1988 Chapparal

[Hamer95USA]

  Hey guys,

I found this Chapparal for sale on E-bay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1988-Hamer-USA-Chaparral-Guitar-/371550479653?hash=item5682226525:g:IrgAAOSwll1WuT38

I'm not associated with the seller. I love the color, but wow! It looks like the previous owner had took out the Sustainiac electronics, changed the pickups or added an extra knob on it. What do you guys think about this guitar?

 

Guitar George

[holLoWskull]

It was never a factory Sustainiac model.  The absence of a twin 9V battery compartment on the back of the guitar is the giveaway.  Now as for the neck humbucker, toggle switches, extra knob...who knows, it could be a factory job or modifications?  Hopefully the seller can answer those questions for you.

[Xerophthalmic]

I bought this guitar...  The Dimarzio stamped pots all match with a code of 1348751.  So the pots would be from the 51st week of 1987.  The HB ring on the neck pickup is a short angled ring, while the bridge ring is short and flat--so that is a little fishy.  The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan APH1NJ.  I did a little SD forum research and it looks like a pickup from around 1986--the same pickup Slash used on Appetite.  It gets weirder.  The interior sides of the neck pickup cavity match the body paint, but the bottom surface is raw wood.  The pickup switch is a 3 position, not a 5 position.  The bottom toggle turns on the middle pickup (no way to get just middle pickup by itself).  The top toggle coil cuts the bridge pickup.  Both of the toggles are DPST but only half of each switch is used, wasting the other half.  I would think SPST switches would be present if this were original.  There is solder on some of the unused toggle switch contacts--also fishy.

What really confuses me is the extra pot and the 3 position switch.  To me these features imply that the HSH setup may be original, as if a Gibson aficionado custom ordered a Chaparral with 2 humbuckers, but wanted to keep the middle pickup while leaving the middle pup out of the main switch.  I'm guessing the neck pickup was specified by the purchaser, and when installed at the factory, it was determined that additional routing was required after the body had been painted as this Duncan pickup is a long-legged humbucker.  Very strange.  I was thinking about switching pickups and stuff but now I'm not so sure.  Definitely some unconventional switching though while interesting, I wouldn't choose setup this way.  

[benjammin308]

Looks cool to me.  I say set it up the way you want it and play the snot out of it.