Don Dokken's, 1979 Charvel EVH BumbleBee Pre San Dimas!

[Music] we've got another classic guitar to show you guys today Pete what are we looking at today okay well we're looking at is a 1979 Charvel uh Boogie net Eddie Van Halen copy that was one of the first uh copies that Charvel ever made of Eddie's guitar and this was originally purchased by Don Dawkin from Charvel and uh what some people would like to know too is when we look at San Dimas charvels this is actually an Azusa Charvel this is pre San Dimas and the reason why this guitar would have a boogie body's neck which is what Ed's guitars were made out of back then is because this is before Charvel even made a neck they were only doing bodies they'd yet to make their own necks so um yeah so this uh this is an old one this isn't a reissue this isn't anything done by Fender and this is the real deal and they're unicorns let's set it over on the bench over here so we can get a good look at it this video is brought to you by Swiss picks it's not just to pick it's a science available at Zim's guitars or at www.swisspix.com okay so the fun thing about this guitar is uh don Doc and purchased it from Charvel in 79 went to the shop love the guitar he buys it for 400 and soon after he realizes that this is Eddie Van Halen's new design so Don Dokken um there's a guitar player in Downs band named Greg darshlag and Don sold it to Greg because Don you know told Greg that wow I can't go on stage with this this is Eddie's new design I'm gonna get roused so Greg buys it for 400 and uh sits on it for 28 years and plays the guitar Greg ended up joining a band called The weasels so while Greg was in the weasels uh Ed was at the um Whiskey A Go-Go so this is what year was that uh Christmas Eve 79 1979 ads at the at the whiskey watching the weasels watching the weasels and sees Greg on stage with this guitar and he is pissed so pissed that uh in an interviewing Guitar Player magazine he actually talks about Greg being on stage with his guitar with his design with one humbucker one knob the stripe paint job and you know just being uh upset the fact that people are you know that that Grover Jackson is making money off of his design because uh Ed put the bits on Grover and it's really this is one of the guitars I've got Ed uh Ed into the big fight with Grover Jackson uh of Charvel guitars at that time so uh even any guitars that Ed had that had any kind of Charvel logo you would see Ed you'd see the uh the Chicago logo covered with tape you know later on and um one kind of fun thing about the this guitar too is you're going to notice that it has a Floyd Rose nut on it but there's no Floyd Rose on it so going back into the history of what happened with Floyd Rose they were originally non-fine tuners on the Floyd roses they hadn't done the fine too the first ones yeah you didn't have the fine tune or something yeah so a lot of people thought that well we could just do a lock nut on a standard you know tremolo and it'll work which which it really kind of didn't although there are some people who know exactly where to set the string so when you tighten the lock nut it pulls it Forward enough to just about have it in tune I can't do that but so yeah so we have a lock nut with a standard trim which is a kind of fun about the tremolo you'll see like these early trims had the keyhole Saddles and um yeah they have a brass block underneath which we'll look at later and uh yeah so that's um some of the cool stuff here so we're going to restring this guitar today yeah we're gonna do we're gonna do a little taking it apart and I'm gonna show people under the hood I'm going to show them under the trim cavity and all the kind of stuff that Charvel did before they were even in San Dimas all right let's get started a lot of cool stuff to you guys are gonna look at here all right here we go so the back plate everything has been with the guitar its entire life huh yeah and these are generally they're very heavy they're actually um brass usually they usually Chrome printed plated brass you know because they use a lot of brass Parts you can see here we have the brass Block in there there you go you got the brass block which is turning green from age um what's really kind of cool too is if you look over here under the Springs you can see little cavities in there you know and that's something on very early charvels and Azusa charvels that they did they had this open little cavity in there just explain this as Souza all right so Azusa a lot of people know Charvel is a San Dimas you know Sandy Michelle's but before San Dimas they were were in Azusa California okay and then they originally then they moved to San Dimas I think in 1980. all right so this guitar has the whole pickguard over the whole thing yeah well we'll get under here and we'll see because we know that Daddy the frankenstrat and everything he just used the little vinyl pick guard and just this section of it and he got rid of all the rest of that he just cut a little part of the pickguard and that's what he used and uh just kind of funny and um you know even back then because you know they weren't really doing the um the one home guitars you know a lot of most of the guitars back then you know had the uh you know the front route so it's kind of rare to see stuff that