Charvel Model 6 Kahler to Hardtail

[chunkitup]

I want to know how I should fill in the tremolo cavity to make my charvel into a hardtail? A SL1 with a fixed bridge is so hard to find and so very expensive. Thanks

[Chuck H]

How much work are you willing to do??? Is a refinish out of the picture?

[chunkitup]

How much work are you willing to do??? Is a refinish out of the picture?

Refinishing is definitely in the picture. There is a shop in town that can match the color. I want to make it look as if it came from Japan as a hardtail.

[Chuck H]

Then fill the enormous hole however you need to with similar wood. Then route for a shallow slab from the butt of the guitar all the way to the first pickup. That should eliminate the possibility of an obvious seam popping up. Just a thought. Handle the back in a similar way.

[Cygnus X1]

I would find a way to block the trem and not destroy an otherwise great guitar.

[David Schwab]

I would find a way to block the trem and not destroy an otherwise great guitar.

I agree with you, but you don't need to block the trem because it is a Kahler. It does not have the opening in the back with the springs, etc..

In fact there's nothing needed but to remove the trem arm if you don't want to use it. They are very stable trems and don't work like the Fender type with the fulcrum. They use cams and strings. Some Kahlers even allow you to lock the bridge.

This is a classic 80s guitar. I would leave it as it is.

[Zipslack]

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure those mid-late 80's Kahler's used the spring/block. My Westone Spectrum III has a Kahler-licensed trem that uses the springs & block. A friend of mine had a couple of Charvel's in the 80's and both had the block. There was another tremolo on the market that was completely on top of the guitar using cams...can't remember the name now. BTW, I agree on just blocking the trem if it is springs...you might decide you want trem again some time later (I use a wood block to keep the bridge at the height/angle I want).

Edited - just did a quick search and realized that it was Kahler that had the above-board cam-operated tremolo, but they also had the Floyd-style tremolo. Don't know what the SL1 came with standard...feel free to ignore my ramblings.

[Chuck H]

The Kahler design doesn't use the standard rear route, block spring thingys. But the Kahler company made MANY lic. by Floyd bridges that did. Check your Spectrum bridge again. I think it'll say "Kahler" and "lic. by Floyd Rose". Your question remains valid too. It may be a Floyd type bridge and say Kahler on it.

[Cygnus X1]

Yup.
If it's a cam-lock it should be flat and stiff enough to not be much of a bother.

There are plenty of Jacksons that share the specs of that Charvel (neck through, Made in Japan)
that are also string-through hard tails.

The DKMGT is my own favorite for that, but it's a bolt-on.
I have a rare Model 88 with a JT6 when I want to noodle with the floating trem.

[David Schwab]

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure those mid-late 80's Kahler's used the spring/block. My Westone Spectrum III has a Kahler-licensed trem that uses the springs & block. A friend of mine had a couple of Charvel's in the 80's and both had the block. There was another tremolo on the market that was completely on top of the guitar using cams...can't remember the name now. BTW, I agree on just blocking the trem if it is springs...you might decide you want trem again some time later (I use a wood block to keep the bridge at the height/angle I want).

Edited - just did a quick search and realized that it was Kahler that had the above-board cam-operated tremolo, but they also had the Floyd-style tremolo. Don't know what the SL1 came with standard...feel free to ignore my ramblings.

It depends on what year that guitar is. Kahler did come out with a Floyd Rose licensed bridge. But that was not the standard Kahler design, and was not as common. The earliest it came out was 1988.

I know this because I actually installed the prototype for the Kahler Floyd on an American Showster guitar that was used for a photo shoot for PlayBoy magazine for their Dec '87 Xmas issue. The production bridge looked more like a real Floyd, with the fine tuners, but the prototype did not.



The fulcrum type Kahler Floyd ended up looking like this. This is from an import Charvel.



Here's an '86 Model 6 with a surface mounted Kahler with no rear trem rout.