Schecter Guitar Serial Number
Key peopleDavid SchecterHerschel BlankenshipShel Horlick Hisatake Shibuya (/owner)Michael Ciravolo Marc LaCorte Productsand guitarsOwnerHisatake ShibuyaWebsiteSchecter Guitar Research, commonly known simply as Schecter, is a, and manufacturer. The company was founded in 1976 by David Schecter and originally produced only replacement parts for existing guitars from manufacturers such as. Today, the company mass-produces its own line of, and, and offers hand-built custom instruments and a small line of.
Contents.History Custom shop days, 1976–1983 In 1976, David Schecter opened Schecter Guitar Research, a repair shop in,. The shop manufactured replacement guitar necks and bodies, complete pickup assemblies, bridges, pickguards, tuners, knobs, potentiometers, and other miscellaneous guitar parts. Contrary to popular belief, Schecter never supplied parts to nor. By the late 1970s Schecter offered more than 400 guitar parts, but did not offer any finished instruments.In 1979, Schecter offered, for the first time, its own fully assembled. These guitars were custom shop models based on Fender designs.
They were considered of very high quality and expensive, and were sold only by twenty retailers across the.Schecter guitars and parts have been used by, among others,. Texan ownership and mass production, 1983–1987 By 1983, Schecter had reached its custom shop production limit and could no longer meet demand. That year, the company was purchased by a group of investors who wanted to build upon Schecter's reputation for quality. The investors moved the company to, where they produced above-par quality guitars using both imported parts and Schecter parts under the Schecter name for less than five years.At the 1984 winter show, Schecter introduced twelve new guitars and basses, all based on designs.
The most popular of these guitars was a -style guitar similar to those that Pete Townshend played. Although Townshend never endorsed this model, it was known unofficially as the 'Pete Townshend model'. Eventually, the Telecaster-style guitar became known as the 'Saturn', and the company's -style guitar became known as the 'Mercury'.All guitars have the 'lawsuit' peg heads (two small marks on back of ). Schecter was still using Stratocaster and Telecaster headstocks, which Fender had allowed when they were a parts company. It appears this lawsuit may have essentially led to their closing in late 1986 to early 1987.
The current owners purchased the name in late 1987.During this period, Schecter managed to sign famous endorsee, Swedish guitarist. Schecter built several custom guitars for Yngwie Malmsteen that featured scalloped necks and reverse headstocks. Hisatake Shibuya and reform, 1987 – present In 1987, the Texas investors sold the company to Hisatake Shibuya, a Japanese entrepreneur who also owned the in Hollywood and (To this day, Schecter Guitar Research and ESP Guitars have remained separate entities). Shibuya moved the company back to California and returned Schecter to its custom shop roots, devoting all its efforts to manufacturing high-end, expensive custom instruments.Schecter guitars were once again only available from a few retailers, one of them being Sunset Custom Guitars in Hollywood, which Hisatake Shibuya also owned.
Sunset Custom Guitars happened to be the place where Michael Ciravolo, the future of Schecter Guitar Research, worked. During 1994/1995 Schecter managed to sign other famous endorsee, Swedish guitarist.In 1995, Schecter introduced the highly sought-after 'S Series' guitars and basses, which were Fender-style instruments. In 1996, Hisatake Shibuya asked Michael Ciravolo to become Schecter's president and run the company. Michael Ciravolo, an experienced musician, brought to the company many well-known musicians as endorsees. These included of, and of, and Xavier Rhone of.Michael Ciravolo never really liked Fender designs, so he sought to distance the company from its past Fender-style models.
Toward that end, he added the Avenger, Hellcat, 'Hollywood Classic CT' and Tempest models to the Schecter catalog. He also wanted to reach a new generation of musicians he felt were ignored by most major guitar manufacturers.
Yet, at this point, the company was only producing expensive, custom shop models with a return to exceptional quality not seen since the early custom shop days under Dave Schecter. (Schecter's maximum output was forty guitars a month -all custom made.) To realize his vision, Ciravolo began searching for a factory that could mass-produce Schecter guitars while maintaining high quality standards while maintaining production in the USA Custom shop. As a result of the low production and focus on quality, the USA custom models from this era (1996-2000) are some of the most sought after among guitar collectors.Michael Ciravolo met with several Asian guitar manufacturers at the Tokyo Music Festival and subsequently decided on a factory in,. (Though not known for sure, this location could be the electric guitar factory of World Musical Instrument co.
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Ltd.) Schecter's guitars were built in the South Korea factory and shipped to the U.S., where they were set up in a Schecter shop. At the 1998 summer NAMM show, with the addition of now Executive Vice President Marc LaCorte, Schecter introduced the Diamond Series, which included six affordably priced non-custom guitars.