was just you know when they had the rear cover underneath like charva went to later on and get ready we're gonna see some cool stuff under here oh okay so okay so if this guard hasn't been off in a long time but let's not break those wires and here we go okay so what we're looking at what's kind of cool is this is the original Azusa route which is an oval route I'm saying how they have the oval route here and it's almost like a little kidney bean type of design in here it was pretty it was really kind of rough you know because it's even like you know the lines here you know aren't exactly so super straight but this is originally what they did back in 79. what's uh kind of cool too is there is a preamp under here that uh is not hooked up but the guitar came with an original preamp Maybe by I think Mighty might might have done those and uh the pickup in this guitar too I mean you know like I said last time in here is kind of raw the pickup um has no markings on it but it is a Duncan custom Red Label that the label fell off of that I I have at home so yeah so under the hood you can see like I said so the guitar you know was just a one hum always you know no routes for anything else and you know a lot of get a lot of you at home could see too is how the lines here they're pretty um they're pretty raw like there's bleed lines and stuff like that and this and this is the beginnings of short these are the first um Graphics that chargel ever tried the first you know paint jobs that they did that weren't you know uh just straight colors so you know it took them a bit to get um up to speed on it and to get pretty talented with it but yeah so this guard has not been off in probably about 14 years we have a very heavily corroded pot there and um yeah and you can see right here where the Seymour Duncan the Red Label fell off of that a little a little more Chrome under there and uh a lot going on that on that potentiometer right there yeah a lot going on yeah this is I mean I think you know is is the potential armor pyometer original I don't know I don't know if Greg had you know put something else in there and um you know through the years because he did use this guitar quite a bit in the 28 years he had it I'd be so tempted to cut a little pick guard if if it was me you know or not leave it original yeah then you know you got the then you have the pickguard screws yeah I know right but it's just yeah it's pretty cool yeah I'd be so tempted if it was mine to just make a frankenstrat out of it and one thing one thing that's interesting too even on the paint job is that you'll see like this little star pattern that star pattern pops up on some of the really old you know black and yellow copies that Charvel was doing let's look at that magazine you brought in for a second that probably okay so going back to the uh the story about the weasels and Greg owning his guitar so um this is a flyer I got with the guitar and uh it said the weasels it's a really nice flyer considering it's probably 1977. 1870 yeah that's right when the guy drew it and um and the weasels you know Greg um got into the weasels after he left Don Dawkins band which is pre-docking that you guys know and here's a weasels pin all right I came with it and uh so originally what happened is when I had this guitar for years and then um you know I'm sitting on the toilet reading because that's where men read we read on a toilet so of course you know being a fan I'm reading this this magazine here which is Van Halen the unpublished interviews and uh you know Jazz obrecht from guitar player said you know back in the day they would riff for hours everybody so you know they put out a special magazine saying you know here's the interviews completely unedited from the magazine so uh much to my surprise I'm hanging out there reading and uh and here says you know I was at the whiskey the other night on Christmas Eve and uh and this interview is from April 1980. okay so he says a band called The weasels uh if you look over here the band called The weasels was playing guitars I see that had a guitar exactly like mine I just don't understand how someone could go walk on stage with my guitar because it is my trademark you know when people see a freaked out stripe guitar like that with one pickup one volume knob the obviously know it's mine so he he Ed goes on here and talks about you know Grover Jackson and Seymour Duncan which essentially what's funny is the guitar is a Seymour Duncan custom pickup which was supposedly made for Ed um you know and then Seymour tries to Market that as Ed's pickup um so yeah so it's funny that 19 you know Christmas 79 Ed Eddie Van Halen saw this guitar on stage being played by Greg and the weasels and uh yeah well you know it's like it's and now on the cover here you've you're showing Ed plane a stripe Series yeah this guitar is what's the story on this guitar that's actually on that cover this is originally Ed's um black and yellow with the Boogie body's neck and um a boogies it's probably a boogie body's body I think where he got the stuff um it's hard to tell because you know same company build sort of yeah uh the same company Boogie did the neck and um Charvel made the body Charvel wasn't making next yet no they're yet to make a neck so they were getting their stuff from