I bought a Schecter Omen Extreme-6
This is the second Schecter I've ever owned in my life, the Omen Extreme-6 model.
I couldn't pass this up because it was on sale for $299 at Guitar Center for the Memorial Day weekend sale. Ordinarily I would never bother with such things, but as fate would have it, this guitar was right where I needed it to be at exactly the right time.
Here's the story of this guitar purchase.
Something happened while playing my recently acquired Epiphone Les Paul Traditional PRO-III. Something I thought I had defeated. Fret hand pain.
Yeah, it happened again. I thought that going with a thicker D shape neck would work to cure this. It did at first, but then shortly afterward the same pain happened in the same spot just under the index finger on the palm. It's not a bone pain but rather a pressure put on a part of my hand that causes uncomfortable soreness.
What I thought would happen is that my hand would get used to the D, adjust and the hand would heal quickly. It didn't.
At this point I got really frustrated. My fret hand really didn't like the U shape, and now I discover it doesn't like the D either. The D has less shoulder than the U does, but even so, my fret hand doesn't like it at all.
I had to go back to the C. This fret hand pain started the moment I stopped playing C shape necks, so that's what I had to get again.
My original intent was to re-buy a Squier Telecaster. Since my Les Paul was still within the 45-day return period, I could go back, grab a Tele and just be done with it.
Well, that's not what happened.
I arrive at Guitar Center and there were several Squier Telecasters in stock, along with a few other guitars I wanted to try out. For every Tele I tried that liked, they all had buzzing problems after the 12th fret. This was either due to high frets or a phenomenon known as "rising tongue". I'll be writing another article about that soon as it's a good thing to know when shopping for new guitars.
I was about to give up, but then literally all the way at the other end of the store was a Schecter Omen Extreme-6 in Ocean Blue Burst. This is a guitar I knew to have a C shape neck since that's what Schecter uses on the majority of their electrics.
I played it, and it was good. Then I put it back and tried a few other guitars. Then I went back to the Schecter again, and it was obviously the best thing going for the price.. The Les Paul was returned and the Schecter went home with me.
This was a very good decision.
The fret hand pain test
When I first got the guitar, I set it up to my liking, slapped on a 9-42 set of strings since that's my preferred string gauge, and started playing. I played the hell out of this thing.
I needed to see if my fret hand would complain at all, so I just went for it. I said to myself that this will be the test to see if I get along with this neck or not. If the pain is going to come, let it come. I need to know this now.
After playing for several hours, yes I was sore - but not in pain.
The next day, the hand was still store, but it was the good kind. I played again for several hours. So far, so good.
On the third day, a little less sore now, no pain. I played some more. Things are going well - so far. Time will tell if things continue to go well.
Going home again, part 1
Way back in 2003 (16 years ago as I write this), I bought a Schecter C-1 Classic new, and kept for 10 years until I sold it on eBay in 2013. The guitar was played but not too extensively since I was in total Stratocaster mode at the time. Even so, I got to know the guitar well.
The Omen Extreme-6 has a neck feel that's very familiar because it's a lot like my old C-1 was. The body shape is also very familiar. But the rest of the guitar is different from the C-1. Bolt-on instead of neck-thru, different pickups, 3 knob with push-pull instead of 2-knob with 5-way.
Going home again, part 2
This is my return to the Strat shape as my main guitar. I switched over to the Jazzmaster in 2013, stuck with that for 4 years until switching to the Telecaster in 2017, then a brief stint with double-cutaway Ibanez AX guitars in early 2019 (technically more SG than Strat), then a very brief stint with the Les Paul, then back to the Strat shape again now in May 2019.
Yes, I know this guitar is something I tell people not to get
I have to acknowledge this because otherwise I'm sure to receive flak for it.
I have said guitar companies always get blue guitars wrong (darker blue colors, specifically). I have said humbuckers suck. I have said most guitar players don't need more than 22 frets. I have said before I don't like flame, quilt or striped guitars...
...and now I own a blue guitar with quilted styling on both body and headstock, with a pair of humbuckers and a neck with 24 frets on it.
To that, I'll say the same as I said above. The Omen Extreme-6 was the best thing going for the price at $299, and I'll explain why right now:
- Not a single bad fret. Every fret is cut correct. No high frets. No rising tongue issues. No sharp fret ends.
- Factory installed TUSQ nut. Finding this superior nut on a guitar for this price never happens, but it does on the Omen. And the cut of the nut for each string slot is 100% correct.
- Real rosewood fingerboard. Not pau ferro. Not indian laurel. Real-deal rosewood. And it's a nice board, too.
- Split-coil tones that actually sound good. I was very surprised by this. I had this same feature on the Epiphone Les Paul Traditional PRO-III, and the split-coil tones weren't that great. They truly are great on the Omen Extreme-6.
