Schecter Diamond Series Gryphon

Nothing to add really. If balance is a feature, then this has good balance. Supposedly caramel colored, but really kind of reddish, typical of what others have said. The dot markers are not pearloid, but are multicolored MOP, probably man made, but kind of sharp. The real live grovers are nice. It would be nice, as others have said, to have separate volume and tone, but in this price range, it's enough that it has coil tapping

The sound was the big surprise for me. I've always avoided Schecters because they seem like the generic GC guitar that the kids all want to play death metal on, kind of like BC Rich with a modicum of class. I went to GC looking for a pedal, actually, something that would give my bluesy Godin LGT some bite. The Godin plays sweet, but the tone is too sweet too, very syrupy would be my best description. I didn't want a metal pedal. I have a smash box and a DS-1 for that. Just wanted some undefinable Tele-ish edge. After going through all the various pedals with screamer after the name, the salesman suggested that since I only needed the sound for a one off recording session, maybe I should look at some of their year end close out guitars. Can't stomach Rich's and cheap Ibanez, but they had this Schecter in the rack for 240 bucks. It was pristine as far as nicks were concerned, a little smudged, and the strings were obviously older than dirt, but after a very disappointing trial of a used Parker P-38, I picked up the Schecter and plugged it in. The edge was definitely there. I was playing it through a Vox amp which wasn't really comparable to my old Roland VGA5, but in comparison to the Godin and the Parker through the same amp, this thing was feisty. I was even more amazed by the playability. I borrowed a strap from the sales guy and was even more impressed. The frets and action were butter. The neck, though clubier than I'm used too, was extremely comfortable.

From what I could tell it sounded great clean too. The versatility with the coil tapping was an added feature. The LGT is in a super strat configuration. This thing reminded me of an old Carvin I had, not quite as feisty because it lacks active electronics, but versatility wise, amazing. Each pickup configuration was like playing a different guitar and the tone pot actually has a lot of color variety to it.

I've had it two months and I can't stand not playing it, just to listen to some of the sounds I can get. The control on harmonics and pinches is crazy. Through my Roland, it is simply wonderful. It's not a Paul or a Strat or 335 or Tele, but it comes close to having the throat of a Paul or 335, and the squawk and bite of the Fenders. For emulating a bunch of guitars with one, it's the bomb.

I have no complaints about these pickups, and no patience for people who spend 350 for a guitar and then spend 150 for pickups and 50 for machine heads and yadda yadda. Wise up. You'll save a lot of money and have better resale value buying the guitar with the pickups and bridge and tuners that you wanted in the first place, fool.

It doesn't have the darkness or syrup of the LGT or an old strat, but for what it is, amazing. Let's figure a 57 Gold Top gets an 11 and "Lucille" gets a 10 for blues. I'd give this a 7. Let's figure Old Blackie gets the 10 for rock. I'll give this a 9. You can easily play jazz on it with the right pedal/amp configuration, but this machine was made to kill pussies. It is for the rock and roll.

I was completely surprised by how solid and well put together this thing is. Frets are dead smooth, no buzz whatsoever and the action is way low, right from the store. Salesman said that Schecter sends their stuff out well set up. Got no reason to doubt that. There's not a lot of form and fit to it, no binding, no fancy inlays. The neck is a nice snug fit. The comfort, balance and playability are amazing. The only guitars I've owned since I got old that didn't eventually make my left hand cramp up are this thing, the LGT and a 50's RI Mex Tele that I could shoot myself for selling. Again, these things originally sold at 399. I got mine on close-out open box for 240. At that price I got a whole lot more than I expected.

The top might be an issue with some people. Schecters generally look pretty nice, but these Gryphons have an almost plastic look to the top, like it's too tiger striped to be real and the shading is extremely subtle and hard to focus on. Again, at this price, this is one decent looking machine. At least it doesn't have some goofy body shape or head stock. A grown up doesn't feel embarrassed playing it in front of other grown ups.

