Most of them are not. Here is a little background info on the company. Schecter started out as a custom shop, building instruments to customers spec's in the 80s. In the later 90's, the owner of ESP (Electronic Sound Products) purchased Schecter Guitar Research, and began making production model guitars similar to the ESP line, but with different shapes and specifications, but mostly going to the modern metal market. The Schecter "Diamond Series" guitars and basses are built in South Korea, Indonesia and I believe China, depending on the model, with the nicer/higher-end models built in Korea (Probably in the same location, or close to where the the LTD line of ESP is built, as the same Japanese owner owns both companies). They also have a USA Custom Shop that is in Sun Valley, CA, part of their US headquarters.
They can make anything you can dream up, and are responsible for making Prince's symbol guitars, as well as signature guitars and Basses for Pete Townshend ( basis for the PT model), Shaun Morgan (Seether), Jeff Loomis (Nevermore), Synyster Gates and Zakky Vengance (Avenged Sevenfold), Dale Stewart (Seether), Meegs Rascoon (Coal Chamber), Dan Donagan (Disturbed), The Cure, Cheap Trick and others. They just got a new CNC machine to help make their build times a little faster. Saw some of the guitars they are building, and they are really nice instruments. The woods in that room were just awesome. It was a lot like the PRS' factory, only much much smaller scale. Only three people work there building your dream guitar, instead of about 50.
The nicer production models are the Classic series, Hellraiser (new "Extreme" model being the top of the line, with around a $1100-1300 price point depending on features), and the new SLS line.
There is also Schecter Japan, that is owned by the same Japanese Entrepreneur, but, they do not sell their products in the US market, because most of them are blatant copies of Strats, Teles and other American-oriented models that would likely draw lawsuits on this side of the Pacific Ocean. Hope this helps.
As for this guitar, it is built extremely well. It easily hangs with my two Korean-made PRS SE Toreros that sell around the same price point. The color, wood, feel, fit and finish of the guitar are pretty top notch for production guitars. The neck is awesome, with the satin finish, and the frets are nicely polished. Came set up in my tuning of Drop B, and it plays great. I got to tour the factory in California, and they take a lot of pride in setting up each guitar that comes over here. The ones that do the set-ups are all guitarists, and most are part time musicians on the side or do guitar/bass tech jobs for pro musicians, and they are the same people that set up the guitars that are sold in stores. Even the hot front desk girl can shred. Saw her playing an 8 string in the set up room before we left the shop! They are great people to work with, and these guitars are going to be awesome on tour. Looking forward to getting my other guitar soon!
Here are the specs:
SLS (Slim Line Series) C1 body
Mahogany Body
Flame Maple top
Maple 3 piece set neck
Ebony fingerboard
Hell's Gate Skull inlay @ 12th fret
24 frets
Ultra Access neck joint
Ultra thin neck contour (as thin as, or thinner than the wide thin PRS neck)
24 extra Jumbo frets
Grover 18:1 tuners
matching headstock with flame maple cap
Inlaid "Schecter Diamond Series" in headstock
SD Blackouts
Floyd Rose 1000 bridge w/locking nut
black chrome hardware
2 vol/1 tone, 3 way switching
Blueburst finish
Black multi-ply body, neck and headstock binding
-AJH
Post a vid and lets hear it!
