What is visually interesting about this Charvel is the color. This Charvel has serial number 2895 and has been finished with an unusual purple color. Simple but deadly combination of a single pickup, volume only control, vintage tremolo, maple "pointy head" neck rocker.it simply does not get any better.

I acquired this guitar from eBay because of the color. Back when I first started collecting Charvels (and other 80's guitars) it was strictly a "graphic only" club. Man I was so stupid and passed on some KILLER Strat Heads only because I wanted graphics and was at that time not interested in solid color Charvels. Live and learn I guess and I am glad I broke that rule for this one.

Written in the neck pocket of the body are the date and initials of the builder, "11-9-83" and "NL" respectively and written on the neck are the work order (invoice) number "716" and initials "DC". This is an all original Charvel and a great player thanks to the well broken feel of the neck. This guitar I leave in Dropped D tuning and she delivers.

The single pickup, vintage tremolo Charvels with a maple board Jackson style (pointy) neck always draw consider more attention then their dual hum or rosewood brethren. It just looks better albeit a little more limited sound wise because of having a single pickup. The neck on this one has the later black plastic capped headstock face in contrast to having simply the headstock face painted black. From my experience the transition from painted to plastic capped headstock faces occurred around the 2700ish serial number range.

Noteworthy is the shape of the slots (area where string passes through the bridge) found on the saddles of this vintage tremolo. They are a little larger and shaped differently than the more commonly found rectangular or oval shape pattern. If you look closely you notice the slots are shaped like a "key" which has lead to tremolos having this style of saddles being referred to as "keyhole" trems. I have seen other Charvels equipped with this style tremolo (example #3803) from time to time. However, these tremolos are much less commonly found than the "typical" or "normal" vintage tremolos, which have the rectangular slots in the saddles.

Common Charvel traits for the era complete this guitar; brushed aluminum back plates, brass ground plate in the control cavity, 500K volume pot, brass hardware (knob, strap buttons and tremolo), painted routes (trem, pickup and control), non logo'd black Gotoh tuners and a Jackson style (pointy) neck. The super rare color and the single hum layout add to her appeal and admit that this is a great guitar even without a graphic.