The thing feels like a tank. I always wonder about coil tapping in the pots. Seems like it would have to wear out sooner rather than later. If I ever have to replace the pot, I might try to install a separate tapping switch like Carvin uses. I've not been particularly careful with this, and it was a wall hanger at GC, but it still doesn't have a scratch on it, so whatever the finish is, it's solid.

I haven't dealt with Schecter directly, but I don't expect to ever need them. If it was going to fail, it would have. If something does go wrong, I'm out peanuts on the guitar so far, so I would just go have my local tech fix it. He's good and fair priced anyway. If you're in South Texas, you can't beat Sound Vibrations. (unless GC is having a giveaway sale like the one I got this at)

I've been playing off and on since 1970's, in punk bands in my youth, and with other people just jamming rhythm and blues, leading to simple jazz stuff as I've gotten older. I've owned a lot of guitars and sold cheap a bunch I wish I could have back, like an old Starfire, and old Swede and ancient Jaguar and Mustang...Ah well.

If this were stolen or lost or ruined somehow, I wouldn't hesitate to go and buy another Schecter. Not sure they're going to continue this model, but the next level up of Schecters are even better looking, more playable and more versatile. I take back everything bad I ever said about them being moronic metal guitars. They are rock monsters, pure and simple, adept at any style you would want to play, and especially great if you play an eclectic set list.

Limited Edition flame-top maple in caramel burst color. Finish is thankfully not as shiny as it looks on various websites (must have used strong light). Seemless veneer top. Body is mahagony, neck is maple with rosewood fretboard and mother-of-pearl dots (which are frankly hard to see). General strat shape but beautiful and full of chracter in comparison. Solid, simple (non-locking) Grover tuners. Two "duncan designed" humbuckers (meaning designed by Duncan but made overseas). 24 Jumbo frets (which I am not a huge fan of). Just one tone and one volume control (main reason I docked it a point). Humbuckers can be tapped to become singles.

I am relatively new at this electronic guitar gadget, and this one is perfect for experimenting around with different sounds. The ability to "tap" the humbuckers and make them singles means you can get a lot of different sounds out of it. The lack of separate tone or volume controls for each of the pickups cuts into that a bit, though. It does have a three-way switch. I am using it with a Roland Cube and the combination of this guitar and a modeling amp such as that let's you try just about anything. The guitar produces enough sound and tone when played acoustically to allow for some rough unplugged practice.

Zero complaints about the set-up (Schecter apparently sets them up in the states when they come in from Korea). Finish is perfect, neck is straight as an arrow. Some slight fret buzz on the fifth and sixth strings.

Seems pretty soild from top to bottom. A small piece of plastic chipped away from that which surrounds the humbuckers, but it's really not noticeable. The lack of a pick-guard means the top is getting just a tad scratched, but I think that will buff out just fine and it looks way-cool without a guard.

Somebody had apparently shoplifted the backplate and the toggle switch head at the store (got me a good price because of that). Emailed Schecter, and a couple days later a Schecter dude called me and said he'd mail me the parts gratis. He did. Can't give them a ten on this one though because: (1) this guitar is not even listed on their website (I guess because it is a limited edition, but even if a guitar goes out of production, you should list it), and (2) they don't sell replacement parts for it anywhere (such as switches and backplates; I guess that's why someone stole those off mine).

For the money, this is a beautiful, versatile, nice sounding machine. It feels very comfortable to play. I compared it to a Mexican Fender fat strat and Epiphone Les Paul, as well as to an lower to mid-range Ibanez and Jackson. I thought the Schecter looked and felt the best, and I absolutely love the "tapping" feature to get different sounds. If it were stolen, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

Beautiful transparent finish, made in korea, 24 frets,

Sounds good with soft rock, very bright sound, it doesnt play the blues well in my opinion but thats not my main play stlye.

Guitar is great it can stand a lot. From what ive seen i twill last a long time. Strap buttons are solid.I would use it at a gig without a backup.

I havnt had any problems so I havnt tried to repair it yet.

