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Hello, my name is Wayne Charvel,
the following is a brief history of my work in the guitar industry.
I started playing guitar at age five, played for about two years,
then quit until about the age of fifteen.
I bought my first new Fender strat and amplifier in 1959, I wish I
still had that guitar. I was working in a sign shop at the time as
a spray-painter, and in about 1960 I decided to take my strat apart
and paint it Candy Apple Blue. It was then that I became interested
in repairing and refinishing guitars.
My first paint job was laquer and I rubbed it out to a high gloss.
It looked pretty good, and when my friends saw it, they wanted me
to paint their guitars as well. I learned how to repair them by taking
them apart for painting, and was soon doing repairs as well as refinishing.
I then decided to go into guitar repair full time.
At the time, Fender Guitars needed someone to do their out-of-warranty
refinish work and asked me if I would be interested. I said yes, and
worked for them for about three years. I also recovered amplifiers
and electric pianos as well in tolex. I repaired guitars in my garage
for about a year. My first customer was Jeff Ross, a great tele player.
He later became lead guitar player for the Bellamy Brothers.
I opened Charvel's Guitar Repair in 1974 in Azusa, CA. It was in this
shop that I continued to do work for Fender. Fender sent me my first
"rock star" customer, Deep Purple. They wanted custom work
done to their instruments, such as humbucking cavities routed in the
bodies and custom pickups installed.
In those days Fender did not do any custom work except for finishes.
Somehow the Who found out I was doing custom work and Alan Rogan,
their main roadie and instrument buyer commissioned me to build a
clear plastic bass for John Entwistle. Soon after that I started making
after-market custom guitar parts that fit Fender and Gibson Guitars.
At that time my best friend, Lynn Ellsworth was interested in what
I was doing. He was an excellent wood worker, but he had never made
any guitars, so I showed him how to make bodies and necks. He later
started Boogie Body Guitars.
About eight months or so after opening my shop, a local music store
owner asked me if I could make a jack plate that was unbreakable for
a Gibson Les Paul. I said yes, because I had already made a few jack
plates out of aluminum. This triggered an idea to make jack plates
and trem arms for strats that would not break. These were made out
of stainless steel and were four times stronger than the original
ones.
I advertised in Guitar Player Magazine, and received excellent results,
but was only making enough money to pay for the ads. None of the distributors
wanted to carry my parts, so I added more and more parts to the line
and increased the size of my advertisements.
I was doing quite well, until the Asian markets caught on to what
I was doing. They copied my parts, and sold them for about half of
the price. At that point, my guitar parts business drastically decreased.
The one thing that the Asian market couldn't do was make guitars.
My first hand-made guitar was made in about 1962. I still have the
original neck. It was my love for the guitar and the fact that my
parts business was decreasing that I decided to make guitars. My first
customer was Tommy Bolin of Deep Purple. My next clients were Billy
Gibbons and Dusty Hill from ZZ Top.
In the early 1970's a young man came into my guitar shop in Azusa,
CA, and introduced himself to me as Eddie Van Halen. He asked me if
I could stop his Dimarzio pickup from squealing. I told him I could.
( a trick I had learned from an electronics genius, Bob Luly) The
pickups would be soaked in hot wax, which is now known as "potting".
To the best of my knowledge, we were the first to "pot"
after-market pickups. Eddie was happy that the pickup didn't squeal
anymore.
After that, Eddie would come by the shop a lot, and sometimes he would
sit on the floor and play the guitar while I repaired some of his
other guitars. He also did some of his own work. About eight or nine
months later, I moved my shop to San Dimas, CA. Eddie and Michael
Anthony, (also from Van Halen) used to come over to the new shop and
hang out.
We would talk about show business, managers, etc.. I gave them some
World War II Atom Bomb Blast glasses and some old paint respirators.
They used to wear these on stage for some of their Hollywood shows!
(Don't ask me why!)
In that same time period, I teamed up with Dave Schector from Schector
Guitar Research. He also made bodies, necks and pickups for guitars.
One weekend, Dave and I made one hundred bodies and finished sanded
them. I was already in the mail order business selling guitar parts,
so it made sense that I would sell Schector bodies and necks. We also
sold Boogie bodies and necks.
Shortly after that I purchased two overhead pin routers and made my
own bodies and necks. We sold everything, including Dimarzio pickups.
Randy Zacuto, from JB Player also purchased parts from me. He hired
a friend of mine named Seymour Duncan, who had been making tele three
piece bridge saddles and rewinding pickups to make Mighty Mite pickups
for him. A short time later, Seymour came out with his own line of
pickups. We also sold those.
One day Eddie came over to the shop and asked if I had an extra body
and neck. I told him that I had an extra Boogie Body neck, and an
older body that I had constructed in my shop. I gave Ed the parts,
and the next time I saw the guitar, he had painted it white with a
spray can, and put black tape on it for the stripes. He used nails
to hold the pickup in the body.
