Charvel Restorations Continued... Waylon DiMartini Signature Model

[chromium]

I adopted an old Charvel tele earlier this year, and have been working on reversing some past mods and making it my own in the process.  Calling it the "Waylon DiMartini" - little bit country... little bit shredder.

The neck is wide at the nut, flat 16" radius board w/jumbos.  Not exactly like the Warren DiMartini neck, though, since this one is a thick C profile. The early necks are all over the place in specs, and this one is sweet.  Very different from my other tele from '82 (known as the “Chet Beck”; Gretsch orange tele-gib config) which has a profile more typically associated with Charvel - shallow D, heavy rolled edges, etc.

Neck and body are from roughly '80-81, and the guitar was built by Bizarre Guitar in '82.  The owner was licensed to build Charvel guitars from parts spec'd by their customers, and cranked out something to the order of ~450 custom builds that year.  This one originally had a black guard, early EMG-T set, and black Schaller M6 tuners when it came to me. Think "Schecter PT w/single coils".  

I already have a PT, love Esquires, and can never seem to leave well enough alone

The front of the body had a two small screw holes and several divots/impressions from what might have been a trem unit or alternate bridge(?).  I ended up doweling/drop-filling that one area with black and clear lacquer to blend with the original finish, left the "natural wear" alone, and carefully cut and buffed the whole thing out.

 

Not being a huge fan of EMGs I lifted the black guard, pickups and entire harness out and stored it away (makes it easy to reverse my mods).  

I shaped a Fender single-ply thin celluloid Esquire guard to fit.  Josh build me a monster of a tele bridge pickup for this guitar (P90-esque), and I wired it up with the Eldred mod (subtle/passive "cocked-wah" on position 3) using all new parts.  This pickup kills - I finished the wiring last night, plugged it in to test things out, and ended up wailing on it for an hour. Could not be happier with the sound of this thing!

 

Final change was a tuner swap - put a set of Gotoh Klusons on, which is akin to what appears to have been originally used on this build.

Enjoy!  I'm gonna go play this sucker now.

 

[bsteff666]

Oh my.  You bought that from Dave H.  I was a little crushed when I found out he sold it, as I was hoping to talk him into selling it to me.

Amazing.  Bucket list Charvel.   I like the changes you made... I would have done something very close as well.

Damn.  Enjoy it in good health...and if you ever decide to part with it (unlikely I know)...Please Please keep me in mind.

[chromium]

Thanks @bsteff666

I got the orange ‘82 tele from Dave and the black one came up in conversation. Didn’t expect that one would come my way, but got to talking a few months later and worked out a deal. I’ll definitely let you know if I do decide to pass it on. I never say never!

Family pic of the early ones. I painted the strats, and the blue body is an alder KnE with old Jackson wood burn neck.

[bsteff666]

Yes!  I know the orange tele well.  

Nice work on the magenta one.  That neck came from another friend of mine.  Still no idea what kind of string tree situation left those crazy holes.

Great stuff.

[chromium]

1 hour ago, bsteff666 said:

Nice work on the magenta one.  That neck came from another friend of mine.  Still no idea what kind of string tree situation left those crazy holes.

 

Man those plus holes from every tuner known to man on the back!  Love the neck carve on that one, and it feels amazing after stripping the lacquer finish off and redoing it in oil & wax.

I spent a stupid amount of time experimenting with color mix, trying to paint grain, etc. to hide the dowels. First rodeo with that. Still not fully happy, and might go at it again in the future. I had jacked up the waterslide a little anyway..

Before and after (pre refinish):

[chromium]

Thinking about doing another build with the '82  reverse head neck below.  I'm gonna dress the frets on it and may end up trying to hunt down an old body for it.
 

 

 

[bsteff666]

Reverse strathead necks don’t show up too often.  That will make for a nice build.

[stedge]

Next in line after bsteff666, please.

[Jakeboy]

How does that pickup sound? You say P90-esque? How different from a beefy Broadcaster in tone? Really curious.

Guitar came out GREAT, btw.

[chromium]

21 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

How does that pickup sound? You say P90-esque? How different from a beefy Broadcaster in tone? Really curious.

Guitar came out GREAT, btw.

I’ll have to compare side by side with my ‘80s ESP tele. It has an SD broadcaster in the bridge.

Once I get done screwing around with build/rehab/refin work I plan to get back to recording. I’ll share back some audio once I have time to put something together.

[RobB]

Beautiful work there, C. I just took my 2010 So-Cal off consignment. No bites after languishing for a month in SF. 

I’m wondering if swapping out the FR 1000 for a Lockmeister is a worthwhile upgrade? The 1000 is MIK and, “supposedly”, made to the same tolerances as the OFR. Would the LM be that much of an improvement?

[chromium]

4 hours ago, RobB said:

I’m wondering if swapping out the FR 1000 for a Lockmeister is a worthwhile upgrade? The 1000 is MIK and, “supposedly”, made to the same tolerances as the OFR. Would the LM be that much of an improvement?

I bought my SoCal as a project back when you could snag 'em cheap (700-range w/OHSC!).  It already had a refin and chrome hardware swap, and I want to say the Floyd was a "special".  One of the saddle clamp screws was stripped out, and so I replaced it with a more recent 1984 reissue.  I always worry about the cheaper cast/pot metal units striping out.

Not sure if the FR1000 is hardened steel or not, but the recent Lockmeister, OFR or even the Gotoh might be an improvement if so.  Not sure if there would be much functional or sonic difference, though, not having one to compare.

