Bear | soldguitars

Charvel Custom Shop Bullseye

"Bear"

#7153

Now THIS is what Charvel is all about to me, moreso even than the proper old stuff (like Damascus, below). This is SUCH a nice guitar, and was made in the USA Custom Shop. First up, build quality. Everywhere you look, absolutely everything is just right. The neck pocket is tight enough so that the neck will slip in there and stay put without screws ... perfectly precisely sized, so that lots of vibrations get through. You can pick the guitar up by the neck when there are no screws in the neck joint. Which is awesome. No need for any shims HERE, thank you. The neck (quarter-sawn maple with the usual compound radius) is finished perfectly (that oiled roughness that I like so much), with silky smooth fret-ends and an action that I've set as low as I can bear (to still be usable) but which COULD go lower with no dead spots or choking. Seriously, I'll be buying more of these (EDIT ... I did). As for hardware, we've got a proper German Floyd and a single Seymour Duncan ... I think that the pickup is the "Sounds Awesome" model (© Mike Hickey), but I neither know nor care what model it really is ... it sounds great, so its staying where it is. The finish is, for ME at least, one of the two classic Charvel graphics. This one, and the blue HRF ('Hot Rod Flames', popularised by Charvel's Mike Eldred) are what Charvels should look like. I'd sell a kidney for a blue HRF. This came from the factory with a single volume control (which is fine) but the previous owner added a tone control and a push-pull coil tap on the tone knob. I don't like modifying guitars, but I can tolerate the mods on this, as they really help to make it a versatile guitar ... full on shred-tone from the pup wide open, a "nearly-woman-tone" with the tone right down through a driven amp, and nice and jangly and thin when coil tapped. Great!

This was the third of a run of four identical guitars made in the Custom Shop, so I suppose that the mods make this one pretty much unique. Found for sale on a gear forum in the States, but the seller flat refused to talk to me because I was in England. Really ... I thought that our £££ were actually REAL currency, and could be swapped for $$$ quite easily. Anyway, I was rescued by a very nice guy, who bought it on my behalf, then shipped it over the pond. The world needs more nice folks like that.