- Body binding, neck binding and headstock binding, custom fret inlays. Only one guitar out of Guitar Center's entire inventory has all this besides the Omen under $300, and that's the Ibanez PS60, which is the Paul Stanley signature Iceman guitar. I'm not interested in that guitar.
- Satin finished neck(?) I put a question mark on this one because the neck finish feels like satin urethane to me. Whether it is or isn't, it's not high gloss and feels super smooth.
- Lightweight. I'm pretty sure this guitar is under 7.5 pounds in weight. I very much appreciate this.
When you get into the $300 to $400 range and up, then yes, you'll find other guitar offerings that offer everything the Schecter has. But for under $300, the Omen Extreme-6 stands alone as the absolute best bang for the buck. I simply couldn't pass it up.
Is the Omen Extreme-6 an "old man" guitar?
Depends on whom you ask.
When certain guitar players observe someone playing a guitar that looks like the Omen Extreme-6, their first thought is, "Haha. Old man guitar." They see the blue, the burst, the quilt, the vector inlays, the binding and instantly make a judgment that only old dudes would play something like that.
When non-musicians see the instrument - women, specifically - they love the way it looks and consider it a genuinely attractive thing. Why? Because it's a curvy guitar with a fancy blue finish on it that gives a 3-D appearance of water in motion.
How do I feel about it?
To answer that, from just a few feet away is when the look of this guitar really pops. Some guitars are best viewed when not directly in your face, and the Omen Extreme-6 is one of them.
All guitarists, including myself, examine guitars really close up. The player always gets right in the face of the guitar, which is totally normal.
However, seeing it from a few feet away convinced me the guitar's look works. And when someone took a photo of me playing it, seeing it in my hands from a short distance away against a bunch of other guitars in different colors is what made the difference in the positive direction.
Guitar playing mistakes I used to make
Throughout my guitar playing life, there are things I used to do that were really wrong.
I'm going to list off the ones I can remember. And the reason I say that is because I'm certain there were many things I used to do wrong but just can't remember them all.
Am I playing guitar 100% correct now? The way I answer that is that these days I play correctly for me.
1. Digging into the fretboard with my fingernail for note vibrato
This is something I used to do in my teens and stopped doing in my 20s once I realized how wrong it was. What I did was curl my index finger on the string, push my fingernail right down to the fretboard wood and make a digging motion to make note vibrato.
Out of everything dumb I've ever done with guitar playing, that was the dumbest.
2. Hiking the guitar up really high on the strap when playing standing
It took me a while before I finally learned how to properly play while standing. Before I did, I used to hike up the guitar very high on the strap, almost to chest level. It was ridiculous.
This wasn't necessarily a dumb thing since there are many guitar players who prefer hiking the guitar up high, but it was wrong for the way I play.
3. Raking the pick across the fretboard when strumming
Again, not a dumb thing, but but my reason for doing it was dumb.
Back in my earlier days, I didn't have very good pick control. My way of strumming used to be almost caveman-like, so I used the neck itself to soften the strike when I needed to play chords.
Later on when I switched over to thinner picks with more flex, learned more chords and so on, my picking got lighter and I stopped doing the caveman thing.
4. Never using the volume or tone controls
I used to be one of those "always on 10" guys. Plug in, turn the guitar volume to 10, turn the tone to 10, leave them there, and only touch the volume knob when the riff or song is over.
What made me stop doing this is not making 10 the beginning of the sound but rather the place I went when I needed overdrive. I now shape sounds where 3 or 4 is clean, 5 to 7 is dirt, and 10 is all the dirt.
Having my sound this way is mighty convenient because I never have to click on or off a pedal. All that's required to get the sound I want is done 100% from the volume knob.
I don't use tone controls too often, but they do get used mainly for clean stuff. This is way different from the way I used to play where I literally never touched them.
5. Soloing way too much
Nobody likes solos except guitar players and I know this very well. But being I play guitar, of course I like to solo. It's fun. But wow, does it get in the way of songwriting.
I have to mentally prep myself whenever I sit down to do songwriting. It's just two words I keep saying to myself. "DON'T SOLO."
Even though I don't solo nearly as much as I used to, it's almost too easy to fall into the trap of being in the middle of writing a song, and then.... oh, I think I'll play some single notes. Then a scale. Then another scale. And another. And another. And another. Throw in a bend. Thrown in ten bends. Do a harmonic. Do many harmonics. A finger-tap. More finger taps. Blah blah blah blah frickin' blah.
Suddenly, an hour or two is gone, the song isn't any further along, and all that time has been wasted SOLOING.
I still struggle with this one to this day.
Eventually, I stop soloing and get songs done.
Casio WS1000H review and instructions
This is a brand new model for 2019, and it's the best Casio digital sport watch I've ever owned.
At a Walmart I was browsing the watches and spotted a WS1000H, and almost bought it on the spot after trying it. The reason I didn't is because of color, green. I figured Casio must be offering this in other colors, so after I got home I searched online, and yes, two other colors were offered, blue and charcoal. I found the charcoal one on eBay and got it. Shortly after I received it, I ordered up the blue one too because I like it that much.
