Schecter Reaper-7 Multiscale - Satin Sky Burst Review

Awesome guitar

This thing is a fantastic guitar. Pro's: Gorgeous tops Neck is super nice feeling with the satin finish, and the carving for the higher fret access. The fretboard edges nicely worked. Light body Pickups sound great, with the split coils easily letting you approach Strat-glassyness (with some compression) Con's: Intonation of 7th string was a bit of a pain but got it figured… read more out with proper action, a 59 gauge string, and some spring removal in the bridge. Multiscale makes first fret cowboy chords an adjustment/reach for my baby hand, but everything else is great

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Surprisingly poor playability from a familiar brand

Was really excited for this guitar but the intonation quality is much lower than expected for an almost $1000 instrument. I own another schecter of equal price, and that guitar has near perfect playability in terms of intonation and string height. I don't know how I didn't see in the pictures, but the bridge sadles were slammed as far as they could go on the bridge, so much so that… read more the low B string's spring was removed to make room... and it's STILL sharp. The lower 3 strings are all like that, the upper 4 are actually intonated correctly, but only because they're saddles are also nearly all the way distanced from the nut... All of this while the guitar is tuned in standard... I literally cannot postion the saddles any further for down tuning, and they already aren't far enough for standard tuning. What's the point in a multi-scale 7 string if you can't even tune below standard, and can't play in tune even in standard?...Clearly the bridge is positioned too close to the nut, so my only option now is measuring and drilling new holes for the bridge to mount, and then routing the bridge so the string-thru holes will still work... I don't think I'll ever buy a guitar without seeing it in person again. Very disappointing.

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Love it

Its the first 7 string I bought and I use it to play at a gig and it is never out of tune, a very raw and heavy sound I love, it's good for alot of hard rock and metal, I am In love.

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Tough call!

This is my first 7 string and first multiscale guitar of any kind. First impressions were quite positive. The low B and E strings were tight and articulate and the pickups really bring the scooped machine gun style I was looking for. Not a giant fan of the tones coming from the higher strings, but that's a personal thing so take that for what it is. Also initially I found the… read more playability and feel, specifically during soloing/sweeping on the higher strings, just did not stack up to the level I'm used to. Then things took a turn for the worse that nearly had me packing it back up and returning it the same day I got it. Full disclaimer here: I opted to not use Sweetwaters setup service (solely just to get it to me quicker), so this is in no way a hit on them! These guys really do go far above and beyond any other store I've ever used and if there is any option at all to buy from them I always do. Anyway, it arrived in pretty good tuning but the intonation was tragic. Not unexpected and no problem for me at all. I've been doing my own setups for years. Well...I ended up having to remove the spring from the B string saddle because I needed more travel to get it dialed in, but even after slamming it all the way to the end of the bridge I found that it was still just a bit sharp. Not horribbly bad, but certainly enough to make me question whether or not this was a keeper. After it was all done I found that 4 of the 7 strings intonate just fine at 12 but not at 24. Again, not bad, but enough to raise an eyebrow. None of my other guitars act like that. So that was pretty much my first day with this guitar. On day 2 I just sat around jamming on it and messing with my effects to see what I could get out of it. By the end of the day I'm feelin like maybe I kinda like this thing. Day 3 I record a few tracks, and was really pleased with how well the Reaper sits in the mixes. It's filling space, it's super agressive when I want it to be but is easily dialed back, and the clarity and punch is actually quite nice for what I do. So then...the point of all this. Well as the title says, this has been a tough call for me. The intonation issue I thought was gonna be a deal breaker immediately. Couple days of messing with it and now it seems like it's gonna be OK. I'm still not "in love" with the playability and feel of the higher strings, but from the D string down it's pretty much money for my style of heavier proggy/metallish sort of things. Barring anything popping up in the next couple weeks I think this guitar has found a home with me. However...if this were going to be my main rig for live work or club gigs...I don't believe it would make the cut for me. Bear in mind though that I am comparing this against my other guitars (Am Std strat, '96 PRS, jap ESP) so that is admittedly a high bar. For what I want/need this guitar for I believe I'm gonna be happy with it. And one last thing. If you are on the fence about whether or not you should try a multiscale, you definitely should! I'm already sold on the whole thing after just a few days. It honestly never even felt awkward and the benefits, to me, are tangible.

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