Schecter is an American company known for making guitars and basses at every level and in every style. Lately we have seen it compete with other companies in the industry, offering quality instruments at very competitive prices. This month, following on from the previous article, we'll talk about the Schecter 007 Elite seven-string guitar, one of several models in the company's catalog of guitars with an extra string, which include the C-7 Blackjack, C-7 Hellraiser, Damien-7 and Omen-7 (Extreme).
When an instrument like this lands in your hands, all kinds of questions spring to mind: How will it sound? Will it be comfortable? Will the finish be up to scratch? Will it stay in tune?, etc. These questions are completely different from the ones you ask yourself when you get your hands on instruments with a big name behind them, since just because of that name we supposedly shouldn't question them. In this case, the Schecter 007 Elite answers all those questions, and more, positively. I have to say that one of the things that caught my attention was its looks; when you see it, the first thing you notice is the color (the unit I tested was Black Cherry) and the very detailed finish, but at the same time you notice the hardware, the cutaways... and you say: “This guitar was designed and built to be enjoyed.”
Woods
Let's start dissecting, one by one, all the sections of the guitar in question. If we look at the neck, we can see that it is made of three pieces of mahogany. The guitar's color extends across the whole body and the neck too, and its transparency lets you glimpse the mahogany and the three pieces that make up the neck. Mainly at the top, from the second fret on, you can see a “U” shape where the bulk of the neck is glued to the section that supports the headstock.
The fingerboard is made of rosewood, and quite a “dark” one, to be honest, for these times when this wood is very scarce and we are getting used to seeing ever lighter rosewood fingerboards. On the edge of the neck there are dots marking each of the conventional frets (1, 3, 5, 7, etc.). On the fingerboard itself there is only one inlay, a diamond at the 12th fret; the rest is free of markers.
The body is made of mahogany with a flamed maple top. Here lies one of this guitar's secrets, since it will throw you off quite a bit as to the final result. When you're told mahogany body, you immediately think of a thick sound (“Les Paul,” etc.), and a maple top on top of that seems to confirm it; but in this case the guitar holds much more than the sound we're imagining. It must be said that the maple top gives it a most distinguished and elegant look; in short, this isn't a guitar that should end up covered in stickers all over. That wood is to be enjoyed, not only with the ears but also with the eyes.
Hardware
This guitar's hardware is a major strong point, as it gives us very good options for setting it up. Let's start at the headstock and work our way down the neck until we reach the body.
On the headstock we find seven Grover tuners in Black Chrome, which are perfect for any guitar with a Tune-o-matic or fixed bridge (as is the case here). These tuners will help a lot with tuning, as well as giving greater precision when we're dialing it in. It's also worth bearing in mind that Grovers are great at handling a lot of tension, since with an extra string the pressure exerted is much greater. In addition, these Grovers are standard, in the sense that they don't have a raised string post, which would reduce tension and therefore lose tone on this type of guitar.
The nut is quite decisive for several important things on a guitar, such as tone and tuning. In this case, the nut seems to be made of Teflon or something similar, which keeps the strings from rubbing too much and therefore solves any problem of breaking them. On the other hand, if the nut isn't properly filed with the corresponding slots for the strings to rest in, we'll suffer tuning problems. This is something to keep very much in mind, especially on seven-string guitars like this one, where tuning is so delicate, but on the 007 Elite it is taken care of down to the last detail.
There are 24 jumbo frets, which make fretting notes more comfortable: since they are taller and wider, there is more air between the string and the wood and therefore more sound. Being wider also helps keep you from going out of tune, which happens with other tall but narrow frets. We often come across guitars where the frets are not very well finished at the edges of the neck, scraping your hand every time it passes over them. Here they are carefully filed and rounded. On the other hand, the neck is fully painted, with a coat “à la Gibson”; some guitarists don't mind this, and even like it, but personally I don't, because in the long run it becomes a problem: it tends to pick up dust from the air, sweat from your hand, etc., creating a thin film that ends up slowing your hand down and making it harder to slide along the neck. And in this case it's even more important, since with seven strings we have more neck, more surface for the hand to rub against.
Finally we have the bridge and the string anchoring. One of the main features of this guitar is that, with a fixed bridge of this type, the strings pass through the body. This is very important for the final sound. When we have a fixed bridge, the strings usually start at the bridge end of the guitar, which means the point of maximum tension depends on how high the bridge is; but with the strings passing through the body, the tension is greater at the points where they exit the body, so the sound is transmitted more to the body, which vibrates in sync with the string. The bridge used on the 007 Elite is a TonePros TOM with string-through-body. Using screws on the sides, this bridge lets us bring the bridge closer to the body and therefore achieve more transmission to the guitar, as well as more tone and sustain. All in all, I think using this type of bridge to get the greatest possible tone is a great choice.
