The Schroeder Tour Guitar pays a visit
Initial thoughts on the Jason Z. Schroeder tour guitar.
I firmly believe that the early 21st century—the time we’re so firmly occupying—will be looked back upon as a golden age of luthiery. Never before have so many talented artists focused their efforts on making great no, outstanding guitars. Spend a few minutes looking and you can find any number of guitar builders who, as a passion or labor of love, produce a diaspora of instruments. Many of these fall into more traditional (read “Les Paul, Strat or Tele inspired") instruments. Some improve on the originals, and some strike out on their own to create something new and different. Jason Z. Schroeder is in the latter camp, his double-cut style guitars are reflective of Paul Reed Smiths but with his own spin on design, materials and construction techniques.
Since Schroeder is a small company (a two-man shop, I think) and does not have a formal distribution network, he sells directly to customers. And, he’s taken a innovative approach to getting instruments into potential customers hands: a “tour guitar.” The guitar, originally made in 2005/6, get shipped around the country to anyone who’s interested in giving it a try. After each person is finished trying the guitar for a few days, they ship it off to the next person who is interested. Schroeder tries to coordinate the logistics so the guitar stays in a geographic region rather than being shipped across the country every few weeks. Potential customers get to play the guitar in a familiar environment for a few days and only have to pay the shipping to the next person on the list. It’s a great idea.
So why am I mentioning this? Because the tour guitar arrived at my door yesterday.
I played the guitar for a few hours last night and thought I’d post my initial thoughts based on an email I sent to Jason this morning:
Initial impressions? The guitar is in very good shape for an instrument that has traveled around the country and to the UK for the past two years. The finish has held up quite well to the rigors of the road, it is still glossy and even. (A bit of buckle rash, but that’s not the guitar’s fault.) Overall, I thought the fit-and-finish quite good. It would be great fit-and-finish, but I thought the neck joint could have been a bit better, and the screws holding the electronics cover on seemed a bit uneven. The other fit-and-finish thing that didn’t seem up the same high standards were the controls; I think it would be better to countersink the knobs a bit which is done on newer guitars. I’m not trying to be overly critical - these things just stuck out at me compared to the overall quality. This is an early guitar and I believe these issues were addressed on newer instruments.
The one thing that kinds of bothers me that is more of a design issues is that when I play (seated), my leg wasn’t right in the “waist” between the lower bout and bottom horn, it was right on the horn which was a little uncomfortable. Overall, however, I really liked the balance. (I like slightly neck-heavy guitars.) All that IRW with a relatively small, light, body balanced just right while seated. No “neck dive,” it just sat quite comfortably.
I liked the 1.75” nut width. It felt a little unusual at first, but became comfortable very quickly. I can see how rolling he edges of the fingerboard in would make it much more comfortable. The neck profile was very good, like a slightly oversized PRS wide-fat neck (one of my favorite production necks). I wouldn’t change the size or shape, but rolling the fingerboard would be an improvement in comfort. I also liked the heel. I know there’s been so may things said about heel shapes and sizes that it’s almost kind of silly at this point, but this size and shape really seem to work well; it was comfortable, with good access to the upper frets. Speaking of the frets, they were very well done. They were a bit narrower that what I’m currently playing but very comfortable and fast feeling, and nicely finished. I think the ebony fretboard contributed to the “fast” feeling (I like ebony boards). I was a bit surprised by how the IRW neck felt; it didn’t quite feel as smooth to the touch as the BRW neck on a PRS Modern Eagle I played a while back, but it was still very smooth overall and I can easily see why people get addicted to “crackwood.”
And it sounded great. If I read correctly, the pickups are Wagner Shredders. Whatever they are, they’re nice. Combined with the all the different wood thrown into the mix, they sounded very clear and articulate ("bell-like" perhaps?). They were noticeably hotter than the Wagner Crossroads/Darkburst combination I have in my Yamaha Weddington Custom, but they didn’t sound harsh. Just a bit more modern with higher output, and maybe a bit brighter too, though the DB is pretty bright. Punchy, clear and articulate are the adjectives that first come to mind, followed by ballsy. Overall, it sounded better—more rounded, complex and multi-dimensional, if that makes sense—to me than the ‘89 PRS Custom 24 that I sold earlier in the year.
So those are my initial thoughts. I’ll post again in a week or so when the Tour Guitar departs casa Novacron for the its next engagement.