Schecter A-7 Diamond Series 7-String

A quick follow up. First of all sorry for mentioning the A-7 at times as the C-7. The review is of the A-7 although I've used a C-7 as well, it too is a very good sounding guitar (and beautiful to boot.)

The A-7 has held up well in live play and studio work. It is a great deal and worthwhile launching point for seven string guitars.

Schecter has been great about customer support.

Probably made in 2000 in either Mexico or Korea, set up in the US.
24 frets, solid mahogony body with volume, tone and 3-way selector for dual neck and bridge Dunkin designed passive Humbuckers.
The neck is maple with XJ rosewood fretboard. The headstock and body are glossy black and are dust and fingerprint magnets. The "A" series body style is an exagerated type of super strat with through body strings, quality bridge and Grover tuners on a 25 1/2" neck.
My A-7 came with a gig bag of reasonable quality along with hex wrenches for truss rod and bridge adjustment.

This is the first and only 7 string I played. It took some getting used to. The neck is fast, thin but significantly wider than traditonal 6 string guitars. I use this almost exclusively through a board with either Valve FX/Control 1 or GT-3 effects. The pickups are decent but I see a replacement for the bridge pickup eventually. Here's something interesting I found. A lot of people have mentioned how the pickups sound similar or how the bridge pickup is muddy. However, as I try different styles of amp models and distortions the bridge pickup at times shines and the difference between it and the neck are very pronounced.
This is a big sounding guitar but it is highly dependent on the system you are using. If you play it direct into amps you're going to find certain combinations that fit this guitar incredibly well while others will leave it very monochromatic sounding.
With decent processing this axe can sound spectacular.
I'd have to say the A-7 is not for purists.
Overall I enjoy the sound of this guitar, it is inspiring although it could be improved with different pickups- this is important- this guitar sounds good with it's stock pickups, it plays well, but there's tons of players that like specific pickup sounds and it's not unreasonable to swap out what appeals to you, I see people with $3k Les Pauls doing this all the time.
Part of making your sound is having some control over design.

The setup was buzzy out of the box. A few minutes later it was much better except for the low "B" string which still buzzes a bit.
The bridge could have been beveled as it sometimes is a bit sharp to the touch. I dislike the volume and tone knobs, they'll go soon.
The pickups are slightly misaligned, especially on the low "B" string but do not seem to effect the sound.
Beyond that this guitar plays well and for it's price is a steal.

This is a heavy guitar that plays well and has stood up to my at times aggressive playing. The hardware is solid and of high quality. The design is excellent. It is my only 7 string and I feel comfortable using it without backup. Actually it's my gigging 6 string guitar's backup, it just gets used a bit more as I like hitting those lower notes and chunking up the sound.
I use this guitar for experimental and electronic music. I don't shred a lot although you easily can on this guitar. If I don't do something stupid on stage I can't see things going wrong with the C-7.

Impressive service. I had a few questions and had answers within 5 hours via email. Beyond those answered questions I've had no need to talk with support and hope to keep it that way.

I've been playing for over 30 years, I've had many guitars none of which compare to the C-7. In terms of build it is far better than any sub $800 guitar I've played. It makes me want to buy a 6 string Schecter. I also have a C-5X which kicks my ass and blows me away in equal amounts. The C-7 sounds good and works well as a backup 6 string with additional capabilities.
I really hate the control knobs but this is a minor thing. I like this guitar quite a bit, it is inspiring to play and helps me stay creative.
For it's price I can't think of much that compares.

I believe this guitar was made in 1998 seeing as how thats when I ordered it but the place I ordered it from didnt recieve it until 1999 so I'm not exactly sure. I believe it was made in mexico and setup in the U.S. Okay enough of the stuff I'm having a hard time remembering and onto some things I know. It has 24 jumbo frets (no buzz on any of them) 1 volume, 1 tone, 3-way toggle switch, two duncan designed passive humbucking pickups, mahogany body, hard maple neck, Awesome gunmetal grey finish, Offset strat style body, String thru body bridge, grover tuners, rosewood fingerboard, Came with gig bag (which is falling apart badly) two allen wrenches and a thin little instrument cable.

