Schecter Stiletto Custom 4-String

Its been covered in the other reviews...

It came with no Accessories(its guitar center...it could have been shipped with a case, strap, cable, strings, and a groupie...Guitar center would sell them seperate and charge the same)

One major gripe...its active and the freaks didn't make an easy access spot for the battery...you have to open up the control cavity...ok, let me get out my leatherman and unscrew a load of scews...

HEY SCHECTER...PUT A LITTLE QUICK CHANGE DOOR, LIKE MOST ACTIVE BASSES HAVE.

Man...those EMG's are amazing. this thing (once I changed the strings to DR's) is amazingly flexable. Funk is awsome, adjust alittle and she is so warm, or if you want growly...how they are selling these for 5 bills is proof that fender and gibson are takeing us for a ride...
I use it in my little studio setup...and it would be fine live...man is it light.

For 500, its a 10!

The action was perfect...I had to tweek it and the trussrod when I changed strings to DRs...no flaws...except some fool had played it with a belt buckle in the store and raped the back of it...I got it for 400 because of that...that fool saved me 100 bucks, so thanks...
Again, for a 500 dollar bass a 10

She will hold up fine...just don't be a wanker and hit the cymbles with the headstock...its a bass...a fine instument, not a mallet. Same breath...she is so light and the neck so thin...she feels fragile...but I wouldn't worry about it...its cheap enough to buy a backup if I wanted to tour with it.
oh yeah...I never buy a bass without buying straplocks at the same time...as soon as I got home I replaced the factory ones with the straplocks...

again I say. for 500 its a 10

nope.

I have been playing for 12 years, I have a Yamaha BX-1, Yamaha RBX 550, Carvin lb75, Zeta Crossover bass, and a SWR Redhead.
I would have walked by it, but my wife pulled it down and started messing with it, and said that it felt really nice...so I tried it...after she saw I really liked it, she snuck off and negotiated the discount and bought it...and said happy valentines day.
This basses feel and flexability shows that the smaller firms are out pacing the huge ones...If people bought basses on feel and sound, Fender would die...
Here is a 500 dollar bass that plays, feels, and looks like most 1000 dollar basses...almost too pretty...made me look around and wonder if it was misspriced. My poor custom Carvin has been collecting dust ever sense...hmm...1500 for the carvin, and 400 for my schecter...sigh...where was this bass 10 years ago...

Most of the technical features have already been covered in past reviews. I would just point out that it is very well balanced ( for my body ) and the neck feels great especialy if you like the jazz base neck feel but it does have a much flatter 16" radius instead of the 9 1/2" radius of the Jazz bass fingerboard. This to me makes it a faster playing bass for fret work and easier to slap however chording may not be as easy but it isn't that much of a diference that it would be hard to get used to. I personaly like the flatter board. Great look, great pickups and controls, nice construction, all around a quality instrument.

The sound is good and varied. The tone of course depends on your strings and many other factors but this bass can diliver on its end. I am playing it thru a fender 1966 bassman head and a 4x10 cab with 2 horns. I am useing a fulltone fatboost directly after the bass and an electro harmonix blackfinger tube compressor ( spareingly ) directly before the amp. I most often use a digitech multi chorus and a Robotalk and sometimes a host of other effect however I preffer the basic setup overall. The bass has good sustain and a defined tone clear tone. I use Dadarrio ENR72 regular (.050 - .105)half round strings to get a smooth feel and sliding changes with a brighter tone than flats. I have had two american standard Jazz basses and actualy prefer to play this one as I can get close to that Jazz bass tone if I want to but also have many other tones available and more control of the sould as well as higher output.

Not bad but not that great a setup at the factory in my opinion. Came with elixers. They were to thin for me and although they last long the tone is just not my cup of tea. I got rid of them as soon as I got home. I had to adjust the bridge sadles to the correct level as well as set them to the 16" radius to mach the board also I had to fix the intonation ( my doing because of sadle and string change ) other than that all was very well put together. Also had to adjust the truss rod due to string change. Now the action is great and it plays very well.

