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CHARVEL SURFCASTER


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Charvel surfcaster, modified with one of Fred Hammons darkstar pickups, fairly old dates from early 90's, good condition considering age, original parts included so could be returned to stock with a new pickguard. Darkstar alone cost £125

Imported from the states aat a cost of £600 so im taking a big hit on this...



now fitted with a darkstar and a Has sound orange drop varitone



if any interest i will take some better pictures

Edited by steve-norris
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[quote name='steve-norris' post='70851' date='Oct 7 2007, 11:09 PM']First up my recently built warnoth sg, walnut body, rosewood neck with ziricote board, DARKSTAR pickups and audare 4 band eq with Z-mode switch, more photos in the build diaries section


next my much loved charvel surfcaster


now fitted with a darkstar and a Has sound orange drop varitone

looking for offers around £500 for the SG and £350 for the charvel

if any interest i will take some better pictures

Trade now organized on the SG[/quote]

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[quote name='majikal' post='71103' date='Oct 8 2007, 04:18 PM']Hi Steve,what scale lenght is the S.G.?long,medium or short?It looks the bollocks,with power to boot!!,and does it have a case? :)[/quote]

Hi it's 34" scale, the neck profile is based on a vintage jazz so quite c shaped

This bass is most likley already gone, i will let you know if not

Edited by steve-norris
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[quote name='BigRedX' post='71221' date='Oct 8 2007, 08:06 PM']What's the scale length on the Charvel? Also what are the strings fitted at the moment - tapewound? Is there a case for it?[/quote]

34" scale, no case, apparently charvel did commission a custom case for them but they seem to be rarer than the basses. Currently fitted with fender tape wounds but to be honest i prefered it fitted with chromes

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[quote name='bassbloke' post='71326' date='Oct 8 2007, 10:45 PM']I'm distraught at what's been done to the Surfcaster. Has fitting the darkstar involved any extensive routing to the body?[/quote]

not as much as you would think as there is very little wood under the pickguard, the whole area under the G is hollow anyway, the pickups are mounted directly to the pickguard as standard .

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[quote name='bassbloke' post='71545' date='Oct 9 2007, 01:25 PM']So if I were to get a new pickguard made I could easily return it to two lipsticks?

Sorry, I appreciate the Darkstar is probably vastly superior to the stock pickup, but I've always thought the original surfcaster was a thing of beauty.[/quote]


Yes but although the stock pickups are nice to look at they are not a patch on a darkstar. If you wanted to keep the look Kent Armstrong lipsticks are very good vastly superior to stock ( i had a pair in a fender jaguar)

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[quote name='BassBod' post='71761' date='Oct 9 2007, 07:25 PM']I'll buy the Darkstar, if you buy the bass and decide to return it to original look (but which version DS is it?)

BB[/quote]

it's a DS 3-N, suitable for the majority of long scale basses (if you are after a pair fred sell them in RWRP sets for better hum canceling so make sure you get one to match ) .....have a look on freds site for current prices and PM me an offer, returning it to standard pickup config before selling is an option i had not considered before.

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Ok, checked the string spacing on the Clifton - it's narrower than I thought, so looks like I'd have to go for a "short scale" version of the DS. How useful was the varitone circuit? I've never really heard anything like this?

Cheers for the reply, and hope you get a sale soon.

BB

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[quote name='BassBod' post='71877' date='Oct 9 2007, 09:49 PM']How useful was the varitone circuit? I've never really heard anything like this?



BB[/quote]

The vatitone is a great mod, in the past I have found normal passive tone controls ineffective, all they really do is cut treble which I can do just as easily do by tweaking the amp. The varitone in contrast is a six position control which I have found in conjunction with the darkstar provides a real change in tone. Position one is open and full of treble, as you go round it gets progressively more bassy and 5 gives an kind of passive overdrive when you dig in hard. One interesting way of using a varitone is apparently to wire it along with a tone control, wired this way the tone pot controls the level of 'effect' the varitone has. Mine is wired in place of a tone pot which although may cut down on the available options means I am just a defined click away from a a known change in tone.
The varitone is I think just a set of different capacitors which the knob switches between, the different caps really do change the tone centre in a way I find really useful, someone here who knows a bit more about bass electrics hopefully may be able to shed some light on how they work but i like it.

Edited by steve-norris
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[quote name='steve-norris' post='76407' date='Oct 19 2007, 11:13 AM']Me own a white thunderbird? with my reputation crikey! no :) actually a friend is playing a thunderbird i his covers band through a ashdown and i really like the sound in a band mix it just sits really well.[/quote]

Hi Steve
I love a good mystery...

A few years ago, I was gassing for a white Thunderbird; I had a friend in the US trying to source me one in the New England area, so I pulled some images down from the web and e-mailed them to him for reference. I hung onto the images because I just loved how the T-Bird looked. One of the images was this one...



The T-Bird image is nearly six years old...thought it might have been you is all.

P

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