Na talloze samenwerkingen met grootheden als Paul Gilbert en Guthrie Govan en veelbelovende solo-albums heeft Nick Johnston zijn persoonlijke handtekening gekregen met de Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional. De gitaar van de Canadese fretboardmagiër's keuze is samengesteld uit een ST-stijl elzenhouten body met een geschroefde hals van geroosterde esdoorn en biedt een ergonomische basis voor geavanceerde speeltechnieken. De hals is voorzien van een slank dun-C-halsprofiel en een ebbenhouten toets met 22 extra jumbo frets voor sustain-rijke bochten en vibratos. Twee Schecter Diamond Nick Johnston single coils en een Diamond '78 humbucker in brugpositie met extra coil-split optie zijn de perfecte sonische begeleiding van Nick's speelstijl, die varieert van vocale en romige cleane klanken tot brede fusion leads. De Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional wordt gecompleteerd door zes solide sluitmechanismen en een klassieke Diamond Vintage Tremolo.
I've been playing my orange Schecter for a month now, and so far I have nothing bad to say. It looks absolutely great, lovely bright orange, the finish looks like it should be much more expensive. Nice dark-ish brown neck and shiny chromes all over.
It feels great too, exactly the weight I would expect, the neck is really thin and very soft and smooth, very easy and comfortable to play.
It is designed really well: lock-in tuners work as expected and stay in tune very long - the guitar was almost in tune out of the box. Pop-in tremolo bar works great, fiddling with the tiny hex key to get the right 'stiffness' was a bit... well, fiddly, but I got it right after a few minutes. The volume and tone knobs are placed a bit lower than on a typical strat, so you don't accidentally hit them while playing. I also love that the output jack is not the typical 'angled' one on the front, but a regular one on the side - it feels safer.
Maybe most importantly, I think it sounds great as well. I personally love the HSS setup since it makes the guitar extremely versatile - especially with the splittable humbucker coil. Of course, it's not exactly the same sound as a Fender strat, but especially positions 1 to 4 (split) come really close. Positions 1 to 3 really have that nice glassy tone you expect from a strat-like guitar. The humbucker is great for high-gain situations and sounds solid.
Only remark so far is that out of the box there was a plastic protection sheet on the white pickguard. It seems like they put the plastic on first, and then the strings and knobs, so I had to remove the volume and tone knob to properly peel off the plastic. Other than that, I'm absolutely in love! Feels, plays, and looks like an American Fender.