Chu Shin Gakki, in Matsumoto City, was awarded the business and samples were sent. The Hondo brand thrived into the ’80s.ĭesiring to garner some of the hard-rock-player market, in 1985, IMC entered a licensing agreement with Jackson/Charvel to produce Charvel guitars in Japan. Cheaper Hondos were made in Korea, but its better models were produced in Japan. In 1969, they traveled to Korea and, transferring Japanese technology and techniques, established the budget Hondo brand.

Two enterprising Americans named Jerry Freed and Tommy Moore started the International Music Corporation (IMC) in Fort Worth, Texas. Meanwhile, the Japanese juggernaut of the ’70s continued into the ’80s, though while Japanese quality continued to excel, unfavorable exchange rates made it increasingly difficult to import them. When American manufacturing ceased in ’86, Charvel had produced nearly 6,000 guitars.

In 1983, Charvels with the more-familiar pointy/droopy headstock appeared. Even though Van Halen soon jumped ship and hooked up with Floyd Rose and Kramer guitars, Charvels found a steady clientele, and the brand prospered. Rich and basses to Music Man, in 1980 the Charvel line of bolt-neck solidbody electric guitars and basses appeared, basically variations on Fender models. That same year, Edward Van Halen brought attention to the name when he appeared playing a Charvel “parts” guitar. In ’77, Charvel Manufacturing ran into financial problems, and in ’78, Jackson bought the company from his boss, becoming Jackson/Charvel. In ’74, he opened a repair shop in Azusa, California, which in ’76 became Charvel Manufacturing, offering a variety of parts so you could “build your own.” Charvel had an assistant named Grover Jackson. In the early ’70s, Charvel worked as a refinisher for Fender. American-made Charvels were the namesake of Wayne Richard Charvel, who began making guitars as a teenager in the 1960s. Japanese Charvels were the result of a collision between the dominance of ’80s heavy metal, the maturation of Asian guitarmaking, and the realities of economics. Curiously, that “San Dimas guitar” mystique didn’t rub off to its foreign cousins like the Model 4 – the fine Japanese-made Charvels produced beginning in 1986. Certain guitar brands develop a mystique among aficionados – sometimes it’s even deserved! Somewhere on this continuum lie Charvel USA guitars made in the early ’80s in San Dimas, California.

Charvel kahler tremolo