The Schecter USA Custom Shop in Sun Valley California produces limited quantities of expertly crafted guitars for discerning pros and enthusiasts. Using premium materials and their own in-house pickups, playing a Schecter USA guitar is a real treat. This Sunset Custom-II HSS is expertly engineered for modern rockers, but does not forsake its blues roots. 

Coming to prominence during the "Super Strat" era, Schecter has always had a loyal following with hard rockers and prog fans. The Sunset Custom-II will certainly not disappoint those players, although other than the flatter 14" radius fretboard, the specs of the neck are very traditional "Medium C" territory. If you are not a shredder, you will feel quite a home with the neck shape and feel of the Sunset. What players of all stripes will like are the perfectly finished stainless steel frets, smooth-as-glass roasted neck, nicely cut graph tech nut and dark ebony fretboard. From a standpoint of workmanship this guitar certainly earns the Custom Shop label.

Schecter makes there own pickups for their Custom Shop guitars, and has outfitted the Sunset Custom with a set that manages to straddle both the modern and traditional worlds. The Darkside neck and middle pickups feature Alnico 5 magnets -- beveled for greater tonal focus and staggered to follow the fretboard radius -- wound to a higher DC resistance than your typical vintage Strat pickup. They have more throaty midrange and less glassy top end than a vintage pickup, but sound every bit like a Strat pickup....just more muscular. If you like big burley blues tones with a smooth clear top end, you'll love these. And the neck + middle combo is nice and punchy without a big volume drop off. While the idea of vintage is appealing, the Darkside pickups have a greater sonic presence, provide better pedal performance and will have no problem hanging with the band.

The Pasadena Plus is classic medium-high output humbucker that offers strong-but-balanced response with no harsh upper midrange spikes. It's mission is to produce great overdrive and crunch tones -- which it does very well -- but the clean tones are pretty respectable too, and sound particularly good with the volume rolled off a smidge. Splitting the bridge pickup reveals a crisp, jangly bridge tone that is not as anemic as many split humbuckers can be, although we are most inclined to use it paired with the middle pickup. 

The Sunset Custom-II just begs to be played, and to honest we spent most of our time playing it relatively clean through a 20-watt combo. We know it will rock, but we were just digging the tone and touch response of the guitar in a more "exposed" state. The Sunset Custom has all the rock bonafides that anyone could ask for, but don't judge this book by the cover.

This USA Sunset Custom-II HSS features:

• Alder body 7.4 pounds
• Burl Maple top, Ocean Blue Burst finish
• 25.5" scale roasted maple neck
• Macassar Ebony fretboard
• 14" radius
• 1.67" nut width
• "C" profile, .825" at the first fret, .865 at the 12th
• Jescar stainless medium jumbo Frets
• Schecter Darkside neck pickup, Alnico 5 ~8.7K DC resistance
• Schecter Darkside middle pickup, Alnico 5 ~8.4K
• Schecter Pasadena Plus bridge pickup, Alnico 5 ~16K
• Volume and tone controls
• Pull tone control to split bridge pickup
• 5-way pickup switch
• Aged nickel hardware
• Gotoh 510 2-point floating vibrato bridge
• Hipshot staggered locking tuners
• Schecter from fit gray tweed hardshell case
• Certificate of Authenticity
• Made in Sun Valley, CA