Schecter California Custom Shop Jazz Bass

Jazz style bass. Purple body with maple neck.

I love this thing, has replaced my Fender American P-bass for gigging. Having spent not much on it I prefer to use it at gigs. My favorite bass now!

I tweaked the neck and it plays great!! What a bargain for an american made bass. Don't much care about the finish cause I bought it to play it. Maple necks get dirty easy.

We'll see, so far so good.

Used haven't dealt with em

Got it from a pawn shop for $250 and I'll never get rid of it. What a steal, would buy another if I could find one.

I am reviewing a Schecter California Custom Shop Jazz bass. I do not know the year it was made but it looks like it less than 10 years old. This bass has a purpleheart body and came with a maple neck. It was also equipped with Seymore Duncan Basslines pickups and black hardware. Very nice looking. Standard jazz bass features - 4 strings, 2 pickups etc.

I was looking for a traditional jazz bass sound and this fit the bill nicely. Nice full, round bottom with good clarity. I recently removed the stock maple neck and installed a Warmouth fretless neck. The tone is very jaco'ish and I am happy. I am running the bridge pickup more solo and the SD pickups hum when I single them out so I plan to throw in a set of Dimarzio model J's when time permits.

Nice assembly and finish. I have no idea how the factory setup was since I purchased it used.

The purpleheart body is fairly soft so there are a few nicks and dents but overall fairly durable. Pitch was stable with original maple neck and also with Warmouth fretless neck.

Good value. A real steal at $425. Happy to own a USA made bass guitar that I can play and modify without the worry of someday being rebuked by some tweaked collecter.

Clarification regarding my previous review, where I wrote: "The neck and/or bridge and/or pickup cavities seem to be slightly misaligned, as the G and D strings are slightly off-center between their respective pickup pole-pieces."

I must have been looking at it cross-eyed. The strings are in fact centered with respect to both pickups. However, the string spacing at the bridge pickup is slightly less than the spacing of the corresponding pairs of pole pieces. Consequently, the G and E strings are closer to their inside pole pieces than their outside pole pieces. The D and A are almost centered. At the neck pickup, where string spacing is tighter, the so-called misalignment is more pronounced, and all four strings are off-center with respect to their pole pieces. To keep this in perspective, all four strings are between -- not over -- the pole pieces, at both pickups. They're just not dead center.

Given that the strings aren't perfectly parallel on any bass guitar, it's hard to imagine all four strings being perfectly centered between their corresponding pole pieces at both pickups on any Jazz bass. If there *is* a defect in this particular bass, I guess it would be that string spacing at the bridge is a few percent tighter than it ought to be for these pickups. As far as I can tell, it's purely a cosmetic issue anyway.

Presumably built in 1996 (6-digit serial number starts with 96). Made in USA (neckplate says "The Original California Custom Shop"). Not sure if it's from the "S" series or the "Traditional" series.

21 frets, 4-string, solid body. No pickguard; the control cavity is on the back of the bass. Rosewood fingerboard (not sure about neck/body woods, probably maple neck and ash or alder body).

2 Schecter 'MonsterTone' tapped 'J' style pickups. 3 knobs (volume, volume, tone). Push-pull switch on the tone knob controls the tapped coils (in = full coils, out = tapped coils). The pickup windings are wrapped with a layer of copper tape -- for shielding? Hum is not noticeable unless the pickups are pointed directly at the amp, at short range (and even then, only when pickup volume settings are not the same).

Vintage bridge (i.e., not string-through-body), vintage "elephant ear" tuners. The tuners turn in reverse (sort of cool once you get used to it), and have fairly small teeth, which probably makes for more precise, stable tuning.

Metallic pink finish -- not a color I'd choose on purpose, but it helped lower the price by $150 because no one else would buy it, so in my eyes it's beautiful. At least it's not boring!

Standard Jazz neck and body shape. 34" scale length.

The bass came with a fairly sturdy Schecter hardshell case.

I rate the features an 8, because compared to a high-end active bass like a Lakland 55-94 obviously a few things are lacking. But it has all the basic features, all are high quality, and the tapped coil pickups are a major plus.

Prior to buying this bass, I didn't have much experience with Jazz basses, apart from having tried out quite a few Fenders and Fender clones in music stores over the years. And Warwicks, Conklins, Carvins, etc. I've always put them back on the rack quickly because the sound never quite grabbed me. Not so with this bass. It really stood out, and made me reconsider my strong preference for P-basses.

With the tone knob pushed in, both pickups have a stronger signal, and a fuller, darker tone that sounds very good with a pick or fingerstyle. With the full coils engaged like this, the bridge pickup has a unique tone, much less nasal than usual. It's a good setting for doublestops (like in Stanley Clarke's "School Days"). Just thin enough not to be muddy, but not too thin.

