Cheap guitar of the week #29 - Schecter Omen-6
If there's one thing Schecter knows how to do very, very well, it's pack a lot of pro-quality build construction into a guitar that sells for a very low price.
The Schecter Omen-6 is something where you get a lot of guitar for the money.
If I were to pick one word that describes the Omen-6, it's "solid". When you pick up one of these and start noodling around, the guitar just feels good in every way. The tuners feel smooth and accurate, the neck finish feels right, the neck shape feels right, the frets feel right, the inlays look great, the electronics work great, the body (with binding, by the way) has a nice weight to it without being too heavy, the nut is a TUSQ, the knobs are real metal with set screws. Heck, even the strap buttons just seem to have a higher quality to them compared to most other guitars in a similar price range.
But what about the sound?
This is tough to describe, but I'll try to explain this.
The Omen-6 is a true player's guitar. With its 25.5-inch scale length "thin C" neck, flat 14-inch radius fingerboard with X-jumbo frets and Schecter Diamond Series pickups, this guitar is ready to rock. You can chord and/or solo on this thing all day long...
...but the issue is that the Omen-6, just like almost all low-priced guitars with two humbucker pickups in it, has a "flat" tonal character.
Imagine an EQ, then imagine all the EQ settings at dead center. That's flat, and that's how the Omen-6's pickups are voiced, more or less.
Now for rockers and metal guys and gals, that is absolutely the type of pickup tone they want because it works very nicely with many amps and effects. A guitar with flat-response pickups is something you can plug into just about anything and the guitar will sound good.
For players seeking something that has more tonal character to it however, that's where the Omen-6 falls short.
Take a guitar that is the same price as the Omen-6, the Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Deluxe. That guitar is HH and also a "hardtail" just like the Omen-6, but is voiced very differently. It has when Fender and Squier call "Wide Range" humbucking pickups, and that pickup has distinctive tonal character to it.
You will spend more time trying to find amps and/or effects that the Telecaster Deluxe works with best, whereas the Omen-6 is a plug-in-and-go because it's voiced flat.
There are more than a few players out there who will say the Omen-6 is far and above the better guitar in many ways. But at the end of the day, it all depends what sounds right to your ears.
Who would get best use out of the Omen-6?
Kid rockers/kid metalheads like this guitar a lot because it basically needs nothing. Plug in, stomp a distortion pedal and go.
Adults looking for a thinner neck with bigger frets will very much like this guitar as well.
Recording this guitar using your effects or software of choice is also stupidly easy with this guitar because of the flat pickup voicing. If you just can't get a good recorded sound out of your guitar no matter what you've tried, the Omen-6 might be just what you're looking for to finally get that good multitrack recording.
There is something else to the Omen-6 that's never said but definitely worth a mention. Longevity. The Omen-6 has been in Schecter's lineup for a long time (either close to or over 10 years by this point.) Over the years, it has seen minor changes here and there, but the point is that it has always been a good seller for the company.
If players thought the Omen-6 sucked, nobody would buy it. But that's not the case here. Many players own this guitar and are very happy with it.
As I said at top, solid is the word that describes the Omen-6 best. Great guitar, as long as you're okay with the flat-voiced pickups, which, again, is the sound rock and metal guys appreciate quite a bit.
Fender Standard Jazzmaster HH Review
Not bad for what it is, but a little on the plain side.
So I'm at the guitar store and I see a Fender Standard Jazzmaster HH, black-on-black. I tried it out, and this is what I thought of it.
Hidden feature I did not know about until later: It has a push/pull to split the humbuckers to outer-coil single mode. I never even thought to look for this on a Jazzmaster because this style of guitar never has a push/pull. The Standard HH does.
What I can comment about is the humbucker tone. Good? Yes. Jazzmaster-like? Also a yes, but obviously doesn't have the voicing that the big Jazzmaster singles usually have - nor did I expect it to.
Pros
It's Mexico made (not a bad thing) and the same price as a Mexico Standard Stratocaster, meaning you don't pay too much for it. Very good.
The neck is the best part of this guitar. Smooth satin urethane finish on the back, right-size frets (medium jumbo), and a proper 21 frets because 22 on this guitar would be seriously dopey.