boogie boogie bodies and okay and it was funny back then because in southern count not that I was around back then but in Southern California as the stories go you know um Boogie bodies which is Lynn Ellsworth um and he had sold any parts and X bodies uh mighty might uh Ken Warmoth from warmouth uh guitars was around warmth was around and then in an early version of them and um you know Wayne Charvel you know so these guys were all buddies and they shared Parts uh Schechter two Schecter was another company you know uh was I think it was um David Dave schachter I believe it was Dave or Dan I think it's Dave Schechter you know these guys all were helping each other out because they were all trying to do this hot rod guitar thing and going to business together but in 1978 Wayne charvelle sold the company to Grover Jackson so it's funny that with you know the name Charvel that Wayne charvelle didn't even really have much to do with Charvel in a lot of ways because really Grover Jackson was in there in 1978 and then Mike Shannon who is the um you know the master chargel Jackson luthier The Legend Mike Shannon he uh he started there in um right after high school in night in the fall of 1978 so uh yeah and basically this guitar too pictures this guitar did go to Mike Shannon they went to Tim Wilson of you know Charvel and they authenticated the guitar as much as um in the collector circles there's a guy who knows probably more about the stuff than anybody and his name is Jim shine and Jim shine just said yeah oh my God that's an original Azusa you know he said that is he said that is a Grail he said that is a unicorn and he was just honored to see it wow which is super cool because you know even growing up and being in charleville collector myself we had heard about the Azusa charvels you know with the Boogie necks we had heard the legend but no one had ever really seen one and nor did I until I got this in 2008. and uh yeah and I've been playing it ever since that's cool so you're gonna put some strings on it yeah we're gonna we're gonna oil the board uh keep that board oiled and put some strings on it and then we'll be back uh in a minute okay all right so what we've done for you guys is we've pulled the neck and uh this is an early days of wind Charvel they they started putting a little black uh magic marker you know around there so you wouldn't see the um body wood next to the neck and in this cavity here if you look there is a pencil number three let me catch that in there there you go number three so oh yeah yeah yeah so number three and these are three out of five or six three out of six three out of six so you know the story is when Ed when Ed came into sure when it so here's how Ed got into the big fight with Grover Jackson um here's how Charvel copied Ed's guitar so Ed brings the original black and yellow into Charvel just around a humbucker in a day because I realized after the first one as we've seen he couldn't round a humbucker with the Chisel the Frankie is really messy he did that with a chisel so he comes the stairs The Story Goes from the guys at Charvel um Ed comes back you know around two weeks later and is six black and yellows drawing on the paint rack and he goes berserk he's pissed off he's pissed he goes berserk on Grover Jackson he threatens to sue him tells him you can't do that uh Grover says you can't uh trademark or you can't copyright a paint job and eventually Grover stopped although they did leak black and yellows from time to time at Charvel you know someone's going to pay for it and this is number three out of those six this could be number three out of the six and you'll even see what's kind of fun to be or is it is I mean it is one of the earliest ones and then so the next on these These are actually made by Boogie bodies and um Boogie bodies would be in script along here you could just kind of see the uh outline of their logo and this is number neck number 1108 or body part 1108 and this is kind of cool too it's all bird's eye which is beautiful Boogie stuff was just phenomenal stuff back in the day which is why Ed was using them what are these tuners these are just a straight up Strat tuners you know back then Clues and deluxes and you know this is I I you know it's funny too because with the pre-pro tuners that they had the um gotos I don't know when they started making those another cool thing about these next is you can see they have if we come in close is the brass side markers so if you see these brass instead of white plastic or a clay dot or something they use brass which is really neat um one thing about this neck too so when I got this guitar the um the Frets were really worn because Greg Greg played this guitar a lot um so this was re-fretted with 6150 Frets by um John Carruthers who is one of the famous California luthiers in Los Angeles and this is when he was at his Venice store and um or his Venice shop and he just knocked this thing out of the park I just told him I said John I need you to do your best work on this another cool thing to ebony board on his neck which everyone loves ebony Pearl dots and you can notice even here from Charvel on the Boogie next the two the 12 fret dots are closed together I see that together so this is the neck and uh we're gonna put this guy back together in a minute