Ive been playing a few years, and i have 2 other accoustics but this is my only elictric and i dont feel like i need another because his one is sturdy and long lasting.

*** This is a review of the late 2006 7-string Gryphon model, as there isn't one listed ***


Gorgeous "ruby fade" transparent finish which varies in depth depending on the lighting. Appears totally deep red in darker areas, while bright and alternating between black and red in the light. Strat style mahogany body with body-through strings design. Grover tuners, fast action neck--26.5 extended scale on the seven string model. The fretboard itself is rosewood, and came with superbly clean frets and mother-of-pearl type dot inlays, which look pretty unique. 24 frets, solid top with very glossy finish that isn't normally found in this price range. All black hardware, including the headstock, tuners, and pickups. One tone, one volume, and a 3-way selector with 'coil tapping' to switch into a pseudo-single coil mode. Two decent passive Duncan designed humbuckers in bridge/neck position. Salesman threw in a nice hardshell for buying at the retail price.

I play a variety of styles, from covering progressive metal, neoclassical, to light blusish rock and jazz. It is suitable for all of these. However, there are probably better specific alternatives depending on your style (e.g. an ES-335 or full hollow arch for jazz, etc.) Overall, it's extremely versatile in terms of its sound. The guitar is quiet on the humbucking mode, but obviously a bit noisy when coil-tapped, as they're 'single-coiled.' Bridge on normal mode is very high gain, as I'm sure everyone who purchases this guitar intends to play some sort of highly driven/gained sound. Mid/neck actually generate nice, fat, jazz "almost-archtop" tones with a full and not particularly bright sound. However, the coil tap spices things up concerning brightness (and unfortunately, loses an equal amount of volume output.) Coil-tapped bridge is almost as bright as a strat bridge. Coil-tapped neck is almost as hot, providing close to Hendrix tone. The real difference here is in the coil-tapped mid pickup--the sound is not reminiscent of a strat at all. It is more along the lines of a 'chimey' ES-335/Les Paul mid pickup, which is pretty cool. Very versatile sound overall regardless of the price.

Came factory intonated and setup for .010-.046 (+.058 7string) gauge strings. Pickups seem to be well adjusted initially, as was the neck. Came nearly flawless, as I picked it up after slight use on an open guitar-center floor. Tone control is much looser on turning than the volume control, but I suspect this is because of the inherent way in which the coil-tapping electronics work. The actual tone-knob naturally tends to come a little loose, as you're pulling on it vertically to switch into coil-tap mode. Luckily, they didn't cut corners on the knobs--they have built in tightening holes which can be adjusted with a hex-key. It took me a while to figure out that's what those holes were for. :P

Seems to be solid as a rock, with the exception of the input jack and tone knob, which both come loose occasionally. My concern is that the work put into the tone knob for the coil-tap may make it die somewhat quickly. Beside those, the actual guitar is rock-steady, and probably giggable without a backup.

Haven't dealt with their support, so I cannot comment on it.

If it were lost, I would certainly replace it. I have essentially replaced my Fender American Strat with this, for whatever that is worth. While it's not a true replacement, its versatility is easily comparable or better to that of any multi-genre guitar. The way this guitar looks is devilish, and screams evil/metal, which is probably my favorite aspect of it. The worst thing is that the input-jack needs to be regularly re-tightened, which isn't too bad. Overall, it's an excellent guitar in all respects--much more so than the price range gives it credit.

Strat style body with a beautiful transparent red laquer finish, black grover tuners, black "Duncan designed" humbucking pickups (with coil tap feature)smooth rosewood fingerboard, versatile look!

The pickups are designed by Seymour Duncan. The bridge pickup sounds warm and phat and through a high gain amplifier can really muscle out some modern crunch. With a little less gain its tone is reminiscent of early Aerosmith. The neck pickup has a brighter more colorful tone and alone or with the bridge pickup can produce some useful bluesy tones through Fender style amps. Though I bought the guitar for its humbucking feature, I have discovered some useful "twang" with the coils tapped using both pickups together. I also use a preamp however to compensate for the difference in volume. Overall great tone for all styles of rock.

