The Charvel Story
In November 1978, Wayne Charvel sold the small Azusa, California,
company he founded earlier that decade, Charvel's Guitar Repair, to one
of his employees, Grover Jackson. Charvel left the company soon
afterward and ceased having any real association with the company's name
from that point on.
Jackson promptly began building highly regarded electric guitars bearing
the Charvel name. In 1980, he was introduced to Ozzy Osbourne's new
young guitarist, Randy Rhoads; the two began to develop an angular,
neck-through-body guitar designed by Rhoads himself that quickly evolved
into a model dubbed the Concorde. Wary of putting the Charvel name on
this radical new instrument lest it not prove a smashing success,
Jackson instead put his own surname on the headstock in a move that
prompted the creation of the Jackson guitar brand (the guitar was
eventually re-christened the "Rhoads" model and remains a top Jackson
seller today).
In the meantime, Grover Jackson had moved production to
neighboring Glendora, California, where both brands were manufactured
until moving to Ontario, California, in 1986.
Grover Jackson sold Jackson/Charvel to Japanese manufacturer AMIC in
1989. Thenceforth, Charvel guitars were produced to very high
standards in Japan until 1991. Interestingly, the neck plates on these
bolt-on neck Charvel models bear AMIC's Fort Worth, Texas, address
despite the fact that they were built in Japan. Charvel's
active-electronics Model 4 and Model 6 guitars became popular in the
latter part of the '80s before the line was revamped in 1989 into
several different series, including the Classic, Fusion and Contemporary
instruments. Guitars in the Classic series included the 275, 375, 375
Deluxe, 475 and 750xl models. Fusion series deluxe and custom guitars
had shorter scales than the others; the Contemporary line included the
Predator and Spectrum models. Most of these guitars featured Schaller
made hardware, including licensed Floyd Rose locking tremolo units.
The Korean-made Charvette brand was also introduced during these years
to cover the lower end of the market. Unfortunately at the time, the
grunge rock boom of the early 1990s spelled trouble for Charvel; the
brand fell from favor and suffered a drop in quality as the name was
used on lower-quality budget instruments. Nonetheless, the '90s and
early 2000's did see several attempts to restore Jackson/Charvel to its
'80s-era glory, with high-quality Japanese and U.S.-made guitars such as
the Journeyman. And, of course, original U.S.-made Charvel guitars
(referred to as San Dimas models after the San Dimas, California P.O.
box listed on their neck plates) remain some of the most highly
sought-after guitars in the world today. Charvel and Jackson were
bought by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in fall 2002, and the
Charvel name saw a rebirth with several U.S.-made San Dimas models, so
named in order to recapture the spirit of the original high-quality
U.S.-made guitars.
Today, Charvel offers several U.S. made Custom-Built guitars, a set of
Warren DeMartini signature models, and the all new U.S.A. Production
Model Series.