As far as Jazzmaster guitars go, this is the "most civilized" I've ever played. Anyone could pick up and play this axe easily. If the traditional Jazzmaster is too much for you, yes, you'd like this one.
Cons
The outer coil of each humbucker has a shiny covering that is chrome-like and not white that looks tacky and cheap. Fender should have just went with a cream or off-white cover for the outer coil, zebra pickup style. But they didn't. That was a mistake.
This is one of those Jazzmaster vibrato systems where the vibrato plate was moved forward. While the end result is far less string ring, I personally don't like it. This is part of what makes this Jazzmaster "more civilized," as mentioned above. But I consider it a con and not a pro.
My last complaint has everything to do with the styling of this guitar. It looks plain. Really plain. The headstock does not have the traditional Jazzmaster "swish trails", the sealed tuners while good and functional have far less pizazz compared to the vintage-style slotted style, and as I noted, the chrome-like outer coil covers just look tacky.
Verdict
Well-made, solid, sounds good, not overpriced... but has very little wow-factor to it because it looks so plain.
There is, however, a very easy way to spruce up the look of this Jazzmaster.
Get the one in a Ghost Silver finish. It doesn't cost any extra.
That particular finish has metal flake in it with some sparkle going on, making the shiny chrome-like outer coil covers work a whole lot better, appearance-wise. Of three 3 finish options (Black, Olympic White, Ghost Silver), if you like this guitar, specifically get the Ghost Silver finish. If I were getting this guitar for myself personally, that's the one I'd go for.
Vintage guitar of the week #12 - 1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom
Why bother with a Gibson reissue Randy Rhoads Les Paul when you could buy this instead for less?
This 1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom to many guitar players says one thing: "Looks like a Paul that Randy Rhoads would play." And you would be right.
This Paul is really, really close to the Gibson Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom guitar. Technically, the Gibson Rhoads Paul is a 1974 VOS reissue model while the '89 model isn't, but that doesn't matter for much.
I'd still take the '89 model anyway and do so for two reasons:
- The '89 literally costs $3,000 less than the new Gibson Rhoads Paul (I'm not kidding).
- The '89 is usually found in very good condition and doesn't say "Randy Rhoads" on it anywhere since it's not a signature model. It's just a regular Gibson Les Paul Custom, usually in white.
To me, it's pretty obvious that the '89 LP Custom is a much better deal.
If you like the look of this Paul, grab it if you have the cash, because otherwise you'll have to spend $3,000 more for a new reissue of the same thing.
Does Epiphone make something similar?
Yes. Seek out an Epiphone Les Paul Custom in white. You'll get the look you want.
How to get a "dreamy" guitar delay effect
The "dreamy" delay effect is possible to get in one of two ways.
A dreamy delay effect can be achieved by using the right pedal, such as the Behringer Echo Machine EM600.
You get a whole lot of cool delay effects with the EM600. While not as fancy or well-built as the BOSS Tera Echo, you really can't beat the EM600's price for what it's capable of...
...unless you're the kind of player who would rather have a more simple solution to getting that dreamy delay effect, as the EM600 is a bit complicated.
The key to getting that dreamy delay sound is through "trails". There are pedals such as the EM600 and Tera Echo that can do that all in one pedal. But there's also another way.
Two delay pedals chained together.
Now in all honesty, I honestly think the double-pedal method is better for the simple reason you can mix and match analog and digital real easy. I'll talk more about that in a moment.
Of the two delay pedals you chain together, one of them has to have the ability to produce long delays of at least 500ms (half-a-second.) The other can can be short-delay-only with a 300ms maximum delay and that's fine, but one has to have the long-style repeats.
To get that dreamy sound with two delay pedals, the process is simple. One pedal has a long delay, the other a short delay. The first pedal in the chain gets the short delay, and the second gets the long delay. Or you can do it the other way around. Use whatever you think sounds better.
What happens is a "stuttering" effect, and when you play soft chords and/or long notes, the dreamy delay sound happens.
