Schecter Reaper-6 Review
My Verdict and Review Summary
Give the devil his due: This is a very aggressive guitar, with all the modern fittings, putting it firmly in the heavy rock and metal camp. Within those styles, it's well-suited for speed more so than rhythm. But in either context it produces a very searing, arena-filling type of sound. Aggressive is definitely the best word to describe it.
BEST FOR: Metal, lead, speed styles, modern rock, sustain, whammy fans, and heavy gain layers.
TONE
92
CONTROL
90
FLEXIBILITY
83
PRICE/VALUE
85
- The Sustainiac pickup is AWESOME
- Lead runs sound incredibly rich and full
- Burl poplar top is the real deal
- Neck plays really fast
- Lots of nuance comes out in solos and string scrapes
- Right at home with high gain levels (think 80%+)
- Had a bear of a time trying to tune it at first
- I didn't get as much tone variety with the onboard controls, compared to something like a PRS SE.
I'm not a speed player, exactly. I've never been able to solo that well and my brain just works better on the rhythm side. Enter the Schecter Reaper-6, which is one of the most speedster-friendly guitars I've ever tested. It's just so stinkin' fast, which meant that I had to pretend to be a lead guitarist for this review. You can watch me fumble around with that in the demo below. For those of you that want to read, we'll cover my experience in full.
Read more: Best Electric Guitars Overall
Monster of a guitar. The sustain is just wild.
Reaper-6 Tone and Playing Style
The Reaper-6 is comparable to something like the Kramer SM-1 and the Ibanez RG series, from both a tone and playability standpoint. Obviously with the Sustainiac pickup, there's a ton of sustain, and when you turn that pickup on, the magnet sort of holds and continuously vibrates a note until you either mute the note or turn the pickup off (via a small switch next to the volume and tone controls).
Sustain, lead, and modern metal.
Using that pickup with the whammy bar is a lot of fun. But, even without the Sustainiac engaged, the response is still very long-winded. Even higher register notes hold with a moderate amount of gain.
So there's no question, the Reaper is designed for high gain levels and lead guitarists.
Rhythm riffs and percussive sounds are also very satisfying, but if this guitar isn't primarily used for lead styles, a lot of its features will collect dust.
Check out the video below and see for yourself. It's right at home with melodic, modern rock and metal.
If you've never tried one, the Sustainiac pickup is pretty cool.
Controls and Onboard Flexibility
I've already mentioned the Sustainiac pickup, which has a simple on/off switch. The second mini switch has three different Sustainiac modes, so if you aren't using that pickup, those controls don't do anything. Otherwise, it's just a volume and tone control with a three-way pickup selector.
The variety I got from these wasn't particularly impressive, but we have to remember it's a niche guitar that has a unique job description.
The main feature on the control side is the Sustainiac pickup. That thing is just insane.
Cost and Overall Value
At the time of this review, the price for the Reaper-6 (the Floyd Rose version) was around $1300, while the Standard model drops down to around $900. This is pretty common for mid to upper-tier Schecter electrics, and certainly a fair asking price. For the quality you get in the form of the Sustainiac pickup, licensed Floyd, and Burl Poplar top (body construction), it's a decent, if not expected, price point.
Current Reaper-6 Pricing from Sweetwater (includes multiple versions)
Prices updated from Sweetwater in real-time.
Review Summary
One more look.
A lot of the guitars I test are generalists as opposed to specialists. But the Reaper-6 is definitely a specialist and a little outside my comfort zone, to be honest. I'm not much of a lead player, but this guitar was still very fun and seems perfectly ideal for those in speedier and heavier styles.
If that's you, buy with confidence.
For questions or other thoughts, hit me up in the comments section below, or the chat bubble. I answer those as much as I can.
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Written by Bobby Kittleberger on Electrics & Reviews
Written by Bobby Kittleberger on Electrics & Reviews
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