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I have a 1987 Model 5 that I bought new just out of high school (I guess that dates me a little bit) that I have recently become interested in again. While doing research I stumbled upon this website. It is Serial C703084 and is painted with the Black Cherry finish.
I started out playing guitar in high school with an old Strat knock off (probably from Sears of something) and moved up to an Aria Pro II, then a Kramer (A Pacer I believe. One of the Japanese or Korean ones with the "half pointy" headstock.) before finally seeing the Charvel in the store. I knew I wanted a neck-through guitar and I ended up trading in the Kramer on the Model 5 and the chainsaw case. The guitar and case was selling for around $1200 Canadian dollars at the time. It was pre-Slash and you could actually pick up a Les Paul custom for around $750 at the time so going for a Japanese made Charvel seemed kind of crazy but I knew when I bought this guitar that I was buying a guitar to keep for the rest of my life.
Well, at one point I was kind of losing interest in playing guitar and my brother was playing in a band so I loaned him the Charvel to use as a backup to his Les Paul. The only problem is my brother is a bit of a... for lack of a better term "fuck up" and he had it for a couple of years and then ended up pawning the guitar off for rent/blow/booze. I thought the Charvel was lost to me forever. I started wanting to get back into playing again and asked my brother if I could have my Charvel back. He told me he had pawned it but if I had $700 he could get it back for me. I didn't want to give him the money that he'd just end up blowing again so I told him to die in a fire and wrote the Charvel off. I decided at that time to buy myself a new guitar but didn't have the money to get a new Charvel or Jackson, so I ended up getting an Ibanez RG model. I can't even remember which one. It was an H-H bolt on configuration with flame maple laminate. Decent guitar but no Charvel if you know what I mean.
Anyway, about 4 years later he ended up meeting a woman that somewhat straightened him out and he was making headway and all the sudden he brought the Charvel back to me. When I loaned it to him it was near pristine with one small ding in the clearcoat on the top. When he brought it back it was somewhat worse for wear with a few dings in the paint and one large chip missing from the top edge and belt buckle scratches on the back. The chainsaw case also has a blown out hinge but honestlty I was overjoyed to finally have my "life partner" back at that point. I traded the Ibanez in on a nice LaPatrie nylon string Concert cutaway that I also love.
Now I want to restore my Charvel to as near pristine condition as I can so I'm going to be buying some new parts for her and fixing her up a little. I've recently stripped it down of all the parts and need to replace the JT-6 as the knife edges are very worn and will probably go with some aftermarket pickups as well.
Here is a picture I took of the guitar shortly after I got it back... (Sorry for the large size.)
As you can see in the picture the trem arm is busted off in the hole. In stripping it down I found some interesting stuff. After removing the covers from the J-80C pickups I noticed they are quite different. The neck position one has screw adjustable pole pieces on one side and the bridge one doesn't have any. The neck model bottom plate is plain and has a Jackson Pickups Made in the USA sticker and J-80c sticker on it while the bridge model base plate has an embossed Jackson logo in the metal with a J-80c sticker on it.
In looking at the catalog scans and the Jackson Electronics scans the guitar should have a JE-1000TG pre-amp in it but the onboard pre-amp doen't have the dipswitches on it and pretty much doesn't even resemble the ones in the catalog.
Heres where I get to the questions part. I know an OFR with a 42mm block should be pretty much a drop in replacement for the guitar but if I get one I will then need to get a "trem spaced" pickup for the bridge position correct?
Way back when I had my Kramer I dropped in a Seymour Duncan SH-4JB and LOVED the sound it gave me. Will I get a similar sound quality from that pickup going through the Jackson pre-amp or should I shelf the pre-amp module and wire up the electronics in an old-school passive setup? I was think of going with a Pearly Gates for the neck position to try and get a Gary Moore style neck tone. Is that pickup going to not be in the ballpark and again will the pre-amp color it much?
Thanks in advance for any ideas or advice any of you can pass on,
Drew
I started out playing guitar in high school with an old Strat knock off (probably from Sears of something) and moved up to an Aria Pro II, then a Kramer (A Pacer I believe. One of the Japanese or Korean ones with the "half pointy" headstock.) before finally seeing the Charvel in the store. I knew I wanted a neck-through guitar and I ended up trading in the Kramer on the Model 5 and the chainsaw case. The guitar and case was selling for around $1200 Canadian dollars at the time. It was pre-Slash and you could actually pick up a Les Paul custom for around $750 at the time so going for a Japanese made Charvel seemed kind of crazy but I knew when I bought this guitar that I was buying a guitar to keep for the rest of my life.
Well, at one point I was kind of losing interest in playing guitar and my brother was playing in a band so I loaned him the Charvel to use as a backup to his Les Paul. The only problem is my brother is a bit of a... for lack of a better term "fuck up" and he had it for a couple of years and then ended up pawning the guitar off for rent/blow/booze. I thought the Charvel was lost to me forever. I started wanting to get back into playing again and asked my brother if I could have my Charvel back. He told me he had pawned it but if I had $700 he could get it back for me. I didn't want to give him the money that he'd just end up blowing again so I told him to die in a fire and wrote the Charvel off. I decided at that time to buy myself a new guitar but didn't have the money to get a new Charvel or Jackson, so I ended up getting an Ibanez RG model. I can't even remember which one. It was an H-H bolt on configuration with flame maple laminate. Decent guitar but no Charvel if you know what I mean.
Anyway, about 4 years later he ended up meeting a woman that somewhat straightened him out and he was making headway and all the sudden he brought the Charvel back to me. When I loaned it to him it was near pristine with one small ding in the clearcoat on the top. When he brought it back it was somewhat worse for wear with a few dings in the paint and one large chip missing from the top edge and belt buckle scratches on the back. The chainsaw case also has a blown out hinge but honestlty I was overjoyed to finally have my "life partner" back at that point. I traded the Ibanez in on a nice LaPatrie nylon string Concert cutaway that I also love.
Now I want to restore my Charvel to as near pristine condition as I can so I'm going to be buying some new parts for her and fixing her up a little. I've recently stripped it down of all the parts and need to replace the JT-6 as the knife edges are very worn and will probably go with some aftermarket pickups as well.
Here is a picture I took of the guitar shortly after I got it back... (Sorry for the large size.)
As you can see in the picture the trem arm is busted off in the hole. In stripping it down I found some interesting stuff. After removing the covers from the J-80C pickups I noticed they are quite different. The neck position one has screw adjustable pole pieces on one side and the bridge one doesn't have any. The neck model bottom plate is plain and has a Jackson Pickups Made in the USA sticker and J-80c sticker on it while the bridge model base plate has an embossed Jackson logo in the metal with a J-80c sticker on it.
In looking at the catalog scans and the Jackson Electronics scans the guitar should have a JE-1000TG pre-amp in it but the onboard pre-amp doen't have the dipswitches on it and pretty much doesn't even resemble the ones in the catalog.
Heres where I get to the questions part. I know an OFR with a 42mm block should be pretty much a drop in replacement for the guitar but if I get one I will then need to get a "trem spaced" pickup for the bridge position correct?
Way back when I had my Kramer I dropped in a Seymour Duncan SH-4JB and LOVED the sound it gave me. Will I get a similar sound quality from that pickup going through the Jackson pre-amp or should I shelf the pre-amp module and wire up the electronics in an old-school passive setup? I was think of going with a Pearly Gates for the neck position to try and get a Gary Moore style neck tone. Is that pickup going to not be in the ballpark and again will the pre-amp color it much?
Thanks in advance for any ideas or advice any of you can pass on,
Drew
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