Now as far as what type of delay pedals work best for this, I personally think the short-delay pedal is best as an analog and the long delay is best as a digital. The first analog delay has that not-a-perfect-copy type of repeat, while the second digital delay does have the perfect-copy repeat type.
Some players really like the sound of very specific delay pedals, usually of an analog type. That's fine, but chaining two analog delays together can create unwanted line noise. Having the second pedal as a digital keeps the signal clean and acts as the "dream maker" of sorts for the dreamy sound.
Yes, it is possible to do this with two digital delay pedals if that's what you're comfortable using.
A generic way to try out double-pedal delay is to have the first pedal as 300ms and the second pedal is 500ms or 700ms. You don't want an exact doubling of the first pedal because that defeats the whole point of doing this. You purposely want each pedal "out of time" with each other. Don't even worry about synchronization of the repeats here. What you're going for is that dreamy/atmospheric sound.
As far as how loud each pedal should be, generally you want the first pedal effect louder than the second one. You'll have to experiment to see what works best for you.
Another example using a single pedal setup is the VOX Double Deca.
The Double Deca isn't cheap, but it does have the ability to combine both the long and short delays at the same time in the same pedal.
However, sometimes the separation of the short and long delays when both are active isn't exactly that good.
Make no mistake, the Double Deca is a fantastic pedal, but for the real-deal dreamy effect, having two delay pedals is sometimes the only way to go.
If you already have a delay pedal now, get a cheap Behringer DD400 (a digital pedal) as your second delay, or buy a pair of them to get that cool dreamy delay effect happening. Or you can visit your local guitar store, see what they have for used delay pedals and just pick up the cheapest they have available. Or you can try the single pedal EM600 and see how that works out. Just bear in mind the EM600 has a lot going on with it and is complicated. It's nothing you can't learn, but it takes a little while to fully take in everything that pedal can do.
Cheap guitar of the week #28 - Yamaha Pacifica PAC112V (with coil tap)
Some of these guitars have a coil tap feature while others do not. Fortunately, it's really easy to tell which models have the coil tap when you know what to look for.
The Yamaha Pacifica comes in basically three flavors. Cheap, somewhat cheap and mid-priced. An example of a mid-priced model is the PAC611HFM. When you see certain guitar players swearing by their Pacificas as their #1 go-to guitar, they're usually talking about the "611" model, easily spotted by the P90 pickup in the front position. A "311" model also has the P90 in front (and is priced lower than the 611).
A coil tap version of the Pacifica, the PAC112V, is not the lowest priced Pacifica, but it's not the highest-priced guitar either. It's priced about the same as a Squier Vintage Modified series guitar, and what you get for the money is pretty darned good.
Before I get into that, the way to spot a Pacifica with a coil tap option is easy. If the rear pickup is a humbucker with a black trim ring and the pick guard does not surround that rear pickup, it has coil tap. If rear pickup does have the pick guard surrounding it, that's one of the super-cheap models that goes for $150.
What makes the PAC112V a good buy as a cheap guitar is that as an HSS guitar, it's loaded with everything that matters. Solid alder body, AlNiCo V humbucker, real metal dome-style knobs, 3-ply pick guard, a flat 13.75-inch radius fingerboard (very good for soloing,) a simple 2-knob layout of master volume and master tone, 25.5-inch scale length.
The closest match from Squier is the Vintage Modified HSS. Yes, it's $50 cheaper than the Yamaha is, but you don't get coil tap or that 13.75-inch flat fingerboard radius or dome metal knobs or tone control on the bridge-only pickup setting. This isn't to say the Squier VM HSS is a bad guitar, because that axe certainly holds its own, but yes, you do get more for the money when you spend $50 extra for the PAC112V.
Oh, and one other thing. The PAC112V is a 22-fret while the Squier is a 21-fret. For some players, that matters. If you need that high D on the 1 string, the Pacifica has it while the Squier does not.
The PAC112V does come in several colors. Black, Blue (shown above,) Natural, Silver and Sunburst. The two that have the "most professional" look are Natural and Sunburst.
If you were looking for a good HSS Strat-style guitar but didn't like the offerings from Squier, the next best thing that comes with more goodies is the Pacifica PAC112V.