For me this Schecter Omen is more a guitar for heavy rock than for metal, digging the pick into the strings for those heavy heavy rock riffs.
The output of the Schecter humbuckers has a little less gain than that of my Ibanez guitar, and that also may be because this is a cheaper model from Schecter.
It is a great guitar for rock and one of the most beautiful guitars you can buy in this price range.
Schecter Omen Extreme 6
- Most beautiful guitar I’ve seen in this price range
- Very versatile with coil-split to boot
- Pickups are a bit lacking in gain
Let’s get the specifications out of the way first, but feel free to click to any part of the review you find interesting.
Specifications
- Tuners: Schecter
- Fretboard: Rosewood
- Neck: Maple
- Inlays: Abalone & Pearloid Vector
- Scale length: 25.5″ (648 MM)
- Neck Shape: Thin C-shape neck
- Thickness: 1st Fret- .787″ (20MM), 12th Fret- .866″ (22MM)
- Frets: 24 X-Jumbo
- Fretboard Radius: 14″ (355 MM)
- Nut: Graph Tech XL Black Tusq
- Nut Width: 1.653″ (42MM)
- Truss Rod: 2-Way Adjustable Rod w/ 5/32″ (4mm) Allen Nut
- Top Contour: Arched Top
- Construction: Bolt-on
- Body Material: Mahogany
- Top Material: Quilted Maple
- Binding: Crème Multi-ply
- Bridge: Tune-O-Matic w/ String Thru Body
- Controls: Volume/Volume/Tone(Push-Pull)/3-Way Switch
- Bridge Pickup: Schecter Diamond Plus
- Neck Pickup: Schecter Diamond Plus
Build
This is one of the best budget guitars for heavy rock but for metal, it falls a little bit short for me.
I had to adjust the gain on my metal patches when I uses this guitar with these humbuckers compared to other guitars I have.
Especially with active pickups like the ESP LTD EC-1000, or most Ibanez guitars.
It is a very good guitar but for metal it just falls a bit short for me.
The Schecter Omen Extreme 6 is an excellent example of the brand’s quality yet affordable guitars. It’s packed with features that modern guitarists want and they have a great design in this price range.
It’s not only the best beginner guitar for rock but also the most beautiful starter guitar you can buy on a small budget.
Since their beginnings as luthiers, Schecter has stuck to simple body shapes and designs. The Omen Extreme has a super simple super strat shape that is slightly more curved to provide some extra comfort.
This guitar uses mahogany as a tone wood and is covered by an attractive maple top.
This tonewood gives this guitar a very powerful sound and long sustain that heavy rock guitarists will love.
It features their excellent tune-o-matic fixed bridge and tuning machines. These two elements give the Omen Extreme 6 an edge for players who like to do extreme bends and like to dig heavily into the strings.
That being said, you might have to retune it if you do really extreme bends.
The Schecter Omen Extreme 6 is a great guitar for those who need heavy distortion without ruining the sound. Perfect for hard rock bands.
I discovered with a few clicks through my effects bank that this guitar offers great versatility and it can even sound pretty clean if you want it to, despite being branded as a heavy metal guitar.
It delivers plenty of playability and a wide range of tonal options and for the price the sustain is excellent.
Also read: these are the best guitars for metal we’ve found all year!
Playability
The maple neck is quite solid and is shaped to provide some speed and accuracy for solos in addition to nice solid chords and is tied together with abalone.
The fretboard is just beautifully done with what Schecter calls perloid vector inlays. No one will argue when I say that the Omen Extreme looks extremely elegant and suitable for any band regardless of genre.
It offers excellent comfort thanks to its lightweight well-balanced shape and offers great playability which is one of the most important features of a guitar.
Sound
A pair of Schecter diamond plus passive humbuckers are of high-quality alnico design and offer a wide range of tones and sounds.
They cover everything you could want from a guitar for under 500.
Perhaps the humbuckers have the tone of the old heavy metal, which requires less distortion than what’s nowadays called metal. But I think with the single coil position (coil split) it has a nice raw blues tone and with the humbucker position it has a nice rock growl.
Incidentally, the model I reviewed is a slightly older version with only one volume knob and no tone knob, and a separate coil split switch. But after popular request, Schecter also added the volume for the second pickup.
Schecter’s success over the past decade has been nothing than expected. After all, they’ve been giving metalheads a great range of guitar options for decades.
The Schecter Omen Extreme 6 is a slight deviation from this tradition seeing as it has slightly lower output and plays more like a rock guitar to me.
But, it’s very versatile, especially for a guitar under 500, and it really is a beautiful sight.
Body and neck
When they first started building guitars on their own, Schecter stuck to a fairly simple body shape.
We are talking about a custom Super Strat design, which combines several great functions. The body itself is crafted from mahogany and topped with an attractive flamed maple top.
The neck is solid maple with a profile suited for speed and accuracy. The top, as well as the neck, are bound with white abalone, while the rosewood fingerboard features Pearloid Vector inlays.
If you look at the whole picture, Schecter Omen Extreme 6 looks simply beautiful.
Electronics
In the field of electronics, you get a set of passive humbuckers from Schecter Diamond Plus. While they may seem a bit gross at first, once you find out what they can deliver, you’ll start to like them.
Pickups are wired with a set of two volume knobs, a push-pull-activated tone knob and a three-way pickup selector switch.
I must honestly say that you have to get a lot out of your effects or amp side with these pickups to really get enough crunch from your guitar.
Although it is a good metal electric guitar, with these pickups I think it is more of a choice for some heavy rock, especially with the coil tap that gives you a bit more flexibility in sound.
Hardware
One of the things that people noticed and liked about Schecter guitars is their Tune-o-Matic bridges. And this Omen 6 delivers with a string thru body for extra sustain.
Sound
If you need something that is able to handle heavy gain distortion and still sounds decent, then Schecter Omen Extreme 6 is the type of guitar you’re looking for.
Due to the split function, the guitar itself also has more to offer than just metal and choosing different distorted and pure tones that suit your guitar is quite easy.
This is how one of over 40 reviewers describes it:
The guitar has alnico pickups, and the great thing is that you can coil-split them, so you can really get a lot of different types of sounds from this guitar.
Normally with two humbuckers and the selector switch in the middle position, you can get a bit of a twangy sound, but split the coils and you get a great sound that really cuts through, and that from a hard rock, mahogany guitar.
He gets an average of 4.6 so that’s not bad for such a rock beast. A downside might be that you get a good guitar for the price, as the same customer also said:
If I had to say anything bad about this guitar I would have to compare it to a Les Paul Studio which costs A LOT more money. You should note the hefty weight of it, because it’s not a chambered guitar like those studios and the pickups are a bit muddy.
Other than that it is very stable and if drop D or deeper is something you are interested in then this guitar might be the perfect answer for you.
While many will say that Schecter Omen Extreme 6 is an entry-level model and criticize the passive pickups, the fact is that this guitar packs a punch that few expect to see.
In many ways, Schecter Omen Extreme 6 is a tool for working musicians, and one of the best for under $ 500, that you can grow with you no matter what your expectations are.
I'm Joost Nusselder, the founder of Neaera and a content marketer, dad, and love trying out new equipment with guitar at the heart of my passion, and together with my team, I've been creating in-depth blog articles since 2020 to help loyal readers with recording and guitar tips.
