Schecter was founded by David Schecter in 1976 as Schecter Guitar Research. He opened up a small repair shop in Van Nuys, California. The Schecter repair shop manufactured replacement guitar necks and bodies, complete pickup assemblies, bridges, pickguards, tuners, knobs, potentiometers, and miscellaneous other guitar parts. It came to the point where they were producing literally every part for a guitar except the guitar itself. Many custom shops were providing customers with guitars made almost exclusively from Schecter parts but the company still had not created any models of it's own. This was until 1979 when Schecter released it's first full electric guitar, based on Fender designs. It was considered at the time and at present to be a very high quality but also expensive guitar and was only sold to twenty retailers across the United States. In September of 1979 Schecter received approval from a very well known source, Pete Townshend from The Who picked up a Fender Telecaster-style guitar with two humbucking pickups and a Gibson Les Paul-style pickup selector. This guitar then became his main stage instrument for many years and he even had other similar guitars built using other Schecter parts.
In 1983 the repair shop from which Schecter had been creating guitars had reached it's production limit as demand for their guitars soared. That same year a group of investors based in Texas purchased the company. The investors had set about the lofty goal of building on the quality of Schecter guitars and moved the company to Dallas in Texas, but sadly they created sub-par guitars, using imported and Schecter's own parts, under the brand name of Schecter for five years.
In 1984 at the winter NAMM show, the company unveiled twelve new guitars and basses all of which were based on Fender models. Unsurprisingly the most popular of these releases was a Telecaster shape very similar to the model that Pete Townshend played. This was never endorsed by the performer but became known as the 'Townshend model'.
In 1987 the Texas investors had sold the company to a Japanese entrepreneur called Hisatake Shibuya who also owned ESP Guitars, since this time both companies have remained separate to each other despite being owned by Shibuya The company was moved back to California and went back to being a custom shop, whose guitars were once again only sold in a select few retailers, the major one being Sunset Custom Guitars that Shibuya also owned.
In 1995 the company released the 'S' series once again being based upon Fender models. 1996 brought about further change when Shibuya asked Michael Ciravolo to take over and become the president of Schecter. Ciravolo disliked the Fender designs and tried to distance the company from these designs and so Schector released the Avenger, Hellcat, and Tempest models.
In order to bring their guitars to a wider audience Schecter opened up a factory in South Korea. Since then all Schecter guitars have been produced there and shipped back to California to be fully and professionally set-up before being shipped to retailers. Despite now mass producing guitars in the Diamond series all the guitars are still of the very high quality expected from the company.
In 1998 Schecter released the Diamond series which is all the mass produced affordable non-custom guitars, although production of expensive, handmade custom guitars does still continue.
Over the years Schecter have received endorsements from some very accomplished and inspirational musicians such as: Pete Townshend, Yngwie Malmsteen, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots and Jay Noel Yuenger and Sean Yseult of White Zombie.
Known Schecter Models
History of Schecter Guitars
Schecter was founded by David Schecter in 1976 as Schecter Guitar Research. He opened up a small repair shop in Van Nuys, California. The Schecter repair shop manufactured replacement guitar necks and bodies, complete pickup assemblies, bridges, pickguards, tuners, knobs, potentiometers, and miscellaneous other guitar parts. It came to the point where they were producing literally every part for a guitar except the guitar itself. Many custom shops were providing customers with guitars made almost exclusively from Schecter parts but the company still had not created any models of it's own. This was until 1979 when Schecter released it's first full electric guitar, based on Fender designs. It was considered at the time and at present to be a very high quality but also expensive guitar and was only sold to twenty retailers across the United States. In September of 1979 Schecter received approval from a very well known source, Pete Townshend from The Who picked up a Fender Telecaster-style guitar with two humbucking pickups and a Gibson Les Paul-style pickup selector. This guitar then became his main stage instrument for many years and he even had other similar guitars built using other Schecter parts.
In 1983 the repair shop from which Schecter had been creating guitars had reached it's production limit as demand for their guitars soared. That same year a group of investors based in Texas purchased the company. The investors had set about the lofty goal of building on the quality of Schecter guitars and moved the company to Dallas in Texas, but sadly they created sub-par guitars, using imported and Schecter's own parts, under the brand name of Schecter for five years.
In 1984 at the winter NAMM show, the company unveiled twelve new guitars and basses all of which were based on Fender models. Unsurprisingly the most popular of these releases was a Telecaster shape very similar to the model that Pete Townshend played. This was never endorsed by the performer but became known as the 'Townshend model'.
In 1987 the Texas investors had sold the company to a Japanese entrepreneur called Hisatake Shibuya who also owned ESP Guitars, since this time both companies have remained separate to each other despite being owned by Shibuya The company was moved back to California and went back to being a custom shop, whose guitars were once again only sold in a select few retailers, the major one being Sunset Custom Guitars that Shibuya also owned.
In 1995 the company released the 'S' series once again being based upon Fender models. 1996 brought about further change when Shibuya asked Michael Ciravolo to take over and become the president of Schecter. Ciravolo disliked the Fender designs and tried to distance the company from these designs and so Schector released the Avenger, Hellcat, and Tempest models.
In order to bring their guitars to a wider audience Schecter opened up a factory in South Korea. Since then all Schecter guitars have been produced there and shipped back to California to be fully and professionally set-up before being shipped to retailers. Despite now mass producing guitars in the Diamond series all the guitars are still of the very high quality expected from the company.
In 1998 Schecter released the Diamond series which is all the mass produced affordable non-custom guitars, although production of expensive, handmade custom guitars does still continue.
Over the years Schecter have received endorsements from some very accomplished and inspirational musicians such as: Pete Townshend, Yngwie Malmsteen, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots and Jay Noel Yuenger and Sean Yseult of White Zombie.
Known Schecter Models
Schecter Van Nuys Serial Numbers 1
Schecter Van Nuys Serial Numbers List
Schecter Custom Guitars are made in Burbank, California with the Diamond Series made in Korea. Transportation energy and power technology study guide. Source: Vintage Guitar Price Guide Timeline synopsis from their web site Custom shop days, 1976–1983. How to get osu for mac. In 1976, David Schecter opened Schecter Guitar Research, a repair shop in Van Nuys, California. Jul 26, 2016 Next on the pay scale, but the true heroes of Van Nuys Schecter, were the guys in the metal shop. Crack windows loader for windows 7 thin pc activation. The metal shop was a hell hole. It was the smallest of all the shops, the front 1/5th of the shop was a small room with the de-greaser, a tank with noxious chemicals to clean the buffing compound off the polished brass.