Emmett | soldguitars

2007 Charvel MasterBuilt Legacy

"Emmett"

#GJ1093

This was my second Charvel MasterBuilt Legacy, handmade in the USA Charvel Custom Shop in March 2007, one of 20 worldwide. This was from the same run of 'Master-Built' guitars as "Charlotte", and is every bit as nicely made. Again, the heart was the oil-finished, 21 fret neck (with the same scrumptious rosewood position markers and brass side-dots), which filled my hands perfectly and felt like it had been lying around at my place for 20 years. SUCH an awesome neck. This had no modifications, as you might expect, although I came VERY close to having it Floyded. Twice. This wore the original pickup; a DiMarzio X2N. A crazy pickup if I've ever heard one. In your face and as powerful as a jack-hammer, but still cleaned up nicely if you forced it to. As if you would ever want it to? Charvel aficionados are split by the star body shape, which is clearly influenced strongly by the Gibson Explorer (see "Scott"). Its interesting (at least to ME!) that the shape of the classic Charvel control cavity fits the lower rear bout (where the controls sit) of the star perfectly. Its almost as if it was designed specifically around the shape of the guitar ... which it was of course. The same shape cavity was (and still is) used on Charvel's strat-shaped guitars, like Charlotte, Bobby, Enzo ... so they all have a bit of the star body shape carved into them. Whatever your preference, Stars balance really well, probably better than explorers.

I know that its incredibly cheesy, but I liked the paint job just fine. The 'Shazam Bolt' fits the body shape perfectly. Its important, however, never to wear spandex / lycra when playing this ...or eyeliner of course ... in case of 80's overload. It came with the usual (and very nice) leather-bound 'Master-Built' CoA hand-signed by Grover, Todd Krause, Mike Shannon, Stephen Stern and Mike Eldred; the original early-80's Charvel guys. Again, these were initially sold for $10,000 ... which is crazy ... and of the 20 made, the ones that didn't sell we're discounted a LOT. It seemed to be the stars that didn't sell well, probably because of the limited demographic (sad 80's guys like me). It's worth noting that this one had a double-logo on the headstock. Charlotte has a single, gold logo. This had a black logo, with a gold logo placed over it, slightly off-set so that it looks shadowed. Odd. Some of the original Charvels had double logos, but I've never seen another Legacy with one.

I'm not sure how many of these made it to England ... I'm guessing 1 or 2 at most, but I bought this one used from a bloke who spent a whole shit-ton of money on it, then lost his shirt when he sold it to me (thanks to the powerful voodoo contained in my haggling-pants). I sold this because ... well ... the neck was the star of the show, and "Charlotte" has precisely the same neck. With this hanging next to Charlotte, it was the latter that got all of my attention. Not least of all because the SH pickup layout and strat body shape made Charlotte easier to live with. All in all, this was a tremendous guitar, and I am proud to have owned it, but owning this AND Charlotte was kinda silly ...