What do you think of this Charvel?

[APB_4]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Charvel-Strato...item1c10c4268a
It's a japanese one but it sounds cheap. What do you reckon?

[Funkfingers]

Hold on. It's not April Fool's Day for another few weeks.

That guitar is a JHS/Encore/Vintage instrument with a Charvel decal on its headstock.

Ask the vendor for additional photographs. e.g. The neck anchor plate, the front of the headstock, the rear of the headstock (and, hence, the machinehead casings!). I bet that your request elicits no reponse.

[BloodRose]

I cant open ebay here at work.. Real Japanese Charvels are awesome! But sounds like funkfingers spotted a turd..

[WhoFan]

something fishy...

[starmaker]

Nah, doesn't look right at all.

[starmaker]

>>>

[Diocletian]

>>>

What's that got to do with anything?

[APB_4]

Yeah looks like you guys are right cheers. I sent a message to the seller about getting pics and this was his response

Hi mate, i ddont have any other pics but will attempt to get some to you a.s.a.p. The anchor plate is a plain chrome square one and the headstock has the Charvel by Jackson logo on front(black guitar style logo), nothing on the back. machine heads are chrome and enclosed in box shaped covers very similar to those on some of the Squier strats

Cheers

[Funkfingers]

I just used the eBay messaging system to send the vendor this.

Dear ___________________,

Hi. Any chance of some more photographs of your black electric guitar, please? I would like to see close-ups of the front and rear of the headstock and of the neck anchoring plate. Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation. Regards, ________________.

I am not holding my breath.

Hopefully, the vendor will pull the "Charvel" listing before anybody reports it. Funny thing is, the vendor's other listed guitar looks completely legit.

[idsnowdog]

I doubt that's a Charvel.

[cakire82]

It look broken anyways

[dominus]

It look broken anyways

Cheap Asian pickups.

[Funkfingers]

Just got home to find a reply from the vendor.

1) Accurate written description of a Charvel neck plate.
2) Accurate written description of Charvel (by Jackson USA) decal.
3) Vague description of generic SE Asian machineheads. Omits to mention what logo (if any) appears on the machinehead gear casings.
4) "Can't do photographs right now."

I have responded to acknowledge the vendor's reply. I have restated my desire to see additional photographs - "if only to see how well somebody has modified the Charvel headstock into a JHS/Encore/Vintage outline".

I am hoping that the vendor takes the hint.

[Funkfingers]

The plot thickens.

Just received a further e-mail message from the vendor, asserting bona fides of the guitar and mentioning (but not actually naming) a respectable specialist guitar dealer. I have not yet taken up this offer.

Meanwhile, I have trawled up this image of a Japan-only Charvel.

http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/qua...c2c4b5a7b8.jpg

There also exists a budget Japan-only series named Model A, B, C and D, respectively. These all feature the same uncharacteristic headstock outline. Ho, hum.

[Zerberus]

Could very well be legit.

The headstock is referred to by Charvel afficionados as the "Sears" or "PC" (Phil Collen) headstock, and IIRc it´s first appearance was on teh USA CS San Dimas "Reissues" of the mid ´90s.

It´s hard to say much more without better pics, but I do know for a fact that "classic style" MIJ Charvel strats are out there with this headstock, Pointies, Stratheads (made for Japan only sales), the buzzard beak, and the arrowhead. Most of them aren´t found in sales brochures but are in fact legit. Specs seem to be almost random combinations of otherwise common and defining MIJ specs of the period, so maybe it was just to get rid of leftover parts. I´ve seen them with both script and guitar logos, some even with a USA-style 3+3 headstock decal but with "by Jackson /Charvel" underneath, on every headstock except pointy and PC. All the pointies I´ve seen had script logos and all the PCs had the guitar logo as is the case here.

There are also a few MIC Charvel strats out there with buzzard beak and arrowhead headstocks and widely spaced 12th fret dots.

[JOLLY]

I was wondering when you were going to chime in Zerbe.

[Funkfingers]

Thanks, Zerb.

Trawling the 'net produced THIS. http://www.bc-enterprises.com/guitars/charvelle2.jpg

This means that the underslung ceramic bar magnet single coils could also be legit. (My local luthier used to work for the Jackson/Charvel UK distributor. He has at least a dozen of those pickups. Nobody wants them. They sound "brown and sticky".)

OTOH, I would still expect a Charvel "Stratocaster" to feature master vol, master tone controls rather than VTT.

[DrNewcenstein]

Meh. Looks like a full-sized Strat body which they stopped doing with the Model series. Most of the 90's Charvels I've seen were basically Jackson/Dinky bodies with that swollen-finger headstock.

And that pickguard fits too well to be a Charvel (who even today will not do a Fender spec 'guard on the SoCal).

If it is really a Charvel, it's the lowest possible model they could make, and I would only use it to start a trash fire with.

[APB_4]

Thanks everyone for your responses especially Zerb, that was very enlightening.

It's not worth the money then?

[Zerberus]

I wouldn´t buy it before playing it, at least not until better documentation becomes available, and even then I don´t think I´d spend 120 GBP on it...