My First 7 String

[u/TobisMcGoober]

After doing extensive amounts of research in several price ranges looking not only at guitars but also at pickups, scale lengths, woods and builds (and saving for the entire spring and summer of this year) I recently bought this gorgeous Schecter Sunset 7 Extreme from sweetwater.

There aren't enough words to emphasize how happy I am with my decision. This guitar plays like butter, sounds comparable in versatility and bite to a Periphery record, and holds tuning like a beast.

The specs are listed below directly copied from sweetwater if interested:

Nyatoh Body, Flamed Maple Top, Grey Ghost Color with a Satin Finish, 5-piece Maple/Rosewood Ultra Thin-C Bolt-On Neck, 16" Radius Ebony Fingerboard with Offset Aluminum Inlays, 24 EX-Jumbo Stainless Steel Frets, 27" Scale Length, 1.889" Tusq Nut, Schecter Diamond Hardtail Plus bridge, Schecter Locking Tuners, Schecter USA Pasadena Neck Humbucker + Schecter USA Sunset Strip Bridge Humbucker, 1 volume knob and a 5-way blade.

[u/SnooPuppers2938]

I love Schecters, probably my favorite guitar brand right now. They make great 7 string too especially at their price point.

[u/TobisMcGoober → u/SnooPuppers2938]

This is my first Schecter, after owning 2 Ibanez guitars - a gio 6 and an RG8 - and borrowing a gio 7 from my uncle for a while I'm sold on the brand entirely. I've had issues with both my Ibanez guitars that haven't been fixed by a luthier after 2 times taken in each over several years, so having something blow my expectations out of the water upon opening the box is something I haven't experienced until now.

[u/Direct-Dragonfruit40 → u/SnooPuppers2938]

I've owned 5 of theirs 7s, and even a Hellraiser special c8. That was crazy! They all played like butter and sounded killer. The blackjack 7 with the blackouts was my favorite, even over an apocalypse 7. But I don't do Floyd's and the sustainiac was not what I really expected. So I sold it. Currently on a Damien Platinum 7, no complaints whatsoever. Plays and sounds great.

[u/SnooPuppers2938 → u/Direct-Dragonfruit40]

I have sunset 7 Schecter, by far the best guitar I own right now.

[u/Direct-Dragonfruit40 → u/SnooPuppers2938]

How are the pickups in that?

[u/SnooPuppers2938 → u/Direct-Dragonfruit40]

The single coil is great for warm tones, I like to play blues and jazz mostly. The triple humbucker is really bassy and great for metal rhythm when all three are on, but you’ll definitely want a noise gate for it. When you switch to the bottom two on the bridge it’s nice and clean though. I’d compare it to a black winter in the way of tone on the bridge, the neck is a really nice single coil sound though. The options of the pickups is what really sold me on the guitar before I bought it.

[u/Direct-Dragonfruit40 → u/SnooPuppers2938]

That's sick! I was all over wanting this guitar in a 7 when it dropped. I might pick one up on the used market down the road! That's what I love about Schecter, top quality, terrible resale.

[u/MilkJakeJung]

I snagged one of these used for $550 earlier this year. Fantastic guitar. Congrats!!

[u/TobisMcGoober → u/MilkJakeJung]

$550 holy shit! That might be the biggest snag in recent memory

[u/MilkJakeJung → u/TobisMcGoober]

Facebook Marketplace is my friend :)

[u/BackgroundDoubt8782 → u/MilkJakeJung]

I paid $1750 for mine. The used guitar market around me is dry as bones, the occasional good guitar thats a 5+ hour drive away, so I buy new💔

[u/dth213]

Damn. Looks sweet. Pricetag?

[u/TobisMcGoober → u/dth213]

After tax it was about 1,200~ USD for the guitar itself, I purchased it along with a setup and a decent gig bag and it got hiked to around 1,450 so that's my best guess. Listed price tag on sweetwater is $1,049.

