Guitar Gear Forum

So I decided to do this. Lol. I know some of you know 80s charvels were known for quite a few taped style paint jobs. I had one called the psychedelic swirl which was definitely the catalyst for trying something like this. Looking at it now, I’m pretty sure with some very careful tapin I could actually pull it off. For this, I just started free-handing it and taping. I didn’t really have any plan or design, just tried a couple patterns on top and let’s see what happens… Well This is what happened!! Also, this was an older build of mine. About a year ago I had filed out the cutaway to get better fret access as this was initially true to the orginal 80s design. Which, I knew didn’t have great fret access but I built it original anyway. Finally i said let me try this and if it goes to shit I’ll just build a new one. So that’s what made it needing a refinish. The cutaway May not be my favorite aesthetically, but it looks fine enough and it really helps get access to the 21st fret with ease.

Should have wiped the smudges from playing off but… Also that’s an Antiquity JB. So I really made it as close as possible to an old school Charvel. It honestly sounds like you’d hope. But he antiquity JB does have a little sumthin extra goin on. And I ran it with a 300k pot before so that’s what I did again and that’s definitely a good choice with this pickup..

Hahaha man I love this kind finish and yeah I AM stuck in the 80s. Everything about this looks right to me.

GuitarBilly wrote:Hahaha man I love this kind finish and yeah I AM stuck in the 80s. Everything about this looks right to me.

Haha, hell yeah.!!! And I felt the same. It “looks right to me” on it, so overall happy with the outcome. Especially since I was really going at it with no plan. I kinda knew what I’d be getting but I was a little (pleasantly) surprised at the “semi-circular” movement of it.

That turned out awesome, looks great!!

Shit rules

Devin wrote:Shit rules

Lance-a-not wrote:That turned out awesome, looks great!!

Thanks Burroughs!!!

Stuck in the 80s? Don't mind me over here just looking into rack effects units again...

That looks great! And I know I shouldn't but I will likely take a dive into an Antiquity JB at some point.

MacaroniSalad wrote:Stuck in the 80s? Don't mind me over here just looking into rack effects units again...

That looks great! And I know I shouldn't but I will likely take a dive into an Antiquity JB at some point.

80’s FUCK YEAH!!!

I was trying to make it sound like that video of “Americuh, Fuck Yeah!” Lol

I bet a full rack with an anyiquity JB would be a mighty fine combo…

But for real, I know some will love to say pickups don’t matter much, and especially let’s say from One JB style to literally another JB type. But I really did go thru and listen as best that I could from a modern JB and this one. Sure, in a recording, not gonna be easy to pick at all. But there is a difference. There is a slight smoothing of this. It is still bright in the upper mids but it just feels more relaxed in the more “pokey “ frequencies. It’s a great pickup. Def my fave JB. And even tho I wear down my pickups from regular playing, I think the worn/distressed look is pretty cool on these

EndTime wrote:

MacaroniSalad wrote:Stuck in the 80s? Don't mind me over here just looking into rack effects units again...

That looks great! And I know I shouldn't but I will likely take a dive into an Antiquity JB at some point.

80’s FUCK YEAH!!!

I was trying to make it sound like that video of “Americuh, Fuck Yeah!” Lol

I bet a full rack with an anyiquity JB would be a mighty fine combo…

But for real, I know some will love to say pickups don’t matter much, and especially let’s say from One JB style to literally another JB type. But I really did go thru and listen as best that I could from a modern JB and this one. Sure, in a recording, not gonna be easy to pick at all. But there is a difference. There is a slight smoothing of this. It is still bright in the upper mids but it just feels more relaxed in the more “pokey “ frequencies. It’s a great pickup. Def my fave JB. And even tho I wear down my pickups from regular playing, I think the worn/distressed look is pretty cool on these

It’s funny, I went through a long phase of being “anti JB” just because they were so common, then last year I did a parts build of basically a Kramer Pacer Special, and I put in a JB, and by God it’s the best sounding guitar I have So I will revisit JBs again, maybe put one in something else I’ve got or do another build.