[JGravelin]

On 4/17/2022 at 4:46 PM, Jakeboy said:

How does that pickup sound? You say P90-esque? How different from a beefy Broadcaster in tone? Really curious.

Guitar came out GREAT, btw.

A Fender Telecaster bridge pickup wind depending on the era: 6.8k on the low side, 8.6k on the hot side typically. Wiggle room with wind, magnet grade, and magnet gauss aside: using the standard issue 42AWG wire to about 8.8k or so in my experience is where the mids start to shift and bump up, trebles begin to roll off, and it starts to bark and snarl in the upper mids in a way that is reminiscent of a P90. At 9.5k, that coil-form is FULL and its a big sound with great mid emphasis: muscular and angry like a healthy P90 but still retaining all the good Tele bridge characteristics that make a Telecaster what it is.

With normal wire perfectly tensioned and a high traverse interloped wind, I can hit 11k max. It's not my favorite sound but it can be done. To me, 8.8k - 10k is the goldilocks zone for those that want a high output yet somewhat traditional Tele bridge pickup sound. Chromium and I discussed, options were put forth, and together we decided on 9.5k +/- : splitting the difference a bit and hitting a nice sweet spot in the middle. A mids-up rocker with some twang? Waylon DiMartini, indeed.

 

 

 

[diablo175]

15 hours ago, chromium said:

I bought my SoCal as a project back when you could snag 'em cheap (700-range w/OHSC!).  It already had a refin and chrome hardware swap, and I want to say the Floyd was a "special".  One of the saddle clamp screws was stripped out, and so I replaced it with a more recent 1984 reissue.  I always worry about the cheaper cast/pot metal units striping out.

Not sure if the FR1000 is hardened steel or not, but the recent Lockmeister, OFR or even the Gotoh might be an improvement if so.  Not sure if there would be much functional or sonic difference, though, not having one to compare.

1000 Series are made in Korea, reportedly using the same materials and manufacturing specs. But I have my doubts. In at least a dozen encounters, I've yet to come across a 1000 series that plays as well as an OFR or LM. Everything from difficult to turn micro-tuners, to locking nuts that didn't clamp well enough, to sluggish responsiveness. If you're a very infrequent or low occurrence bar user, limited to a bit of vibrato and maybe 1- 2 step dives, it's not likely gonna matter. 

 

 

 

 

[chromium]

19 minutes ago, diablo175 said:

1000 Series are made in Korea, reportedly using the same materials and manufacturing specs. But I have my doubts. In at least a dozen encounters, I've yet to come across a 1000 series that plays as well as an OFR or LM. Everything from difficult to turn micro-tuners, to locking nuts that didn't clamp well enough, to sluggish responsiveness. If you're a very infrequent or low occurrence bar user, limited to a bit of vibrato and maybe 1- 2 step dives, it's not likely gonna matter. 

Gotcha.  Yeah I recall folks saying the FR1000s aren't bad, but haven't tried 'em myself.  The "special" is different, most definitely "special"... and not in a good way.

Couple things you might consider trying:

- The German lock nuts are relatively cheap to improve clamping up top (~$30)

- If there are tuning stability or response issues, check that the knife edges are still good and try some "PTFE dry lube" on the pivot points. I've been applying that on my builds, since it supposedly reduces mechanical resistance between the knife edges and posts.  Might also help improve the feel of the stubborn fine tuners.

 

Heh - "dry lube" </Beavis-laughter>

[chromium]

1 hour ago, JGravelin said:

A Fender Telecaster bridge pickup wind depending on the era: 6.8k on the low side, 8.6k on the hot side typically. Wiggle room with wind, magnet grade, and magnet gauss aside: using the standard issue 42AWG wire to about 8.8k or so in my experience is where the mids start to shift and bump up, trebles begin to roll off, and it starts to bark and snarl in the upper mids in a way that is reminiscent of a P90. At 9.5k, that coil-form is FULL and its a big sound with great mid emphasis: muscular and angry like a healthy P90 but still retaining all the good Tele bridge characteristics that make a Telecaster what it is.

With normal wire perfectly tensioned and a high traverse interloped wind, I can hit 11k max. It's not my favorite sound but it can be done. To me, 8.8k - 10k is the goldilocks zone for those that want a high output yet somewhat traditional Tele bridge pickup sound. Chromium and I discussed, options were put forth, and together we decided on 9.5k +/- : splitting the difference a bit and hitting a nice sweet spot in the middle. A mids-up rocker with some twang? Waylon DiMartini, indeed.

Yeah - what Josh said!

I tend towards pickups that are midrange-forward, kinda like the Lollar P90 standard (A5, ~9K) in my BCR Jr. Possibly because I have a huge midrange notch in my hearing lol.

This build is right up my alley, and sounds great w/that Eldred-Esquire circuit!

[diablo175]

1 hour ago, chromium said:

Gotcha.  Yeah I recall folks saying the FR1000s aren't bad, but haven't tried 'em myself.  The "special" is different, most definitely "special"... and not in a good way.

Couple things you might consider trying:

- The German lock nuts are relatively cheap to improve clamping up top (~$30)

- If there are tuning stability or response issues, check that the knife edges are still good and try some "PTFE dry lube" on the pivot points. I've been applying that on my builds, since it supposedly reduces mechanical resistance between the knife edges and posts.  Might also help improve the feel of the stubborn fine tuners.

 

Heh - "dry lube" </Beavis-laughter>

 

Yup. Specials are craptastic- not worth a shit . 1000 Series are, in my experience, not worth the upgrades to make them half decent. Just my .02.  But I'm a known violator of trems. I use it a good bit and in many different applications beyond that of dive bombs and vibrato.