WITHDRAWN: Vintage 1987 Charvel 3B - Neck-thru - EMGs - Hipshot hardware

Mattayus

£400 + shipping, or collection from Cambridgeshire

*WITHDRAWN*

Please read carefully, this one's an odd ball!

Plays and sounds incredible, but has had a lot of work and an odd history... So I bought this a couple of years ago, and it was in an absolute pickle. I'm a guitar technician, and thought it would be a cool project, as I love Charvel guitars of all eras, and wanted to try a P/J bass.

It had actually been converted to an 8 string (quite poorly) at some point in its long life, and that's how it was when I bought it.

It's suffered some body cracks, though I have filled these so they are strong and aren't going to get any worse.

Amazingly, the neck is in AMAZING shape. It's as straight as an arrow, and the truss rod is still fully functioning.

After removing all the 8 string hardware (tuners, bridge, nut) I filled the 8 tuning peg holes in the headstock, and made 4 new ones where they would have been originally. You can see in the headstock pics where it has been filled and covered, though the finish has shrunk back slightly and you can still see the outlines of the old holes. This is just an aesthetic thing though, everything is fully working and structurally solid as a rock.

The bridge was replaced with a Hipshot Kickass high-mass bridge, which sounds and functions just perfect. Very very high quality bridge unit.

I have fabricated a 4 string nut from a graphite blank, and it's spot on.

The EMG P/J pickups were already on it when I got it. I changed one of the pots however, due it not doing so well (crackly and spluttery).

The 3-way mini toggle switch is disconnected, but is part of the original hardware so it has remained. The controls are simply volume/volume/tone, no fancy preamps or anything like that.

I gave it a fret dress (frets were actually in great shape, lots of meat on them and no dinks or flat spots) as you can see from the pictures.

It's set up in E standard with a D'addario set of 45-105, and is quite honestly a ridiculously good playing bass. Very low action, every note sings.

I know it's a little rough around the edges but this is an incredibly solid, toneful bass. It feels like a weapon, incredibly heavy, very aggressive tone. I picture this being played in a thrash metal band along with some gleaming white hi-tops!

For a point of reference - there's one on Reverb right now for £800, albeit in better aesthetic condition than this one, but with none of the upgrades, so I'd say this is worth every penny at £400.

Based in Cambridgeshire if you want to try it out, but shipping is available, please get in touch with any questions. Cheers.