FVA Chaparral - advice required!

[RDW]

I've had this for a couple of years now and it's my favorite... it's clearly led a hard life, and I assume if it could talk there would be plenty of stories it could tell!

So it's a 1986 Fernando Von Arb Chaparral Custom, and very similar to the one on p107 of The Ultimate book (different body color of the body and hardware).

Unfortunately, someone 'customized it' along the way, and I'll be generous and say that although they had limited woodworking skills, they didn't let that stop them creating their vision of the ultimate guitar ... so now it has a monkey grip, and has been lightened on the back. Not really visible in the pics but it also had 'El Eamor' (so something close to it) taped on the back of the neck for long enough that when the tape was removed, the lacquer around the letters had darkened leaving the letters visible.

But... apart from the cosmetics it's awesome!!

My question for you Hamer experts is what would you do with it? I think my options are:

1. Nothing - these are the battle scars of a noble warrior and should be respected as they are (!)

2. Mild cosmetic restoration - I'm ok with dings/scratches from genuine use, but the modifications really detract from this otherwise awesome guitar... maybe I can get the monkey grip and lightening holes patched?

3. Full on restoration

4. Any other ideas?

For either 2 or 3 - who would you recommend to do the work?

Thanks guys!

 

 

 

[RobB]

Gosh...the previous owner must have really hated Krokus.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

Yikes!

[cynic]

1 hour ago, RDW said:

apart from the cosmetics it's awesome!!

Leave awesome alone. If I did anything I might try to find someone to clean the monkey grip up so it looks like it is supposed to be there (if that’s even possible). 

[RDW]

Thanks for that suggestion Cynic, I hadn’t considered trying to improve on the quality of the previous work.  I guess I’d need to have the ‘lightening’ holes tidied up at the same time for a consistent look.

Rob 

[RDW]

Does anyone have recommendations for someone to do this kind of work? I’ve never had real woodwork/refinishing done before, just setups, so could use some pointers!

I’m in the East Bay/San Francisco area, someone local would be ideal, but I’d be ok with further afield for good work.

[cmatthes]

Hamer made a few Chapparals with Monkey Grips.  Steve Vai has one, and Jol has a Ferrari Red one with a pushbutton in the grip that activates LEDs.

[RDW]

Wow - that's awesome! At least I can say that there is real precedence for a monkey grip on a Chaparral now... any chance that Steve drilled a bunch of holes in the back of his guitar too? 🙂

Do you have a higher res version of that image? Be great to get a closer look at the grip... from what I can see, it's not that different to mine (ignoring quality of execution of course!), so I could potentially have it matched.

I've never really paid attention, but a quick Google showed me that there are many different places to put the monkey grip.. on SV's guitar above it's far to the rear, mine is an inch or two further forward and on many of the Ibanez JEMs it's in the upper horn. I guess they refined the ergonomics of the monkey grip over time 😉  

[killerteddybear]

3 minutes ago, RDW said:

there are many different places to put the monkey grip

It all depends on which monkey is gripping it...

[RDW]

One more question occurred to me about this - has anyone seen this guitar before? I imagine an HFCer would remember it if so... any back story would be great to know...

I'm particularly interested in what 'El Eamor' on the neck meant - band name? name for the guitar?

When I got it it was in a case stencilled  'Paint Me Purple' - anyone have any recollections?

[velorush]

Paint Me Purple Studios

Looks like a rockin' good time!  

 

ETA: Found THIS - looking for a singer in Elgin, Scotland.

[cmatthes]

12 hours ago, RDW said:

I’m  particularly interested in what 'El Eamor' on the neck meant - band name? name for the guitar?

When I got it it was in a case stencilled  'Paint Me Purple' - anyone have any recollections?

That’s not a Hamer case, so could have been from anywhere.   Looks like the “extras” were added to (or subtracted from) that guitar after Fernando moved it along.

[Dana_V]

16 hours ago, RDW said:

Speed holes!
 

 

[Brooks]

Never got the monkeygrip. Some people want to be different I guess. 

Don't have any advice for ya, but I love this tune;
 

 

[DarrenD]

Well, you could refill the holes and refinish it.  A refinish would cost around $600 before the actual refilling process and shipping.

The back holes wouldn't be that hard - put some wood in there (with glue) and finish it off with some kind of filler.  Then sand smooth.

The monkey grip would be more difficult, but same thing.  

Sand it smooth - send it to someone for a refinish. 

That being said, I really don't think it's worth it unless you don't mind repairing the wood yourself.  

