Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Review WiredGuitarist February 13, 2017 Uncategorized Schecter began as a repair shop in the 70s, so they’ve been around the block a few times and seem to be all over the spectrum as far as their guitar offerings go. We’ve seen the Schecter Traditional Strat, we’ve seen the super aggressive Banshee, and today, we’ll be looking at the 80s inspired Sun Valley Super Shredder. Let’s see how this hot-rodded strat holds up! Features: Mahogany Body Maple Neck Sea Foam Green Finish Maple Fretboard w/Offset Reverse Dots Bolt-On Construction 25.5” Scale Length & 14” Radius 24 X-Jumbo Frets Floyd Rose Special ‘Hot Rod’ Locking Tremolo Schecter Tuners Black Hardware EMG RetroActive Hot 70 Pickups Volume/Volume/3-Way Switch Thin ‘C’ Neck Profile The Sun Valley Super Shredder has pretty much the perfect aesthetic appointments for someone looking for a retro shredder. The Sea Foam Green finish, black pickguard, and Maple board add the necessary classic vibe. The guitar certainly feels like an old school shredder as well. The thin ‘C’ profile and 14″ radius offers a really thin feel without being flat. I found it to feel really great for soloing and it certainly didn’t alienate rhythm players either. Overall a great feeling neck. The Floyd Rose is pretty much a requirement on a guitar like this. I would have preferred an ‘Original’ Hot Rod Floyd rose as oppose to the ‘Special’. I always thought the lightweight of the special made it feel cheap. It still holds tuning well and has a ton of flexibility, though. Tone: The solid Mahogany body and one-piece Maple neck is a classic combination of woods for this kind of guitar. Mahogany always pairs well with a Floyd Rose because this particular wood doesn’t tend to lose much resonance when you cut a huge chunk out of it for the cavity. You can read more about the benefits of different woods in our Tonewood Guide. The pickups in the Super Shredder are the new EMG RetroActive set. Now, I know what you’re thinking. EMGs in a retro guitar? EMGs suck, though, right? While I wouldn’t say EMGs suck, I will say that I wouldn’t be stoked on the standard EMG 81/85 in a retro shredder, but the RetroActive set is a different beast entirely. First of all, I’d like to thank EMG for offering us some open-coil designs. These look great, and I would have never have guessed that they were active EMG pickups by looking at them from a distance. The bridge pickup brings a gritty, 70’s rock sound to this guitar. It has a really fat bottom with a rounder sounding attack that adds some smoothness to the sound. It reminds me a lot of the old Charvel Superstrat guitars. (This entire guitar actually really reminds me of those.) The neck pickup is voiced a bit more like a 50’s style PAF pickup. The leads in the neck position give you a sort of ‘Les Paul’ sound on a guitar that has pretty much no resemblance to a Les paul whatsoever. The leads are extremely punchy and bitey. It’s very easy to get a very aggressive 80’s metal lead sound out of these. The pickups are also pretty noiseless. I found that the preamps help these pickups to have almost no hum at all, which is pretty sweet on a 70’s style pickup. Tonally, this guitar is well-versed. It absolutely kills it for rock and metal styles. It could certainly handle blues, jazz, and everything in between as well. The only thing it really wasn’t intended for is modern/extreme metal styles, but that’s okay because this is a retro shredder! Build Quality: The Sun Valley Super Shredder is one of the MIK Schecter models and as such isn’t the highest quality that they offer, but it still absolutely holds up for its price point. The guitar overall felt really great to play. The neck is super comfortable and the pickups actually sound really incredible (well-played EMG). The fretwork had a few minor issues (some scratches here and there and one quite noticeable ding), but the leveling with exceptional and the fret ends were smooth. Schecter has been impressing us more and more with their fretwork these days. The hardware didn’t feel particularly high-quality and I would have liked some locking tuners, though. Final Verdict: The Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder is one of my favorite offerings from Schecter this year so far. It has a ton of versatility, the aesthetics are on point, and it feels great. There were a few minor quality issues, but nothing detrimental to the guitar. I loved the sound and playability of this guitar so much that I actually plan on picking one up for myself at this ridiculously affordable price point. I do wish Schecter would have released a version of this guitar with some higher end hardware and maybe some extra premium appointments, but I’ll certainly settle for this wonderfully affordable model. 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