1954 Charvel...

[XSSIVE]

001954 is the lucky serial number bonus i got when i bought one of the new Charvel production model tele's to use the neck and neckplate for a relic project. i looked high and low for one of the teles that didn't have that horrible over the top neck roll my first production model had and this one was it. the perfect amount of roll, a nice grain pattern which even has some subtle flame to it. after i did the frets on it and reshaped a few things it plays like butter! it was very fitting that the neck and plate were being used on a 2 tone burst relic strat body being that (if you haven't got it yet) 1954 is the first production year of the strat. anyway, fun bonus numbers aside here's my latest creation and the guitar that instantly became my #1 guitar after 5 minutes of playing it. i took the mentioned charvel tele (you'll have to wait to see what i turn that body into) and since putting a strat headstock on a tele body is like having sex with your cousin...sure the parts fit but it doesn't mean it's a good idea to do it...i used the neck in a much better way combining it with one of my Clone bodies painted by my friend Cris Mirabella in a great 2 tone burst over some nice resonant 2pc alder. after i spent a ton of time buffing out the body to a perfect shine i beat the living hell out of it. for my first venture at doing relic work i think i did pretty good. plus i didn't use ANY sandpaper to do the relicing, i did it in the most realistic ways i could think of. the belt rash...i did with my belt buckle, the fore arm wear...no sandpaper here, high speed buffing wheel with a wool pad and some heavy duty compound wore it in a smooth and even way just like an arm would after man years. the rest of it was just hitting the guitar into things and throwing things at it LOL. as for the dirty neck, i may make it dirtier but it looks even better in person so it may stay. i also still need to decide if i want to finish check it or not and add a matching Marilyn Monroe pinup to the back like my other 2 tone burst Clone #013 which isn't a relic. as for hardware...real charvel brass knob, repro strap buttons, some gotoh crownheads from the charvel era (although they never used crownheads on 22 fret necks as far as i know they still look cool on it so i went with them.) a floyd from the 80s with just the right amount of pitting an wear. for pickups it has a Custom 5 in the bridge which is also aged but it's hard to tell in the pics. the neck pickup is a dimarzio area 61 which i'm really digging so far, a great hollow stratty tone that works real well clean and under high gain which is what i do most. anyway enough babble here are the pics...

so do i finish check it or call it done as is??? your thoughts?

the cool bonus 1954 serial number....

-Mike

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

damn you...that is all

 

[Pierre]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

My eyes, brain and especially heart are very confused.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

I still say give it a middle pickup...learnhow to play around it!

Also, I say do a little checking as well...anything with that kind of wear would be checked by now...

 

[Sanford]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Leave it as is, let the rest of the relicing occur naturally. So far so good, though.

 

[Rod Turtle]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

That's gorgeous!

 

[CapoFirstFret]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

I agree with TGWIF...a little finish checking would be awesome..not much, but just a bit. You guys and your relic'ing....I'm *so* tempted to send my telecaster to one of you guys and have you relic it out for me...hmmm...

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Jeez.... that thing is sweet. I might have to decide that relic'ing is cool. I love in the last pic how the body looks all torn up, and the neckplate is pristine.

A little finish check might be ok, but not to where it looks like a cracked piece of safety glass. If it were mine, the only thing I might do is try out a parchment guard, and try to get the neck pickup looking a little less new.

That brass knob is really cool. I love when your super Strats have mismatched hardware.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Awesome as usual Mike! I really need to get some money so you can build me something!

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

TGWIF...you will come to the dark side of floyded hum loaded strats mark my words!! and no, there will be no middle pickups on this one.

Pierre...i'm just as confused by your response lol.

sanford..thanks!!

Rod...thank you!!

Capo...i was also 50/50 on relics then i did my first one and now i love them and want MORE MORE MORE, it's addicting.

JB...thanks man! i've decide relicing IS cool. i may add some checking, not sure yet. it already does have a bit on the back of the lower horn actually (can't see it in the pics) and i may do more...not sure. the miss matched hardware is a charvel thing actually. most of them came with brass knobs and brass vintage trems in the 80s and if they were floyded the owners would usually just leave the brass knob even if the floyd was chrome or black. plus i just love that look too. also the neck pickup cover is beat up a bit it just gets washed out in the pics. i scratched it up rounded the edge a bit and made it a bit dirty. nothing crazy but enough when you see it in person. pics always loose the small details.

9finger...thanks bro!! working backwards on a guitar for you would be a challenge hahaha.

-Mike

 

[Gunny47]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Sweet i dig it man great job!

I vote for checking and no pin-up sticker, I'm not a fan of stickers on the guitar, especially a pin-up sticker which in my opinion is kinda cliche already.
I also vote for middle pickup, but that's my opinion. Even for looks I think it would look cooler and it definitely gives u a good selection of other sounds..

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

That looks incredible!

