Kahler rout fill

[mttverk]

Hello,

Has anyone experience with filling in a kahler rout on a guitar modified from standard tremolo ?

I want to restore the guitar back to original. I know it won't look pretty, just curious if anyone here has done it
and might know best place to acquire a brass bridge and parts.

MUYA

[shreddermon]

I don't have any experience with this but what I've generally seen done involves these steps:

- body is stripped
- fill the Kahler bridge route with a shaped chunk of wood
- the guitar body is then retopped with a thin wood veneer
- body is refinned

Not sure if Lee still takes on these kinds of projects, but give GMW guitarworks a try.

[Axewielder]

You don't necessarily need the veneer if you don't mind a slightly visible seam and/or don't want a trans type finish. I my case I went from a Floyd back to a Kahler. The cavities were fully routed out to rounded rectangles for a better fit.

[mttverk]

I added a couple of photos for your viewing pleasure.
I hope to do this work myself. i will update as I proceed thru this process
I am the first owner of this guitar and bought it new in 1983.
regretted adding the kahler since about 1984.
Thanks for the thoughts and advice from you folks.


Thanks for the info ... where is a good place for NOS charvel parts ?

[mttverk]

Thanks for the info ... where is a good place for NOS charvel parts ?

[DonP]

NOS Charvel parts

Try here

https://www.fretsonthenet.net

I've used wood + bondo to fill stuff. You want to get as close as possible filling it with wood, then just use a thin amount of bondo to hide the repair.

[Hamburger]

Most of us who are interested in vintage Charvels have been confronted with kahlered guitars and the ways to change back to original appearance have been mentioned above. Lee Garver at GMW ist definitely the one I would turn to as he is familiar with old Charvels.

I personally had some success soundwise by tweaking some dull sounding Kahlers with steel rollers replacing the brass ones. They should be available at Wammiworld.

If you want to go the way filling the Kahler rout and fit an original Charvel brass trem (which look and sound best imo as long as you don't try to whammy) you could try talking to OC Custom Guitars if they are still around. They used to do some work on reissue Charvels fitting Floyd Rose systems and sold the reissue brass trems off.

The reissue charvel brass trems are still made by the original metal shop from back in the day http://www.merlin5products.com/ , and are just as the original ones from the 80ies aside from minimal differences on the sustain block, but I don't know if they you can buy these bridges directly from them.

A quick online search revealed this: http://www.fu-tone.com/catalog/index...aibrum00mjkl20 These look to be the reissue bridges.

Of course you could also check eBay for a used one if you're not in a hurry. The reissues usually go for around $100,- if they do pop up.

One more thing: If you're going for a new reissue bridge, make sure you buy one with Charvel-typical narrow string spacing. There are also almost identical looking ones with wide string spacing around.

[Hamburger]

Just came accross this listing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Charvel-Brass-V-Tremolo-Bridge-Fits-Vintage-Charvel-Jackson/183476879745?hash=item2ab8130181:g:dDwAAOSw8d5ZQxGn

[Metal Spawn]

NOS Charvel parts

I've used wood + bondo to fill stuff. You want to get as close as possible filling it with wood, then just use a thin amount of bondo to hide the repair.

Instead of Bondo, use an epoxy... It doesn't shrink like autobody fillers.

I've used this with good results (sands wells, too...)

https://www.tooltown.ca/Permatex-84111-PermaPoxy-General-Purpose-5-Minute-Epoxy.html