Catfish Takes a Close Look at the Coolest Guitar on the Wall

04/15/10 22:54, by , Categories: NAMM 2010, NAMM 2010 Music, BFMN Exclusive, Frank Butler , Tags: catfish butler, jason fedele, namm 2010, review, schector, seymour duncan, solo-6

by Frank Butler

I was noodling around on a Schecter Solo-6 Custom at Namm 2010. Wow! What a sweet guitar. We have the standard “it played like buttah” saying around here for nice axes — this one was one of those that really did. It kind of was a single cutaway Les Paul shape but it was just way nicer than your typical Les Paul…not to bash Gibson, or my hero Les Paul in any way, shape or form. This particular guitar was way nice and I call ‘em as I see ‘em. Period.

It had this killer tobacco sunburst finish and the sunburst detail was even applied on the back of the neck and the back of the body. Who does that? Schecter does.

Click through for a video tour, Catfish’s review, and a bargain on a Solo-6!

The Schecter Solo-6 Custom Series (we found it for you from Amazon for $699.00 with free shipping; save over $300!) comes with a Seymour Duncan custom/custom (SH-11) for silky bottom end / aggressive top and a 59 (SH-1) for a vintage P.A.F. tone. This pickup combo gave it the rock tone you always wanted but rarely got with other set-ups. Clean or dirty, vintage or not, the tone selection was tremendous.

I had never played a custom-line Schecter before and it was a treat. It also had some push-pulls to give you that single-coil sound if wanted. The pearloid tuners were a perfect complement to the headstock which also had some nice banding to match the body.

Double inlays in the maple neck were a nice touch too. As far as I am concerned, you can’t have too much inlay. The $110,000 Martin D-100 I saw and Dan played at NAMM was proof of that. Come to think of it, I want a Schecter Custom Series Solo 6 that is all mother-of-pearl with wood inlay on the neck. That will show the guys at Martin what’s what.

We got some video a couple of days later with Jason Fedele, the Schecter booth host, who took off his cool shades and took some time out to talk to us. The Solo-6 is the guitar Jason spent the most time on…coincidence? I don’t know. I didn’t tell him I handled that one before and he went straight to it. I guess we both like starting with the coolest one on the wall.