1990 Charvel 475 Deluxe Exotic

Details

This guitar was marked as a Charvel Model 6 online, with no pictures at all, but for the price I figured even if it were a damaged Model 6 I couldn’t lose, so I went for it. What arrived really surprised me - a pretty decent condition 475 Deluxe, with the flamed maple top and back. This is no case queen by any means, but I really expected a broken headstock, missing pickups, or other extreme damage. This one has a small ding in the binding on the bottom side of the fretboard, but it’s smooth so I don’t notice it unless I specifically look for it, and quite a bit of finish rash on the bottom edges. I’ve seen a lot of these online with very similar damage, and from what I can gather the type of transparent finish that was used, especially the red color at the edges, can be a bit brittle and thin and thus flakes off easily. It almost looks similar to a slightly melted lollipop or other hard candy, the way it chips off.

Cosmetic issues aside, it arrived with all original factory parts, Jackson tuners, Jackson JT-590 (Schaller german-made) Floyd bridge, and the usual compliment of J50BC and J200 pickups. The JE-1200 mid boost circuit works flawlessly and as I’m no fan of the J50BC, I thought this would be a good opportunity to try something new without messing up something like my grey Model 4 which at the time was completely stock. I initially installed a Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB (pictured), which sounded as expected, but the mid boost seems to boost frequencies this pickup is naturally rich in, making it less noticeable. Not long after, I replaced the JB with a leftover SH-13 Dimebucker, a pickup I got with my first guitar a decade ago and have always struggled to like. It was always too scooped, with too much bass and hair, especially through the amps I had at the time. However, I’m glad to say it has found its home - it is great in this circuit. When the boost is off, it retains that fierce scooped metal sound, with lots of output and aggressiveness. When turning up the mid boost, it starts the get thicker and cuts through very nicely for solos without being ear piercing. That versatility combined with the excellent J200’s, which do a similar transition from traditional single coil to thick lead sounds with the mid boost turned up, have made this into one of my most fun guitars to play. This is one of my few guitars also equipped now with a trem block screw, since it can do so many different styles so well I wanted to be able to use it for both standard tuning and Drop-D type songs as well.

This guitar also made a great road trip with me up to South Carolina for work, and spent a week in my hotel room with my Yamaha practice amp - quite the bonding experience.

I no longer own this instrument