I think the bass is quite reliable. The nice natural wood finish may not be very good on takeing a beating but this will not effet the sound at all. The 6 bold neck joint and well constructed 5 piece neck with rosewood board should stand up quite well. The electronics are EMG and are also proven to be reliable.

Haven't had to use it.

I truly like this bass very much a great value for the price and I found myself picking it up so much more often than the jazz basses that I sold them got a new speaker cab and another schecter custom 4 to back this one up. I like it good sound good value especialy if you take the time to select strings that work for you and set it up well this is very important you have to stay on top of your set up. A cheap bass very well set up will feel better than an expensive one poorly set up after that its all sound and this one does sound good.

One feature that hasn't been covered but should be added is that this bass comes stock with Elixer's and is built in Korea. The quality is very high indeed.It's a mass produced guitar so it can't garner a ten but it comes close!

I found this bass to be very mid rangy in a super way. The PU's are strong enough to where one wouldn't need to replace them. I've plugged it into various Ampeg amps and a GK 700II. The tone of this axe is excellent.

The two basses I played at the Evil Empire were set up to the tee's. The fit and finish of this bass was all you could ask for a $500 guitar and on par with all but the highest end boutique basses I've seen. It also ballanced equally as well as the Spector of similar design.

This is an unknown as it's a fairly new model but I can't imagine what could go wrong with it with normal use.

Again, this is to be determined by people who've dealt with them.

I'm kind of kicking myself now for getting a Fender Geddy Lee model Jazz bass after spending a good two hours on this one in the store. I could have saved myself a couple of hundred bucks to apply towards a better amp and had a cutting edge, comfortable, and sweet playing guitar that sounds fabulous and looks great doing it. Maybe I should have both.

CONSTRUCTION: 6 Bolt-On Neck
BODY: Mahogany w/ Figured Maple
NECK: Multi-Laminate Maple/Walnut
FINGERBOARD: Rosewood
FRETS: 24 Jumbo
SCALE: 34" (CTM-4), 35" (CTM-5)
INLAYS: Offset Dots
BRIDGE: S-Tek
TUNERS: Grover
HARDWARE: Satin Gold
PICKUPS: 2 EMG Hz
ELECTRONICS: 2-Vol w/ EMG Active 2-Band EQ
FINISHES: Natural Satin

Sounds great! I can get a huge variety of tones from the EMG Hz's. The bridge pickup sounds a little Jazz bass but can easly be fattened up or driven to a growl(sounds amazing when playing slap style.) Dail in the neck pickup and it's P-bass style tone with more defined highs and mids(great for fingerstyle or picking.) Turn them both up and it's thump city musicman style. Very versitle sound!

Gotta love natural finishes. Mmm...flamed maple top with a mahogony body, Looks like a bass twice as expensive... Sit's well and straps in and conforms to standup quite well. I raised the action a little so I could slap but other than that the factory setup was rite on.

Havent hat it out yey but, no reason for any problems the bass looks and feels quite durable.

Never had any problem.

I've been playing guitar for 10 years and bass for 3 now and this is one of the nicest basses I've handled for the mid priced range.
If it were stole I'd dig into my pocket for a new one.
The only way I would improve it would to add a midrange knob to the eq, but it's not anything I can't live without.

As a guitarist that switched to bass I found most bases to be heavy and clumsy. This bass is comfortable, light and easly playable.
I give it a 9 because it's not the Holy Grail but getting close to it.

I have a 2002 model of this lovely piece of equipent, comfy 34" scale bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, 24 jumbo frets, mahogany body, chrome hardware, 2 EMG-HZ w/active 2-band EQ. Niiiiice.

We play a sort of AC/DC meets Alice in Chains style and this baby handles it with ease, I run it through a LabSystems VP300 and a custome 4 X 12 cab and she really cranks. The great part is that she can be set to give me any tone I want from an overdriven growl to a rich warm rumble to a bright slappin pop....I dont dislike anything about this baby its awesome.

Only thing I can whinge about here was a buzz at the 9th fret but that was easily fixed.

