Hot or Not? new 2017 Schecter Corsair Custom (semi-hollow w/Bigsby)

I know Schechter sort of cornered the black t-shirt wearing shred-crowd hearts with GC's "WALL OF DOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!" displays, but always thought that they had a ton of nicer, more traditional design guitars.

I have a MIC J Bass copy ("Diamond Series") that's stupid nice, and their TS-1 (Rick copy) was a bargain for years at +/- $500. Those were nice guitars.

OTOH, what's up with the move to four figure MIK guitars? Reverend started the trend of Upscale Korean, and even though I love Reverend guitars, they seem overpriced to me when purchased new. This is raising the price bar yet further, and just feels wrong.
 
gtrjunior said:
Yeah, it's nice looking and all....but I have no use for a guitar like this.
Not a Bigsby fan either...again they look cool but are essentially useless.
Click to expand...

Bigsby's are in no way unless. Cheap licenseed models are, and guitars not designed to work with bigsby's.

If you use the right spring, nut, saddles and string trees they are rock solid. They don't go out of tune and a heavier spring eliminates the "dead zone" of most bigsby's.
 
I dunno - I have a MIK Guild Starfire IV that has a street price of $1099 (I got it for $750 new, but that's a story for another day) and the build quality is quite good. I think that perhaps what is happening is that the low-end production has moved to Indonesia, China and Taiwan while the Korean manufacturers are focusing on the $500-$1200 range.
 
Danhedonia said:
I know Schechter sort of cornered the black t-shirt wearing shred-crowd hearts with GC's "WALL OF DOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!" displays, but always thought that they had a ton of nicer, more traditional design guitars.

I have a MIC J Bass copy ("Diamond Series") that's stupid nice, and their TS-1 (Rick copy) was a bargain for years at +/- $500. Those were nice guitars.

OTOH, what's up with the move to four figure MIK guitars? Reverend started the trend of Upscale Korean, and even though I love Reverend guitars, they seem overpriced to me when purchased new. This is raising the price bar yet further, and just feels wrong.
Click to expand...

If you look at the components in a stock Reverend guitar it's hard to say they are over priced. You don't need to do anything to them out of the box. I also think you would be surprised how much time Zach spends on the setup of each guitar before they go out of the door.

Also, how do you feel about a four figure Duesenberg or Italia?
 
Yeah, I feel you. If I can paraphrase, you're saying that if pricing were a meritocracy, nice Korean guitars are certainly worth $1K. (I have an old MIK Squier Starfire that is incredibly nice, as well as a couple Reverends and others).

It's just ... I don't know. I suppose it's Olde Farte syndrome: if something is $500 in 2006, I have a tough time accepting that it's $1,100 in 2017. And yes, I'm quite aware of the different levels of component parts / finish / wood / etc.

You could perhaps even call me a Korean guitar snob, now that I think on it. I have a PRS Santana, Epi Sheraton, Agile Valkyrie (don't laugh - no, really), a Burns Steer, a Squier Pro Tone strat, Reverend Manta Ray and Decision bass, and probably others I've forgotten that are all MIK. Somehow, even though I love my guitars, I can't mentally hang a four figure price tag on them.

Edit: this was written in response to Bsman, but can serve as response to both posts.

FWIW, no knowledge of Deusenberg or Italia guitars. I guess that the only MIK guitar I ever thought "justified" a four figure price was an Epi Elitist. I recognize that this is price psychology, not rationalization, but price psychology is a thing.
 
Danhedonia said:
Yeah, I feel you. If I can paraphrase, you're saying that if pricing were a meritocracy, nice Korean guitars are certainly worth $1K. (I have an old MIK Squier Starfire that is incredibly nice, as well as a couple Reverends and others).

It's just ... I don't know. I suppose it's Olde Farte syndrome: if something is $500 in 2006, I have a tough time accepting that it's $1,100 in 2017. And yes, I'm quite aware of the different levels of component parts / finish / wood / etc.

You could perhaps even call me a Korean guitar snob, now that I think on it. I have a PRS Santana, Epi Sheraton, Agile Valkyrie (don't laugh - no, really), a Burns Steer, a Squier Pro Tone strat, Reverend Manta Ray and Decision bass, and probably others I've forgotten that are all MIK. Somehow, even though I love my guitars, I can't mentally hang a four figure price tag on them.
Click to expand...

