In Short
"Charley" was a white, Stratocaster style guitar built for Stevie Ray Vaughan by Charley Wirz, owner of Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas, either in late 1983 or in 1984. Sources disagree and both dates are still in circulation. It was not a Fender. It was a hardtail parts guitar fitted with three Danelectro lipstick tube pickups, and its neck plate was engraved "To Stevie Ray Vaughan, more in '84". Wirz died on 3 February 1985, and Vaughan played this guitar on "Life Without You", the song written in his memory.
That is the whole legend in four sentences. The details are where it gets interesting.
Who was Charley Wirz
Charles Albert Wirz opened Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas in 1976 and became one of the people who turned "old guitar" into "vintage guitar" in North America. He also started a small Dallas guitar show that grew into what is now the Dallas International Guitar Festival.
The Vaughan brothers grew up in Oak Cliff, a part of Dallas, and Charley's became a home base for them. Wirz serviced Stevie's guitars long before the world knew the name, and hired a young repairman called Rene Martinez, who would later become Stevie's touring tech and one of the most respected guitar techs alive.
Wirz was also generous to the point of recklessness. Before Charley, he had already given Stevie a 1959 Strat that had been butchered by a previous owner. Wirz covered the routing with a new pickguard, fitted a single neck pickup, painted the whole thing yellow and handed it over. That guitar became "Yellow", the one with the SRV letters under the strings.
How Charley was built
Somewhere between the end of 1983 and the course of 1984, Wirz built two similar guitars: one for Jimmie Vaughan and one for Stevie. The exact date is disputed, see the section below. Mark Pollock, a close friend of Wirz who later ran the Dallas guitar festival, described them as Frankenstein parts guitars assembled largely from aftermarket components of the era, and remembered Charley being like a proud father while they were being built.
What the sources agree on:
- A white, Stratocaster style body, not a Fender
- Hardtail, so no tremolo
- Three Danelectro style lipstick tube pickups, rewired to Wirz's own scheme
- A stripped down control layout, most commonly described as one volume and one tone
- A neck plate engraved "To Stevie Ray Vaughan, more in '84"
- A hula girl pin up sticker on the back of the body
- A "Charley's Guitar Shop" logo on the headstock
Stevie carried it on the road from around 1984 to 1985 and it shows up clearly in Montreux 1985 footage.
The details that are still disputed
Good gear writing separates the documented from the repeated. Four points about Charley are genuinely disputed, and anyone who states them as settled fact is guessing. In each case it is either A or B, and nobody has published proof.
Fingerboard: ebony or rosewood
Craig Hopkins, the long time SRV historian and former fan club president, listed Charley with an ebony fingerboard. Ground Guitar, the SRV Archive and most other gear databases say rosewood. Replica builders working from close up photographs in a Japanese magazine argue for rosewood on the basis of colour, since ebony would not read that red. Both camps are working from photos rather than from the instrument. Unresolved.
Build year: late 1983 or 1984
Wikipedia and Ground Guitar's own summary say Wirz built it in late 1983. The SRV Archive, Guitar World's account and several other sources say 1984, most likely because the engraving reads "more in '84". A guitar handed over around Christmas or New Year sits on both sides of that line, so both dates may be describing the same event. Unresolved.
Finish: flip flop white or plain white
Descriptions from the fan club era mention a white "trick" or "flip flop" automotive paint that throws a faint blue shimmer depending on light and angle. Players who have handled Charley or the 2003 replicas remember it reading as ordinary white. Rene Martinez had sprayed cars in a body shop before he worked on guitars, which is probably where the automotive paint story comes from, but that is inference and not evidence. Unresolved.
Pickups: original Danelectro or Chandler
Nearly every source says Danelectro lipstick tubes. At least one detailed replica build account claims the units were Chandler lipstick pickups rather than genuine Danelectro parts, and Chandler lipsticks were also used in later Charley's Guitar Shop builds. Either way the pickup type is not in question, only the maker. Unresolved.
One more claim to handle with care: you will often read that Charley was used on "Couldn't Stand the Weather" and "Tin Pan Alley". That is neither confirmed nor firmly denied. It circulates widely but traces back to the same handful of forum posts, so treat it as folklore rather than documented fact.
Why lipstick pickups sound like that
The lipstick tube pickup was the invention of Nathan Daniel, founder of Danelectro. From 1955 onward he sourced actual lipstick tubes from a cosmetics supplier because they were cheaper than purpose made pickup covers, and stuffed a pickup inside each one.
The construction is unusual. There is no bobbin. The coil is wound directly around an alnico bar magnet, wrapped in tape and slid into the chrome tube. There are no adjustable pole pieces. The metal tube itself provides shielding.
The result is a pickup with modest output and a very different frequency balance from a Strat single coil: chimey and glassy on top, wiry in the upper mids, with a slightly scooped and hollow middle. It cleans up beautifully and gets nasty rather than fat when you push it. In a solid alder body it tightens up and loses some of the ragged plywood Danelectro character, which is exactly what happened in Charley.
Combine that with a hardtail bridge and you get the thing people notice in the Montreux clips: a bell like ring and a sustain that behaves differently from Number One.
"Life Without You"
Charley Wirz died suddenly on 3 February 1985, at the age of 40, while attending the NAMM trade show in Anaheim. Rene Martinez, working at the shop in Dallas at the time, remembered the phone call. Stevie and Jimmie Vaughan played "Amazing Grace" on electric guitars at the funeral.
"Life Without You" first appeared on Soul to Soul later that year and became the vehicle for Stevie's grief. Live, it stretched out into long spoken passages about friendship, loss and taking care of each other. He frequently reached for Charley when he played it, which is about as direct a tribute as a guitarist can make.
The replicas
Charley has been copied far less often than Number One or Lenny, which is part of its appeal.
