Red_Label
New member
Picked up a couple of new guitars last week. First is a Schecter Custom Shop Traditional. I am very impressed with it. It's very similar to the Tom Anderson Classics that I've had... VERY similar. It's impossible to "beat" an Anderson. I've owned a LOT of strat style guitars in my life and nothing has ever come close before, from ANYONE (including Fender USA, Suhr, etc). The Andys just play like butter, and flawless, and sound SO damn good. BUT... this Schecter Custom Shop comes very close. And I've found that for Gilmour, Knopfler, etc single-coil strat tones, I think I prefer the Schecter over my current Anderson Classic (slightly). The Schecter VS1 pickups are so full, lively, and dynamic. I thought that the Anderson stacked singles were my favorite singles, but I gotta say that the Schecters edge them out slightly. EXCEPT for the noise issue. I friggin HATE single coil hum. But no matter what, stacked (quiet) single coils never have quite the same spank and sparkle as regular singles. Even the great Tom Anderson hasn't figured that out. Having said that. Tom got his start back in the 90s designing pickups for Schecter, so these Schecter pickups are likely in reality still Tom's babies anyways. LOL!!!
I've got this clean patch set up on the Helix LT that sounds INCREDIBLE in stereo through my Yamaha DXR10 powered PA cabs. It's based on a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and has delay, reverb, and chorus. When I play the Schecter on the neck pickup with this patch, I absolutely NAIL Gilmour's tone on the Pulse live version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". It's so full, lush, undulating, etc. I've tried to cop that tone perfectly for many years and this is the very first time that I've ever felt like I completely nailed it. Before this, there was always something missing or slightly off. I just kept playing through that intro part of the song (up to where he starts singing) for the past several days and it practically gives me a boner it's so damned good sounding. I have another patch with less delay, and some compression dialed in for his lead work in that song that is close to nailing that as well. I just need to work at it a little more.
I also picked up a MINT PRS Tremonti SE last week ($600) from a guy on The Gear Page. I've wanted a PRS Single-Cut of some sort for years, so the buy-in wasn't bad on this guitar and since it's such a stunner at a low price, I figured that I couldn't go wrong. He said that he looked all over and this had the best top of all the ones he looked at. I believe it! It was far better than I anticipated. It's AWESOME. Plays like butter, looks amazing, and most surprisingly... it sounds amazing. The import Tremonti pickups are amazing. They rival the Fralin Pure PAFs in my LP Reissue for quality of tone (though they're higher gain). Am am blown away by this guitar. My GAS is tempting me to start looking at an American Tremonti, but the buy-in on those is so high and frankly, there's NOTHING lacking in this Korean SE model. Buying the American one would just be for bragging rights. I can't afford to buy something JUST for that reason alone. It has to live up to the price at those steep dollar amounts. The SE is what I would have expected from a $3-4K American PRS. It's that good. I owned two American Custom 24s in the late 90s and this SE sounds BETTER than they did (FAR better). Doesn't play any better. But it doesn't play any worse and it certainly doesn't lack anything in the looks department.
Here are some pics of the Schecter and PRS...
I've got this clean patch set up on the Helix LT that sounds INCREDIBLE in stereo through my Yamaha DXR10 powered PA cabs. It's based on a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and has delay, reverb, and chorus. When I play the Schecter on the neck pickup with this patch, I absolutely NAIL Gilmour's tone on the Pulse live version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". It's so full, lush, undulating, etc. I've tried to cop that tone perfectly for many years and this is the very first time that I've ever felt like I completely nailed it. Before this, there was always something missing or slightly off. I just kept playing through that intro part of the song (up to where he starts singing) for the past several days and it practically gives me a boner it's so damned good sounding. I have another patch with less delay, and some compression dialed in for his lead work in that song that is close to nailing that as well. I just need to work at it a little more.
I also picked up a MINT PRS Tremonti SE last week ($600) from a guy on The Gear Page. I've wanted a PRS Single-Cut of some sort for years, so the buy-in wasn't bad on this guitar and since it's such a stunner at a low price, I figured that I couldn't go wrong. He said that he looked all over and this had the best top of all the ones he looked at. I believe it! It was far better than I anticipated. It's AWESOME. Plays like butter, looks amazing, and most surprisingly... it sounds amazing. The import Tremonti pickups are amazing. They rival the Fralin Pure PAFs in my LP Reissue for quality of tone (though they're higher gain). Am am blown away by this guitar. My GAS is tempting me to start looking at an American Tremonti, but the buy-in on those is so high and frankly, there's NOTHING lacking in this Korean SE model. Buying the American one would just be for bragging rights. I can't afford to buy something JUST for that reason alone. It has to live up to the price at those steep dollar amounts. The SE is what I would have expected from a $3-4K American PRS. It's that good. I owned two American Custom 24s in the late 90s and this SE sounds BETTER than they did (FAR better). Doesn't play any better. But it doesn't play any worse and it certainly doesn't lack anything in the looks department.
Here are some pics of the Schecter and PRS...
