These guitars are the epitome of what a Charvel isn't. They're cheap import Jacksons with Charvel logos on the headstock to compete with the horrid and tacky abalone loaded LTD and Schecters.
This is worse than the Charvel model series debacle of the mid to late 80s. At least the model series sort of followed the Charvel formula.
They make no sense to me. The reason there are two companies Jackson and Charvel is to differentiate between the guitars based on the players needs and wants. This just blurs the line for the sake of a different headstock logo.
24 frets...not Charvel.
Set neck or neck through...not Charvel.
Abalone all over...not Charvel.
Tacky inlays....not Charvel.
Recessed floyds...not Charvel.
String through bodies with T-O-M bridges...not Charvel.
Stop tails and T-O-M bridges...not Charvel.
All those things are inherent Jackson traits that give purpose to their being two separate brands under the same ownership. This just makes a mess of it all and is a disgrace to the Charvel name just like the model series was in the mid to late 80s which killed the brand.
Charvel took a Fender strat and tweaked it... (the basics) humbuckers, floyd or kahler, simple control layouts, flatter radius, bigger frets, wider nut and perhaps no pickguard in most cases. So it was an evolution on a classic making it better for certain types of players.
Then Grover was scared to put his name on the wild Concorde design RR came up with so the Jackson portion of the company was born where things with pointy headstocks, neck through, 24 frets, floating floyds, string through bodies, T-O-M bridges, Binding, fancy inlays and wild shapes etc would have a home without messing with the Charvel name which already established itself as the best hot rod version of a Strat.
There was no need for the brand to go in this direction, these could have just been a line of Jacksons and done just as well for the parent company Fender. Perhaps the Skatecaster (horrid name BTW) as a bolt on Charvel but the rest? Why? $$$ I guess since tradition and keeping the dignity of an important name in rock guitar history obviously means nothing to them. It was bad enough when they moved an iconic San Dimas USA made guitar to Japan for the production models to raise profits but this is just sad.
