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View Full Version : Why spend $10-30K for an EVH Charvel?!?



Matt White
12-30-2004, 03:56 PM
All I have left to do is solder the wires and set up the floyd! Thanks to all for their tips & wisdom.

I got inspired when I saw those tools dropping thousands on those Charvels. Why not do like EVH did back in the day and do it yourself?!?

frets5150
12-30-2004, 04:03 PM
GREAT JOB don't forget strings

Matt White
12-30-2004, 04:05 PM
Originally posted by frets5150
GREAT JOB don't forget strings

:D Thanks man! The tips really helped. I was suprised at how easy it was to do.

frets5150
12-30-2004, 04:23 PM
Yeah i tried it once but i am fuckin impatient i pulled the tape off to early and the paint got all gunky so i said fuck it i called meanstreet's
and he did it for me i will try again. I have a LIC floyd and a seymor on it for a good price. Your guitar is it matted or have a shine mine is matted i think i am gonna get some polising compound to bring the shine out. Well here is mine.

Matt White
12-30-2004, 04:31 PM
I used a clear laquer top coat.Then i sanded it with 2000 grit snadpaper. Then i used some slow cut rubbing compound to buff it out. I'm gonna wait a month like GAR advises before polishing it.

Your guitar is way fuckin' cool Bro!

Brett
12-30-2004, 04:50 PM
Both of the those guitars look great. What pickup do you have in the bridge Matt, a Custom?

frets5150
12-30-2004, 05:03 PM
Shit i though i deleted it i was not happy with the pic here is another

Brett
12-30-2004, 05:06 PM
Yeah dude Mitchel does awesome work.

frets5150
12-30-2004, 05:10 PM
And a cool dude to match fuck the 3;000 for the EVH the only difference is a little better pick up that's it

Brett
12-30-2004, 05:15 PM
There is no reason to spend $3,000 on one of those art things, just a total waste of money. You can get a better guitar for a third of the price, hell you probably paid less than that and got a great instrument.

Matt White
12-30-2004, 09:38 PM
Originally posted by Brett
Both of the those guitars look great. What pickup do you have in the bridge Matt, a Custom?

Thanx Brett. I have a Duncan JB model in the bridge.

Also, the tips on your site for the D.I.Y. VH guitar were very helpful. Your 5150 guitar is stellar!

GAR
12-30-2004, 11:48 PM
it looks way way good..

excellent job!

good choice in neck, floyd, pickup.. keen observation.

did you buy all the parts separate?

Matt White
12-30-2004, 11:59 PM
Originally posted by GAR
it looks way way good..

excellent job!

good choice in neck, floyd, pickup.. keen observation.

did you buy all the parts separate?

It started life as a "parts" guitar at a local shop. Warmouth neck & schecter body. I got the fender maple neck myself and added the JB. Came with the floyd. I paid $200.00 for it 10 years ago!:D

Thanks for the tips GAR!

Sarge
12-31-2004, 01:06 AM
that is awesome!

Brett
12-31-2004, 07:40 PM
Originally posted by Matt White
Thanx Brett. I have a Duncan JB model in the bridge.

Also, the tips on your site for the D.I.Y. VH guitar were very helpful. Your 5150 guitar is stellar!

Yeah I have Customs in most of my guitars, just wondering what you threw in there. JB's are nice too.

Thanks, yeah there are some guys in there that have doing that paint job down perfect, they provide great instruction. See the site is good for something. :)

Matt White
01-01-2005, 05:14 PM
Originally posted by Sarge
that is awesome!

Thanks Sarge!:D

Stay safe Man!

Matt White
01-01-2005, 05:15 PM
Originally posted by Brett
Yeah I have Customs in most of my guitars, just wondering what you threw in there. JB's are nice too.

Thanks, yeah there are some guys in there that have doing that paint job down perfect, they provide great instruction. See the site is good for something. :)

That section on the EVH guitars is VERY helpful & very cool.

Eyes of the Night
01-02-2005, 05:30 AM
Yo White, that shit is, in music terms "note for note" in painting terms ...

Baddass!!!:101:

GAR
01-03-2005, 03:31 PM
I own so many Duncans and Gibson humbuckers, I picked up used leather suitcases at thrift stores to contain them and other parts.. because cardboard bursts, tears and stacks in the closet terribly.

I usually settle on a particular pickup after building up a guitar, then changing it after hearing it really loud.

Its' when youre playing loud that the real differences are most noticeable. Otherwise, just about any crap humbucker will do; which is why I usally don't advise custom parts and hot pickups for beginners just starting out.

Beginners don't know what they are looking for other than that they wish to sound like what's on the recordings they wanna learn. I say if the pickups' got hot enough output they'll do just fine for the first year.

MY FIRST piece of shit was a Kay SG copy. It had a chrome covered pickup shield, and after reading Van Halen interviews of the day I felt bold enough to dig the cover off and find out if I could kill the squeal - to my surprise, the pickup contained a mere single-coil of loosely wrapped magnet wire, held on by masking tape!

MASKING TAPE. My $130 bucks bought me two pickups containing one coil each, falling apart and defective the day they were born.

This is what type assembly I found after digging the covers off: one thin bobbin about as thin and as clear as a plastic milk jug container, glued with contact cement to the inside of the cover.

Masking tape held the windings on, while the unsecured leadwire came straight off it and out the bottom plate hole to the controls.

In trying to change the SHIT Korean pots I had pulled on the lead wire for more length, which broke it off the windings! So I get the thing all apart on the kitchen table only to see I didn't have humbuckers AT ALL and in fact, the wiring is unsecured so that any repairs I would make to it would be temporary because the whole assembly was held together with masking tape and contact cement.

Contact cement is upholstery and tolex, not pickups.

I believe what I did was mount both coils together under one pickup cover for awhile until I traded it up to Al Brady for something else at the Live Oak Swap Meet he kept a booth at - for which I had to revert to the original config just so it worked.

KAYS suck. Even today.

I worked at Samick Guitar in City of Industry, where the in-house motto was "The Worst Guitars in the World" - I would correct the staff with my "Let me tell you the story of my KAY SG copy.. "

GAR
01-03-2005, 03:34 PM
Long story short of it: you cannot go wrong with any Gibson or Duncan USA - made pickup, and even the Korean-made Epiphone versions utilize dual-coil pickups for true hum-cancelling (humbucking) operation.

I WISH there was an eBay back then, I could find Epiphone used pickups like I see these days under $10 dollars - anything would be better than my first guitars' experience.

BrownSound1
01-03-2005, 06:36 PM
I had a Strat copy that had shit pickups like that...masking tape and all...found out when I removed the covers to pot them. I learned a lot from dicking with that guitar though....it wasn't a Kay, but a Cort I do believe...plywood body and all.

Duncan pickups are the shit....I'm really starting to love the Antiquity series. I even put some in my Fender Jazz Bass...and I don't play bass a lot, but the tone will give you a woody. :D

Eyes of the Night
01-05-2005, 01:47 AM
Originally posted by frets5150
Shit i though i deleted it i was not happy with the pic here is another



Hey Frets5150, niiice! You guys are kicking my ass in detail ... holy shit!

That's what I originally wanted to put on my Wolfgang ... couldn't find Ed's take ... not one Wolf is striped old school like that ... trippy ...

Shoulda improvised it like my RBW ... cool man


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