My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

[gid_25]

Ok so I saw one I liked the looks of at a local pawn shop. I seached and searched the internet and only found one pic on some German website of the darn thing! It is an import, Japanese made. Specs:
S/S/H, active pickups, phase switch, a volume and a tone, Dluxe Kiluson Tuners (slotted capstans and posts are staggered), a Kotoh floating tremolo, and steel rollers at the nut.

Price paid: $125 out the door!!

Since all it had was a serial number they had no clue what it was. It wasn't listed in their little pawn shop refernece manuals [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Ok, So I dissasembled the thing and took apart the tremolo completely and cleaned everything, everywhere with a fine tooth comb, so to speak. It has some minor fret wear and a few nicks on a few frets and some minor scratches on the back. But what AMAZED me was the sheer weight of the thing and the incredible FEEL of it once I just thrw some cheapy .009 on it before taking it to the tech. The TONE, the FEEL, oh man THIS is the ONE I have been waiting for!

It is now in the hands of a super pro guitar tech in Hurst, TX doing a fret polishing/recrowning/leveling.

Can anyone give me an idea of the price or exactly what this is? Photo essay of the cleaned up STX Custom or Deluxe or whatever it is. PHOTO ESSAY- wtf?! HTML CODE doesn't work on this board?! I had some up some clickable thumbnails [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] All that work for nothing. Ah well, we will just have to use external links.

Wiring problems:
http://colessite.com/wiring2s.jpg

As you can see someone Gouged out the 2nd pickup of the humbucker. I guess he wanted a true strat sound. I will probably replace the rear humbucker with a blues EMG active. The phase switch is disconnected, which is good as far as I am concerned. As you can see there is a FET preamp boost (at least I think its just a boost). I am not sure what I will do. I may just replace it with an EMG boost with a knob or leave it and I can an EMG midrange knob boost/cut in the hole the pase switch was in. That would add even MORE tonal heaven.

The FullBody shots
Here she is!What a beauty!One taken with the sun hitting it at an angle, the other taken in the shade.
http://colessite.com/fullbody1s.jpg
http://colessite.com/fullbody2s.jpg

Bodycloseups. Wow. I love the black with Pearl pickguard. Notice the pearl pickguard is slightly yellow, giving it an aged Ivory look.

http://colessite.com/Bodycloseup1s.jpg
http://colessite.com/Bodycloseup2s.jpg

Various shots of the headstock, tuners, the pretty wood grain, and the steel rollers at the nut.I LIKE IT ALL!:

http://colessite.com/Headstock1s.jpg
http://colessite.com/Headstock2s.jpg
http://colessite.com/woodgrainrollers1s.jpg
http://colessite.com/woodgrainrollers2s.jpg

Picture of the back:

http://colessite.com/Back1s.jpg

All in all I am very happy with my purchase. The tone, resonance of the body, sustain, weight, and sheer FEEL of the neck- basically the whole package I like better than any of the most expensive USA made Strats. I paid $125 for it, but I am not sure what it is worth, or what it sold for when it was made. The QUALITY of workmanship seems most excellent [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Anyone got any ideas if this is a STX custum or Deluxe, value, original price, etc.?

[StukaJU87]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

Congrats on your new axe dude. I don't know jack sh1t about those though.

[Tekky]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

ST Custom.

[Budman68]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

<font color="aqua">They originally had a "power booster" in them but was apparently replaced by the system in there now. The roller nut and the staggered tuners are also original. Cool axe and welcome to the forum! </font>

[Brad]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

Nice score and Welcome to the Forum. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[spencer4hire]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

Nice guitar &amp; nice price. Welcome aboard.

[gid_25]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

Well found a picture of another one:
http://www.smalltownbluesman.de/strat/charvel2.htm

He replaced the back one with a Hot-rail

I wish I could have gotton that one with the cherry sunburst finish, but the black kinda suits me though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

and some info on the exact one I have but I am not so sure about the value stated at a message board a year old:
http://www.guitarsite.com/discussion...es/35225.shtml

Alder Body and Rosewood fretboard.
They sold in the $1200 range?! An import?! Realitively rare?! At a pawn shop two blocks from me in Fort Worth, TX?! WOW! Can anyone confirm this? If this is true then I just got a top of the line Charvel import in very good condition for a buck and a quarter. *sniff* My eyes are starting to mist as I don't have a lot of cash to spend on high quality guitars and this looks like one I will get to play for many many years happily.

