Finished another refinish!

[nickwellings]

This took about 11 months. Got it shipped from the USA in Sept 08 for a steal. Started it immediately the day I I got it. It was in bad condition.


Colour was cobalt blue, and really nice, but majorly damaged in places.


Somone used the back for BB practice I think.





Butt of the body crapped all over, dented, finish peeling.









Headstock raped by an ape:


Crack on E tuner...




Rear view.



Mystery goop:





This one took about 3-5 days of solid hand sanding. I attacked it with a heat gun, paint stripper you name it. There's a thread here documenting my progress:

acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=2109969


I kind of gave up after massive finish cracks appeared. Then my paint supplier went out of business. So some time ago maybe in May I thought "right, start all over". And that is what I did.

[nickwellings]

And here it is now!









I have not buffed it out yet as I lack the products to do it right.

I removed the Nady wireless transmitter that was in there...and put in an old mid boost preamp that it would have had installed from the factory.

I knew that white would be a bit boring, I kind of wanted to do another colour but pearl and glittery ones are hard to get/apply and expensive.

It plays pretty nicely now. The trem arm is a standard Fender one from a Classic Vibe strat!

Kahler trem feels really great. Very very smooth and easy to use. The only thing is, I think I need to tweak the truss rod a bit. Action is way high at the top of the neck.

Aside from that I am pleased!

[halo71]

Great resurecting job Nick!!!

[heem6]

You're my hero Ferris Beuhler!!

Damn, that looks brand new! You did a great job on it!

I've never seen an old Charvel with a Kahler on it. That's pretty cool. What are all the switches for? Did you get a new decal for the headstock? It looks as good as the original.

[nickwellings]

Jim, thanks for the kind words. I worked pretty hard on it and had a lot of trouble with crackling paint back in Jan/Feb-ish time, and started again basically.

Kahler's really lovely to use. Basically the total opposite of the Spyder. Less resistance than a Floyd or even vintage Fender...I know you can adjust stiffness somehow but this is very lightly set. The range of it is great too, for me superior to the Floyd (again like the Spyder in every way!)

I recorded ome bits of me noodling around to shwo the sounds, if I feel brave I might upload.



The headstock is all original including the logo. What I did was shape a new tip from marine epoxy in layers, then sanded to shape. It is by now means perfect. Wood would have been better but I lack the tools for it. The break was very unclean too. I would have had to remove a whole load of material to clean it up.

If I had closeups of the tip you could see what I mean about it not being the best job. If you look at pic one of the finished job, you can just see the tip is darker, there's a join line right after the last tuner. All that after the join is epoxy.

The switches are three on/offs (technically ON/ONS!). One on off for each pickup. The only thing is when you engage more than one, you get a very big output drop which is annoying. I might ask some electronics forum how to get round it, if it is possible.

The chrome knob has the midboost volume. I didn't have another black one and it kind of bugs me!

The individual on/offs are a bit of a pain! No quick switching here, you really have to relearn.


I really think it needs a truss adjust too, as the strings are way high off the board at the butt/highest frets, but comfortable near the nut.

Truss adjusting is a bit "YIKES" to me. Might give it a go.


I saw a catalog scan of the prices of these...the Model 6 was a straight $999.99. Much like the HM! I really do prefer my HMs though. (Don't we all?) Just beautiful instruments in every way.

Having said that, the "Feel" on the model 6 is very nice , with the neck through it actually feels alive, lively, resonant and vibrating...hard to describe but really nice to feel.

[heem6]

Well, I think it turned out very nicely. Basically a Jackson Soloist under a different name, no? I'm sure that guitar has a lot of mojo imparted to it from you putting so much work into it.

Someday my Vandy will be done, but it's had it's share of mis-routing, etc. But the time I finish, I'm hoping they'll be mostly covered up and no one but me and some luthiers will be able to tell. lol

Hey, how do you like those Jackson single coils? I got a vintage Charvel single coil once and it had a very interesting tone. Very glassy, and sort of like it had chorus on it. I wouldn't mind trying another one.