Cracklejack | soldguitars

c.1990 Charvel 475 Special

(Limited Edition Platinum Crackle)

"CrackleJack"

#3XXXXX

It appears that cool guitars are like busses ... you wait for ages and see nothing, then loads come along at once. This is a case in point. The actual SAME DAY as I agreed the deal on my Charvel 375 ("Gobi"), this popped up on eBay. Oh dear. A Charvel 475. Luckily, these Japanese Charvels are pretty reasonably priced on the used market, so I figured what the hell.

The process was complicated by a bit of a mix-up between me and a friend-of-a-friend. As we both collect Charvels and both wanted this, we discussed that we were both going to bid, and discussed how much we were going to bid. Now the unspoken Gentleman's agreement ( I thought ...) was that only one of us would bid hard on it. One thing led to another, however, and we ended up inadvertently bidding against each other. Nobody's fault, no bad intentions, but I guess I wanted it more, as I won (obviously, given that the guitar was on my lap as I wrote this ...) but the deal ended up costing me rather a lot more than it needed to. The total was still way less than my top bid (a typical last-few-seconds sniper bid, aimed high), so all's well that ends well I suppose.

So. This is from the same Charvel "Spaghetti Series" as my 375 and my 750XL, and was made in the Chushin Gakki factory in Japan. Like the FujiGen Gakki factory, the stuff they churn out is incredibly good. This one ... the "475 Special", is one step up from the "375 Deluxe", which seems odd ... if Gibson guitars played rock-scissors-stone, a 'Deluxe' would beat a 'Special', but it seems that Charvel had other ideas. Whatever. It is essentially the same guitar as the 375, but has neck and headstock binding, sharktooth board inlays (that's "snowdrift" inlays to us Limeys) and different pickups. Oh, and an active mid-boost circuit. So I suppose, really, that it is not the same as the 375 at ALL.

Pickups are a pair of J200 single coils (actually stacked humbuckers, so they're noiseless) at the neck and middle position, with a J50BC humbucker at the bridge. The signal from the pups (all of which are passive) is fed through a single volume and single tone, then through a JE1200 active mid-boost circuit ... Interestingly, that is EXACTLY the same set up (pickups, controls and active mid-boost) as was fitted to the Charvel Model 6 (like "Hex"). What that means, of course, is that with the mid boost off, you get a great range of stratty tones from the singles (especially from both of them together), but switch to the bridge pup and roll on the mid-boost and all hell breaks loose. Awesome. I enjoyed (a LOT) the tones that were available from the bridge hum as a 'rhythm' setting with the mid boost off, then swapping to a 'lead' setting by simply rolling on the boost ... it's like stomping on a boost pedal in front of a valve amp ... everything just gets BIGGER. Wonderful.

The trem fitted to this is another Jackson JT590 Floyd, made by Schaller in Germany. I've said it before, but these trems are FANTASTIC, as you might expect from a Schaller Floyd. This one was in fine condition too. The whole shebang (pickups, mid-boost, trem, tuners ...) are exactly the same as those fitted by Jackson USA in the late 80's and early 90's by the way ... the result is that this plays and sounds every bit as good (to my palate) as my USA Jackson guitars. It really was very good indeed ... these things are some of the bargains of the decade (... even if I DID pay more than I needed to!).

Right then. Although I've referred to this as a "475 Special", technically it isn't ... it is a "475 Limited Edition Platinum Crackle". The clue as to why is in the name, I suppose. Whereas the standard 475's were available in some quite snazzy finishes (including a lovely cherry sunburst, platinum and 'Desert Crackle' (the cracked-cream-porcelain finish the same as that on "Gobi"), this one was finished in a thoroughly 80's 'Platinum Crackle' finish, as a tribute to the (fantastic) platinum crackle Jackson Soloist used by Phil Collen of Def Leppard. I understand that 350 were made with this finish, and 50 made it across the pond to England. Collen's original guitar (... which, as fate would have it, is ALSO called 'CrackleJack'! ... pictured below) was used heavily by the little bare-chested cockney short-arse during the recording of Hysteria, and was a mainstay on the tour that followed. I ALWAYS wanted that guitar, but I guess will never own it, so should probably have been content to settle for this! The crackle finish on Collen's guitar was VERY tight ... the crackle pattern was formed by loads of very small sections, whereas this one is strikingly different, in that the pattern is larger ... the sections are more distinct, so more of the platinum shows through. This is all entirely subjective of course, but I must admit that I find that the crackle on this is more ... pleasing ... than the crackle on Collen's Jackson. Maybe it's just me. I'd still give my right bollock to own the original though!

For a 25 year old guitar, this is in ridiculously good shape. It still played very VERY well, it sounded fantastic, it felt as good as guitars that I've paid over 5 times more for, and looks like someone just shook up a can of 80's and opened the ring-pull in your face. What a marvellous guitar.

This was sold as part of the intended Super-Cull of 2015. Whereas I intended to shed a few dozen, this was one of three guitars that escaped. Bizarrely, the new owner is the friend-of-a-friend that I mentioned above ... he agreed to buy it for what I paid, so the bidding mix-up that we shared ended up costing HIM a little extra ... all part of the game!