Schecter Synyster Standard Plus Electric Guitar in Transparent Deep Red

The Schecter Synyster Gates Standard Plus (SKU: SCH1753) is the premium variant of Synyster Gates's signature electric guitar — a mahogany body capped with a quilted maple veneer top in Transparent Deep Red, a three-piece mahogany bolt-on neck in the Ultra Thin C profile, an ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets at a 16-inch radius, dual Schecter Synyster Gates signature ceramic-8 humbuckers, a Floyd Rose Special with Hot Rod locking system, and coil-splitting via a push/pull tone control. The Transparent Deep Red finish allows the figure of the quilted maple veneer to read through the colour, giving the guitar visual depth that a solid colour would not produce. The Standard Plus sits above Schecter's base Synyster Standard in trim level, adding the upgraded locking hardware and adornments that define its specification.

Synyster Gates — The Guitarist Behind the Signature

Brian Elwin Haner Jr., known professionally as Synyster Gates, has been Avenged Sevenfold's lead guitarist since the band formed in 1999. His playing is notable for its range: technically demanding alternate picking and sweep arpeggios coexist with melodic, vocal-like phrasing, and his approach to guitar harmony — dual lead lines with rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance — has become one of Avenged Sevenfold's most identifiable sonic signatures. Over the band's quarter-century career, Syn's guitar tone has evolved but has maintained a consistent core: Schecter guitars, high-output humbuckers, and a sound that is tight and defined at high gain rather than saturated and compressed. His endorsement of Schecter began in 2005, and the Synyster signature range has gone through multiple iterations since.

Mahogany Body, Quilted Maple Veneer Top — Construction and Visual Specification

The Synyster Standard Plus is built on a mahogany body with a quilted maple veneer top. The mahogany body provides the guitar's tonal foundation: warm in the midrange, sustaining, and with the density that complements high-output pickups by providing a stable low-end platform. The quilted maple veneer is a thin decorative layer — it is a visual specification rather than a structural tonal component — but it gives the guitar a visual character that a plain mahogany body does not. In Transparent Deep Red, the colour is applied over the quilted veneer as a translucent coat, allowing the figure of the maple to remain visible beneath the colour. The result is a guitar that reads as visually active rather than flat — the quilted pattern shifts under light, giving the surface depth.

The body shape is the Synyster Standard: angular, with design cues that reference both the classic superstrat format and the more aggressive visual aesthetic associated with modern metal guitar. It is not a Les Paul derivative or a traditional single-cut — it is a purpose-built metal and hard rock body shape.

Three-Piece Mahogany Neck — Ultra Thin C Profile

The three-piece mahogany neck construction glues three sections of mahogany together along the neck's length, with the grain of each piece oriented for opposing stress distribution. Multi-piece neck construction is common at this price point and in high-production guitars — it produces a dimensionally stable neck that is less prone to warping than a single-piece neck of equivalent wood, because the opposing grain directions counteract each other's tendency to move with humidity changes. The tonal difference between a one-piece and three-piece neck of the same material is minimal.

The Ultra Thin C profile is Schecter's designation for a shallow, fast neck shape. "Thin" refers to the neck depth — the distance from the back of the neck to the fingerboard surface — being minimal, which reduces the distance the fretting hand has to wrap to reach the strings. This benefits players who use their thumb on or over the top of the neck for fretting power chords or bending, and players whose technique favours a closed-hand position for fast lead work. The C profile (as opposed to a D or U cross-section) describes the neck as having a relatively consistent curvature across its width rather than a flat back or pronounced shoulder.

Ebony Fingerboard — 16-Inch Radius, 24 Jumbo Frets

Ebony is one of the densest and hardest commercially used fingerboard woods. It has a naturally smooth, low-friction surface — harder and faster under the hand than rosewood, and with a brighter, more percussive attack on fretted notes. Ebony's hardness also makes it highly resistant to wear from frets and hand contact, which is a practical advantage on a guitar designed for aggressive playing. The finish is typically unoiled ebony that develops its own burnish with use.

The 16-inch fingerboard radius is notably flat compared to the 9.5-inch or 10-inch radius found on most standard electric guitars. A flatter radius produces a more even string height across the width of the fingerboard, which reduces the tendency of strings to "fret out" — lose sustain by hitting a fret — during wide bends in the upper register. For a guitarist whose technique involves frequent multi-step bends and string bending at the upper frets, a flat radius like 16 inches is a measurable practical advantage.

