Review of Schecter PT guitar by Terry White

I have always wanted a Fender Telecaster guitar but not just any ordinary Telecaster; I have always wanted a Tele with humbuckers installed instead of the old Tele style single coil pickups.

Not that there is anything wrong with the original Tele and the single coil pickups. An original Fender Telecaster is really a historic guitar. It had a sound all its own and thousands of songs have been written and recorded using that very guitar, and still even today guitarists in all types of music still use that single coil configuration.

I love the design and the feel of a Telecaster; I just want a bigger sound. And I want to be able to play many different styles of music and for that a Humbucker is almost required. Well at least most of the time, there are other alternatives to conventional humbuckers but we will save that for another article.

The problem that I have is that I am a left-handed guitarist and while anyone that is right-handed can easily find a Telecaster with a Humbucker (Or HH) set up Fender does not make any guitar at all in a left-handed model that uses humbuckers.

Well it just so happens that what I believe to be one of the best kept secrets as far as guitars are concerned is that a company called Schecter Guitar Research has a guitar called the “Schecter PT”

The Schecter PT actually has quite a bit of history behind it. The Schecter PT was designed originally back in the 1980’s and was a custom only model which were designed for Pete Townshend and I believe that it was actually 1979 when Schecter first custom built these Telecaster styled guitars using what was called “Super Rock” coil-tapped humbuckers and Gibson-type toggle switch, some with Sperzel locking tuners for “The Who” guitarist.

Well so much for the history lesson, needless to say Schecter does make a decedent of that very guitar today. And while much of it has changed as far as the manufacturing process, much of it still remains the same.
Schecter has added what they now call the Schecter PT (The PT actually stands for Pete Townshend) and it is included in their diamond series line of guitars. And it still uses pickups called “Super Rock “coil-tapped Humbucker pickups.

Here are the specifications for the latest version of the Schecter PT:

CONSTRUCTION/SCALE: Bolt-On / 25.5 BODY: Alder NECK/FINGERBOARD: Gloss Maple FRETS: 22 Jumbo INLAYS: Dots PICKUPS: Schecter Super Rock II ELECTRONICS: Vol/Tone (tap)/3-Way BRIDGE: PT-H BINDING: Creme Double TUNERS: Grover HARDWARE: Black COLOR: Gloss Black. And it is available in a Right-handed or left-handed model.

Two tapped Schecter Superock humbuckers let you play fat and chunky, or give you sweet, jangly single-coil sounds used in many country music songs. The Schecter PT is a truly classic, yet versatile guitar for almost any guitarist. There are all types of sounds you can get from this guitar, and it can be used to play many different types of music.

Now the guys at Schecter as well as a few other people that know me can tell you that I have had plans purchase one of these beauties for some time now. In fact my original plan was to purchase both the standard Diamond series Schecter PT, as well as ordering an all custom Schecter PT from the Schecter U.S.A. custom shop. But many things have come up over this last 6 months or so and I have not yet been able to accomplish getting either of them.

I did however get lucky a few days ago and found that a friend of mine that lives on the coast of S.C. who happens to also be left-handed already has a Schecter PT and he was kind enough to allow me to use it for a couple of hours.
Now while it may look very much like a Telecaster, and the weight and balance is pretty much the same that is really where the similarities end.

The neck is a little bit thinner and just a bit wider which to me helps the guitar play a little faster. You get really nice jumbo fret wires. Grover tuners so of course keeping it in tunes is simple enough, even if you change tunings a couple of times which I did just for testing purposes.

The finish was as close to perfect as you can get, and the coil-tapping works extremely well. You know right away that you have changed from a Humbucker sound to a single coil.

To be honest I really could not find anything at all to complain about with this guitar. As I said I only got to spend a couple of hours with it so there are still some different amplifier settings I would like to try on some different types of amplifiers.

While I love the sound of the Duncan Design Superock pickups which by the way maintains its clarity even at very high gain settings, you can still hear all of the notes in pretty much any chord your playing. It really is a great sound.

The only thing that I can think of at all that I might want to change, and I would have to spend much more time with one of my own before deciding this for sure. But there would be a small chance that I might change out the bridge pickup. But this would not have anything at all to do with the way the stock pickup sounds. If I did choose to change it out it would only be so that I could still keep using the same guitar even if I were playing a lead that needed a bit more gain.

But as I said, this is something that I would not decide to do for sure until I had much more time to spend with the guitar.

And here is the reason I call it one of the best kept secrets in the guitar industry:
You can buy this guitar in all of its glory and history for as little as $499.00. Honestly that price is almost an insult to the guitar.

The Schecter PT Diamond series guitar plays as well and in my humble opinion better than the Telecasters I have been able to test, and that includes the U.S.A. model. It is solid, and even for a bolt on neck you still get great sustain, the neck is designed to play fast and accurate.

The best part, like all Schecter guitars they stand behind them for a lifetime.

There are not too many companies out there doing that these days, certainly not for a guitar that you only had to pay $499.00 to own. So for me Schecter has proven yet again that you do not have to sacrifice quality in order to get a guitar for a decent price.

Just as soon as I am able to pick up one of my own I will test the guitar in much more detail and post the results right away.
If you get the chance pick one up in a guitar store, play around with it for a little while and then pick up a Telecaster. I really think you will agree that for the money, this one is a no brainer.

Link: Schecter PT Guitar



Terry White

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