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Facts
| Manufacturer: | Schecter |
| Model: | Telecaster |
| Year: | 1983 – 1984 |
| Serial No.: | S8703 |
| Colour: | Vermillion red [older info here that this is a kind of metallic red turned out to be wrong, it is not metallic] |
| Woods: | unknown body / maple neck with rosewood fingerboard |
| Pickups: | original Schecter tapped pickups F520T / F521T |
| Strings: | 09-46 |
| First seen with MK: | 1984 |
| Still in MK’s possession/Last seen: | yes |
Info
Info: This Schecter Telecaster is from the late Van Nuys era. Mark got it a few years after his other Schecter guitars. Unlike these, this guitar has a separate fingerboard of (possibly Brazilian) rosewood. A separate fingerboard – together with the matching colour headstock – was common among late Van Nuys Schecters.
There is no information available on the body wood. It is likely that the body id made of one of the exotic woods Schecters were famous for (e.g. mahogany, koa, imbuya, shedua, walnut,…) instead of the normal ash or alder (which however Schecter offered as well).
Schecter produced untapped (F520N & F521N) and tapped (F520T &F521T) Telecaster pickups and it cannot be tod with certainty which are the ones in this guitar. I asked Jack Sonni who thinks the guitar had the push/pull potis to switch between tapped and normal, so it is likely to have the tapped pickups (F520T & F521T) – besides most Dream Machines came with these pickups.
However, normally Mark has the controls pushed in on stage – I have never found a picture which really allowed to tell that the controls were pulled out. With pushed in controls, the pickups are switched to the full coil. The sound with the full coil is much beefier than with the tapped pickups which makes it ideal for rhythm riffs like on Walk of Life.
Most of the hardware – especially the bridge – is made of brass on all Schecter Dream Machines – this is very important for the Schecter sound. The pickguard is white enamel aluminium.
The guitar was used for Walk of Life on both the album and on stage, but also on the Aztec Camera album that Mark produced in 1984 and on the Cal soundtrack. On stage he played it on When it comes to you with the Notting Hillbillies, or on Canibals on the 2008 tour.
Pictures
Pictures
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13 thoughts on “Schecter Telecaster red “Walk of Life””
Hi Ingo, in 2011 Guy Fletcher in his forum answered your question saying that PU on red Schecter Tele has Seymour Duncans PU’s. It has not clearified if they are stacked or not, so we’re not sure if the tone pot is a push/pull. What do you think?
I suspect that there was a communication problem between Guy and Glen Saggers: I asked for the pickups in the red Schecter Tele, Guy asked Glenn, and gave us the answer that the red Schecter has SD pickups. I guess Glenn’s answer is referring to the red Schecter Strat and not to the Tele (which in fact has Duncans APS-1). On all pictures I have of the Tele, it seems to have the copper-foil shielded pickups with big magnets, these don’t look like any Duncans to me. I also asked Jack Sonni who is rather certain that the Tele had the push/pull pickups.
An interesting point about this Red Tele is that it was actually the second one of these produced for MK. The first one was damaged in transit whilst on its way to him. I was told this by a Schecter employee of the time. In fact he ended up with the original damaged Tele, which he sold on ebay.com several years ago now. I had a lot of contact with this guy about the early Schecter days and have no reason to disbelieve him.
I collect Schecters myself hence have a reasonable knowledge of them, gleaned from both observation and speaking with other enthusiasts over the years. The full Schecter story is slowly emerging.
What color on the Schecter Tele?. I think maybe hot rod red. But also Fiesta red. Do you Know it?
metallic red or sometimes called “vermillion” red
Thank you
Hello,
Just found this website, it’s great. Thanks for the great job.
I did buy this Schecter from ebay, I think the name of the person was Dave.
It came originally with EMG’s, and the S/N is few numbers from MK’s tele.
The color is not Fiesta Red but more Hot rod. Mine has a maple fretboard with matching headstock.
In the Aztec Camera record? Mk.doesn’t play in that record but produced, so Aztec Camera guitarist played the Schecter tele?
I believe the body is mahogany, which surprised me when I read about it.
I believe the closest “Fender (or GM/DuPont)” color on the Schecter Tele is Dakota Red
My favourite guitar of all of Mark’s. Sold a week ago at Christies ( Lonndon) for only 330,000 GBP or 418,791 USD. Grosssly undervalued compared to some Pensa Suhr and others in the collection went for. tHe RED Schecter is IMO worth 500,000 GBP.
I agree wholeheartedly. This is an iconoc guitar played on an iccnic song ( BTW I hate the word iconic) . I would’ve sold my $800,000 house for this guitar. It will only incresease in value, not just because Mark played it but it is the best Tele I’ve ever heard and a griend of mine has two SCHECTERS from that era. Interesting that Schecter and Mighty Mie were improving OEM FEnder product in the late 70’s and 80’s. Mark is wistful in an interview after Christie’s sale and almost stetes that some he will miss. This certainly is on.