YouTuber extraordinaire Rob Scallon has announced a new line of signature guitars with Schecter, marking the end of his partnership with Chapman Guitars.
Like his now-discontinued Chapman signatures, the new Schecter line comprises six-, seven- and eight-string models, with the latter two sporting multiscale fingerboards. Unlike the Chapmans, however, the three new Schecters also come in left-handed configurations.
Each model, regardless of configuration, features a neck-thru body with a mahogany center piece and swamp ash wings, and an ebony fingerboard.
“I just think [they're] classy,” Scallon says of the decision to implement neck-thru builds. “I think [they're] beautiful. I've always felt like neck-thru guitars just feel a bit more special.”
On why he opted for swamp ash body wings, Scallon explains that while the material makes for more lightweight guitars, a key reason was the material's visual appeal.
“Even if this guitar is, like, 12 pixels in a video, you can still tell the design as it has this racing stripe look to it,” he says. “I wanted to have a signature look but not [one that] you need to know who I am to want to have one. It's just a really killer guitar and looks awesome.”
Electronics on all three models include a pair of Schecter Diamond '78 Rob Scallon passive humbuckers, controlled via singular volume and tone controls – the latter boasting push-pull functionality for coil splitting – and a three-way selector switch.
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Notably, the wiring for the pickups was inspired by a YouTube review of Scallon's signature Chapman six-string, the ML1 RS. In the video, the YouTuber, Johannes Granroth, inverted the neck pickup so that the coil used when tapping into single-coil tones was closer to the fingerboard leading to a smoother, jazzier sound. As a result, the pickups for the new Schecter models are wired the same way.
More features present on all three models include jumbo frets, white dot inlays past the 12th fret, Hipshot hardware and locking tuners. In terms of scale length, the six-string measures up at 25.5", while the seven- and eight-string boast 26.25" – 25.5" and 27"-25.5" multi-scales, respectively.
Other visual appointments include a headstock with a cursive Schecter logo, and Scallon's signature and anchor logo on the back, the latter commemorating the first song he wrote on an eight-string guitar, Anchor.
On the creation of the line's eight-string, Scallon explains: “I wanted to put an eight-string on the market that was a bit more versatile in both how it sounded and how it looked. I think that eight-strings are new and exciting, and they have so much potential that's only just beginning to be explored.”
“In my biased opinion – because I made these guitars to my specs – these are as good as it gets,” he adds.
Rumors first emerged of a Schecter Rob Scallon signature model when the YouTuber was caught playing an unidentifiable Schecter in Jared Dines' latest ‘biggest shred collab song in the world’ video late last year.
Scallon started working with Chapman Guitars on his first signature model in late 2015, and was partnered with the Rob Chapman-owned company for around six years.