now okay all right so again this guitar belonged to Don Dawkin a long time ago and you got a pretty good story about that huh oh yeah yeah so so you know Don walked us out of Charvel in in 1979 um soon after sold it to his uh guitar player Greg and I bought it from Greg back in 2008. so uh in 2011 my phone rings and it's Greg and he asked me he goes hey you know Pete do you still have the black and yellow you know Van Halen guitar sold you and I was like oh yeah yeah I got it Greg played all the time I love it he goes okay listen he goes Don Dokken called me he wants the guitar back and he wants your information I'm like no no don't tell him anything you know that guy no he's don't don't give it to him so uh he's like oh okay okay okay you know so um then you maybe a few months after I um my Lutheran in Los Angeles was Jim foot you know Jim foot's famous he did work for everyone from Guns and Roses to docking to Great White uh you know almost like the who's who of La he did fretwork for and guitar repairs so I walk into Jim foot shop one day and he goes hey weirdest thing goes Don Dokken was in here looking for you and he wants your information I said did you give him and he goes no no he goes what's going on I said yo I got this guitar he bought in 79 and he wants it back you know and uh you know Jim laughed and you know we just had to get a laugh over but uh so yeah so don was actually trying to uh you know I guess I guess you know get my information just to try and get the guitar back out of me uh in the uh you know 2011 you know 2012 Range and uh and luckily I haven't heard anything since and I've uh moved out of La in 2017. so now once this video comes out now Don's going to be calling me at the store here and I'm gonna just say I'm sorry Don don't call me about this one okay see Don you just got on I love your music Don I'm a huge fan I'm a huge fan but uh but no I'm not going to give you his info see Don it was 43 years ago 42 years ago get over it let me ask you about okay now on this pickup yeah I'm gonna get back to the guitar for a second um you can see how the poll pieces don't really line up with so this is a pre F uh FF space f-spaced pickup and if space didn't come out until many maybe the 90s right they got into the up spacing but uh yeah you know and and you know they always had the ad of um I figured who did the original space I think it might have been um I don't know who did it but they said get your e strings back you know because the the strings never exactly went over the pole pieces on a standard spaced humbucker right you know and this is what inspired Eddie to yeah to turn it to tilt it tilt it yeah he did the little sideways thing and it you know gave him a little more uh give a little more sound on the ease there's a lot of volume there yeah so uh yeah so some uh pretty pretty cool stuff and and that's where you know guitar evolves you know the builds evolve and you know things happen to where they you know they learn as they go you know but this in 1979 was so early and um one kind of cool thing you'll see here like what the early ones was the square Jack Plate that's a nice touch yeah it's Square jack plates and um like I said you know they use a lot of metal and Brass uh Parts on the guitars and you know all the metal knobs and yeah and if you you know you look to there's a lot of pain checking on this yeah it looks really neat a lot of pain checking and uh some of the other cool Parts too is when you look at even um you know the lines here they just when they taped it off they just really didn't do a great job you know if you get right up you can see even like little bleed marks and stuff from what you know they were trying to do or spots where they just completely you know they just missed one kind of cool part here we're going to show you is that in the uh neck right here is is how they they kind of finished it over here was really kind of not too uh not too crafty looking that's how it happened just how it happened and um yeah so uh yeah so this is it this is uh what you know some people call the Unicorn or you know and okay one more thing the wood is what's this wood right here oh this is Northern Ash Northern Ash this guitar what's this guitar weighing at it's got to be between 12 and 13. [Applause] foreign [Applause] it's a great piece of History it is so cool that it actually played at the Whiskey A Go Go because I love that bar and uh everything about Eddie Van Halen I love and even Don talking everything about Don Dawkin and his band I love it's just a treat to be able to play this thing for a second foreign [Applause] some guys have all the luck there it is guys thanks for watching okay so here we go we're gonna put our way in the original Charvel redlined case never to be seen ever again oh yeah well not here but we'll be seen again thanks for watching guys thank you guys [Music] [Applause] thank you

Channel: ZIMM'S GUITARS

Views: 14,914

Keywords: Zimm's, Zimms, Zimm's Guitars, Zimms Guitars, Music, 1979, Charvel, EVH, Eddie Van Halen, BumbleBee, San Dimas, Pre San Dimas, Azusa, Dokken, Don Dokken, Used, Vintage, Rare, Super Rare, Guitar, Guitars, Electric, Electric Guitar, Electric Guitars

Id: HJBAtz0SWtY

Length: 22min 24sec (1344 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 22 2022