{"id":100,"date":"2026-05-29T15:35:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frankdoorhof.com\/music\/?p=100"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:20:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:20:48","slug":"a-vintage-charvel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frankdoorhof.com\/music\/2026\/05\/29\/a-vintage-charvel\/","title":{"rendered":"A vintage Charvel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photographing a Charvel<\/h2>\n

I bought this Charvel in Japan, and it is a rare 90’s curved body, which also brings some problems when lighting the guitar.
\nMost guitars are flat, and although some can be very shiny, most are pretty easy to photograph.
\nThis one is very reflective and curved, so a nice challenge.<\/p>\n

Lighting-wise, I love to get a slight edge reflection, but no reflection in the body or on the neck.
\nPlacing the light is pretty tricky, but in the end, I got some shots I really liked.<\/p>\n

\"a \"a \"\" \"vintage<\/p>\n

Lighting setup<\/h2>\n

And one image with the lighting setup on how I shoot my vintage Charvel guitar.
\nI’m using one large softbox with grid<\/a><\/span> on a Geekoto GT400<\/a> <\/span>to fill in the shadows and light part of the body and neck.
\nOne large striplight<\/a> <\/span>with a grid on a Geekoto GT400<\/span><\/a> as main light.
\nAnd for an accent, one Geekoto GT200<\/a> <\/span>with a Rogue Magnetic system<\/a> <\/span>and the red gel<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

Some more background information on my vintage Charvel guitar<\/h2>\n

This is a ’93 Japan Charvel Dinky DKA-115. The body is made of SEN, also known as Japanese ash, producing a tight, crisp sound.
\nThe pickups<\/a><\/span> are an HSH configuration, with the bridge pickup replaced with a Seymour Duncan humbucker.
\nThe Humbucker is a DCJ. At first, I was a bit disappointed they did not have the original pickup, till I found out the DCJ is actually something really special.
\nIt’s a Duncan Classic but wound by J….<\/p>\n

So who is this J?<\/h3>\n

Let’s get into some more nerdy stuff.
\nSome people are allowed to add a letter to the pickups they create.
\nAs you can imagine, this is something special. So, it piqued my interest, especially after hearing the pickup.
\nIt has an insane amount of detail, but still sounds very aggressive.<\/p>\n

I found this on the Seymour Duncan forum
\n“MJ is maricella juarez … knows more about pickup making then all but about 3 people on the planet, as near as i can tell … she runs the custom shop at SD and has been with seymour for a LONG LONG time … she was very sweet and kind and welcoming at UGD, then strictly “no nonsense” once folks got into the custom shop to work with her making their custom creations … she is not much more than 5′ tall and everyone who has ever dug the tone of guitar hero owes her a debt of gratitude”<\/em><\/p>\n

“DCJ means “Duncan Custom Juarez” so the now legendary M. Juarez, who actually wound up pick-ups for Slash, B Gibbons, etc… (Hear that P Frampton was her cake!),”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not good<\/h2>\n

Most of the time, when buying guitars, I can’t say I’m unlucky.
\nHowever, with this one….
\nWhen it came in, part of the headstock was broken off; you can probably see it in the images.
\nThis can be fixed by a good luthier (a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments),\u00a0but it’s something that will always be visible in part.<\/p>\n

I told you I loved the bridge pickup, but I didn’t talk about the others, and that has a reason… they did not work.
\nAlso, when setting up the guitar, I noticed the bridge was not correct. Some strings were different in height, and not in a curved (normal) way.
\nI decided this was too much for me to fix, so the guitar was brought my Luthier friend Ray.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, we had to replace a lot.
\nThe guitar got a brand-new Schaller bridge; the previous owner combined new parts on the vintage bridge.
\nThe bridge also had a lot of rust and different screws; just replacing the bridge was the best solution.
\nLuckily, the pickups are ok, but we had to replace the switch and two new pods (went for the Mojo Tone versions).<\/p>\n

In all honesty, I expect a seller to mention this, but luckily, we could fix it.
\nThe guitar is back with me, and it now plays awesome and especially the bridge pickup has become one of my favorite pickups from all my guitars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photographing a Charvel I bought this Charvel in Japan, and it is a rare 90’s curved body, which also brings some problems when lighting the guitar. Most guitars are flat,…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,19,18,11,17],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear","tag-charvel","tag-dinky","tag-dk115","tag-guitar","tag-japan"],"yoast_head":"\nA vintage Charvel - Frank Doorhof<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/frankdoorhof.com\/music\/2026\/05\/29\/a-vintage-charvel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A vintage Charvel - Frank Doorhof\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photographing a Charvel I bought this Charvel in Japan, and it is a rare 90’s curved body, which also brings some problems when lighting the guitar. 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