dystrust
New member
I've made several mentions of my Charvel Model 4 partscaster lately, so I decided to include a bit of a life story with this latest update.
The neck plate (247XXX) dates to late '86, and when my brother purchased the guitar in 2003 or so it looked like this except for a covered bridge pickup:
He installed a Full Shred in the bridge and played it that way for a year or so. About a year later he wanted something different, and I was able to get it from him as part of a trade (minus the FS). Around the same time I acquired an '87/'88 Model 2 that had suffered a botched refin. When I decided to strip that body I put the maple neck on this guitar and gutted the stock active electronics. I wanted something simple, so I grabbed a Cool Rails and '59 from my parts bin along with a 3-way switch and 500K volume pot. The Cool Rails was great, but the '59 was screechy and weak, so I replaced it with a Custom 5. I never liked the Jackson JT-6 behind-the nut clamp, so I ditched it in favor of Sperzel locking tuners. I also broke the original Kahler bar. This pic was taken in May 2007 with the Custom 5 and an after market bar:
In 2008 I swapped the stock Kahler with its brass cam & rollers for one with steel cam & rollers. The springs in the original bridge were shot, and I'd wanted to try an Invader in this guitar. The new bridge was significantly brighter sounding, so it balanced quite well. I played it in that configuration until 2010 sometime when I refurbished the stock bridge and reinstalled it along with a new Kahler heavy bar. The Invader didn't sound nearly as good with this bridge, so I swapped it for a zebra Custom.
I left the guitar like that for years; it played good, sounded good (if a bit bass heavy), and stayed in tune OK. Last year I swapped the stock graphite nut for TUSQ-XL in hope of improving the tuning stability, but the headstock angle was too steep for it to help much. My last resort was to swap necks with my Model 1A and install a locking nut. I'd originally planned to use a Floyd Rose nut, but changed my mind when I found something that seemed more suitable:
That is a Kahler 5521 locking nut. It has a 12" radius which matches the neck instead of Schaller's 10" or Gotoh's 17"; it also can be unlocked with a coin in place of the usual hex wrench. Here's what my tech had to say about it:
This locknut is great; the tuning is rock solid and it's definitely worth the small premium over a Floyd nut IMO. I wanted the zebra Custom in this guitar for my Explorer, so I put the old Custom 5 back, but not before swapping the magnet to an A2. The Custom Custom is amazing in this guitar; it still sounds big but not overly bassy like the Custom or too bright like the Custom 5. Here's what it looks like now, complete with the Kahler heavy bar:
The only downside to Kahlers is that you need to either solder the ball ends of your strings, or buy them reinforced. It had been so long since I actually used the bar that I forgot; the ball popped off the high E after less than an hour of play. A box of reinforced D'Addario 10s is on its way.
The neck plate (247XXX) dates to late '86, and when my brother purchased the guitar in 2003 or so it looked like this except for a covered bridge pickup:
He installed a Full Shred in the bridge and played it that way for a year or so. About a year later he wanted something different, and I was able to get it from him as part of a trade (minus the FS). Around the same time I acquired an '87/'88 Model 2 that had suffered a botched refin. When I decided to strip that body I put the maple neck on this guitar and gutted the stock active electronics. I wanted something simple, so I grabbed a Cool Rails and '59 from my parts bin along with a 3-way switch and 500K volume pot. The Cool Rails was great, but the '59 was screechy and weak, so I replaced it with a Custom 5. I never liked the Jackson JT-6 behind-the nut clamp, so I ditched it in favor of Sperzel locking tuners. I also broke the original Kahler bar. This pic was taken in May 2007 with the Custom 5 and an after market bar:
In 2008 I swapped the stock Kahler with its brass cam & rollers for one with steel cam & rollers. The springs in the original bridge were shot, and I'd wanted to try an Invader in this guitar. The new bridge was significantly brighter sounding, so it balanced quite well. I played it in that configuration until 2010 sometime when I refurbished the stock bridge and reinstalled it along with a new Kahler heavy bar. The Invader didn't sound nearly as good with this bridge, so I swapped it for a zebra Custom.
I left the guitar like that for years; it played good, sounded good (if a bit bass heavy), and stayed in tune OK. Last year I swapped the stock graphite nut for TUSQ-XL in hope of improving the tuning stability, but the headstock angle was too steep for it to help much. My last resort was to swap necks with my Model 1A and install a locking nut. I'd originally planned to use a Floyd Rose nut, but changed my mind when I found something that seemed more suitable:
That is a Kahler 5521 locking nut. It has a 12" radius which matches the neck instead of Schaller's 10" or Gotoh's 17"; it also can be unlocked with a coin in place of the usual hex wrench. Here's what my tech had to say about it:
BrianS said:
This locknut is great; the tuning is rock solid and it's definitely worth the small premium over a Floyd nut IMO. I wanted the zebra Custom in this guitar for my Explorer, so I put the old Custom 5 back, but not before swapping the magnet to an A2. The Custom Custom is amazing in this guitar; it still sounds big but not overly bassy like the Custom or too bright like the Custom 5. Here's what it looks like now, complete with the Kahler heavy bar:
The only downside to Kahlers is that you need to either solder the ball ends of your strings, or buy them reinforced. It had been so long since I actually used the bar that I forgot; the ball popped off the high E after less than an hour of play. A box of reinforced D'Addario 10s is on its way.
