Why is there a lack of baritone guitars for the metal world?

[mick thompson]

to be honest what i really want is a gibson v baritone or a bc rich warlock / v baritone - thats what i would love... so hint fucking hint bc rich / gibson

i wouldn't be a fan of those 2 ltd's, the body on that schecter aint my cuppa tea (sg styled ... eh no thanks) and the stained wooden one on the page before has a tiny headstock - im very picky!

 

[diSEMBOWELMENT]

People need to man up and buy Schecter 7 strings.

With the extra scale length you can get away with having a huge tight tone and only using a 10-60 set of strings, plus the scale length is only like 26.5 or something like that, so it wouldn't take as much to get used to as say a 27 or 28 inch scale.

I played a Les Paul and an ESP horizon for years before I got my Schecters and even though they have the extra length and extra string, it really didn't take me long to adjust at all. I'm talking like...within 5 minutes I was playing it as comfortably as I was playing my 6 strings.

Seriously...I will preach Schecter love forever - I love those god damn things.

I own a hellraiser C-1 and I gotta say that I lost all respect to Schecter after buying that thing. Before you jump the gun though I have to say that after spending half a day with so many tools and knives on it it plays good now! But, here's what I found about ALL Schecters (the higher end ones, not the cheap Chinese bolt ons):

1- They level their frets and don't bother recrowning, dressing or polishing them properly. Mine was NEW and had HORRIBLE looking/feeling frets.

2- The QC is plain horrible. The proud sticker on the back that says "inspected for play at Schecter USA is a huge shame and they should remove it straight away. The wiring was done wrong, and the neck pickup didn't work. They didn't bother checking if the pickup works to begin with!

3- The clear coating is a beginner's job. Lots of bumps and ditches. Polished like a mirror to make it look impressive, but fact is, it's definitely not a good paint job.

Mind you, I mod/fix/build guitars so I have more than just basic knowledge about guitar making and luthiery. The horridness of the out-of-the-box condition would never be matched even by cheap BC Rich or LTD guitars. Shame.

However, after working on everything for 4-5 hours, releveling the frets, recrowning, rewiring, etc, it worked fine and I liked it. Would definitely prefer Ibanez quality any day (except for the basswood bodies, but then again I'm not taking it to war or anything). Decent guitar overall, but DEFINITELY not worth its price tag. And I don't think the other models would be any better.

 

[Dylan S]

I'm sorry to hear that man.

I haven't heard a bad thing about Schecter ever, and I punish the hell out of my two Schecter 7 strings and they haven't ever skipped a beat. They sound amazing and withstand anything.

 

[006]

Mind you, I mod/fix/build guitars so I have more than just basic knowledge about guitar making and luthiery. The horridness of the out-of-the-box condition would never be matched even by cheap BC Rich or LTD guitars. Shame.

LTD and Schecter are basically the same thing, same owners, etc.

2ndly, I've owned two HellRaiser C7s and my friend has had a C-1 Stealth for ages - all of which have been nothing but awesome instruments. I think you just got unlucky and now you are trying to say it's all of them... uh, no.

 

[mondocane]

baritone's are cooler than 7 strings but less "hip" I'd say. I play this one here >>

cheap instrument but beautiful low growl. 30 inch scale. drop A. 013-072 strings.

 

[Metaltastic]

30" scale, mother of fuck It's like BC Rich only does opposite extremes, really short (their standard neck length is 24 5/8", less even than Gibson) or in this case, really long (and hard )

 

[Harry Hughes]

Meshuggah use 30 inch scale guitars. Nothing out of the ordinary for people to use them.

 

[diSEMBOWELMENT]

I'm sorry to hear that man.

I haven't heard a bad thing about Schecter ever, and I punish the hell out of my two Schecter 7 strings and they haven't ever skipped a beat. They sound amazing and withstand anything.

LTD and Schecter are basically the same thing, same owners, etc.

2ndly, I've owned two HellRaiser C7s and my friend has had a C-1 Stealth for ages - all of which have been nothing but awesome instruments. I think you just got unlucky and now you are trying to say it's all of them... uh, no.

I'm sure they don't have so many mistakes on ALL. I might have come off too general. You guys are right. BUT, the one I have, and the ones that they have at the dealer's, ALL have fret work issues (and the dealer asked me to fix another wiring issue on a new one as well, so it's not that uncommon).

One note though, 006 you talked about construction, I have absolutely NOTHING against construction. Cause if I did I wouldn't have bought it at all as this is the first thing I check. I have to admit that the construction is sturdy (the neck is a little too rubbery though but then again mahogany IS a little less stiff than maple) but nothing that sends out an alarm.

About generalizing the issue of the fretwork, allow me to insist on where I stand. The catalogue itself shows pics of levelled but uncrowned frets. I don't have my scanner working at the moment, but here's a pic of a BRAND NEW guitar:

http://www.gear-vault.com/wp-content/gallery/schecter-hellraiser-c1/schecter-c1-hellraiser-inlay.jpg

Again, I am not saying they're bad guitars, I am just saying that the QC on them is bad.

Anyway, sorry for derailing the topic, just wanted to point out an observation.:Smokedev:

 

[Jormyn]

Again, I am not saying they're bad guitars, I am just saying that the QC on them is bad.

My experience has been that this is what separates cheaper gear from the more expensive stuff (though I'm not sure why Schecter would be dropping the ball that bad) - the equipment and parts aren't necessarily better, but cheap stuff (my Behringer pedals, for instance) will be all over the place in terms of quality where a more expensive line will tend to be much more even.

 

[Wolfeman]

I love my baritone. Takes some getting used to, but once your fingers learn to stretch a bit more it ain't bad at all.

I've always wanted to try one of these though-

I don't even know if they make them anymore. There was also an Epiphone line of Les Paul baritones which I think are discontinued also.