Leo'z Guitarz n' Stuff

"The Mutt" (1979)

'The Mutt' (1979 - 1980)

Before Restoration

"The Mutt" was my first attempt at a Super Strat that was planned in late 1978 and finished on January 26, 1979 - my 15th birthday. It consists of a DiMarzio body (which has the infamous "Boogie Route"), a licensed Strat neck, X2N pickups, a Power Pot (why in the hell I needed this with X2N's I'll never know, but when you're 15 you tend to do stupid stuff!), and originally had a nice Shecter vintage type trem - the ones with the heavy brass blocks. The Kahler was added in 1983. This was my main road warrior during my band days, as can be seen from the various bumps, bruises and contusions.
After several years of gathering the proper parts to rebuild and restore this guitar, I finally stopped procrastinating and took everything to Tim & Harry at Atomic Guitar Works to have her completed properly.
As my friend Jim Shine suggested, I decided to go with an oil finish for the body. The stock Fender neck was replaced by an early oil finished Charvel-like 21 fret neck with a 1-3/4" nut width. All electronics have been replaced - the power pot and X2N's are gone. She now has a Duncan EVH in the bridge position and a Duncan Alnico 2 Pro in the neck. The tone control functions only for the neck pickup.
'The Mutt' (1979) - After Restoration

After Restoration

I was originally going to have the Kahler replaced with a Floyd, but decided against it at Tim's suggestion to keep the guitar more true to it's origins and avoid the necessity of patchwork, which would surely have remained visible to some degree with this finish. The Kahler was completely serviced with a rebuild kit and the addition of heavier springs to stiffen it up a bit. The mini-switch is now non-functional, but was left in place instead of having a hole or a visible patch attempt. In spite of their light appearance in the picture, both pickups are cream colored.
Just to be perfectly clear - this guitar is NOT a Charvel. It is merely a Charvel replica, although I'm fairly certain that the body was built by Charvel for DiMarzio as it is widely known that Charvel did supply bodies for DiMarzio at this time. The body also has the identical route as the black and gold guitar pictured on the Van Halen 2 album which is known to have been built by Charvel for Edward.
Last but certainly not least, I want to thank Tim & Harry at Atomic Guitar Works for the wonderful job they did on this restoration. They are a pleasure to work with and their work is first class. I would not hesitate for a minute to recommend them to anyone.
Charvels, Waynes, Soldanos, Marshalls and more

Previous Page  |  Site Map  |  Home  |  Next Page

Vintage Charvel Guitars, San Dimas Charvels, Wayne Guitars, Gibson, Fender, J-Frog, Soldano Amps, Marshall Amps and more ...

Website by LG Webs