To be honest it does seem a little flimsy but I'm not gonna go all Who on stage so I think it should stand up to the rigours of me on stage. I'd use it without a backup but to be honest that doesnt happen I have a CV-4 and a BC Rich Mockingbird that also come with me everywhere.

N/A

Been playing for 13 years I've owned a lot of basses and sold a lot of them...this one will be passed on as a family heirloom.

I am looking at this from a woman's point of view. This bass impressed me right off as being appropriate for a female player. It has low action and a thin neck. It is also amazingly light. My bass is the natural finish and I couldn't tell you the number of comments I have gotten on how lovely it looks. The natural finish may be too pretty for a male player, and actually the first time I saw it was when another girl was playing it and her boyfriend said it was too pretty for their punk band (I still think she should have just smacked him and gotten the bass). However, there are black and red models which would look just fine for a guy. I don't really understand the knobs yet to be honest, and so I use my pedal for volume and tone.

The band I am in plays a lot of folk, but I play rock in practice and preference. The sound easily adjusts to either, and the natural playability. The tone is mellow, which is perfect for folk, but it has done well for rock when I play with a pick. I use a MXP preamp and they work well together.

I am probably inexperienced to answer most of the questions, but I can say it is well put together and I haven't noticed any flaws.

This would probably not be the best bass for a lot of jumping around, and it goes out of tune a little easier than my old Yamaha, but the finish is beautiful and I carry it around a lot.

I have not dealt with Schecter yet, but I can say that the Guitar Center in Raleigh has been fantastic.

I am thrilled with my Schecter, and it would break my heart to lose it. I played a bunch before choosing this one, and for me it is perfect.

This unit is pretty wicked! I got it a month ago and it is a 2003 model. The finish is natural and it's so cool lookin' It almost has a warwick bad dog look to it. It's rounded like warwicks and even plays like one. no shiney look just natural bad as mohagony with a maple top on the body. I get compliments everytime someone see's it. It's got gold hardware and EMG HZ active pickups. It doesn't have locking tuners or anything dumb on it just good sound and great looks. Rosewood fret board with jumbo frets. It came with a hardshell case. Pickup controls are 2 volumes and 2 tones I guess. I knob controlls one pickup the other controlls the other pickup and then you have one bass controll and one treble controll. Pretty basic and it's all you need with these pickups. I would rate it a 10, but it's not a warwick and it's not the baddest bass on the market (It's dam close though!) I just love warwicks!

I have never been on stage with it yet, but during practice I play through a Crate bfx100. It's plenty loud enough for practice and it's only 100watts. The amp has effects on it which are very cool, but I don't use them all. The guitar isn't noisy in any setting that I have noticed (and I would notice). My old bass was a medium line Jackson that had great sound, but after trying these pickups through a buddy of mines bass I knew these were the pickups I wanted. I get such a great variety of sound. Very rich clean low's and highs. Great over all unit for sound. I play jazz to Rage against the machine to sublime type stuff and really this will dial it all in fine (Right at my fingers and not on the amp by the way!) I have done no recording with it and the only thing I can say sucks is that I am not playing this unit through 4 10 inch speakers. I know it's gonna come alive and be 2 times the sound it is now.

This unit was set up better then anything I have seen. I couldn't believe that action could be so good on a bass! I wasn't used to such good action so I had to adjust it a little higher so I didn't get so much poppy sound (which so many bass players like, but for the stuff I play I don't need it as often). The finish was great on the body and neck and there was no flaws in anything! It has great sustain and the bridge I am not used too so I didn't care for it as much. As a bass player I think you design your own string action for better play so while adjusting this bass I didn't really like the bridge as much as my last badass bridge, but still just a slight bitch because I don't like change a lot.