It sounds perfect for my style of music (Thick, heavy, downtuned metal like Fear Factory, Morbid Angel, recent Slayer, etc.) It also sounds good clean on the neck pickup for almost jazzy tones. The bridge pickup sounds like ass without distortion. I'm running it through a very simple setup. Just a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL and a Randall 4x12 cab. It sounds beefy as fuck cranked up. It sounds just thick, probably thanks to the mahogany body cuz I know the pickups are nothing special. One thing I don't like is the sound of the bridge pickup on clean. It just sounds way to thin. And the pickup selector is kind of hard to get to in the middle of a song so Its sometimes difficult to switch to the neck pickup to remedy the problem of the thin clean sound. It also tends to get a slight bit mushy sounding when playing fast and with a bit of bass, so I kind of need to keep my tone a bit on the trebly side, But I beleive a pickup upgrade would fix any problem I have with the sound.

The guitar was setup perfectly. I just recently learned how to set up a guitar, and after owning the A-7 for about a year and a half I went to go check the setup and I found it didnt need any adjusting at all. Even after tons of gigging and taking the guitar up to my dads in the mountains and stuff and through climate changes its still set up perfectly. The only thing wrong with the setup was I think the bridge pickup was too close to the strings at first because Id get a small bit of distortion even while playing through the clean channel at low volumes. I lowered the pickup just slightly and it fixed the problem. One seemingly major flaw when I got the guitar... The screw was missing from the 7th machine head. Thats a big thing to overlook. I replaced it and Ive never had a problem with it even after a year and a half though.

This guitar is built like a tank. My friend knocked it off a table and all it did was put the smallest little knick in the corner. It didnt even go out of tune. It feels really solid. Its built like a les paul (besides the bolt on neck) and those are tried and true. I know I can depend on this thing for years to come. Ive used it at gigs without a backup plenty of times. Ive even broken strings on itduring gigs without a backup and id be back up and playing in five minutes.

I didnt deal with Schecter at all.

Ive been playing for about 6 years now. I owned an Epiphone Les Paul before my Schecter and I must say the Schecter sounds better. I wasn't dissapointed with anything about this guitar. I dont care for the pickups much, but hey what can you expect, they're stock. If This guitar were stolen I'd maybe try out a Schecter C-7. I love how solid it feels and sounds with distortion. Overall- Great guitar for the price. If it had good pickups it would be perfect.

This has all been covered before...
The gig bag kinda pisses me off though, because it isn't shaped for the head and takes it out of tune.

I play a lot of different musical styles, and I find that it suits all of them pretty well. I mostly play metally stuff, though, and it seems like that's what it was meant for, but I can get pretty good blues and jazz sounds out of it. I really like the pickups with a clean sound.

The action was set a little low. I like a low action to be able to play fast, but I get a lot of fret buzz from the seventh string, and even some from the other wound strings when they are fretted in certain places. The pickup height seems pretty good, but the poles are a little out of alignment. My 3rd string won't stay in tune right, which irritates me, as does the fact that the volume knob cuts out sharply at a certain point.The body is also easily dentable, althoough that finish ain't coming off (which is very good). Except for that, I really like it. I was impressed with how fast the neck plays.

I 've only had it for a little over a year, but this thing seems like it's built like a damn tank (maybe that's overstating it a little, but you get the idea).

Never dealt with the company, hopefully will never have to, but you gotta love the lifetime warranty.

I've only been playing for a little over two years, so I'm no gear expert yet, but I know that this guitar is pretty fine. I really like the looks, and it plays well. I've played other guitars that I don't think even matches it in this regard, although I've played an Ibanez RG-7620 that pretty much blew it away. I wouldn't be able to compare the sounds of the two, though, since I played the Ibanez through a Fender amp that I didn't like. If it was lost or stolen, first I would throw a huge fit, then I would go out and definately get another one.

This is a '98 Diamond series A-7 in gloss black. It has a 24-fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard bolted on to a heavy mahogany body. It has two passive Duncan Design (import pickups based on USA Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz pickups)humbuckers, a tone control, a volume control, and a 3-way selector. Hard-tail string-through bridge. All Black Hardware. Super Jumbo frets. 25.5 in. neck scale. Reverse head stock with tuner for the low string on the regular side. Came with gig bag.

I originally bought this guitar to play super-heavy, bassy new age metal (Korn, Limp Bizkit) and I guess it is pretty good for that style but I now have a very different style. It is a pretty one-dimensional guitar which appeals straight to korn-heads and such, kind of a fad guitar in my opinion. A year ago I was a huge fan of korn and other similar bands and i bought this to play their music. I thought I would never not like this kind of music but now here I am a year later and I don't like that stuff at all. This also true with many of my friends. Now I do not have much use for this guitar. As far as tone this guitar is very muddy and dark sounding. Combined with the crappy pickups, it really lacks clarity. Not very noisy. Very bassy. Mahogany body guiatrs really need maple tops to tighten them up in my opinion.