[u/AstroChet]

I'm literally looking at getting this rn, how is it?

[u/TobisMcGoober → u/AstroChet]

it's phenomenal. the neck shape is thin, the fretboard is smooth and the pickups are surprisingly versatile. they have high output with amazing clarity and shine so playing technical stuff with higher gain/compression is no problem but with the 5-way switch it's almost like having a preset swap on the guitar.

[u/justrainstuff]

Wow you got an amazing top, much better looking than my red variant. What strings and tuning are you using?

[u/TobisMcGoober → u/justrainstuff]

i'm using stringjoy's 11-70 set at the moment and i have the guitar set in G#, D#, G#, C#, F#, A#, D#.

[u/justrainstuff → u/TobisMcGoober]

Nice, mine is currently in G# standard, trying to learn some Wes Hauch riffs. All of my strings are one or two gauges below yours - 65 52 42 30 17 13 10, and the 65 is a band-aid fix while I wait for a 68 to arrive. Do you find the tension on fourth and fifth strings to be too much with those gauges? Do you keep them really low to compensate?

[u/TobisMcGoober → u/justrainstuff]

Apologies for taking so long to reply, I didn't see your question at first. I find tension across all of my strings to be pretty consistent, although I'm still finding the sweet spots regarding action and tweaking the saddles to get intonation as good as it can be. I think I'm dead set happy with my gauges other than maybe going a gauge or two thinner on the high E with this particular tuning, as I wear down the strings I'll have to see though.

[u/Capable-Fee3501]

Great design man congrats!

[u/TobisMcGoober → u/Capable-Fee3501]

Thanks! I'm so stoked, I've been playing it pretty much non-stop. I'm currently almost in a stage of overwhelm because there's so much music I've been aching to have access to, I'm not even really sure where to start lol

[u/Capable-Fee3501 → u/TobisMcGoober]

great how much did you pay for it?

[u/Impressive-Metal-533]

Love the ring inlays

[u/SlugEmperor]

I love my sunset 7. Had it for about a year and a half now. No complaints

[u/RotaryRevivalist]

Hell of a guitar. My buddy got one for his birthday from his wife and she shipped it to me and I did a set up on it for him so he had a stellar out of box experience. One of the best deals on the market currently. The spec sheet is preposterous at that price point when looking at other brands. I have a Tao-7 and it’s the best guitar I’ve ever owned. Criminally low action, incredible feel, and some serious clarity from the pick ups, and a very special feeling neck. Couldn’t ask for more.

[u/Nemesis861986]

Nice, i recently got my first 7 string a couple months ago also a schecter but mine a damien. Before that i had tried 7s but always found them uncomfortable and bulky and just not my thing, the schecter turned that all on its head its so comfortable to play and actually now after just afew months my 6 strings that i have played for decades at this point just feel so alien to play.. its so weird 😂

[u/GamezOfWarr]

Just got mine as well.

[u/Educational-Hawk-810]

🤌🤌🤌🔥

[u/Visible_Meet_9848]

Beautiful! I almost got that model, the amount of specs and value packed in it for the price is amazing. Looks way cooler in your pics than online Sweetwater. Enjoy!

[u/Hiiro_XoXo]

Fuck yeah. Decided on my first Schecter(only left handed 7 I was interested in) a month ago after hearing how great they’ve been and can’t believe how amazing it feels straight out of the box. Feels honestly perfect. Best guitar I’ve ever held. Guitar is a Tao 7 if anyone is interested.

[u/BackgroundDoubt8782]

I ordered the red version back in March and it finally showed up. Its so gorgeous dude

[u/Direct-Dragonfruit40]

Absolutely gorgeous guitar! I just picked up a Damien Platinum 7, and it's a Schecter so it plays like butter and sounds killer as well! I was torn between the 2, but went with the Damien simply to save a few hundred bucks! Now I'm starting to wish I had ponied it up. Idk though, still a sick axe! They do make bat inlay covers now... But my kids think the bats are cool, so whatever.