Why is the best Casio digital sport watch I've ever owned?
This model literally has everything I like in a digital timepiece, which is this:
- Crisp, legible, uncluttered display
- Big digits that can be read easily
- Case size that fits my smaller wrist (48.3mm lug-to-lug, 42.6mm case size, 12.7mm thick)
- Light in weight (38g)
- 100M water resistance
- Multiple alarms (it has 3)
- Forward or reverse number direction for setting time and timer
- Strap that has a notch at the end so it doesn't accidentally leave the strap keeper and flop about
- Strap that is curved so it hugs the wrist better
- Countdown timer with auto-repeat
- Time, weekday and month/day on the face all at once to give me all the info I want at a glance
- Adjustable night light to shine 1.5 seconds or 3 seconds
- Night light is an amber color incandescent bulb (this is the best look)
- In 12-hour time, A is shown during morning hours and P for evening hours (many models only show the P and no A)
- "10-year" battery (will probably only last 5 to 7 years, but that's still really good)
- Small raised "lip" on top and bottom of dial to keep the acrylic crystal from getting scratched
No other Casio digital that has all this stuff in one watch. Casio finally got it right with this one and stuffed in everything that actually matters.
I own many Casio watches, and for years wished I could take the features I wanted from different timepieces and combine them into one that does everything I want. The WS1000H is that watch. And I happened upon it totally by chance.
I wasn't even shopping for a watch the day I saw the WS1000H. At the Walmart I was in, I looked at the Casio display just to see what was there. The watch just stuck out not only because it was green but also because I didn't recognize the model. This was something totally new and different.
Walmart's price was $19.99. eBay price was $23. I'm pretty sure the price will stay this way because that is about the same price as other Casio digital sport models with a similar feature set. When this watch gets on Amazon (as I'm certain it will), it should also stick to that price point.
Better than a Timex Ironman?
It would not surprise me if Casio made the WS1000H to directly compete with the Timex Ironman Classic 30 and Timex Ironman Classic 50, as it has a very similar feature set and layout.
Where runner's watches are concerned that aren't smartwatches, Timex absolutely owns that segment. When you want a runner's watch, you get an Ironman. That's the way it's been for many years.
But now Casio is finally offering something that's a genuinely decent alternative to the Ironman. Yes, Casio has had runner's watches and pretty much always has. In the current lineup there are models such as the STR300 and STLS300H. The WS1000H however is truly Ironman-like, which is good.
I'm not a runner and just came upon the WS1000H just by chance. It has everything I want out of a digital sport watch, so even though I don't use the running features, it was still a no-brainer to buy it.
Powder Yellow is a cool Reverend guitar color
This is one of the best Reverend Guitars colors I've seen to date.
Take the Reverend Flatroc model in Powder Yellow. If there were any Reverend Guitars model I'd buy if I had the cash, this would be it. The look is what sold me on it first. Yellow against a roasted maple neck really works here. Smartly done.
But aside from that, the rest of the guitar also pretty much exactly the way I'd want it.
The Flatroc has many things going for it (Korina body, pin-lock tuners, proper dome knobs, dual-action truss rod, etc.), but what attracts me other than its look is the configuration. It has a Les Paul style top-loader system with bridge and tail piece and Telecaster style knobs and pickup selector switch.
You're probably thinking, "So what's that knob above the pick guard?" That's the bass contour control. Most if not all Reverend electrics have this feature. It's a passive bass roll-off that adds in some very nice tone shaping. Useful? Actually, yes, it is.
One of these days I'm going to get another yellow guitar in the barn, because I really miss having one. I've got a thing for yellow electrics and always have. The Flatroc, being it's offered in a very nice yellow, is now on my to-get list.
Used BOSS pedals aren't worth buying
I saw my fair share of used guitar pedals at the show I went to recently. The prices weren't good for them. And they never are.
Something I saw at the guitar festival in addition to guitars were of course pedals. This one particular seller had a whole table with a bunch of BOSS effects on it.
They were all overpriced.
The two examples where you save next to nothing buying used are the SD-1 for $40 and the DS-1 for $45. Brand new, the SD-1 at the time I write this is $50, and the DS-1 new is also $50. Had I bought those two pedals from this seller, I only would have saved $15.
I can't blame this particular seller for overpricing used BOSS pedals however, because all sellers that sell used BOSS do this.
For example, a truly good used price on a DS-1 should be $35. But that's not what happens. Every seller tries to get rid of these for more when they're simply not worth it.
Prices aren't that much better on eBay. If you search for a used DS-1 with free shipping, the best price available is $40. Again, it should be $35. For the ones without free shipping, guess what happens. The shipping cost punches up the price to, you guessed it, 40 bucks minimum total spent.
If you're going to buy BOSS, buy new, because you barely save anything buying used.