What's the story with this very old Schecter neck? (Answered; see post #4)

[Sea Devil]

I've seen Schecter catalogs going back their second or third year in business, at which point their various necks all had numbers indicating Tele-style, Strat-style, neck wood, fretboard wood, etc. This neck doesn't have any of that, just what you see stamped in the photos. Schecter has undergone many changes in ownership since their early days, and the current version of the company tells me, "Our records don't go back that far."

I think it's from their very first year, and may actually be the 99th neck that Schecter ever made, but I have nothing to back that up with. Any thoughts? It's a great neck, but it spent many years with no finish on it and has had some issues with the skunk stripe moving a bit with seasonal changes and truss rod adjustments. I eventually wicked some CA along the edges of the skunk stripe, sanded everything smooth, and finished it with shellac. This may finally have fixed that issue. It's also been refretted; the original frets were pretty wide and so are their replacements - triangular Jescar EVOs, IIRC. The lack of finish was a feature, not a bug, when refretting. Both sides of the neck will always have some embedded dirt, wear, and uneven color, but that's better than removing material unnecessarily. Btw, the small split next to one of the holes seems to have zero effect on mounting stability and shows no signs of creeping. I've also touched up the shellac in the last few days and am delighted with the result.

 

[Sea Devil]

Pics Or It Didn't Happen Dept:

The body is unmarked, a gorgeous but heavy single piece of ash. Duncan Broadcasters, 3-way switch, Fender bridge plate, comp saddles from a forgotten source, unfinished handmade Garolite guard, aluminum heavy-knurl Hahn (!) knobs, RockRabbit control plate with angled switch, and an unfussy shellac finish with no grain filler. Has that archetypal 50s sound and feel in spades, more so than 90 percent of Fender reissues that I've played. That's based on my experience playing a half-dozen or so original Blackguards. (Tuners are Pings I had lying around; thought they might be temporary, but they're fine so far.) I paid 400 bucks for it about 25 years ago, when it had original single line Klusons that were already worth about $185 and have since been transferred to another guitar.

I've often thought of doing a blond finish (partially out of a desire to make it less like Springsteen's Esquire), maybe even my first relic job, but I like it the way it is. It's heavy enough that I don't want to add an unnecessary ounce.

If it were two pounds lighter, I'd put a Bigsby on it and use it on gigs. I've brought it as a backup, but I absolutely need a vibrato on my primary guitar at shows. (A forearm cut might shave off six ounces, but would ruin the vibe.)

 

[Sea Devil]

By the time the first catalog was published in 1978, this neck would have been assigned model #7220. That means it must date from 1976 or 77.

 

[Sea Devil]

I contacted a supposed expert on the early days of Schecter and learned that my neck is slightly more recent than I thought. They think it dates from 1978-79. Other sources suggest that Tom Anderson was carving most of the necks by hand at that point, which would not have been the case in 76-77.

It is indeed serial number 099, but hundreds of necks were made before Schecter began using serial numbers.

 

[Shorty Medlock]

Tom Keckler of St Blues guitar fame worked at Schecter during that time.

He lives in Memphis....try to track him down. He may know..

 

[Sea Devil]

I got an offer from a fellow TDPRI member and sold the neck, since I had a very similar Allparts spare. That neck is on the body now; the guitar feels and sounds essentially the same, but the frets are lower. This seems to have the effect of making the initial attack of fretted notes a little bit softer, especially when doing hammer-ons and pull-offs, but that may be my mind playing tricks on me.