1985 Charvel San Dimas Custom Shop Strat
Back in 1985, when I graduated from high school, my parents bought me a custom spec'd Charvel for my graduation present. We put the order in at Hot Licks Guitars with the late Howard Tsukamoto, and the guitar arrived a few months later.
At the time I ordered this, I was playing my modified 72 Strat, which had a Kahler and a DiMarzio HS-3 hot single coil sized humbucker in the bridge, so this was the logical extension of that guitar.
Still a Strat body, with a Kahler, and an HSS configuration, as I was big into Yngwie at the time and wanted that sweet single coil lead tone in the neck position. I wanted it to have a black and purple look, so I opted for an ebony fingerboard and a matching painted headstock.
I had hoped the logo would be black, but instead they used the gold logo that they put on the regular black headstocks. I've grown to like it gold.
The body is fairly heavy, probably owing to the fact that there isn't that much wood cut out for the Kahler as there would be with a Floyd Rose or standard trem. And I think the body is made out of maple. At the time, I wasn't that knowledgeable about tone woods, but had I known more I would have asked them to construct this out of lighter alder.
I had also ordered the electronics with three mini toggles. The volume knob is a push pull coil splitter for the humbucker, so I could go back to the single coil tone in the bridge.
The neck is oiled maple and is really nice feeling. It has gotten such a great aged look after being played for so long.
This is such an awesome guitar, and I used it at my first club gig, which was at Bully Hayes in Pearl City in 1986 with my band at the time, which included Terrence Kamisato, Dean Myatt, and Danny Marich. Unfortunately I don't have pics of that gig.
Prior to receiving this guitar, we had a trip to L.A. and visited the San Dimas factory for a tour. It was so cool to see an entire guitar factory pumping out nothing but custom orders. I was looking for my order but didn't see it. If I can find pics of that factory tour, I'll update this post.
Still a Strat body, with a Kahler, and an HSS configuration, as I was big into Yngwie at the time and wanted that sweet single coil lead tone in the neck position. I wanted it to have a black and purple look, so I opted for an ebony fingerboard and a matching painted headstock.
The body is fairly heavy, probably owing to the fact that there isn't that much wood cut out for the Kahler as there would be with a Floyd Rose or standard trem. And I think the body is made out of maple. At the time, I wasn't that knowledgeable about tone woods, but had I known more I would have asked them to construct this out of lighter alder.
Prior to receiving this guitar, we had a trip to L.A. and visited the San Dimas factory for a tour. It was so cool to see an entire guitar factory pumping out nothing but custom orders. I was looking for my order but didn't see it. If I can find pics of that factory tour, I'll update this post.
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