Well I think we can agree the cost of everything including components are much higher than they were in 2006. Also if you notice, the Reverend's that are $1k are all hollow, semi hollow or chambered guitar which require more time and more steps to manufacture. The solid bodies run $700-$800 list. I think if you really look at the wood, pickups, tuners, and hardware and compare that to a similarly equipped USA guitar they would cost substantially more than $1k.
 
Danhedonia said:
Yeah, I feel you. If I can paraphrase, you're saying that if pricing were a meritocracy, nice Korean guitars are certainly worth $1K. (I have an old MIK Squier Starfire that is incredibly nice, as well as a couple Reverends and others).

It's just ... I don't know. I suppose it's Olde Farte syndrome: if something is $500 in 2006, I have a tough time accepting that it's $1,100 in 2017. And yes, I'm quite aware of the different levels of component parts / finish / wood / etc.

You could perhaps even call me a Korean guitar snob, now that I think on it. I have a PRS Santana, Epi Sheraton, Agile Valkyrie (don't laugh - no, really), a Burns Steer, a Squier Pro Tone strat, Reverend Manta Ray and Decision bass, and probably others I've forgotten that are all MIK. Somehow, even though I love my guitars, I can't mentally hang a four figure price tag on them.

Edit: this was written in response to Bsman, but can serve as response to both posts.

FWIW, no knowledge of Deusenberg or Italia guitars. I guess that the only MIK guitar I ever thought "justified" a four figure price was an Epi Elitist. I recognize that this is price psychology, not rationalization, but price psychology is a thing.
Click to expand...

The reason I brought up Deusenberg is they are also made by the same company that builds Reverend and they sell most of their guitars for $1,899-$2,500.
 
Wow really digging these. I must check them out more... Never thought a Schecter would look or play like that.
 
Danhedonia said:
That must be why I have very little knowledge of them. :grin:
Click to expand...

They look really nice. They make a sig model for Joe Walsh, and Mike Campbel they are $2,500.

They are kinda shady though, they go out of their way not to mention Korea anywhere on their site. They do mention Germany a lot though. :tongue:
 
Danhedonia said:
Yeah, I feel you. If I can paraphrase, you're saying that if pricing were a meritocracy, nice Korean guitars are certainly worth $1K. (I have an old MIK Squier Starfire that is incredibly nice, as well as a couple Reverends and others).

It's just ... I don't know. I suppose it's Olde Farte syndrome: if something is $500 in 2006, I have a tough time accepting that it's $1,100 in 2017. And yes, I'm quite aware of the different levels of component parts / finish / wood / etc.

You could perhaps even call me a Korean guitar snob, now that I think on it. I have a PRS Santana, Epi Sheraton, Agile Valkyrie (don't laugh - no, really), a Burns Steer, a Squier Pro Tone strat, Reverend Manta Ray and Decision bass, and probably others I've forgotten that are all MIK. Somehow, even though I love my guitars, I can't mentally hang a four figure price tag on them.

Edit: this was written in response to Bsman, but can serve as response to both posts.

FWIW, no knowledge of Deusenberg or Italia guitars. I guess that the only MIK guitar I ever thought "justified" a four figure price was an Epi Elitist. I recognize that this is price psychology, not rationalization, but price psychology is a thing.
Click to expand...

I kinda feel the same way. I've owned a Reverend and played a bunch of them and they are great guitars. Its still hard to stomach $1k for a Korean guitar, even though I know they are well made. I still can't believe the American Standard Strats are over $1k. The first one I bought in '94 was $450, new with case. So its probably Olde Farte syndrome like you said. When do we go outside to yell at the clouds?
 
This observation has been made already but I do agree that Korean guitars are occupying the same place in the market that Japanese guitars used to own, and Chinese, Taiwanese, and Indonesian guitars are now the entry level instruments. Happily though, manufacturing quality has been transformed over the years so it's hard to argue that MIK Schecters, Revs, etc. don't offer good value. They're great guitars.

The Fender American Standard line has always been my benchmark for gauging price trends and sanity. The new reality is that an American Professional is now well past $1K and as an old fart that seems crazy to me, but I don't get to make the rules.
 
reverend1 said:
Bigsby's are in no way unless. Cheap licenseed models are, and guitars not designed to work with bigsby's.

If you use the right spring, nut, saddles and string trees they are rock solid. They don't go out of tune and a heavier spring eliminates the "dead zone" of most bigsby's.
Click to expand...
It just seems like an awful lot of hand movement for such a small amount of wiggle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top