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 pictured above 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 this guitar that is the same price as the Omen-6, the Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Deluxe:

This guitar is HH and is 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.

Published 2015 Sep 30