Charvel гитараларының тарихы және дамуы

American electric guitar brand

Charvel is a brand of electric guitars founded in the 1970s by Wayne Charvel in Azusa, California and originally headquartered in Glendora, California. Since 2002, Charvel has been under the ownership of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

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), Gary Moore, Warren DeMartini (Ratt), Jake E. Lee (Ozzy Osbourne), Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister), George Lynch (Dokken), Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), and others. Modern Charvel players include Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats), Satchel (Steel Panther), Mike Orlando (Adrenaline Mob), Joe Duplantier (Gojira), Angel Vivaldi, and Chris Brooks.

After working 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 assembling complete guitars on the advice of Grover Jackson. Charvel guitars were assembled from wood parts made by Boogie Bodies and Schecter, with various Charvel and after market hardware. After filing for bankruptcy, Wayne Charvel sold what was left of the company to Grover Jackson in 1978, and ceased all associations with the name. After purchasing the company name, Grover Jackson moved the business to a new location and tooled it to produce guitar bodies which he sold to Mighty Mite and DiMarzio, using the proceeds to fund an expansion into making necks. During this time B. C. Rich, SD Curlee, and Music Man approached Charvel to 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.

The collectible status and escalating market prices of early USA made Charvels resulted in counterfeit "San Dimas Charvels" being misrepresented as genuine. These fakes were often created by swapping necks and/or "San Dimas" stamped neck plates onto Asian made Charvels or other inexpensive guitars, adding a reproduction San Dimas era "Charvel Made in USA" headstock decal.

Wayne Charvel resurfaced in guitar manufacturing several times since selling the brand in 1978, with varying degrees of success. He created a namesake model offered through Gibson: the Gibson W. R. C. Signature Model. Only several hundred were produced, and they were short lived—mainly because of a lawsuit filed by Jackson. Gibson made the W. R. C. models from 1987 to 1988 in three standard colors: red, black, and white. Of those produced, 200 were 'show case' models that featured Wayne Charvel's signature on the bell and were accompanied by a letter from him. The WRC model came with a tan faux leather case with hot pink interior and combination locks. Earlier models had a Kahler Spyder tremolo, while later models featured a Floyd Rose Original. All featured a maple bolt on neck with ebony fingerboard. Today, Charvel and his son Michael own and operate Charvel Music, a full line music store in Paradise, California, and manufacture guitars as a joint venture under the name Wayne Guitars. Their houses and shop burned down in the 2018 Camp Fire.