The middle and neck singles are awesome but the rear has a tinny sound to it so it must be replaced and/or beefed up.
Any suggestions for replacing that rear? Since the rest is active I assume I will have to put an active pickup in to replace it? Then again maybe not? Putting a Seymour Duncan Hotrail stacked minihumbucker in the rear and moving the other single up front like in that link to the german site and installing a switch to switch between the two would give me enourmous tone varieties. I would then install a midrange cut/boost circuit in there (with a knob so I could adjust it while playing) and.. Hmmm.

Pickups, active/passive- too many choices! Looks like I have a LOT of wiring research to do as I have no idea what I am doing [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Any sugesstions on wiring methods, pickup choices, etc. would be VERY welcome. I have a couple of EMG-SA's (the ones David Gilmore uses) in my Epiphone Les Paul -thats RIGHT two single coilds in those big humbucker holes! But since I have also an EMG 85 and an EMG 81 I could just throw those in the Les paul and put the EMG-SAs wired parrallel(?) in the Bridge of the Charvel. But how would EMGs actives interact with Charvel actives and its circuit? Getting the wiring schematics for the charvel actives may be impossible.

Starting to get a headache, but a good one [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

There's one in my local guitar shop. It's at $950, though. **** European assholes.

[Carbuff]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

Didnt someone just pick up one of these on ebay recently? I think theres a thread on these too. I seem to remember someone posting the original ad for these in the thread. I saw the one on ebay. I think it went for $200 or something like that.

[gid_25]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

[ QUOTE ]
ST Custom.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know exactly what kind of pickups these are? What model?
They appear to be active but someone said that they are actually passive and powered by an external preamp.. I need wiring schematics and some exact specs on exactly what these pickups are and so forth. Thanks!

[etaeniura]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

They are the same Charvel single coils as are in the Fusion special, 275DLX and Avenger guitars of the early nineties. In my experience wit them, they sound pretty good clean, but the distortion sound left alot to be desired. I replaced the neck one in my Fusion with a lil 59 and it sounds incredible. Depending on the way it is wired, just remember that having the bridge in full HB mode is the second position up from the bottom, and first postition should be bridge single coil mode. nice score.

[Surge]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

Good score and welcome to the Forum!

[gid_25]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

[ QUOTE ]
They are the same Charvel single coils as are in the Fusion special, 275DLX and Avenger guitars of the early nineties. In my experience wit them, they sound pretty good clean, but the distortion sound left alot to be desired. I replaced the neck one in my Fusion with a lil 59 and it sounds incredible. Depending on the way it is wired, just remember that having the bridge in full HB mode is the second position up from the bottom, and first postition should be bridge single coil mode. nice score.

[/ QUOTE ]

J100 single coils?

[Tekky]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

Actually all of the pickups in the ST Custom are the Jackson J200 Stacked Humbuckers (single-coil sized). Whereas the 275DLS was the J100s.

[gid_25]

Re: My New Charvel STX Custom or Deluxe?? PHOTOS!

[ QUOTE ]
Actually all of the pickups in the ST Custom are the Jackson J200 Stacked Humbuckers (single-coil sized). Whereas the 275DLS was the J100s.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have noticed a kindof lack of dynamic response(picking softly should make them much more quite picking hard should make the sound louder) from them especially when compared to EMGs. Could it be due to the FET preamp? So they ARE passive and I am just curious if removing that FET preamp may be a good idea. I have 2 EMG-SA right now and they sound incredible. However I have noticed the J200's have a superior "glassy" sound due to the fact that the mids aren't strong. EMG-SA have FAT mids, too fat sometimes to get an SRV sound, but thats why I need to get the SPC and EXG to both cut AND boost mids. Its just kind of weird having single stacked humbucker passives running like actives. Would they still work if I removed the FET PreAMP boost circuit and removed the battery and rewire like standard?

I really wish someone could get me some wiring diagrams of this thing and/or of the Model 6 and other Charvel imports so I can get an idea of what I am working with [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]