Black and Yellow Charvel #1500

Considered to be the Holy Grail to many Charvel enthusiasts, this guitar and its infamous paint scheme was obviously inspired by Edward Van Halen and his original black & yellow guitar pictured on the back cover of the Van Halen II album. This finish is relatively rare in later production Charvels because (the story is) Edward Van Halen had a cease & desist order placed against the factory for making striped guitars that looked similar to his and selling them to the public. In fact, the majority of Charvel guitars bearing such paint were produced during the pre-production (prepro) era (1979 – early 1981). The exception being a run of guitars manufactured sometime in mid 1982 for The Music Emporium USA in Rockville, Maryland from which this guitar was originally purchased. Their catalog listed a special deal on a limited run of “Charvel Van Halen Special” guitars with black and yellow stripes for $595. Ironically, later in 1982 Fender served action against Charvel for manufacturing the Stratocaster style headstocks. As a result, the bulk of Charvel guitars manufactured after the cease and desist letter bore a pointy (Jackson style) headstock. Some 20 years later, Charvels with fancy paint jobs and the Stratocaster headstock shape necks are the most desired to Charvel collectors and these guitars can create a bidding frenzy due to high demand and limited supply. And yes, today these guitars sell well more than the original $595 tag price.

This Charvel bears serial number 1500 and was original equipped with a v-trem that was later replaced with the superior (for tuning stability) double locking Floyd Rose unit. This modification is probably the single most common one from the 80's (other than swapping out pickups). At that time EVH, Vai, Satraini and others had revolutionized guitar playing with wild whammy bar antics. These techniques required drastic pitch changes and while the vintage tremolo could handle very subtle changes in pitch without going out of tune too badly, they could not handle these new whammy bar techniques without going horribly out of tune! To adjust the pitch/angle of the neck after a Floyd install often a shim is required. In this case the repair person used post-it notes as a shim.

Written in the neck pocket of the body are the build date, "6-29-82" and builders initials "SS". Written on the neck is the work order (invoice) number “2461” and “V.H.” which I assume refers to this being a Charvel Van Halen Special. Much more interesting is the second set of markings written with a blue paint pen, referencing the Floyd Rose install on May 2, 1984 (two years after the original purchase).

I was lucky enough to acquire this Charvel guitar from the original owner who still had the original receipt and the Music Emporium catalog! At the time of this writing this is my third black and yellow striped Charevl Strat Head and I couldn’t be happier. Unlike my other two EVH Charvels, the aftermarket Floyd Rose trem on this one makes whammy bar trickery a blast to play.