Welcome back! In this blog, I will be reviewing the Schecter Banshee-6 SGR Electric Guitar in walnut finish from Bajaao.com. I shall talk about the Bajaao.com experience and then about the guitar’s build quality, specifications, sound, and playability. I shall also share a few issues I had with this electric guitar and also share my personal ratings. So read on till the very end.
The Bajaao.com experience
Initially, I was looking for an Ibanez electric guitar for heavy/thrash metal playing. The electric guitar needed to have a fixed bridge as I am not a great fan of tremolo bridges.
However, I could not any Ibanez at my local shops and thus decided to go for the online route. Since Bajaao.com is India’s biggest online music instrument e-commerce platform, I opted to purchase from there.
As I browsed through their website, I faced the same issue with all Ibanez guitars. Either they all had tremolo bridge or the ones having a fixed bridge were way out of budget.
Soon, I stumbled upon the Schecter Banshee-6 SGR and I really loved the color options it offered. So I decided to purchase the electric guitar with standard packaging at INR 25000.
My order was confirmed within 24 hours and soon I received a call from the customer executive saying that the black pickguard option was not available at this moment. However, they do have the white pickguard option, which was even better.
Thus, I went ahead with the white pickguard option and requested the customer executive to do some basic quality checks and lower the action of the electric guitar before shipping.
Thankfully, the guitar came to me within one week of purchase and without any damages whatsoever. The fretboard was clean, the frets were polished, the neck was well adjusted and the action was low enough as I requested.
Build-quality of the Schecter Banshee-6 SGR
The overall guitar is well-made with an armrest and a belly cut on the basswood body. It also has a nice cutaway to easily access the highest frets of the neck. The maple neck is satin finished making it smooth like butter to do fast solos and riffs.
The rosewood fretboard is just the cherry on the top with 24 extra jumbo frets and a graphite nut for easy string movement. In fact, the factory tuning machines are also very stable and hold almost perfectly even during shipping.
The electronics consist of two humbuckers from the Diamond S series with one master volume and one master tone knob.
Specifications of the Schecter Banshee-6 SGR
Below are the technical specifications of my electric guitar:
- Tuners: Schecter standard
- Fretboard: Rosewood
- Neck Material: Maple
- Scale: 25.5” (648mm)
- Neck Shape: Thin ‘C’
- Thickness: @ 1st Fret- .787” (20mm)/ @ 12th Fret- .866” (22mm)
- Frets: 24 X-Jumbo
- Fretboard Radius: 14” (355mm)
- Nut: Graphite
- Nut Width: 1.653” (42mm)
- Truss Rod: 2-Way Adjustable Rod w/ 5/32” (4mm) Allen Nut
- Top Contour: Flat Top
- Construction: Bolt-on
- Body Material: Basswood
- Bridge: Schecter Custom Hardtail w/ String Thru Body
- Controls: Volume/Tone/3-Way Switch
- Bridge Pickup: Schecter Diamond Plus
- Neck Pickup: Schecter Diamond Plus
The sound of the Schecter Banshee-6 SGR
Check out the below video in order to listen to the sound and tones offered by the Schecter Banshee-6
The playability of the Banshee
The Banshee is great to play for fast heavy or thrash metal riffs and solos. Accessing the upper frets is extremely easy and comfortable.
The pickups give high output which means that either you have to use the volume and tone knobs while playing other genres or lower the height of the pickups as needed.
As the bridge is fixed with a string-through construction, it offers great sustain and is super fast to change your strings if you break one during live shows.
The downside
There are three factors that turned me off:
- The 4th fret is slightly outside the edge of the fretboard which feels uncomfortable while playing. Clearly, a factory quality control check that got overlooked.
- The nut is poorly finished and is sharp at the corners. Although it is made up of graphite it does not look premium at a closer look but holds up the tuning quite well.
- Three-way toggle is just a lazy way of dishing out guitars by Schecter as you can easily get a five-way toggle guitar within the same price range from Ibanez.
Conclusion
The Schecter Banshee-6 SGR is a great beginner to intermediate electric guitar that will serve its user for a long period of time.
On one hand, the great build quality and hardware make it a sturdy instrument, while the lack of quality control on the fret edges and the nut can make some people frown.
Also, in this era where most modern metal players prefer coil splitting, it would be wise for Schecter to give a five-way toggle option in their electric guitars.
Other alternatives include:
Ibanez GRGR131EX RG Gio
Ibanez GRG170DX RG Gio
Ibanez GRG121DX RG Gio
Ibanez GRGR221PA RG Gio
Overall Rating
Construction – 4/5
Playability – 5/5
Craftsmanship – 3/5
Sound – 5/5
TOTAL SCORE – 17/20