Schecter Guitar Research began as a repair shop in the 1970’s creating replacement parts for large manufacturers such as Fender and Gibson. It wasn’t until 1979 that Schecter began to build and offer fully assembled guitars. They were all very expensive custom shop models based on Fender designs. Funny enough, I never got the opportunity to play on of their “Strat” style models until I recently played the Schecter Traditional Standard. It was definitely a step away from the “metal” guitars that I was used to playing from Schecter, such as the KM-7. It felt appropriate to go ahead and write a review on this guitar.

Let’s start with it’s specs!

Features :

  • Solid Alder Body
  • Lake Placid Blue Finish
  • Thin C Shape Maple Neck
  • Bolt-on Design
  • Maple Fretboard with 12” Radius
  • 25.5” Scale Length
  • 21 Extra-Jumbo Frets
  • Dot Inlays
  • Diamond Vintage Tremolo Bridge
  • Grover Tuners
  • Graph Tech XL Ivory Tusq Nut
  • Schecter Diamond Vintage Single Coil Pickups
  • 5-Way Blade Switch
  • 1x Volume/1x Tone

This guitar is Schecter’s answer to the Stratocaster. All of the classic Strat features are there: The vintage tremolo, single coil pickups, and solid alder body.

This guitar feels and plays exactly how you’d think it would. The 12″ radius neck is super comfy for jamming on and the classic body hugs the body well. The Vintage Tremolo feels really great. It’s not the smoothest that I’ve felt, but I was satisfied with it. Schecter definitely nailed the classic Strat look as well. The Lake Placid Blue finish looks super classy!

One feature that surprised me was the addition of a Graph Tech Ivory Tusq nut. I would have expected a cheaper nut from a guitar in this price range. Good on you, Schecter.

Tone:

The sound of the Schecter Traditional really surprised the heck out of me.

The Alder body and Maple neck wood choices make for a super balanced sound that resonates well. The (obvious) inclusion of the Bolt-on neck gives the guitar the extra snap that a Strat needs.

The Schecter Vintage single coil pickups sound pretty solid. They are voiced similarly to the Fender custom ’69 pickups, but with a bit more bite and sustain. They aren’t as warm and mellow as the original Fender models, but they sound good. Obviously, they are made for blues and jazzy sounds. They seem to work best for mid-level gain tones and not as great for crystal clear sounds. They just seemed to lack a bit of character when played without any distortion.

With that being said, I was really happy with the crunchy blues sounds. Unfortunately, I don’t have a real Fender Twin Reverb, but was really happy playing it through a Twin Verb profile on my Kemper.

(One of our community members did a Kemper review a few months back if you want to check that out!)

Build Quality:

This is one of the cheaper Schecter models that we have reviewed and I figured it would have more issues than what I’m used to. I was mostly happy with what I saw.

There were two minor dings on frets, as well as a few finish imperfections. The neck pocket was great, and the nut was cut really well.

Other than not, nothing too serious and I was happy for it being a $500 guitar.

If you are considering getting one of these and you decide to purchase it through us, your guitar will receive our free Guitar Enhancement Package. This way, we make the guitar gets to you in great condition. If we see anything we are unhappy with, we send it back to Schecter!

Final Verdict:

Overall, I was very happy with the Schecter Traditional Standard and had a blast playing with it.

If you are looking for an affordable little Strat that plays surprisingly well, then this one is a great choice! If you want some really nice crystal clear sounds, I may suggest a pickup swap, but for crunchy sounds it performs great!

9-7-8

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This article was written by Zac Buras, our editor located in Louisiana.

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