This is a straight-ahead, single-cut, twohumbucker guitar, and what you see is what you get: typical killer workmanship and quality hardware. What you don’t see is the Ultra Access neck joint (a very welcome change from the days of yore), a meaty neck profile to support your hand, a push-pull Tone pot for splitting the pickups’ coils, and an amazing amount of acoustic ring and sustain. The upper register of the high-E string was a little plinky and threatened to fret out on bends, but I was able to mitigate this by raising the action a bit at the bridge.

The amplified tones (through the Randall) could cover everything from gutsy protorock and blues to smoky jazz and modern shred. Even though I normally don’t mess with Volume and Tone knobs much, I found myself constantly adjusting these because of their awesome rubber grip rings. The range of the Volume knobs was very usable but the Tone knob didn’t seem to do much from 10 down to around 2, after which it acted almost like an on/off switch. I grew to really dig that, though, because it gave rise to some sweet Danny Gatton/Roy Buchanan wah tricks. This is my favorite neck of all the guitars reviewed here and was just plain fun to play. When you add it all up—the looks, feel, construction, and tone—it’s no surprise that you’re seeing more and more Schecters on stages these days. Nicely done.

CONTACT Schecter Guitars, schecterguitars.com

PRICE $799 retail/$549 street

NUTWIDTH 1 11/16"

NECK 24 3/4" 3-piece set mahogany with Ultra Access neck joint

FRETBOARD Rosewood

FRETS 22 medium

BODY Mahogany

PICKUPS Duncan Designed HB-101n (neck) and HB-102b (bridge) humbuckers

CONTROLS Two Volume, one Tone (with push/pull coil split), 3-way switch

BRIDGE TonePros Tune-o-matic style

TUNERS Grover

FACTORYSTRINGS D’Addario XL110, .010-.046

WEIGHT 8.24 Lbs

KUDOS Classic look. Great neck. Awesome deal.

CONCERNS High E tended to fret out.