1987 Charvel Model 4

Details

This one carries an interesting story - I drove all the way to Ocala, Florida one afternoon to buy this one in person at Guitar Center. I found the color to be very unique and thought it would be a great addition, but I wasn’t willing to pay the asking price or negotiate over the phone since it wasn’t too far from me at the time. I was able to work out a deal and added a nice case as well.

The stock bridge pickup is a Jackson J50BC in the bridge, which I found atrociously thin sounding, but it is coupled to a JE-1200 midboost circuit which I just leave fully on all the time. Neck and middle are J200 stacked single coils which are excellent either boosted for a thicker smoother hot tone or not for a more traditional single coil tone. While I complain about the J50BC, it does pair nicely in clean amp settings with the J200’s, so it is quite versatile. Interestingly, the previous owner reversed the positions of the master volume and tone pots. Three two-way mini toggles are used to select pickups in a simple on/off fashion. This requires a bit of fiddling at times but there are some unique tones available (although the humbucker cannot be split).

Hardware is the usual Jackson JT-6 by this time, along with Jackson tuners. The maple neck is nicely yellowed with age and sports the fancy sharkfin inlays on a rosewood fretboard. The body is a heavy chunk of basswood. This body color is not listed in the catalogs for 1987 or 1988, but I have seen another with the same finish so I suspect there are a few non-catalog colors out there from the factory.