AlienXnationVintage Launches Restored 1980s Rockers

There are some guitars that are just plain awesome in every way. The ESP guitar in this post is one of them.

I plan to make some of the guitars that I’ve held for years available for sale. Some guitars are truly manufacturing works of functional art. ESP is probably my favorite of all manufacturers. The luthiers were truly gifted. Of course i love Charvels and if you know anything about me, one is I grew up and went to high school in the city of San Dimas California. But that said there are things i learned while collecting guitars for… well a bunch of decades. I’m gonna continually pass on the knowledge… Maybe i’ll even convince a few that along with the known brands there are some real treasures. The treasures are Charvels, Jacksons, ESP, Burny, Tokai, Fernandes… lets see BC Rich, Ibanez, Greco… theres more

But many people must know this already. If you examine the used market, guitar prices have skyrocketed even tripled the cost of 1980s vintage guitars in the last couple years. That indicates people are already wise to what is a great vintage guitar.

I’m truly in love with everything about my AXN Guitars and the few vintage guitars that I’m keeping are just for investment only. That said, every guitar I sell going forward will be truly something that i love just because its a kickass RockNRoll guitar. Every guitar I sell will be something that fully ROCKS!

This ESP Relic’d Pointy For Sale

This ESP does not disappoint. Its a very very early ESP and i’ve been able to date the neck to 1984. This is before ESP made model numbers or even internal company model numbers. Both the body and the neck are a metric width. That means the neck pocket and heel size are in between 2.25” and 2-1/8” the USA standard. I may be the only one in the USA that knows exactly when ESP based in Tokyo in 1984 changed all their manufacturing away from metric measurements.

So I restored this guitar to its new found glory. I put a brand new Floyd Rose Original Germany on it with a beautiful blue AXN Sustain Block. I rewired it with my AXN Guitars wiring scheme and installed an official AXN designed Seymour Duncan JB boasting gold pole screws and appointments mounted on an AXN chromed brass pickup ring… My wiring scheme for AXN Guitars is to use a two wire braided Humbucker with a 500K single volume. This is one of the secrets to why my AXN Guitars create beautiful RockNRoll tone when cranked from through Marshall tubes.

So there it is. A beautifully relic’d ESP witha shredtastic 14” flat fretboard radius a beautiful rosewood neck from 1984 and a prime alder body! By the way this ESP Guitar was/is an ESP made clone of a 1984 pointy Charvel that ESP produced in 1984. ESP saw what Grover Jackson was doing in San Dimas and gave it a shot all the way down to the headstock. Very few ESPs have this exact shape of headstock. This also has a Charvel 1984 neck profile .80” at fret one and .90” at fret 12 and jumbo frets.


AXN '83 and the '83 Kramer Baretta Functional Art

The 1983 Kramer Baretta a Signature model for Mr Van Halen it was a true work of art. The neck was so unique because of its profile. No other manufacturer has recreated its neck profile that was captured by Kramer Neptune New Jersey in 1983.

No one has gotten the neck shape right. I assume either because they could not acquire an original 1983 Kramer Baretta neck to clone or they just didn’t care to be accurate, Sure the not-so-accurate modern offerings sort-of resemble the 1983 Kramer Baretta…

I spent the time to record every specification and clone the neck and body 100% accurately from original 1983 Kramers. My AXN ‘83 is a Functional Work of Art. Theres more in the below Video…

Hello friends, I’ve transition all AXN Guitars to Generation 2 manufacturing or G2 manufacturing. I spent a couple years in redesign and I’ve discontinued the banana headstock.

Now all my AXN ‘83s will have an AXN headstock either reverse or standard. The AXN model ‘83 is unique in the AXN line because it has the exact specification of the 1983 Kramer Baretta. I kept all that in our Model ‘83. This new for 2024 AXN will just have the visual attributes of the rest of my AXNs and a neck profile that is true to Mr. EVH’s tastes from 1983!

Keep in touch!

Contact Link

Guitar Are Functional Art - Nuno Bettencourt 1992 Charvel

Nuno
Bettencourt
Model
HDK-125N

This week I had a number of questions about a guitar. It was one that was released by Charvel. Specifically sold by Charvel Jackson in Japan in 1992.

This is a legitimate guitar offered by the Japanese wing of Charvel Jackson. So to clarify and to quote myself:

“Grover Jackson, founder of Charvel Jackson Guitars, eventually lost the majority ownership of the Charvel Jackson Company. In the USA Grover Jackson relinquished the majority of his ownership in Jackson Charvel to International Music Company in and about the year 1989. He sits on the board of directors for IMC until his departure in 1990. Akai bought out IMC in 1997 thereafter owning Jackson/Charvel.
In 1993 Jackson/Charvel and The Charvel Japan Group began to expanded its offerings of guitars which would eventually include the brands Jackson Grover Jackson®, Charvel®, Grover Jackson®, Team G.J.®, and Jackson Stars®, as well as other brands using the Chushin Gakki factory as its partner.”

Here is a link to my write up about these events

During this period the management/ownership in Japan released many model in Japan as Japan-Only models. These were meant for the Japanese market and were not sold in the USA.

I’ve owned a few of these. They are great guitars with Nunos favorite Bill Lawrence pickup in it.

Learn more about this guitar on this page >> http://charvelusa.com/charvel_models/charvel_1990_1991.html

This guitar I would classify as “Functional Art” Its awesome.

More …. From my SOLD listings on this web site..

1992 Charvel Nuno Bettencourt Model HDK-125NB

Distributed in Europe and Japan only this is an Authentic Charvel Jackson made in Japan guitar.  This model is a NON-USA model. Manufactured by Charvel Jackson in 1992 and modeled after Nuno's working guitar used on the 1988-1989 Extreme tour and pre-endorsement, this guitar features a one-piece Maple quarter-sawn neck, a two piece center joined and quarter-sawn Poplar Body.  A factory installed Bill Lawrence L-500L Bridge Position pickup that was actually made by Bill. In the neck position is the Jackson J-50N pickup. 

Its in 100% original condition set up just as it left the Charvel Jackson factory in Japan. It has heavy natural relic-ing, dents and dings, signs-of-use and signs-of-play. That said, this guitar is in perfect operating condition. The robust truss rod has been turned left-to-right. Because the body is made of transparent poplar the bumps and bruises are visible and add to the magic of this guitar. Every operation of the guitar and all the hardware has been tested and there are no issues. Its ready to play upon arrival to you.

Condition:

  • Authentic Charvel Jackson

  • Tons and Tons of Cosmetic Issues

  • Natural Relic-ing from age

  • Perfect Working Condition

  • perfect operating truss rod

  • some fretware

  • perfectly strait neck

  • dents and dings everywhere including the fretboard

  • Technical Details:

  • Scale 25.5

  • Tremolo Charvel Branded Takeuchi Floyd Rose

  • Fret Size Large

  • Neck Radius 14-16 compound

  • Neck Type - quarter-sawn maple one-piece

  • Body - 2 piece quarter-sawn poplar

Ok friends, I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog post! Keep In Touch!

best Regards

Johnny