Chaparrel Custom restoration

[filtre_]

I bought this guitar recently on an auction site without knowing much about it except for the fact that it had been repainted.

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/67675-fs-in-switzerland-hamer-chaparral/

It is a 1987 Chaparral Custom with a set neck. The instrument used to be white but a previous owner re-painted the body. It appears that the original white is below the new layer of paint. I plan to give it to a luthier to remove the paint and restore it to the vintage white beneath plus give it a professional setup.

Except for the horrible refinish, guitar looks to be in good shape. It has golden Schaller strap-locks which are obviously not original but the pick-ups and tuners and tremolo seem to be original to this guitar.

I have some questions to the Chaparral experts in this forum and highly appreciate your feedback. See images below.

1) Floyd Rose cavity missing
I am surprised that the floyd rose cavity on the front of the body is missing. Any clues why?

2) headstock shape looks 1986 series

I wonder why the shape of the headstock looks like the one on the 1986 series?

I have a 1987 Chaparral bolt-on with a lower serial number that has the smaller headstock, see image above. Please also note the tuners do not form a straight line on the back of the headstock. I guess this is easy to fix.

3) Pickup configuration

The volume knob is push-pull to allow singlecoil mode for the bridge humbucker.
It looks like a Duncan Trembucker. Is this setup original or a modification?

Here are some images:

backside

body w/ floyd rose

headstock comparison w/ my 1987 bolt-on Chaparral:

[Bennyboy-UK]

On the floyd point, the early ones were practically all surface mounted, well proud of the body to allow pull up on the bar.

The neck angle was correspondingly more pronounced to allow for a playable guitar.

When the production moved to Schaller units, at that point the mountings started to include a recess.

However, I would not be surprised at all if there are examples with floyd originals with recesses.

(As far as I know)

[Bennyboy-UK]

Headstock shapes are both standard issue and is the usual difference in shape for set neck versus bolt on chaps. So that checks out.

[Bennyboy-UK]

The PATB trembucker (I love these) is surely a retrofit. In 86 it would have been a Hamer Slammer set of humbucker and two single coils. These were made by Dimarzio, and in my opinion excellent.

Alternative is possibly OBLs?but I don't know anything about these, and my understanding is that they are not as usual as the Slammers, however as ever with Hamer, YMMV.

the Slammer set of HBs and SCs was pretty much what you would have had if you bought a chap, TLE custom, SS1 or SS2 at the time.

One of the HFC seniors will likely corroborate/ dispel the above, but I'm pretty happy that the above is a decent summary

[filtre_]

Thanks for the feedback, Bennyboy-UK.

That information is very helpful.

[atquinn]

What he said. Refin doesn't look bad from those pics. But the fact that nothing was done to the neck will make it even easier to rehabilitate.

-

Austin

[tobereeno]

one of the first Hamers I ever played was a Chap custom with the finish completely stripped. It was a beautiful mahogany and just wonderful in every way.

[DBraz]

It should be a fun job refinishing that.

Stripping the paint is a long and arduous project when done properly but well worth it. The earlier mid/late 80's Floyd's are great units and seem to last forever. On my Chap Custom from the same period I never needed the recess for pulling up. There was more than enough to have fun!

Personally I LOVE the stadium headstock.

[Andrew]

On the floyd point, the early ones were practically all surface mounted, well proud of the body to allow pull up on the bar.

The neck angle was correspondingly more pronounced to allow for a playable guitar.

When the production moved to Schaller units, at that point the mountings started to include a recess.

However, I would not be surprised at all if there are examples with floyd originals with recesses.

(As far as I know)

Your logic is ..............well, logical.

The bolt-on Chaparrals usually have back-routs irrespective of the Floyd used. Most fixed neck guitar are indeed surface-mount/no back rout and their heights vary enormously. I have seen a Steve Stevens II with the trem-plate over 1cm off the surface, others only a few millimetres. Later generally means higher corresponding to the fashion for pulling-up.

I would bet someone here will have a Chaparral fixed neck or Steve Stevens with an OFR and back-rout as they constantly experimented with neck angles.

The Floyd II is on everything from 89 inwards and back-routs are the rule, even on Sunbursts/Archtops.

[devrock]

What he said. Refin doesn't look bad from those pics. But the fact that nothing was done to the neck will make it even easier to rehabilitate.

-

Austin

Doesn't look bad?? They painted OVER the screws on the pup switch!

[filtre_]

Picked up the guitar after a bit of TLC from a professional.

The guitar was stripped of the bad paint/refin and got a professional refin, restoring an aged white color.

Now it looks like it was never tempered with.

It also got a set of black dunlop strap buttons (previously had Schaller ones in gold).

Electronics where cleaned, new set of 009 strings, Floyd Rose was adjusted... the usual.

I am really happy with the results.

So here are some pictures:

[Tres Aardvarks]

Nice! She's a beauty!

[atquinn]

Awesome!

[a.bandini]

Looks great! Congratulations.

[hamerhead]

That's really nice. Doesn't look like the same guitar. Well done!

[Jeff R]

Drop. Dead. Gorgeous. Grand slam home run!

[specialk]

Great job! Congrats, big time.

[TheDan]

Great job, super nice guitar!

[HAMERMAN]

It came out great!

[DBraz]

Lovely job. It's great when a refin comes together and retains the look and feel of the original.

[devrock]

Holy sh*t that's gorgeous!

[Spike]

Yeah, what the last 10 posters said. That guitar is absolutely stunning!

I call dibs.

[diablo175]

Awww dat's just plain purdier than a D-sized beauty on a trampoline.

And I'm not even a fan of white guitars.

[axe2grind]

Gorgeous. How much does a refin job like that cost?

[Montelovesco]

Great! I am no friend of redone finishes, bit that one IS fantastic.