The setup from the factory was pretty bad. Action was too low and it buzzed a lot. It came with 9-46+56 strings. In my opinion you need a lot heavier low string. I raised the action and got heavier strings (10-52+75 in dropped A) and the guitar sounded a lot better. Barely and fret buzz. The finish is nice but the painted chips very easily. The soft mahogany body is also very prone to dings. Stays in tune pretty well. Also I really like the finish on the neck; it is very fast. The neck profile is pretty thin, not my personal preference but adds to the fastness of the neck. One problem is that the bridge pickup pole pieces never align with the string no matter what I did.

Pretty reliable and sturdy. I would gig with out a backup.

Never dealt with them

Pretty good guitar for heavy music, but that is really all. It does play pretty well though.

This Schecter was made in Mexico and assembled in Los Angeles. This Schecter has 24 frets, Rosewood fingerboard, Jumbo frets, Heavy-ass mahogany body, Grover tuners, high output Duncan design pickups H-H configuration, bolt-on neck, string-thru set bridge (NO TREMOLO), passive electronics. This guitar is shaped like an upside-down BC Rich Mockingbird. It is black. I like my coffee black... and I like my guitars black. This guitar looks AWESOME sitting next to my Ibanez Universe UV777BK. The guitar came with a nice, above-average gig bag. I don't mind the gig bag.... but a guitar this nice should come with a hardshell case. I purchased a hardshell case separately and it is on backorder. It will probably be months before I get the damn thing. I'm NOT flaming AMS for this... but usually backorders take forever no matter who the dealer is. AMS is the best musical catalog to order from... if you live near or around the East Coast. Every time I order something from Musician's Friend it takes two weeks for the product to reach me through regular mail (UPS). Oh yeah... it has two pots and pickup switch selector. I think the pots look cool as hell.... better than the traditional strat numbered knob/pots that are on most strats and superstrats.

This guitar sounds massive with high-gain distortion. I play METAL and this guitar is perfect for that genre. The pickups are good.. but not the best. Power chords sound awesome. Lead guitar sounds awesome anywhere on the fretboard. Blues and jazz licks sound great anywhere on the fretboard. The only beef I have with the sound is the palm-muting. I also play an Ibanez Universe and it seems to be much easier to achieve a good palm muting "metallic" distortion sound on the Ibanez than on the Schecter. Don't get me wrong... I can get good palm muting sounds out of the Schecter.... I just have to attack and mute the strings differently with Schecter. I am quickly adapting to good palm muting technique on the Schecter. The overall tone is NICE and FAT!!! It's like a cross between a Les Paul and high-grade Ibanez 7-string (UV). This guitar sustains for miles and miles. This guitar can easily do jazz and blues with clean sounds on the neck pickup. The low B sounds great with or without distortion. Clean sounds are nice on the Schecter. This guitar could be used for just about every genre of music EXCEPT Country. Why would a country guitarist want a 7-string???

The action suited my taste straight out of the box. It was set up LOW, LOW, LOW!!! Actually, it was set up just like I set up my Ibanez UV. The pickups were at a PERFECT distance from the strings for my style of music. Jazz players may want to back off the pickups from the strings.. just a little bit. The electronics are nice. Cosmetics are INCREDIBLE.
The neck has taken a few days to get used to.... since it doesn't have the All Access Neck Joint like the Ibanez UV. I like the neck on the Ibanez UV better. It is harder to reach the extreme upper frets on the Schecter than on the Ibanez.

This guitar is solid as a rock. The hardware is nice, sturdy and well constructed. This guitar will be used as a "feature" guitar for songs with alternate tunings on the 7-string, plus it will serve as a backup to my flagship guitar the Ibanez Universe. If I didn't have the UV, I would definitely use this guitar SOLO... during a gig.

Never dealt with them. Hopefully I never will.

I have been playing guitar on and off for about 12 years now. I would definitely get this guitar again if I lost it. I tried a Schecter A-7 out at local guitar stores along with an Ibanez RG7421 and an ESP H207. I thought the Schecter blew the other two away in overall tone and quality. I decided to buy the Schecter A-7 through AMS... since it really is a NEW guitar.... and not some DEMO guitar-shop axe that every snot nosed kid and their brothers have played on. I know that sounds evil to local dealers... but can you blame me when the price is so much better through a mail order catalog??? I am very pleased with this guitar. I needed a "set-bridge" 7-string for alternate tunings... and I got a good one! Thanks Schecter.

