Guitar Info

Musician endorsed guitars go way back. Axe masters such as Steve Vai, Slash and Joe Perry have all put their name to Les Paul guitars, while Fender and Gibson also have a huge catalog of models endorsed and used by famous guitarists. Schecter have had some big name relationships over the years too, including Mark Knopfler and Pete Townshend, but it’s their long-term sponsorship with Avenged Sevenfold guitarist, Synyster Gates, that has resulted in this latest and rather special offering.

The Synyster Gates Custom-S features many of the specifications used by the Avenged Sevenfold guitarist on his signature model, including Sustainiac Stealth. This unique pickup system replaces the normal neck Humbucker and enables Gates to sustain feedback at all levels, a feature that makes Gate’s heavy attack style so distinctive.

Available from January 2012, the Synyster Gates Custom S is a startling-looking guitar. In black, three-piece mahogany and featuring silver pinstripes, the guitar is as distinctive in color as it is in design. With sleek Avenger body and clawed head, it provides a statement worthy of any hard rock or metal outfit. With left-handed models available, the price tag for the 24-fret, 25.5 inch neck guitar is $50 shy of the $1,700 mark, but it’s doubtful you’ll find a more distinctive Avenger axe for the money.

Described by Gates as his “secret weapon,” the Sustainiac feature provides sustained and controlled feedback. In the position where the normal neck Humbucker pickup sits, the Sustainiac circuit processes the pickup signal and sends it to the Sustainiac driver, where the amplified note is turned into vibrational energy and fed back to the strings. The result is an ability to sustain feedback indefinitely, as if playing the guitar inches from a loud amp. Of course, the Sustainiac system can be turned off, allowing normal Humbucker tones.

Gates’ signature pinstripe design is one of the most distinctive in the metal world. It works well with the Avenger shape, creating quite a unique-looking guitar that while clearly metal and rock in shape, also exudes a retro feel. Made in three-piece mahogany for extra stability, the Synyster Gates Custom-S is obviously built to last. With an ebony fingerboard that Schecter say produces a snappy and crisp attack with the density of Maple but with a stronger fundamental tone, the Synyster Gates Custom-S is equipped with a Floyd Rose 1000 Series bridge and a Floyd Rose 1000 locking tremolo system. The Synyster Gates Custom-S also has a Grover Rotomatics 18:1 gear ratio for finer tuning, Seymour Duncan Invader pickups that complement the Sustainiac system, 3-way volume toggle, on-off mini toggle, and 3-way normal-mix-harmonic mode mini toggle.

When it comes to American guitar makers, Schecter are often overlooked with the likes of axe giants such as Fender and Gibson taking more than their fair share of the guitar world’s laurels. Yet, Schecter are a passionate guitar manufacturer and the Synyster Gates Custom-S is a good example of the dedication and fastidiousness they invest in their axes. The Custom-S had been on Schecter’s design drawing board for years, but the company always seemed reluctant to release the product to the market until they were wholly satisfied that it was not only the best guitar that they could produce, but also that it was as close to Gates’ original signature guitar.

For those not familiar with the company, Schecter was founded in 1976. Originally selling only replacement parts for Fenders and Gibsons, by 1979, founder David Schecter launched his own fully assembled electric guitars based on the Fender designs. An exclusive range, but very expensive, originally only 20 stores across America stocked Schecters. They owe much of their contemporary success to Pete Townshend of The Who, who fell in love with one of these early Schecter guitars and was the first high profile guitarist to use one on stage. Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits also used Schecter Stratocaster-style guitars to record "Making Movies", and has owned many Schecters over the years.

In 1987, Hisatake Shibuya, a Japanese entrepreneur and owner of the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, bought Schecter. Hisatake Shibuya devoted all his efforts to manufacturing high-end, expensive custom instruments. As a result, Schecter have been endorsed over the years by high profile guitarists, such as Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo, and Jay Noel Yuenger and Sean Yseult of White Zombie. And Synyster Gates complements such esteemed company rather well.

Just a Fender Telecaster, not a vintage model but a particularly beautiful one, the thinline Jim Adkins signature model with Seymour Duncan P-90s, Adjusto-matic bridge and magnificent transparent black finish. 

The way it combines the simplicity of the good old Tele with a jazz guitar sophistication, how can one not love this guitar?

I'm happy to have found a decent picture of a Squier Venus, for I wanted to show one for a while now. Though it's not overwhelmingly creative or new, it's still one of the last few efforts of Fender to produce a new design (that's so rare that for example the new release of Fender recycles the 1960s Marauder prototype).

Well actually it's not exactly a Fender effort, since while searching information about the Venus, I uncovered a story of blatant plagiarism, that you can find extensively detailed here. To make it short, some guys created a guitar based on the idea of blending the cool design of a Rickenbacker with the playability of a Fender, and they came up with the Mercury, producing a few handmade models. They sold one to Courtney Love (though they were actually trying to present it to Kurt Cobain), and she enjoyed it so much that she ordered some more, but their small company collapsed and they quit he guitar business.

A few years later they figured out that Squier had released the Venus, allegedly co-designed by Love, but obviously a copy of the Mercury with a Fender-ish headstock (knowing that you cannot patent a guitar shape, but only the headstock, as Fender knows very well for having issued the most copied guitars ever). Tim George who designed the Mercury and tells this story says that he cannot blame Courtney Love as much as Fender. You just have to have a look at these pictures to judge if this story is convincing or not!

Mercury vs Squier Venus

I don't know or care about this copying issue, but I really like Courtney Love, she's much more than what tabloïds show, she's a powerful and struggling woman and an inspired artist who opened the way for many others. And I do love women playing guitars, there are never enough of them - I cannot understand how could anybody ever consider that electric guitar is a male domain!

Anyway let's go back to the Venus. It was short-lived - released in 1997 and terminated in 1998 - and existed in 6- and 12-string versions. It had a characteristic Tune-o-Matic-like bridge and string-through-body holes, and if the commercial versions had two pick-ups - bridge humbucker and neck single-coil - and three different finish, Courtney Love's stage custom models had various finishes and only one pickup, different ones in different positions as much as I could judge from the pictures I found...

Bertram

You may like or not like Ibanez guitars and/or Joe Satriani's music, but you can't deny that an all-chrome finish looks really cool, whatever the guitar, can you?

You remember the ultra green turtle shell or the black alligator skin Duesenberg Starplayers TV? 

Well, here is the black and gold leaf checkered one, a limited edition signature guitar for Japanese rockstar Ringo Sheena, same cooler than cool model with its art deco gear - whole in shining gold - with another outrageous finish...

Enjoy!

A following to the previous Giannini Craviola post, thanks to Henrique's comment pointing this superb thinline version - the Roberto Frejat signature - I love this one even better! 

Also we know now that these guitars are 2000s reissues - so they exist, they are not extraordinarily rare so there's hope to get some one day - but they still have to come from Brazil!