Well, I have only owned it a month, so I have only been on it about 15 band practices and it has been fine. I would take a back up only because It's alway's smart and you never know. I do have tons of confidence and don't think I would ever need to use a back up, but it's just smart playing. It holds a tune so far and the only thing with this unit you have to watch is the battery! Being its active keep a handy 9volt in yee pocket. I am a little bit worried about the bridge. It has 4 sepperate bridges for great looks and sustain, but I will be keeping my eye on it as it goes through string changes and so on. I am sure it will be fine, but hell I gotta find something on this so perfect unit. I haven't owned it long enough to really give a fair opinion

Don't know anything about all this, but if there ever is a problem it better be tooken care of gosh darnit!!!!

I have been playing for 5 years solid 3-4 day's a week in a band. I own a jackson bass and pa's and extra speakers and amps and crap, but who cares what else I own this bass is cool. When I decided to get another bass I was looking into Deans Razor NT (natural finish of course) and a Fender usa jazz. I didn't go with the jazz because I couldn't find one for a good price in a natural finish and I wanted more controlls on the bass rather then 3. I love fender jazz basses, but they are expensive for the usa made ones and really I wanted a tree trunk look. The Dean razor nt was good, but the pickup placement wasn't good for me. This was a great looking and killer sounding bass for the price. I was willing to spend more on other basses, but sometimes you don't need to spend a lot money for great sound, looks, and brand names. I was actually very shocked when I looked at the price tag. It looks like an expensive unit. They make a black one and I think another color of this custom model, but let me give you some advise look at the natural finish in person and play this unit and you'll fall in love. The finish and wood they put on the natural is something I have never seen. You'll get compliments and people asking about it all night long!

I have no idea what year this awesome piece of work was built (probably 2000 or 2001); very comfortable 34" scale bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and Diamond inlays, 24 jumbo frets; Diamond tuners; mahogany body (no binding), chrome hardware, and Diamond bridge; 2 EMG-HZ w/ active 2-band EQ; way cool satin black finish; no gig bag, strap or humidifier included with this baby, but who cares? I already had all that stuff, anyway! (Well, not the humidifier...)

I play alternative, punk, thrash/metal, and experimental stuff, and this baby suits any of these styles, let me tell you! You have to work with it a little, though, 'cause it tends toward the "funky" side, and since funk-metal hasn't been invented yet (has it?) that could be a problem if you're trying to do the Slipknot/Powerman/System thing (of course, the action's a little high on mine - not uncomfortably so, but enough to cause a little fret buzz here and there, and a little metallic "clanking" when you hit notes really fast, especially above the 5th/6th fret).

This thing can sound very bright, very dark, and anything in between - Make it growl or make it sing! You could play it in a rockabilly trio, a jazz quartet, metal quintet, etc.; just twist them knobs till you get the tone you want. Haven't played it live yet, but I'm sure it'd kick ass.

Again, the action's a little high on mine, but that's just me - you might like it this high! Or maybe it's not even that high and I'm just bitching about it 'cause I'm a big pussy; who knows? Bracing, finish (oh yeah!), tuning pegs, nut, saddles, etc. were all just awesome (I'm not sure how helpful this review is gonna turn out - I'm too biased 'cause I just LOVE this damn thing!).

Okay, it DOES feel a little "delicate" although that might not be the right word... How can I put this? It feels solid, but not indestructible - not that it'll fall apart or crack or anything if you drop, and it's not like you have to be extra-careful with it, either; it's just that, for me, it feels a little less meaty than an Ibanez SR, for example. Still, I'd totally play without a back-up, 'cause it feels like it can definitely take a grueling night up on stage. And yes, Imelda, the strap buttons are solid.

Haven't dealt with them, so I have absolutely no idea what they're like. Sorry.

Yes, I'd definitely get another one of these if mine was lost or stolen. I love everything about it. I looked at a Fender, an Ibanez, a couple of no-name cheapies and finally decided to get this one 'cause it only cost me $182.50 - brand new! - on eBay (retail price on the Musician's Friend website is $459.99; is that awesome friggin' deal or what?). Well, actually, I did a little research and found hardly any negative info on the Stiletto, so that and the price (plus the fact that that DeLeo guy from STP plays a Schecter bass) are what influenced my decision. This bass is very recommended!