The line included an affordable seven-string guitar, the A-7, to the market when none were previously availableIn 2000, Schecter introduced the now legendary ' C-1, which was debuted by in 's ' music video. The Diamond Series is still in production to this day.Expanded custom shop, return of USA production, and Schecter Amplification, 2013–present In 2012, it was announced that Schecter expanded their custom shop, adding 14,000 square feet to the facility. Later the same year, Schecter announced a new line of USA-built guitars that would bring the company back to its 'roots'. This included the acquisition of several CNC machines from and a new 1,500 square feet spray booth. The new line would be called the 'USA Production Series.' These guitars were officially debuted at the.
Schecter also announced a new line of hand-wound electric guitar and bass pickups, that would be available on USA Production and custom shop models, and possibly will be available for purchase in 2013.Along with the announcement of the USA Production Series, Schecter announced their introduction into the amplification market. These new amps were designed in part with well-known amplifier designer James Brown, known for designing the amplifier with, and his line of effect pedals under the Amptweaker name.
The amps first announced were the Hellraiser USA 100, Hellraiser Stage 100, Hellwin USA 100, and Hellwin Stage 100. The USA versions are built in Schecter's USA custom shop, while the Stage series is built overseas. The Hellwin is the signature amp for guitarist, who helped design the head with James Brown. Both amps use EL34 power tubes, an on-board noise gate, a passive and active input that compensate for the output difference by changing the circuit instead of reducing output, and a 'Focus' control that adjusts the low end response. The main difference between the Hellwin and the Hellraiser is the Hellwin's use of MIDI to control the amp. The Hellwin is also a three-channel amp, as opposed to the Hellraiser's two-channel design.
Schecter Guitar Serial No
Schecter also introduced a line of speaker cabinets, one featuring a 200W sub-woofer called the 'Depth Charge', that would increase the cabinet's bass response. These amps were debuted, along with the USA Production Line, at Winter NAMM 2013.Diamond Series The Diamond Series was first introduced in 1998, and consists of all the non-custom, mass-produced Schecter models. The Diamond Series is further divided into groups of guitars, which share common design characteristics. Schecter has stated that it will not customize any Diamond Series guitar, thus any Diamond Series guitar is sold 'as is'.Although there are a large variety of models available in the Diamond range, many are 'mixed and matched' parts from different Schecter guitars. For example, all 'Omen', 'C', 'Hellraiser' and 'Damien' basses have the same body shape, although some have set necks rather than bolt on necks, different finish colors, and different woods. However, Schecter produces many different guitars from a smaller number of core parts. This mix and match culture has the benefit of allowing guitarists to find a Schecter to fit their exact requirements, but negatively gives less of a 'core product' range as shown by Gibson Guitars who only have a small range of guitars available.Some of the best known guitars made by Schecter are the 'C Series' in various configurations such as the 'Hellraiser' and 'Blackjack' models, and the S Series, which included the S-1 Elite (double cut) guitars, which resembled Gibson's Les Paul Double Cut and double cut Melody Maker—and the S-1 (a less fancy version of the S-1 Elite).
The 'Elite' versions of Schecter's mass-produced instruments often include an arched top, abalone binding, a bound fretboard and a bound headstock with a finish matched to the body. Despite the decorative features, these instruments remained affordable and of reasonable quality. Pickups on many mass-produced Schecter models are almost always 'Duncan Designed' humbuckers (double coil pickups based on Seymour Duncan's pickup specifications), usually with a 'push-pull' coil splitter control that splits the full humbucker pickup sound into the sharper tone of a single coil pickup.Schecter targeted specific market segments with occasional limited runs of its mass-produced guitar models in novelty finishes. The 'Aviation Series', which appeared around 2006 and ran for about a year, equipped certain mass-produced model bodies (the PT, Tempest, S-1, etc.) with US (and British) aircraft colors and markings, and special pickup covers that look like cooling.Schecter also makes seven-string models, and recently, eight-string models. Schecter's 'Diamond series' guitars use components such as TonePros locking bridge products on non-tremolo models and original double locking tremolos on many of the six and seven string models. Many models also feature USA or pick-ups and.Products Guitars.
^ Gill, Chris (September 2006). 'Schecter: A Guitar History'. Schecter Guitar Research. Retrieved April 27, 2013. Wright, Michael (2009-12-14).
Vintage Guitar® magazine. Retrieved 2018-02-21. Molenda, Michael (August 2006). Archived from on 2007-09-27.
Retrieved 2007-04-15. ^ Schecter Guitars Website, accessed 18 December 2008, 21:00. ^ Items not present on Schecter Guitars website, Items are shown in discontinued section and in the past catalogs, accessed 25 February 2012, 06:50. Displayed on the Schecter Guitars Custom Shop page, accessed December 18th 2008, 21:40External links.