7-string solid mahogany body with bolt-on maple neck. I got this one in "gun-metal" grey. It has a rosewood fret board w/24 x-tra jumbo frets. The bridge is a fixed string thru body in a black finished brass. It came with gig bag.

This is a very dark sounding guitar. It sounds very one dimensional. But I can manage to pull some pretty decent harmonics out of it. This instrument was meant for heavy in your face power chords, but that's about it. Can get a little muddy.

I was a little disappointed at the workmanship. Nothing about it could be described as set-up. It had mondo fret buzz and the intonation was way out. I spent a couple of days on tweaking the bridge and am still not 100% happy with it. There are some small flaws in the finish but the neck/body fit is tight. The volume pot cuts out abrutly at the low end of it's sweep. This guitar is very heavy and the frets are huge(which I don't like). I can play reasonably fast on it but it just doesn't cut it for soloing as far as I'm concerned.

This thing will last forever. It could be used for a boat anchor.

You'd be better off spending a little more money on an Ibanez or other higher end makes. I'm sure schecter makes a better 7-string than this one. If I had to do it over I would have saved my pennies up for something a little better.

This is a 1999 model USA made Schecter guitar. The full two-octave neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard and jumbo frets. The bo0dy is carved mohagany and the neck is attached via the common four-bolt joint. The guitar is equipped with two duncan designed humbuckers, one volume control, one tone control, and a three-way toggle switch -- all controls located on the lower bridge side of the body. I chose the solid black gloss finish as I think it embelishes the radical body design. Push pull tone pots, or the les-paul style independant volume/tone controls would have been prefered had I ordered this guitar with a custom set-up.

I believe this guitar could find it's proper place in any musical style. This is the one category where I have absolutely no complaints. The bridge pickup is meant for soaring distorted leads and chunky rythms. The neck pickup can deliver a perfect country twang, or(using tone control) the mellowist jazz sound you've ever heard. While no guitar could ever sound EXACTLY liek a Gibson, playing this guitar reminds me remarkably of everything from a Les Paul to an ES-335 according to the tone knob/pick-up combination.

The overall condition of this guitar was pretty good straight from the factory. I've tuned the guitar down one full step across the neck and it held it's intonation remarkably well. THe action is a little low to the frets for my particular playing style, but not so low as to render undue fret buzz. A player with more speed oriented leads would find it most-likely perfect. The string-through-body bridge offers wonderful ringing sustain and the tuners grip tightly to eliminate most tuning problems. When playing live with this guitar, I re-0tune once a set and fingd only mild tunign discrepancies -- I attribute those to the lowered tunign and tension on the strings. Th pickups were adjusted to the perfect height and sound wonderful.

NO ONE SHOULD GO TO A GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP!!! But this is now my favorite live guitar. I hate to say it, but my Les Pauls, Strats, and Guilds are no longer in live use (save songs that require a special open or dropped tuning.) If anyone would have told me a year ago that a $650 guitar would replace one of my $2300 Les Pauls I would have called them crazy, but the Schecter has done just that. I originally bought this guitar solely to perform numbers requiring the seventh string, but I've since learned to incorporate the seventh string into all of our music or simply leave it out when it's not required. THis guitar was meant for live use. It's rugged, sexy, and the pickups are hot as hell.

No need as of yet.

I have been playing guitar for 17 years, I own three Les Pauls, a Strat, a Tele, a Guild Bluesbird, and several acoustics. I own a Fender Twin 2X12, Bassman 4X10, and a Soldano head and 4X12 Cab. I use Digitech FX and Vox Wah pedals. All of my questions were answered by my dealer, and I encourage anyone thinking of mail order for an instrument to consult a dealer first. If this guitar was lost or stolen I would purchase another in a heartbeat. I'm even thinking of purchasing a C-7 to use as my back-up. The dealer told me there were no performance differences between the low-line diamond series and Schecter's pro-line, having owned the guitar I would be quick to believe him. THis guitar is a gem and could improve very little over it's current production. I will most likely pay extra for the C-7 just to get the extra control over my pick-up tone and pick-up volume, but that would be the only reason..... GO BUY ONE NOW!!!

