Charvel
Charvel is a guitar brand originally founded by Wayne Charvel in Azusa, California, and then later, Glendora, California; they were made popular by famous rock guitarists such as Edward Van Halen (Van Halen), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Warren DeMartini (Ratt), Dave Mercado (Lazarus), Jake E. Lee (Ozzy Osbourne), Vinnie Vincent (KISS), Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister) and George Lynch (Dokken). The main Charvel models were (then) unique custom revamps of the Fender Stratocaster - often consisting of a Strat-shaped body with a single humbucker and Fender style tremolo bridge system. Many other custom creations were available as well. The company is best known for its hot rodded Strat designs, known by many guitarists as superstrats.
In November 1978, Wayne Charvel sold the company to Grover Jackson. Wayne left the company soon after and ceased to have any real association with the brand name from this point on. In 1980, Grover was introduced to Randy Rhoads. They began to develop a guitar designed by Randy himself. The initial version was not angular enough for Randy but the second try yielded what Randy called the "Concorde". Grover was worried the radically styled and neck-through guitar was too different from Charvel models so he decided to put his own name on the headstock, just in case the model failed. It later became the Rhoads Model. This guitar was the impetus that inspired Grover to start Jackson Guitars. In 1989 Grover sold Jackson/Charvel to the Japanese manufacturer AMIC. The Charvel guitars were produced exclusively in Japan to a very high standard from 1986 to 1991. The Model 4 and Model 6 (both featuring active electronics) variants were the most popular.
In 1989 the line up of guitars was revamped into a number of different series, the Classic, Fusion and Contemporary Series among them. Guitars in the Classic series included the 275, 375, 375 Deluxe, and 475. The fusion series had shorter scale necks than the others and included the Fusion deluxe and Fusion custom models. The contemporary range included the Predator and Spectrum models. The Spectrum guitar was inspired by a custom Jackson guitar built for Jeff Beck. This unusual instrument was based on a Stratocaster shaped body but with reverse pointy drooped headstock, an early 50's Fender P-Bass-inspired pickguard, wild colors and an active tone circuit. Most of the guitars at the time were equipped with Schaller made hardware including a licensed Floyd Rose locking tremolo. The Korean-made Charvette brand was also produced to cover the lower end of the market at this time.
Charvel/Jackson was bought by Fender in 2002, and the Charvel name saw a rebirth with several U.S. made San Dimas models—so-named in order to recapture the original association of the Charvel name to high-quality, American-made professional guitars. Charvel now offers several models, American made and boutique priced, featuring an Eddie Van Halen signature model - a short run of which are actually paint stencilled by Eddie himself.
Guitars275 Deluxe Dinky325SL 325SLX 375 Deluxe 475 475 Deluxe/Special 525 550XL 625-C12 625F/625ACEL 750XL Soloist Avenger Charvette CX Series EVH Art Series Fusion Deluxe Fusion Standard/AS FX 1 |
Model 1/1A/1C Model 2 Model 3/3A/3DR/3L Model 4/4A Model 5/5A Model 6 Model 7 Model 88 Ltd. Predator Pre-Pro Bound Body Pre-Pro Flamed Top Pre-Pro Graphic Body Pre-Pro Matching Headstock & Body Pre-Pro Standard Body San Dimas Serialized Plated San Dimas Ltd. 25th Anniversary San Dimas Reissue So-Cal Series ST Custom ST Deluxe Standard Star Surfcaster Surfcaster 12 Surfcaster Double Neck Surfcaster HT (Model SC 1) |
Bass GuitarsP850 XL BassCX-490 Bass Eliminator Bas Model 1 Bass Model 2 Bass Model 3 Bass Model 4 Bass Model 5 Bass Pre-Pro Bass San Dimas Serialized Plate Bass SB-4 Bass Star Bass Surfcaster Bass |