New Orange Spectrum

[adamsnez]

Hi JCF! Been lurking here and reading, time to post.
Just got my first Charvie in the mail, a spectrum.
I have kind of, a high school crush on charvel even though this is my first.

I did a refinish on the frets, metal from the early 90's is not the shiniest and cleanest. had surface rust and the likes on them. ick.. It was my first time trying it, i hope a kept the shape good

http://www.geocities.com/adamsnez/frets.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/adamsnez/frets2.jpg

and here's the body undergoing cleaning.. As you can see, the body is BADLY faded !!! DAMN... How sad.. The headstock isn't faded at all, which is WEIRD because it faces the front too, any thoughts how only the body faded? The guy played it for a few years on stage so im assuming it was from the lights, but just the body?

http://www.geocities.com/adamsnez/body.jpg

Anyways, I was thinking of buffing the body.. Using car buffing compound and a buffer. Would it mess the paint up if I did it? (Not sure if it would hold up the same like a car would (urethane paints). No idea what kind of paint gutiars are done in.

Is there ANY way to get some color back to restore it? It would look so much more badass. THanks JCF.
Time to start posting here

[straycat]

That is cool as hell how it faded don't do any thing leave it alone.Paint fades over time it is a normal thing.IMO it looks killer with the fade.Those are very hard to find in that color.Just due to the rarity of that model it would be best to leave it just as is.
I have passed on a few of those in blue and have been looking for an orange one.

[adamsnez]

from my searching around, the seafoam and orange are the rarer of the spectrums. How rare ARE they actually? I know its not like 1 of 100 lol.
The headstock, and back are AWESOME.. THe front? Not so much.

I was hoping it would come in DEER HUNTER orange, not CREAMSICLE orange. Kinda dissappointed over it. Plus the pickgaurd goes over it, so u cant even seee the fade

[straycat]

Not sure on how many of each color were made I know the blue seems to be quite common.Is the mid boost still intact? The ones I've seen latley have been butchered pretty bad.
The model 8 /spectrum were pretty much the end of the model series and they were not very big sellers.Great guitars tho'

[adamsnez]

ahhhh just put the elec. cavity plate back on... too tired right now to take off and peak. it was a single-owner guitar, he was an older dude (has teenage kids already) so if i HAD to say something i'll say it wasn't touched (he didn't even know it was a spectrum, just a charvel). When i get strings for it i'll tell you if it still works.

Why do people butcher the boost?

[straycat]

I guess they get tired of putting 9V batteries in once a year.If you leave the guitar cable plugged in all the time it drains the battery pretty quick.
Some don't like the dark tone of the VTM set up I have it on two USA Jacksons and I love it.I have 3 spare J 1200 mid boost harnesses just in case I find a guitar thats had its guts raped.
Use a fresh battery just to be sure.

[adamsnez]

already put in a new batt. had to take the plate off... i was cleaning out the plug jack and when i took off the metal cover the plastic base it sits in basically IMPLODED upon itself.. I guess i need a new jack.
What kind would i need to be looking for? I looked in my ESP and the jack was way different than this one.

The spectrum has two conductor leads, and a black wire soldered directly onto the jack. Can you buy new jacks to replace the plastic casing on the spec? Erg this sucks! heh
(if you've seen the jack you know what i'm trying to say)

[dg]

You can replace the jack with a standard stereo jack. I recently put a Switchcraft stereo jack in my Model 6.

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/pro...ereo_Jack.html

Just had to bend a couple of contacts inward slightly to fit it in. The plastic housing on those original jacks is pretty fragile, and can crack easily if you bump into anything while plugged in.

[adamsnez]

And just wire it up like this?

http://www.geocities.com/adamsnez/jck.jpg

[dg]

Spectrum should have the JE-1500. Here's the schematic:

http://www.jcfonline.com/resources/JC_Electronics_Manual/target6.html

[adamsnez]

Yup ive seen that schematic.
But the stock jack area is different than an atermarket one, like that Switchcraft

[dg]

The white wire goes to the tip contact (red one above)

Black wire from the battery goes to the blue contact above (Hot 2)

The black wire from the PC board goes to the sleeve or ground contact

So, comparing it to how you labelled your pic, I think you have your white wire & black battery wire backwards. It might not even matter since all that's happening there is completing the circuit to the battery, but I'd still probably wire the white to the tip.

[adamsnez]

much thanks dg

[straycat]

+1 on what dg says.A switchcraft stereo jack will do it.

[Genebaby]

Nice Spectrum I cleaned up my Desert Crackle one when I got it and noticed fading too when I removed the pickguard. I would have left the guard off if not for the faded paint.