The Glade 4.0

After about 20 years of wanting a 12-string electric, I finally made it happen. I pulled the trigger on a Schecter Stargazer 12.

It's got 12 saddles, so you can fully tweak the intonation. This is great and not offered on a lot of budget-friendly 12-strings (or on some higher dollar ones, even). Also, it has push/pull coil tapping on both pickups. I don't think white would have been my first choice, but I actually really like it now that I've spent some time with it. I think the mask line around the edges helps.

I played with it 'til my fingers hurt last night and so far I have learned:

- I will need to concentrate on my technique! If you are picking melodies or arpeggios, it's almost a whole new game on 12-strings. I welcome the challenge though.
- the tappable pickups are nice to have. I was able to dial up all kinds of tones. My only gripe is that the knobs will come off half the time when I'm trying to pull up to split the coil. I'll have to figure a way to make them stay better yet remain removable.

In any case, I'm looking forward to making some more sweet, sweet noise!




FEATURES
CONSTRUCTION: SET-NECK
BODY: ASH
NECK: MAPLE
SCALE: 25.5”
FINGERBOARD: ROSEWOOD
FRETS: 22-X JUMBO
INLAYS: PEARL BLOCK
BINDING: BLACK
PICKUPS: SCHECTER SUPERROCK CUSTOM ALNICO
ELECTRONICS: 2VOL/2TONE (TAP)/3-WAY SWITCH
BRIDGE: DIAMOND ADJUSTABLE-12 (12)
TUNERS: GROVER
HARDWARE: CHROME
COLOR: GLOSS WHITE (WHT)

Awesome!

Very cool. Have fun with it!

I bought a Schecter as my workhorse guitar to drag back and forth to practice (and not risk my more expensive stuff when we get rowdy), and I've been totally pleased with it.



I recommend them all the time now for people looking at the cheaper korean strats/etc, in that lower price range they have very little competition for the quality.

I also played a 12 string growing up (my dad had an acoustic), I've always wanted another one, but have never been able to justify the cost. Maybe one day. Was definitely some good finger training initially, pushing down an extra string on every fret (with the additional tension of acoustic) builds those callouses and finger strength fast.

That is one pretty guitar you've got, man!

Hey Dark,

Curious about your Schecter. You call that a 'strat, etc...', but I see it has dual humbuckers. Are those tapped?

Yeah, they're coil tapped, I think Schecter taps most of theirs now. I see the confusion though, I should've said something more like someone looking for a low to mid-budget level guitar instead of a strat specifically, since a lot of people just say "I want to buy a guitar and I'm looking to spend this", I'll recommend they at least try out Schecter. It just seems like their quality is much better than others in the same price range. Obviously, once you get up to the "american made" versions of the other vendors, the market opens up a lot. But in the lower price range where most of the work is done overseas or in mexico, they're hard to beat.

Traditionally electric guitars fall into two categories.

Dual Humbuckers with 24.9" scale length (think Gibson Les Paul, SG, most hollow bodies, most PRS', etc...)

Single coils with 25.5" scale (Fender Strat and Tele's and most of their clones).

Most 'modern' guitars use the longer scale length, even if they have more advanced features like the tapped pickups.

Because of all of the differences between the two traditional types of guitars, the scale length is the most significant in terms of how it plays and the kind of tone you get with it, most modern guitars will never be able to get that gritty 'tonebox' sound that you hear in a lot of classic rock out of the 60s and 70s. You can try to replicate it digitally, but it's just not the same. You can put a set of Classic 59's or PAF's in a Strat, but it's never going to sound like a Les Paul....mostly because of the scale length.

Re: Schecter, I've wanted a Schecter PT since... well since I saw Pete Townshend playing one a lot of years ago... That guitar has got some nuts...

Yup, I don't think I've ever need played one with the shorter scale length, they had transitioned by the time I was buying guitars.

You're not kidding, I'd take one of those PT's too. Mine was.... A bit cheaper. (Of course, I could always swap the pickups in mine out for the ones in the PT...... Hrmmmmmmmmmmmmmm)

Is that a pic of your guitar? I like the blackburst over the flame maple...very nice!

All but one of my guitars is long scale, the exception being my 76 Les Paul. It's heavy as a tank though so I usually play my PRS or Strat.

I honestly never played a Schecter before this one. I just don't frequent guitar shops like I used to, since I sometimes can't trust myself to not walk out with a new instrument. I would like to check out the PTs if I ever happened across one. Although, if I do another 6-string soon, it may end up being a parts-caster, like with Warmouth parts or something.

Or...something funky, like I'd like to check out some of the stuff from Reverend.

Yeah, that's the Schecter I have (stock photo I found on the web though).

I've always wanted to build my own. I still have the very first guitar I ever owned, a USA Peavey predator (bought in the early 90's), which I've read is a great guitar to break down and kit up. So far though, the little bit of free time I have I'd rather spend playing than breaking down and rebuilding.