Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

Schecter PT Saturn 1980s 2 Tone Burst


Recommended Posts

59 minutes ago, hikarateboy said:

Sorry, wasn't meaning to highjack your thread.  Black was just mentioned so I jumped in and then found people that knew something about these cause very few seem to.  Yours is a beautiful guitar. 

                           I guess I should chime in also with a apology  with putting my guitar photo up,not meaning to hijack the thread.................I was just thinking back  about what fine guitars these were. I only owned the one Schecter guitar but it was a very good one. "Knut Koupee" sold those guitars here in Minnesota.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting conversation...

"...Good Morning Chris,
I do apologize, but I have no information on that particular guitar. :(
I had started with Schecter in 1976, and Tom Anderson had built all of my guitars during his tenure there.

One of the guitars they built for me, was a one-piece flamed top, one piece flamed koa back Tele similar to the one you are showing. Both pickups were tapped, a toggle was in the upper horn as a Les Paul would have the neck was highly flamed, the parts were all gold-plated brass, and it came in a custom Anvil flight case. This was in 1982-3 period. Your guitar appears to possibly be a model built in or around that period of time.

I'm sorry I have no more exact info for you.
(name redacted)

Possibly 82-83...

Reasearching other PTs, I have not found a post 1984 that was not a solid finish guitar....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sunbursts were available, throughout the Dallas years - tobacco sunbursts, like yours, and -especially- cherry sunbursts, as were common on hotrod-style Japanese imports of the period.

As I said on The Gear Page (as did  others, who are equally knowledgeable (I've been collecting Van Nuys-era Schecters for over a decade, and was an enthusiastic fan of the brand, since 1980)): Assembled in Dallas, Texas from wooden parts that were imported from either Canada or Japan (they used both OEM sources, during that period). Pickups & tuners were made by Schaller. 1985, or a bit later.

Forgot to add: The earlier ('84-'85), maple neck Dallas Schecters had one-piece necks, with skunk stripes (and -initially- many had twenty-one frets). I've seen a number of early Dallas guitars that appeared to have used remaining Van Nuys stock for the necks, combined with imported bodies. Then, they continued to use one-piece/skunk-striped necks, but those were definitely imported, with squared ends on the neck heel portion of the skunk stripe.

Whichever source was used for your parts, that's a really striking body!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your Tele looks great for exactly what it is, which is -without a doubt- a Dallas-era Schecter.

For the reasons that I mentioned -and this is all apparent, within a split-second glance of your photos- it is impossible for your guitar to have been manufactured any earlier than 1984, and it was likely made a bit later than that.

The Tele that the anonymous person that you quoted mentions is alike, in the same way that any of the "PT"-style Schecters -from any iteration of the company, including the present-day one- would be similar, in that it has two tappable humbuckers & gold/brass parts. 

It would be nice, from a sales price perspective- if yours was a Van Nuys instrument, but it's not remotely possible.

And it would have sold, within a day or two, at your asking price, for sure.

None of this takes anything away from the quality of your guitar, but since you are continuing to seek out information on it, I wanted to weigh in with some facts.

 

Good luck with your sale!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to a guy who worked for Van Nuys Schecter if there was an off chance that my guitar was made in part in California, there MAY be  a date in the heel pocket.

I just wonder what year it was made. There are 1982 (or earlier) that had the offset knobs (some even have the pickup toggle in the top bout like a Les Paul), so to say that all Van Nuys PTs had "in-line" controls is not entirely accurate.

But one thing that seems like a certainty (at least I haven't found any conflicting evidence yet) is that the Van Nuys neck had the "skunk stripe" mine does not. It has a figured maple neck no skunk stripe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I assume with a serial # of A 8820 it would be a 1988 model, but I am not positive. The "A" numbers are all over the map. 

As far a quality goes, this guitar is fantastic. I am not concerned about that at all. I am just really curious to know the real history of this guitar. I have never seen one that has held up so well over the years. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only time that I've seen dates (and they were usually on the butt end of the neck) is on some shop-built ("S" serial number) guitars.

The tell tale Van Nuys signs would be two sets of impressed numbers: one is a wood-identification code, and the other is a serial number. Those don't correspond, exactly to a date, but they were sequential, so you can usually arrive at the year, based on other, similarly-numbered examples.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, yours looks pretty pristine!

