Schecter Guitars

Michael gives a quick overview of the different Schecter guitars currently available from the Bradford Musicians Centre music shop.



Video transcription:

"Hello, this is Michael at musicianscentre.com.  We're going to go over some of these Schecter guitars which we currently have in stock.  So, Schecter as a company started in 1976 or so making, basically, custom parts for people.  The made parts for Gibson, Fender and various other people.  They carried on doing that and they were making necks, pickups, machine heads until it got to the point where they were making all parts of a guitar but not the actual guitar.  The next obvious step was they started making custom shop guitar for people.  

And then things moved on they got really popular, some of the old guitars are really really well respected now.  The demand grew and they released this Diamond Series.  So this is the Diamond Series, it's Far Eastern made, built in China and Korea and there's various ones in the range.  Now one of the things about the range is it's all mixed up, because they were a custom shop company it's quite a confusing range certainly for us to get our head round, so you'll find that bodies are borrowed from different series here and there but it does give you options and you might find you like the body here and the neck there and there's various things like that which it does mix up like.

So, we'll look look at this one, this is the 006 Deluxe and it's contoured here quite nicely, it's got a contour here so it's really comfortable to play.  Nearly all Schecters have got Tone-Pro bridges when they are fixed bridges and strung thru, so the body takes alot of the sustain from the strings and you get a nice tone and nice sustain out of that.  The body on this is basswood, which is kind of like a budget mahogany, but it's a really nice sounding wood still, it doesn't look that amazing the grain is a bit dull and boring so they either satin finish it like this so you can't really see the wood grain or they put a flame maple cap on it which we'll look at later.  So this has Schecter's own humbucker pickups, they're called the Diamond Plus series I think and you've got volume and tone, really nice guitar, nice action, graphite nut as well so it's not a cheap plastic nut, the string passes through there really easily.  It's Schecter's own machine heads so, this is different from having a stock machine head because Schecter have been making these parts for years, they know what are good and don't cheapen stuff by putting their own brand stuff on, which is good.  So that's the 006 Deluxe.

We'll look at the V (V-1 Custom) next, similar in that it's got a basswood body and satin black finish and it's strung thru and it's got a tone-pro.  Obviously V shape on that, contour there aswell, V's never the most comfortable guitars quite often but you'll find that that has a nice balance when you're playing it.  Again, Graphite nut, this does come with Grover machine heads, very smooth machine heads, especially through that Graphite nut.  The pickups are Duncan Designed, so that is Seymour Duncan's pickup specs but made in the Far East. Still very good sounding, doesn't make a huge amount of difference but it does make a big difference to the cost.  So you've got one volume, two tones, 3 way pickup selector on that V.  Nice inlays on there as well, if you can see them there.  All the inalys are really nicely set on the Schecters.

Next we've got this Sunset Extreme here, so this is an example of it being a basswood body and... you cant really see the grain of that through there I'll show you grain of the basswood on another one, but it's a flame maple top so that is the actual wood you can actually see and it does help with the tone aswell, you get a bit more of a crisper top end.  Schecter's own pickups on this and a Floyd Rose, standard Floyd Rose.  It's got a nice coil tap as well, so you can actually make that humbucker a single coil for a snappier, stratty type tone.  Locking nut on this obviously, so that's that one.

Next up we'll go and look at the Demon Floyd Rose, that's this one here.  Basswood body, Satin black finish we've got that again, Floyd Rose Special on this one with Duncan Designed pickup which we mentioned before, nice inlays on that one as well.  Contouring here, so again really comfortable to play and everything.  A nice medium thickness neck and Schecters own machine heads on that on there as well.

We'll look at some slightly going up in price ones now... but just before we do that we'll get this one, this is the Omen Extreme that is basswood body and you can see the grain on that.  Sort of fairly plain, so they don't tend to make a big deal about the actual look of it but, again, the tone is nice from it especially with humbucker, metal type music.  That's a flame maple top, so it does give it a lovely sort of finish from the front look of it.  Again, Tone-Pro bridge, strung thru body, Schecter's own pickups, coil tap on this which taps the bridge pickup and gives it a nice snappy tone again.  Graphite nut again on this, Schecter's own pickups (Ed: I think you'll find you meant machine heads!).  It's quite a big neck on this one but it fits really nicely in the hand.  Don't be too put off by it not being an ultra thin neck, sometimes because it can actually be really comfortable to have that filling your hand like that, that's definitely worth looking at.

And up from that we've got a Damien Special, this is the Damien Special with a Floyd Rose.  Mahogany body on this one now if you can see the grain of that, compared to that basswood it's just a little bit more interesting.  It's heavier as well, basswood is a fairly light wood, but still a nice tone wood again but fairly light.   Mahogany is a lot heavier I can feel the weight of this it does weigh a fair bit more, flame maple top on there.  EMG ceramic humbucker pickups on this one from the H series.  A Floyd Rose, volume, tone and three way selector switch.  Grover machine heads on that one as well, cor.. it does weigh some that you know! If you like a bit of weight to your guitars that's definitely worth looking at.

And then we got this in yesterday, this is the 2009 edition of the Black Jack.  Playing card inlay there, we like that a lot it's lovely.  Seymour Duncan pickups, Tone-Pro bridge, strung thru body.  Two coil taps on this so you can tap either (pickups) you can get a massive range of tones out of that, it does make a big difference to what you can get out of it.  Black Grover machine heads on that.  That's the Tempest shape, there's various other models that are called Tempest and that relates to that body shape.  This is a Blackjack Tempest and there's other Tempest models as well.

So yeah, they're really good guitars.  One of the things that does make a big difference and that we really like is they're made in the Far East and then they go to California where they go to the Schecter custom shop in California and they're all setup there, all the frets are properly polished, if you go on Youtube there's actually videos of guys doing this.  And they come into us and we don't have to touch them, which is great, because we're busy.  To not have to touch a guitar when it comes in is very handy.

So definitely worth trying, need to be known about by more people I think because the name's big in America, huge in America but not elsewhere.

And last of all, the Synyster Gates model.  This is the Avenged Sevenfold Synyster Gates one, it's his own design, his own mahogany body, that sort of shape.  Duncan Designed Invader style pickups, Floyd Rose, coil tap here, nice headstock on there.  It has actually been quite a hit with everybody, not just Synyster Gates fans, really nice guitar.  So yeah, come in and check them out, they are good guitars."

www.musicianscentre.com/schecter