I've spent a great deal of time and effort trying to make a GREAT guitar. The custom double neck was a success, but on my other builds, I haven't quite been able to pull if off.
Beating Gibson for build quality and tone was not difficult at all. But, I haven't been able to build a guitar on-par with Schecter's build quality .
On my YelloStrat, I went really extreme. The brass block and saddles were one-off customs, as was the DiMarzio Neanderthal Humbucker. The not-yet-completed Warmoth neck is again a one-off custom design.
Interestingly, while the YelloStrat plays very, very well and sounds good, it just doesn't come close to either my 2005 C1 Hellraiser or my 2019 Hellraiser C1FR in terms of tone or playability.
Even my Mom's 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom is not even close to my Schecter in terms of playability and tone - even dead clean through a Princeton. There just isn't any comparison between them.
I've been trying to figure this out.
Using my 5 new Gibson's as a direct comparison, all were hand made at least to some degree. This would explain the too steep neck angle, humped fretboard, loose frets, poorly cut nuts, shorted pickups and finish flaws (a thumbprint in the black nitro of my 2016 Gibson Les Paul Studio for example) present in all the 5 new Gibson's that I bought between 2016 and 2018.
The human hands add an element of unpredictability and could account for the "heaven and hell" experiences with these guitars posted all over You Tube.
The largest number of Schecters are being built by World Musical Instruments in South Korea. The entire process is CNC with minimal hand fitting. Zakk Wylde's line of guitars are said to be produced here because he wanted CNC consistency for his namesake guitars.
The biggest Indonesian builder is Cort (PT Cort-Tek) located in Ngoro, Mojokerto, near Surabaya, East Java. This guitar factory has been operational since 1995.
Cort produces roughly 1 Million guitars a year, between their Korean, Chinese and Indonesian factories.
Beside their own Cort branded guitars PT Cort manufactures for Ibanez, Fender/Squier(includes amps), G&L, Gretsch, Laguna, Avalon/Lowden, Music Man, Schecter, Lakland, Strandberg, EVH, Chapman and Jackson among others, both
Ibanez and Jackson,
I'm thinking that the biggest difference between the Korean/Indonesian and USA builds might be the use of greater automation in the build process and less by-hand operations.
Either way, I really thought all the attention to detail on YelloStrat was going to net me a guitar that truly blew me away, and I'm afraid that I missed that mark entirely.
YelloStrat is a nice guitar, but just about any off-the-hanger Jackson sounds better, as humbling as this fact is to accept.
Although the custom Warmoth neck is still coming, I have my doubts that it will impart any significant changes to YelloStrat's tone, although I do think it will play better.
After we finish the upcoming video, I am going to give YelloStrat to our guitarist Mike as a gift, just to get rid of the constant reminder of a failed project.
Next up for liquidation is the White Jackson San Dimas. Although it's a great guitar, its very plain white wrapper to me...just boring to look at.
My two Les Paul's - both currently out on loan to L.A. bands for video shoots - are my in-studio workhorses. They are never used outside the studio.
My plan is to add a Purple burst Jackson SLX Soloist as my #2 backup to my #1 Purple burst Schecter.
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It's taken me a very long time to realize that I can't beat CNC production and even a one-off custom wind DiMarzio, including going as far to pay $2k (a few years ago) for a pair of Gibson T-Tops, didn't net me anything memorable.
Live and learn...