As for rack effects, I think I’m gonna grab a cheap Lexicon MPX100. I like that it’s just knobs instead of menus and shit. Won’t break the bank and should do the job for what I want.

The JB is a really finicky pickup. I have one here that I tried on 7 guitars and it never sounded good. Then I put it in my Les Paul Studio and it sounded amazing and it stayed there.

Every pickup is guitar dependent, but the JB is the worst of them all. It can go from dogshit to awesome depending on the guitar.

EndTime wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:Hahaha man I love this kind finish and yeah I AM stuck in the 80s. Everything about this looks right to me.

Haha, hell yeah.!!! And I felt the same. It “looks right to me” on it, so overall happy with the outcome. Especially since I was really going at it with no plan. I kinda knew what I’d be getting but I was a little (pleasantly) surprised at the “semi-circular” movement of it.

The guitar looks great and the movement of the pattern is a nice touch.

Killer axe!

very nice!

hard to believe that is not a factory finish, and looks better than a lot of factory ones.

the fact that its not just one repeatable pattern over the guitar and more of a gradient is <chef's kiss>

VTM wrote:Killer axe!

Thanks man! You have one of the other “tape jobs “ I’ve done! I’ve actually done a few but I think only a 3 are still out there. I did a few for myself, one of em I have no idea why I scraped it and repainted it. It turned out exactly as I hoped to be honest, I guess I just had a bad day and didn’t like it and fucking painted over it. I seriously have no idea why I did that, cause it was really in depth and total old Charvel too.,,
The other is definitely been scrapped. But it was more the guitar itself I moved on from. It was my 3rd build ever. Sounded great actually but it had some other design errors I could never “get over”. So I took all the parts and it’s been sitting in the back getting destroyed by the elements for years now!

Landshark wrote:very nice!

hard to believe that is not a factory finish, and looks better than a lot of factory ones.

the fact that its not just one repeatable pattern over the guitar and more of a gradient is <chef's kiss>

I mighty appreciate that man! For the most part I can definitely spray pro finishes. I’ve been trying to get into more commercial style. Meaning the modern polyester stuff. Just cause it’s indestructible and much faster drying but it’s such a hard finish that I’m finding it difficult to truly buff out all the final sanding scratches without a buffer wheel.

This one is old school lacquer. They may not be the most durable but I can spray and buff out these to be basically pro level.

Couple pics I took today outside. And oh yeah I did a silver burst on the back. Was gonna do that On The whole guitar but went this way

I run my trem stops the same way. Fuck the little screw, just put the bracket in place to block the trem hahaha

MacaroniSalad wrote:I run my trem stops the same way. Fuck the little screw, just put the bracket in place to block the trem hahaha

Nice! Yeah, sometimes I use the screw but it’s obviously more surface area to simply use it like this. Also the screw “backs off” and I always have to use a bit of super glue to hold it in place. And that include the stop but some are included with.

MacaroniSalad wrote:I run my trem stops the same way. Fuck the little screw, just put the bracket in place to block the trem hahaha

EndTime wrote:Nice! Yeah, sometimes I use the screw but it’s obviously more surface area to simply use it like this. Also the screw “backs off” and I always have to use a bit of super glue to hold it in place. And that include the stop but some are included with.

huh... that is a great idea!!!

EndTime wrote:

MacaroniSalad wrote:I run my trem stops the same way. Fuck the little screw, just put the bracket in place to block the trem hahaha

Nice! Yeah, sometimes I use the screw but it’s obviously more surface area to simply use it like this. Also the screw “backs off” and I always have to use a bit of super glue to hold it in place. And that include the stop but some are included with.

I encountered the same problem. I didn’t like hearing the screw rattle if I didn’t lock it in with super glue or something. This obviously eliminates it altogether.

Dig