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KM7 transparent white turned yellow?

3K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  Iron1 
#1 ·
Anyone seen one of the Schecter KM transparent white guitars have a yellow tint to the paint?

Looking at buying one because I LOVE the transparent white finish, but this particular one is yellowed. Heard that this is caused by leaving the guitar in the case all the time (the original owner didn’t play it much and kept it in the case for years).

But, I’m not sure how to undo that if it’s really what causes it.

Thoughts?
 
#4 ·
I've never heard it being caused by being left in the case. If anything, it's exposing it to the elements that makes a lacquer/paint change. Particularly UV light. But that takes years, so I'm inclined to agree with Randy. He's either smoked like fuck around it, or was making a curry and dropped some turmeric on that bitch.
 
#5 ·
I don't necessarily think it's smoking, as the original owner isn't a smoker and the guitar doesn't stink. It really seems like it's something with this finish:

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/S...Electric-Guitar.gc?rNtt=schecter km7&index=12

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/S...uitar-115813977.gc?rNtt=schecter km7&index=14

https://www.schecterguitars.com/vault/keith-merrow-km-7-detail

Look at the coloration differences in these three.

Then this is the one in question:



It actually looks more white in the picture than in person, too...
 
#7 ·
No, the guy I might buy this from has a KM6 that is definitely whiter than this KM7 and Ive played one at GC that was the same white as his KM6.
 
#11 ·
Just forget those GC pictures, that flat white is hard to photograph and the light in those rooms is not good for any picture. It will be very hard to get true pics from someone of that finish unless they go in sunlight or have proper lighting. Trying to look at shitty online pics to compare is bordering on Rockaesque lol.
 
#13 ·
Those are like that new. Schecter has trouble with yellowing things that are supposed to be white. The only two Schecters I've bought new, a Loomis and a C-something or other, both had aesthetics that would be more appealing if they weren't yellowed. The Loomis fretboard/neck would have been a lot nicer if it actually looked like maple, and the C-whatever had inlays that were nicotine colored.

Probably not smoking. 20+ year old guitars that were originally white all go to yellow/cream (all white finishes yellow with age) eventually, and yes, they will yellow more if they were around smoke.

That's a guitar from like, last year. For smoking to have yellowed it the guy who bought it new would have had to stay in a room with it for every second since he put the money down on the counter to take it home and smoke like, 3 packs a day in an enclosed room with the Schecter. Which is unlikely, since the guy would have to be an absolute fucking savage, and most people that buy Schecters at that price point are presumably renting and don't smoke cigarettes indoors. Also, yellowing with age or cigarette smoke isn't that consistent that the tint would be the same everywhere on a matching headstock guitar.

If you absolutely have to check, you can take off one of the tuners or take off the bridge and check the finish underneath. If it doesn't match, yeah, that got yellowed somehow. But the yellowing you are seeing in those pictures is probably just a combination of camera exposure settings and 4 foot "warm" fluorescent bulbs, as well as the fact that a lot of the things you would expect to be whiter that Schecter offers are somewhat yellow.

I mean, this isn't a vintage strat that was played in a bunch of gnarly bars when smoking indoors was still societally commonplace and smoking at home was still in. This is a 2018 Schecter. For a 2016-2018 Schecter to have yellowed due to smoking that much by 2019, the guy would have had to physically shut himself in the case with it and chainsmoked for a year straight.

You can actually usually tell on older white guitars that have yellowed or gone to cream with age what the cause is, as there are a lot of possible causes. I've had a bunch of white guitars from the 80s that have slightly yellowed with age. If it's due to smoking, you'll fucking know it's due to smoking.





But yeah, if you're interested and that's a good price (dunno what those went for new) just pull up the bridge and check the finish underneath. Since that doesn't have a pickguard or rings you would have to unscrew the bridge or undo one of the tuner surrounds to check. But like Chris said earlier, $500-600 for Schecters that went for $1k-1.2k new is pretty common. I don't know what those went for new, but if it was ~$1k that's not that great a deal or anything.

This doesn't apply to Schecters from 2018 obviously, but on older guitars, yellowing due to smoking isn't a dealbreaker. You can fix a lot of it. Especially if you take it to a knowledgeable luthier who is good at separating the grime from the finish. Talking like, 70's/80s Gibsons of course. Not Schecters from last year.
 
#14 ·
But yeah, the whole "smoking and guitars: a study in interaction" debate is very interesting. Especially considering that for most non-vintage instruments it's a dealbreaker if it's super gnarly, but they straight up try to emulate it on relics.

In some extremely rare cases, it's a plus. The most prominent being classical guitars from Spain (or Italy) that belonged to cigar smokers. If you have a '50s-'60s classical from spain, and it obviously belonged to a cigar smoker, don't fuck with it. It's part of the mystique.




My mom has a beautiful Contreras that belonged to my great uncle who was a heavy cigar smoker that I caretake, and one of her rules with it is, "You can take care of it, but don't get rid of the cigar smoke aura". :lol: Granted, Cigar smoke isn't fucking disgusting like cigarette smoke. My family all fucking hate smoking too, but in the context of classical guitars that belonged to cigar or pipe smokers it's like, "Don't fuck with that".

Segovia smoked a ton, pipes and cigars, and if you are ever in the market for one of his guitars, you are actually hurting the value by trying to get rid of it. Granted, once again, cigars and pipes aren't fucking disgusting like cigarettes. I actually know people who think storing tobacco (nice cigars or nice pipe tobacco) in a case with a nylon string classical is a fucking great idea.

