This guitar was made in 1984 by Charley Wirz – the owner of Charley’s Guitar Shop in Dallas.
I saw it being built. Charley had made one for Jimmie, and he was like a proud father! They were both being built, and I think they were DiMarzio parts. Larry DiMarzio was the first guy to start making bodies and necks and pickups in that era. I think Charley told me they were mostly DiMarzio parts, but Van Zandt pickups. It was really like a Frankenstein or parts guitar.
Mark Pollock, Stevie Ray Vaughan Day By Day, Night After Night His Final Years, 1983-1990
Specs, Usage
Stevie’s Charley Stratocaster has a white Strat-style body with a rosewood neck, two controls (volume and tone), and three Danelectro lipstick pickups. On the back of the body is a hula girl sticker and the neckplate has the words “To Stevie Ray Vaughan, more in ’84” engraved on it.
Stevie played this guitar on “Life Without You” (which was Stevie’s tribute to Charley after his passing in 1985), and live on the “Live at Montreaux” video.
Replicas
In 2003, Charley’s Guitar Shop and Rene Martinez made 23 limited edition replicas of this guitar, selling for $2500. Fender also produced a model based on this guitar, which you can read more about here – The Super Rare Fender “Charley” Lipstick Stratocaster in the Style of SRV.
I actually found out the answer from the close ups from japanese magazine which confirms it’s %90 rosewood. Ebony can’t look that red. Weirdly enough it is posted from someone named Fred on reverb.
Do we know if the board was rosewood or ebony for certain?
I did lots of research on that specific guitar to make a replica myself. I’ve also read somewhere it was DiMarzio parts, a hardtail 80’s Japanes contoured alder bodyand the maple neck’s fretboard was actually a rare DiMarzio Ebony. The Dan Electro style pick ups were Chandler. Saddly enough I can’t find the source anymore. One similar (the first one) was made for Jimmie and only has a Charley’s logo. On Stevie’s however there is an addition of ‘E-FLAT MODEL’ and underneath ‘Made in TEXAS’ on the headstock logo. The (pearloid) side dots are only on the ebony fretboard, not on the maple. The fretboard dots are pearloid as well. The color is a pearloid flip – flop white / light grey blue, and it was painted with carpaint (probably something as on a Cadillac – Rene Martinez used to spray paint in a body shop) The pick up routes were enlarged to fit Danelectro sized pick ups and the pickuard was custom made with one volume, one tone knob and a 5-way selector switch. I have made 2 myself now to practice and I’m finishing my last one.
In my research I found out that the 33 replica’s built by Rene Martinez in 2003 actually do not always come close to the original. The hula girl sticker is similar but not exactly the same. There are replica’s out there but haven’t found one that perfectly matches. Some of these replica’s are owned by Carlos Santana, John Mayer, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and René Kramer.
The original neckplate wasn’t engraved at first. It was done later by Stevie after Charley’s passing. It says:
STEVIE RAY
VAUGHAN
More in ’84
1984
And above STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN there is still some kind of 4 digit serial number.
Well, that’s about what I can tell of it. Enjoy!
Correction: the 4 digits are the ‘1984’ below, above is some kind of brand name, PRESS… or FRESS … I have this from a close up picture of ‘Charley’ in a Japanese magazine. I think the closest picture you could find.
Another fun fact, at the end ‘Charley’ had the same SRV (truckstop) stickers as earlier on #1 and Lenny or Yellow.
I just realized it’s a hard tail. Maybe it had a great sound because of the lipstick Danelectro pickups but I think the hard tail improves the tone. Listen to Mary Had a Little Lamb live at Montreaux Jazz Festival.
I believe Charley was the one that was stolen.