24 jumbo frets extend the guitar's range two frets beyond the 22-fret standard, giving access to notes up to two octaves above the open string at the highest position. Jumbo frets have a taller crown, which reduces the contact area between the fingertip and the fret surface and can make note bending and legato playing feel more responsive.

Schecter Synyster Gates Signature Humbuckers — Ceramic 8 Magnets

The Synyster Standard Plus uses Schecter's own Synyster Gates signature humbuckers in both bridge and neck positions. Both pickups use ceramic-8 magnets — a high-grade ceramic magnet material with stronger and more consistent field strength than Alnico variants. Ceramic magnets in humbuckers produce higher output, a tighter bass response, and a more aggressive high-gain character than Alnico. The trade-off is that they are less dynamic and forgiving at lower gain settings — ceramic pickups are optimised for high-gain applications and do not clean up as gracefully as Alnico when the amp gain is reduced.

The "high-output wind" refers to more turns of wire around the bobbin, which increases DCR and output voltage. Higher output drives amplifier preamps harder and produces more gain, sustain and compression. For high-gain metal playing, this is the correct specification: the pickups are designed to work with high-gain amplifiers and produce a specific tonal result in that context, not to be versatile across a wide range of clean-to-driven playing.

The push/pull tone control adds coil-splitting functionality — when the tone pot is pulled up, each humbucker is split to a single coil, reducing output and adding the brighter, thinner character of a single-coil pickup. This gives the Synyster Standard Plus tonal range beyond its high-output humbucker configuration, though the ceramic magnet voicing means the split coil sounds are still on the brighter, more aggressive end of the single-coil spectrum rather than the warm vintage character of an Alnico single coil.

Floyd Rose Special with Hot Rod Locking System

The Floyd Rose Special is a licensed double-locking tremolo system — a cost-effective production variant of the original Floyd Rose design, manufactured to the same mechanical principle but at a different material specification than the German-made Floyd Rose Original. Both are double-locking: the strings are locked at the nut (eliminating the tuning instability caused by string slippage at the nut) and at the bridge saddles (eliminating slippage at the other end of the vibrating string length). The double-locking mechanism allows the bridge to be used for extreme pitch changes — dive bombs below pitch and pull-ups above — without the guitar going out of tune, because neither end of the string can slip.

The Hot Rod designation refers to the modified locking nut mechanism, which provides improved locking force and ease of use compared to a standard Floyd Rose nut. Grover tuners are fitted alongside the locking nut; on a double-locking system, the tuners are used to set approximate pitch before locking, after which fine-tuning is done via the fine-tuner screws at the bridge. Tuner quality has less tonal and stability impact on a double-locking guitar than on a non-locking instrument, since the lock prevents string movement at the headstock end entirely.

The Floyd Rose requires periodic setup and maintenance — saddle intonation, spring tension adjustment as string gauges change, and string changes that are more involved than a non-locking guitar. The Ernie Ball Regular Slinky 10-46 strings that ship with the guitar are the standard weight for this bridge specification.

Avenged Sevenfold Deathbat Inlay and Gothic Cross Fingerboard Markers

The ebony fingerboard features the Avenged Sevenfold "Deathbat" logo inlaid at the 12th fret — a winged bat skull that is the band's primary visual identity mark. The remaining fret markers are Gothic Cross inlays throughout the neck positions, replacing the standard dot or block markers typical of production guitars. Both are pearl inlays set into the ebony fingerboard. These are visual and identity markers specific to the Synyster Gates signature; they have no effect on the guitar's playability but make the instrument immediately identifiable as the Avenged Sevenfold signature model.

Who Is the Synyster Standard Plus For?

• Guitarists who play high-gain metal, hard rock or heavy music and want a guitar built specifically for that context — high-output ceramic pickups, double-locking tremolo, flat radius fingerboard
• Avenged Sevenfold fans and players who want Synyster Gates's signature instrument and visual identity
• Players who use a Floyd Rose-style tremolo as a primary expressive tool — dive bombs, pull-ups, expressive vibrato — and want double-locking stability
• Guitarists who prioritise lead playing and fast technique, and want a flat radius, thin neck profile and jumbo frets optimised for that style
• Players who want the coil-split option alongside high-output humbuckers for occasional clean or lower-gain tonal variety

Specifications

Expert Advice at Angkor Music

At Angkor Music Melbourne we stock Schecter guitars including the Synyster Gates range. If you want to compare the Standard Plus to other Schecter signature and standard models, discuss Floyd Rose setup and maintenance, or get advice on strings and accessories for this guitar, our team can help.

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