I've returned to this thread over and over throughout the years, each time I go on a mission to finally solve to mystery of exactly which guitar Steve played in the movie Crossroads. I've seen conflicting information here and everywhere else. I want to share a couple of things I've noticed.
1. The guitar in the move has two humbuckers.
2. The guitar in the movie has one knob and one pickup selector switch.
If you go here
http://www.charvelusa.com/charvel_model_series.html you can see all of the model 1-6 guitars put out by Charvel. The one most closely resembling the red one in the movie is model 1. Model 1 has what look like a maple fret board, 22 frets, the same pointy and slanted head stock, 22 frets, black tremelo bar and black pearl inlays.
None of the other models have as many similarities, plus some of them came out after 1986.
Now the problem is that the guitar in the movie has two humbuckers and a toggle switch. The model 1 doesn't have a toggle switch because there is only one pickup.
It makes sense that Vai would use a model 1 because they were the cheapest, and his scene called for dropping the guitar, which may have been done over and over again. It's hard to imagine that Vai would have a model 1 customized to have another humbucker and a toggle switch if he's going to be dropping it like that in the movie.
Earlier in this thread someone talked about the guitar hanging up at the Hard Rock. That one has 24 frets and I saw it on youtube. Can't be the same one.
What is the consensus in 2017?