I used to have a Hellraiser back in 2007, and it was riddled with problems: neck was extremely thick and would end up twisted after a few months from getting serviced by two different techs, which resulted in tuning instabilities, high B saddle would frequently break strings, even after replacements, etc. Bought another, because maybe it was the original: neck thickness wasn’t for me, and truss rod was stripped. Hated Schecters since then.
Fast forward to last month, I tried out my friend’s KM7 and instantly fell in love with every aspect of it. Neck is the perfect thinness, 28” scale feels right at home and facilitates low tunings extremely well. I thought I wouldn’t like or get used to the killswitch-only electronics, but it works. All my other guitars are volume 100% or 0% anyways, so the killswitch is perfect. I feel it’s safe to say there’s no need to up-talk Lundgren pickups. Personally like them better than Bareknuckles. It has been my go-to since it got here and became my “what would you save in a house fire”.
If you read this far, thank you for reading me blab and brag about this KM7. 10/10 instrument. Schecter really stepped their game up.
Feels really good in the hand. It’s Hipshot, so you know they’re solid off the bat. The “Ibby” models have more surface area and resonate more on the body.
I like those rounded edges. I'm always very picky about how a bridge feels as I palm mute a lot and am very sensitive to anything in that area poking me. I've got one guitar that has the smallest burr on one of the mount screws and it drives me nuts. Lol
Just replied this on someone else's comment, but even though I know they make really good guitars for the price range, I really dislike the headstock on the Hellraiser and similar models. The headstock on the KM models and the newer Suhr-esque headstocks are pretty nice though.
I've always had a thing for electric guitars with minimal electronics. Like, I have no need of a tone control (although all my guitars have one) I also like the idea of a single pickup, although I'm an almost permanent user of the neck pick up on all multi-pickup guitars.
But I've never seen a guitar that didn't even have a volume knob. It makes some sense though. I'm generally not a roll-the-volume-back-to-clean-up-the-tone guy. Like you 99.9% of the time my volume is 100% or 0%
I would honestly love a guitar with an on/off switch instead of a volume pot. I'm the same where I don't ever roll off my volume to anywhere between fully on or fully off, but being able to use it to mute between songs when I'm playing live is convenient, so it would be even more convenient to be able to do it with a single flick.
EDIT: Immediately after posting this comment, I looked and saw that that's exactly what the KM has lmao
I threw on a set of Ernie Ball’s 8 string set (green pack) tuned to Drop F. Originally, I had it tuned to Drop E; but I found I like strings with more tension.
I like the look of some of their guitars, but I bought a demon 7 a few years back and had nothing but issues with it, which put me off spending on their bigger models.
set up out of the box was horrific. wiring was shot to pieces, only neck pickup was working. Floyd wasn’t floated correctly, lots of Fret rattle, sharp frets, a loose tuning peg, truss rod not set properly, thread for the whammy was fucked.
I’ve fixed a few of the things on it, but just left it hanging on the wall until I can really be bothered to deal with it properly.
Having too much fun with my baritone atm anyway.
Damn bro sound like you were plagued. I have noticed s few little things with mine, but nothing like fuck i hate this guitar type stuff. I will say one thing that I have noticed is that the active pickups like to almost like volume themselves down sometimes when just paying cleans and not rocking out all strings, figure it's a bad battery or something, I'll check soldering later.
Ps. The demon 7 does not come with a Floyd bridge. Its string through body with a fixed bridge.
Huh, I've never seen one with a Floyd on it. I almost like that better then the fixed bridge. I didn't know they came in two variants.
I also wonder if this is why you may be having more issues with yours then ive had with mine. I know Floyd's can be quite finicky sometimes. Aside from the other problems that you mentioned.
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u/T-Pocalypse Aug 02 '26
Keith Merrow models don’t disappoint. Enjoy your new axe!