History of the Schecter Guitar

History of the Schecter Guitar The Schecter Guitar Research repair shop was opened in 1976 by David Schecter in Van Nuys, California. This is where it all began for the future guitar manufacturing company. The repair shop manufactured replacement guitar parts and eventually supplied everything you would need to build a guitar but did not build any of their own guitars at that time. Their main customers were custom repair shops and the two big guitar-manufacturing companies, Gibson and Fender.

Finally in 1979, Schecter started making their own guitars to sell to the public. The designs were based on Fender guitar designs and were very expensive to purchase because of the high quality parts and the small amount they made available. Also around this time, Pete Townshend from The Who got a Schecter guitar from his guitar tech and immediately liked it. In fact he liked the sound so much that it ended up being his main touring guitar. Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits was the next high profile artist to discover the Schecter guitar. He ended up with many Schecter guitars over the years and one even sold at an auction for ,000 in 2004. In 1983, Schecter ran out of resources and could no longer meet the demand for their guitar. Schecter ended up selling the company to a group of Texas investors who were well aware of the great reputation of the Schecter name and the top quality of their guitars. Knowing this, the new owners expected to make a profit by expanding the operation and moving the company to Dallas, Texas. This unfortunately turned out to be a bad move because most of the original employees wouldn't move to Texas and this eventually led to poor design and quality decisions by the new staff. The guitars that were being produced at this time were being mass-produced and getting a bad reputation for their poor quality. Even though they were going through this rough time, Schecter did manage to get an amazing guitarist by the name of Yngwie Malmsteen to endorse their guitars. They also released several new models including the Telecaster style guitar that Pete Townshend was using called the Saturn. Their other popular model was the Scorcher, which was based on the Stratocaster design. Even with these new designs and making their guitars more affordable, sales were very poor due to the lack of quality. In 1987, the company was unloaded to a Japanese entrepreneur by the name of Hisatake Shibuya. Hisatake was no stranger to music and guitars; he also owned ESP Guitars and the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. He moved Schecter back to California and soon brought the reputation of the company back to the way it used to be. The company went back to their old ways of producing high quality, high priced custom guitars. The guitars were also made in fewer numbers and made available to a smaller amount of dealers. In 1996, Hisatake hired Michael Ciravolo as president of Schecter. Michael was an experienced musician and had been an employee at a guitar shop owned by Hisatake. Ciravolo ended up bringing in some high profile musicians to endorse Schecter guitars including Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots) and Sean Yseult (White Zombie). Michael Ciravolo also disliked the Fender style designs, so he developed new designs in the Avenger, Hellcat and Tempest models. He also wanted to produce a more affordable guitar and opened up a factory in Inchon, South Korea to build them. This time though, Michael made sure that they were high quality guitars as well as being mass-produced. The parts were made in the South Korean factory and then shipped to their U.S. shop for the guitars to be assembled. This led to the creation of the famous Diamond Series Schecter Guitars. The Schecter Guitar Company is still going strong today and is loved by mostly the Heavy Metal, Hard Rock and Alternative styles of music. Some of the most famous guitarists past and present that have used Schecter guitars are Pete Townshend (The Who), Prince, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Shaun Morgan (Seether), Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots), Jerry Horton (Papa Roach), Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance (Avenged Sevenfold), Paul Raven (Killing Joke and Ministry) and Sean Yseult (White Zombie). History of the Schecter Guitar

Guitar Techniques and Tips - Learn to Play Guitar Arpeggios

Arpeggios are a great way to bring micro-structure to your songs - they are simply part of a chord with the notes picked out in sequence, rather than struck together to ring out. Classical songs, ballads and slower songs often use arpeggios.