Electronics
The guitar comes with two Duncan Designed pickups, an HB 102 and an SC 102, designed for seven-string guitars, delivering the low-end reinforcement you need to control, especially when you hit the seventh string. Here we find one of the 007 Elite's virtues. Guitars of this type usually come with humbuckers, which makes them very geared toward certain heavier styles of music; but in this case, having one humbucker and one single-coil makes it a much more versatile guitar, as it has every possible option. But that's not all: the guitar has a master volume control and a tone control, which is a push-pull, letting you use the HB pickup as a humbucker or as a single-coil; this means the three-way switch it comes with adds two more possibilities to the previous three options. It's welcome that the pickup selector is angled to one side, so you can switch easily when playing Stratocaster-style. On the other hand, using a push-pull to split the humbucker into a single-coil never seemed the most convenient approach to me; perhaps a five-way selector would be handier, since in the studio you have all the time in the world, but when you're playing live, ease of access is priceless.
Assembly
So, after all this, we come to one of this guitar's best-kept secrets, which is that beneath its dark appearance it seems, so to speak, quite a rocker. In many positions you can find “twang,” and that's due to the combination of tuners, nut, bridge and headstock construction, which, not being too steeply angled, gives us that characteristic sound, not at all common on this type of guitar.
It should also be stressed that the guitar's neck is glued to the body; this means the note produced on the neck is transmitted to the body, achieving plenty of sustain, since there is no air in the pocket where the neck rests on the body. On the other hand, since it isn't bolted on, we lose attack; that is, notes are longer but less loud.
The neck-body joint is designed so you can reach the highest frets with all the comfort in the world. It is carved down so that it progressively tapers until it disappears into the body.
The body has a Strat-style contour on the top of the guitar, which I personally appreciate, since after a couple of hours of playing sitting down, the typical pain in your right ribs appears, making you think the guitar you've just been playing isn't ergonomic at all.
Sound
“What it sounds like” is the other hugely important factor in a guitar. We've already seen a bit of how it might sound. On the one hand, we'll talk about how the guitar sounds in general and, on the other, we'll deal with the seventh string (separately). At first glance, the guitar's sound is very versatile thanks to the following ingredients: mahogany, a humbucker, a single-coil and strings through the body. On the neck single-coil, we have a sound very close to a Strat, with twang but a little darker, a “Strat on vitamins,” so to speak, great for bluesy sounds, crunchy tones and clean sounds. If I were to ask for something more, I'd ask for a little more thickness in the sound and perhaps a bit more attack. But remember that it isn't a Strat as such, nor does it want to be. The middle position is personally the one I liked most; without losing the Strat character, it adds a bit more body, bringing out new harmonics as well as a crunchier sound in general. Switching to the bridge position, we forget any Strat reminiscence and move to something more “Les Paul”: a very thick sound with great sustain, much darker. In this position the harmonics jump out on their own and it is, so to speak, the most aggressive.
As for the seventh string, it's a great option, sounding like one more extra note but so well balanced with the rest that it doesn't feel like an add-on. It stays in tune, which is extremely important on the seventh string.
This type of guitar is aimed at rock/metal players who also care that their more down-tempo (softer) parts sound really good and blend with the rest of the band, something we often forget. That's what an instrument of this level gives us: when you play it with your band, everyone turns around and thinks, “How easy it is to play with you” (provided your playing is up to it).
Feel
When you strap on the guitar and start playing chords, solos, rhythm parts, etc., you realize how comfortable it is, thanks to:
a) A comfortable neck, quite flat, not very thick and, although it's large because of the seventh string, very comfortable.
b) A very ergonomic body that adapts easily to you.
c) Its light weight, which keeps rehearsal sessions from becoming a nightmare for your back, without giving up mahogany.
d) Infinitely comfortable frets; on the other hand, their durability remains to be seen.
e) Very easy access to the highest frets.
Conclusion
The Schecter Elite 007 is a very versatile guitar with a great many sounds in it, very solid in tuning and, above all, in playability and comfort. The price is very competitive, so its value for money makes it highly recommendable. On the other hand, points against it would be details such as the Duncan Designed pickups, which could have been Seymour Duncans, and “Crafted in South Korea”; many guitarists care about origin to the point that it becomes decisive. Its looks are unbeatable, very attractive, with that semi-transparent maple top giving it a most elegant air.