In tapped coil mode, the tone is brighter and lighter, which can lend more clarity to fingerstyle. It also gives the soloed bridge pickup a more familiar nasal tone (which I never particularly liked, but if you want it you can get it).

I assume that this bass would be also be good for slap, but can't really comment on that as my slapping is utterly laughable.

In all, there are six clearly defined tonal options. It's difficult to precisely dial in intermediate settings, because the volume and tone pots go from off to full over a very narrow range. In any case, the tone knob doesn't have a very dramatic effect -- much less obvious than with the P-basses I'm used to, where a turn of the knob takes me from the brightest-possible-tone to very woolly. But I've never had much use for a woolly sound onstage, so this doesn't bother me at all.

There is a slight dead spot on the 5th fret on the G string. It's the old story with wood-neck basses, especially Jazz basses, but the dead spot is not so severe that I would avoid that note. Compared to the dead spot on the Fender bass I traded in, it's almost non-existent.

The bass was originally strung with roundwounds, which I replaced with Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats. Sounds good with either, but I prefer the lower tension and stronger fundamental of the flats.

I rate it a 9 for sound, because it's very versatile, and sounds better than any Jazz bass I've ever played. Very clean, no noise, and a decent array of distinct, usable tones. And, as I said, it sounded good enough to pry me away from my longstanding P-bass allegiance. You can probably find a better sounding bass, maybe an active bass with a high-quality onboard preamp that can also be used in passive mode. But at this level it starts to become a matter of personal taste rather than quality.

This bass was purchased used in late 2002, so I can't comment on the factory setup. Among the several dozen new and used basses in the store, however, it had the best action and was exceptional for *not* having any buzzes.

The neck pocket is very tight, and the bass as a whole feels very solid. The neck and/or bridge and/or pickup cavities seem to be slightly misaligned, as the G and D strings are slightly off-center between their respective pickup pole-pieces. I don't notice any effect on the tone of the G and D strings, however. Cosmetically speaking it's not something you'd notice unless you were looking for it (as I was, having read that this is a common problem with bolt-on necks).

There's a very slight ridge, a few inches long, on the back of the neck where the skunk stripe meets the rest of the neck. It doesn't affect playability at all. It's just enough to be noticeable when your thumb is resting on it. It's more of a curiosity than a real problem. It's not visible, just barely discernable by touch.

Build quality overall is high. The thing I care about most is a tight neck pocket, since in my opinion sloppy necks can cause severe dead spots. Schecter definitely nailed that feature. The quality could have been better with respect to the other minor details mentioned, but for the price range (even at new prices for a similar Schecter) it seems to stack up well against competing brands.

Incidentally, unlike the Schecter Traditional 5 Jazz basses reviewed elsewhere on Harmony Central, the truss rod can be adjusted without removing the neck. Guess mine's a newer model.

This bass has a lot of dings and scratches. It was clearly knocked around and dropped by the previous owner. Judging by the sticker on the case, and a CD insert found in the pocket of the case, he/she was was in a pig-themed industrial noise band (which explains both the pink finish and all the abuse).

The hardware is all in good condition, and is apparently quite durable. I'm writing this review in December 2002, which makes the bass 6 years old. No oxidation or rust, except that the copper tape around the pickup windings has some green oxidation -- probably due to rivers of sweat from the previous owner getting all hot and bothered onstage. Yuck!

Given the abuse this bass has already seen, and how solid it feels, it's definitely going to withstand anything I dish out. I use this bass on gigs without a backup (which is my standard practice with all of my equipment except accessories like cables).

Never dealt with the manufacturer, warranty has certainly expired by now.

I've been playing bass guitar for 22 years (with some extended breaks during which I focused on other instruments including cello and doublebass). I have no regrets at all about buying this bass. If I ever buy another bass guitar it will only be to upgrade to a high-end 5-string, or to buy a backup bass. If it were stolen or lost, I would definitely be open to buying another USA-made Schecter. My favorite features are the tapped coil pickups and the goofy reverse tuners. The only thing I really wish it had is a low B and a 35" neck -- which tells you something about what my next bass might be. As far as 4-strings go, it's as good a bass as I would expect for under $700 used or $1200-1500 new.

I rate it an 8 here because I'm aware that there are "dream basses" out there. In my rating system, however, 8 is definitely pro quality. At the new price, which I think would be around $1200, I wouldn't call it an outstanding value. It would, however, compare favorably to other basses in that price range. At $450 used it was an incredible bargain.