1996 schecter "California Custom".

[joev]

To begin, I am making an inquiry regarding the history of this instrument and will tell you that it is probably the finest guitar that I've ever played or owned. That being said... I struck with just how much this axe looks like an Anderson strat style guitar. Dual strap buttons, monstertone single coils, alder body with a birdseye maple neck. All the hardware is first rate and it has an all steel vibrato block. STAYS IN TUNE!!!!!!!!( sorry, got a little excited with that!) :D Anyhow, is it coincedental that this guitar looks like the very fine instruments That Tom makes or were the builders influenced by Tom prior to starting his own company? Thanks!

[Suriel Zayas]

[QUOTE= birdseye maple neck.[/QUOTE]
i have never seen birdseye maple on a neck around here, and probably never will. tom can answer for himself, but he was long gone from schecter in 1996, building my hollow t classic. boy do i enjoy that guitar. :D

[Suriel Zayas]

birdseye maple neck.
i have never seen birdseye maple on a neck around here, and probably never will. maybe during tom's parts days. tom can answer for himself, but he was long gone from schecter in 1996, building my hollow t classic. boy do i enjoy that guitar. :D

[John C]

I'm not Tom either, but I have read many places (including here) that he was the head of R&D during his time at Schecter, which was from circa 1977/78 until 1984, so he was likely responsible for designing the pickups. I'm not sure if TAG still makes them for Schecter or if Schecter uses other sources. Also, the dual strap button was one of Tom's innovations.

It's important to point out that the original Schecter had a behind-the-scenes financial backing company that, from what I've pieced together, started to exert more control over the company. Dave Schecter left the company circa 1982/83, and Tom left sometime in mid-late 1984. Schecter went from being a parts company that did a few complete guitars themselves and authorized 12-15 stores to also build complete guitars to a production shop that did parts on the side. By the time the company moved from California to Dallas, TX circa late 1984, they were focused on producing complete guitars. The company closed circa late 1986/early 1987, and the current owners bought the name and reopend production in California circa 1988.

No, I'm not stalking Tom (or John Suhr or Don Grosh), but I have done a lot of research that I hope one day to put into an article on Schecter, the 1970's "parts company" explosion and all the custom guitar companies that grew out of their work (TAG included), and I'm grateful that people like Tom (and John Suhr on his forum) are so forthcoming in providing information.

[Suriel Zayas]

Also, the dual strap button was one of Tom's innovations.
here is tom's account of the dual strap button from an earlier thread. (http://andersonforum.com/board/showthread.php?t=1982&highlight=strap+button)

[tom]

john has a lot of that right. head of r&d is a little lofty for the old schecter days. we were a bunch of people (about 30 at the peak) making parts and a small number of guitars the best we knew how, using unconventional methods. i don't think we ever made more than about 4-5 guitars a week. we did not "authorize dealers to make guitars, but we did supply aternate decals for those that wanted to assemble things themselves. when john was at rudy's, they did lots of that until they decided to go with the pensa suhr name. in the early days of this company we made necks and bodies for them as well.
dave did leave in 83 when some investers (schecter was in chapter 11) were brought in. they thought it would be a good idea to send me to japan to source bodies and necks since we were so inefficient at making them. i went and when i wa done doing the job, they said they didn't need me anymore so i was free to go or could do 2 peoples work for half my pay. since we had a baby due in 2 months i decided to stay. dave encouraged me to do my own thing cause it was the only way to not have people like this telling me what to do. by summer that year i was gone. by the end of summer the shop was closed and the "investors" had moved the name only to texas. they floundered for some years making guitars from parts from all over the place, then finally sold the name to esp, the current owner.
one of my first customers when i started out was schecter japan. they needed american made pickups, and the texas crew had no idea how to make them. we still make them some of their pickups. so there are quite a few connections over the years between us which would explain some of the similarities. sorry for the rant.

[John C]

john has a lot of that right. head of r&d is a little lofty for the old schecter days. we were a bunch of people (about 30 at the peak) making parts and a small number of guitars the best we knew how, using unconventional methods. i don't think we ever made more than about 4-5 guitars a week. we did not "authorize dealers to make guitars, but we did supply aternate decals for those that wanted to assemble things themselves. when john was at rudy's, they did lots of that until they decided to go with the pensa suhr name. in the early days of this company we made necks and bodies for them as well.

Tom,

Sorry, I guess I have always read too much into the old advertising calling some dealers "Schecter Shops" - I was under the impression (which I got from hanging out at one of those dealers - one who didn't later go into producing their own guitars) that they were also assembling guitars from Schecter parts as if they were an adjunct of the main company, not just dealers who sold Schecter parts and put some finished pieces together for customers.

Obviously, if I ever do take that sabbatical to write that article I'll have to do more research. :o

[tom]

no need for the icon at the end. people only kn ow what they are told, and there is a lot of guessing going about guitar history. i heard this, someone told me that. i don't think any of it is malicious.

[Stys]

I love reading or hearing those old stories.

[John C]

no need for the icon at the end. people only kn ow what they are told, and there is a lot of guessing going about guitar history. i heard this, someone told me that. i don't think any of it is malicious.

Thanks Tom - let me just say that your info raises my cynacism factor a bit for a source I've trusted for a while, specifically since they stayed on the retail side of the equation. I guess I'll chalk that up to "selective memory" where that source was concerned, or good old fashioned story telling.

[tom]

enough time has passed that things could get fuzzy. also the whole schecter shop thing probably was to make the dealers feel special and included so the schecter sales guys may have stretched the importance.