But yeah, don't buy a Schecter that someone smoked gas station cigarettes around. Although I doubt that's the case here. It's an interesting discussion, how smoking and music gear relate and all that. It's occasionally used to verify or corroborate the authenticity of certain vintage instruments. Like, if it belonged to someone famous who smoked a shit ton, and it doesn't smell, that's a red flag.

Some people are super anal about disclosing it and some aren't. Boutique pedals are like, you'll fucking never see "from the home of a non smoker" disclosed there. If someone has the standard shoegaze '72 RI tele + massive pedalboard setup, yeah, they smoke American Spirits. That's a scientific law. Tele playing pedal board hipsters all smoke American spirits and if you are buying tele playing pedalboard hipster gear it's not going to be disclosed. Boutique hipster pedals and American Spirits are like peanut butter and fucking jelly. If you're a '72 RI tele playing pedalboard hipster, 90% of your yearly budget is going to go to boutique pedals and American Spirits. I'm surprised there hasn't been a collaboration yet. Like, a subway punch card type thing. "Buy five packs of American Spirits and get 10% off on your next hipster pedal".

Also, Yngwie, in classic Yngwie Rolex wearing "I appreciate the finer things in life" fashion, is a strong believer that guitars and fancy cigars go together. :lol: Every time I've seen Yngwie, they are trying to hawk the $300 signature official Yngwie Cigar Humidor at the merch table.

Don't get me wrong, that's not a criticism, I really fucking want a $300 signature Yngwie Cigar Humidor. I wonder how many of those they sell. One of the most ridiculous merch items I've seen. The only complaint I have is it's the stupid Perpetual Flame era Zoolander Yngwie aesthetics, I want an Yngwie Cigar Humidor with the cover of Trilogy in all its dragon slaying glory.



 
#15 ·
But yeah, OP Schecter isn't a "smoker" guitar. You also want to look at the binding and the fretboard. In this case, a look at those makes it pretty obvious. That's just the Schecter stock finish.

Not to mention there's a white cliplock, and not only are most cliplock owners demographically not smokers, most of them being wealthy upper middle class Vai fanboys or anime watching djent nerds, no smoker in their right mind would purchase a white cliplock, since that would look fucking disgusting in no time flat.

On older Gibsons the binding/inlays are actually going to be more indicative of whether it was around smoke than the other bits of the finish. That Schecter is fine. That's just the stock finish. For a guitar from 2016-2018 to have yellowed that much due to smoking, it would have had to be around smoke constantly, and the inlays, binding, and fretboard would also show it.
 
#16 ·
Just gonna throw in my experience with this guitar in there. Mine did come from Schecter with a yellowish tint to it but how they are photographed can either really amplify it or completely hide it. It's one of the hardest to photograph guitars I own. Honestly I don't have many photos of it because I trash any of the ones that come out too yellow and only keep the ones that really make the white pop out. I got mine when they were released. Non smoker. Kept in guitar rack out of direct sunlight.

This is the day I got it. Taken with an iphone in direct sunlight with some room lamps turned on.



Here it is today (3 years later) with my other white guitars with yellow room lighting. The charvel on the left has a "vintage" white and the charvel on the right is snow white for comparison.





Here it is a shot with more white lighting



The photos are just to show how varied lighting can make it look but at the end of the day with it in your hands it definitely feels a little yellowed and not a brilliant bright white. It hasn't gotten any worse since the day I bought it but it was a little disappointing that it wasn't as white as I thought it was going to be. Still plays and sounds great though.
 
#19 ·
They had issues with the first batch of those turning yellow. Keith talked about it over on the KM thread on 7

That finish was an absolute nightmare at first. It was a bit ambitious. The early ones turned yellow-ish after about a year. They changed it almost immediately, but a handful of the early ones, including my proto guitars, have a "vintage white" tint to them. Once they amended the finish, they got a lot more consistent. That's one of the toughest finishes to get right. There's a lot of variables to it. That's why I didn't do any of the later models in trans white. We might bring it back on a USA model at some point though :)
If it was me I would go for it if the price was right. I love my MKiii.
 
#21 ·
In the interest of full disclosure (since we're talking about yellowing finishes in general now), a lot of "vintage white" or white guitars that turn "vintage white" look that way because of the nitro. The nitro comes out of the can yellowish, but it also thins, yellows itself and also does very little UV blocking, the combination of which has a substantial, multiplied yellowing effect.

With regard to the KM, I'd be less offended by the yellow tint and more concerned with it being a "trans white" over flamed maple thats almost invisible. I mean, if you like subtle then cool but that seems like a waste of figured wood.
 
#24 ·
Do you still have that? It came like that new, I got it new off Amazon Prime. Last extended range guitar I ship overseas. :lol:

I bought a Schecter C-1 off Amazon at the same time (this was during Chris's obscure "posting a thread everytime there was a ridiculously sick guitar deal on Amazon Prime" phase in like ~2013) that had pre nicotine stained inlays.



Chris had one of those too, although I don't have mine anymore and I think he sold his or gave it away or something.

It was a hell of a deal for like $270 or something, and a great guitar, but the fucking "nicotine stained" inlays were a total dealbreaker.

I am 100% unsurprised that Schecter is still offering things that should be white that are hideously yellowed new from the factory. That was a great guitar too, but you would have had to pry out the inlays and replace them with mother of pearl or actual white clay dots or something to make it playable.

The Loomis's had the "yellowed vintage maple" tint thing which Fender does on some of their reissue shit with vintage correct radiuses and stuff. But Schecter apparently never got the memo that A) It's fucking hideous even on those guitars B) It's only kind of acceptable if the maple has a gloss finish. No one wants a matter finished maple neck that has been yellowed.
 
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