Charvel is a brand of electric guitars founded in the 1970s by Wayne Charvel in Azusa and headquartered in Glendora, both cities in California. Charvel guitars became popular in the 1980s due to their association with famous rock and heavy metal guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Warren DeMartini (Ratt), Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee (Ozzy Osbourne), Vinnie Vincent (Kiss), Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister), George Lynch (Dokken), Criss Oliva (Savatage), Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, and others. Modern Charvel players include Mike Orlando (Adrenaline Mob), Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats), and Joe Duplantier(Gojira).
1970s[edit]
Having worked at Fender for three years in the early 1970s, Wayne Charvel started "Charvel's Guitar Repair" in 1974 to refinish and repair out-of-warranty Fender instruments. The shop earned a solid reputation among performing artists for its repair work, custom finishes, and upgraded parts manufacturing. When Asian companies began copying Charvel's parts and selling them at a discount, Charvel decided to begin building complete guitars. Charvel guitars were constructed from wood components outsourced to Boogie and Schecter bodies, and various Charvel and aftermarket hardware.[2] Wayne Charvel sold the company to Grover Jackson in 1978, and ceased all working associations with the brand name from that point forward.
After purchasing the company, Grover Jackson tooled to produce guitar bodies, which he sold to Mighty Mite and Dimarzio. He used the proceeds to fund an expansion into making necks. During this time BC Rich, SD Curlee, and Music Man approached Charvel to contract manufacture various wood parts. The income from these sales provided the Charvel shop with additional tooling and experience that gave Jackson the footing required to grow the Charvel brand.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Charvel popularized custom revamps of the Fender Stratocaster design - often consisting of a Strat-shaped body with a single humbucking pickup and Fender style tremolo bridge systems. This modernized Stratocaster configuration (commonly referred to as the superstrat) was particularly well suited to the heavy metal style of music that was very popular at the time. Charvel guitars became renowned for its use of creative graphics, unfinished maple necks, and various innovative appointments.
1980s[edit]
In 1980, Grover Jackson met Randy Rhoads, who had recently joined Ozzy Osbourne's new band as a guitarist. They worked together to develop a guitar to complement the polka-dotted Flying V built for Rhoads by Karl Sandoval. The prototype was not angular enough for Rhoads, but the second design produced a shape that Randy referred to as the Concorde. Jackson worried that the radically styled neck-through guitar was too different from Charvel's familiar 'Superstrat' theme, so he labeled the instrument with his own name on the headstock in case the design proved unpopular. Contrary to Jackson's concerns, the visual impact of this guitar spawned the "Rhoads Model" that soon became iconic in the industry and inspired Jackson to found Jackson Guitars.
Charvel (and Jackson) guitars remained in production at the Gladstone Street shop in Glendora, California until 1986. In 1986, the manufacturing facilities moved to Ontario, California, and production of U.S.-built Charvel guitars ceased shortly thereafter.
The success of Charvel in the 1980s led to Jackson's planning to mass-produce popular configurations in Asia. Each California-produced Charvel guitar was essentially a hand built custom instrument—but the Japanese assembly line versions that appeared in 1986 were categorized into model numbers.
In 1989, Jackson sold Charvel/Jackson to the Japanese manufacturer IMC (International Music Corporation), who made Charvel brand guitars exclusively in Japan from 1986 to 1991.[3]
The Japanese made Charvels that appeared in 1986 are easily distinguished from San Dimas instruments by several distinct differences:
- Neck plates circa 1982-1986 stamped "San Dimas, CA"[4] (then briefly "Ontario, CA") changed to a plate that read "Ft. Worth, TX", the location of IMC's U.S. offices. This confused many consumers—as, without exception, all guitars with the "Ft. Worth" neck plate were made in Japan.[5]
- The gold label, "Charvel - Made in USA" affixed to the headstock of the San Dimas era (U.S. made) instruments changed to a white logo that read "Charvel - By Jackson/Charvel."[5]
- Instead of the unfinished maple bolt-on neck that was a hallmark of the U.S. instruments, the imported instruments had a Japanese neck with a clear satin finish.