what does IMM think of the CHARVEL SURFCASTER!?

i think: it's not a jaguar.

I was suprised to like the bass one of these I played a few years ago. It was well made, and had a nice Ricky-meets-J sound. Headstock heavy as all hell, though. I think there are lots of these out there for cheap.

i've almost bought one before. they combined the body shape of the jazzmaster/jaguar, which i loved, and stuff from the rickenbacker- the fret markers, cats eye soundhole (i believe strictly for show, the charvel is not a hollow or semi-hollowbody).

since then, i've gotten both a 360/12 and a Jaguar so my lust is somewhat diminished.... heh. especially since they seem to have a cult following of sorts- they always commanded something of a coin on the Bay, much like those Ibanez Talmans- at least the nicer ones. the talmans also featuring a jag/jazz type body with multiple pickup options (but stepped to the plate a little more with p-90s and a bigsby on some models, unfortunately generally the sparkly Barbie-dreamhouse models).

the 12 string version is really rare and goes for about as much as you'd pay for a rickenbacker 360/12. one was just on ebay with a buy it now of nine hundred bucks!

eBay is for suckers -- there's plenty of these out there for cheap in the realy world of guitar stores and pawn shops.

I stuck this in my watch list:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7389055790&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

9 days to go, so it's into next month's credit card, though it'll doubtless go up to much more than I'd want to pay.

Nice looking piece, though, I think. The only off-putting thing for me is the jumbo frets.

colin, where?

i hit up local stores in nyc/philly/nj often, check websites of the same stores that keep updated stocklists, and i've rarely, if ever seen a surfcaster come up.

and yeah, ebay is overpriced compared to how things used to be, but more and more stores are just putting stuff out for some kind of average of past ebay performance.

It's a long, long time since I saw a used surfcaster in a shop, tbh. there were a lot of them about, sometimes very cheap, for a little while after they got discontinued, but it's years since I last saw one in the flesh.

I ran into a bunch of NOS Surfcasters in Germany last year, at more than one shop. They're out there, really, 'cause Charvel/Jackson made a lot of them and they couldn't sell them (although I think that was probably the last batch of NOS instruments in Europe). Rarity is relative -- you're about a thousand times more likely to find a Fender Stratocaster at any given shop than a Surfcaster because "a Stratocaster" is one of hundreds of models of guitars made over a fifty year period by about 15 different factories, and a Surfcaster is one of three different models made in two factories over about two years. I haven't seen a Rickenbacker 4001 in a guitar in about four years myself -- but I'm also not looking for one, and if I were, I could find one.

These things are often going for more now used than their new price.

I've always thought they looked cool. Ross Danielson of the Bloomington surfpunk band Speed Luxury back in the mid 90s played a light blue Surfcaster. They also made a black one that looked real good.

That sunburst one in the link looks amazing.

I had one of the 12-strings. Problem was the tuning instruments were awful - the thing did not stay in tune at all. And there were no replacement tuners that fit the headstock. I also broke TONS of strings on the thing.

I love surfcasters and have two - a Jackson SC-1 which is amazing and a 12 string Charvel (made under Charvel/jackson).
In fact I've just looked at the eBay link Pashmina posted - I'm the guy who won it!
Action and neck on both is excellent & the jumbo frets are very comfortable and fast to play.
I'm a Fender man & was initially put off by the wide neck, but it has a very shallow profile and is extremely comfortable & very fast.
The 12 string is far easier to play than many 6 strings & chords played 'up the dusty end' are effortless. Intonation is spot on n both and I have had no tuning problems with either.
12 stings sounds great drop tuned to D, or DADGAG tuned & distorted is a beast.
Although still a VERY nice guitar, the build quality of the Jackson and the switches etc aren't nearly as good quality as the Charvel.
I'm tying to get my hands on an original Charvel 6 string, and also one with the 'C' tailpiece with the humbucker like the Jackson as that suits my playing style.

A company in Madison Wisconsin is making beautiful copies of the Surfcaster which I think you can pick up for about $550 even though the web site says $799. I have a couple of original surfcasters myself, but can't bring myself to buy any more for more than $800 on Ebay. I bought one of these GRB's and it's amazing, probably higher quality than the original surfcaster. Here's their web site: www.grbguitars.com

Banking Guy