchased it more as a 'project' guitar but damn .. the actual sparkle finish sure looks good.

And thanks for the link! It probably wouldn't work here since the breakage is around the 2nd & 3rd fret. The joint wasn't done too badly just abit of bump which hopefully can be sanded down.