There are a hundred different ways to create an arpeggio. The patterns to use with different types of scales are shown below The notes in brackets are optional, but can add color to an arpeggio:

Major: 1  3 (5)

Minor: 1 b3 (5)

Aug:   1  3 #5

Dim:   1 b3 b5

dom7:  1  3 (5) b7

Maj7:  1  3 (5)  7

m7:    1 b3 (5) b7

Aug7:  1  3 #5  b7

Dim7:  1 b3 b3  bb7

m/maj7:1 b3 (5)  7

m7b5:  1 b3 b5  b7

m7#5:  1 b3 #5  b7

m7b9:  1 b3 (5) b7 b9

In the C major scale, your notes would be C-E-G

In the C minor scale, your notes would be C-Eb-G

In the C major 7 scale, your notes would be C-E-B

In the augmented C scale, your notes would be C-E-G#

You can also invert your arpeggios, so that you play the notes backwards. If you were playing a major scale in the first inversion, you would play the third note of the scale first. The second inversion plays the fifth note first, and in arpeggios that use sevenths, the third inversion is when the seventh note is played first.  

There are also different ways to both play and incorporate arpeggios in your songs. If you want to tap out, rather than just pick, a tonic triad arpeggio (a 1,3,5 pattern):

o    Put your finger on the root note of your arpeggio close to the nut, on the G, B or E strings

o    Hammer on to your 5th note with your right hand

o    Pull off to your root note

o    Hammer on to your third note with your left hand

o    Hammer on to your fifth note again with your right hand, and repeat the 1,3,5 pattern

You can also play string skipping arpeggios, mapping out your notes by:

o    Finding the root note, the second and third notes of your arpeggio on ascending or descending adjacent strings. For example, you might find your root note on the sixth string, your third on the A string, and your fifth on the D string.

o    You can string-skip either the second, third or fourth notes in your arpeggio.

o    Instead of playing your arpeggio where you usually would on the adjacent string, skip that string and find the same note on the next highest string. 

o    Continue on the adjacent string for the next note.

Some good songs for practising arpeggios:

o    Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Led Zeppelin

o    Civil War, Guns n Roses

o    Everybody Hurts, REM

o    If I Close My Eyes Forever, Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne

o    Beast and the Harlot, Avenged Sevenfold 

Learn How to Play - Sweep Picking on the Guitar

If you've ever marveled at Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker or Marty Friedman and thought that you'd never get to that stage in a million years ... don't give up! They aren't robots, with a programmed ability to place every finger perfectly and pick cleanly at a million miles per hour from the beginning. They're human, like us, and needed to learn guitar techniques the same way we do. One of the favourite techniques of neo-classical players like Yngwie, Friedman and Becker is sweep picking. Here we break it down systematically to make it easier to learn.

Sweep picking is an advanced two-hand guitar technique, where three or more notes are played in quick succession, however not strummed together as with a chord. In sweep picking.
You will move up or down three or more strings at a time, sounding each string once. Arpeggios are the note pattern usually used The end note is usually accentuated above the other notes You will use one of several techniques for making each note sound separately, rather than together. You might lift your finger off a note on the fret board as it is struck, or palm mute with your right hand, or mute with your left hand using a finger rolling technique. When you need to sound more than one note on a string, hammer ons or pull offs are often used in order to preserve the natural sweeping motion, rather than alternate or economy picking a small section

Avenged Sevenfold

Picking hand technique for learning sweep picking:
Think of the sweep as a controlled strum Make sure that your pick is slightly angled up when you are moving down the strings, and down when you are moving up the strings Don't hold the pick too hard Maintain a steady rhythm for the sweep itself Angle your pick a little more towards 90 degrees from the body for the last note, to accentuate it slightly.

Finger rolling is the easiest way to ensure that all the notes in a sweep sound clearly, but do not ring, while keeping up your speed. If you are moving down the bottom 3 strings, the finger rolling technique would consist of:
Pushing the tip of your finger down on the G string Lifting it after the note is struck and pushing the middle of your finger down on the B string Lifting that after the note is struck and pushing the lower part of your finger down on the E string

Sweep picking can be a difficult technique to master. As with all new skills that you're learning on the guitar, always practice first to get it right, and second to get it fast. Don't try to live up to Jason Becker's standard in your first week! If you teach yourself to sweep pick sloppily, for the sake of speed, it will be much more difficult to un-learn your bad habits.

Good songs for practising sweep picking:
A Tout Le Monde, Megadeth Leper Messiah, Metallica Bloodlust of the Human Condition, Unearth Eugene's Trick Bag, Steve Vai Beast and the Harlot, Avenged Sevenfold

Learn How to Play - Sweep Picking on the Guitar

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