Compared to most guitars off the shelf this guitar felt pretty good. The neck was fast and smooth and it seemed to require very little in the way of a set up. I did have it set up, however as I like to have my guitars checked out by qualified professionals. (I've had a few too many surprises in the past with other guitars). The guitar did require a minor mod to the bridge in order to maximize the effectiveness of the set up.

I've only had the guitar for a few months and I dont use it exclusively, but so far it seems to be a solid and reliable instrument. The Grover tuners are nice!

I have had no need to contact the manufacturer.

For the purposes of a humbucking guitar the Gryphon yeilds great quality for the money.

very nice finish. had a transparent red laquer finish. strat style body. very nice dependable grover tuners. neck was fast and smooth. as soon as i pulled the guitar off the wall, the action was extremely fast and neck was not skinny, but not too fat to play quick. two duncan designed humbuckers which sounded very nice. the only problem was that the neck pickup had a tendancy to fall in the body of the guitar after a gig. easily fixable but time consuming. the coil tap worked nicley in a clean overdrive situation.

i play a lot of hardcore/metal and a little bit of experimental jam music on the side. i rarely use effects. with a good amp, this guitar is well worth the money.

minor contruction flaws inside the body, but nothing to get in the way of your playing. the only thing i had a problem with was the string thru body. because its only a saddle and no tailpiece, extra preasure is on the saddle. so, if you play too hard then you broke a lot of strings. it was an ass to change stings at every show.

add some straplocks to this bad boy, and you can thrash it around like a redneck step child.

i never needed to deal with schecter.

ive been playing for 6 yeArs and never could afford a gibson or a Mesa. so ive settled with Crate for amps, as for guitars. i will never take a schecter for granted again! its the best guitar ever mAde over seas.

Strat style body, with a nice carved top. bolt-on maple neck with a rosewood finger board and 24 jumbo frets. Mine has a flame maple top with a green hue to it. Looks black in dimmer lighting. Looks cool all the time. Stock grover tuners and duncan design humbuckers with three way swith and coil tap. Hardtail string thru with a tune-o-matic bridge. All hardware is black and sturdy looking. I like the fat strap buttons. They ALMOST defeat the purpose of having strap locks, although I recommend them on any guitar and will put some on this one soon. The neck tells us this guitar was "Crafted in South Korea". I for one, think that the koreans are producing some damn fine guitars if you know which ones to buy. This is one of those.

This guitar can hit a wide range of tones. Which I love because I play a few different music styles. For metal it is awesome because the guitar naturally has a very dark tone to it. Pinch harmonics are easier to hit on this than any other guitar I have ever played. For more overdriven blues or classic rock tone, the dark tone of this guitar is not so good. Not bad really, I just don't think that Schecter had Lynrd Skynrd in mind when they designed this guitar. The difference is actually negligible, and is only really noticeable if you are playing along to an original recording. The bridge pickup, I believe it is designed after the Duncan JB, sounds great and is the pickup I use almost exclusively. This is due in large part to the neck pickup sounding like shit. I don't know what pickup they intended it to sound like, (I assume the 59 or jazz) but it sounds like you are hearing a guitar playing from a neighboring apartment or something. Pretty much worthless in my opinion. For a really decent clean tone I put the selector switch in the middle position with coil tap in the single coil position. I love the sound, playability and the general feel of this guitar. The neck pickup brought my rating down some. Overall, this is a fantastic sounding guitar.

The guitar was set up perfectly from the factory. Its obviously not a real bookmatched maple top. Actually, I am not sure if the top has any maple at all on it judging by the dark sound of the guitar. All of the hardware and the fretwork and finish is fine. There are some saw marks where they cut out the neck that shouldn't be there. The dont affect the tone or playability though. There is a rough patch on the neck from the 2nd the around the 4th fret where the sanding job was not so good. Its kind of annoying, but again it won't affect anything. It is a well built guitar and you'd be hard pressed to find any better in this price range.

