inter
New member
I had my first ebay guitar for a week and here's the story on what happened. It might help anybody who's looking to buy a guitar off ebay for the first time.
I won the guitar with a bid in the last 30 secs and I get an email from the 2nd highest bidder. He tells me he's a charvel collector and congratulated me on the win. He asked me to write to him on how it was when I got.
I finally got the Charvel. I emailed to seller over a few issues with the guitar which you can read further on (PM me if you want a copy of the email I sent
). Once that was sorted, I then get an email from the Charvel collector who was offered a 2nd chance and asks me if I got it and if I was happy with it (ie do you want to sell it to me )
Here's the email I sent,
"That's strange. I've already paid for it and left feedback for the guy.
There were a few issue's with it. Btw, I'm very critical with my guitars. He's probably regretting selling it to me.
It's not in 'immaculate condition, closer to near mint. There's a small mark on the front and a couple on the back.
The original schaller trem intonation and pickup selector screws were substituted with weird chrome screws (they are the right size so it hasn't stripped the threads). If you check the pic in his auction (see below) and if you zoom in on the trem, you'll see what I mean. I've made an order to replace these.
The pickups were the wrong way around (check the pic). He had the tone knob set up to split both pickups at the same time. Nice idea, but it was too noisy and the pickups didn't seem to sound right either split or in full humbucker mode. I switched the pup's to their right place and I replaced the push/pull knob and rewired it to a 3 way neck/both/bridge setup. He's also included the original Jackson 5 way, which is cool if I want to take it back to stock specs.
Now the good news.
It plays wonderfully.
After I did the above, it's got a deep, rich tone that none of my other guitars can touch. The sustain is just incredible all over the neck. I've owned a few Les Paul's in the past and sold them because I never liked the ergonomics (no body contour's on the back or for your picking forearm, bad high fret access, etc.). This is the best of both worlds. Feels like a strat, but has a deep Les Paul tone. The pickups are awesome. It has a J80C in the bridge (sounds remarkably similar to a Duncan Custom ie: ceramic mag, 13k) and a J50 in the neck (Very similar to a Duncan Jazz ie: alnico mag, 8.58k).
It feels like nothing I've played before. The archtop is sensational for palm muting. I'm not sure if I'm going to remove the paint off the back of the neck. It will probably kill the resale value but I like a bare wood neck so I'm still thinking about it.
I guess the only thing I don't like so far is the painted neck.
The archtop has really wet my appetite for a Wolfgang archtop (I told him that's what I'm ultimately after) but this 750xl is less than half the price and it's built with the same quality as a custom shop model. I can't afford both so I having a hard time deciding. Can you let me know if you'll be interested for awhile. I guess either way it will make my decision easier to customise to my needs or get the Wolfie".
So, there you go. I posted ealier on, asking if anyone had played/owned one. Zerb was good enough to reply and he reckoned the Charvel 750XL is a bloody good guitar (I'm paraphrasing), which is something since I've only read negative things from him on imported Charvel/Jacksons.
As I said earlier, it's tough knowing if a guitar is a keeper if there are features you don't like and you know major customising generally means your killing your guitar's resale value
I won the guitar with a bid in the last 30 secs and I get an email from the 2nd highest bidder. He tells me he's a charvel collector and congratulated me on the win. He asked me to write to him on how it was when I got.
I finally got the Charvel. I emailed to seller over a few issues with the guitar which you can read further on (PM me if you want a copy of the email I sent
). Once that was sorted, I then get an email from the Charvel collector who was offered a 2nd chance and asks me if I got it and if I was happy with it (ie do you want to sell it to me )Here's the email I sent,
"That's strange. I've already paid for it and left feedback for the guy.
There were a few issue's with it. Btw, I'm very critical with my guitars. He's probably regretting selling it to me
.It's not in 'immaculate condition, closer to near mint. There's a small mark on the front and a couple on the back.
The original schaller trem intonation and pickup selector screws were substituted with weird chrome screws (they are the right size so it hasn't stripped the threads). If you check the pic in his auction (see below) and if you zoom in on the trem, you'll see what I mean. I've made an order to replace these.
The pickups were the wrong way around (check the pic). He had the tone knob set up to split both pickups at the same time. Nice idea, but it was too noisy and the pickups didn't seem to sound right either split or in full humbucker mode. I switched the pup's to their right place and I replaced the push/pull knob and rewired it to a 3 way neck/both/bridge setup. He's also included the original Jackson 5 way, which is cool if I want to take it back to stock specs.
Now the good news.
It plays wonderfully.
After I did the above, it's got a deep, rich tone that none of my other guitars can touch. The sustain is just incredible all over the neck. I've owned a few Les Paul's in the past and sold them because I never liked the ergonomics (no body contour's on the back or for your picking forearm, bad high fret access, etc.). This is the best of both worlds. Feels like a strat, but has a deep Les Paul tone. The pickups are awesome. It has a J80C in the bridge (sounds remarkably similar to a Duncan Custom ie: ceramic mag, 13k) and a J50 in the neck (Very similar to a Duncan Jazz ie: alnico mag, 8.58k).
It feels like nothing I've played before. The archtop is sensational for palm muting. I'm not sure if I'm going to remove the paint off the back of the neck. It will probably kill the resale value but I like a bare wood neck so I'm still thinking about it.
I guess the only thing I don't like so far is the painted neck.
The archtop has really wet my appetite for a Wolfgang archtop (I told him that's what I'm ultimately after) but this 750xl is less than half the price and it's built with the same quality as a custom shop model. I can't afford both so I having a hard time deciding. Can you let me know if you'll be interested for awhile. I guess either way it will make my decision easier to customise to my needs or get the Wolfie".
So, there you go. I posted ealier on, asking if anyone had played/owned one. Zerb was good enough to reply and he reckoned the Charvel 750XL is a bloody good guitar (I'm paraphrasing
), which is something since I've only read negative things from him on imported Charvel/Jacksons. As I said earlier, it's tough knowing if a guitar is a keeper if there are features you don't like and you know major customising generally means your killing your guitar's resale value
)
