Schecter Guitars -- Opinions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter riccol
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Schecters are an outstanding value. Whether or not you like them, they have great features and quality/cost ratio. Best Korean made guitar I've ever played by a looooooooooooooooooooooooong way.

Myself, I have the 007 Blackjack seven string model. Tell me, where else can you get a guitar that has all this stock for $600:

Mahogany body
Set neck
Body, fretboard and headstock binding
26 1/2" extended scale (which is why I got it)
Grover tuners
Tonepros string thru tune-o-matic bridge
REAL Seymour Duncans (JB-7 and '59-7)
Five way Mega switch (name brand switch) with coil tapping

And though I can't be sure about ALL of the Schecters out there, mine had extremely good fret work.

No way you can find anything close to that for $600 new. Maybe used, but not new. For me, the deal closer was the extended scale, it was the only extended scale seven string even close to my price range.

I used to play an Ibanez RG7421 seven string, and I thought I'd never like any other kind of neck than the Wizard. But the Schecters neck is nicer in my opinion. Just meaty enough to fill my hand and let me dig into bends but not too thick, I love it.

Trust me, Schecters rule. Anybody you talk to who's owned and played one will vouch for them, I don't think I've ever run across a disappointed Schecter owner. If you don't like them for whatever reason fine, but they are very nice quality guitars.
 
I'm curious to read what Harvey has to put here. It;s always great coming from him.

I've seen these guitars all over but never played one. They always look very nice and like they'd be easy to play. They're almost too sleek looking for me these days. Then again, my main guitar is a '73 SG with years of playing wear all over it.

H2H
 
Please tell....

Harvey Gerst said:
Believe it or not, I was the Director of Electronics at Schecter for a while. The whole Schecter story is so unbelievable, I hesitate to even mention it here for fear of being laughed out of here for concocting such a wild tale. Give me a few days to remember it all, and I'm gonna tell ya a story you just can't imagine ever happening. It would make a great TV show plot, except it's too unbelievable, even for TV, but it's all true.
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Harvey, when you have a free moment please tell us the story... I for one am dying to hear the inside scoop....
 
schecter are built in korea but finished in california...thats the ones that are not custom of course...electrics are the letdown but necks are great..you can always upgrade the electrics !!

ibanez to my eye look terrible so i never ever went for em but talking to a couple of world class guitar techs they both agreed that these guitars were a pleasure to work on.

and as for asian made guitars ...i am a bit worried about the choice of woods even if the workmanship is ok.
 
I have a custom shop Avenger. I will never part with it.
 
our (my guitarists) guitar collection consits of 4 (usable) guitars three of which are ibanez (82 artist, lawsuit sg, new through neck model) and one is a gibson (gothic explorer). i don't think the gibson has come out of its case for about six months. the artist and the sg are the two guitarists main guitars, but whenever i'm laying down my own stuff i really like the through neck thing. granted i'm drummer, so i shouldn't even be here arguing, but i really don't understand this distaste for ibanez.

btw i'm looking forward to harvey's story too.
 
Due to the good doctor's comment above, I have to add that mine is a limited observation of one certain Ibanez.

However, I fucking hate that guitar :D

ACT 1-Script: Small child sits on bed.

Child: Please, please, pleeeeassse Harvey... tell us a nighy-night story!
 
Okay, I hope I get the timeline straight. This is really a bizarre string of events.

It all kinda started at Acoustic Control Corporation. I was VP there, and Steve Marks was the President. We made some nice, innovative, and popular (at the time) solid state guitar amps, bass amps, and PA systems. While we were starting out, everything was fine and most of the products designs were basically from my ideas.

But, as we got bigger, others at Acoustic felt new product design was too important an area to be left in one person's hands, so they hired an outside marketing company to poll music dealers to find out what new Acoustic Control products dealers wanted. Out of those polls, came such revolutionary new products as an Acoustic Control version of the Shure Vocalmaster.

It seemed all the dealers could come up with were products that were aleady on the market; "new" product design was apparently not a big strong point of most dealers abilities. Duh !!!

Now, in addition to being the idea guy, I was also Head of Sales, Head of QC, responsible for all the advertising (I created all the catalogs and brochures), handled Artist Relations, and acted as the West Coast Rep when we didn't have one.