 

 

 

 

 

[cmatthes]

On 9/1/2020 at 12:10 AM, RDW said:

I've had this for a couple of years now and it's my favorite... it's clearly led a hard life, and I assume if it could talk there would be plenty of stories it could tell!

So it's a 1986 Fernando Von Arb Chaparral Custom, and very similar to the one on p107 of The Ultimate book (different body color of the body and hardware).

Unfortunately, someone 'customized it' along the way, and I'll be generous and say that although they had limited woodworking skills, they didn't let that stop them creating their vision of the ultimate guitar ... so now it has a monkey grip, and has been lightened on the back. Not really visible in the pics but it also had 'El Eamor' (so something close to it) taped on the back of the neck for long enough that when the tape was removed, the lacquer around the letters had darkened leaving the letters visible.

But... apart from the cosmetics it's awesome!!

My question for you Hamer experts is what would you do with it? I think my options are:

1. Nothing - these are the battle scars of a noble warrior and should be respected as they are (!)

2. Mild cosmetic restoration - I'm ok with dings/scratches from genuine use, but the modifications really detract from this otherwise awesome guitar... maybe I can get the monkey grip and lightening holes patched?

3. Full on restoration

4. Any other ideas?

For either 2 or 3 - who would you recommend to do the work?

Thanks guys!

 

 

 

I found the pic I was looking for!

[RDW]

Thanks for posting @cmathes! That is interesting in several different ways...

1. That second rear monkey grip...

2. Pickup number and placement - I've not seen Chaparrals with 2.. 1 or 3 yes but not 2, and the reverse slope on them too...

3. No fretboard markers of any kind... maybe this is where the LEDs come in?

4. The monkey grip in the more usual position pretty much matches the one in my guitar - now we have precedent 😉

Do you have details on any of these items?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[RobB]

36 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

Zounds! If that pic doesn’t make you want to blot out the entire ‘80s decade, I’m not sure what would. 

[cmatthes]

20 minutes ago, RobB said:

Zounds! If that pic doesn’t make you want to blot out the entire ‘80s decade, I’m not sure what would. 

It’s one Nagel print and Jan Hammer soundtrack away...

[cmatthes]

On 9/9/2020 at 12:43 AM, RDW said:

Thanks for posting @cmathes! That is interesting in several different ways...

1. That second rear monkey grip...

Yep!

2. Pickup number and placement - I've not seen Chaparrals with 2.. 1 or 3 yes but not 2, and the reverse slope on them too... 

You could really order anything or anyway you wanted it on a full-out custom guitar back then.   It wasn’t common, but I’ve seen the “Jake E. Lee” setup on a few Chaps from back then.

3.  No fretboard markers of any kind...maybe this is where the LEDs come in?
Exactly.   Ebony board with no pearl inlays, but I has Red LED position markers that flashed when you pushed the red button on the inside of the Monkey Grip.

4. The monkey grip in the more usual position pretty much matches the one in my guitar - now we have precedent.

Yours is the third one I’ve seen with that feature - there may be another/others out there, but even if so, can’t be many at all.

 

[Steve Haynie]

Wow!  That Chaparral has more holes in it back than Jacob Blake. 

 

Yeah, I said it. 

 

 

If you do not want to fill the holes you could put really bright LEDs in each hole then hold it up during a show to shine lights on your audience.  That would fit in with the whole Krokus metal era kind of show. 

[velorush]

35 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

If you do not want to fill the holes you could put really bright LEDs in each hole then hold it up during a show to shine lights on your audience.  That would fit in with the whole Krokus metal era kind of show. 

He could cover them up:

$28, You're welcome.

[RDW]

It seems that I have a more options than I had first considered - thanks for all the suggestions!

At present I'm most likely to do a. nothing (easy option!) or b. investigate having the holes in the back filled and leaving the monkey grip.

Anyone got any recommendations on a shop to do the woodwork/refinishing? DarrenD estimated the refinish to be ~$600, which I could consider to get rid of those complete eyesores!!

Rob

 

[DarrenD]

Woodwork add a couple hundred, maybe more.  $600 for refinish (again, maybe more).  That doesn't include shipping both ways which may around another $125-150.  Also, setup and installation of pickups, let's say another $125.  If you were to send everything to a person to complete, my estimate is that you are looking at around $850 not including the woodwork.  If you were to fix the back of the wood, maybe $150?  Monkey grip?  Probably don't even want to know.  This is just a ballpark, and I'm probably low the some estimates.  Either way, you are in the $1k territory when it's all said and done.