By the way, the first Dimarzio pickup I potted for Eddie, got too
hot and the cream plastic bobbin shriveled up. It looked bad, but
it still worked fine. Eddie liked the way it looked. (He liked funky
things in those days.) He asked us to build a guitar that was black
with yellow stripes. It had a birdseye maple neck, only this time
the stripes were painted on. In those days we used laquer and polyester.
I would like to say that Eddie was and still is a nice and down-to-earth
guy, and so is Michael Anthony. I've seen Eddie and Michael over the
years, and I am happy to say that they haven't let their "rock
star" status go to theirheads.
When I was in Hawaii for a Van Halen concert, Eddie introduced his
beautiful wife, Valerie Bertinelli to me. She's even prettier in person.
I worked for Fender Musical Instruments for three years in the 1970's,
Gibson for three years as a guitar designer and artist relations,
and B.C. Rich for one year as a guitar designer and pattern maker.
I also owned the W.C. Guitar Company, and the Ritz Guitar Company.
My oldest son, Michael, and I own and operate Charvel Music, a full
line music store in Paradise, CA. We are currently manufacturing the
"Wayne" guitar as a joint venture. Our new rock legend guitar
line is a high quality guitar for the player who wants to get that
early "brown" sound. |
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Michael and
Wayne Charvel with Curt Mitchell |
With John Jorgenson
of the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters |
NAMM
2004 with Warren de Martini |
Dave Murray
from Iron Maiden |
Michael Charvel,
Tommy Coccetti, Wayne Charvel & Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister
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Wayne Charvel
& Steppenwolf |
Wayne Charvel,
Lita Ford, Richie Blackmore
from Deep Purple & Mike Anthony from Van Halen |
Wayne
Charvel & Duff from Guns & Roses |
Brian Young
& David Lee Roth in Concert |
Oz Fox and
Wayne Charvel
Holding new Wayne Oz Fox Signature Guitar |
Wayne Charvel
& Les Paul |
Michael Charvel,
Richard Charvel,
Bob Charvel & Mike Anthony of Van Halen |
Brian Young
from the David Lee Roth Band
and his new Wayne Guitar |
Chuck Bardroff
from Broken Toyz and his Wayne Guitar |
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Bernie Rico from BC Rich Guitars, Ted Nugent & Wayne Charvel
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Wayne Charvel & Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark |
Wayne Charvel, Michael Charvel & Von Franco in our office in Paradise
California |
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Michael Charvel, Warren DeMartini from Ratt & Chips O' Tool |
Wayne Charvel & Warren DeMartini from Ratt in our office in Paradise
California |
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Wayne Charvel & Tom Keefer from Cinderella |
Wayne Charvel & Michael Angelo |
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Wayne Charvel & Vinnie Moore at a blues jam |
Paul Gilbert from Racer X with our lovely Model Diane White |
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Wayne Charvel & Lawrence Juber from Wings discussing guitar string
gauges |
Wayne Charvel & Larry Coryell |
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Wayne Charvel & James Burton, Elvis' guitar player who is a long
time friend of Wayne's |
Wayne Charvel & Tony Mcalpine, a great Guitar Piano Player and
long time friend |
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Wayne Charvel & Vivian Campbell from Def Leppard. We worked together
at B.C. Rich Guitars |
Wayne Charvel & Jennifer Batton from Michael Jacksons band |
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Tommy Bolin back stage holding one of Waynes' first Zebra Wood guitars
at Tommys first playing job with Deep Purple |
Greg Allman from The Allman Brothers holding one of Waynes' W.R.C.
Model Guitar with head stock designed by Alan Hamil (Fender Custom
Shop) |
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Wayne Charvel, Billy Sheehan, and Tina |
Trev Willkinson, Billy Sheehan, and Wayne Charvel in his shop in Mentone
California working on Billy's Fender bass. |
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Michael Charvel
Back Stage with Brian Young from the David Lee Roth Band
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Russ Parrish of the Atomic Punks playing his Wayne |
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Michael Charvel backstage with Russ Parish of the Atomic Punks |
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Michael Charvel with Jimmy Ray Vaughn |
Wayne Charvel with Jom O'Conner and Booby Cochran of Steppenwolf |
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Bob & Rick Charvel with John Jorgenson of Hellcasters |
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Michael Charvel
& Floyd Rose |
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Brian Young, from the David Lee Roth Band |
Wayne Charvel with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
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Michael Charvel and George Lynch, from Dokken |
Wayne Charvel (in the middle) with Mark St. John from Kiss, Michael
Angelo from Nitro, Janet Robbins from Precious Metal, and Addie from
Fanny. |
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