Jonnysleftfoot
Well-Known Member
Finally pulled the trigger on one of these. I bought it brand new from sweetwater with a plek setup.
Overall i'm pretty pleased with this guitar. It's been a while since i've tried anything other than USA schecters and so far i dig it. Pickups sound good (especially split) and they handle heavier tones pretty well. If i wanted to play strictly metal, i'd probably choose a different set. These are pretty versatile though so they'll be staying in.
Overall i don't feel the need to change anything with this guitar. I feel like this is a great bang for your buck.
The neck feels really comfortable. Its feels a little bit thinner than my RGR5227, but not by much.
The wenge neck has a satin finish. It feels a bit different than the Nick Johnston USA signature's (pretty sure that may be unfinished wenge). I actually prefer the finish on the AM-7 to wax finished wenge necks like you would find on Mayones or some other brands (my j custom has a wax finished wenge purple heart neck).
The basswood body feels a bit lighter than the neck, but there isn't really any neck dive if that makes sense. I would have liked a bit more weight on the body. My old USA Juggernaut HT-7 had the weight just right. I want to say that was alder instead of basswood? In a lot of ways this guitar reminds me of the USA HT-7. I was originally looking for another USA HT-7, but the new models are way too much money and the 2015-2018 models rarely pop up for sale. This guitar satisfies that itch for me. To be honest, this guitar feels like it beats out the Pro Series HT-7's by a mile, despite being a fairly different guitar. The stainless steel frets are what really got me though. In 2023, that's a deal breaker for me. Schecter has been killing it lately, so i had to check one of these out.
Now compared to my ibanez guitars, i really appreciate the volume knob being away from the bridge. I dont really hit it at all when i play. A welcome change, but not a deal breaker.
This guitar gets just about everything right, but there are a few negatives.
Starting with the plek setup from sweetwater: Frets are level, but the action came way too high for my tastes. I told them i wanted low action, but i guess we have different ideas of what that looks like. I wasn't to worried about this though, since setting up a guitar with a hipshot bridge and heel mounted truss rod adjustment is as easy as it gets in my book.
As far as QC goes: its pretty good for the most part. There's a very quiet grounding issue, so i'll have to take a look at that later. it's not enough to bother me at the moment. The 5 way switch feels solid. Each position has a distinct setting with a satisfying click. Switching between positions doesn't give out and weird noise. It feels like a somewhat dampened switch? It doesn't have a bright click like a schaller megaswitch M, but it works perfectly fine. I see no reason to change it.
The paint looks well done. The only "flaw" i could find in the construction would be the bolt holes on the back. 2 holes aren't sanded and finished perfectly, but i don't really care about that.
The fret ends are fine, but they could be a bit better. They're not sharp or anything, but you can still "feel" them. I plan on rounding them off a bit with my stewmac fret end dressing file.
The biggest complaint (and why i was a bit hesitant to order one at first) is the high pitched ringing on the open 7,6,5,4th strings. Its the worst on the 5th, followed by 4th, a minimal amount on the 6th, and barely at all on the 7th. This video goes over exactly what I'm experiencing. There's a follow up video where he talks about some of the things he and schecter tried to fix the ringing. It was a pretty thorough list, and the problem was apparently still there.
This ringing occurs with a fret wrap on and the saddle springs muted. It also happens acoustically. So im thinking electronics are ruled out, and something, somewhere, is ringing. I have a suspicion that it might be the pickup springs. When i pluck the string and put my ear up to the pickups i feel like i can hear a bit of resonance coming from the pickup cavity. When it's time to replace the strings i'll be dampening the pickup springs, and checking whatever else i can. I'll update this posts with the results whenever that happens.
Overall im pretty happy with this purchase, despite the ringing issue. It will probably be a different story if i cant figure out what's causing the ringing. This guitar has me eyeing the John Browne 8 string to test against my RG5328. Maybe one day i'll pull the trigger on one of those as well.
Overall i'm pretty pleased with this guitar. It's been a while since i've tried anything other than USA schecters and so far i dig it. Pickups sound good (especially split) and they handle heavier tones pretty well. If i wanted to play strictly metal, i'd probably choose a different set. These are pretty versatile though so they'll be staying in.
Overall i don't feel the need to change anything with this guitar. I feel like this is a great bang for your buck.
The neck feels really comfortable. Its feels a little bit thinner than my RGR5227, but not by much.
The wenge neck has a satin finish. It feels a bit different than the Nick Johnston USA signature's (pretty sure that may be unfinished wenge). I actually prefer the finish on the AM-7 to wax finished wenge necks like you would find on Mayones or some other brands (my j custom has a wax finished wenge purple heart neck).
The basswood body feels a bit lighter than the neck, but there isn't really any neck dive if that makes sense. I would have liked a bit more weight on the body. My old USA Juggernaut HT-7 had the weight just right. I want to say that was alder instead of basswood? In a lot of ways this guitar reminds me of the USA HT-7. I was originally looking for another USA HT-7, but the new models are way too much money and the 2015-2018 models rarely pop up for sale. This guitar satisfies that itch for me. To be honest, this guitar feels like it beats out the Pro Series HT-7's by a mile, despite being a fairly different guitar. The stainless steel frets are what really got me though. In 2023, that's a deal breaker for me. Schecter has been killing it lately, so i had to check one of these out.
Now compared to my ibanez guitars, i really appreciate the volume knob being away from the bridge. I dont really hit it at all when i play. A welcome change, but not a deal breaker.
This guitar gets just about everything right, but there are a few negatives.
Starting with the plek setup from sweetwater: Frets are level, but the action came way too high for my tastes. I told them i wanted low action, but i guess we have different ideas of what that looks like. I wasn't to worried about this though, since setting up a guitar with a hipshot bridge and heel mounted truss rod adjustment is as easy as it gets in my book.
As far as QC goes: its pretty good for the most part. There's a very quiet grounding issue, so i'll have to take a look at that later. it's not enough to bother me at the moment. The 5 way switch feels solid. Each position has a distinct setting with a satisfying click. Switching between positions doesn't give out and weird noise. It feels like a somewhat dampened switch? It doesn't have a bright click like a schaller megaswitch M, but it works perfectly fine. I see no reason to change it.
The paint looks well done. The only "flaw" i could find in the construction would be the bolt holes on the back. 2 holes aren't sanded and finished perfectly, but i don't really care about that.
The fret ends are fine, but they could be a bit better. They're not sharp or anything, but you can still "feel" them. I plan on rounding them off a bit with my stewmac fret end dressing file.
The biggest complaint (and why i was a bit hesitant to order one at first) is the high pitched ringing on the open 7,6,5,4th strings. Its the worst on the 5th, followed by 4th, a minimal amount on the 6th, and barely at all on the 7th. This video goes over exactly what I'm experiencing. There's a follow up video where he talks about some of the things he and schecter tried to fix the ringing. It was a pretty thorough list, and the problem was apparently still there.
This ringing occurs with a fret wrap on and the saddle springs muted. It also happens acoustically. So im thinking electronics are ruled out, and something, somewhere, is ringing. I have a suspicion that it might be the pickup springs. When i pluck the string and put my ear up to the pickups i feel like i can hear a bit of resonance coming from the pickup cavity. When it's time to replace the strings i'll be dampening the pickup springs, and checking whatever else i can. I'll update this posts with the results whenever that happens.
Overall im pretty happy with this purchase, despite the ringing issue. It will probably be a different story if i cant figure out what's causing the ringing. This guitar has me eyeing the John Browne 8 string to test against my RG5328. Maybe one day i'll pull the trigger on one of those as well.