It feels very solidly built. The neck and body are very thick although the guitar doesn't weigh all that much. I have a little trouble keeping it in tune, but I also like to bend the hell out of the strings a lot. May pose a problem for live playing, but I'm not currently gigging so... Overall, I'd say it is dependable. I wouldn't recommend gigging without a backup though.

Don't know. There is no warranty that I know of. I don't think this guitar is in any danger of falling apart any time soon.

I've been playing for more than ten years. Currently, this is my only guitar. I have owned several though. This is by no means the best guitar I've played or even close to the worst. I spent about 4 months searching for guitar before buying this. It was actually one of the first that I looked at. Having never owned a Schecter I decided to try other options. I went from fender USA to Gibson and almost everything else. In the end I decided that for the price, quality and tone, this was the guitar for me. I just love it! I would recommend checking these guitars out to anyone looking for a great sounding, great priced axe. If they ever come out with one with a Floyd, I will buy it in a second. My only complaint is the neck pickup, which I plan on replacing very soon.

Always reliable Grover tuners, painted headstock with "Diamond Series" lettering in some hideous quasi-Ralph Steadman splashy font. That's nasty, in a not-good way.
Graphite nut, nice hard natural finish neck with rosewood fretboard and 24 nicely finished jumbo frets. Strat-outline mahogany body with Gibson type carving and maple veneer. A forearm contour is always really nice, but the Gryphon doesn't have one, and the belly cut is small and shallow, almost ornamental rather than functional.
Pickups are Duncan Designed H/H with tone knob pull out coil taps. Extremely versatile, way to go Dave S.
Pickup switch is not in the best location for me, because I do not pick close enough to the neck to avoid slopping into this switch when I'm banging out the chords. This is not a design flaw. This is an operator malfunction. Bridge is Tune-0-matic type with no tailpiece, just strings through ferrules from body back, then over the bridge. Simple, functional, and very stable.

I play blues, blues rock, jazz, and whatever else I want. I use this with a Fender Pro Junior, Crate 5watt Palomino, classic Pignose 7-100, and through a Zoom GFX-5 straight to tape. This instrument is very quiet in both single-coil and humbucking modes, and the pickup switch does not introduce noise when I switch pickups while playing. Bridge pickup in single coil mode is acceptably twangy and bright, the neck pickup in single-coil mode is not used as much as I use the neck pickup on a standard Strat; I have not yet learned how to get the most out of the tone offered in that setting. Both humbucker-alone settings are full and clear, without muddiness.

Bought off the floor at Guitar Center in Kalamazoo MI, this is the fourth or fifth one I looked at. The first two had a serious cosmetic problem with the fretboard wood; there were unpleasant light streaks through the wood. Saw a couple of nice goldish tigerstripe finish ones, but I was committed to getting a grey/black finish. When I walked in and found one with the finish I wanted and a nice fretboard I bought it.
Setup was perfect for me, but that's just a coincidence. I don't know who set it up. The bridge saddles on this instrument do not have the length of travel that a Stratocaster or Telecaster has; so if you want to set it up for a specific altered tuning and intonate it, you better make sure you can intonate it before you leave the store. For standard and Vestapol tuning it will intonate correctly.
Every Schecter Gryphon I have touched had the same finish flaw in the eact same place on the back of the neck between the tenth and 12th fret, just a tiny spot where the necks must touch something while the finish is still wet. 0000 steel wool takes care of this issue and slicks the neck finish up nicely. Other than this the guitar had no finish flaws. I wish it had a one piece headstock and neck instead of the Gibson-style grafted-on head, but that just my own mindless esthetic prejudice. I mean, I also wish Fender could build one of these this well at this price with a maple fretboard and six-on-a-side tuners, but clearly they cannot.

