Schecter PT Custom

My guitar is a 2003 model, made in Korea. It is a maple top, mahogany back solid body, with mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard. It has 22 frets, with abalone/MOP inlays, to match the abalone binding on the body and headstock, both of which are finished in Transparent Honey. It has a Les Paul scale length of 24.5". The "duncan designed" pickups are dual humbuckers, with a 3-way selector, a single volume and single tone control, and a push/pull tone pot, which cuts the pickups to single coil. It has gold hardware, including Grover tuners, Tonepros bridge and string through body ferrules. The incredible tubular quilted maple top is a telecaster shape. The neck is solid with some diameter to it, but not a big baseball bat. Very comfortable, with enough meat to not be anemic.

The neck is fast and comfortable. It is close to a Tom Anderson Cobra standard neck. The nut width may be a little smaller, but the shape of the neck is about right. The width of the nut and size of the fretboard seem a little smaller than my TA Hollow T, and the radius certainly is a larger diameter, but not huge. I found it comfortable, and it matched my recollection of the Cobra neck shape. Strings are easy to bend, it holds tune and intonated perfectly. It weighs more than my Alder Hollow T, which is about 6 pounds (featherweight). It is not as heavy as a Les Paul by any means. If my memory is reasonable, I think it weighs between a Hollow Cobra and a Cobra, around 8 pounds is my guess.

I would love to have a separate volume control for each pickup, and that is about the only thing missing in the way of features. Buzz Feiten tuning system would be nice, but considering the price point of the guitar, they had to cut costs somewhere. They chose tonepros bridge and Grover pegs, which also are high quality.

Basically, this is like a Tom Anderson Cobra, a Les Paul style guitar with a telecaster shaped body.

I bought the optional hardshell case, which is a plastic ABS type case, which won't hold up in gigging and touring situations.

For a tele style Les Paul, the added features of coil taps and tonepros bridge, outweigh the lack of a second volume control, so I will give it a 10 in this category.

I was looking for a Les Paul type guitar, a maple/mahogany solidbody with dual humbuckers. I play Andersons, and would have liked a TA Cobra. However, I didn't have the extra cash around for one. My main guitar is a TA Hollow T Classic played through a Mesa Boogie Road King head and pair of 2x12 cabinets, with a Lexicon MPX-200 and Korg rackmount tuner completing the FX set up. I read the March '03 Guitar Player review of this guitar, and the PT Custom came across as close to a Cobra as you can get at a quarter of the price. So, I decided to give it a try.

These Duncan Designed pickups are hotter than stock SD PAF style pickups. We A/B'd them with a guitar with a '59 in the neck and a JB in the bridge. The neck pickup was full and rich, but not muddy and overly deep. The bridge pickup had a good bite to it, plenty of midrange and treble sizzle. This is a rocker, no doubt, but not a metal machine. It has good punch and bite to it. I would estimate it is on the slightly "bright" side of a Les Paul, which to me is a good thing. ZZ Top sounds come to mind. I was very pleased with the coil split push/pull. Certainly, the split humbuckers aren't Fender single coils, but the sounds were good and very usable and slinky. I was having a lot of fun playing little funk patterns, ska rhythms and chicken pickin' squeezes and runs with the coils split. I have no illusions that this is a Fender, but the split sounds were darn good and certainly usable. I like having the three extra sounds that the coil split push/pull adds. The pickups are silent as humbuckers; with the coils split they have appropriate hum, but nothing out of th ordinary. The tapped pickups are a really nice additional set of sounds that make the guitar very versatile.

As to playability, my wife asked if it was a hollowbody when I was strumming it unamplified. It resonates and is fully of sustain and distinct note clarity when not plugged in. I tapped the top to see if it had hollow chambers as it sure sounded too loud and good to be a solid body, but it is solid. It sounded very good not even plugged in.

I have a natural bias that custom made American guitars are the height of quality. My last several guitars have been Andersons, Bakers, McInturff, and PRS. I did buy a Korean made Washburn HB-35 (ES-335 clone) which blew me away with its quality and construction, so I figured I would take another chance on this Korean made solidbody.

It amazes me the quality that can be had in this price range (list $925, $640 out the door delivered with hard case). Clearly, the Koreans have upped the ante. This guitar is comparable in overall construction to all my high end custom shop American guitars. The differences are in some very minute details and cosmetics, as opposed to overall construction. I guess I would say that if Anderson sold a "factory second" Cobra guitar with slight cosmetic blemishes, this Schecter would be one of those. In my experience the construction and quality is much better than anything Fender or Gibson is making in the US, in prices from $750 to $2500. I really wanted to be able to say "it is well made for the money and considering it is made in Korea" but the fact of the matter is that it is well made by any standard and could easily be priced at $1500-$2000 and be a fair value.