We needed a West Coast Rep, and Steve Marks suggested his cousin, Shel Horleck for the job. Now, Shel was a very likable guy who came from the meatpacking business (and later on, that's gonna be important to the story).

Shel knew nothing about the music business, but he was a good talker, and that's where this story really starts. He took over as West Coast Rep and handled some of the West Coast Artist Relations chores.

About a year or two later, I got tired of the amount of structure Acoustic was putting into place and their new direction (trying to compete with Peavey), so I decided to leave and start a new company. I took Shel and Stan (from our accounting department) with me.

I wanted to build the ultimate tube amplifier. Like nothing the world had ever seen before.








...To be continued.
 
Harvey Gerst said:
First part of cool story

...To be continued.
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Is there anywhere you have not worked? I am continually amazed at the impact you have had on us all, with most of us never knowing until now.

Waiting for part II. :)
 
boingoman said:
Is there anywhere you have not worked? I am continually amazed at the impact you have had on us all, with most of us never knowing until now.

Waiting for part II. :)
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Weird, but I'm amazed myself. I love walking into clubs and seeing something I helped design years ago. But in answer to your question, there are a few places where I didn't work - just not too many. You gotta also remember that I started working in the music industry over 50 years ago, when it was a lot smaller.


And it's probably gonna end up a four part story.
 
I have a Schecter Diamond Series A7 (7 string).

I got it for 200 beans on Ebay and man, was that a steal. It's not terrific for anything other than the heavy stuff, but it's got a great sound. I love my Ibanez but this thing is much, much thicker (even without the low B). I'd pay $600 for it new. But I got it used, which is better for me because I'm poor. :p

Really it comes down to what you feel comfortable playing. I like my Ibanez and my Schecter.
 
I did sound for a band this summer and the guy had an old Acoustic bass amp. Huge cabinet, W-bin looking thingy with a power amp built in the bottom. Did you have anything to do with that or were you gone by that point?
 
boingoman said:
I did sound for a band this summer and the guy had an old Acoustic bass amp. Huge cabinet, W-bin looking thingy with a power amp built in the bottom. Did you have anything to do with that or were you gone by that point?
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That's the original Acoustic 361 bass amp, and it's one of my babies. I didn't do all this stuff 100% on my own; there were other people who contributed, but the basic ideas and concepts were mine.
 
Harvey Gerst said:
That's the original Acoustic 361 bass amp, and it's one of my babies. I didn't do all this stuff 100% on my own; there were other people who contributed, but the basic ideas and concepts were mine.
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Thanks- I don't want to hijack the thread, but I've been curious. A very interesting design, power amp built into a cabinet that just plain pounds. You can see lights through the bottom opening! Very cool.
He had a preamp built by a guy out west who loves Acoustic amps, and makes just a few products, all for people who play these amps.
 
I bought an Acoustic 150 amp back when, because I thought they would rock, because the Doors had a stage full of them. I kept it for about 3 days and turned around and got an Ampeg V4 instead which I still have to this day....30+ years or so. The 150 was SOOOO clean you could crank it all the way up and it wouldn't distort. Cool looking amp, but for doing Led Zep covers, it wouldn't cut the mustard getting an overdriven sound.

I think the Acoustic speaker cabinets were really cool looking. Much classier than the Baldwin amps at the time.

The Acoustic bass amps were monsters. Nice and clean like you wanted. Rivaled those Sunn Collesiums, eh?

Whatever happened to Standell?
 
mixmkr said:
The 150 was SOOOO clean you could crank it all the way up and it wouldn't distort. Cool looking amp, but for doing Led Zep covers, it wouldn't cut the mustard getting an overdriven sound.
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john paul jones used an acoustic (at least in the early days), you can see the "blue bits" in the zep 'dvd'.
 
The Artist is nice...

dr.colossus said:
82 artist
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The Artist is probably the nicest Ibanez you can get.. But the balance on them is the worst of any guitar I have ever played..
 
Well you guys had better be right about these being good guitars;) cause I just traded one of my Strats for one. This one:
 

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Hard2Hear said:
Well you guys had better be right about these being good guitars;) cause I just traded one of my Strats for one. This one:
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OH NO!!! NOT THAT ONE!!! IT'S THE ONLY BAD ONE!!!!! :eek:

J/K. Looks pretty sweet.

I wonder what the deal is with the offset string holes. Is it design or function? Too bad Light ran off. :cool:
 
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