I have always played Stratocasters and more recently Telecasters. I've been playing for ~35 years. I bought this instrument because I needed a low-maintenance guitar with both humbuckers and a single-coil bridge sound. For recording and writing I want a very versatile guitar, because I don't like to spend my time stringing and maintaining guitars - I would rather just play. Since this has a fixed bridge, I don't have to block the bridge as I always do on a Strat.
For five years I owned and played a Schecter CB-2000 Celloblaster, and that experience is why I went to the Schecters when I needed a new instrument. Schecters are simply head and neck above anything else in their price range at this time. Look closely at a $400 schecter and then look closely at the Fender standard Stratocasters and Telecasters that sell for the same price. Play both. Check out the fret ends, the control placement and quality, the nut, the bridge, and the finish. Look at the neck pocket. Look at the neck wood. It is clear which is more carefully built, and which has better wood and components.

I have no patience with an customer service. If it had had a problem right away, I could have exchanged it. I will buy a second for backup, but I doubt that I will ever need it. I played my other Schecter nearly daily for years, and never once had a problem that required repair.

I've played for a long while now. I prefer 24 jumbo frets, but I will also play 21 mean little weeny frets too, if that's what's in my hands. I prefer a maple fretboard and a one piece head and neck construction.
I have strong innate Fender loyalty at this point that is just ingrained in me. I bought the Schecter Gryphon anyway because it is a much better-built instrument for the money.

I choose ten, because the featurres it has are very well done. The pickups can easily be switched from dual "humbucker mode" to single-coil just by pulling out a knob... That is a really cool feature!

It has a nice solid feel, and all the components are good quality. The finish is nice...

The most important thig for me is that the neck fits my hands great. I have big hands, and my finger tips are fairly broad and flat, which means I have a lot of difficulty playing thin-necked guitars. The one has a wide fretboard, so it fits my hands a lot better than, say, a thin-neck strat-style guitar.

To sum up: basic guitar layout, great features.

Nice sound... I tend to like hollow and semi-hollow body guitars more, but this has a very nice sound and, with the switchable pick-ups, is versitile.

I've been using it with a Blues Junior, and a Peavey Classic 30.

You should know that I've only been playing guitar for a couple of months, so I'm probably not the best judge for this category, but if I was going to have one solid-body guitar to last for a few years, it would be this one. Now that I think of it, it *will* be this one.

The set-up was great out of the box. The first one I got from guitar center had some problems with the pick-up switch, but the exchanged it for a new one out of the box and it's been great.

I haven't felt any rough spots, of messed up frets. Everything works great.

I wish they offered a few more options as to the finish, but I don't think that's enough to fault them for this guitar.

Haven't played it long enough to have an opinion on this. It looks nicely made, with quality components and a nice polyurethane finish, so I don't anticipate any problems.

I bought it from Guitar Center... the first one I got was a little messed up, so they replaceed it a few days after I bought it without any questions.

I haven't dealt with Schecter, so I can't really say about this.

I've only been playing for a month or so, and I usually play an Ibanez Artcore 75, or an Epiphone Dot. (What can I say... I got hit with GAS right away, and really bad...)

I do get in some time with this guitar, and love it, I just like the others a little more... but that's *my* preference, not the guitar's fault.

The most imortant thig is this guitar definatly has some mojo going for it and it just feels "right" to my hands. A big part of that is the bigger/wider neck, so it might not be that way for everyone, but I love it.

I'd look around a little, but I'd probably buy this again if it was stolen. I'd definatly recommend it for anyone looking for a solid body guitar, especially a beginner who isn't sure what style they want to play in.

my music style is hard and fast
i use a crate amp..and jsut heavy distortion
its an amazing sound...you will have to play it
you can do anything you want on it, pinches palm mute...etc.
i dont dislike anything about this guitar

everything was perfect..the factory did a great job
no flaws

it will stand live playing for sure..i havent had the guitar long enough to know how long it is gonna list but it seems like it will last forever
i have used it on a gig with out a backup

they were really good with helping decide about this one
the waranty is a year i think

i have been playing this guitar since november 2005 and it has been the best guitar i have ever played...i have yet to come across a guitar that is better than this at this low a price
if this guitar was stolen i would probably get a schecter for sure but maybe get a more expensive one just because schecter is an amazing brand