I kinda liked the pickguard/pickups' color combination (PARTICULARLY the zebra bridge with the cream SCs) on the other one better but this one looks, just more authentic I guess.
That's an amazing level of detail on this one

Just IMO but if it were me I'd probably leave checking to nature while I'd probably get a middle pickup for that as well.
Something pretty vintage in specs and screwed completely FLUSH to the pickguard so that your hand won't know it's even there.

Again congrats man

 

[tone?]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

i Love these threads man...

Mike, just quit everything else you do and make kick ass super strats.......leave everything else....

I dig the relicing work but i would prefer it without .

the only thing i would change is the covered bucker and put in a cream/black one like you have in your other clone.

how does it sound with the big block on that sucker???

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

As usual...a pleasure

 

[gOgIver]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Killer! Really like the location for that volume knob too. If you aged the trem arm and tuning pegs that would just be icing on the cake!

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Gunny47...thanks.

keeper...i wanted a different vibe witht his one so i did the nickel cover and white single to mix it up. the vibe of someone stuck a paf in an old strat or something along those lines.

tone?...thanks! it sounds great with the big block but the big block is always a plus to me since it fattens things up and i like a bigger sound.

rid...thanks very much!

gOgIver...that became my favorite volume knob location on a strat with a guard, far enough from the strings so i can rest my pinkie there but close enough for volume swells. plus it's visually balanced there since it sits roughly in the center of the pickguard screw, switch screw and hum mounting screw. the tuners are from the early 80s and have plenty of wear to them but they aren't rusty old crap, much more evident in person. that pic makes them look oddly new, they aren't that clean at all. plus those things are worth too much to rust up more anyway and being that they are 80s they are naturally aged from that era same as the floyd and not falsely aged. as for the floyd bar...those don't rust. i've never seen a chrome floyd bar with the threaded collar that was rusted. i've seen black and gold ones with the plating worn off and original screw in floyd bars rusted but never came across a rusted collar style bar. remember it's 80s style, not 50s so there wouldn't be as much hardware wear as a 50s or 60s strat would have. you can't really compare it to the overly rusted stuff of the 50s and 60s and that's cool for sure it's just not what this guitar is. this is, like my other relic, a mash up of 50s meets 80s. like someone modded a 50s strat in the 80s is the basic vibe like the body has been around since the 50s but the neck and hardware came in here and there in the 80s. i've seen several strats that got turned into mutts with charvel necks and floyds and kahlers and all that in the 80s and that's the vibe i wanted. look at the new DG strat fender is making based off his black strat that once had a kahler, a few different necks (one was even a charvel neck). that's the vibe i like, the road warrior that's survived over the years with many transformations and mods and parts swaps.

-Mike

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

I'd love to have that! The extra 54 mojo has been imparted on that one. lol

I don't know if it's my imagination or not, but it seems like the HS setup allows a strat to breathe more, like the middle pickup isn't pulling on the strings in the center of the body or something. I'm really starting to like the HS configuration more and more....in my mind, it's sort of like jumping between VH and SRV.

On my silver strat, I just have a volume and 3 way switch, and a 3 way on a strat makes it an even funner guitar to play, since it's easier to switch than a 5 way...which I'm also used to.

 

[butnut]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Killer! Nice job! I went through the relic phase and had fun, I dig the sparseness of the pups and knob, hot rod... I used Kiwi brown shoe polish to age the neck and pickups, rub on, let it sit and rub off, repeat as needed. The Radio Shack acid works on really aging nickel and steel screws. Micro Mesh works to rub out chips and recreate 'rub' by exposing the under layers, primer etc, yet still maintain a dull gloss like real wear. Have fun.

 

[jerryjg]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

Without a doubt one of the nicest guitars Ive seen in a long time. That one s very special. Im just wondering about if you had a double white bridge pickup stead of the chrome.

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: 1954 Charvel...

JohnJohn....yup that was the reaction i wanted from the topic title...huh? a what??? lol

GJ...yeah that bonus of the 54 serial was real cool, the icing on the cake. it's not your imagination at all. with real single coils having the poles be the magnets they pull the strings much more than a humbucker does so having one in the middle pulls the strings out of the natural rotation more that just a neck single. even better is just a bridge hum but i love the sound of a single in the neck of a strat or even a cool rails which is a nice mix of stratty and humbucker like. on my black relic if i bring the middle single up the tone changes on the guitar, it gets a bit thinner and it losses some sustain. if i drop it level with the guard the guitar rings better gets a hair warmer and the sustain increases. that middle pickup is the devil as far as i'm concerned lol. i just did it on the other one for pure aesthetics. for this one i wanted a player so i have no need for a tone knob and no need for a middle single. i go from bridge hum to neck single on the 3 way and once in a blue moon on a clean channel use the middle position of both pickups. the hum/single setup really is the perfect setup on any type of strat or super strat IMO.

butnut...thanks for the kind words and the tips!

Jerry...thanks man!! i was kind of going for the PAF taken out of an old les paul look with the nickel cover and it was something different than the typical white black or zebra hum you tend to see in a strat. white could certainly work but that would be too inside the box for me and i always like to step outside the box a bit and mix things up.

-Mike