- In 2003, Charley's Guitar Shop and Rene Martinez built a limited run of 23 replicas at around $2,500 each. Owners reportedly include John Mayer, Carlos Santana and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
- The Fender Custom Shop also built a small number of Charley style lipstick Stratocasters that were never officially announced or catalogued. They surface roughly once a decade.
Neither run is realistically buyable today. Which is where guitars built in the spirit of Charley become interesting.
Our Custom Shop tribute: 2008 '64 Heavy Relic in Olympic White
At the time of this blog we have a Fender Custom Shop '64 Heavy Relic in aged Olympic White from 2008 that carries the Charley idea into a proper Custom Shop instrument.
Let us be precise about what it is and what it is not. This is not a replica of Charley and it is not a Fender Charley model. Charley was a hardtail parts guitar with one volume and one tone. This is a full Custom Shop '64 Strat with a tremolo and standard controls. What connects them is the heart of the thing: three lipstick tube pickups in a white Strat.
The set is Seymour Duncan SLS-1 Lipstick Tube, hand built in Santa Barbara with an alnico bar magnet and the classic Danelectro cover shrunk down to drop into a standard Strat rout. They sit in a green black green nitrate pickguard, which is a beautiful piece of visual timing: sixties Fender plastics under sixties Danelectro chrome.
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Year | 2008 |
| Finish | Aged Olympic White, nitrocellulose, Heavy Relic |
| Body | '65 Strat style, two piece alder |
| Neck | Maple, '65 "C" profile, finish removed from the back |
| Fingerboard | Round laminated dark rosewood, 9.5 inch radius, 21 medium jumbo frets |
| Neck depth | 0.820 inch at the 1st fret, 0.974 inch at the 12th |
| Nut width | 1.650 inch / 41.9 mm |
| Pickups | Seymour Duncan SLS-1 Lipstick Tube, neck, middle and bridge |
| Electronics | CRL 5 way switch, 250k pots, 1 volume, 2 tone |
| Hardware | Relic chrome and nickel, American Vintage bridge, R series neck plate |
| Weight | 3.59 kg |
| Headstock | Small headstock, '63 three patent number decal |
| Case | Fender Custom Shop brown Strat / Tele case |
The Olympic White has yellowed into a deep creamy colour, the back of the neck is bare wood and feels broken in the moment you pick it up, and the relic work is heavy rather than polite. It reads as a guitar that has been in the back of a van for forty years, which is precisely the register Charley lived in.
How to chase that tone
If you want the Charley sound rather than the Charley guitar:
- Start with a low output single coil voice. Lipsticks sit around 4 to 5k, so they push an amp far less than a hot Strat set. Turn the amp up rather than the guitar.
- Tune down a half step. Vaughan tuned to E flat, always.
- Go up in string gauge, within reason. He used sets that started at .011 to .013. You do not have to be a hero about it, but heavier strings are a real part of the attack.
- Use a Tube Screamer as a level and midrange tool. Drive low, level high, tone to taste. The lipstick midrange dip and the TS midrange hump fit together well.
- Play the neck and middle positions. Position four on a lipstick loaded Strat is where the glassy, watery quality lives.
Frequently asked questions
Was Charley a real Fender Stratocaster?
No. It was a Stratocaster style guitar assembled by Charley Wirz from parts, with a Charley's Guitar Shop logo on the headstock.
What pickups did SRV's Charley have?
Three Danelectro style lipstick tube pickups, rewired by Wirz to his own configuration.
What does the neck plate say?
"To Stevie Ray Vaughan, more in '84".
Which song is most associated with Charley?
"Life Without You", written for Charley Wirz after his death in February 1985.
Did Charley have a tremolo?
No, it was a hardtail with a fixed bridge.
Was Charley built in 1983 or 1984?
Both dates appear in reliable sources and the question is unresolved. Wikipedia and Ground Guitar say late 1983, the SRV Archive and Guitar World say 1984. The engraved neck plate reads "more in '84", which fits a guitar handed over around the turn of the year.
Did Charley have a rosewood or an ebony fingerboard?
This is disputed. Craig Hopkins listed it as ebony, most gear databases say rosewood, and no one has published photographic or physical proof either way.
What colour was Charley exactly?
Either a white automotive "flip flop" paint with a faint blue shimmer, or plain white. Accounts differ and both come from people who claim first hand contact with the guitar or its replicas.
Where is the original Charley now?
Its current location is not publicly documented. Stevie's guitars were split between family, museums and private collections after his death in 1990, and several long standing claims about individual instruments have never been verified.
Can you still buy a Charley replica?
Only second hand. The 2003 Charley's Guitar Shop run was limited to 23 pieces and the Fender Custom Shop lipstick Strats were never a catalogue model. Guitars built in the same spirit, like our 2008 '64 Heavy Relic, are the realistic route.
Want to try it
The guitar is in the showroom in Buren and you are welcome to play it. Make an appointment for private shopping, or send us a message for extra photos and video. Have something to swap? Read how trading in works with us.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Stevie Ray Vaughan's musical instruments
- Ground Guitar, Stevie Ray Vaughan's Charley Custom Stratocaster and The Super Rare Fender "Charley" Lipstick Stratocaster
- Guitar World, "Life Without You": Stevie Ray Vaughan's Touching Tribute
- Mark Pollock, quoted in Stevie Ray Vaughan Day By Day, Night After Night: His Final Years, 1983 to 1990
- Rene Martinez, interview series published by Mojotone
- Find a Grave memorial for Charles Albert Wirz, 1 August 1944 to 3 February 1985
- Texas State Historical Association, Dallas International Guitar Festival
- Seymour Duncan, lipstick tube pickup background and SLS-1 product documentation
- Reverb News, A Guide to Lipstick Pickups