They used very durable finishes, by then - similar to what Fender was using at the time, but a lot of the solid color guitars tended to discolor, even though their finishes remained intact, for the most part.

 

The gold plating was usually the first casualty.

Yours has lived a pampered life, apparently!

 

(And, yes, the "A" prefix seems to have been in use for a number of years)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing I have noticed (especially with Pete Townshend's personal Schecters), is that they did discolor over time. Knowing Pete, he probably left his guitars out in the rain and he certainly never took care of them. The only authentic Pete guitar I ever saw that was in really good condition (finish) was the gold one hanging in the NYC Hard Rock that  I shared here earlier in this thread. 

I have seen many Shecter PTs over the years, and their finish durability was not their greatest feature.

Another telltale sign that this is a Dallas guitar would be the 22 fret board. Not sure I have seen any Van Nuys versions with 22....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a Van Nuys replacement neck that had twenty-two frets (also was cut for a Floyd Rose nut - factory, or not, I don't know), and have seen maybe one or two others.

That neck's impressed serial number (also had the impressed wood code) was in the 8000s, so it was at the very end of VN production - could've even been farmed out to ESP or someone, but the construction and contours were, otherwise- identical. Definitely not a feature that was avaialble (from VN) for very long, and certainly not a standard feature, as they continued to produce (almost entirely) twenty-one fretters, which many early Dallas models also used.

 

A confusing period, to be sure!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never should have sold my last.. It was black, with maple board, 21 fret skunked,  but had chrome hardware, mint with warranty card, I think it went to a guy in Minnesota.

Another one that I'm still trying to pull my foot outta my 4 point contact over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The OP's and Hikarate's PTs are later Dallas-era models.. The 22-fret necks and different body shapes are the indicators of that. Fret markers are Fender-sized as well. I've owned four of the Dallas-era PTs (including one that is in two of these posts). 

The best two I've owned (I still have a May '85) were 21-fret models and were among the best guitars I've ever owned, which is saying quite a lot. I stupidly got rid of the first great 84/85 because I was gigging on bass pretty much exclusively. I jumped when I had the chance to grab the one I have now and it was even better than my first one.

May, 1985 (date in neck pocket along with builders' names)

image.jpeg

My old killer one-never popped the neck to check date.

image.jpeg

The different neck and body shape are visible in this 86.

image.jpeg

Haven't seen sunburst ones before.. When these were standardized, the Saturn came in black with maple, candy red with rosewood and gold with rosewood iirc.. I have the original flyer around somewhere.. That was from 85, so other options might have been added.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beautiful Saturn, and this turned into a good thread as well.  Learned a couple new things...

Question on identifying the body differences... Read that before, and in staring at Steve's photos above i'm still having a hard time seeing the differences.  Is it the shape of the upper bout?

Mine has what I believe is a leftover 21 fretter with stripe, but not sure on the body... Love this guitar. Came to me with Duncans, but I managed to score a set of Superrocks and put it back to stock.

Bf6JSHk.jpg

MHTMqer.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/2/2017 at 4:47 PM, hikarateboy said:

You are correct its Dallas but it is an A serial so would that not mean the beginning of that period (84)?  I thought I had read that before.  Were the ones with the TM after schecter earlier than the ones with just schecter on it.  Thought I heard that was added later.   Any links for good information on these.  seems like internet is flood with info on the new stuff so hard to find on the old.

Not expect a mint for it just something reasonable to roll into something else.

Looks like a cool PT

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Jake8773 said:

I'd avoid the Dallas Era Schecter builds.  For what he was originally asking ($2500) you could get a seriously nice Tom Anderson Classc T and have a be better and closer connection to the Van Nuys era Schecter in terms of build quality and tone which were Tom Anderson and Tom Keckler builds to begin with -Just Sayin'

I have revised my pricing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, chromium said:

Beautiful Saturn, and this turned into a good thread as well.  Learned a couple new things...

Question on identifying the body differences... Read that before, and in staring at Steve's photos above i'm still having a hard time seeing the differences.  Is it the shape of the upper bout?

Mine has what I believe is a leftover 21 fretter with stripe, but not sure on the body... Love this guitar. Came to me with Duncans, but I managed to score a set of Superrocks and put it back to stock.

Bf6JSHk.jpg

MHTMqer.jpg

WANT  -  broke guy DIBS!   Man, this thread is killing me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...