I'm not too sure what year this was made in, but i'm assuming it was '99. i bought it mail order and paid about $630 total for it, the case, and shipping. it has two humbuckers, a single volume, and a single tone control. it's got a full 2 octave neck, carved mahogany body, and a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. the body style is unlike any i've ever seen before, and just screams that this guitar is different. i'd like a choice of pickups and perhaps a choice in body and neck/fingerboard woods (but you caould always go through schecter's custom shop and get one i suppose).

first off, i haven't read any of the other reviews for this guitar yet because i don't want to risk letting someone else's thinking influence mine. this guitar has LOTS of aggressive potential. clean sounds have that smooth texture--not too bright, not too mellow and when you add some distortion to it, it really kicks some ass. the pickups are sensitive and sometimes they remind me of some of the more hotrodded varieties you can find for standard 6 strings... very nice. i'd say with the right preamp/effects, you could play anything from classical to death metal easily.

when it was delivered i noticed that the action wasn't right and there was a load of fret-buzz. i didn't even bother to look at the intonation or truss rod. i took it to the local dealer and had them restring it with some thicker strings and set all the technical details for me (i'm lazy). nothing seemed out of the ordinary as far as construction went--everything looked like it should for a brand new guitar. craftsmanship is good, but it could have been better adjusted before it was shipped. the neck is pretty thin, which i like, and a little wider (what do you expect for a 7 string?). i like it because i feel like my hand isn't likely to hit adjacent strings as easily (my hands are big and i've always felt that a normal 6 string doesn't leave much room). takes a little getting used to, but i wasn't totally in the dark when i picked it up. on a side note, the case schecter makes for this guitar really pisses me off. for some reason, the interior isn't contoured for the headstock and the weight of it rests on the low E tuning peg when you put the instrument into the case. i was hoping it would be made out of that kick-ass material the SKB cases are made from but it's not. the interior has some sort of nasty citrus smell that i have no clue about. i know *i* never put anything smelling like that in there.

this seems like a reliable and well-built instrument. i had some piece of shit $100 guitar and IT withstood live playing, so i know the schecter will. since i've bought it i haven't played live, but when i do i won't be concerned with the instrument letting me down. any company that provides a lifetime warranty feels that their equipment has some durability. i'm sure it will accumulate the normal scratches and dings like all guitars do, but cosmetic things like that don't matter after you've had the instrument for a few years.

never had a problem yet. it's got a lifetime warranty, so i'm not too worried about having problems.

this is the first guitar i've bought without playing it, and i'm relieved that i didn't get shafted on the deal. i love this instrument. the carved body makes it feel so comfortable. if i had to due to some nasty, unthinkable incident, i would buy another for sure. on a side note, a local music store lackey said that schecter holds the patent on the 7 string guitar and is filing a lawsuit against ibanez and other 7 string makers. i found that interesting. their new instrument, the cello-blaster, sounds awesome. you can get a sample on their web site. it's got some extreme low end to it and i'd like to get my hands on one.

Well, I'm pretty sure it was made in '99 because the guy I bought it from sent it to me a few days after recieving it from the factory. I think it was made in korea or something, but I know it was assembled in the US. 24 jumbo frets, 1 tone, 1 volume, 3 way selector. H/H config. "Duncan Design" passive humbuckers, at first I thought this was some copy brand of pickups, but later I learned they are actually Seymour Duncan. Carved Mahogany body, maple bolt-on neck, rosewood fretboard. hard tail bridge, black hardware. Mine is ebony satin (very cool), and has an ebony satin headstock too, but i'm not sure if I just happened to get the same color as the headstock. It also comes in black, green, red, and some more... Very cool, unique body shape, although very heavy. I give 8 because it's not a parker fly deluxe, and no fernandes sustainer... but it does have 7 strings!

I play punk and metal/industrial. But I dont use this guitar for punk. This guitar growls like a mofo! Dark, loud, and angry. I thought i'd be getting new pickups, but the stock ones sound awesome. Sounds pretty good clean too. Only thing I dont like is that the bridge and neck pickups sound exactly the same. But it's OK because they sound good, clean and dirty.

The action was high, which is no big deal because i can just lower, but the intonation was way off on like 6 of the strings... After about 30 minutes I had everything set up good though and it sounded great. Pickups were fine. The finish is beautiful, I love the looks of this guitar. One flaw was the neck wasn't perfect. The fret board on the B string side of the neck is about a milimeter away from the body. This doesn't seem to really affect anything though. I think this would only bother someone that must have a "perfect" instrument.

Seems very sturdy, I would trust it, I will buy a back up eventually, but I don't think it'll let me down. Everything on the guitar is firmly in place, and doesnt seem like it would ever fall out or get loose.

life time warranty... otherwise, i haven't dealed with them at all.

I've played for 4 years, and I have a standard strat and a vintage fender bullet. This guitar basically rocks. If it were lost or stolen that would suck majorly. Sounds awesome, and I