It looked like the back was a single piece of mahogany. A very nice piece at that. I knew intellectually that it couldn't be, so I spent a long time looking for the seams. I did find them eventually, but it is so well book matched and glued that the seams are hard to find. One of the ways they save money is that it is a 4 piece back. Nonetheless. the construction is superb and this seems to have no effect on resonance, sustain or sound (discussed above). The maple top is damn near perfectly book matched. It sure looks like they used a quarter sawn top and used the two halves to book match, as opposed to different pieces of wood. Impressive. They spent money on the important stuff- tonepros bridge, Grover tuners. The control cavity is very clean, well shielded, well soldered, a perfect fit on the cover plate. They saved a little money by making a slight "straight cut" where the output jack is, rather than keeping the curve of the body. That way, the jack plate is flat rather than curved. There is no belly contour cut, so it is a "slab" back like a traditional Tele. Minor design decisions which probably are labor and cost savings. The neck is straight, the bound fretboard is very clean. The frets are well shaped and rounded and the edges smooth. Very clean fretwork, very playable. Nice!!!! Mahogany neck , continuing up to the headstock with the same wood, so they didn't glue a separate headstock onto the neck. Again, quality construction. No filler in the neck inlays, and they are well set and aligned. The neck joint is great. It is a set neck not a bolt on. I would have expected for this price range not to get this type of construction quality and choices.

What are the flaws? Well, I found that there was a tiny indent near one of the string ferrules on the back, like someone slipped with a small file slightly. Very tiny, very insignificant. Likewise, I found one tiny spot where the abalone purfling meets the creme body binding which isn't as smooth as everywhere else. It seems like they missed a final sanding before finishing in that one small spot. Very minute, maybe 1/16" or so at most. I found a very tiny spot on the binding of the neck up near the 20th fret, where the stain from the finish of the body spilled just onto the edge of the neck binding. Again 1/16" maybe. I admit it, you have to be anal retentive with a magnifying glass to find these things, and I expect damn near any high end guitar has one or two miniscule little niggles like these if you look close enough. But, I was hell bound to find something to criticize.

I can reach no other conclusion that the Koreans have incorporated CNC construction quality with attention to detail

This guitar is solid and will withstand live playing. I have been playing live for 20+ years,and have owned most major and custom shop brand guitars. This baby is tough. The hardware will last, but I predict the finish on the pickups will wear off. The strap buttons are the oversized kind, that make putting a strap on very very hard, but make it nearly impossible to lose a strap on stage.

You could play this guitar without a backup, but I use several different guitars on stage and always have extras no matter what.

I believe the guitar has a limited lifetime warranty. I have never owned a Schecter product, so I have no idea how they will be if I need them. I did get a letter and email after sending in the warranty card, which was nice customer service, but I don't know about support in a problem situation.

I've been playing for over 30 years, and performing live and in the studio for 25 or so of those. I own an Anderson Hollow T, a Washburn HB-35, Taylor K20-c, custom built Wingert Model FVC acoustic. Over the years, I have owned Baker, PRS, several Anderson Drop Tops and Cobras, McInturff, Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, vintage Epiphone, etc... I have played Mesa Boogie amps exclusively for over 20 years, and switched a year ago from a Mark IV to a Road King. I think I am a pretty good judge of quality and musical gear.

I would have loved an Anderson Cobra. This guitar is a third of the price of a used Cobra and damn near every bit as good in most respects. Plus, it has cosmetic sex appeal, with the abalone inlay and binding, the great quilt top, etc.... It is everything I wanted in a dual hum maple/mahog guitar, and a fraction of what I expected to have to spend for top flight quality. I would replace it in a hearbeat if lost or stolen.

I have been corresponding with a guitar player in Florida for a while, as we both are Anderson players and were both looking for a Cobra. He collects vintage Fenders and Gibsons and Andersons. he bought a Cobra about the same time as I bought this Schecter. I wrote a review of the Schecter in an email, saying many of the things I said in this review. Based on my comments, he bought one online from Musicians Friend, sight unseen. Scared the hell out of me that he would disagree with my assessment. He got it last week and gigged with it this weekend. he wrote to me today and said, "I think you pretty much covered everything about the Schecter in your
review. A good quality instrument at a great price. Hard to believe they can make a guitar that nice for under $550." I think that pretty much sums it up. If you are looking for this type of guitar, the PT Custom is flat out a total bargain and a great guitar at any price.

This guitar is new for 2003. It is a Korean-made guitar with a tele body and a Les Paul sound.

Body CONSTRUCTION:
Set-Neck

BODY:
Mahogany w/Quilted Maple

NECK:
3pc Mahogany

FINGERBOARD:
Rosewood

FRETS:
22 Jumbo

SCALE:
24 1/2"

INLAYS:
3 Ply Crown

BRIDGE:
TonePros w/Thru Bocy
BINDING:
Abalone

TUNERS:
Grover

HARDWARE:
Gold

PICKUPS:
Duncan Design HB102

ELECTRONICS:
Vol / Tone / 3-way

FINISHES:
Transparent Honey (HNY), Antique Amber (ANTQ)
CASE:
SGR-1C

I play jazz, rock, blues, and classical and this instrument will handle it all. I play this through a few different Crates and a TubeWorks 7100 and I consistently get a full, balanced, rich sound. I would recommend this instrument over a Epi LP for its sound and versatility. The only thing that bugs me is that the gold finish on the pickup shield has faded after only 3 weeks. I've learned that this is the case with most gold pickup shields, so it is no big deal.

The factory setup was close to flawless. It came with 10s, but I put 11s on it, took some relief out of the neck, and raised the action a bit. Perfect sound! The finish is amazing. The antique amber is stunning, and even the headstock matches the body finish.

I've only had it 3 weeks, but it has been incredibly dependable.

No need.

If it were stolen I'd buy another one. Actually I might even try a different Schecter.